[topicmapmail] Re: Document Object Identifiers/CrossRef

[Martin Bryan]

Eliot wrote:
>if I'm publishing a
> scholarly work that I want to be findable and usable (through any
> references it makes) 5, 10, or 100 years out, I want some assurance that
> the names I'm using will resolve appropriately in the future.

Don't expect URLs to solve this problem, as the question comes as to what
percentage of web data will be archived in such a way as to allow URLs to be
resolved. Unless the archive maintains the URL information exactly (unlikely
over any long term scale) it will have to introduce indirection. When we
move over to the GRID in the next decade or so, process-based naming will
need to replace site-based naming as the "where" will become ubiquitous. The
same will probably be true if Web Services start being used to deliver data,
as what becomes important is where the service got the data from, rather
than which service the data came from. The whole problem of what is being
"resolved" by a web address (which itself is a temporary indirection to an
IP number) is a very open issue among archivists. Until we timestamp URLs
they will be meaningless in any long term archiving role. Until we can
identify the "originating data source" of active services, and have a way of
ensuring the archiving of these data sources, all referencing systems in
current use must be considered temporary.

Martin Bryan