[topicmapmail] PSI repository

[Murray Altheim]

Anthony B. Coates wrote:
> ** Reply to message from Alexander Johannesen <alex@shelter.nu> on Thu, 12 Jun
> 2003 22:10:09 +0200
>
>>I've looked briefly at PURL, and was wondering if there is or were
>>plans to create a PSI repository for people and applications to use
>>in finding and using PSI's. It is well and fine that we all use PSI's
>>in our applications and publish these on our sites, but I'm sure that
>>reuse and exchange of PSI's in a centralized way is the next "good step." 
> 
> I have already requested and received a top-level PSI domain at PURL for
> exactly this purpose.  I've just been waiting for people to be interested in
> putting it to work.

Yes, I have registered the "CERYLE/PSI" domain/subdomain for similar purposes.

Since you've grabbed "PSI" itself, might I ask in whose name? As the
individual Tony Coates? As an employee or member of some organization?
Or do you plan to donate that domain for use of the ISO committee or
OASIS' PUBSUB TC (as Michel did with topicmaps.org)?

Now, I don't mean who is the purl.org domain owner, since that's obvious,
but in what way do you consider your relationship to the domain?
Proprietary, or is it "owned" by some company or community? If the
latter, do you plan to create some formal process to allow registry, or
is it all informal, as in "ask Tony to add a PURL and he'll do it"? Do
you plan to allow multiple maintainers?

The reason I ask is that having some knowledge of the infighting that
went on at OASIS with their registry and repository plans, these issues
aren't always simple and staightforward. There are social, political,
and sometimes personal issues involved, plus the maintainers' time and
energy. For example, if I were to create a PSI set that *I* thought
represented a suitable set for *all* people to use, say, a set for
first-order logic, or for doing facets, by what authority could either
you as domain owner or me as PSI author post a document whose URL is
based so high in the hierarchy? (This is why I use "CERYLE/PSI", to
avoid that issue).

Also, one might note that purl.org simply acts as a URI-to-URI utility;
nothing is stored on their site. Do you have any plans to create a
repository?

This isn't meant as any criticism -- I'm glad someone within the
community has "PSI" -- I'm just wondering about plans for usage. I
think that, frankly, this kind of thing should be dealt with by some
sort of committee, not individuals, maybe some OASIS TC should
develop a set of rules for use. It could be ripe for abuse, e.g., it
could really piss people off if say, this was posted by an individual:

    http://purl.org/psi/logic/

and then someone else came along and wanted that same base URI. I don't
think "first-come, first-served" is a good policy. It just leads to
grabbing.

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim                         http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK                    .

     Why is it that they impeached Clinton when he lied about having sex
     with a consenting adult, but they aren't talking about impeaching
     Bush over having led the world into war by lying about the presence
     of WMDs in Iraq? Is the US more squeamish about sex than war?