[topicmapmail] PSI repository

[Murray Altheim]

Alexander Johannesen wrote:
[...]
> Maybe I've got things back-to-front, but I'm more talking about
> how people can *donate* their PSI's for use more than taking
> harsh ownership of them. If they are donated to a repository,
> then they can be used by all, free and without any strings
> attached.

Are we conflating registries and repositories? I've been addressing
the purl.org issues, which have to do with the ability to use a
base URI of

   http://purl.org/psi/

for PSIs that are registered with Tony, where he would redirect
URIs from purl.org/psi to say, my PSI sets on my domain. In this
way my PSI sets can begin with that nice base URI. The purl.org
site doesn't contain *anything*, it merely redirects URI requests.

So by "donation" I'll assume (in this context) that people interested
in donating PSI sets to the community would post them on their own
site, or perhaps some central site set up by Tony (it wouldn't actually
matter, since the redirection is invisible), and then people could
begin using the donated PSIs.

The only difference between what can happen right now and after
some process is set up for use of Tony's PURL domain is the ability
to use that base URI. Remember, purl.org is not a repository, and
in actuality it's not even a registry, but using it to redirect
requested URIs to existing, other domains would make it effectively
into a registry. It would be entirely appropriate for Tony to then
set up a web page at the resolved page of the domain that listed
the "registered" subdomains and PSI sets.

> As for their officialness - as I think you are mostly addressing -
> then you are right in that our "hobby project" not will gain
> the support from "big serious contenders" that one might wish
> for, but again ... I kinda feel that we should leave that
> descission up to "as time goes by". Who knows? You are certain that it 
> won't work, and I can understand why.

I'm not certain it won't work, I'm merely trying to point out the
problems that exist in any kind of top-level domains. The SUMO work
has had all of these problems and more. Standards are by their nature
coercive, though if the community that creates them has some measure
of consensus from the community of use (this isn't always the case),
as I said this can be *minimized*.

> Part of my thinking was that we fire up the project, get
> the software up and running, GPL everything, so that *if*
> a committee feels like doing something serious, an API and
> complete software package is there for them to use, and possibly, if all 
> is well in TM land, some PSI's to start
> using straight away.

I would imagine that all PSI sets will be either web pages or topic
map documents, and they'll likely all have their own licenses already
attached. The only thing one might do is copyright the web pages
for the site itself, if that was considered desireable.

Murray

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

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