[topicmapmail] PSI repository

[Murray Altheim]

Anthony B. Coates wrote:
> ** Reply to message from Murray Altheim <m.altheim@open.ac.uk> on Fri, 20 Jun
> 2003 00:52:11 +0100
> 
>>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)?
>
> Well, I grabbed it as me, but I was hoping that the folks involved with the
> PUBSUB TC would be interested.  Last time I asked though, their interest seemed
> to be more around URL based on DNS names that begin with "psi.", e.g.
> "psi.mydomain.tv".  So, I guess it depends on what the TC ends up recommending.
> I was hoping that the PURL facility would be taken into account as a method to
> help provide the kind of persistence that I would expect of PSIs.

Yes, I agree very strongly. Since URNs have been so widely derided,
I'm hoping PURLs can fill in the void. It's unfortunate that the
pubsub TC is seemingly pushing toward DNS-based PSIs since not
everyone has the ability to create subdomains, and I think everyone
should be able to create PSIs if they want. OTOH, I don't think that
everyone needs a PURL either, nor do I think the PURL mechanism
could probably handle it (though I'd never expect PURLs to be as
popular as DNS).

>>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.
> 
> I would just like to see it used, and used in a sustainable and useful fashion.
> So discussions on the best mechanism for this would be welcome.

Well, since I neglected to say it explicitly: thanks. It was a good
idea to grab the PURL domain. Perhaps absent any formal process you
could safely create subdomains for proprietary companies or projects
whose name is likely not to be contentious, such as PSI/ONTOPIA and
other vendors (since their subdomains are not likely to be much in
issue). And then they can manage their own subdomain. In this way
you could treat it as if it were the very upper part of the URN
space (e.g., "urn:ontopia:...", "urn:mondeca:...", etc.) since its
apparently just about impossible to obtain an official URN subdomain.

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?