[topicmapmail] Meaning of URIs - ongoing debate on new W3C forum

[Murray Altheim]

Jan Algermissen wrote:
[...]
> Of course this does not prevent technologies to make use of Web technology
> while also using different addressing contexts. Topic Maps do exactly this
> by using the 'subjectIndicators'- *and* 'subjectAddress'-addressing contexts.
> The consequence is that Topic Maps are *not* "on the Web": you cannot use
> a URI (found in a TM), enter it in your browser's location bar and be sure
> that you get back a representation of what the URI identified. You also need
> the addressing context in which the URI has been used.

Jan,

I think this was one of the earlier misconceptions about the intent
of XTM, that it was to provide a way to post topic maps as "live"
documents on the web, live in the same way that HTML documents are
alive. It's still a misconception, in that we continually (and
recently) still have people that think you can query XTM documents
using XML technologies like XQuery. The fundamental misconception
and misunderstanding is that XTM documents are not topic maps *on*
the web, they're merely serializations of topic maps intended for
transmission over the web. There was never any intent in having
people enter a URL in a browser location bar and having it do
anything sensible, unless the base URI was pointing to some kind
of topic map server that knew how to handle the URI as a query. I
think that might be what you mean by "addressing context".

Murray

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

   The world, Bush said, is now riven by "the clearest of divides:
   between those who seek order and those who spread chaos; between
   those who work for peaceful change and those who adopt the methods
   of gangsters; between those who honor the rights of man and those
   who deliberately take the lives of men and women and children
   without mercy or shame. Between these alternatives there is no
   neutral ground."
   http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/09/24/MN298975.DTL

   Actions speak louder than words, and I think it's pretty clear
   which side of the divide Bush is on.