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

[Murray Altheim]

Thomas B. Passin wrote:
> Jan Algermissen wrote:
[...]
>> So in a) the URI per definition allways identfies the Web-Resource
>> (whatever that resource is intended to be in this case)
> 
> No it does not - the rfc for URIs specifically says that URIs can 
> identify non-retrievable resources, including concepts.  RDF uses URIs 
> as abstract "identifiers" when they appear as values of rdf:about or 
> rdf:ID.

Tom,

The problem is the ambiguity, i.e., not being able to reliably infer
what the author meant. In not knowing whether 'http://www.w3.org/index.html'
refers to the W3C as an organization, the W3C home page as an entity,
or the W3C home page as a resource*, well, that seems like a problem.

Since the publication of ISO 13250:2000 this has been one of the claims
of difference between TM and RDF, and it still stands as true, AFAIK.

Murray

* I use "entity" to refer to the W3C's home page (as a "home page"),
   and "resource" to refer to that home page as an XHTML/HTML document.
......................................................................
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.