[topicmapmail] How to address Web resources with XTM?

[Murray Altheim]

Miles Thompson wrote:
> Jan,
>
> My 2c is that you were probably hitting on the key point when you said:
> 
>>On the Web, topic maps neccessarily ignore the fact that a URL 
>>never refers to bits and bytes but the intention of <resourceRef>  
> 
> I think that using ResourceRefs in the way they were obviously intended
> is something that breaks easily - that is, at least until we see the URN
> concept in action.
[...]

Before you guys get too far off on Mars, I might point out that
Jan is adding semantics to <resourceRef>. What may not seem so
obvious is that <resourceRef> doesn't include these semantics.
All that <resourceRef> intends (which is what it states in the
XTM spec) is that the reference points to an addressable subject
that is to be considered as the resource itself, not as indicating
some other subject. IOW, the resource pointed to is the subject
of the reference. E.g., if I use the URL for my home page

    <subjectIndicatorRef xlink:href="http://www.altheim.com/murray/"/>

using a <subjectIndicatorRef>, it might mean a reference to the
subject "Murray's Home Page", or by the TimBL-stretched-imagination
"Murray Altheim" (don't believe it for a minute). Now, if I use

    <resourceRef xlink:href="http://www.altheim.com/murray/"/>

it means the web page itself, as a resource. Nothing more than this.
It doesn't state anything about resolution, what use might be made
of the resource, what kind of resource it is, etc. If you need to
further characterize something, create topics for the specific
characterization and add those characteristics where they're needed.

You don't need URNs for this; any URI will do.

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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