[topicmapmail] PSIs - alternatives

[jackpark at thinkalong.com]

Useful quote:

"You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of
the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely
nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the
bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I
learned very early the difference between knowing the name
of something and knowing something."

Richard Feynman (1918 - 1988)

Cheers,
Jack

On Tue, 20 Jun 2006 09:43:27 -0400
 Patrick Durusau <patrick at durusau.net> wrote:
>Alexander,
>
>Well, I think it is time to simply admit that having
>unique persistent identifiers presumes that everyone would
>use the same identifiers for the same subjects.
>
>If that were true, then we would not have the problems
>integrating information that we do now. Reinventing the
>notion of a universal name set that everyone will use,
>with or without repositories, is simply a non-starter.
>Even if it is prefaced with the "sacred" prefix http://.
>
>What we can do is encourage people to write PSIs and treat
>PSIs as subject proxies and merge different PSIs that in
>at least the merging author's view, represent the same
>subject. I cannot really imagine US authors using PSIs
>coined by the Taliban nor vice versa, and both (at least
>in my opinion) are equally legitimate.
>
>Rather than chasing the chimera of a universal language or
>naming convention, why not simply embrace the fact that
>for all sorts of reasons, some good, some less so,
>depending on where you stand, people want to identify
>their subjects differently?
>
>PSI's have a vital role to play even in a diversity
>senario because they are a public notice that here is how
>I identify subject X. So if you use some other identifier
>and merge it with mine, then you can find that subject in
>either your materials or mine.
>
>Allows all the "wild dogs" ;-) and others to do what is
>just in their own eyes and still enables integration of
>diverse information resources.
>
>Hope you are having a great day!
>
>Patrick
>
>Alexander Johannesen wrote:
>
>> On 6/20/06, Simon Grant <asimong at btinternet.com> wrote:
>>
>>> There could be a impartial host for PSIs - maybe
>topicmaps.org? -
>>> respected by the entire community. That might work, if
>it were open
>>> for everyone to put them in freely or for a small fee.
>>
>>
>> I think this issue has been discussed ad nausseum, and I
>think the
>> general thinking is that it really is too hard for a
>central
>> repository to work; people throw in all sorts of stuff,
>nobody checks
>> if something similar is already in place, people don't
>bother
>> maintaining their PSI's (unless it brings cash for doing
>so), and it
>> will all end in tears. I also think the general thought
>is that if
>> some PSI's are truly valuable, they will organically be
>maintained in
>> the systems that use them, and by that use evolutionary
>principles
>> what stays and what goes. And since your PSI doesn't
>actually have to
>> point to anything that exsists, it doesn't matter that
>the PSI as a
>> URI works, and that means that people not only can but
>*will* break
>> them over time.
>>
>> Some people take some ownership of certain PSI sets, and
>people reuse
>> them, or publish new ones, and systems tries to stay
>somewhat up to
>> date with it all. It comes down to persistant
>identifiers, not just in
>> the TM world, but with any information system. It's a
>hard nut to
>> crack, and people from all camps are trying to sort it
>out, not just
>> us TM'ers. Haven't seen any one system that does it
>right, though, and
>> the organic way most TM engines deals with it somewhat
>works, but this
>> would be a good time for people in the know to throw a
>bone to us wild
>> dogs.
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Alex
>
>
>-- 
>Patrick Durusau
>Patrick at Durusau.net
>Chair, V1 - Text Processing: Office and Publishing Systems
>Interface
>Co-Editor, ISO 13250, Topic Maps -- Reference Model
>Member, Text Encoding Initiative Board of Directors,
>2003-2005
>
>Topic Maps: Human, not artificial, intelligence at work! 
>
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