[topicmapmail] PSIs - alternatives

[Murray Altheim]

Quoting Patrick Durusau <patrick at durusau.net>:

> 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.
[...]
>
> 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.
[...]

I strongly agree with Patrick. If I've learned anything over the past
few years it's that [subject] identity is always contextualized, never
universal. And therefore, when two or more parties want to communicate,
they either explicitly or implicitly agree to use the same terms of
communication, which in this case means that one party would choose to
establish identity between their set of PSIs and that of the party
they're communicating with.

So as Patrick says, I also recommend people write and publish PSIs for
the important concepts in their Topic Maps, so that people who want to
interchange those concepts have identifiers for them. So if say, the
CIA decides that they want to use the same identifier for Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi as the Taliban uses, they can at least be assured (within
the same limits of identity as normal communication) that they're
talking about the same person. And that's about as much as we can
reasonably expect from any information system, at least until the US
government begins demanding DNA information for everyone (which I'm
certain they're not very far from -- they already have plans to do so
for international travellers).

Murray

...........................................................................
Murray Altheim <murray06 at altheim.com>                              ===  = =
http://www.altheim.com/murray/                                     = =  ===
SGML Grease Monkey, Banjo Player, Wantanabe Zen Monk               = =  = =

       In the evening
       The rice leaves in the garden
       Rustle in the autumn wind
       That blows through my reed hut.  -- Minamoto no Tsunenobu