<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; ">I agree this is an institutional or social issue. The Berners-Lee document is an attempt to get people to stop changing URL/URIs because they do.<DIV>His arguments are sound but system administrators do not follow them DOIs do not have as much of a problem. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Also the second line of the document pertains directly to the issue at hand of the Phyloinformatics Journal, insolvency.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;">"In theory, the domain name space owner owns the domain name space and therefore all URIs in it. Except insolvency, nothing prevents the domain name owner from keeping the name."</SPAN></FONT><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px;"> </SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV>The reality is that if you now type <A href="http://www.phyloinformatics.org">http://www.phyloinformatics.org</A> you are offered the chance to buy the name. </DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Also, the critical issue is the support of multiple locations for reference schemes like DOI. A URI is one place on the internet, or a place that used to be in the internet and is no more. A unique naming scheme like GUIDs or DOI identify a digital object which may exist in several copies in several locations (e.g. URLs). The URLs can change or one can even be deleted but the others can persist. I am not advocating DOIs as the solution to everything because of the costs. Essentially we are paying someone to maintain a level of indirection in names so that URLs can change. For that matter DOI metadata can tell you where to find a paper copy. We could make Persistent URLs but this does not solve the problems.</DIV><DIV><BR><DIV><DIV>On Nov 24, 2006, at 3:45 PM, Renato De Giovanni wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Hi Bryan,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Just a quick comment about this part...</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV> <BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">On the smaller issue, DOIs for publications, electronic or paper is a <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">no-brainer. URLs were never designed to be permanent. URLs were <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">designed to be reused and be flexible. With DOIs we can place the <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">same paper in multiple digital or physical locations and reliably <SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">find copies.</DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">URLs were also not designed to be particularly impermanent - they<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">were simply designed to be used. Technically there's nothing about<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">DOIs that makes them more permanent than URLs. It's the management<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">strategy behind it that makes it a "safer" choice. Nothing prevents a<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">similar strategy to be built on top of URLs.</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">By the way, there's a classic document by Tim Berners-Lee about the<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">persistence of URIs: <A href="http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI">http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">The big truth there is that "URIs don't change: people change them".</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Best Regards,</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">--</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Renato</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; min-height: 14px; "><BR></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">_______________________________________________</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">TDWG-GUID mailing list</DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="mailto:TDWG-GUID@mailman.nhm.ku.edu">TDWG-GUID@mailman.nhm.ku.edu</A></DIV><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><A href="http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-guid">http://mailman.nhm.ku.edu/mailman/listinfo/tdwg-guid</A></DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV style="font-size: 12px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">-- </SPAN></DIV><DIV style="font-size: 12px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; ">--------------------------------------------------------------------</SPAN></DIV><DIV style="font-size: 12px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "> P. Bryan Heidorn Graduate School of Library and Information Science</SPAN></DIV><DIV style="font-size: 12px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "> <A href="mailto:pheidorn@uiuc.edu">pheidorn@uiuc.edu</A> University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign MC-493</SPAN></DIV><DIV style="font-size: 12px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "> (V)217/ 244-7792 501 East Daniel St., Champaign, IL 61820-6212</SPAN></DIV><DIV style="font-size: 12px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "> (F)217/ 244-3302 </SPAN><FONT class="Apple-style-span" size="4"><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px;"><A href="https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/pheidorn/www">https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/pheidorn/www</A></SPAN></FONT></DIV><DIV style="font-size: 12px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "> Online Calendar: <A href="http://tinyurl.com/6fd5q">http://tinyurl.com/6fd5q</A></SPAN></DIV><DIV style="font-size: 12px; "><SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; "> Visit the Biobrowser Web site at <A href="http://www.biobrowser.org">http://www.biobrowser.org</A></SPAN></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN></SPAN> </DIV><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>