Two thoughts.
If we adopt PURLs (or, indeed, Handles, or DOIs, both of which have a proper management structure), we still need to sort out metadata, data, etc., which means essentially reinventing much of what we have for LSIDs. Personally, I've no particular stake in this (having taken a devil's advocate position at TDWG-GUID and argued for Handles, just for fun), but given we have stuff for LSIDs, I struggle to see why we should spend time reinventing this stuff.
I fail to see a logical reason for banning the use of LSIDs in ontologies. Let people chose what technology they think works best. If they want something that works right now, PURLs (or, indeed, URLs) work fine. If people want to use LSIDs, then let them. If existing software doesn't handle them, either (a) add support for it, (b) use a proxy server, (c) don't use LSIDs. I don't think we should decide what to so simply because other people's software doesn't support something that (some of us) think makes a lot of sense.
If you want to define the genus Rhododendron as being an OWL DL class retrieved remotely then you should probably give it a URL. If you want to define it as a data item then use a LSID.
Please God no. Why would the type of information I'm requesting influence the GUID protocol? This just strikes me as crazy.
I really think one should avoid making decisions based on technological expediency alone.
Regards
Rod
------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------------------------------- Professor Roderic D. M. Page Editor, Systematic Biology DEEB, IBLS Graham Kerr Building University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 8QP United Kingdom
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