Donald writes:
I worry however that, even if we deprecate URLs like http://www.my.org/entomology/tomcat/display.jsp?catno=12345 in favour of something more like http://my.org/stable-id/entomologycollection/12345, we are left with the following problems: 1. my.org still needs to step up to the long-term responsibility to handle URL rewriting for these ids. 2. my.org still needs to return data in a standard agreed form (e.g. RDF or OWL) when requested from these URLs.
On 1: I think it would be a great community service, to provide stable-id.gbif.net/my.org/entomologycollection/12345 for those having problems meeting the technical or management demands. On 2: Why should we limit ourselves to web technologies of the very early 21st century? Seriously, I believe the system of content negotation is much more flexible than the fixed LSID system (which though not fixed per se to RDF, requires a global agreement). With standard content negotiation web technology a provider can migrate to newer standards later on, but still honor requests for xml/rdf type. And without any effort, the same URL can provide human readable content in a format desired by the provider. Gregor -- --------------------------------- Dr. Gregor Hagedorn Heinrich-Seidel-Str. 2 12167 Berlin skype: g.hagedorn This message is sent on a personal basis and does not constitute an activity of the German Federal Government or its research institutions. Together with any attachments, this message is intended for the addressee(s) only and may not be redistributed without permission.