[tdwg-guid] Embedding LSID links within Publications

[Ricardo Scachetti Pereira]

    Hi Rich and all,

    Let me try to answer your specific questions. Please see below.
> Thus, assuming I have a ZooBank LSID that is urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1234,
> how do I represent that as a "clickable" link?  One way to do this would be
> to embed the LSID within the TDWG HTTP proxy:
>
> http://lsid.tdwg.org/?urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1234
>
>   
That's one way, yes. But recommendations 34 and 35 on section 10.1 and 
10.2 of the LSID Applicability Statement describe a more standard way of 
representing LSIDs as clickable links. In short, the document recommends 
that you use the LSID in its pure form as the link text and the proxy 
version as the link URL. Below are the link to the document and the text 
of recommendation #34:

http://wiki.tdwg.org/twiki/pub/GUID/LsidApplicabilityStatementRfC2007Sep/TDWG_LSID_Applicability_Statement_2007_08_30.pdf

*Recommendation #34:*
-------------------------

"In HTML web pages, LSIDs that refer to objects other than that being 
described should be presented as hyperlinks, with their original form as 
link text, and their proxy version as the link URL, such as

    urn:lsid:authority.org:namespace:object:rev 
<http://lsid.tdwg.org/?urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1234>        [LSID icon]

A link should be provided to explain what an LSID is wherever an 
identifier appears. You may use the text and icons provided here as a 
template.

"This is a Life Sciences Identifier (LSID), a permanent, globally unique 
identifier for a data item related to the one being displayed. You may 
retrieve a description of this object by clicking on the hyperlinked LSID."
-------------------------

> However, what I'm shooting for is to have a document that can, as best as
> possible, withstand the test of time, such that 250 years from now, some or
> all of those embedded links will still work (I know, I know -- they won't --
> but humor me....) I'm a little neverous about simply assuming that the TDWG
> LSID resolver will still be around in 250 years.  
No problem. You can use any HTTP proxy you want. The key is that the 
LSID must remain associated with your fine objects forever regardless of 
whether the proxy (or HTTP) will be around or not.

If you want to set up your own LSID HTTP proxy, let me know, I can help you.
> Besides, 99.9% of users
> will look at the returned RDF and scratch their heads.
>   
That's another problem that I think is related to Greg Riccardi's 
requirements for LSID citation text and links, and that is still open. 
Maybe we should address that issue in another thread...
> My gut feeling is that LSIDs have a better chance of surviving the long-term
> than URLs do.  And following this premise, the LSID
> "urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1234" will only survive as long as the authority
> "zoobank.org" survives (in theory), so it seems to me a slightly more
> appropriate solution would be to build a custom LSID resolver at
> zoobank.org, and thereby format the clickable link as:
>
> http://zoobank.org/?lsid=urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1234
>
> Does this make sense to anyone?  
That makes total sense! I would just advise you to code your proxy so 
that question marks (?) and equal signs (=) are not needed. The 
parameter name "lsid" is also redundant, so it could be omitted. In 
other words, you should code your proxy to resolve LSIDs using URLs as 
in the example below:

http://zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:1234

That can be accomplished by some tricks on your resolver script and web 
server.
> Am I missing something fundamental here?
> Is there a better way to embed clickable links to LSIDs in a PDF document?
>   
Recommendation #35 describes a more standard way of doing it as I said 
above.


Cheers,

Ricardo

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