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In working on something else today I realized that I had
neglected to pass on this announcement from NISO last month about the important
forward momentum of the INFO Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme, which
gives us an important new way to reference existing identifiers and classification
schemes in web applications.
NISO-SPONSORED INFO URI SCHEME GETS THUMBS UP FROM IETF
GROUP
http://www.niso.org/news/releases/pr-InfoURI-11-05.html
Press Contact: Maryann Karinch
([log in to unmask])
T: 970-577-8500
GOAL: MAKE LEGACY IDENTIFIER SCHEMES AN INTEGRAL PART OF WEB
INFRASTRUCTURE
After meticulous reviews lasting more than two years, the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG) has approved the proposed INFO
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme. As a consequence, the Internet Draft
specifying the INFO URO scheme has moved to the Queue of the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF) where it awaits formal publication as an RFC
(Request for Comments).* INFO URI solves problems with identifying information
assets, including documents and terms from classification schemes. The scheme
is a consistent and reliable way to represent and reference such standard
identifiers as Library of Congress Control Numbers on the Web so that these
identifiers can be "read" and understood by Web applications.
Average web users will not see the scheme in action on a
computer screen - for example, info:lccn/2002022641 -
because this is an under-the-hood way of communicating the identity of an
information asset to a web application.
INFO URI was developed by a coalition under the auspices of
the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). NISO members Los Alamos
National Laboratory (LANL) and Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) worked in
partnership with the Nature Publishing Group and British consulting firm
Manifest Solutions to address an identification problem that was revealed
during the NISO standardization of the OpenURL
Framework for Context-Sensitive Services, released early 2005 as ANSI/NISO
Z39.88-2004. A draft for the INFO URI scheme was first published Sept. 25th,
2003.
Tony Hammond of the Nature Publishing Group, stated,
"We see INFO as an enabling technology for the library, publishing and
media communities - a way to facilitate and speed the growth of the Web as a
truly global information place beyond a basic document repository. The Library
of Congress, the National Library of Medicine, and the
"INFO URI has the potential to add a missing piece of
web-naming architecture," added Stuart Weibel,
Senior Research Scientist at OCLC.
Herbert Van de Sompel, Digital
Library Research & Prototyping at LANL's Research
Library, explained, "Legacy identifiers are all around us and eventually
need to be expressed as URIs in order to become
usable in Web applications. In addition, there is a class of identifiers for
which one does not necessarily want a resolution mechanism to be built into the
identifying URI. INFO URI was proposed to provide a home for both and the INFO
URI registry already shows that such a home was much needed."
Describing INFO URI's relevance to
next generation Web development, MacKenzie Smith, Associate Director for
Technology, MIT Libraries, noted, "The Semantic Web provides a way to
incorporate important legacy content into useful Web applications, but first we
need a way to refer to all that content whether it's already on the Web or not.
INFO URI is a big step in that direction, bringing trusted identification
systems into the Semantic Web and helping developers avoid unnecessary
confusion and duplication of effort in finding connections between things. It's
a building block; an acknowledgement that to achieve the vision of the Semantic
Web we need to include identifier systems that don't fit the Web architecture
out-of-the-box but that can still provide enormous value to users."
The INFO Registry, currently operated by OCLC on behalf of
NISO, is available online at http://info-uri.info/ for receiving new
registrations. This Registry contains information needed by Web applications to
make use of INFO namespaces. Each Registry entry defines the namespace, the
syntax, and normalization rules for the representing INFO identifiers as URIs, and gives full contact information for the namespace
authority for that entry. Moreover, the INFO Registry has a Web interface for
human use and allows for machine interaction by supporting RSS feeds and the
Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting.
About NISO
NISO, a non-profit association accredited by the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and
publishes technical standards to manage information in our changing and
ever-more digital environment. NISO standards apply both traditional and new
technologies to the full range of information-related needs, including
retrieval, re-purposing, storage, metadata, and preservation. NISO Standards,
information about NISO's activities and membership are
featured on the NISO website http://www.niso.org.
* The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) codifies the
decisions it comes to in documents called "Requests For
Comments." These are almost universally called by their acronym "RFCs." Many RFCs are the
standards on which the Internet is formed.