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> From: Code for Libraries [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of > Karen Coyle > Sent: Wednesday, April 01, 2009 1:06 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] resolution and identification (was Re: > [CODE4LIB] registering info: uris?) > > The general convention is that "http://" is a web address, a location. > I > realize that it's also a form of URI, but that's a minority use of > http. > This leads to a great deal of confusion. I understand the desire to use > domain names as a way to create unique, managed identifiers, but the > http part is what is causing us problems. http:// is an HTTP URI, defined by RFC 3986, loosely I will agree that it is a web addresss. However, it is not a location. URIs according to RFC 3986 are just tokens to identify resources. These tokens, e.g., URIs are presented to protocol mechanisms as part of the dereferencing process to locate and retrieve a representation of the resource. People see http: and assume that it means the HTTP protocol so it must be a locator. Whoever initially registered the HTTP URI scheme could have used "web" as the token instead and we would all be doing: <web://example.org/>. This is the confusion. People don't understand what RFC 3986 is saying. It makes no claim that any URI registered scheme has persistence or can be dereferenced. An HTTP URI is just a token to identify some resource, nothing more. Andy.