RE: [xri] Use of the word "synonym" in section 10

from your examples, IMHO =steve.churchill and =steven.churchill and the CID that goes with it are synonymous because they are the same identity. @ootao*steve is a reference that may be the same person but no one can know that for sure except you. It is just a reference between two authorities.

I don’t really care if you want to call a reference a synonym I just find that that term is used to often.

contact: =les

voice: =les/(+phone)

chat: =les/skype/chat

From: Steven Churchill [mailto:steven.churchill@xdi.org]
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 3:42 PM
To: Chasen, Les
Cc: xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [xri] Use of the word "synonym" in section 10

Les,

> I agree. I think the word ‘synonym’ has been overused. IMHO, It should be reserved

> for inames and inumbers that are in the same XRD.

I think that you are saying that a value of a CanonicalID is synonymous with the value of LocalID is synonymous with the value of a Ref is synonymous with the value of a Query given that the values show up in the same XRD.

This definition of “synonym” has no practical value that I can see. On the other hand, the property of XRI identifier synonymity is one of XRI Resolution’s most valuable features. I would hate to “lose” the use of the term by associating it with your meaning above.

~ Steve

From: markus.sabadello@gmail.com [mailto:markus.sabadello@gmail.com] On Behalf Of Markus Sabadello
Sent: Friday, June 08, 2007 10:15 AM
To: Steven Churchill
Cc: xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [xri] Use of the word "synonym" in section 10

I know it's more complicated than that: But from my naive point of view two XRI identifiers are synonyms if for all possible input parameters they return the same SEP(s).

Markus

On 6/8/07, Steven Churchill <steven.churchill@xdi.org> wrote:

Drummond,

I don't understand the use of the term "synonym" in section 10.

In English, if two words are synonyms, then they have the same (or roughly the same) meaning. In the Identify field, if two identifiers are synonyms, then they refer to the same identity.

As I try to express in my text for section 11, these concepts are dependent upon the "model" (or "system") defining the notions of synonymity and identity. In a Banking system, identifiers may include a person's name(s) and account number. In that same model, identity may be defined as "the human being person having a given SSN and DOB". (Don't get confused by the fact that a SSN is also a type of identifier. That is incidental to the model. We are talking here about establishing the definition of identity. Once that is done, then Steven Churchill and Steve Churchill can be synonymous identifiers for the same identity.) In the XRI Canonical ID Verification model, there is a clear notion of synonymity and absolute identity. In any case, the model needs to be formally defined before we can start referring to this thing or that thing as a being a synonym. A synonym to what?

Section 10 introduces the term synonym without establishing a model that defines either synonymity or identity. As Gabe and others have correctly pointed out, XRI supports many such models. What are synonyms within one model are not necessarily synonyms within another model.

It is not helpful to use the term synonym outside a model defining how two identifiers get mapped to the same identity.

~ Steve

--
@freeXRI / freexri.com / try free i-names

xri message