RE: [xri] Names for XRI URIs and URNs

[Drummond Reed <Drummond.Reed@onename.com>]

I'm all for super-simple but my worry is that we may lose track of the root
acronym from which they flow. "URI" is very widely recognized in Web
architecture. For this reason "XRI" has worked very well for us in the last
few months as an easy way to talk about this new type of abstract,
extensible URI. So I think we should keep it as the foundation acronym.

So we have two subclasses of XRIs that we'd like to be able to easily refer
to: permanent XRIs (ones that meet the URN requirements) and reassignable
XRIs (ones that do not).

A very natural term for the latter - because I've been using it daily for
weeks now - is an "XRI name". Just like a domain name, it's reassignable to
different target resources as required by its owner. I also find that a very
natural term for the former is an "XRI ID", which naturally shortens to
"XRID". 

So a proposal would be:

* "XRI" as the umbrella term for any form of an XRI.
* "XRI name" as the short term for a reassignable XRI.
* "XRID" as the short term for a permanent XRI.

=Drummond 

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter C Davis [mailto:peter.davis@neustar.biz]
Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 7:02 AM
To: Sakimura, Nat
Cc: 'xri@lists.oasis-open.org'
Subject: RE: [xri] Names for XRI URIs and URNs

Or perhaps even simpler, but along these lines:

- XIP ("zip") permanent
- XIR ("zir") reassignable

--- peterd

On Wed, 2003-03-12 at 02:07, Sakimura, Nat wrote:
> I like them. Another obvious twist are XRIP "eXtensible Resource
> Identifier Permanent" and XRIR " -- Reassignable" which might be slightly
> easier to pronounce. ("eccsrip and eccsriar")
>
> Nat Sakimura
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Drummond Reed [mailto:Drummond.Reed@onename.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 3:06 PM
> > To: Sakimura, Nat
> > Subject: RE: [xri] Names for XRI URIs and URNs
> >
> >
> > Interesting angle. We could even make it easier by just
> > saying "Permanent
> > XRI" and "Reassignable XRI". Or shorten them to acronyms like
> > "PXRI" and
> > "RXRI".
> >
> > =Drummond
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Sakimura, Nat [mailto:n-sakimura@nri.co.jp]
> > Sent: Tuesday, March 11, 2003 7:14 PM
> > To: Drummond Reed
> > Subject: RE: [xri] Names for XRI URIs and URNs
> >
> > Putting the marketing bit aside, I have a feeling that it might be
> > clearer to most audience to explicitly state "permanent" and
> > "reassignable". Thus, something like XRPID and XRRID (how
> > awful!) or something like that.
> >
> > Nat Sakimura
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Drummond Reed [mailto:Drummond.Reed@onename.com]
> > > Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2003 11:23 AM
> > > To: 'xri@lists.oasis-open.org'
> > > Subject: RE: [xri] Names for XRI URIs and URNs
> > >
> > >
> > > Gabe,
> > >
> > > Great point. I absolutely agree we need clear, short names
> > > for a) URIs that
> > > conform to the XRI syntax for URIs and b) URNs that conform
> > to the XRI
> > > syntax for URNs.
> > >
> > > One suggestion that has been made is to avoid making the same
> > > terminology
> > > mistake that "URN" originally made by calling a permanent
> > identifier a
> > > "name" (when in fact "name" is the term probably most
> > > commonly associated
> > > with a reassignable identifier).
> > >
> > > Since the term most commonly associated with a permanent
> > > identifier is "ID",
> > > I suggest the term "XRID" instead of "XRN".
> > >
> > > So you'd have:
> > >
> > > a) "XRI" for URIs that conform to the XRI syntax for URIs
> > >
> > > b) "XRID" for URNs that conform to the XRI syntax for URNs
> > >
> > > The only downside is that it may not be quite as intuitive
> > to the very
> > > technical crowd that an "XRID" is the XRI equivalent of a
> > URN. But the
> > > upside is that "XRID" will likely be much more intuitive to a
> > > much wider
> > > audience in the long term as the "permanent" version of an XRI.
> > >
> > > Others on the list, what do you think?
> > >
> > > =Drummond
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Wachob, Gabe [mailto:gwachob@visa.com]
> > > Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 3:20 PM
> > > To: 'xri@lists.oasis-open.org'
> > > Subject: [xri] Names for XRI URIs and URNs
> > >
> > > Working on the requirements document, its becoming awkward to
> > > say "XRI URIs
> > > and XRI URNs".
> > >
> > > I'd like to adopt a nomenclature for these two sets of identifiers:
> > >
> > > a) URIs that conform to the XRI syntax for URIs
> > >
> > > b) URNs that conform to the XRI syntax for URNs
> > >
> > > One might simply say "XRIs and XRNs" for a) and b) respectively.
> > >
> > > Some have argued using these terms (with the "I" intepreted
> > > as "identifier"
> > > and "N" interpreted as "Name" as per URI and URN) are
> > > confusing. URI's are
> > > more like non-persistent "Names" and URNs are more like
> > > persistent "IDs".
> > >
> > > Thats a reasonable argument, but then again, it maybe
> > > inviting an uphill
> > > push to try to use new terminology that ISN'T derived from
> > the URN/URI
> > > terminology. XRN (as far as I know) is only commonly used to
> > > refer to the
> > > XWindows newsreader (which is not so popular these days). XRI
> > > & XRN would
> > > work nicely in emphasizing their relationship to the URI and
> > > URN dichotomy.
> > >
> > > Other suggestions/pushback? If not, I'd like to start using this
> > > terminology.
> > >
> > >         -Gabe
> > >
> >
--
--- peterd              smtp: peter.davis@neustar.biz
                        jabber: peter.davis@checkov.neustarlab.biz
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