Re: [xri] * and / discussion

[Victor Grey <victor@idcommons.org>]

Drummond Reed wrote:
> With 8 gazillion URIs deployed in the world today, there's no question 
> that
> the hiearchical view is prevalent. But from the perspective of one
> particular XRI application - XDI - I believe there is a strong need to 
> be
> able to represent peer link relationships. I believe it would be ideal 
> if
> there was XDI syntax that enabled these relationships to be expressed
> directly and compactly.

I admit to being a bit out of my depth in some the finer points of URI 
syntax here, but as a (self-appointed) representative to this list from 
the developer community, I'd like to weigh in that the ability to 
"represent peer link relationships" is *the* feature of XRI/XDI that 
will distinguish it as something revolutionary.

RDF, Topic Maps, the Semantic Web, are all expressions of a widespread, 
somewhat frustrated desire to fully realize the potential of the 
internet as a tool to facilitate nonhierarchical human interaction. If 
we can create an elegant and RESTful way to represent peer link 
relationships, I believe we will have gone beyond making an incremental 
technical advance - we will have contributed to the success of a new 
paradigm that's desperately needed if the human race is to have a 
future.

Hope that's not too grandiose for y'all, but that's my $.02

Victor Grey