OGC Creating URN Resolver

OGC's prototype service to resolve URNs

The techical team at OGC is creating a system to resolve URNs (Uniform Resource Names), and would like your input.

The Open Geospatial Consortium has begun implementing a prototype service that relates internet uniform resource names, or URNs, to their corresponding web sites, or to other web resources. This service, called a URN resolver, is the first of its type for the environmental community. They would like feedback from the community on this service.

URNs are used as unique terms referring to concepts on the semantic web. They are a form of Uniform Resource Identifiers, or URIs. (The other type of URI, called a Uniform Resource Locator or URL, includes resource types like the familiar web browser sequence 'http://your.domain.com', among other resource types.) URNs do not have to 'resolve', or point to, a particular web page or web content, but often it is very useful to be able to point to such content, for example to obtain additional information on a URN.

The work by OGC is creating a resolving mechanism that can take any URN -- which are designed to be unique throughout the entire world -- see if the URN has been registered, and if so return a corresponding URL that can be used to find additional information.

This work is extremely preliminary, but is a necessary precursor to making effective use of URNs in the semantic web. It will be made available at http://urn.opengis.net/. You can try examples of this service:

The OGC requests input on the features that are appropriate for this prototype service. To provide comments, or for more information on the OGC URN resolver, contact Greg Buehler at OGC (gbuehler - at - opengeospatial.org).

For more information on URIs, URNs, URLs, and their use in metadata documents, visit MMI's URI references page.

Reference URLs: 
OGC URN Policy
Registered OGC URNs on the MMI ORR
Sources for Content: 
OGC website
Maturity Estimate: 
Existing
Posted December 6th, 2007 by graybeal
in