* Bjoern Hoehrmann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [2005-03-18 19:31+0100] > * Dan Brickley wrote: > >> I think the question is which of these is meant by "the web": > > >I encourage Atom to follow the WebArch REC, let's call it (d), > >http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/#intro > >[[ > >The World Wide Web (WWW, or simply Web) is an information space in which > >the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by > >global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). > >]] > > Let's ignore that not all IRIs are URIs and let's assume that this is a > definition of "Web", are you saying that this definition is equivalent > to 'the set of all URIs is the information space "Web"'? If those are > not equivalent I am not sure what you are suggesting here.
The definition says, in effect, "The Web is an information space in which we use URIs when identifying things". It does not rule out other, complementary, identification mechanisms, nor does it equate the Web with any specific set of entities. It is an over-arching abstraction, not a set of URI-named things, nor the set of URIs. I guess it is (and I cringe at the word), a bit like "cyberspace". Nobody really expects there to be real answers to "how many things are 'in' cyberspace?", since that is over-stretching the metaphor. Same with Web, I think. Dan
