Seems like your link abstraction layer should be baked into your system,
so the URL your users see in the location bar IS the one that your link
abstraction layer is handling and you are committing to persisting.
There's no reason a URL has to begin with 'purl.org' to be part of a
persisting abstraction layer, neccesarily. If your URL is
http://myapp.myuniversity.edu/record/12345, then you can change systems
all you want, the new system just still needs to be addressable at that
URI, and still needs to know what /record/12345 is.
But yeah, we've often got to deal with software written by other people
that doesn't do that.
On 1/26/2011 5:01 PM, Shearer, Timothy J wrote:
Peter, are you opposed to an abstraction layer in principle? My reading
of your response is that there's an assumption that there is one "system"
and that it will work in perpetuity. We are in the unfortunate but I
think fairly common position of having multiple systems, of aspiring to
pare that down, and fully expectant that we'll need to migrate at some
point even if we find perfection in the near to mid term. Having a link
abstraction layer would make those transitions easier on our users, and on
the world of linked data in general.
Tim
On 1/26/11 4:51 PM, "Peter Murray"<peter.mur...@lyrasis.org> wrote:
On Jan 26, 2011, at 3:24 PM, Erik Hetzner wrote:
At Wed, 26 Jan 2011 13:57:42 -0600,
Pottinger, Hardy J. wrote:
Hi, this topic has come up for discussion with some of my
colleagues, and I was hoping to get a few other perspectives. For a
public interface to a repository and/or digital library, would you
make the handle/PURL an active hyperlink, or just provide the URL in
text form? And why?
My feeling is, making the URL an active hyperlink implies confidence
in the PURL/Handle, and provides the user with functionality they
expect of a hyperlink (right or option-click to copy, or bookmark).
A permanent URL should be displayed in the address bar of the user¹s
browser. Then, when users do what they are going to do anyway (select
the link in the address bar& copy it), it will work.
...which is why I intensely dislike Handles and PURLs. Man-up
(person-up? byte-up?) and make a long-term commitment to own the URLs you
mint with your digital asset management system.
Peter
--
Peter Murray peter.mur...@lyrasis.org tel:+1-678-235-2955
Ass't Director, Technology Services Development http://dltj.org/about/
Lyrasis -- Great Libraries. Strong Communities. Innovative Answers.
The Disruptive Library Technology Jester http://dltj.org/
Attrib-Noncomm-Share http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/
