UType URIs -- IVOA note and resolver

[Norman Gray]

Greetings,

[This message is posted to the semantics, dm and dal lists.  To avoid  
duplication, I suggest any followups go to a single list, and I  
suggest the semantics group (I've set the reply-to field accordingly,  
though this might not make it through the list manager).]



I've published a Note on how one might link UTypes and URIs,  
following up (finally!) on one of the talks I gave at the Moscow  
Interop.  The note is at <http://www.ivoa.net/Documents/latest/utype- 
uri.html>, and I'd much appreciate comments.

The `elevator pitch' is this: The definition of UTypes in the VOTable  
document makes them look much like URIs.  If you tighten up the  
VOTable definition and require that UTypes actually _are_ resolvable  
URIs, then you get (a) documentation for the UTypes, and (b)  
standards-based machine-readable declaration of the relationships  
between UTypes, via a mechanism I describe in the Note.  That makes  
it feasible to have more (ie, more precise) UTypes in the wild, with  
a lightweight standardisation process, without sacrificing  
interoperability. (phew!)

The document describes (in section 4.2) a lightweight reasoning  
service, which would allow applications to key into this network of  
UTypes in an almost trivially easy way.  If you want to play with  
that, there's a resolver currently (and temporarily) sitting at  
<http://thor.roe.ac.uk/utype-resolver/>.

The language of the Note is fairly close to a proposed standard, and  
I'd like to suggest that the Note move towards becoming a standard in  
fact, with some WG's blessing.  Would the Semantics WG be most  
appropriate?

All the best,

Norman


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Norman Gray  /  http://nxg.me.uk
eurovotech.org  /  University of Leicester, UK