For Identifiers (just the complete URI and local part, not about mechanisms)
Permanent
The PID system should provide long term support for resolving identifiers. The hope is that groups at Cornell and outside of Cornell will be able to use these identifiers to signify digital items, concepts, and other things in a stable maner. The reason to pursue this goal is to reduce the cost of creating systems at Cornell that can refer to things created by other systems.
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| permanently resolve to a digital object |
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| permanently resolve to a digital object |
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Permanently resolve to a digital object
The Identifiers should be permanently resolvable via HTTP to a digital resource.
A large category of items that a PID resolver at CUL would index would be digital objects that should remain fixed but it is not a goal of the PID resolver system to ensure fixity of digital resources. There are also items that are outside of this category that the PID resolver should also work with.
We may want to have identifiers for digital objects that constantly change. We may want to have identifiers for digital objects that represent the state of non-digital resources.
URL
The PIDs should conform to the URL RFC1738
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| resolvable through a web browser |
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| resolvable through a web browser |
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Resolvable through a web browser
Since the PIDs are URLs they could be used as the href attribute in an <a> element in HTML. When requested via HTTP GET the response should be a digital object or digital surrogate. Wrinkle in this goal is that many web browsers do not respect the MIME type of responses. A digital object such as a PDF might need to have the part after the final slash end if .pdf to be interpreted as a PDF file by a browser. Some browsers will attempt to open a result as a PDF file on a GET of a URL like http://resolver.org/234/b233.pdf that has a reply status of 400.
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| unique within our PID system without the DNS name portion of the |
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| unique within our PID system without the DNS name portion of the |
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If the ID schema has a DNS name then all PIDs in the system should be unique even with the DNS name removed. This goal is trivially satisfied if there is only one DNS name used by the PID system. If there are more than one DNS names used in the system care must be taken to ensure that goal is met.
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| works with existing systems |
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| works with existing systems |
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Works with existing systems
The PIDS should work with existing systems such as VIVO, arXiv, OAIS (CUL), Voyager Catalog, and WorldCat etc.
Simplicity
Please add comments about this goal.
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| support for a local namespace prefix and an identifier part |
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| support for a local namespace prefix and an identifier part |
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Support for a local namespace prefix and an identifier part
The hope is that the URL can be of the form http://hostname.com/localNamespacePrefix/identifierPart or something similar. The localNamespacePrefix could also be called a collectionPrefix. The resolver system should place no additional restrictions on the identifierPart beyond conforming URL syntax.
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| support for opaque identifiers |
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| support for opaque identifiers |
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Support for opaque identifiers
In an attempt to avoid problems in situations where the labels associated with resources change, the PIDs should support partially opaque identifiers such as http://hostname.com/170/2a33-ffff instead of http://hostname.com/SuperMegaCollection/WalterCarlos1. Since the resolver system places no additional restrictions on the identifier part, we cannot stop systems from requesting new identifiers with a syntax that they attach meaning to.
Ex. A collection administrator might register the following Identifiers: http://resolver.cornell.edu/170/article23332 -> http://collectionX.cornell.edu/article/23332 http://resolver.cornell.edu/170/article23332.pdf -> http://collectionX.cornell.edu/article/23332?format=pdf http://resolver.cornell.edu/170/article23332.tex -> http://collectionX.cornell.edu/article/23332?format=tex
The resolver system will not attempt to parse these identifiers and will not record or track relationships between identifiers.
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| Local part should not be Cornell branded |
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| Local part should not be Cornell branded |
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Local part should not be Cornell branded
To encourage the possibility of using the PIDs across intuitions, the PIDs should not be branded.
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| may be surrogate for physical object |
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| may be surrogate for physical object |
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May be surrogate for physical object
The digital resource returned by the PID resolver might not be the thing identified by the PID, but a surrogate for a resource that cannot be transported easily via HTTP.
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| should be short |
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| should be short |
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Should be short
Please add comments about this goal. How short? Should there be a length limit (which implies a limit to the number of things that can be resolved)?
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| should be easy to copy by hand |
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| should be easy to copy by hand |
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Should be easy to copy by hand
Please add comments about this goal. Adding dashes between every 4 digits of the identifier may be a way to improve the easy of copying the PIDs.
For Resolver and System
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| Supports billions of identifiers |
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| Supports billions of identifiers |
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Supports billions of identifiers
Please add comments about this goal.
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| Robust architecture |
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| Robust architecture |
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Robust architecture
Please add comments about this goal.
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| Robust implementation |
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| Robust implementation |
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Robust implementation
Please add comments about this goal.
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| ability to request metadata about the identifier |
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| ability to request metadata about the identifier |
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Ability to request metadata about the identifier
Please add comments about this goal.
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| lightweight understanding of identifier equivalence |
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| lightweight understanding of identifier equivalence |
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Lightweight understanding of identifier equivalence
Please add comments about this goal.
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| should be easily discoverable by Google |
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| should be easily discoverable by Google |
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Should be easily discoverable by Google
Please add comments about this goal.
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| integrate well with the web architecture |
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| integrate well with the web architecture |
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Integrates well with the web architecture
This should be satisfied by earlier goals.
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| vitality checking |
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| vitality checking |
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Vitality checking
Please add comments about this goal.
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| Need to avoid unbounded generation of surrogate persistent identifiers |
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| Need to avoid unbounded generation of surrogate persistent identifiers |
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Need to avoid unbounded generation of surrogate persistent identifiers
Please add comments about this goal.
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| PID corresponding to every Cornell NetID |
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| PID corresponding to every Cornell NetID |
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PID corresponding to every Cornell NetID
Please add comments about this goal.
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| useful error when check digit is wrong |
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| useful error when check digit is wrong |
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Useful error when check digit is wrong
Please add comments about this goal.
Governance Issues
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| Requires payment to external organization |
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| Requires payment to external organization |
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Requires payment to external organization
Please add comments about this goal.
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| Can continue resolve IDs in absence of external organization |
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| Can continue resolve IDs in absence of external organization |
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Can continue to resolve IDs in the absence of the external organization
Please add comments about this goal.
