The Principle of Self-Description: Identity Through Linking

Abstract. If one wants to have a scheme for identifying non-Web accessible entities, should it be centralized or decentralized? Given a URI, how can one tell if it refers to a web page or a non-Web accessible entity? We present an analysis of these questions, and come to the rather startling conclusion: that identity can only be defined through linking. This in turn leads us to a definition of self-description serves as best practice for identifying any resource, including entities, on the Semantic Web. We then bring up a number of ways a resource can be normatively linked to. This article is meant to bring recent work in the IETF and W3C Web standards community to the attention to Semantic Web researchers working on entities and identification.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2008
• Where: ESWS
• Authors: Harry Halpin
• Keywords: ESWS 2008, Internet Technology, Non-Web Accessible Entities, Non-Web Accessible Entity, Semantic Web