Name of TC:
Extensible Resource Identifier (XRI) Technical Committee
Statement of Purpose:
Increasingly, there is a demand for distributed directory services that enable the identification of any type of resource, both those directly on the network and those abstract from it, and the sharing of data across domains, enterprises, and applications.
Meeting this need requires an extensible, location-, application-, and transport-independent identification scheme that provides addressability not just of resources, but of their attributes and versions. The scheme should support both persistent and reassignable identifiers that can be optimized for either human usage or machine efficiency. It should ideally impose no limits on the underlying directory, data, or delegation models and thus be interoperable across the greatest possible number of systems and domains.
The purpose of this committee is to define a URI scheme and a corresponding URN namespace that meet these requirements. This TC will also define basic mechanisms for resolving the identifiers in these schemes and for exchanging data associated with these identifiers. This work will enable the creation of Web-like collections of resources (including, but not limited to, data, systems, services, organizations, and people) that extend the WWW's current generalized addressing and linking capabilities.
The URI scheme will conform to RFC 2396. It will also accommodate human-readable names as a subset of the compliant identifiers.
The TC will also produce an interoperable URN namespace specification compliant with RFC 2141 and guided by the requirements in RFC 1737 for resources that need the ability to be persistently identified and linked.
The TC will also define an XML schema to associate metadata with resources and a service to manipulate this metadata and data associated with the resources. Specifically, this service will reflect the simple transactional nature of the WWW, i.e., it will use a small set of REST (Representational State Transfer) or CRUD-like operators on an infinitely extensible set of XRI-addressable resources.
This data exchange service will provide a platform for integration with directory-related specifications such as LDAP, DSML, and SPML.
This TC's work will be influenced by the general architecture described in XNS and specifically by the XNS Addressing Specification. The XNS specifications published by the XNS Public Trust Organization (XNSORG) will be contributed to the TC for consideration in the committee�s work. XNS is licensed under royalty-free (RF) terms as described in http://www.xns.org/pages/XNS_License.pdf.
It is the intention of this TC to release all specifications under RF terms and thus to only accept official submissions made under those terms. Nothing in this statement is meant to prevent or hinder the TC from evaluating and investigating complementary technologies or preclude this TC from detailing how its specifications can be used within other specifications that may not be provided under RF terms.
List of Deliverables:
Delivery schedule.
The TC deliverables will include:
- Use cases & requirements
- A syntax specification for the URI scheme & URN namespace
- A resolution specification for the URI scheme & URN namespace
- An XML schema for associating metadata with identified resources
- A REST/CRUD-like data exchange service and bindings for HTTP and SOAP
The TC intends to deliver its first specifications in Spring 2003 and continue to release additional deliverables at least quarterly.
Relationship to Existing Activities:
This TC:
- is defining a URI scheme under RFC 2396 and a URN namespace under RFC 2141 and guided by the requirements in RFC 1737.
- will examine use of the IETF DDDS framework for resolution (RFC 3401-3405).
- will integrate the W3C XML and XML Schemas architectures for data representation and description.
- will integrate the W3C Web services framework for messaging, service description, and location.
- will integrate the OASIS Web services security framework for secure messaging.
- will examine possibilities for expression and integration of the directory services features with DSML, SPML, UDDI, and ebXML as well as more established directory services specifications such as LDAP.
Language:
English
Date and Time of First Meeting:
The first meeting will be held by tele-conference on January 9th, 2003 at 2pm Pacific, 3pm Mountain, 4pm Central, 5pm Eastern, 11pm GMT, Friday 7am Toyko.
Meeting Schedule for the First Year
The XRI TC will meet via bi-weekly conference call, on a schedule determined by the TC members. The phone call sponsors will be determined at the initial meeting.
Face-to-face meetings will be held as required.
Names, Affiliation, and Electronic Mail Addresses of members who support the formation of this TC and are committed to the Meeting Schedule and Purpose:
Geoffrey Strongin, AMD, geoffrey.strongin@amd.com Krishna Sankar, Cisco, ksankar@cisco.com Joseph Moeller, jpm2@eds.com, EDS Jim Schreckengast, Gemplus, jim.schreckengast@gemplus.com Xavier Serret, Gemplus, xavier.serret@gemplus.com Philippe LeBlanc, Gemplus, philippe.leblanc@gemplus.com Winston Bumpus, Novell, wbumpus@novell.com Nat Sakimura, NRI Pacific, n-sakimura@nri.co.jp Hiro Ogawa, NRI Pacific, h1-ogawa@nri.co.jp Tomonori Seki, NRI Pacific, t2-seki@nri.co.jp Tetsu Watanabe, NRI Pacific, tetsu@nri.com Drummond Reed, OneName, drummond.reed@onename.com Loren West, OneName, loren.west@onename.com Dave McAlpin, OneName, dave.mcalpin@onename.com Marc LeMaitre, OneName, marc.lemaitre@onename.com Dave Wentker, Visa International, dwentker@visa.com Rajeev Maria, Visa International, rmaria@visa.com Mike Lindelsee, Visa International, mlindelsee@visa.com Gabe Wachob, Visa International, gwachob@visa.com Michael Willett, Wave Systems, mwillett@wavesys.com Lark Allen, Wave Systems, lallen@wavesys.com Bill Washburn, XNSORG, bill.washburn@xns.org
Names of TC Co-Chairs:
Drummond Reed, OneName and Gabe Wachob, Visa International
Meeting Sponsors:
XNSORG
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