# Re: Mail addresses as URLs

Kevin Gamiel (kgamiel@kudzu.cnidr.org)
Tue, 11 May 1993 10:52:12 -0400 (EDT)

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    Date: Tue, 11 May 1993 10:52:12 -0400 (EDT)

    From: Kevin Gamiel <kgamiel@kudzu.cnidr.org>

    Subject: Re: Mail addresses as URLs

    To: timbl@nxoc01.cern.ch

    In-Reply-To: <9305111105.AA02706@www3.cern.ch>

    Message-Id: <Pine.3.03.9305111009.D21005-c100000@kudzu.cnidr.org>

On Tue, 11 May 1993, Tim Berners-Lee wrote:

>
> This is not the first time a mail address has been suggested as a URL
> and I think it is so useful that it should go in.
>

Hi all,
I wrote the following a while back and was waiting for an appropriate time
to post. Now looks as good as ever.

#define URI URN

I thought I would give you a breather on the spaces in URLs thread and ask
your advice (by the way, I hope that I can glance at a URL and know what the
object is, where it is, and how I can get it).

If you haven't seen "The Gopher Book", it is a MS Windows Gopher app I put
out a couple of weeks ago that uses the book paradigm to present Gopher
menus to the user. There are appropriate icons for each Gopher type,
indicating a "turn of the page", a textfile, a picture, etc. Of course,
there is also a bookmark that you click on to select a previously visted
page, and on and on.
Although I hate the book paradigm and only did it 'cause the Gopher spec
mentioned bookmarks, it turns out that people actually like it! Soooo,
I'm taking the next logical step and adding WAIS, Z39-50, and Whois++
support (I also hate the Swiss army knife thang, but it works here).
Therefore, a single page of the book (possibly titled "Internet Road
Kill, an Anthology") can contain a "new" page consisting of a new Gopher
menu or a Web page, various types of files, databases to search, etc.
The power in the book paradigm lies in the fact that the user will be able
to create custom pages for various topics, possibly including a phone
directory, a chapter on Yeats, a chapter on politics, etc.

Now, why am I telling you this?

In preparing for the future, should the items on the pages in the book be
URNs or cached URLs? Cached URLs makes sense for now, but when we have
URN->URL servers out and about, it would probably make sense to have URNs
on the pages, right? Also, will there exist a URN for people? In other
words, will there be heirarchical URNs for a Whois++ server and for each
person within it? I want to have an address/phone number section in my
book with pointers to current info, etc.

Thanks for any suggestions/comments,
Kevin
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