# Re: URN and DNS namespaces

Dirk Herr-Hoyman (hoymand@joe.uwex.edu)
Wed, 2 Mar 1994 12:29:55 -36803936 (CST)

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    From: Dirk Herr-Hoyman <hoymand@joe.uwex.edu>

    Message-Id: <9403021829.AA06120@joe.uwex.edu>

    Subject: Re: URN and DNS namespaces

    To: peterd@bunyip.com (Peter Deutsch)

    Date: Wed, 2 Mar 1994 12:29:55 -36803936 (CST)

    In-Reply-To: <9403021527.AA28001@expresso.bunyip.com> from "Peter Deutsch" at Mar 2, 94 10:27:23 am

>
> Now, without deciding whether the British or the rest of
> us are correct, I believe that _requiring_ users to do
> this flip for URNs is a "Bad Thing (tm)". URNs are
> supposed to be user-friendly, DNS is already widely used
> and at least partially understood and if people want to
> perform the "guessing" method of resource discovery we
> decrease their chances of success by requiring the mental
> arithmetic.
>
> It seems to me sort of like we're asking them to perform
> one of those "skill testing questions" to claim the prize
> under the bottle cap and I think that wrong. So, without
> touching upon any of the rest of the issues in this
> debate, I request and suggest that we ask proponents of
> this resource discovery method to use the format:
>
>
> URN:182346/98123/mkt/pubcom/com/internetdns/
>
> instead of:
>
> urn:/internetdns/com/pubcom/mkt/98123/182346
>
> I can see the problems of of having the string grow "into"
> the URN: prefix, but feel that this is outweighed by the
> increased ease of use for naive users. Everything in
> life's a tradeoff and I think the added complexity for
> users is just not justifiable here.
>
>
Peter, while I agree your premise, I don't agree with your conclusion.
You are assuming that DNS is the only model users will use. I think a
directory path name is a just as plausable model for folks to have in
mind when looking at these. And every dir name I can recall reads from
left to right, like the lower example. I'm not saying that this IS what
folks would do, but it's something I did when I looked at it, as it
invoked a dir name for me.

It would be nice if someone could do a bit of focus group research on
which style works better, rather than just guessing.

My two bits...

    --
    Dirk Herr-Hoyman                            |
    Internet Publishing Specialist              |
    University of Wisconsin-Extension           |
    hoymand@joe.uwex.edu                        |

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