PURLs -Reply

[weibel at oclc.org]

Vianne Sha writes

> What makes the difference between PURL and the OCLC proposed URN
> resolution standard?  


In a pure URN, there will be no protocol or host name built in.  While
it is a desireable philosophical goal to divorce protocol dependencies
from a name, it requires the deployment of network infrastructure that
does not currently exist.  PURLS achieve most of the  goals of URNs with
currently deployed technology - HTTP and DNS.  PURLS work today.  Try
them out in the Internet Cataloging Database:

      http://www.oclc.org:6890
 
The OCLC PURL Team

Erik Jul      jul at oclc.org
Eric Miller   emiller at oclc.org
Keith Shafer  shafer at oclc.org
Vince Tkac    tkac at oclc.org
Stu Weibel    weibel at oclc.org