RE: [xml-dev] What is a "resource"? (Was: many-to-many)

The use of a URI assigns identity.  There is no 
effective meaning to "has identity" because that 
would be a property and you have no definition 
for it except a circular one.

You don't have an open system, Mark.  You have 
a very large and very loose one, but the circular 
definition closes it.

If you don't know, you don't know. You know?

len

From: Mark Baker [mailto:]

On Mon, Jan 27, 2003 at 08:48:48PM -0500, Jonathan Borden wrote:
> A resource might be _anything_. There are resources with identity and those
> without. In this context, a resource with 'identity' is a resource which is
> _identified_ by a URI. A resource 'without identity', in this context, is a
> resource which is not _directly_ identified by a URI.

Whoa, hold on there.  A URI doesn't assign identity, it just reflects
it.

Or, put another way, you're making a closed world assumption there; you
don't know whether or not some arbitrary thing has a URI.