[uf-discuss] hCard UID was: hatom tumblr theme

[Martin McEvoy]

Hello Jason,

Jason Karns wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 17, 2008 at 4:01 PM, Scott Reynen <scott at randomchaos.com> wrote:
>   
>> I can use that same URL as my UID on any site, not just blogs and wikis.
>>  Whenever I find myself stating something that seems obvious like that, I
>> start to suspect there's some larger misunderstanding underlying the
>> discussion, but I have no idea what that might be.  Real world examples are
>> a good way to reveal hidden assumptions...
>>
>>     
>
> I'd just like to clear up at least one assumption, if only for myself.
>  I don't believe anyone is advocating that UIDs may *only* be URLs.
>   

Agreed, I dont believe that either quite the opposite truthfully, Its 
the way UID is being used in microformats that is troubling me A huge 
amount of published hcards that I have seen are almost exclusively 
using  url+uid  which leads me to the assumption. that is the only way 
to use UID in microformats which I don't believe is true but no one 
seems to say any different.
> So if for some reason a URL is not available or cannot be guaranteed
> to be unique (to the subject of the hCard), then other forms of IDs
> are acceptable.  The only argument that I see here is whether URLs are
> *ever* acceptable as UIDs, correct?
>   
That is something I cant determine yet there are advantages If you use 
OpenID url's but that doesn't happen very  much. 

I believe PURL's should be promoted as URL's that can also be UID's  an 
Author can guarantee global uniqueness even if 10 different purl's point 
to the same address or an Author changes his website from time to time 
because the purl will never change.

Thanks

-- 
Martin McEvoy

http://weborganics.co.uk/

"You may find it hard to swallow the notion that anything as large and apparently inanimate as the Earth is alive."
Dr. James Lovelock, The Ages of Gaia