A name in any scheme will do, so long as it is completely specified. On systems which do not allow the name to be stored (such as anonymous FTP archive sites), a possible ambiguity will always exist as to whether two similarly named objects are in fact the same.
Predictor: Berners-Lee, Tim
Prediction, in context:The following is an excerpt from an Internet Draft (from the working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force) written by Tim Berners-Lee, contained in a memo written on January 1, 1994. This excerpt discusses the relevence of naming schemes and uniform resource locator addresses (URL). ”Clearly one requires unambiguous names in the sense that one name should refer to only one logical object. This is the case with all the addressing schemes in use, whether they are directory systems or physical addresses. (The Internet addresses all rely on the domain name (Mockapetris 1987) of the host to achieve this). However, given that names can be translated, many apparently different names may lead to the same object. Any object may therefore be referred to by many names. One needs to be able to know whether two objects, retrieved through different paths, are in fact the same object. It is suggested that each object have a unique ‘official’ name. This name could be stored in the object in some representations, or stored in a database accessible to the server, for example. Any references within that object should be parsed in the context of the official name. In the presence of a directory service, the official name will normally be the registered name of the object. However, a name in any scheme will do, so long as it is completely specified. On systems which do not allow the name to be stored (such as anonymous FTP archive sites), a possible ambiguity will always exist as to whether two similarly named objects are in fact the same.”
Biography:Tim Berners-Lee of CERN first released his revolutionary World-Wide Web for initial use in 1991 and with it shared his invention HTML (hypertext mark-up language). He later served as director of W3 Consortium, an open forum of companies and organizations whose goal was to find ways to help the Web reach its full potential. (Pioneer/Originator.)
Date of prediction: January 1, 1994
Topic of prediction: Information Infrastructure
Subtopic: Protocols
Name of publication: www.w3.org
Title, headline, chapter name: A Unifying Syntax for the Expression of Names and Addresses of Objects on the Network
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.w3.org/History/1995/WWW/Paper/JUNK.TXT
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Bruno, Marian Theresa