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I am reading the four principles for linked data.

the second one is

Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names.

I couldn't understand it. I tried to read some on internet but still didn't understand it.

I understood that the second rule is to give description to the names that has uri, and which was identified in the first rule

is that correct please?

Marco Dinatsoli
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1 Answers1

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The first rule says to use URIs as "names for things". There are many URI schemes available, for example http/https, urn, data, tag, mailto, xmpp, ftp, etc.

The second rule says

  • to use the http URI scheme (¹), and
  • to provide some information when accessing this URI (²).

A HTTP URI acts as identifier/name and locator/address, i.e., it’s a URL. If you’d use a tag URI like tag:example.org,2014-01-01:foobar or a mailto URI like mailto:alice@example.org, no one could look it up (e.g., by entering it in a browser’s address bar) and learn something about it, as it’s just an identifier, not a locator.

So in other words, the second rule makes sure that the data is part of the Web.

(¹) https, while not explicitly mentioned, is probably fine, too
(²) and the third rule says to provide this information also using standards like RDF and SPARQL

unor
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