Network Working Group                                            K. Best
Request for Comments: 3121                                   OASIS, Inc.
Category: Informational                                         N. Walsh
                                                  Sun Microsystems, Inc.
                                                               June 2001


                       A URN Namespace for OASIS

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document describes a URN (Uniform Resource Name) namespace that
   is engineered by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured
   Information Standards (OASIS) for naming persistent resources
   published by OASIS (such as OASIS Standards, XML (Extensible Markup
   Language) Document Type Definitions, XML Schemas, Namespaces,
   Stylesheets, and other documents).

1. Introduction

   The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
   Standards (OASIS) produces many kinds of documents: specifications,
   working drafts, technical resolutions, schemas, stylesheets, etc.

   OASIS wishes to provide global, distributed, persistent, location-
   independent names for these resources.

   The Extensible Markup Language (XML) requires that all resources
   provide a system identifier, which must be a URI, in addition to an
   optional public identifier (which provides an alternate mechanism for
   constructing identifiers) and many evolving specifications require
   authors to identify documents by URI alone (XML Namespaces, XML
   Schema, XSLT, etc.).

   Motivated by these observations, OASIS would like to assign URNs to
   some resources in order to retain unique, permanent location-
   independent names for them.

   This namespace specification is for a formal namespace.

2. Specification Template

   Namespace ID:

      "oasis" requested.

   Registration Information:

      Registration Version Number: 3
      Registration Date: 2001-02-05

   Declared registrant of the namespace:

      Karl Best
      OASIS - Organization for the Advancement of Structured
      Information Standards
      Post Office Box 455
      Billerica, MA USA 01821

      Phone: +1 (978) 667 5115

   Declaration of structure:

      The Namespace Specific String (NSS) of all URNs assigned by OASIS
      will have the following hierarchical structure:

      There are two branches at the top of the hierarchy: "names" and
      "member".

   The Names Hierarchy

      The NSS in the names hierarchy begins with a document class
      identifier.  There are three classes of identifiers:

      "specification", "tc", and "technical".

      Specifications

         The "specification" hierarchy is for OASIS Specifications.  The
         general structure of the NSS in the specification hierarchy has
         the form:

            urn:oasis:names:specification:{specification-id}
                           :{type}{:subtype}?:{document-id}

         where "specification-id" is a unique identifier for the
         specification, "type" identifies the document type (document,
         schema, stylesheet, entity, xmlns, etc.), the optional
         "subtype" provides additional information about the document
         type (for example, stylesheet or schema language), and
         "document-id" is a unique identifier for the document.

         The Director of Technical Operations at OASIS assigns document
         types, subtypes, and all unique identifiers.

      Technical Committee Work Products

         The "tc" hierarchy is for work products of OASIS Technical
         Committees.  The general structure of the NSS in the tc
         hierarchy has the form:

            urn:oasis:names:tc:{tc-id}:{type}{:subtype}?:{document-id}

         where "tc-id" is a unique identifier for the Technical
         Committee, and the remaining fields are assigned as per the
         specification hierarchy.

      Technical Papers

         The "technical" hierarchy identifies legacy documents
         (Technical Notes, Resolutions, Memoranda, and Research Papers).
         The general structure of the NSS in the "technical" hierarchies
         has the form:

            urn:oasis:names:technical:{document-type}
                           :{document-id}:{amendment-id}

         The document type is one of the following: "note",
         "resolution", "memorandum", or "researchpaper".

         The document and amendment identifiers are derived from the
         legacy system for naming these documents.  The document
         identifier consists of a two digit year and a sequential
         number, the amendment identifier is the year of the amendment.

      The Members Hierarchy

         The NSS in the members hierarchy begins with a unique member
         identifier assigned by OASIS.  The string following the member
         identifier is opaque.  For example:

            urn:oasis:member:A00024:x

         The member identifiers will be assigned by The Director of
         Technical Operations at OASIS.  The opaque string is defined by
         the owner of the branch that begins with
         "urn:oasis:member:{member-id}:".

   Relevant ancillary documentation:

      None

   Identifier uniqueness considerations:

      Identifier uniqueness will be enforced by the Director of
      Technical Operations who assigns unique identifiers to all
      documents identified by URN.

   Identifier persistence considerations:

      OASIS is committed to maintaining the accessibility and
      persistence of all the resources that are assigned URNs.

   Process of identifier assignment:

      Assignment is limited to the owner and those authorities that are
      specifically designated by the owner.  OASIS will assign portions
      of its namespace (specifically, those under the members hierarchy)
      for assignment by other parties.

   Process of identifier resolution:

      The owner will distribute catalogs (OASIS TR9401 Catalogs) that
      map the assigned URNs to resource identifiers (e.g., URLs).  A
      more interactive, online resolution system will also be deployed
      in the near future.

      The owner will authorize additional resolution services as
      appropriate.

   Rules for Lexical Equivalence:

      URNs are lexically equivalent if they are lexically identical.

   Conformance with URN Syntax:

      No special considerations.

   Validation mechanism:

      None specified.  The owner will publish OASIS TR9401 Catalogs.
      The presence of a URN in a catalog indicates that it is valid.

   Scope:

      Global

3. Examples

   The following examples are not guaranteed to be real.  They are
   listed for pedagogical reasons only.

      urn:oasis:names:specification:docbook:dtd:xml:4.1.2
      urn:oasis:names:tc:docbook:dtd:xml:docbook:5.0b1
      urn:oasis:names:technical:memo:9502:1995
      urn:oasis:member:A00024:x

4. Security Considerations

   There are no additional security considerations other than those
   normally associated with the use and resolution of URNs in general.

References

   [1] Goldfarb, C. F., "ISO (International Organization for
       Standardization) ISO 8879:1986(E) Information Processing -- Text
       and Office Systems -- Standard Generalized Markup Language
       (SGML)", 1986.

   [2] W3C, XML WG, "Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0", February
       1998, <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml>.

   [3] W3C, Namespaces WG, "Namespaces in XML", January 1999,
       <http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names>.

   [4] OASIS, Entity Mgmt. TC, "Entity Management: OASIS Technical
       Resolution 9401:1997 (Amendment 2 to TR 9401)", January 1994,
       <http://www.oasis-open.org/html/a401.htm>.

   [5] Moats, R., "URN Syntax", RFC 2141, May 1997.

   [6] Mealling, M. and R. Daniel, "URI Resolution Services Necessary
       for URN Resolution", RFC 2483, January 1999.

Authors' Addresses

   Karl Best
   OASIS, Inc.
   P.O. Box 455
   Billerica, MA  01821
   US

   EMail: karl.best@oasis-open.org


   Norman Walsh
   Sun Microsystems, Inc.
   One Network Drive
   MS UBUR02-201
   Burlington, MA  01803-0902
   US

   EMail: Norman.Walsh@East.Sun.COM

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