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 NEWSOASIS seeks URI scheme that accommodates XML, Web services By Paul Krill January 8, 2003 4:32 pm PT update OASIS (ORGANIZATION FOR the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) on Wednesday announced an effort to find an XML-based Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme for distributed directory services and data sharing, with accommodations for Web services. Whether major vendors such as IBM and Microsoft support the plan remains to be seen, however.
"XRI is about creating a common URI for how we will refer to distributed information, whether it's objects in a directory service [such as user objects], or dealing with files in different servers or with different types of documents that might be in different systems," said Justin Taylor, chief strategist for directory services at Novell, which is participating in OASIS and XRI development. "With this standard, we will have the capability to refer to those objects using a common URI," he said. XRI is based on XML and is being derived from XNS (Extensible Name Service), a distributed objects effort that had been focused on Domain Name Service, Taylor said. "Now, we need to look at how [XNS is] going to fit into a Web services world," he said. XRI will enable identification of Web services without regard to where the service physically resides. Industry support for XRI will be needed from major vendors such as Microsoft, IBM, Sun Microsystems, and BEA Systems, said Ronald Schmelzer, senior analyst at ZapThink, in Waltham, Mass. "They're the guys that are actually producing the platforms that produce Web services," Schmelzer said. Support from WS-I (Web Services Interoperability Organization) also is critical, according to Schmelzer. IBM and BEA plan to evaluate XRI, according to company representatives. Microsoft and Sun had not commented on the specification at press time. Schmelzer said XRI would overlap with UDDI, the industry's Web services directory effort. XRI would eliminate the need to know the identifier of a UDDI server where a Web service can be found, he said. "Basically, you can give a service a name without having to worry about putting it on a UDDI [registry]," Schmelzer said. XRI proponents should work with UDDI's developers to enable the two specifications to work together, he said. Taylor said XRI and UDDI would complement each other. "UDDI is a place where we'll possibly be able to store [XRI] information," he said. Schmelzer stressed that XRI alters the identity scheme for Web services, adding a new identifier. "This is changing the way we name and sign things on a network," Schmelzer said. In addition to Novell, OASIS participants involved with XRI include Advanced Micro Devices, DataPower, EDS, Neustar, NRI Pacific, OneName, and Visa International. Paul Krill is editor at large at InfoWorld. SPONSORED WHITE PAPERS 
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