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How could an entity-ID service be provided? Switch to the latest release

Published on: 28/03/2017 Last update: 08/11/2017

Issue

RDF requires every entity in the graph to have a URI in order to allow making assertions about the entity. As these URIs are created when the graph is created, the URIs are usually minted locally. In many cases these URIs are created randomly, or created by the software being used.
 

The discussion on the issue is available here.

Recommendation

A common URI pattern could be applied, following a clear structure that can be applied across applications in a country.

Rationale

In a LOD implementation, every entity that is described need to be identified by a URI. This is on a different level than, for example, the information given in dct:identifier or adms:identifier, as RDF requires every entity in the graph to have a URI in order to allow making assertions about the entity.
As these URIs are created when the graph is created, the URIs are usually minted locally. In many cases these URIs are created randomly, or created by the software being used.

Example

In Italy, a fixed pattern is used for these URIs: http://dati.gov.it/resource/(type)/(id), with (type) being “Catalogo”, “Dataset”, “Distribuzione”, “PuntoContatto” etc., and (id) being a local string.