I-names are one form of an

XRI An Extensible Resource Identifier (abbreviated XRI) is a scheme and resolution protocol for abstract identifiers compatible with Uniform Resource Identifiers and Internationalized Resource Identifiers, developed by the XRI Technical Committee at OA ...

— an

OASIS In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment''XRI Syntax 2.0 Committee Specification''

OASIS In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment XRI An Extensible Resource Identifier (abbreviated XRI) is a scheme and resolution protocol for abstract identifiers compatible with Uniform Resource Identifiers and Internationalized Resource Identifiers, developed by the XRI Technical Committee at OA ...

Technical Committee (14 November 2005) I-names are human readable XRIs intended to be as easy as possible for people to remember and use. For example, a personal i-name could be ''=Mary'' or ''=Mary.Jones''. An organizational i-name could be ''@Acme'' or ''@Acme.Corporation''.

Persistence

One problem XRIs are designed to solve is ''persistent addressing'' — how to maintain an address that does not need to change no matter how often the contact details of a person or organization change. XRIs accomplish this by adding a new

layer of abstraction In computing, an abstraction layer or abstraction level is a way of hiding the working details of a subsystem. Examples of software models that use layers of abstraction include the OSI model for network protocols, OpenGL, and other graphics libra ...

over the existing IP numbering and

DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

naming layers used on the Internet today (as well as over other type of addresses, such as phone numbers or

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of online chat allowing real-time text transmission over the Internet or another computer network. Messages are typically transmitted between two or more parties, when each user inputs text and trigge ...

addresses). Such an abstraction layer is not new — URNs (Uniform Resource Names) and other persistent identifier architectures have the same effect. What's different about the XRI layer is that it offers a single uniform syntax and resolution protocol for two different types of identifiers:

I-names

I-names are identifiers resembling

domain name A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. ...

s, designed for simplicity and ease of use. Though typically long-lived, i-names may, like domain names, be transferred or reassigned to another resource by their owners. For example, a company that changes its corporate name could sell its old i-name to another company, while both companies could retain their original i-numbers. What most differentiates i-names from domain names is that in practice they will have a synonymous (equivalent) persistent ''i-number'' (below).

I-numbers

I-numbers are machine readable identifiers (similar to

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

es) that are assigned to a resource (for instance, a person, organization, application or file) and never reassigned. This means an i-number can always be used to address a network representation of the resource as long it remains available anywhere on the network. I-numbers, like IP addresses, are designed to be efficient for network routers to process and resolve. XRI syntax also allows i-names and i-numbers to be combined within the same XRI. So effectively the XRI layer supports both i-name and i-number

synonym A synonym is a word, morpheme, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word, morpheme, or phrase in a given language. For example, in the English language, the words ''begin'', ''start'', ''commence'', and ''initiate'' are al ...

s for resources — one that reflects real-world semantics and can change over time, and one that reflects the persistent identity of a resource no matter how often its attributes (including its i-names) may change. And the same

HTTP The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application layer protocol in the Internet protocol suite model for distributed, collaborative, hypermedia information systems. HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web, ...

-based XRI resolution protocol can be used to resolve either an i-name or an i-number to an

XRDS Background The XML format used by XRDS was originally developed in 2004 by the OASIS XRI (extensible resource identifierTechnical Committeeas the resolution format for XRIs. The acronym XRDS was coined during subsequent discussions between XRI ...

document describing the target resource. XRIs are backward-compatible with the DNS and IP addressing systems, so it is possible for domain names and IP addresses to be used as i-names (or, in rare cases, as i-numbers). Like DNS names, XRIs can also be "delegated", i.e., nested multiple levels deep, just like the directory names on a local computer file system. For example, a company can register a top-level (global) i-name for itself and then assign second- or lower-level (community) i-names to its divisions, employees, etc. Examples: =Mary.Jones*Henry @Example.Corp*Ecuador*Quito i-names are called ''unified digital addresses'' because they can be resolved using the XRI resolution protocol into

documents that expose various services for accessing the digital identity they represent. These services, such as

OpenID OpenID is an open standard and decentralized authentication protocol promoted by the non-profit OpenID Foundation. It allows users to be authenticated by co-operating sites (known as relying parties, or RP) using a third-party identity provid ...

OAuth OAuth (short for "Open Authorization") is an open standard for access delegation, commonly used as a way for internet users to grant websites or applications access to their information on other websites but without giving them the passwords. Th ...

, or XDI can expose any other type of data under the control of this identity. Privacy is protected because the identity owner controls access. For example, the registrant of ''=Mary.Jones'' would not receive spam from this i-name because it is not an email address. To resolve ''=Mary.Jones'' into an email address would first require Mary's permission, and such requests can be verified by i-brokers to make sure they are legitimate. In addition to ''=names'' for people and ''@names'' for organizations, the third major type of i-names is ''+names'' for generic concepts. This is the XRI equivalent of a generic noun in the English language, for example, ''+flowers'', ''+phone.number'', or ''+table.of.contents''. Generic ''+names'' are very useful in distributed data sharing because they can be used as XRI cross-references to specify the precise type of data to be shared. For example, ''=Mary.Jones/(+phone.number)/(+daytime)'' and ''@Acme/(+phone.number)/(+daytime)'' can be used to request Mary's and Acme's daytime phone numbers, respectively.

References

{{Reflist

identity services.
The Social Web: Creating An Open Social Network with XDI
in th
Planetwork Journal
Identifiers

Persistence

I-names

I-numbers

See also

References

External links