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OpenURL, a Standard in the Making
The Goal - Improved Access to Desired Content
The Methods
- Special Identifiers in the URL
- Resolver server that takes the OpenURL format as input
- Persistent Links and alternate resolution of IDs and Locations
Promises (promises)
If this gets going, then the promise is that you can access links with one click – provided you have authorization to view the content. So, you won't have to visit top-level sites, enter lots of passwords or drill down through menus.
It's pretty formative right now, and applies primarily to bibliographies, however the technology could easily apply to anything. I haven't had a chance to review this in depth, but here's my first take.
Editor's 2¢
The idea has a lot going for it, particularly if other organizations jump on the enabling technology, such as the resolver servers. These servers aren't part of the standard, and most likely will be proprietary to start. Let's hope that doesn't happen and the GNU and Slashdot crowd starts coding. Free has a lot better chance of being pervasive than proprietary.
Next, the spread of XML throughout the web in the coming years will enable similar alternate technologies. I expect that as that happens we will see a proliferation of standards in search of an audience. Note that the OpenURL standard does not in any way conflict with XML content, in fact it could support it. I think that the killer enabling technology will be XML-driven e-commerce on a micro scale, where a net cash account might be established and debited in cents or mills per view or download. OpenURL could be a step on that journey.
On the upside-downside, (depending on your point-of-view) OpenURL will provide very good mechanisms for tracking web use. The fact that resolver servers will be checking your authorizations means that if OpenURL is used, then even more care must be taken with physical access to the computer, particularly if this extends beyond scholarly bibliographies.