xmlhack: URI overview, ISBNs as URNs

The IETF has published Internet Drafts which provide an overview of Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) and which describe how to use book ISBNs to create Uniform Resource Names (URNs).

In Uniform Resource Identifiers: Comprehensive Standard, Leslie Daigle assembles an introduction to the many RFCs and drafts which define current URI best practices, helping readers find relevant material amid many obsolete or irrelevant documents. The document:

"provides the definitive overview of the (currently) relevant documentation. As such, it acts as a definition of the core standard for URIs, incorporating existing standards documents by reference."

In Using International Standard Book Numbers as Uniform Resource Names, Juha Hakala and Hartmut Walravens address the common need to use ISBNs, uniquely identifying numbers assigned to books, in the larger context of URNs. Building on work from RFCs 2141, 2288, and 2611, they devise a simple syntax and registration procedure for URNs based on ISBNs.