Subject: Re: [urn] 2141bis Section 7.1 question

From: John C Klensin <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2014 18:34:47 -0500

--On Monday, November 17, 2014 09:13 -1000 Andrew Newton
<[email-masked]> wrote:

> In 2141bis Section 7.1, the fourth bullet reads like this:
> 
>   4.  The scope of the namespace (public vs. private, global
> vs. local        to a particular organization, nation, or
> industry).  For example,        a namespace claiming to deal
> in "national identification numbers"        ought to have a
> global scope and address all identity number
> structures, whereas a URN scheme for a particular national
> identification number system would need to handle only the
> structure for that nation's identity numbers.
> 
> The example is driving me crazy at it seems to be using the
> same situation but suggesting two different outcomes. Am I
> just not reading that correctly?

Yes, you are not reading it correctly.  The first example would
presumably have the country and/or identity scheme
identification somewhere in the NSS or supplemental supporting
information, and hence might be something like (exaggerating for
clarity):

urn:GlobalNationalIDNumberSystem:<3166Alpha2CountryCode>/<nationalIDnumber>
or, if one established a typology of such codes _and_ they
didn't overlao within a type,
   urn:GlobalNationalIDNumberSystem:<CodeType>/<nationalIDnumber>
and, it they might overlap,

urn:GlobalNationalIDNumberSystem:<CodeType>/<3166CountryCode>/<nationalIDnumber>

Note that I have chosen to use a p-component above.  One could
imagine other systems, but, IIR, some national code systems use
the ":" character.   Whether we could successful tell/get people
to not do that is something I addressed in an earlier message
today.

Now A particular nations's identity number system (making up an
example involving the US because we don't have one) might look
more like
   urn:USANationalIdentifierNumber:NNNNNNNNNNNNN

Suggestions for how to make the text more clear are, of course,
welcome.

    john