Subject: [urn] Draft URN namespace assignment request

From: Alexander Martin <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2019 20:17:45 -0400

Namespace Identifier:  Assigned by IANA

   Version:  1

   Date:  2019-06-05

   Registrant:  Alexander L. Martin
                [email-masked]

   Purpose:  Identifies a resource with a name assigned by an arbitrary,
non-centrally-registered authority, allowing the generation of URNs by
applications and entities that do not have or do not wish to use a
domain name, email address, or other registered identifier, but that
still wish to use a human-readable name.

   Syntax:  The syntactical structure of this namespace's NSS is
identical to that of the 'uuid' namespace, with the addition of a
human-readable name following a colon, like so:

   urn:urn-N:0fce65b6-bf2d-4dde-8e78-ef50d9d67a1e:foobar-xml-namespace

   The UUID serves as an "authority identifier" that prevents collisions
between names assigned by different authorities. Each authority
generates its own authority identifier, and can then assign an unlimited
number of names using that authority identifier.

   URN-equivalence is as described in section 3 of RFC 4122 (under the
heading "Rules for Lexical Equivalence") for UUIDs, and in section 3.1
of RFC 8141 for all other components.

   The structure and meaning of q-components, r-components, and
f-components are not defined here, but may be defined by later
specifications that make use of the namespace.

   Assignment:  Each authority wishing to assign names generates a UUID.
It then includes that UUID as the authority identifier in each name it
assigns. The nature of UUIDs ensures that authority identifiers will not
conflict unless the UUIDs are generated improperly.

   Security and Privacy:  The UUID could serve to identify a particular
entity if used many times, but the assigning authority could simply
generate a new UUID to change its identity. Additionally, the UUID would
not reveal information other than by correlating names assigned by the
same authority, unless that UUID is somehow known to associate with a
specific entity.

   Interoperability:  There are no known interoperability concerns.

   Resolution:  Because of the decentralized nature of UUIDs, a single
resolution method is impossible. It may be possible for later
specifications using the namespace to specify a resolution method.

   Documentation:  This document.

   Additional Information:  While both this namespace and 'uuid' make
use of UUIDs, 'uuid' contains only a UUID, while this namespace also
contains a human-readable name. Due to this, this namespace may, and
likely will, use the same UUID for multiple names.

   An alternate possibility for fulfilment of the same need would be to
update RFC 4122 in order to allow the use of a q-component or
f-component to give a human-readable name. However, this would
necessarily result in a violation of section 3.1 of RFC 8141, to wit:

   If an r-component, q-component, or f-component (or any combination
   thereof) is included in a URN, it MUST be ignored for purposes of
   determining URN-equivalence.