A person, organization, place, idea, subject
matter topic/heading, and other real world things possess
"identity" -- that is, a constellation of characteristics that
distinguish them from any other identity. Associated with this
abstraction can be a label used as a reference, or "identifier".
This is the distinction between a thing and the name of the
thing.
section from IETF's Domain Keys spec. (paraphrased by
me)
.
The Linked Data meme is based on the use of HTTP
based URIs as reference / identifier labels associated with the
"identity abstraction" referred to above. Thus, when you
de-reference (request information about) an HTTP based URI you ultimately end up with a resource
URL that exposes the "constellation of
characteristics" mentioned above, in a representation negotiated at
request time -- between an HTTP client and server e.g., (X)HTML,
JSON, XML, RDF/XML, N3, Turtle, Trix, others :-)
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