[SEEK-Taxon] Re: first cut at guid decision document

[thau@learningsite.com]

Finally... a short email from me!

On Thu, 11 Mar 2004, Richard Pyle wrote:

> Couple questions about the [handle system] numbers themselves:  Are the
> post-slash numbers integers?  Necessarily sequentially assigned, or can they
> be random? Positive values only? How many bits? (i.e., how large is the
> domain/scope of assignable numbers?) Final question -- what about the issue
> of fee-per-number?  I thought you said that the Handle system charged some
> small fee for each issued number...?

The stuff after the slash can be anything - numbers, characters, whatever.
We could even use UUIDs!  They can be very long - something on the order
of 1000 characters long, which should be more than enough.

The fee-per-number structure applies to DOIs, not the handle system
itself.  The DOI system uses the handle system, but adds additional
metadata search capabilities and a bunch of business-oriented stuff, and
DOIs are what the publishers are using to identify articles in their
journals.  More on the relationship between DOIs and the handle system is
here:  http://www.doi.org/faq.html#15

Dave