Web resource: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:23, 25 January 2022

Revision as of 23:00, 15 March 2022

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{{Short description|Identifiable entity on the World Wide Web}}

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{{nomore footnotes|date=August 2018}}

{{essay|date=August 2018}}

{{original research|date=August 2018}}

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A '''web resource''' is any identifiable resource (digital, physical, or abstract) present on or connected to the [[World Wide Web]].<ref name="rfc3986">[https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986 RFC 3986 Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax [https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986]</ref><ref name="fielding_dissertation">Roy T. Fielding's Dissertation [https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm Roy T. Fielding's Dissertation]</ref><ref name="uri_identify">[https://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/HTTP-URI.html What do HTTP URIs Identify?], by [[Tim Berners-Lee]]</ref> Resources are identified using [[Uniform Resource Identifier]]s.<ref name="rfc3986" /><ref name="rfc1738">RFC 1738 Uniform Resource Locators (URL)</ref> In the [[Semantic mapping (literacy)|Semantic Web]], web resources and their semantic properties are described using the [[Resource Description Framework]].<ref name="rdf_index">RDF Current Status [https://www.w3.org/standards/techs/rdf RDF Current Status]</ref>

The concept of a web resource has evolved during the Web's history, from the early notion of static addressable [[Electronic document|document]]s or [[Computer file|file]]s, to a more generic and abstract definition, now encompassing every "thing" or [[wikt:entity|entity]] that can be identified, named, addressed or handled, in any way whatsoever, in the web at large, or in any networked information system. The declarative aspects of a resource (identification and naming) and its functional aspects (addressing and technical handling) weren't clearly distinct in the early specifications of the web, and the very definition of the concept has been the subject of long and still open debate involving difficult, and often arcane, technical, social, linguistic and philosophical issues.

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== From web resources to abstract resources ==

The first explicit definition of ''resource'' is found in RFC 2396, in August 1998:

{{quoteblockquote|

A resource can be anything that has identity. Familiar examples include an electronic document, an image, a service (e.g., "today's weather report for Los Angeles"), and a collection of other resources. Not all resources are network "retrievable"; e.g., human beings, corporations, and bound books in a library can also be considered resources. The resource is the conceptual mapping to an entity or set of entities, not necessarily the entity which corresponds to that mapping at any particular instance in time. Thus, a resource can remain constant even when its content---the entities to which it currently corresponds---changes over time, provided that the conceptual mapping is not changed in the process.}}