[OpenID] human-memorable names
Joaquin Miller
joaquin at netmesh.us
Sun Jan 7 18:51:02 UTC 2007
>Apply that same concept to a global namespace
>and it actually becomes rather easy for every
>human on the planet to have a relatively
>easy-to-remember, easy-to-say, easy-to-transcribe address
This has an interesting relationship to our idée
fixe that names are composed from
first-or-given-name and last-or-surname. (with possible additional parts).
Out in the Sahara, my name is not 'Joaquin
Miller', but 'Joaquin Coulterville' (this would
be written by the blue (ladies and) men in the
alphabet of Tamasheq, with sufficient squiggles
to get the unfamiliar pronunciation right).
There are lots of people in Burma named, 'Nu'.
The famous one might have used i-name, '=U.Nu'
("Mr." Nu), if he got there first, or maybe
='Nu.United.Nations'. Another, might use a name,
in Myanma script, which we would translate
as "equal Nu.Shwedagon.South.Entrance.Candy"
because most people know him as the gent who has
the little tray of unusual candies for sale near
the Southern mouk to Shwedagon Paya.
So what's my point? Three:
The only practical schema for person names is a free-form character string.
While xri.net-rooted i-names can serve as temporary identifiers for people,
we need to turn to i-numbers for permanent identifiers.
The only practical overall schemes I have heard tell of are those like
http://www.skyhunter.com/marcs/petnames/IntroPetNames.html .
Cordially, Joaquin Coulterville
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