[MOBY-l] I3C Life sciences identifier

[Michael Gribskov]

I have received a draft spe for a "life sciences identifier" from the 
Interoperable Informatics Infrastructure Consortium.    This seems like an 
effort similar to moby and likely to be relevant.  the proposal specifically 
mentions that it addresses a problem with the DAS standard not handling "Query 
by Identifier".  I guess my questions are:

Is this group in contact with moby?
Does this proposal work/not work with the moby idea of a service?

The gist of the proposal is as follows (for the whole text I think I should 
refer you to the authors; I am uncomfortable posting the whole thing)

The Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) specification defines a scheme for 
location-independent naming of distributed biologically significant data items 
such as a sequence, a clone, a gene, etc., as well as a mechanism by which the 
identity associated with the names can be authenticated without strictly 
requiring a trusted third party. A biologically significant data item is 
defined as a named data element (a file, a database row, etc.) that operates 
in a distributed, federated environment and has a defined identity. LSID's are 
not meant to identify artifacts of implementation, like a database instance, 
or a server, which should be handled by other mechanisms such as JDBC URLs or 
WSDL.
LSID names are a type of Location-independent Object Identifier (LOID) that 
uniquely identifies a biologically significant data item. The actual location 
(address) of a data item is determined by associating the LOID with one or 
more communication protocols and network endpoints. Collectively the set of 
communication protocols and network endpoints for a data item is called its 
ServiceDescription.

URN:LOID:LSID:<authority>:<namespace>:<objectID>:<securityInfo>


where
<authority> 
The name of the organization that has defined the entity.
<namespace> 
One or more statements that constrain the scope in which this
                 id is evaluated.
<objectID> 
An alphanumeric sequence that uniquely defines this object
                  within this namespace, as defined by the authority.
<securityInfo> 
An optional field containing a cryptographic identity.
-- 
Michael Gribskov
San Diego Supercomputer Center & Dept. of Biology
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla  CA  92093-0537
Tel:858.534.8312   Fax:858.822.0873
Email:gribskov at sdsc.edu    http://www.sdsc.edu/~gribskov