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- They all fail to stop the major causes of broken links: loss of funding, natural disaster, war, deliberate removal, human error, and provider neglect.
- They all require you, the end provider, to update forwarding tables as URLs change.
- They all have identifiers for content that is subject to change on future visits.
- They all have identifiers that break regularly and in large numbers (many thousands and more).
- They all give access to almost any kind of thing, whether digital, physical, abstract, person, group, etc.
- A non-trivial fraction of each scheme's identifiers will fail permanently, requiring forwarding to "tombstone" pages.
- They all use ordinary redirection built in to web servers since 1994 and provided for free by hundreds of URL shortening services.
Given how little they the schemes give you, when choosing a scheme one you should consider factors such as cost, risk, and openness.
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More than 500 registered organizations across the world have created an estimated 3.2 billion ARKs, and, as with URLs, no one has ever paid to create them. Of course maintaining them isn't free; it's never without cost to keep content access persistent in the long term, regardless of identifier type.
Why doesn't the global ARK resolver (n2t.net) have the word "ARK" in it?
Although N2T (Name-to-Thing) is a resolver originally built for ARKs, principles of openness prevented it from becoming just another DOI/Handle/PURL-type silo, which all perform the same main functions. Thus the "global ARK resolver" also resolves DOIs, Handles, PURLs, URNs, and 600 other types of identifier.
This counter-silo principle can also be found in micro-service tools such as noid, which was built for ARKs and is widely used by organizations that mint ARKs and those that mint Handles.
How else do the identifier types differ?
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- All things eventually pass, including hostnames and the web itself and the "
https://"protocol; when that first part of the identifier ceases to have meaning, only ARKs and URNs will include the label indicating the type of identifier that remains. - For DOIs, Handles, and PURLs, you are required to use their respective resolvers. ARKs and URNs, permit you to use your own resolver.
- To create DOIs and Handles, you are required to pay a membership fee and, for DOIs, per-DOI charges. There are no fees for ARKs, PURLs, and URNs.
- To create Handles, you are required to install and maintain a local Handle server.
- Although you can use your own or a vendor resolver for your ARKs and URNs, all ARKs can be resolved via n2t.net, making it the closest thing to a "global ARK resolver".
- The envisioned URN resolution infrastructure was never built, so URNs are currently resolved as URLs, and there is no designated global URN-as-URL resolver. In order to register to create URNs, you must apply for a URN namespace.
- Unlike DOIs and Handles, ARKs don't have metadata requirements, and ARKs that haven't been released into the world can be deleted.
If most ARKs run on their own resolvers, why is there a global resolver for ARKs?
People coming across ARKs in the wild starting with hostnames that no longer exist will be able extract the core identifier (starting with "ark:") and present it to the global n2t.net resolver. Content providers who use their own hostnames in this way have an opportunity to obtain some branding even if it requires a future adjustment from users after the brand ceases to be relevant. Meanwhile, content providers who wish to avoid inconveniencing future users may from the outset prefer to advertise ("publish") their ARKs based at n2t.net.
The form of ARK branding just described is much preferable to branding inside the core identifier. Unfortunately all too common in DOIs and Handles, branding inside the core identifier create problems for longevity that span legal and political concerns.
XXX as that provide this limited form of branding serves as long as the provider is viable servers often don't last, so having one standard place in the world
to serve (resolve) ARKs better ensures persistence. This is the same concept
as global resolver for DOIs (doi.org), as well as the global resolvers for
Handles and PURLs.
When should I use ARKs compared to DOIs, Handles, PURLs, and URNs?
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Content negotiation to request descriptions of things, but human beings can't do it themselves, and it only works for things that are not already in formats that might contain descriptions. Fortunately, without restriction, both humans and software can use inflections, exemplified by the '?' at the top of this FAQ. N2T is one of the few resolvers that that does both.
Why doesn't the global ARK resolver (n2t.net) have the word "ARK" in it?
Although N2T (Name-to-Thing) is a resolver originally built for ARKs, principles of openness prevented it from becoming just another DOI/Handle/PURL-type silo, which all perform the same main functions. Thus the "global ARK resolver" also resolves DOIs, Handles, PURLs, URNs, and 600 other types of identifier.
This counter-silo principle can also be found in micro-service tools such as noid, which was built for ARKs and is widely used by organizations that mint ARKs and those that mint Handles.
I've heard of ORCIDs and UUIDs – where do they fit in?
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