Local names

Local names is an idea that was inspired by wiki. It can be thought of as "the wikification of the internet", by allowing easy linking based on local needs by binding names to URLs. This is very similar to the interwiki map linking that is available in some wiki software like UseMod Wiki and OddMuse. (The praxis is happening with Bliki) However, we at this MediaWiki have not figured out how that works yet. Please pitch in a hand if you know!

• Project former home: http://ln.TaoRiver.net.

For example, the interwiki map idea would allow us to connect CommunityWiki:FrontPage. Looks like something like it works for MediaWiki Wikipedia:Main Page.

• The Special:Interwiki extension detailed at special page to work with the interwiki table may be of use here?

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Hi, this is Lion Kimbro, and I'm the main person developing Local Names ^{[dead link]}

Technically speaking, Local Names is a distributed database of namespaces ^{[dead link]} of name-URL ^{[dead link]} links.

To make a Local Names namespace description, ^{[dead link]} you write a page that looks something like this:

LN "foo" "http://example.net/foo"
LN "bar" "http://example.net/bar"

There it is: a namespace is defined. That is all you need.

It has two names, "foo," and "bar". This is a generalization of ordinary wiki linking, to other pages within the wiki.

It's more general, in that the target of the link need not necessarily be within the wiki.

. . .

Now, supposing you wanted to connect to another namespace:

NS "wikiwiki" "http://ln.TaoRiver.net/wrap/wikiwiki"
NS "C2" "http://ln.TaoRiver.net/wrap/wikiwiki"

Now, the namespace points to the other namespace. This is a generalization of the InterLink. ^{[dead link]}

It is a generalization, in that it is not pattern based, ("everything is prefixed with FOO,") but rather points to a logical namespace.

LN ^{[dead link]} and NS ^{[dead link]} are the two main record types ^{[dead link]} in a namespace description.

There are two other types of records, that are not usually worth mentioning.

. . .

But, I will mention one of them, because I think it's relevant: the PATTERN ^{[dead link]} record type.

If you want traditional wiki-like interwiki maps, you make a line like so:

PATTERN "Wikipedia" "https://en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/$NAME"

This is much closer to the traditional InterMap seen on most wiki. You use this when there are two many pages to list. Why not use it all of the time? Because then you can't NearLink, which is incredibly useful, in my experience, and in the experience of the CommunityWiki. It is really nice to be able to just rattle off familiar names, without telling a computer where they came from. In some cases, there are unavoidable ambiguities, and you must explicitly name a path. ("MB:RecentChanges, or CW:RecentChanges?")

. . .

The system is only as powerful as the systems that support it. I have no special magic, whereby I can automatically deploy Local Names recognition into different software systems around the world. That said, I have built the following:

• My Local Names ^{[dead link]} — you can get a bookmarklet here, that makes it super-easy to name pages as you find them.
• instructions on a simple Firefox hack, that make it so you can jump ^{[dead link]} to any named page just by typing it's name in the browser's address bar
• a Local Names WordPress plugin, so that you can use do easy linking on the existing networks via WordPress.

Alex Schröder has written an Oddmuse extension that can read Local Names namespace descriptions. My dream is to see this work everywhere. I'd like to see it work in PHPBB, in my email program, in my instant messenger, in NVU, in the comment field in everyone's blogs, and so on. Everywhere!

I can imagine a day in which we think of URLs similar to the way we think about bang-paths today. I don't think URLs will go extinct - far from it. But I can see them "going underground", to the same places where pointers go in most programs. They pop up when there's an error, but other than that, they get out of the way. Local Names is the beginning of that.

I want people to feel irritated when they see a URL. Programmers will always love them, because there's all kinds of transparent-y goodness in them. But a lot of times, we want to simply talk about things, and we don't want to sacrifice link language.

. . .

I hope this answers questions..! And I'm ALWAYS happy to answer questions about Local Names. It's practically my mission in life. 216.254.10.132 20:42, 27 August 2006 (EDT)