Stumbled across a nice post titled: What do people have against URLs?. My answer: Everything, if they don't understand the inherent power of URLs when incorporated into the "Data Source Naming" mechanism of the Web called: URIs :-)

URIs are simple to use i.e you simply click on them via a user agents UI. However, URLs when incorporated into Data Source Naming en route to constructing HTTP based Identifiers, that deliver HTTP based pointers to the location / address of a Resource Descriptions, another matter.

I touched on this issue in my Linked Data Planet keynote last week, and I must say, it did set off a light.

I believe, we can only get the broader Web community to comprehend the utility of URIs (Web Data Source Names) by exposing said utility via the Web's Universal Client (Web Browser). For instance, how do URN based Identity / Naming schemes help in a world dominated by Web Browsers that only grok "http://"? From my vantage point, the practical solution is for data providers who already have "doi", "lsid" and other Handle based Identifiers in place, to embark upon http-to-native-naming-scheme-proxying.

In my usual "dog-fooding" and "practice what you preach" fashion, this is exactly what we do in the new Linked Data Web extension that we've decided to reveal to the public (albeit late beta). Thus, when you use an existing browser to view pages with "lsid" or "doi" URNs, you still enjoy the utility of getting at the "Raw Linked Data Sources" that these names expose.