GUID Glossary

Here is a list of terms that are used (or have been created) by our community, i.e., those trying to standardize the use of globally unique identifiers for Biodiversity Informatics.

Biodiversity Informatics - According to the Biodiversity Informatics Electronic Journal, Biodiversity Informatics is an emerging research field concerned with the creation, integration, analysis, and understanding of information regarding biological diversity.

DNS - Domain Name Service.

DOI - Digital Object Identifier. A GUID system for eletronic publications and other digital objects. See the DOI Handbook

GUID - Globally Unique Identifier. The term is used by this community to refer to any kind identifier (including software and specifications supporting it) that is unique in a global context. For us, it rimes with squid. Not to be confused with Microsoft's GUID which is a specific kind of globally unique identifier used to refer to operating system and application components, such as programming classes, files, database entries, and users.

Handle - Individual identifier in the Handle System.

Handle System - Another GUID system. Used by the DOI system for identifier resolution. See the Handle documentation.

Identifier - A character string (such as TDWG or urn:lsid:1234) associated with an information object.

LSID - Life Sciences Identifiers. A GUID system for the Life Sciences. See the LSID Specification

Resolution - Process of submitting an identifier to a GUID system and receiving back information related to the identified object.

URL, URN, URI - An attempted clarification by the W3C?. Here is an explanation in simpler terms.