Thinglink
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A thinglink is a freely obtainable globally unique object identifier. One could say that it is the 'open source' version of a DOI.
The idea of the thinglink was conceived in 2005 by Ulla-Maaria Mutanen. The entity a thinglink refers to can be both physical as well as virtual, and can be a unique item or a class of similar items.
[edit] Thinglink format
The thinglink format consist of the prefix "thing:" followed by a globally unique six-digit code, based on a triplet of numbers (0-9) followed by a triplet of non-case-sensitive letters (A- Z). If necessary longer the codes can be extended. An example of a thinglink code would look like: thing:123xyz or thing:123XYZ. The permalink would look as follows: http://thinglink.org/thing:123xyz
[edit] Thinglink website
The thinglink website is maintained by the Finnish company Aula Design Oy, that is owned by Ulla-Maaria Mutanen and Jyri Engeström. The thinglink.org website functions as a database where the thinglink object code is linked to further references, such as webpages or photographs on Flickr. Whereas in conventional systems, such as the DOI, costly registration is necesarry, anyone can register a user-account at the thinglink website for free. All the content on the website is published under a Creative Commons license.
[edit] External links
- Thinglink homepage
- Thingtagging website "a Flickr / thinglink intimacy"
- Ulla-Maaria Mutanen blogs on 'What is a thinglink?'
