Whats a prefix? Is it the same thing as a naming authority?
The term “prefix” replaces the older term “naming authority”, and both will be found (and can be considered interchangeable) in Handle System documentation and publications. A prefix is a globally unique string, assigned by CNRI, which identifies your handle service (and your identifiers) to the Global Handle Registry, and which will be used as the first part, or “prefix”, of each of the identifiers you create under that naming authority. The prefix string, combined by a slash with another unique string, locally generated by the user and called the “suffix”, make up a handle. For example, “4263537/4000” is a handle for the Handle System web site home page. It is defined under the prefix “4263537”, and when combined with “4000” becomes a unique identifier for that particular Internet resource . A prefix may be used to create derived prefixes. For example, once the prefix 4263537 has been created, the derived prefix 4263537.1 can be created.
