Using Context Sensitive Identifier Mappings -- Lessons in XRI and XDI

The XRI Resolver provides a flexible identifier mapping that allows a service type to be passed to the mapping along with the identifier. The canonical example is where the two identifiers @ootao*steven and =steven.churchill map to the same XRI authority when asking for the OpenID service--thus allowing both identifiers to share the same OP account and password--while the same identifiers map to two different XRI authorities when asking for some other service type.

But this flexibility leads to an entity/identity model that can be hard to understand. I've written a paper in order to help navigate the territory: ftp://sandbox.myxdi.net/papers/context-sensitive-identifier-mappings.pdf.