A "resource identifier", or more commonly referred to as a "resource ID", is a string of characters which can be used to reference a resource. It can be thought of as a name for a resource which conforms to a particular formation convention.

A SPASE Resource ID has the general form:

spase://NamingAuthority/ResourceType/Path

where "spase://" is always present. The "NamingAuthority" is the name assigned to the curator of the resource. A list current naming authorities can be found at http://spase-group.org/services/#naming-authortyView the list of naming authorities.. The "ResourceType" is the name for the type of resource which the identifier is assigned. The "Path" portion is any string which will make the identifier unique. Each resource class (conceptual, digital and physical) has a slightly different convention on the formation of the "path" portion of identifier.

Since resources are openly shared a SPASE Resource ID must be universally unique. This is enabled by having naming authorities control the formation of fully defined resource identifiers. So that there is some uniformity in the creation of resource identifiers adopting a set of conventions is recommended. (For more details see http://spase-group.org/docs/conventions/Resource-ID-Formation-Rule-v4.pdfView the conventions for creating a Resource ID.