This paper describes the need for a simple mechanism for defining and assigning unique global identifiers for arbitrary subjects on the World Wide Web in order to solve the problem of information overload.

It presents the case for Published Subjects and published subject indicators (PSIs) being the best solution to this problem, and briefly characterizes the strengths and weaknesses of alternative approaches. It ends with a call to action.

It might look like a scientific paper, but it is not. It does not represent scholarly work that is being published for the first time, and it ought to be understandable by anyone into whose hands it is likely to fall. Nor is it a standards document (although parts of it may read like one) because the ideas and proposals it contains are so simple and obvious as to hardly seem worth standardizing. Rather, it is a call for action, aimed at absolutely anyone who aids and/or abets in the publication of information, or dissemination of knowledge, on the World Wide Web, especially those concerned with semantic interoperability.

(Yes, that does indeed mean you.)