Defineerisid

Defineerisid is a theoretical concept in information science referring to a persistent, definable identifier for a digital object that remains stable across systems and over time. It is used to support reliable cross-system referencing, version tracking, and interoperability among metadata schemas.

The term combines define and erisid, a coined suffix used to signal an identity tag in digital ecology. It emerged in discussions of digital libraries and data curation in the early 2020s as a proposed solution to fragmentation of object identity across platforms.

A defineerisid is intended to be globally unique, locally resolvable, and administratively controlled. It should be independent of the object's location, storage medium, or access permissions, and should persist even as the object's metadata or hosting service changes. In practice, a defineerisid is often associated with a registry or resolver that returns metadata or pointers to the object's current representation.

In comparison with existing persistent identifiers, such as DOIs, UUIDs, or URNs, a defineerisid focuses on definability across contexts and versions, rather than publication or storage architecture alone. It is typically used within metadata records, digital libraries, data repositories, and knowledge graphs to link related artifacts.

Governance and implementation considerations include minting policies, versioning rules, privacy and access controls, and deprecation strategies. While not a formal standard, defineerisid concepts appear in proposed best practices for durable identifiers and interoperability in metadata ecosystems.