Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) provide a simple and extensible means for identifying a resource --- a unit of information on the World Wide Web (WWW). URI have been known by many names: WWW addresses, Universal Document Identifiers, Universal Resource Identifiers, and later the combination of Uniform Resource Locators (URL) and Uniform Resource Names (URN). This talk will focus on the design goals and considerations embodied in the current URI standard (RFC 2396) and the rationale behind their development as the primary means of naming within the WWW architecture.