19 Nov 2009 A key to the success of the Internet as a means of world-wide communications connectivity has been its open-architecture with defined interfaces, objects and protocols. Key attributes of that open architecture will be reviewed in the context of its application to information management on the Internet. The Digital Object Architecture will be presented and its role in the handling of institutional as well as personal and/or proprietary information will be discussed along with the way in which organizations can both protect and share information in the future. The Digital Object Architecture is a very general architectural approach to managing information on the net, much as the Internet architecture was a very general approach to interconnecting networks and computers. One specific focus of the architecture is on applications where the information may need to be persist over very long periods of time, where it may be moved many times from site to site and platform to platform over its lifetime, where authentication of the information or the individuals and systems is important, and where terms and conditions on access may exist. The key component of this architecture is the Digital Object, a platform independent data structure that has a unique persistent identifier. The Handle System will be presented and its role as a general purpose resolution mechanism will be discussed. Finally, an open architecture approach to federated repositories and registries will also be discussed along with selected applications of the technology. Robert E. Kahn