A token is a discrete, logical, non-elementary component of an information stream (here, non-elementary means that a token is not irreducible and can be reduced to smaller components). For example, a sentance is an information string; words are non-elementary components of a sentence and therefore tokens.

Computing information streams, such as URIs can also be broken down into tokens. For example, USGIN URIs conform to the following syntax:

http://host/uri-gin/authority/resource-type/resource-specific/

...wherein the following are tokens:

• http://
• host/
• uri-gin/
• authority/
• resource-type/
• resource-specific/

For more information about USGIN URIs, see the USGIN URI tutorial.