Re: AW: RE : substitute for skos:isSubjectOf

On 23/1/09 15:39, Neubert Joachim wrote:
> Hi Antoine,
> I agree with you that it's perfectly possible to query a SPARQL server
> either way round. In a closed world, there would be no problem. But the
> usage I want to encourage is the "follow-your-nose" principle Ed Summers
> described for the web of open linked data. This modus operandi makes
> heavy use of the fact that RDF forms a directed graph. Navigation
> through this graph in a straightforward way is possible only in the
> direction given by the existing triples. And with dc:subject (or any
> other relation that puts the concept in the object position), it is the
> wrong direction. So, when you are at the node of the concept, you come
> to nowhere without having the inverse relation materialized. - I hope
> this may explain my stubbornness about this issue ...

With respect, I suspect this mixes up the graph of nodes/relations 
encoded in an RDF document with the graph of document/link relations in 
the Web. "Follow your nose" in this context w.r.t. RDF and linked data 
means, as I understand it, that unknown URIs can be de-referenced to 
learn how to interpret them. This is regardless of whether they appear 
in statement.

eg. in 
http://inkdroid.org/journal/2008/01/04/following-your-nose-to-the-web-of-data/ 
where Ed says "One of the benefits of linking data in this way is the 
“follow your nose” effect." he gives the example of a URI for the 
predicate of a statement (dc:creator).

I think the original use of the term was here,
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-webont-wg/2002Oct/0162.html ... 
and mostly talking about dealing with unknown media types by going 
through the mime registry, etc., especially when the format is RDF: 
"...in order that the poor sap can follow his nose thru g:wife
to <geneology-terms>". See also http://esw.w3.org/topic/FollowYourNose

cheers,

Dan