Re: Blank Node Identifiers and RDF Dataset Normalization

On 02/25/2013 12:09 PM, Steve Harris wrote:
> There is categorically no valid argument that something along these lines is essential for such-and-such usecase, frankly that's nonsense as those usecases are already addressed by production systems in much more demanding environments, without those features.

I'm not aware of production systems functioning in demanding 
environments that are using RDF datasets expressed in idiomatic JSON; 
the JSON-LD specification is about making that possible. I do believe 
the use case where developers would strongly prefer to refer to a graph 
without having to create and maintain a global identifier is a valid 
one. I would also argue that denying developers the ability to do this 
because it changes the way certain optimizations are implemented in 
existing systems isn't a very strong argument.

I'm in a similar position to you with respect to another related use 
case: where an author would like to use a graph label to do something 
other than denote a graph. I don't really understand that or why it 
should be supported. If it's because the author doesn't or can't mint a 
new URL, then I would suggest that using a blank node identifier would 
solve the problem nicely. If that doesn't actually solve the problem, 
though, and they do really need to use a graph label that doesn't really 
denote the graph, I'd like to understand why. I don't think dismissing 
it as a solved problem by lots of other systems in production is 
necessarily helpful.

If we are to "move way beyond the time where RDF is an 'emerging tech' 
only suitable for early-stage startups and academics", as you say, then 
I believe that we must embrace more common practices that occur outside 
the walls of its current use. Saying that developers should simply do 
something unnatural and/or prohibitive to solve their use cases will 
only continue to restrict the adoption of the technology by wider audiences.

-- 
Dave Longley
CTO
Digital Bazaar, Inc.
http://digitalbazaar.com

Received on Monday, 25 February 2013 18:29:39 UTC