Re: studies about LD visibility

On 1/27/09 1:24 PM, Samuel Rose wrote:
>
> Things that cannot be done without LD:
>
> I don't think there is technically anything that explicitly cannot be 
> done without Linking Open Data.
Samuel,

I profoundly believe that there are things that cannot be achieved 
without "Linked Data".

Now before I progress, let be clear about "Linked Data". We have:

1. "Linked Data" the meme from TimBL re. adding datum level linkage 
between resources on the Web (hyperdata) which is (imho) short for: 
Linked Data Web or Web of Linked Data

2. "Linked Data" in a much broader sense covering the application / 
incorporation of HTTP into the time-tested "Data Access By Reference" 
pattern (pointers) commonly used at the OS and DBMS levels to access and 
manipulate data.

Irrespective of 1&2 specifics, there is one common theme: integration of 
disparate data sources without application, operating system, or network 
level impediments.  Basically, untethered "data access by reference" 
courtesy of an HTTP based pointer system.

Note: The ubiquity of HTTP, combined with its inherent ability to 
negotiate  referent (what you point to with a URI) description  
representation, is the source of its potency.

For eons (computer industry time) in the distributed computing realm, 
the ability to reference and de-reference an object (datum) via a 
pointer that's functional across application, operating system, and 
network boundaries has been the "holy grail" ; many technologies have 
tried an failed re. this pursuit, and the stories are engraved in the 
technology tombstones of efforts such as: corba, cairo, copeland, 
opendoc, ole, and others.

I hope I've clarified what Linked Data's USP really is.

btw - Linking Open Data (LOD) is about a community that adheres to a set 
of "best practices" for publishing data on the Web in a manner that 
facilitate datum level linkage (hyperdata links) in addition to existing 
document level linkage (hypertext links).

-- 


Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	      Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
President&  CEO
OpenLink Software     Web: http://www.openlinksw.com