Proposal for an additional 'link type' for rdf:type

Hello all,

Whilst considering RDFa use in the wild, it occurred to me that
constructs like the following would almost certainly become quite
common:

  <html
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
   xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
  >
    <head>
      <title>My profile</title>
      <link rel="rdf:type" resource="[foaf:PersonalProfileDocument]" />
    </head>
    .
    .
    .
  </html>

If the author wants to avoid having to include the RDF namespace, they
would have to change their mark-up to look something like this:

  <html
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
  >
    <head>
      <title>My profile</title>
    </head>
    <body about="" instanceof="foaf:PersonalProfileDocument">
      .
      .
      .
    </body>
  </html>

However, if we added an additional link type, such as 'a' or
'instanceof', we could also allow the following mark-up:

  <html
   xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"
   xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/"
  >
    <head>
      <title>My profile</title>
      <link rel="instanceof" resource="[foaf:PersonalProfileDocument]" />
    </head>
    .
    .
    .
  </html>

This avoids the need to declare the RDF namespace, and keeps the
metadata in the head of the document which seems more appropriate for
this particular kind of statement.

Regards,

Mark


-- 
  Mark Birbeck, formsPlayer

  mark.birbeck@formsPlayer.com | +44 (0) 20 7689 9232
  http://www.formsPlayer.com | http://internet-apps.blogspot.com

  standards. innovation.

Received on Monday, 1 October 2007 10:46:55 UTC