Re: What *is* RDF?

From: Dan Brickley <danbri@danbri.org>
Subject: Re: What *is* RDF?
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:41:16 -0500

> Hi Peter,
> 
> On 25 March 2011 17:49, Peter Frederick Patel-Schneider
> <pfps@research.bell-labs.com> wrote:
> 
>> Well, I just whipped up the following, which I think is a first cut at
>> what I might give to a knowledgable CS person (whether this group covers
>> enough web developers is a different question, of course).  Of course,
>> it is a lot longer that Richard's charaterisation of JSON, but this is
>> only to be expected.
>>
>> peter
>>
>>                What is RDF(S)?
>>
>> RDF(S) (Resource Desription Framework (Schema)) is a logic [but don't be
>> scared by this] (and data model) for representing information on the
>> Web.
>>
>> RDF(S) uses RDF graphs to represent information.  An RDF graph is a set
>> of facts or RDF triples, each of which has a subject, a predicate, and
>> an object.
> 
> [...] [snip]
> 
> Thanks, this is quite a refreshing read :) It's not quite "stick it on
> a t-shirt" material but is in a way a manifesto for RDF's underlying
> simplicity.
> 
> I'd suggest one tweak, "An RDF graph is a set of *facts*" seems rather
> idealistic (in the nicest way). It suggests each triple can be
> (usefully) interpreted as a true statement about the world. Lots of
> RDF data is just plain wrong, out of date, malicious
> (over-enthusiastic SEO) or by some design capturing non-current
> worldview - logs, archives, etc. The original RDF specs talked about
> statements. I've tended to use 'claims' more recently but maybe that
> brings the notion of "who is the claimer here?" prematurely into the
> foreground. RDF documents that contain falsehoods are presumably
> somehow "still RDF", and can be managed using the same tool chain -
> eg. consulted in SPARQL databases.
> 
> "... uses RDF graps to represent factual information" is a tiny bit
> softer; I think people would intuitively accept the notion that not
> every fragment of "factual information" must always be correct. And
> then maybe, "... is a set of statements or RDF triples, each of
> which...".
> 
> cheers,
> 
> Dan

My experience in the US is that there are a lot of false facts readily
available for public consumption and there is no general distinction
made between true facts and false facts.  However, "fact"->"statement"
seems like a good change.

I don't know if I would use "factual information", maybe that is the
role of RDF graps.

peter

Received on Thursday, 31 March 2011 12:23:16 UTC