Re: [foaf-protocols] WebID test suite

On 29 Jun 2011, at 22:29, Peter Williams wrote:

> 
> no namespacing?
>  
> "manager: cn=Barbara Doe,dc=example,dc=com"
>  
> the attribute value is an href (in web speak). If you want, you can invent a novel syntax, and rewrite that as http://example.com/Barbara%20Doe if you want, or ldap:///@cn=Barbara Doe,dc=example,dc=com. 

yes, but the attribute on one web site will not necessarily, and indeed usually will not have the meaning of an attribute on another site. That is the point I am trying to make. This is true in ldap as it is of attributes in a URL.

The "cn" above is a string of two places. Ok, so often in ldap contexts it means Common Name, but in other places in might mean Confidentiatlity Number, and in other places it means Chinese National, or "Centre Nucleair" etc.

LDAP having evolved in closed circles, there was no need pragmatic need for these to synchronise with one another (Or at least only very few of them did) So one can predict that they did not. At least it is now an empirical task to work out if by chance everyone used these names the same way.


>  
> Tim Howes designed that syntax, as a minor variant of the output of the computer science project a school colleague of mine did as his undergrad assigment. It started life as a simple file format, for ADTs (as classes were known as the time). Just shy of being 25 years old, since first deployed.
>  
> > From: mo.mcroberts@bbc.co.uk
> > Date: Wed, 29 Jun 2011 20:32:29 +0100
> > CC: public-xg-webid@w3.org
> > To: henry.story@bblfish.net
> > Subject: Re: [foaf-protocols] WebID test suite
> > 
> > Hey Henry,
> > 
> > Just to chip in here:—
> > 
> > > Here is an ldap entry taken from wikipedia 
> > > dn: cn=John Doe,dc=example,dc=com
> > > cn: John Doe
> > > givenName: John
> > > sn: Doe
> > > telephoneNumber: +1 888 555 6789
> > > telephoneNumber: +1 888 555 1232
> > > mail: 
> > > john@example.com
> > > 
> > > manager: cn=Barbara Doe,dc=example,dc=com
> > > objectClass: inetOrgPerson
> > > objectClass: organizationalPerson
> > > objectClass: person
> > > objectClass: top
> > > 
> > > 
> > > It is an attribute value pair system, without namespacing, and so is designed for client server interaction, not for linked data interaction. You need to tie those into a global namespacing. Not impossible, but you have a lot of work on your hands to get all the others to 1. understand why it is important (because they are living in closed worlds, and don't see what they are missing) and 2. Get an agreement world wide on how to do this.
> > 
> > It does have namespacing: what you're seeing above is a textual representation of an entry in LDIF format. The attribute names there are generated based on the schema held in the LDAP server, while the raw data uses OIDs for the classes and attributes instead. A given OID arc is a pretty reasonable parallel to a URI namespace. For example, all of the attributes from Sun's NIS+ LDAP schema live under one particular arc (except for references to other schemata), and so on and so forth.
> > 
> > A fun project for somebody one day would be to run a web service on a well-known URI which spat out RDFS/OWL/whatever for the objectClasses and attributes at a particular OID. Would be a nice extension to Harald Alvestrand’s OID browser… [e.g., http://www.alvestrand.no/objectid/2.5.html]
> > 
> > M.
> > 
> > -- 
> > Mo McRoberts - Data Analyst - Digital Public Space,
> > Zone 1.08, BBC Scotland, 40 Pacific Quay, Glasgow G51 1DA,
> > Room 7066, BBC Television Centre, London W12 7RJ,
> > 0141 422 6036 (Internal: 01-26036) - PGP key 0x663E2B4A
> > 
> > 

Social Web Architect
http://bblfish.net/

Received on Wednesday, 29 June 2011 21:00:16 UTC