Re: The need for RDF in Linked Data

On 06/17/2013 09:47 PM, David Booth wrote:
> On 06/17/2013 04:41 PM, Phil Archer wrote:
>> On 17/06/2013 06:26, David Booth wrote:
>> [..]
>>> For example, suppose the client application dereferences a URI and
>>> obtains a comma-separated-values (CSV) document.  unless the client
>>> application knew how to interpret that file, it would not be able to
>>> make meaningful use of that data.
>>
>> Subject to W3C Member approval and other bits of process, we hope to
>> launch a WG to define exactly that in the near future (say Sept/Oct).
>> i.e. define a metadata format and association mechanisms with CSV so
>> that you can express row and column headings, data types and, I hope,
>> basic templating rules for turning string values into URIs but I'm not
>> sure that's in the charter (I'm thinking something like GREL
>> http://code.google.com/p/google-refine/wiki/GRELFunctions). That same
>> data could be used to generate other formats besides RDF (OData etc.)
>
> Excellent!  If it allows CSV documents to be standards-based interpreted as 
> RDF then it would be a perfect example of the fact that data does not have 
> to *look* (overtly) like RDF to *be* RDF.
>
> David
>
>
Yeah, if the metadata is something like:
1/ a column can either be the id for the node of the row (in which case it 
must be an IRI column or a blank node id column) or be related to the node by 
a given property, if there is no id column then the nodes are blank nodes with 
no id;
2/ each column is typed, either as an IRI, in which case a prefix may be given 
to turn the string in the column into an IRI, or as a blank node id, in which 
case the string is a blank node id local to the table or local to the document 
depending on a flag, or as a typed value, in which case the datatype IRI and 
optionally language tag is given; and
3/ each column says whether empty cells produce a value (or IRI or blank node 
id) or not;
then CSV documents can be thought of as RDF.

If a CSV document can include multiple CSV tables, then CSV documents can even 
be reasonably efficient carriers of RDF.

peter

PS:  What's left for the WG to do?

Received on Tuesday, 18 June 2013 05:23:09 UTC