- From: ann.wrightson <ann.wrightson@leedsalumni.org.uk>
- Date: Sun, 3 Jun 2001 04:24:48 -0400 (EDT)
- To: topicmapmail@infoloom.com, www-rdf-interest@w3.org
Hi folks - Daniel Rivers-Moore forwarded me some extracts from this discussion, so in courtesy my reply comes here too: The ideas behind RDF and topic maps show IMO a v. clear duality between resource-centred and subject-centred information organization respectively (straight out of classic information science!). However, subject surrogates, subject-to-resource-relationship surrogates, and actual resources are all things of the same natural kind [i.e. addressable data chunks] on the Web, and that confuses things (& many people) mightily. As a result of this, plus some implementation concerns, both RDF and topic maps are to some extent hybrids of the pure concepts. IMO it is more important to get a clear model of the underlying duality, rather than concentrating on the practically-motivated overlaps between the actual specifications. Ann W. Ann M Wrightson MA MBCS Principal Consultant alphaXML Ltd http://www.alphaxml.com
Received on Monday, 4 June 2001 08:23:48 UTC