Re: [topicmapmail] RDF and TopicMaps: an Exercise in Convergence

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