Re: Distributed querying on the semantic web

Peter F. Patel-Schneider writes:
 > From: "Phil Dawes" <pdawes@users.sourceforge.net>
 > Subject: Re: Distributed querying on the semantic web
 > Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 18:19:28 +0100
 > 
 > > All true. However the web shows us that people publishing information
 > > do tend to go to some lengths to ensure that it is as accessible and
 > > usable as possible. I suspect that if it becomes a convention that
 > > agents go to the URI when they don't have any other information,
 > > people will endeavour to put useful information there.
 > 
 > Sure, and this would be really good.  However, I firmly believe that there
 > must not be any requirement, or even expectation, that this is *the*
 > information about a URI reference.  It must be possible, and not 
 > stigmatized, to have different views concerning URI references.
 > 

Ah - I see your point now. It's not that you don't think that having
information at the URI is a bad thing, it's that you don't think it
should be considered the *authoritative* description of that
information.
I think I agree with you here - better to let society decide what
information it trusts and wants to use rather than mandating it.

Cheers,

Phil