Re: topic maps and RDF

Sandy Pan wrote:

> hi all
> 
> May i know some points about what the advantages is , comparing Topic Maps
> and current RDF. personally i feel Topic Maps seems to be maturer than current RDF.
> 
> any idea of it? thank u very much.

Sandy,

here is a difference I just realized today:

Any structured document is a serialization of information and can be
transformed into any other syntax given the right transformation
guidelines.

It is possible to transform any RDF document into XTM and the other way
round. It is also possible to transform any XML document into RDF and
also into XTM.

But there is a key difference: if designed carefully[1], XML already *is*
RDF and this nicely enables data integration: While various applications
can talk to each other using their preferred XML DTD/schema, all these
exchanged documents can be processed by a single RDF-aware application.

For example, this single RDF-aware application can easily integrate
purchase orders, customer data and reports about parts in stock.



Jan



[1] http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/10/30/rdf-friendly.html



-- 
Jan Algermissen                           http://www.topicmapping.com
Consultant & Programmer	                  http://www.gooseworks.org

Received on Thursday, 11 March 2004 14:46:18 UTC