Re: Proposal to amend the httpRange-14 resolution

On 3/31/12 9:01 AM, Tore Eriksson wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 5:09 AM, David Booth<david@dbooth.org>  wrote:
>> The basic requirements behind issue-57 and the httpRange-14
>> rework are:
>>
>>   1. There must be a standard, algorithmic way for a client,
>>   given a target URI, to find the URI owner's implicit or
>>   explicit *definition* for that URI.
>>
>>   2. The URI owner must be able to provide an arbitrarily
>>   detailed definition (though not necessarily for a URI of
>>   every possible syntactic form).
>>
>>   3. In the case where a URI owner has served a page with
>>   no explicit URI definition, the algorithm must specify an
>>   implicit definition (though possibly empty).
> I just don't get this last requirement. Why is this necessary and how
> can you define something if you don't know what it is? And what is an
> empty definition, especially considering the OWA?
>
> Tore
>
>
David,

'definition' doesn't work, ultimately.
This discourse domain (AWWW and Web lore in general) is already littered 
with literature that's uses  'description' where you seek to replace 
with 'definition'.

Where are the resources on the Web today that bear content with 
rdfs:isDefinedBy relations in the manner you suggest? I can show you a 
significant amount of resources that bear content with "describedby" (or 
similar) relations. Thus, you suggestion ultimately triggers:

1. IANA registration
2. Regeneration of existing resources.

And all of the above, you still have lots of debates to follow.

'definition' is too specific and its intuition value is very low, in 
this context.

A URI is an Identifier. In the Web medium (or system) it can identify 
the location of a Web resource en route to actual content access. It can 
also be used to name entities from other non Web realms where 
de-reference resolves to a location from which description oriented 
content (constrained by content mime type) is accessed.

For what system do you anticipate explicit URI definition being 
definitively useful? An ontology for Linked Data? An ontology for the 
Semantic Web? An ontology of the World Wide Web?

-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder&  CEO
OpenLink Software
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