Re: [OT] Re: No new mime types

On 7/11/06, Danny Ayers <danny.ayers@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/11/06, Mark Baker <distobj@acm.org> wrote:
>
> > If the sender of the message intends the message to communicate
> > inferred triples, then that needs to be indicated in the message
> > itself and an inference-specific media type would be appropriate.
> > Otherwise they're not communicating it because nothing in the RDF/XML
> > spec licenses inference meaning that existing RDF/XML processors
> > wouldn't extract the inferred triples from the message.
> >
> > It's all about intent.  See the example here;
> >
> > http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-comments/2003JulSep/0342.html
> >
> > FWIW, the Sem Web specs should have either;
> >
> > a) minted a new media type that assumed inference, or
> > b) explained that inference isn't implied by the rdf+xml media type,
> > and therefore that inferred triples need to be explicitly included in
> > the RDF/XML document if the message sender intends to communicate
> > them.
> >
> > Unfortunately they did neither.  Once RDFS comes to be commonly
> > exchanged, this problem will be discovered and the easiest fix will
> > likely be a new media type.
>
> While I'm not really convinced by Henry's arguments against APP
> getting new mime types, I'm not really convinced the RDF/RDFS/OWL
> situation is such a problem.
>
> Ok, by using the application/rdf+xml the publisher is only providing
> data according to the base RDF model. I'd suggest that any decision
> about what can be inferred is up to the consumer, I can't see how it
> could be feasible otherwise - how does
> application/rdf+xml+owl-lite+n3-rules sound?

Right, though I think it's just axiomatic and inferred triples are the
problem.  I'm not aware of anything in Rules or OWL that would
necessitate a new media type.  There's probably some nice
set-theoretic way to describe that.

As I say, the important part is the intent of the sender.
application/rdf+xml will suffice as the only RDF/XML media type so
long as all the triples senders are trying to communicate are actually
represented in the RDF/XML document, and not inferred or axiomatic.
As always, recipient can choose to infer or not, but that's not the
issue.  The issue is what the sender is trying to say, and whether the
recipient can understand them.

Mark.

Received on Tuesday, 11 July 2006 18:18:31 UTC