- From: Pat Hayes <phayes@ihmc.us>
- Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:37:17 -0600
- To: noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com
- Cc: Alan Ruttenberg <alanruttenberg@gmail.com>, Harry Halpin <hhalpin@ibiblio.org>, Jonathan Rees <jar@creativecommons.org>, "public-awwsw@w3.org" <public-awwsw@w3.org>
On Nov 21, 2008, at 5:22 PM, noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com wrote: > Pat Hayes writes: > >> I think what Harry should have said is that they are too >> ephemeral for someone to want to give them an enduring name or >> identifier. But there are other ways to refer to things than >> baptizing them with a URI for all time. > > On this I don't think I agree. We're talking about the Web here, and > what's more, I think a representation is an information resource. I don't think it can possibly be, on pain of infinite regress. If its an information resource (IR) then it can emit representations when you GET it. But how can an awww:representation emit anything? It only exists for a few milliseconds. (Would you give an eternal name to a flash of lightning?) It cannot itself play any role in any HTTP transaction other than the one it is already involved in by being the representation transferred by it; it cannot be the recipient or the target of any kind of transfer protocol, and it cannot have an awww:representation of itself. (Such an entity isn't well-defined, AFAIK.) > I mean, > not only can the thing be represented as a computer message, the whole > point of it is to be sent in a computer message! Yes, and that is ALL. After that sending is done, it no longer exists. It cannot itself send anything. > The key architectural > imperative for the Web is "Identify with URIs." I see no reason > why, in > cases where you do want some means of identifying a particular > representation, a URI wouldn't be the way to do it. Because, for a start, URI identifications are supposed to be stable, which is meaningless when the things they identify have only a transitory existence and cannot be located or even reliably individuated when their brief lifespan is over. > When I make that > choice, I get a variety of advantages: I can make Semantic Web > statements > about the representation (it was buggy, it took a long time to > arrive, it > was cached at proxy p1, etc.) in the natural way without resorting to > indirection DOn't think of bnodes as indirection. They denote exactly as other names do, they just don't act as rigid identifiers. They denote by virtue of the descriptions they are embedded in. > ; I think I could even choose to run a server that would > respond to GETs with representations of, well, the representation. First you have to explain what that is and how it operates. A representation of a representation? . > I > think the usual rules of the Web apply well here: when you need to > identify something, do it with URIs. I don't think that is a rule of the Web. Certainly not the semantic web, in any case. Bnodes have real uses on the Sweb, as there are too many things out there to try to name them all. Pat > > > Noah > > [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/#pr-use-uris > > -------------------------------------- > Noah Mendelsohn > IBM Corporation > One Rogers Street > Cambridge, MA 02142 > 1-617-693-4036 > -------------------------------------- > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------ IHMC (850)434 8903 or (650)494 3973 40 South Alcaniz St. (850)202 4416 office Pensacola (850)202 4440 fax FL 32502 (850)291 0667 mobile phayesAT-SIGNihmc.us http://www.ihmc.us/users/phayes
Received on Saturday, 22 November 2008 14:55:43 UTC