RE: interpretations and identifications

> From: Jonathan Rees [mailto:jar@creativecommons.org] 
> 
> On Feb 4, 2009, at 1:15 PM, Booth, David (HP Software - Boston) wrote:
> > Right.  I maintain that RDF semantics is necessary but not  
> > sufficient for explaining semantic web architecture.
> 
> OUT OF ORDER. Explaining semantic web architecture (whatever 
> that is)  
> is not on the table and all such discussion should take place  
> elsewhere, at least until we have a document giving a logical 
> model of  
> what HTTP requests and responses mean, or decide to abandon 
> the effort.
> 
> I *thought* consensus was reached on the plan outlined at the 
> top of http://esw.w3.org/topic/AwwswVocabulary 
>   . It does not mention identity, ambiguity, or semantic web  
> architecture. So if we start talking about these I will cry foul. We  
> have to stay on task or we'll never get anything done!
> 
> Sure I care about all that other stuff, as the facetious group name  
> implies, but you have to walk before you can run.

I don't consider the group name facetious.

The top of that page 
http://esw.w3.org/topic/AwwswVocabulary 
says:
[[
Goal: An OWL-DL ontology, replete with domain, range, subclass, disjointness, and other constraints. Intended to be utilitarian, not philosophical.

First application that the ontology will serve: To be able to express (some of) the meaning of an HTTP request/response interaction in RDF. . . . .
]]

And that's *exactly* what I'm talking about.  You may not choose to call it "semantic web architecture", but that's what it is.  I don't know a better term for it.  We're not *merely* talking about how the web works -- that's already covered in RFC2616, AWWW, Roy's thesis, etc.  And we're not *merely* talking about how RDF works -- that's already covered in the RDF Semantics.  We're talking about semantic web applications: how RDF semantics meets the web.  Semantic web applications are the only ones that care about having the meaning of an HTTP request/response described in RDF.   As Larry and Roy and others have pointed out on several occasions, the regular web works just fine without having to describe the meaning of an HTTP response in RDF.  It *only* becomes an issue when you get into semantic web applications, where things like TimBL's tabulator draws whacky conclusions of the same URI is used to denote both a web page and a person.



David Booth, Ph.D.
HP Software
+1 617 629 8881 office  |  dbooth@hp.com
http://www.hp.com/go/software

Statements made herein represent the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the official views of HP unless explicitly so stated.

Received on Thursday, 5 February 2009 01:08:45 UTC