Re: Call for Editors!

On Mar 21, 2014, at 4:04 AM, Andy Seaborne <andy@apache.org> wrote:

> On 20/03/14 23:47, Gregg Kellogg wrote:
>> On Mar 20, 2014, at 10:53 AM, Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org> wrote:
>> 
>>> Sorry if I sound like a broken record, but I would really like to see and understand the CSV->RDF use cases, also in terms of the people who are likely to use that. Learning CSV-LD or R2RML-CSV requires a learning curve. The question is which of the two is steeper for the envisaged user base.
>> 
>> The CSV-LD use case involves first constructing a CSV-LD mapping frame (basically a JSON-LD context for mapping the column headings and using that within the body of the JSON-LD as described in the Wiki).
>> * Subsequently, using the CSV-LD mapping frame, use it along with the CSV to generate a JSON-LD document.
>> * For other JSON-LD expressions, run additional framing steps
>> * For RDF, run JSON-LD to RDF conversion steps
>> 
>> For extra credit, when generating RDF, we can compact these steps so that RDF is streamed out as the CSV is processed, but running the JSON-LD to RDF algorithm on each record as it is mapped to JSON-LD.
>> 
>> The Direct mapping use case can be handled by recognizing the absence of a CSV-LD mapping frame and generating one based on the column headers treating each field as a string and issuing a sequence of unnamed (or row-fragment identifier named) JSON-LD nodes for each record.
>> 
>> The CSV-LD use case is most appropriate for someone already familiar with JSON-LD, and is looking to get CSV into that form. An understanding of JSON-LD is necessary to create a mapping frame, but is not required to use the CSV along with a provided mapping frame.
>> 
>> Gregg
>> 
> 
> Gregg,
> 
> Is CSV-LD addressing CSV->JSON or CSV->RDF? both?

As with JSON-LD, it address both JSON and RDf mappings.

> CSV-LD is one possibility for CSV->RDF.
> 
> N-Triples is the format used for triple store loading.
> 
> I would want to be sure that going CSV -> N-triples does not end up assuming a JSON-LD+@extension+framing extension stack.

If some metadata is required to do such a mapping, then it will require some format for specifying that. The CSV-LD mapping frame is (IMO) a natural way to express this for mapping to JSON. Certainly, there are many other ways it could be done for a straight-to-RDF mechanism, such as R2RML or TARQL. Leaving aside that JSON-LD _is_ just as much RDF as any other serialization format, the fact that triples (or quads) pop out of this is a happy by-product.

> There might be other ways - perl/ruby/sed/awk/... doing a textual rewrite should be possible as well.  If not, we need a strong use case to show why not.

I do custom CSV to RDF work in RDF all the time, the point is defining a generic mapping that can be implemented on a variety of platforms. This means defining a metadata/mapping format.

> So I'd rather see the spec define the output, showing the RDF triples that come from the CSV.  Just defining the algorithm is I believe a barrier to other transformation mechanisms.
> 
> CSV-LD is one way to do that makes it especially useful for the JSON-LD world.
> 
> 	Andy

Gregg

Received on Friday, 21 March 2014 16:55:08 UTC