Re: Hydra Status

2016-11-16 21:12 GMT+01:00 Markus Lanthaler <markus.lanthaler@gmx.net>:

> We want to build something which is usable by everyone.. also people without
> RDF background.

+1

> But people working on the design of Hydra itself need to be familiar with (or
> willing to learn the basics of) RDF and other technologies Hydra is based on.
> Otherwise experience has shown that constructive discussions are very difficult.

Although I’m a complete RDF novice, I think my ~20 years of experience
in other related fields such as protocol design, REST API design,
specification writing, etc., are valuable enough for me to contribute
at a constructive level. :-)

> This doesn't mean people without background in those technologies and
> without time to learn them can't participate. We will need input, use cases,
> feedback etc. People without RDF background are crucial to ensure we built
> something approachable to everyone and eventually document it in an
> accessible manner.

This is actually what I feel is one of my most important tasks as a
member of the Hydra Community Group. Not knowing a whole lot of RDF,
never having written an application using SPARQL, Turtle or any
related technologies, might make me and other people like me better
suited to evaluate how easy Hydra is to understand.

When we designed Atom, I think we struck a good balance between "easy
to grasp", "strict enough to work” (such as basing the date format on
RFC 3999) and "powerful enough” for it to be objectively better than
competing “standards". My feeling is that Atom was the first non-HTML
format that popularised hypermedia, in many ways without users of the
technology knowing that’s what it was (as is the case with HTML).

I think JSON-LD is designed in the same way, by the same principles.
JSON-LD is successful not because of RDF, but despite it. I hope we
can strike a similar balance with Hydra, because I strongly believe
that the programmable web needs it.

PS: Please don’t read this as a bash at RDF and any of its related
technologies. It’s not. I love RDF and do see the incredible power it
has, but for most of the people Hydra should be addressing, I believe
RDF is too abstract and perceived as too esoteric to give them any
immediate value. And most things that don’t deliver immediate value,
is rightfully something you shouldn’t invest time in. If Hydra can
give value without having to understand RDF, I think we’ve struck a
good balance.

-- 
Asbjørn Ulsberg           -=|=-        asbjorn@ulsberg.no
«He's a loathsome offensive brute, yet I can't look away»

Received on Thursday, 17 November 2016 01:25:41 UTC