Why Turtle Matters

All,

Of late, I've been writing a series of posts [1][2][3] that demonstrate 
why Turtle is such an important syntax for crafting RDF documents. 
Basically, its solves the biggest challenges to Linked Data 
comprehension which include the following:

1. triple visibility
2. triple comprehension.

Historically, RDF/XML was an utter dud re. the above. History will 
record this as one of the biggest snafus of an era. By that I mean, 
putting such a misguided syntax at the front door of something so 
important.

Once you get beyond triple visibility and comprehension, the next 
challenge for Linked Data is deployment. Historically, this effort has 
been mired by the following:

1. domain name ownership
2. web server ownership and/or access -- with admin level privileges for 
URL re-write rules
3. httpRange-14 -- basically the permathread about disambiguating names 
that denote web documents and entities in general .

The unanswered question re. Linked Data deployment used to be: how could 
an end-user deploy Linked Data without encountering the road blocks 
outlined above. Unfortunately, that question was never answered 
emphatically so we ended up with the detrimental misconception that DIY 
Linked Data deployment wasn't possible, basically you needs a platform 
or expensive consulting engagements to get going. As history will note, 
the model failed. Yes, we have close to 55 Billion+ triples in the LOD 
cloud, but the subject matter remains an artificial mystery because all 
of those triples are generated via platforms or the combination of 
platforms and projects.

Back to my opening comments, I've created a number of posts that 
demonstrate how you can use Turtle as an effective vehicle for DIY-style 
Linked Data deployment that works for: end-users, integrators 
(plumbers), and programmers. These examples range from basic profile 
documents all the way up to Web-scale verifiable identity via the WebID 
authentication protocol.

To repeat the obvious, there are no reasons to expose RDF/XML to folks 
encountering Linked Data for the first time. My company has built 100+ 
transformers/cartridges [4] for a massive collection of data formats and 
web services, none of that would ever lead me to putting RDF/XML at the 
front door of any Linked Data narrative.


Links:

1. http://bit.ly/NYwGCd -- simple Turtle based profile document usable 
by anyone that can fill in placeholders and save a document
2. http://bit.ly/LNIeLj -- simple DIY-style Linked Data deployment via 
Dropbox, Skydrive, Google Drive, Box.NET, and Amazon S3 buckets
3. http://bit.ly/O4LNKf - how to create and control you own verifiable 
digital identity, at Web-Scale via a simple Turtle document using the 
WebID authentication protocol .
4. http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/sponger_setup.vsp -- 
cartridge/transformer sample list
5. http://bit.ly/Q4ffou -- how RDF transformers/cartridges work.


-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
Twitter/Identi.ca handle: @kidehen
Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/about
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen