Re: NIR SIDETRACK Re: Change Proposal for HttpRange-14

On 3/31/12 11:32 AM, Jonathan A Rees wrote:
> In any case "information resource" as used in HR14a is well connected
> to AWWW and I think redefining the term, no matter how bad the
> definition, would just confuse things. You could say "HTTP resource"
> or something for resources that have representations (what would be an
> example of one that doesn't?). My opinion.
Information Resource isn't the problem. Its the Non Information Resource 
(NIR) that's the problem. In the Linked Data realm we have  'Descriptor 
Resources' that bear higher fidelity structured content which are still 
ultimately constrained by mime type.

An illustration:

Information Space dimension
       | -- isA --> Web dimension
       |
       |-- isA --> Web of Information Resources (e.g. an HTML page 
modulo Microdata or RDFa data islands)
       |
Data Space dimension
       | --> isA -- Web dimension
       |
       |-- isA --> Web of Descriptor Resources (e.g. RDF documents where 
content is RDF/XML, N-Triples, Turtle, HTML+Microdata, (X)HTML+RDFa etc..)

All of the resource types above are self-describing, courtesy of mime 
type constrained content.

Excerpt from TimBL's  Web FAQ [1]:

Q: What did you have in mind when you first developed the Web?

 From A Short Personal History of the Web:

A: The dream behind the Web is of a common information space in which we 
communicate by sharing information. Its universality is essential: the 
fact that a hypertext link can point to anything, be it personal, local 
or global, be it draft or highly polished. There was a second part of 
the dream, too, dependent on the Web being so generally used that it 
became a realistic mirror (or in fact the primary embodiment) of the 
ways in which we work and play and socialize. That was that once the 
state of our interactions was on line, we could then use computers to 
help us analyze it, make sense of what we are doing, where we 
individually fit in, and how we can better work together.

Bearing in mind the above, it should aid understanding why Linked Data 
is about the Web's Data Space dimension. Remember, Data != Information. 
When you put data in context you get information. A protocol for 
accessing data combined with a model for data representation are 
critical components for providing context for data, en route to 
producing information.


Links:

1. http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/FAQ.html -- TimBL FAQ re. Web.

2. http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-hammer-discovery-06 -- some context 
for descriptor resources which also demonstrates how this term provides 
a conduit to others that are less interested in RDF content formats 
while still interested in Web scale structured and linked data .

3. http://goo.gl/BBsIz -- Three main types of Object Descriptors 
(remember: the Web is really a contemporary and widely successful 
Distributed Object system) .

-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder&  CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
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