Re: Restpark - Minimal RESTful API for querying RDF triples

On 4/18/13 6:27 AM, Leigh Dodds wrote:
> Hi Hugh,
>
> On Thu, Apr 18, 2013 at 10:56 AM, Hugh Glaser <hg@ecs.soton.ac.uk> wrote:
>> (Yes, Linked Data API is cool!, and thanks for getting back to the main subject, although I somehow doubt anyone is expecting to read anything about it in this thread now :-) )
> I'm still hoping we might return to the original topic :)
>
> What this discussion, and in fact most related discussions about
> SPARQL as a web service, seems to overlook is that there are several
> different issues in play here:
>
> * Whether SPARQL is more accessible to developers than other forms of
> web API. For example is the learning curve, harder or easier?
>
> * Whether offering query languages like SPARQL, SQL, YQL, etc is a
> sensible option when offering a public API and what kinds of quality
> of service can be wrapped around that. Or do other forms of API offer
> more options for providing quality of service by trading off power of
> query expression?
>
> * Techniques for making SPARQL endpoints scale in scenarios where the
> typical query patterns are unknown (which is true of most public
> endpoints). Scaling and quality of service considerations for a public
> web service and a private enterprise endpoint are different. Not all
> of the techniques that people use, e.g. query timeouts or partial
> results, are actually standardised so plenty of scope for more
> exploration here.
>
> * Whether SPARQL is the only query language we need for RDF, or for
> more general graph databases, or whether there are room for other
> forms of graph query languages
>
> The Linked Data API was designed to provide a simplified read-only API
> that is less expressive than full SPARQL. The goals were to make
> something easier to use, but not preclude helping developers towards
> using full SPARQL if that's what they wanted. It also fills a
> short-fall with most Linked Data publishing approaches, i.e. that
> getting lists of things, possibly as a paged list, possibly with some
> simple filtering is not easy. We don't need a full graph query
> language for that. The Linked Data Platform is looking at that area
> too, but its also got a lot more requirements its trying to address.
>
> Cheers,
>
> L.
>
> --
> Leigh Dodds
> Freelance Technologist
> Open Data, Linked Data Geek
> t: @ldodds
> w: ldodds.com
> e: leigh@ldodds.com
>
>
>
Back to the topic, some links relating to a related discussion about 
RESTful interaction patterns for Linked Data:

1. https://twitter.com/stephanef/status/317650285470298112 -- a thread 
about RESTful patterns for working with ontologies and vocabularies
2. https://twitter.com/kidehen/status/317661048486363138 -- scheduled 
for implementation acknowledgement.

-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
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