Re: RDF Investigations

Kingsley,

Let me give a shot to your question about the unique characteristics of RDF

1) RDF is based on the idea that the things being described have properties
which have values, and that resources can be described by making statements
2) A Statement is modeled as a Triple (mathematically a model for a
directed labeled edge). The set of triples makes a directed labeled graph.
* The part that identifies the thing the statement is about (a web resource
Web page document or a concept such as an Event, Place etc..) is called the
subject.
* The part that identifies the property or characteristic of the subject
that the statement specifies (creator, creation-date, or language in these
examples) is called the predicate. The predicate is the label of an
directed arc from the subject node to the object node.
* and the part that identifies the value of that property is called the
object.
3) There are three kinds of nodes in RDF model (IRI, Blank Node and Literal
(which can be plain or plain with a language or typed with a datatype).
4) RDF specification uses Web Identifiers based on IRI specification
5) RDF provides a mechanism to make statement about Statement: (reification)
6) RDF introduces concepts of Collection and Container (rdf:List (closed
and ordered), rdf:Bag (open, unordered), rdf:Alt (alternative semantic),
rdf:Seq (ordered)).
8) RDF is syntax-independent and could be serialized into different formats
as long as these formats are isomorphic to RDF model.

My list is not exhaustive, but I hope I captured the essence of the data
model.

Best regards
Stephane




On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 4:21 PM, Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com>wrote:

> On 6/24/13 3:52 PM, Gregg Reynolds wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Jun 24, 2013 at 11:37 AM, Kingsley Idehen
>> <kidehen@openlinksw.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On 6/24/13 10:32 AM, Pat Hayes wrote:
>>>
>>>> If you can give up on all this, what do you take yourself to be
>>>> referring
>>>> to when you say "RDF" ? You have just dismissed virtually every defining
>>>> characteristic of RDF as either wrong or inessential. So what is left?
>>>>
>>>> Pat
>>>>
>>> I am going to create a poll aimed as getting a feel for what folks
>>> perceive
>>> as the defining characteristics of RDF. In recent times, I've come to
>>> believe those characteristics aren't so clear anymore.
>>>
>> Kingsley, Kingsley, Kingsley, you old thread hijacker you. ;)  Best of
>> luck, but for the record, I don't have a dog in that fight.  As far as
>> I'm concerned people can use RDF to mean whatever they want it to
>> mean, as long as the software works.
>>
>> -Gregg
>>
>>
>>
>>  Gregg,
>
> There is an issue here that for whatever reasons simply keeps on getting
> lost. The question is simple: what are the unique characteristics of RDF?
> What does RDF do uniquely?
>
> I actually believe RDF does have unique characteristics, but I am curious
> to see if mine are in alignment with views of others.
>
> I really don't want RDF to become something that's based on a leap of
> faith, we can do much better than that :-)
>
>
> --
>
> Regards,
>
> Kingsley Idehen
> Founder & CEO
> OpenLink Software
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