- From: Luca Matteis <lmatteis@gmail.com>
- Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 19:45:32 +0100
- To: Ruben Verborgh <ruben.verborgh@ugent.be>
- Cc: Linked Data community <public-lod@w3.org>
Yes I agree that the extra metadata on how to query the dataset makes perfect sense. Hydra is a very interesting project. But imho as a community we have to strike a balance between how much boilerplate we can put on developers hands and how much automation we can achieve with that. So in a way, the extra automation comes with a cost because you're asking data-providers to provide extra information that would otherwise be somewhat useless if you're not an automated hypermedia client. I think that the fact that basic LDF supports metadata is extremely important, but perhaps there can be a way to define some implicit metadata in the "basic LDF standard"? Otherwise I can just call my service an LDF (very close to basic LDF) and forget about the formalities, but it probably won't work with a basic LDF client right? I'm just wondering if there's a way that we can be less formal but still achieve a good balance between automation and usability. On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 6:32 PM, Ruben Verborgh <ruben.verborgh@ugent.be> wrote: > Hi Luca, > >> Wouldn't it be better to *not* have the metadata return at each call >> or is it necessary in order to make hypermedia clients work? > > Put differently, one could say: > "Why don't we just remove the search box from all Google and Yahoo pages? > Everybody knows you just need to type in /?q=search+term." > It's about more than just convenience, really. > > Fielding defines "hypermedia" as: > "[t]he simultaneous presentation of information and controls > such that the information becomes the affordance > through which the user (or automaton) obtains choices and selects actions." [1] > > And if we want machines using the Web in an autonomous way, > we have to provide them with similar affordance as humans [2]. > > Best, > > Ruben > > [1] http://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hypertext-driven > [2] http://ruben.verborgh.org/phd/conclusion/
Received on Friday, 21 March 2014 18:46:00 UTC