Re: Linked Data Fragments: Web-scale querying

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