Re: Linked Media: Weaving non-textual content into the semantic web

Dear Conrad,

> The distinction between use of a fragment or a query introduces
> different retrieval protocols. This is a technical distinction and has
> little to do with semantic purpose such as user context.

Well, not exactly. The query creates a *new* resource that is unrelated 
to the original resource, i.e., you can't tell that 
http://www.example.org/myVideo.ogg?t=15,45 is unrelated to 
http://www.example.org/myVideo.ogg. You don't have this problem with the 
fragment.

> Retrieval of segments by fragment lacks backwards-compability with
> plain HTTP, whereas retrieval by query can fall back to a direct HTTP
> download of the segment.

The web architecture does not break when servers and clients do not 
understand things, they just ignore it :-) So, in the worst case, a 
complete resource (instead of a segment) will be sent, but this is the 
default behavior now. I don't see where there is no 
"backwards-compatibility".
A query creates a new resource: it is fine if you want to do that, but 
for most of our use cases, we want to have a relationship between the 
fragment and the resource it comes from !

> This is a topic that's been discussed in the Annodex project since
> about 2001. I'm hoping this WG can avoid some of the mistakes we made
> early on in that, such as trying to use fragment syntax where it is
> inappropriate.

What do you think it is inappropriate to use the fragment syntax when 
actually we want to express what is commonly understood as a fragment, 
and *not* as a query?
Cheers.

   Raphaël

-- 
Raphaël Troncy
CWI (Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science),
Science Park 123, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherlands
e-mail: raphael.troncy@cwi.nl & raphael.troncy@gmail.com
Tel: +31 (0)20 - 592 4093
Fax: +31 (0)20 - 592 4312
Web: http://www.cwi.nl/~troncy/

Received on Tuesday, 10 March 2009 14:55:39 UTC