- From: Orri Erling <erling@xs4all.nl>
- Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 12:21:05 +0100
- To: <public-rdf-dawg@w3.org>
Hi I am Orri Erling, program manager for OpenLink Software's Virtuoso product. My earliest background is in Lisp compilers, with some interests touching on inference and knowledge representation. Subsequently, I have worked on all aspects of databases, from storage engine to SQL optimization, transactions etc. I am the principal author of Virtuoso's DBMS core functionality and SQL compiler. My most recent activity represents a revisiting of database basics, with a rewrite of all engine thread synchronization structures for better SMP performance. This is not specific to RDF but RDF processing benefits directly. Immediate future plans include some SQL extensions for better processing of SPARQL queries accessing relational data mapped to RDF and further RDF oriented data type support in the Virtuoso engine. RDF and SPARQL, representing the new frontier in databases and information integration, as well as the coming together of inference and databases, directly corresponds to my interests of all time. Hence I am looking forward to participating in this process. Since OpenLink is a provider of data access technologies, from data access drivers to Virtuoso's federated database capabilities, OpenLink sees RDF is the completing piece of the data integration story. Hence our interest in and extensive work in mapping legacy data to RDF. We see RDF and SPARQL as potentially becoming the lingua franca of heterogenous data access, as well in the enterprise as on the web. The web will continue with tagging and full text search. The enterprise will continue with the current range of EDI, EAI, data warehousing etc. These are distinct specialty domains, often dealing with relatively separate data silos. RDF and SPARQL promise a new range of flexibility in publishing and joining this data in unforeseen and innovative new ways. In order to fully fit this role, SPARQL needs to grow slightly, extending itself to the web with the inclusion of text search and to the enterprise with aggregation and grouping. Since hardcore business intelligence applications will not overnight migrate to RDF, the aggregation and analysis does not have to be very sophisticated, maybe at the level of SQL 92 with no OLAP extensions. Even for supporting faceted search, which is becoming a prevalent UI paradign specially for the semantic web, a count operator is needed. Another need that we perceive is in the domain of SPARQL end point self-description, specifically for discovery, supporting federated queries and describing language extensions. We understand that the DAWG is not presently occupied with these matters but we hope to see them on the agenda in the future. My colleague Ivan Mikhailov, here present, is the author of the SPARQL to SQL front end and relational to RDF mapping in Virtuoso. hence he is best qualified to be OpenLink's primary representative on DAWG. I write commentary on RDF and database topics from time to time on the Virtuoso product blog: http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/blog Some of our RDF related work is documented on papers available from: http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSArticles Regards Orri Erling
Received on Monday, 22 January 2007 09:54:10 UTC