Re: RDFa and Web Directions North 2009

On Fri, 13 Feb 2009, Sam Ruby wrote:
>
> +cc: Hixie

Thanks for the cc.


> Again, I'm not certain that marketing is the right answer.  At the present
> time, the editor of the HTML 5 specification is profoundly unconvinced that
> RDFa either has a valid use case or is the best way to address the use cases
> that have been provided.  I see several ways forward, none of which involves
> battles, direction from on high, or marketing.
> 
> 1) Convince Ian that RDFa has merit.

Not just me, of course, but the community as a whole. While I, as Sam 
explained in later e-mails, write the text of a spec, there are at least 
three groups of people who have the authority to override me: the WHATWG 
steering committee (primarily browser vendors), the W3C HTML working group 
(three hundred or so people, represented primarily by Sam), and the W3C 
management group (Tim and the W3C's CEO, who can override even the WG).

Personally, what I would like to see is use cases, problem descriptions. 
There have been a couple, but not many. The way I have been working for 
HTML5 is that I start from use cases and problem descriptions, and 
investigate what existing solutions exist, and whether they are good 
solutions for those problems, and either use those or come up with new 
solutions that are more specifically directed at solving the problems in 
question. So far it's worked pretty well.

To reiterate: I have approached and been approached by a number of people 
in the RDF and RDFa communities, and I have repeatedly asked for people to 
list problems and use cases that are of relevance in the context of RDFa 
and RDF, with those problem descriptions not mentioning RDFa or other 
technical solutions. So far we have seen *very few* of these.

-- 
Ian Hickson               U+1047E                )\._.,--....,'``.    fL
http://ln.hixie.ch/       U+263A                /,   _.. \   _\  ;`._ ,.
Things that are impossible just take longer.   `._.-(,_..'--(,_..'`-.;.'

Received on Friday, 13 February 2009 19:31:47 UTC