Re: Re. IRIs, Denotation, and Identification

On 12/17/13 4:57 PM, Richard Cyganiak wrote:
> Kingsley,
>
> May I ask for clarification what change you are seeking?
>
> It seems to me that both quotes are fine.
>
> IRIs identify resources, and they also denote resources. Both are different mechanisms for associating IRIs and things. We can interact with the thing that is being *identified*, via the protocol named in the first part of the IRI. And we can record, exchange and interpret statements about the thing that is being *denoted* by the means of RDF graphs.
>
> Whether the thing being identified and the thing being denoted are the same or not is, as you know, a matter of contention. Making them the same is perhaps good for an interoperable semantic web. The TAG’s httpRange-14 resolution is aimed towards promoting that sameness, but introduces its own complications. And there are other constituencies off the web who have no interest in this sameness. Certainly, neither the Primer nor RDF Concepts are the right place to spell all of that out.
>
> With this background, I wouldn’t really know how to improve either quote.
>
> Best,
> Richard

If we stick with "denote" we are fine. I am being particular about this 
because the context is RDF. As you know, RDF is more granular in focus 
with regards to these matters.

My suggestions:

[[
The abbreviation IRI is short for "International Resource Identifier". An IRI identifies a Web resource. The notion of IRI is a generalization of URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), allowing non-ASCII characters to be used in the IRI character string. IRIs are specified in RFC 3987 [RFC3987].
]]

Becomes:

[[
The abbreviation IRI is short for "International Resource Identifier". An IRI denotes an entity. The notion of IRI is a generalization of URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), allowing non-ASCII characters to be used in the IRI character string. IRIs are specified in RFC 3987 [RFC3987].
]]

As a consequence of the tweak above, the following (from RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax) stays unchanged:

[[
1.2 Resources and Statements

Any IRI or literal denotes something in the world (the "universe of discourse"). These things are called resources. Anything can be a resource, including physical things, documents, abstract concepts, numbers and strings; the term is synonymous with "entity" as it is used in the RDF Semantics specification [RDF11-MT]. The resource denoted by an IRI is called its referent, and the resource denoted by a literal is called its literal value. Literals have datatypes that define the range of possible values, such as strings, numbers, and dates. A special kind of literals, language-tagged strings, denote plain-text strings in a natural language.
]]


I hope that helps.

Again, if this wasn't about RDF, I wouldn't be so picky :-)

Kingsley

>   
>
> On 17 Dec 2013, at 21:09, Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com> wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> Following the "first public draft" announcement about the RDF 1.1 primer [1], I decided to quickly take a look at the current state of content with regards to the items above. Here's what I see, at the current time:
>>
>> [[
>> The abbreviation IRI is short for "International Resource Identifier". An IRI identifies a Web resource. The notion of IRI is a generalization of URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), allowing non-ASCII characters to be used in the IRI character string. IRIs are specified in RFC 3987 [RFC3987].
>> ]]
>>
>> Then I wandered across to RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract [2] Syntax to find the following, at the current time:
>>
>> [[
>> 1.2 Resources and Statements
>>
>> Any IRI or literal denotes something in the world (the "universe of discourse"). These things are called resources. Anything can be a resource, including physical things, documents, abstract concepts, numbers and strings; the term is synonymous with "entity" as it is used in the RDF Semantics specification [RDF11-MT]. The resource denoted by an IRI is called its referent, and the resource denoted by a literal is called its literal value. Literals have datatypes that define the range of possible values, such as strings, numbers, and dates. A special kind of literals, language-tagged strings, denote plain-text strings in a natural language.
>> ]]
>>
>> I assume this issue is going to be addressed in some form, quickly?
>>
>> Links:
>>
>> [1] http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-rdf11-primer-20131217/ -- RDF 1.1 Primer
>> [2] http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf11-concepts/#resources-and-statements -- RDF 1.1 Concepts & Abstract Syntax.
>>
>> -- 
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Kingsley Idehen	
>> Founder & CEO
>> OpenLink Software
>> Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
>> Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
>> Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/kidehen
>> Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/+KingsleyIdehen/about
>> LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>


-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/kidehen
Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/+KingsleyIdehen/about
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen