Re: Blank Node Identifiers and RDF Dataset Normalization

On 2013-02-26, at 11:21, William Waites <wwaites@tardis.ed.ac.uk> wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Feb 2013 11:10:55 +0000, Steve Harris <steve.harris@garlik.com> said:
> 
>> Yes, but this can only happen if you merge multiple datasets,
>> right? Otherwise no-one gets to write anything into the "default
>> graph" against the will of the dataset maintainer.
> 
>> This is related to the reason why I find the idea of having a
>> single format that can express both Graphs and Datasets so scary
>> - you can bring this kind of situation on yourself without any
>> prior warning. Very bad idea.
> 
> I agree, but this arises from the existing of a special graph called
> default and the somewhat non-standard use of the word "default". A
> longer but more accurate name might be, the "graph that cannot be
> named or referred to of which there is only one where we put triples
> that we can't think of a better place to put".
> 
> This could easily be solved by putting
> 
>    default_graph = http://some.name/graph
> 
> in your sparqlserver.ini file and then manage the contents of that
> named graph whatever way you see fit.
> 
> We do not need the notion of "default graph" in the core RDF specs! It
> is a mistake. Please let us get rid of it.

I agree wholeheartedly, and argued quite vociferously against it's inclusion in SPARQL 1.0, but I think it's too late now. The anonymous genie is out of the bottle.

- Steve

-- 
Steve Harris
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Received on Tuesday, 26 February 2013 11:53:57 UTC