Re: ISSUE-36 (Default vocab specification): Should Profile documents allow the specification of a default vocabulary? [RDFa 1.1 Core]

Technically, this can be done (and the thread already describes it, in fact).

I am wondering, at the moment, whether we should do it. The reason are more usability.

The fact is that the @vocab attribute, though useful, is also a dangerous one. Indeed, defining a @vocab value means that all rel="blabla" values will get a URI and a predicate, ie, will generate triples, regardless of whether http://vocab-uri/blabla makes sense or not (eg, if the @rel value is misspelled). This is potentially a problem by polluting the triple stores with meaningless URI-s. Yes, we have that danger with the current @vocab already, but at least the author (whether a tool author like drupal or the end user) has to make a clear decision in using it, so maybe (but only maybe) he/she will be more careful and keep an eye on things. If the default @vocab goes to a @profile file (ie, controlled by some other publisher, for example), then that level of mental control is gone.

Again, this is not a technical argument. So I am undecided. But I would like to have a clear use case where this is necessary. We should not allow it simply because technically it can be done... 

Ivan

On Jul 16, 2010, at 14:22 , RDFa Working Group Issue Tracker wrote:

> 
> ISSUE-36 (Default vocab specification): Should Profile documents allow the specification of a default vocabulary? [RDFa 1.1 Core]
> 
> http://www.w3.org/2010/02/rdfa/track/issues/36
> 
> Raised by: Manu Sporny
> On product: RDFa 1.1 Core
> 
> Markus proposed that Profile documents should allow the creation of a default vocabulary:
> 
> http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-rdfa-wg/2010May/0041.html
> 
> This has a number of implications:
> 
> 1. How does one declare a default vocabulary via the profile document?
> 2. How does the declaration affect the @vocab attribute, would it override it and if so, in what order?
> 3. How does the declaration affect the CURIEs like ":next"?
> 
> The biggest question is the value of this feature? What is the use case that we are attempting to support? Does this overly-complicate RDFa without much payback?
> 
> 
> 


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Ivan Herman, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead
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