Re: Linked Data Platform (LDP) Working Group Charter

On 11 May 2012 15:41, Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com> wrote:

> This group is based on the idea of combining two Web-related concepts to
> help solve some of the long-standing challenges involved in building and
> combining software:
>
>    1. *RDF*, the Resource Description Framework, is a W3C Recommended<http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/>general technique for conveying information. It has a handful of syntaxes,
>    including RDF/XML <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-syntax-grammar/>, RDFa<http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-core/>,
>    and Turtle <http://www.w3.org/TR/turtle/>, any of which can be used to
>    transmit RDF statements. The items about which information is expressed in
>    RDF documents are identified with URIs (eg,
>    http://example.com/products/Widget-71) but the existing RDF
>    specifications do not cover dereferencing them. RDF is the basis for Linked
>    Data <http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html> and the Semantic
>    Web <http://www.w3.org/standards/semanticweb/>.
>    2. With *RESTful APIs* and *RESTful Web Services*, clients use basic HTTP
>    verbs <http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec9.html#sec9>,
>    with their simple and direct meaning, to obtain and alter the state of
>    objects on the server. In these APIs, the remote information objects are
>    identified with URIs which are dereferenced in every operation. RESTful
>    APIs can be defined independent of the formats used for conveying the state
>    of the objects; typically services use custom XML and/or JSON encodings of
>    state information.
>
> The combination of RDF and RESTful APIs is therefore natural, with RDF
> providing a standard way to serialize information about things identified
> by URIs and REST providing a way to obtain and alter the state of those
> things. This approach has been proposed and explored for some time, in
> academia and industry, as shown by the items listed in References<http://www.w3.org/2012/ldp/charter#ref>.
> Within W3C, the SPARQL Working Group developed a RESTful protocol<http://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-http-rdf-update/>for accessing data in SPARQL data stores and discussed its wider
> applicability. The participants in the Linked Enterprise Data Patterns
> Workshop <http://www.w3.org/2011/09/LinkedData/Report> expressed general
> support for the creation of a Working Group to define a way to use RDF with
> RESTful APIs in support of application integration.
>
> The basic technique here is to expose application data objects
> ("resources") on the Web, allowing authorized clients to see and modify
> object state using HTTP operations (GET, PUT, etc) with an RDF data format.
> This RESTful approach leverages existing Web technology, including caching,
> linking, and indexing, and the use of RDF facilitates integration of data
> across systems and applications. This approach dovetails with SPARQL and is
> positioned for developers who want more direct access to the application
> data.
>
> The Linked Data Platform is envisioned as an enterprise-ready collection
> of standard techniques and services based on using RESTful APIs and the W3C
> Semantic Web stack. Simple LDP applications can be developed and deployed
> using only RDF and conventional HTTP infrastructure. More extensive LDP
> applications can be built using other elements of the stack, including
> RDFS <http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/>, SPARQL<http://www.w3.org/TR/sparql11-query/>,
> OWL <http://www.w3.org/TR/owl2-overview/>, RIF<http://www.w3.org/TR/rif-overview/>,
> and the PROV <http://www.w3.org/TR/prov-primer/> provenance vocabulary.
> Although expertise in these specialized elements may be helpful, it is not
> necessary for participation in this group and should not be required for
> using the Linked Data Platform.
>
> http://www.w3.org/2012/ldp/charter
>

A few more notes:

Mission
=======

The *mission* of the Linked Data Platform (LDP) Working
Group<http://www.w3.org/2012/ldp>is to produce a W3C Recommendation
for HTTP-based (RESTful) application
integration patterns using read/write Linked Data.

More reading
===========

http://dret.typepad.com/dretblog/2012/05/linked-data-and-rest-a-match-made-in-w3c.html


Seems like there's an overlap between this WG and our efforts in the RWW CG?