RE: URL +1, LSID -1

On Tue, 2007-07-10 at 13:13 -0400, Michel_Dumontier wrote:
> Unfortunately, this again demonstrates the problem in which the
> identifier for a biological entity - say mitochondrial Aspartate
> aminotransferase resolves to a nicely formatted HTML page. What if I
> have a semantic web application in which I would like to retrieve more
> information about this resource? Since the document is not an RDF
> document with machine understandable statements about it, it seems that
> my application wouldn't be able to learn anything more about
> http://purl.uniprot.org/uniprot/P12345

Not true.  Newly emerging protocols for extracting RDF from structured
data (RDFa and GRDDL) remove this barrier.  The question of what you
resolve from a URI (RDF or structured content) and what naming
convention you use is becoming a bit of a moot point (in some respects).

> Moreover, if I, a biological scientist, wish to make a statement (add
> new knowledge) about this protein, I certainly wouldn't want to do so
> using this identifier.

I see no reason why you wouldn't, when it boils down to the machination
that does the reasoning you would value (as a biological scientist) in
representing it as RDF, it is just an identifier.

> IMHO, if you are going to use URLs to identify RDF resources, then make
> sure that RDF content is available at that location. Currently, the RDF
> resource 

This is a draconian convention for RDF URIs and one of the problems with
a verbatim interpretation of the 'Linked Data' meme (i.e., always use
HTTP - or *resolvable* - identifiers)

> It's great to make human readable pages - I for one love nicely
> formatted pages. But please add a statement (say using the predicate
> HTMLPage or something to that effect) to an RDF document that the web
> page is located at http://purl.uniprot.org/uniprot/P12345.html (yai!
> which resolves correctly)

RDFa, GRDDL, HTML meta-data linking conventions make this separation
unnecessary.  

-- 
Chimezie Ogbuji
Lead Systems Analyst
Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
9500 Euclid Avenue/ W26
Cleveland, Ohio 44195
Office: (216)444-8593
ogbujic@ccf.org


===================================




Cleveland Clinic is ranked one of the top 3 hospitals in
America by U.S.News & World Report. Visit us online at
http://www.clevelandclinic.org for a complete listing of
our services, staff and locations.


Confidentiality Note:  This message is intended for use
only by the individual or entity to which it is addressed
and may contain information that is privileged,
confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable
law.  If the reader of this message is not the intended
recipient or the employee or agent responsible for
delivering the message to the intended recipient, you are
hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or
copying of this communication is strictly prohibited.  If
you have received this communication in error,  please
contact the sender immediately and destroy the material in
its entirety, whether electronic or hard copy.  Thank you.

Received on Wednesday, 11 July 2007 13:31:43 UTC