On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 2:10 PM, Michel Dumontier <michel.dumontier@gmail.com > wrote: > > > > On Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 1:23 PM, Alan Ruttenberg <alanruttenberg@gmail.com>wrote: > >> Nicely pointed out, TN. >> >> Thinking about "metadata" as some other category of data is usually a bad >> sign. I've often found it to mean, in practice, "data I care less about". >> >> Phil, to make the case that RDF helps here, we would want to compare how >> easy it is to do significant work using the ill-represented examples you >> find versus raw text, versus xml, versus tab-delimited files. >> > While there is some limited benefit to getting rid of the surface syntax >> problem, it's not clear how much of a problem that ever was. >> >> surely you're joking Mr. Ruttenberg! > > for anybody who has worked with more than one file format clearly > understands the challenges and productivity death in dealing with multiple > ad-hoc syntaxes that require specialized parsers (I assume you are familiar > with this). > Quite. So I make the above statement as an expert in the field. Compared to understanding what is asserted in a database, or resolving identifiers, syntax is very easy. > Bio2RDF primarily exists just to normalize syntax first (RDF), and then to > ensure referential integrity second (naming). > I have little more to say about Bio2RDF. > Other projects can now take these normalized data and transform them into > unifying schema and vocabulary (e.g. we use SIO to do this), and others > (e.g. cytoscape, virtuoso, etc) can build tools to analyze and make pretty > views of data. > Odd, that's what I though the semantic web was for. It's pretty clear to me that this effort is not a all or nothing > proposition. Standardization and agreement at every level brings benefits, > but it's a non-starter to wait for full agreement just as much as it's a > non-starter for a small group of people to claim (and be solely recognized > for) their "community" standard. > Like the PROV group, which I assume is what you are referring to ;-) -Alan > > m. > > > >> -Alan >> >> > -- > Michel Dumontier > Associate Professor of Bioinformatics, Carleton University > Chair, W3C Semantic Web for Health Care and the Life Sciences Interest > Group > http://dumontierlab.com >
Received on Monday, 8 April 2013 18:24:38 UTC