Re: Publishing updated spec documents.

On 2/25/14 2:17 PM, henry.story@bblfish.net wrote:
> [1]https://dvcs.w3.org/hg/WebID/raw-file/tip/spec/identity-respec.html

We currently have:

[[
EXAMPLE 1
@prefix foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> .

<> a foaf:PersonalProfileDocument ;
    foaf:maker <#me> ;
    foaf:primaryTopic <#me> .

<#me> a foaf:Person ;
    foaf:name "Bob" ;
    foaf:knows <https://example.edu/p/Alice#MSc> ;
    foaf:img <https://bob.example.org/picture.jpg> .
]]

I would encourage changing this to:

<>
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> 
<http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/PersonalProfileDocument> ;
<http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/maker> <#me> ;
<http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/primaryTopic> <#me> .

<#me>
<http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type> 
<http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Person> ;
<http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name> "Bob" ;
<http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/knows> <https://example.edu/p/Alice#MSc> ;
<http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/depiction> 
<https://bob.example.org/picture.jpg> .

Why? For the following reasons:

1. @prefixes are confusing when end-users are initially introduced to 
Turtle -- they make Turtle more confusing than N-Triples (which it is a 
superset of)
2. @prefixes actually nullify the Linked Data effect -- you can see this 
just by looking at the two snippets, as you read this post.

In a nutshell, @prefixes are a premature optimization that don't help 
end-users. They are a stylistic preference used by those that are 
already competent in Turtle.

What we need to do is make our examples as simple as possible, with 
maximum impact baked in. Thus, if we are espousing the virtues of Linked 
Data, let's not use any patterns that obscure this most powerful AWWW 
(Architecture of the World Wide Web) showcase.

-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
Twitter Profile: https://twitter.com/kidehen
Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/+KingsleyIdehen/about
LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen