Re: What is an Agent?

Quoting Melvin Carvalho (2024-02-10 12:11:14)
> A WebID is specified as an HTTP URI that defines an Agent.
> 
> But an Agent itself is not specified.
> 
> Originally it comes from FOAF:
> 
> http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/#term_Agent
> 
> "The Agent class is the class of agents; things that do stuff. A well known
> sub-class is Person, representing people. Other kinds of agents include
> Organization and Group.
> 
> The Agent class is useful in a few places in FOAF where Person would have
> been overly specific. For example, the IM chat ID properties such as
> jabberID are typically associated with people, but sometimes belong to
> software bots."
> 
> But in the 20 years since FOAF started Agent now means more things.
> 
> How do we specify it for the modern world?
> 
> 1. Should we use OWL to do sameAs or to subclass?
> 2. Should a device be an Agent?  Henry is known for saying a hammer is a
> device but not an agent
> 3. Is a Group considered an Agent
> 
> Agent needs to be defined in order to define WebID.
> 
> I'd like come up with some RDF that models this, any ideas?
> 
> Disclaimer:  there may be some in the group of the opinion that Agent
> should NOT be specified or defined.  If, so I would ask you to start a NEW
> thread making that case, as I'd like this one to try and understand how an
> Agent is defined.
> 
> I believe the baseline should be foaf:Agent -- should be add more?

I find it adequate to refer to foaf:Agent for a meaning of the term, and
also mention that for the WebID spec that term has no strict definition.
(because yeah, I am one of those of the opinion it need no strict
deficinion in the scope of WebID spec, and am fine playing along with
anyway exploring if possible to get closer to an exact definition)

I think it might be helpful to look at ANT and its definition of an
"actor": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Actor%E2%80%93network_theory


 - Jonas

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Received on Saturday, 10 February 2024 14:15:47 UTC