Re: lack of support for claims regarding Concise Bounded Descriptions

On 6/5/05, Peter F. Patel-Schneider <pfps@research.bell-labs.com> wrote:
> From the abstract of http://www.w3.org/Submission/2005/SUBM-CBD-20050603/
> 
>         This document [1] defines a concise bounded description of a
>         resource in terms of an RDF graph, as a general and *broadly
>         optimal* [emphasis added] unit of specific knowledge about that
>         resource to be utilized by, and/or interchanged between, semantic
>         web agents.
> 
> The other uses of optimal in the document are:
> 
> In "Introduction":
> 
>         As the semantic web [2] emerges and the behavior of automated
>         software agents becomes increasingly directed by formally defined
>         knowledge about resources [3] gathered from disparate sources [4],
>         the need for optimal and consistent interchange of knowledge about
>         specific resources between agents becomes critical to achieving an
>         efficient, globally scalable, and ubiquitous semantic web.
> 
>         This document defines a concise bounded description of a resource
>         in terms of an RDF graph [5], as a general and broadly optimal unit
>         of specific knowledge about that resource to be utilized by, and/or
>         interchanged between, semantic web agents.
> 
>         [...]
> 
>         Optimality is, of course, application dependent and it is not
>         presumed that a concise bounded description is an optimal form of
>         description for every application; however, it is presented herein
>         as a reasonably general and broadly optimal form of description for
>         many applications, and unless otherwise warranted, constitutes a
>         reasonable default response to the request "tell me about this
>         resource".
> 
> In "Alternative Forms of Description":
> 
>         As has been mentioned above, it is expected that some applications
>         may find other forms of resource description more optimal than a
>         concise bounded description. The following are some possible
>         alternative forms of description which can be seen as derivations
>         of the basic form of concise bounded description described above,
>         which may be more suitable for particular applications. These
>         alternative forms of description are not, however, considered to be
>         as general or broadly optimal as a concise bounded description.
> 
> I thus find nowhere in the document any support for the claim that concise
> bounded descriptions are optimal, broadly or otherwise.
>

The claim is based on our direct experience. 

Patrick


> Peter F. Patel-Schneider
> Bell Labs Research
>

Received on Sunday, 5 June 2005 16:44:43 UTC