Re: When are RDF statements asserted?

On 2006-03-28 12:19, "Richard Cyganiak" <richard@cyganiak.de> wrote:
> Just checking: Is it correct that publishing an RDF file on the Web
> does not assert the statements therein?
> 
> Is it correct that out-of-band information (e.g. a web page stating
> "All these files are up-to-date", or some nonstandard extension of
> RDF) is necessary before an agent can safely act upon any RDF statement?
> 
> (Hypothetical example: a FOAF agent that fills my address book with
> contact data for the people I foaf:know.)

IMHO, this is a question that could be asked about *any* document that has
been published, not just RDF documents. The question is more about *who* is
asserting. I could assert that, say, the Moon is made of cheese. Whether
someone else chooses to *believe* this is another matter. Whether I assert
that in RDF or in natural language is not so relevant.

The key responsibility (again, IMHO) of "Semantic Web agents" is to make
decisions (and inferences) about what information to trust, to use, to
discard, to keep but not trust, etc.

Regards,

    - Ora

-- 
Ora Lassila  mailto:ora.lassila@nokia.com  http://www.lassila.org/
Research Fellow, Nokia Research Center Cambridge
Visiting Scientist, MIT/CSAIL

Received on Tuesday, 28 March 2006 17:35:33 UTC