Re: When are RDF statements asserted?

Thanks Dan, good answer.

On 28 Mar 2006, at 23:34, Dan Brickley wrote:

> * Richard Cyganiak <richard@cyganiak.de> [2006-03-28 19:19+0200]
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> 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?
>
> You're confusing at least 2 things, I think.
>
> If I publish an RDF document that says, more or less, 'Saddam
> has weapons of mass destrction [in Jan 2003]', we can talk about  
> what info you
> need before you can be sure some human (me) is (or was...) making
> the claim. For example, it might be PGP signed, claim itself to have
> me as its dc:creator / foaf:maker, be dated today, and the PGP stuff
> checks out ok, and the PGP keyservers don't report that my key has  
> been
> retracted / compromised.
>
> All that is a world apart from whether an RDF can "safely act" on
> any RDF statement. Firstly, you can act on reported claims, regardless
> who made 'em. You can stash them in databases and directories, index
> them, follow links from them. Classic Web stuff. Secondly, just cos
> we know who asserted them, we don't necessarily believe them to be  
> true.
> And of course, even if we believe their claims to be true, that has
> little to do with safety of acting on them. It's an unsafe world....
>
>> (Hypothetical example: a FOAF agent that fills my address book with
>> contact data for the people I foaf:know.)
>
> Good example. You might have come across some geneological data
> for folk who are long-since uncontactable. I think 'safety' in your
> sense is likely to be scenario- and application- specific.
>
> cheers,
>
> Dan
>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Richard
>

Received on Wednesday, 29 March 2006 15:33:39 UTC