RE: Terminology Question concerning Web Architecture and Linked Data

> From: mark@coactus.com [mailto:mark@coactus.com] On Behalf Of
> Mark Baker
>
> On 7/23/07, Booth, David (HP Software - Boston) <dbooth@hp.com>
> wrote:
> > > From: Mark Baker
> > >
> > > . . . I *fully* agree
> > > that the representations returned from all four of those
> > > URIs are *about* Tim, I just don't believe that makes them
> > > the same resource.
> >
> > This is confusing for a couple of reasons. First, because
> > each URI for TimBL (a non-information resource) involves a
> > secondary URI for an information resource that serves a
> > declaration of the first URI. So it isn't clear which URIs
> > you're talking about, as referring to "the same resource".
>
> . . .  I claim that none of [those URIs]
> directly identify the same resource.
> [ . . . ]
> I suppose that's just a long-winded way of pointing out that
> each of us means something different by "Tim" (even the
> "independent observer"). We all have the same physical person
> in mind, but we each introduce our own biases in the
> information we publish about him, and that's what makes our
> URIs directly identify different resources.

I completely agree: each of those four URIs may name a different (though
related) notion of TimBL -- a point that Pat Hayes has pressed several
times over the years.  For the most part, the only way one can be sure
that two URIs really do name the same resource is if they are provably
defined to do so, such as: (a) if they are the same URI; (b) if one is
declared by its owner to be owl:sameAs the other; or (c) if the URI
declarations are exactly the same.


David Booth, Ph.D.
HP Software
+1 617 629 8881 office  |  dbooth@hp.com
http://www.hp.com/go/software

Opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not represent
the official views of HP unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Received on Tuesday, 24 July 2007 05:50:56 UTC