Re: GoodRelations Light

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 9:23 PM, glenn mcdonald <glenn@furia.com> wrote:
>> If you want to make a change you think will make a difference towards
>> the issue you seem concerned about I think it's going to have to be
>> substantially more radical. Why not propose a new spec? Or build a new
>> layer on RDF? The kind of tweak you suggest isn't going to cut it.
>> (IMO)
>
> I basically agree with this. Simply moving blank nodes from RDF to OWL isn't
> going to bring forth the rapture. I do think blank nodes are a part of the
> problem, both in themselves and as an exemplar of how RDF development
> discussions end up consumed by internal complications that RDF has mostly
> brought upon itself. But I'm demonstrably sympathetic to the idea that it
> might be more effective to just propose something else, since in my day job
> I work on such a thing.
> And yet, a piece of me still doesn't understand the thinking here. If I were
> emotionally invested in RDF, I feel like I would be madly trying to evolve
> it to make these something-elses unnecessary. But maybe that's just a
> illusion I have the luxury of entertaining because I'm not directly
> involved...

There's a fair amount of activity doing that, the new RDF working
group, the SPARQL working group, the relatively recent OWL 2 and RIF
groups that both improved existing specifications and added new
capabilities - that's only within the W3C. And there's lots of people
outside building on this, with new ideas and different approaches
layered. I think it is a pretty vital scene.

But I think what is trying to be accomplished is radical. It isn't
another technology sidestep, like the constantly moving technologies
that boil down to implementing remote procedure invocation on one
substrate or another. Getting people to speak data openly and clearly
has many dimensions, of which only one small piece involves syntax and
logic, and I think that the process of achieving some measure of that
will take a long time.

Send me a note privately some time if you want to chat about your day job thing.

Best,
Alan

Received on Thursday, 19 May 2011 01:34:56 UTC