RDF Schema and WebOnt Coordination

For those that don't know, the Web Ontology group has recently 
been chartered.

http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/WebOnt/

I'm curious about the integration between our two groups. The 
"Web Ontology language" they're supposed to be defining seems 
rather similar to our RDF Schema. While the charter is careful 
to prevent duplication of work, I'm worried about confusing some 
RDF users. I can see several scenarios which I feel would not be 
useful or productive for RDF users:

  - Due to schedule changes on the part of either/both WGs the 
RDF Schema update and the WebOnt spec come out roughly at the 
same time. Users aren't sure which to go with. Further confusion 
could be caused if they come out with different names and the 
connection isn't clear.

  - The RDF Core Working Group publishes an RDF Schema draft that 
includes not only "Web Ontology"-style stuff, but also 
reification, containers, etc. WebOnt updates only part of that 
draft, making confused users hop back and forth between two 
documents, not sure which portions have been superceded.

I'd like to propose a preventative solution to these problems:

  - RDF Core works on an "RDF Vocabularies" document, containing 
specification of type, reification, containers, etc.

  - RDF Core also resolves the open issues with RDF Schema and 
publishes it as a separate RDF Schema specification. All issues 
that propose new work (i.e. defining a vocabulary for XML Schema 
datatypes) should be the job of the WebOnt WG.

  - W3C makes it clear that the Web Ontology specification is the 
successor to the RDF Schema specification. RDF Schema is 
provided as a guide/correction for those who are using the 
current RDF Schema work. Web Ontology is a new version, which 
people should choose if they are beginning a new project or need 
to the new features.

Thoughts?
--
       "Aaron Swartz"      |              The Semantic Web
  <mailto:me@aaronsw.com>  |  <http://logicerror.com/semanticWeb-long>
<http://www.aaronsw.com/> |        i'm working to make it happen

Received on Wednesday, 15 August 2001 17:27:28 UTC