Partial containers (was: (tentative) container model proposal)

At 09:53 AM 6/7/01 +0100, Jan Grant wrote:
>I've yet to see a real use of the exchange of "partial information about
>containers". Which is to say, I'm not knocking the idea; in fact I
>agree in principle - I just haven't seen the summary of "real-world uses
>of RDF features".

I have one "in my head", even though it's not implemented.  I do hope to 
implement it.

I wish to be able to capture information about some resource from a variety 
of sources, and keep that information together with additional information 
about the provenance of the original information:

About RustyCars.com:
   Fred says they sell cheap cars
   Bill says they sell reliable cars
   Joe says that they sell unsafe cars
   Bill says that some of the cars they sell are safe
   (etc.)

Containers, in some form or other, seem to be a logical way of collecting 
statements with some given provenance ("Fred says...", "Bill says...", 
etc.).   This might be combined with information about the provenance to 
make assessments about RustyCards.com suitability as a supplier of cars.  I 
think it is the nature of this kind of information that it is never 
complete -- there can always be more information to be added to some 
collection.

This is clearly very simplified, but I think it illustrates that there is a 
strong case for exchanging partial contents of some container.

#g


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Graham Klyne                    Baltimore Technologies
Strategic Research              Content Security Group
<Graham.Klyne@Baltimore.com>    <http://www.mimesweeper.com>
                                 <http://www.baltimore.com>
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Received on Tuesday, 12 June 2001 10:26:01 UTC