RE: A synthesis for #rdfms-resource-semantics

Hi folks,

I've been looking at the RDF/URI resource from the point of view of
eliminating as many vague words as possible from the M&S rather than working
out how to map them and map them between the M&S and rfc2396. My arguments
are

1: that having lots of these about makes it far too easy for folk to shoot
your definition down. 
2: it might be possible to remove them and increase meaning and clarity.

So a bit of OO analysis and I hope not too much semantic drift...

The original M&S:

"Resources:
All things being described by RDF expressions are called resources. A
resource may be an entire Web page; such as the HTML document
"http://www.w3.org/Overview.html" for example. A resource may be a part of a
Web page; e.g. a specific HTML or XML element within the document source. A
resource may also be a whole collection of pages; e.g. an entire Web site. A
resource may also be an object that is not directly accessible via the Web;
e.g. a printed book. Resources are always named by URIs plus optional anchor
ids (see [URI]). Anything can have a URI; the extensibility of URIs allows
the introduction of identifiers for any entity imaginable."

The original uses: object, entity, resource, document, collection, anything.
It also uses 3 actions, describing, naming and identifying. [I'll punt on
whether expressions are things or actions]


tweak 1 tries to cut out some of the nouns:

"Resources:
Things being described by RDF expressions are called resources. Resources
may be a machine accessible Web page such as the HTML document
"http://www.w3.org/Overview.html", or be a part of that Web page. A resource
may also be a whole collection of Web documents, such as an entire Web site.
In RDF, resources are always identified by URIs plus optional anchor ids
(see [URI]). These are called Resource Identifiers. Things and collections
of things that are not machine accessible via the Web such as printed books
or people can also be described by RDF expressions, by naming them using a
Resource Identifier."

That used: thing, resource, collection, and 3 actions: naming, describing
and identifying.


tweak 2 cuts out more words and removes the examples:

"Resources:
Things being described by RDF expressions are called resources. In RDF a
resource is a thing that is identified by URI plus optional anchor ids (see
[URI]). These identifiers are called Resource Identifiers. RDF can be used
to describe things which are not necessarily machine accessible."

That used: thing, resource, collection, and 2 actions: describing and
identifying. And so the questions in my mind are now:

1: have I substantially changed the meaning or intent of the M&S so far?
2: how different is the above resource from an *rfc2396 resource?


tweak 3 is a terser operational form [and a hail Mary play to rfc2396]:

"RDF expressions are used to describe resources as discussed in (see [URI]).
In RDF, resources MUST be identified by a URI plus optional anchor ids (see
[URI]). The current state of an RDF resource MAY be machine accessible to an
RDF application."

That used: rfc2396 resources, and 2 actions: describing and identifying. 

How much meaning has been lost?

regards,
Bill

----
Bill de hÓra  :  InterX  :  bdehora@interx.com


*rfc2396
      Resource
         A resource can be anything that has identity.  Familiar
         examples include an electronic document, an image, a service
         (e.g., "today's weather report for Los Angeles"), and a
         collection of other resources.  Not all resources are network
         "retrievable"; e.g., human beings, corporations, and bound
         books in a library can also be considered resources.

         The resource is the conceptual mapping to an entity or set of
         entities, not necessarily the entity which corresponds to that
         mapping at any particular instance in time.  Thus, a resource
         can remain constant even when its content---the entities to
         which it currently corresponds---changes over time, provided
         that the conceptual mapping is not changed in the process.

Received on Friday, 18 May 2001 09:02:06 UTC