Re: rdf:about

The rdf:about statement isn't a required attribute as far as I'm concerned.
When you create an RDF summary for a page, you do so with the intent of
either embedding that in the page, or likning to it somehow, so that the
rdf:about attribute isn't needed. Try it! Go to:
http://xhtml.waptechinfo.com/rdfview.html

     > It would be a lot cleaner if rdf statements
     > could have the concept of "self"

If you don't set the "rdf:about" attribute, then it is assumed by default
that you are talking about "self".

     > Are the RDF people worried about this?
     > Note that we do not have this problem
     > with <meta> tags.

Not in the slightest :-) Note that the RDF people don't see <meta> as any
kind of "threat" to RDF!

Kindest Regards,
Sean B. Palmer
http://xhtml.waptechinfo.com/swr/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/
http://www.w3.org/WAI/GL/
"Perhaps, but let's not get bogged down in semantics."
   - Homer J. Simpson, BABF07.

----- Original Message -----
From: Leonard R. Kasday
To: w3c-wai-er-ig@w3.org
Sent: Sunday, November 26, 2000 2:28 PM
Subject: rdf:about


We're talking about using RDF in a document to describe it's accessibility.

But  there's something about RDF that bothers me.  Even when metadata about
a document is in the document itself, the metadata has to include the
absolute address of the document.  For example (this is taken from
http://www.w3.org/RDF/FAQ#How ,

quote
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
         xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.0/">
  <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://doc"
      dc:creator="Joe Smith"
      dc:title="My document"
      dc:description="Joe's ramblings about his summer vacation."
      dc:date="1999-09-10" />
</rdf:RDF>
end of quote

This is something in the <head> of a document. That rdf:about="http://doc"
is the address of the document itself.  That raises philisophical and
practical problems.

Philisophically, it's redundant.  It's also inconsistent with using relative
address for links, e.g. in <A href="../foo.html">.  It also smacks of GOTO
statements.

From a practical point of view
 - in many web shops, a web page starts as a local file, then gets moved to
a development machine, than copied to the productionm machine.  Do we have
to change the rdf:about each time?
- if a page is mirrored, does each mirror have to have it's own rdf:about?
- if a directory is moved, do all the pages in that directory have to have
their rdf:about pages moved?

It would be a lot cleaner if rdf statements could have the concept of "self"
where the metadata refers to the document in which the rdf is contained.

Is there any way to do this?  Are the RDF people worried about this?  Note
that we do not have this problem with <meta> tags.

Len
--
Leonard R. Kasday, Ph.D.
Institute on Disabilities/UAP and Dept. of Electrical Engineering at Temple
University
(215) 204-2247 (voice)                 (800) 750-7428 (TTY)
http://astro.temple.edu/~kasday        mailto:kasday@acm.org

Chair, W3C Web Accessibility Initiative Evaluation and Repair Tools Group
http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/IG/

The WAVE web page accessibility evaluation assistant:
http://www.temple.edu/inst_disabilities/piat/wave/

Received on Sunday, 26 November 2000 09:54:08 UTC