RDF as a general purpose format for expressing any data? (not just metadata?)

I posted this question earlier, but haven't heard back from anyone,
and am sending this partly to ask again, and partly to see if anyone
is there, or if you are all on vacation.  ;)

Now another question about RDF.  RDF allows one to create relational
data models via the schema mechanism, and lets one make instantiations
of those models via the RDF syntax, correct?

Why would you use this extremely powerful tool only for metadata, and
not data in general?  It seems better than any of the other data in
XML specs out there, and seems rather general purpose.

One idea I was throwing around is using RDF as a sort of interchange
format for databases -- medical data comes from a variety of
incongruous legacy databases, and we're working on a new format for
unifying medical data.  Why not make it easier to go from one form to
another by creating an RDF application that would serve as an
interchange layer between data formats that had been represented as
peers in RDF?

Thanks,
Anand C. Patel
acpatel@usa.net
LCS, MGH, Boston MA, USA

Received on Tuesday, 4 August 1998 09:09:44 UTC