Re: A triple is not unique.

Jonathan Borden wrote:

>     Perhaps we need to consider extending the RDF Model. My position is that
> the model is unambiguous, but agree that it is perhaps too restrictive for
> certain use cases. Again and again we run into problems related to a
> monolithic model on a distributed web. If we introduce the concept of a
> "space" to provide context to a set of statements, there would be no problem
> with multiple statements having the same (p,s,o) as long as they "exist"
> within distinct spaces.

I agree.  I think the usage of RDF for monolithic models
will be eclipsed by the usage of RDF as the natural language
of the semantic web ... which, if it is to flourish, will
need to adapt to the wilderness of reality, rather than
trying in vain to artificially restrain it.  In fact my
implementation (MyMemory) contains so many contexts (spaces)
that I need to design a context browser to allow statements
to show up when they should.

>  On the other hand, by the mechanism I propose above, as all statements are
> predicated by a URI, each document might be partitioned into its own space.
> We can easily define a syntax to aggregate documents into a containing
> space. The term "context" can be substituted for the term "space".

Unless we can think of a way to communicate in which spaces
statements apply, MyMemory will be shit out of luck when it
comes to communicating about its internal contexts
externally.

Seth Russell

Received on Monday, 20 November 2000 16:32:25 UTC