RE: data smushing

Bill dehOra writes:

 > > > My #2 was detecting statements that use different 
 > > identifiers for the
 > > > same entity; there is no reliable way to know whether
 > > > 
 > > >   <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://foo.com/xxx">
 > > >    <dc:title>Joe Smith</dc:title>
 > > >   </rdf:Description>
 > > > 
 > > > and
 > > > 
 > > >   <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://bar.com/yyy">
 > > >    <dc:title>Joe Smith</dc:title>
 > > >   </rdf:Description>
 > > >    
 > > > represent the same entity or not.  
 > 
 > They're isn't a way, they're Literals. 

The dc:title properties are literals, but the things identified as
http://foo.com/xxx and http://bar.com/yyy are entities (what RDF calls
"resources").  Are the both trying to describe the same physical
person, or not?  From my (moderate) experience, this seems to be
problemo numero uno for data companies, and it will get even trickier
when we move from closed databases to the open Web.

Even if I used resource properties, you couldn't be sure: more than
one person can have the same mother (for example).


All the best,


David

-- 
David Megginson                 david@megginson.com
           http://www.megginson.com/

Received on Wednesday, 3 January 2001 09:02:31 UTC