RDF/XML without namespaces?

This is just a musing.

I wonder if it's possible to write RDF/XML without the use of
namespaces if all the element names are aliased through an RDF schema
to those in a different namespace using owl:sameClassAs. So long as
basic striping rules are followed the resultant xml looks like, well,
xml.

Can this thought be taken a step further? Is it possible to define xml
attributes that are aliases for rdf:resource and rdf:about?

For example, here's some RSS 1.0 (chosen only as an example of an RDF
application that uses many different namespaces)

<rdf:RDF
  xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
  xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"
  xmlns:admin="http://webns.net/mvcb/"
  xmlns="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/">

<channel rdf:about="http://internetalchemy.org/">
<title>Internet Alchemy</title>
<link>http://internetalchemy.org/</link>
<dc:language>en</dc:language>
<admin:generatorAgent rdf:resource="http://www.movabletype.org/?v=2.21" />

<items>
<rdf:Seq>
<rdf:li rdf:resource="http://internetalchemy.org/2002/11/weblogs.html" />
</rdf:Seq>
</items>

</channel>

With an appropriate RDF Schema maybe it's possible to write the
following instead:

<rss>
  <Channel url="http://internetalchemy.org/">
    <title>Internet Alchemy</title>
    <link>http://internetalchemy.org</link>
    <language>en</language>
    <generator id="http://www.movabletype.org/?v=2.21" />
    <items>
      <List>
        <item id="http://internetalchemy.org/2002/11/weblogs.html" />
      </List>
    </items>
  </Channel>
</rss>

Syntactic sugar for the author only.

-- Ian <iand@internetalchemy.org>
"If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?"

Received on Saturday, 30 November 2002 06:48:50 UTC