RE: RDF query and Rules - my two cents

> At 11:55 11/11/03 -0500, Jim Hendler wrote:
> >1 - I think there is a clear and present need in the RDF community for a
> >way to essentially request a set of triples from a remote store --
> >essentially an RDF remote access API. [...]
>
> Yes!

+1.

In fact I'd be tempted to separate this need from the more general
rule/query drive to get it moving quickly.

I think a suitable approach would be to build on the existing RDF remote
access API - that of RDF/XML+HTTP. A http GET will retrieve a model over the
network based on a supplied URI. The RESTful continuation would start with a
PUT to place it on the network, DELETE remove it. Onwards from there I
suppose POSTs would be the adding of statements to an existing model.
Selective deletion of statements could be done by a DELETE-PUT sequence,
though for efficiency I guess the POST should be extended.

Most of this so far is join-the-dots stuff, the (marginally) more complex
interactions such as partial/filtered/query GETs and POSTs do need working
out, though I think Joseki & Andy Seaborne's NetAPI work could inform
choices. But I do think it important to keep this stuff RESTful, so the
Semantic Web can grow healthily on top of the current web architecture.

Cheers,
Danny.