Is RDF What I'm Looking For?

I have a keen interest in developing some software and think that RDF
might be the right base technology, but I'm not sure. A little advice
would be much appreciated. There is a great deal of RDF subject matter,
and I'd rather not invest a lot of time becoming immersed in it, if it's
really not appropriate for what I'm trying to do.

The software that I have in mind would be useful to anyone authoring
structured information to be published on the web. Just as anyone should
be able to create an html page, anyone should be able to author a RDF
Resource or RDF Schema. Just as raw HTML isn't appropriate for general
authors, even more so, raw RDF isn't appropriate either.

Even a GUI that facilitates writing RDF but still exposes its arcane
nature isn't appropriate. Things should be presented in common
terminology whenever possible, i.e. "concept" instead of "RDF Schema",
"type of" instead of "subclass", etc.

The author should be able to reference the information published other
authors. When I write an HTML page, I can reference a page that someone
else wrote. When I author an RDF Schema, I should be able to easily
reference someone else's schema.

Here, of course, is where power of structured information really comes
in. The software should facilitate the authoring efforts of the user
based on pre-defined, referenced concepts. For example, if I am
authoring information about the design of a new automobile, the
authoring software should facitate my efforts since I have referenced an
"automobile" schema of some sort. If my mom what's to author a recipe
book, that should be facilitated by "recipe book" and "recipe" schemas.

I could go on, but I don't want to waste a lot of your time. 

In short, my view of the semantic web is a system that greatly
facilitates the authoring and publishing of highly structured
information content (dare I say "knowledge"?). Specifically, my interest
is NOT in the automated reasoning capabilities that RDF offers. The
latter is very important, I'm sure; it's just not what I happen to be
motivated by.

Thanks. I look forward to your response.

Chuck

Received on Saturday, 13 September 2003 14:03:48 UTC