- From: Robert Turner <robert.turner@tucanatech.com>
- Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 10:56:24 +1000
- To: Karl Dubost <karl@w3.org>
- Cc: www-rdf-interest@w3.org
RDF is not XML. That statement has saved me a lot of time when describing RDF. A lot of people have the preconception that it is XML. XML is a tree, RDF is a graph. RDF describes (and references) resources. XML is just a way of serializing RDF. I agree that a simple ball and stick diagram is the best way to explain the structure of RDF. Psychologists use a ball and stick diagram to represent semantic networks, this is a natural way for people to think. Karl Dubost wrote: > > Le 17 déc. 2004, à 12:31, Danny Ayers a écrit : > >> On Fri, 17 Dec 2004 11:11:29 +0100, Danny Ayers >> <danny.ayers@gmail.com> wrote: >> >>>> We're certainly aware of a very close coupling from what we have to >>>> and from RDF. However, RDF isn't exactly something you can explain to >>>> a business analyst in 10 minutes and expect them to understand. >>> >> I don't know if it's the semantics or what, but for some reason RDF >> just comes across as too geeky for the business side of the house. > > > 10 minutes might be more than enough to explain RDF to a business > analyst. There might be a lot of possible approach, but you have to > climb down from your chair or accept to do it. :))) > > As an exercise to all people here on the list, try to find the > strategies, you have used to explain RDF to your siblings, children, > parents, SO, etc. and share your experience here. > > To explain RDF Graphs, I have often used this metaphor: > > "Most of you are able to draw circles and arrows. If you say yes > to this > extremely difficult question, it means that you know how to draw > graphs > and then how to draw RDF graphs. I would not be surprised that you > have > done RDF graphs for a long time, and you have started at your > first years > of school. As a child you have learned to associate objects or > family of > objects by drawing arrows and circles. > An image of a chicken, an image of a farm and you drew an arrow > with a > color which says this chicken is an animal of the farm. This is it > you > have done RDF, even before to know how to write. You have establish a > labeled relationship between two things: chicken and farm. You > expressed > the meaning which links things. > > You have learned to create and to organize the world around you. > Making your business RDF Friendly starts by taking a piece of > paper and > to draw to figure out how your business is organized and what is the > meaning of things, processes, actions, you do each day. It's all > about > making explicit the meaning between the daily things you are dealing > with every day." > > The rest of the explanation depends on the kind of profession and the > person you are discussing with. If you want to convince someone else, > you have first to learn about his/her world. There's no way you can > ask someone to modify his/her way of doing things in their reality, > because they know better than you. The only thing you can do is try to > understand what they do, learn about their work, and they answer some > of their questions, solve their problems. > >
Received on Wednesday, 22 December 2004 02:04:03 UTC