RE: web proper names

> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-rdf-interest-request@w3.org
> [mailto:www-rdf-interest-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of ext Uche Ogbuji
> Sent: 28 September, 2004 19:51
> To: Jon Hanna
> Cc: www-rdf-interest@w3.org
> Subject: RE: web proper names
> 
> > That's why URIs should be atomic and *people* should decide what they
> mean.  RDF shouldn't care.  RDF's job is "duh h duh t duh t duh p duh
> colon... yup.  thats the resource yer asked for, sir".
> 
> Does http://uche.ogbuji.net mean the person, the Web site, 
> the 404 page
> that comes up if the Web site goes down?  An abstract quartum quid
> variation of one of these?  Don't ask the computer: it will *never* be
> able to tell you (well, not until we're so many AI 
> generations down the
> road that I can cut off the likelihood with Occam's razor).

True, insofar as the machine will comprehend that meaning.

Though, if we ever achieved a critical mass of URIQA englightened
servers providing explicit descriptions of resources, one could,
in a sense, ask a computer what a given URI "means" and (ideally)
be provided with a formal description of the thing denoted by that
URI (insofar as "meaning" exists for any formal language, and can
be manipulated by any automated agent).

> Ask thy neighbor. 

Exactly.

And URIQA is intended as an efficient and globally scalable means to 
do exactly that.

> Then clout him one when you disagree with what he
> says.

CLOUT /stupid/thing/to/say HTTP/1.1
Host: idiots.org

;-)

> That's the way symbols work.  That's the way communication 
> works.  That
> had better be the way SemWeb works, or it will be crushed under the
> weight of its own ambition.

Yep.

Cheers,

Patrick

--

Patrick Stickler
Nokia, Finland
patrick.stickler@nokia.com

Received on Thursday, 30 September 2004 07:03:00 UTC