Sesame's interpretation of RDF Schema

Dear all,

A couple of weeks ago we announced Sesame, an RDF Schema querying and
storing service [1]. A number of people responded to our announcement
asking how it handles things like multiple domain and range restrictions.
We also received a number of more basic questions on RDF and RDF Schema.

In response to these questions, we composed a small document containing
a quick introduction on RDF and ontologies and a description of how Sesame
interprets RDF Schema. We think the document is worth reading even for
experts on the subject and we would welcome any feedback on the decisions
that we have made.

Subjects that are covered include:
- Why each ontology contains the classes rdfs:Resource and rdfs:Literal.
- Why these two classes are the two root for class hierarchies.
- Why we use intersetion semantics for domain and range restrictions.
- The consequences of using intersection semantics for ontology creation.

The document is available in both HTML and PDF:
http://sesame.aidministrator.nl/doc/rdf-interpretation.html
http://sesame.aidministrator.nl/doc/rdf-interpretation.pdf


We would welcome any feedback and/or discussion,

Arjohn Kampman


[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-interest/2001Mar/0203.html

--
arjohn.kampman@aidministrator.nl
aidministrator nederland b.v.  -  http://www.aidministrator.nl/
prinses julianaplein 14-b, 3817 cs amersfoort, the netherlands
tel. +31-(0)33-4659987   fax. +31-(0)33-4659987

Received on Tuesday, 24 April 2001 11:13:05 UTC