Re: [httpRange-14] What do HTTP URIs Identify?

Bullard, Claude L (Len) wrote:

> I agree although one might want to ensure the understanding
> it is possible to use other means of representing the interpretive
expression.
> Otherwise:
>
> "... meaning is created within semiosis and, as I have argued, semiosis
and evolution are identical in this context. Meaning is created whenever a
sign and an object is merged together and the relation is maintained by an
interpretant."
>
> http://www.library.utoronto.ca/see/SEED/Vol1-2/Thellefsen.htm
>

I was explicit to say that the meaning of a URI was defined by the RDF
graph, or by an OWL 'ontology' at the URI, when the media type was:
_application/rdf+xml_ (.. or for example application/owl+rdf+xml if some
sort of RDF subsetting were ever to come into effect...)

Pat Hayes and Guha have proposed a framework to represent various model
theories for semantic web languages (Lbase), and this at first look, seems
to be an excellent start toward a coherent framework for integrating various
'meanings' on the Web.

I've briefly looked at your reference (above) but don't immediately
understand the implications for 'semiotics' and the Semantic Web, or the
current Web, but perhaps such a semantics might apply given a specific media
type and as such if the semantics can be developed as an extension of Lbase,
then it might apply to a given media type (or set of types).

In terms of the web architecture, it seems reasonable that at least for a
given set of media types, that the meaning of the _resource_ identified by
an HTTP URI is defined according to the range of interpretations defined by
a specific type of representation referenced by the URI. That's a mouthful,
but it means that for a URI which represents itself as application/rdf+xml,
the meaning is defined according to http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/ .

RDDL already says essentially this (at least IMHO):  for namespace names
which resolve to a RDDL document, the namespace is defined according to
RDDL. RDDL is readily xslt'd into RDF, so one could define the meaning of
such a namespace URI as the RDF meaning of the graph obtained by
transforming RDDL -> RDF.

Jonathan

Received on Thursday, 8 August 2002 16:23:49 UTC