- From: Tim Berners-Lee <timbl@w3.org>
- Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 05:15:02 -0800
- To: Patrick.Stickler@nokia.com
- Cc: <www-tag@w3.org>, <tag@w3.org>
And what, then, is the URI of the URI of the information about the resource? (do we have MMGET to get metadata about that?) Tim PS: This is the problem with PROPFIND. On Tuesday, Feb 11, 2003, at 03:29 US/Pacific, Patrick.Stickler@nokia.com wrote: > > MGET solves this problem (and many others). > > A web site is just another resource. Let's agree that the > <scheme>://<authority> portion of a URI denotes a web site > (I don't think that will all that controversial). > > So <http://example.org> denotes a web site. > > And, 'MGET http://example.org' will return an RDF/XML instance > providing > the description of that site. > > There is no need to require a metadata file with separate identity nor > two calls to the server to get the required information (first a GET > or HEAD to get the metadata file URI and then a GET to get the file). > > A single call of MGET does the job. > > And MGET also solves numerous other problems, such as those addressed > by RDDL as well as general access to resource metadata via their URIs. > > And MGET allows all the confusion about XML Namespaces to simply > be tossed aside, since MGET deals with full URIs and one can then > inspect the knowledge defined about each individual term irregardless > of whatever namespace was used as punctuation in some XML > serialization. > > A URI denotes a resource. > Use GET to get a representation of the resource. > Use MGET to get knowledge about the resource. > > Browsing the semantic web then is analogous to browsing the web, > but using MGET rather than GET. Like two sides of the same coin, > and HTTP is the coin. > > Simple. > > I'm working on having a demonstration of MGET and friends by the > technical plenary... > > Cheers, > > Patrick > > >> -----Original Message----- >> From: ext Tim Berners-Lee [mailto:timbl@w3.org] >> Sent: 10 February, 2003 18:02 >> To: www-tag@w3.org >> Cc: tag@w3.org >> Subject: Proposed issue: site metadata hook >> >> >> >> In the face-face meeting I took an action to write up a proposal for >> the following potential issue: >> >> >> Proposed Short name: SiteMetadata-nn >> >> Title: Web site metadata improving on robots.txt, w3c/p3p >> and favicon >> etc >> >> The architecture of the web is that the space of identifiers >> on an http web site is owned by the owner of the domain name. >> The owner, "publisher", is free to allocate identifiers >> and define how they are served. >> >> Any variation from this breaks the web. The problem >> is that there are some conventions for the identifies on websites, >> that >> >> /robots.txt is a file controlling robot access >> /w3c/p3p is where you put a privacy policy >> /favico is an icon representative of the web site >> >> and who knows what others. There is of course no >> list available of the assumptions different groups and manufacturers >> have used. >> >> These break the rule. If you put a file which happens to be >> called robots.txt but has something else in, then weird >> things happen. >> One might think that this is unlikely, now, but the situation could >> get a lot worse. It is disturbing that a >> precedent has been set and the number of these may increase. >> >> There are other problems as well - as well sites are catalogued >> by a number of different agents, there tend to be all kinds >> or request for things like the above, while one would like to >> be able to pick such things up as quickly as possible. >> >> If, when these features were designed, there had been a >> general way of attaching metadata to a web site, it would >> not have been necessary. >> >> The TAG should address this issue and find a solution, >> or put in place steps for a solution to be found, >> which allows the metadata about a site, including that for >> later applications, to be found with the minimum overhead >> and no use of reserved URIs within the server space. >> >> Example solution for feasability >> >> A new http tag such as "Metadata:" is introduced into HTTP >> This takes one parameter, which is the URI of the >> metadata document. The header is supplied on response to >> any GET or HEAD of the root document ("/"). It may also >> be supplied on a any other request, including error >> requests. >> >> The Metadata document is conventionally written in RDF/XML. >> It contains pointers to all kinds of standard and/or proprietary >> metadata about the site, including for example >> >> - privacy policy >> - robot control >> - icon for representing the site >> - site maps >> - syndicates (RSS ) feeds >> - IPR information >> - site policy >> - site owners >> >> The solution only needs to document the hook and the >> vocabulary to point to metadata resources in current >> use. Vocabulary for new applications can be defined >> by those applications. >> >> timbl >> >>
Received on Tuesday, 11 February 2003 08:14:23 UTC