RE: Proposed issue: site metadata hook (slight variation)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ext Bullard, Claude L (Len) [mailto:clbullar@ingr.com]
> Sent: 12 February, 2003 16:54
> To: Stickler Patrick (NMP/Tampere); www-tag@w3.org
> Subject: RE: Proposed issue: site metadata hook (slight variation)
> 
> 
> Why is it necessary to separate the web and the Semantic Web 
> as distinct things?   

They are distinct perspectives or modes of interaction with
a common set of URIs denoting resources.

> Why are representations of documents 
> about other documents not just documents?

They are. But they need not be named documents. And in most
cases, when speaking of the body of knowledge known by a 
server about a resource, they will not be named.

> What is the advantage of separate but equal resources?

There are no separate but equal resources.

If you want to name the resource corresponding to the body
of knowledge known about another resource, go ahead. But
why do so if you don't ever need to?

The part that is distinct is the behavior of the HTTP server.

If I ask for a description of a resource, it is not returning
a representation of that resource, but rather a representation
of *another* resource, which is the body of knowledge known
about the resource denoted by the URI in the request to the
server.

It is this distinction between interacting with respresentations,
per the Web, versus interacting with descriptions, per the 
Semantic Web which must be kept distinct.

And the semantics of HTTP methods at present deal only with interacting
with representations, and trying to overload them to also support
interacting with descriptions does not seem to be possible, and even
if possible, not optimal and certainly not straightforward.

What is needed, IMO, are new methods specialized for interacting
with descriptions. Hence my proposal for MGET, MPUT, MDELETE, etc.

Cheers,

Patrick

Received on Wednesday, 12 February 2003 10:13:01 UTC