RE: [Fwd: RE: "information resource"]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: www-tag-request@w3.org 
> [mailto:www-tag-request@w3.org]On Behalf Of
> ext noah_mendelsohn@us.ibm.com
> Sent: 14 October, 2004 22:52
> To: Chris Lilley
> Cc: Stuart Williams; www-tag@w3.org
> Subject: Re: [Fwd: RE: "information resource"]
> 
> 
> 
> Perhaps it's worth noting that our current editors draft says [1]
> 
> TRUE per Basel Definition:  "The distinguishing 
> characteristic of these [information] resources is that 
> all of their essential characteristics can be conveyed in a message."
> 
> but it does NOT say the converse:
> 
> FALSE per Basel Definition: "A non-information resource is 
> distinguished 
> by the fact that none of its state can be conveyed in a message."

It also does not say that, given a URI which identifies
an information resource, that any web accessible representation
WILL include ALL of the information content of that resource.


> We shouldn't be surprised that there is some 
> machine-representable state 
> for a real live shaggy dog.  We might choose to expose its 
> temperature or 
> its weight, for example.  

Exactly.

> The distinction drawn in Basel is 
> that dogs are 
> interestingly different from information resources because 
> there exist 
> essential aspects of the dog that are not conveyable in a 
> machine-readable 
> way. 

This seems to be the key distinction. 

Though the use of the word "convey" could still be misunderstood.
I believe it is being used here per sense 2a, given
http://webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=convey
though given sense 2b, one could imagine that communicating
information *about* the dog in a way "conveys" essential characteristics
of that dog. This is why I was trying to be brutally direct in simply
defining an information resource *as* information and avoid all the
high risk language about characteristics, essense, conveying, etc.

(isn't natural language a bitch? ;-)

Patrick


> Noah
> 
> [1] http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/webarch/#id-resources (I don't 
> think I have 
> a stable link in date space for this, unfortunately)
> 
> --------------------------------------
> Noah Mendelsohn 
> IBM Corporation
> One Rogers Street
> Cambridge, MA 02142
> 1-617-693-4036
> --------------------------------------
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>

Received on Monday, 18 October 2004 08:19:47 UTC