Re: The TAG Member's Guide to ISSUE-57 Discussion - F2F reading

FWIW, I am willing to work actively (on- or off-list) with anyone who wants to try reconciling any proposal with the RDF semantics, or just to explore any semantic issues. This is particularly timely as the RDF2 WG is right now debating issues which impinge on the RDF semantics framework, so it would be good to get any pending issues or problems out into the open. 

There seem to be a number of use cases of RDF in the wild which use URIs in a punning mode or even more extremely as being wholly context-dependent in their meanings. These are sharply incompatible with the RDF model theory as currently defined (as of 2004) but they seem to "work". if enough of them surface and if they are considered important enough, we might adapt the RDF model theory to formally sanction such uses. This is still under active discussion, so nothing is certain, but I mention it here in order to point out that such ideas are not unique to the ISSUE-57 discussion. 

The complexity of such a change to the 2004 model theory depends upon what kinds of inference it is expected to be able to support. I am slightly worried at the idea that the interpretation can be influenced by properties, as this route requires a rather more extensive modificaiton to the 2004 semantics than some other options do. But as always, the devil is in the details. 

Pat Hayes


On Mar 28, 2012, at 10:35 AM, Jonathan A Rees wrote:

> On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 3:30 AM, Jeni Tennison <jeni@jenitennison.com> wrote:
>> Jonathan,
>> 
>> Thanks for this. Just to flag that I think there will be one more change proposal on the way before tomorrow's deadline. I'm trying to help various people who have expressed a desire for a punning solution to put one together: ie (I'm sorry, this may well not use the terminology you currently find acceptable) the URI identifies both the thing and the instance -- the thing by default -- and the properties used in statements about that URI determine which is meant.
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> 
>> Jeni
> 
> Thanks for the heads-up. The problem I had in trying to articulate
> such approaches for the ISSUE-57 review document was how to reconcile
> them with RDF model theory. I would recommend that the proposal
> addresses this somehow, either by actually being clearly compatible
> (saying something about what the intended interpretations are like, if
> necessary), or by stating explicitly that the model theory as
> currently specified becomes inapplicable - either approach is OK for
> purposes of discussion. Personally, quite independent of the merits of
> the idea, I will not be very happy with the proposal if it simply
> sweeps this issue under the rug.
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> 

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Received on Wednesday, 28 March 2012 19:25:40 UTC