Re: Semantic Document Framework(s)

At 10:39 PM 11/8/00 -0600, Aaron Swartz wrote:
>RDF allows people to write metadata at any time, anywhere You're trying to 
>stick them right in the original document!

That is both its curse and its promise/blessing. The marginalia of Talmudic 
scholars can never be as "informed" about the "real meaning" of something 
as one who originates that into which they are stuck! Only the author knows 
the *real* why/what information and all the *metatudes* presented by later 
additions/illuminations/analyses are from some other context.

As to the question of whether people want to index as they author - this 
will presumably be mightily facilitated by the nature of the authoring 
tool. It will nag/assist/cajole/reinforce the author and even automagically 
handle the details of who/when/how. Typically a tool has a placeholder name 
like "insert title here" that will enable a nag about putting in a *real* 
title at save time, etc.

In the case of the conformance assertions dealing with accessibility, they 
will be a source of some pride or resignation, depending on who's doing 
them and whether they volunteered to do it because of some "right thing to 
do" attitude or were compelled to do it by higher authority. What's inside 
the author's mind can be made available at that person's whim or pride or...

What the Semantic Web is for me is an indispensable part of what I called 
"The Accessible Planet" around 1979 - 
http://www.ski.org/Rehab/WCrandall/General/LOUGH2.HTM#PLANET and 
http://www.ski.org/Rehab/WCrandall/General/LOUGH1.HTM are the papers from 
that era that led to the idea that people http://id-me.org and places 
http://geoid.org have URIs that enable all this stuff we're 
talking/dreaming/doing to impact the coherence of us all in the old "we're 
all in this together - we're all members of one another" scenario.

On this list are some for whom I wrote http://w3.gorge.net/love26/YOUNG.htm 
from the point of view of an old geezer now in 
http://w3.gorge.net/love26/OLD.htm

In other words, because of my intimate contact with my own mortality I hope 
that this Semantic Web has some realization rather than just pontification. 
The efforts to make this sort of thing actually usable are very heartening.

--
Love.
                 ACCESSIBILITY IS RIGHT - NOT PRIVILEGE

Received on Thursday, 9 November 2000 10:50:18 UTC