- From: Lynn Andrea Stein <lynn.stein@olin.edu>
- Date: Thu, 03 Jan 2002 11:58:01 -0500
- To: www-webont-wg@w3.org
> Sure. There are lots of pragmatic issues involving the creation and > maintenance of collections of information. However, without a firm syntax > and semantics, pragmatic issues get bogged down in misunderstandings. I think that the problem is that even with a firm syntax and semantics, pragmatic issues get bogged down in misunderstandings (except maybe we call them mistranslations or abuse of the langugage). It's unlikely that we will agree on a single syntax and semantics that will be used consistently and correctly by a community the size of the web. Or maybe you think that the world *will* adopt FOPC....I'm skeptical. And there are at least two schools of thought on how to deal with this reality. 1) Be very firm about the *right* thing (the syntax, the semantics, proper usage) and provide lots of scaffolding/correction/criticism when some folks do things wrong. This is the make-the-people-fit-the-machine approach, and it's standard CS/Software engineering. 2) Recognize that there will be misuse, abuse, or what Donald Norman and others would just call real use. Design a system that accommodates to the actual activities of real users, but which -- as a consequence -- may be more about, eg., negotiating misunderstandings than expressing things "correctly". I think that this is where XML has wound up, for better or for worse. Oh, and I guess there's a third approach: 3) Pretend there isn't a problem. I really hope we don't take #3. Lynn
Received on Thursday, 3 January 2002 11:58:26 UTC