Re: [CODE4LIB] rdf serialization

[Eric Lease Morgan]

Cool input. Thank you. I believe I have tweaked my assertions:

1. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson

<rdf:RDF
  xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#";
  xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/"; >

  <rdf:Description
  
rdf:about="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html";>
    <dc:creator>http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79089957</dc:creator>
  </rdf:Description>

</rdf:RDF>


2. Thomas Jefferson is a male person

<rdf:RDF
  xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#";
  xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/";>

  <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n7908995";>
    <foaf:Person foaf:gender="male" />
  </rdf:Description>

</rdf:RDF>


Using no additional vocabularies (ontologies), I think my hypothetical Linked 
Data spider / robot ought to be able to assert the following:

3. The Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, a male 
person

<rdf:RDF
 xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#";
 xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/";
 xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/";>

  <rdf:Description
  
rdf:about="http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html";>
      <dc:creator>
        <foaf:Person rdf:about="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79089957";>
          <foaf:gender>male</foaf:gender>
        </foaf:Person>
      </dc:creator>
  </rdf:Description>

</rdf:RDF>

The W3C Validator…validates Assertion #3, and returns the attached graph, which 
illustrates the logical combination of Assertion #1 and #2.

This is hard. The Semantic Web (and RDF) attempt at codifying knowledge using a 
strict syntax, specifically a strict syntax of triples. It is very difficult 
for humans to articulate knowledge, let alone codifying it. How realistic is 
the idea of the Semantic Web? I wonder this not because I don’t think the 
technology can handle the problem. I say this because I think people can’t (or 
have great difficulty) succinctly articulating knowledge. Or maybe knowledge 
does not fit into triples?

—
Eric Morgan
University of Notre Dame

[cid:6A4E613F-CE41-4D35-BDFA-2E66EE7AF20A]

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