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Re: XML/RDF

• To: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>
• Subject: Re: XML/RDF
• From: Uche Ogbuji <uche.ogbuji@f...>
• Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2002 16:30:07 -0700
• Cc: Mike Champion <mc@x...>, xml-dev@l...
• In-reply-to: Message from "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...> of "Thu, 14 Nov 2002 16:48:27 CST." <15725CF6AFE2F34DB8A5B4770B7334EE0DF884@h...>
• Sender: uche.ogbuji@f...

> RDF is NOT about machine inferencing?  Wow.

RDF is not only about machine inferencing.

But then again, what does that have to do with the thread?

Mike Champion semed to be implying that the Semantic Web would have problems 
with inconsistencies.

I pointed out that the Web doesn't have such problems, so why should the 
SemWeb?

You said the Web is not a machine making judgements.

But, of course, the Semantic Web isn't even a machine, never mind one that 
makes judgements.

The Semantic Web is a distributed database.  That's all.  It does no 
processing, making judgments or other.

One can have *agents* that make judgements while operating on the Semantic 
Web, but this is not the same thing as the SemWeb itself making judgments of 
course.

If your point is that you think inconsistencies should bother *agents*, I 
still don't agree.  Maybe itbothered HAL 9000, but the problem was that he was 
too damned smart for his own good.

An agent could disambiguate by just accepting the first assertion found and 
discarding the rest

An agent could disambiguate by simply reporting back to the user and asking 
them to make a decision, preferably recording whatever parameters of that 
decision it could

An agent could disambiguate by looking at the source (domain, Google ranking, 
whatever) and deciding which one to trust

Or the agent could just decide not to disambiguate anything at all.

It all depends.

But all that is Semantic Web futurism.  I can tell you that I deal all the 
time with actual RDF databases that contain ambiguities.  I've never had a 
problem processing around them.

So I must be missing someone's fundamental point.


-- 
Uche Ogbuji                                    Fourthought, Inc.
http://uche.ogbuji.net    http://4Suite.org    http://fourthought.com
Python&XML column: 2. Introducing PyXML - http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/09/25/p
y.html
The Past, Present and Future of Web Services 1 - http://www.webservices.org/ind
ex.php/article/articleview/663/1/24/
The Past, Present and Future of Web Services 2 - 'http://www.webservices.org/in
dex.php/article/articleview/679/1/24/
Serenity through markup - http://adtmag.com/article.asp?id=6807
Tip: Using generators for XML processing - http://www-106.ibm.com/developerwork
s/xml/library/x-tipgenr.html

• References:
  • RE: XML/RDF
    • From: "Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@i...>

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