RDF Modules

[Jonathan Peterson]

> RDF is conceptually simple, elegant and expressive. It reminds me 
ofLISP.

Yes, but the XML syntax is tiresome. It reminds of LISP written like this:

<clause>defun factorial <arg>http://www.w3.org/arguments#n</arg>
  <clause>if <arg>= http://www.w3.org/arguments#n 1</arg>
      1
      <clause>* http://www.w3.org/arguments#n <clause>factorial <arg>- 
http://www.w3.org/arguments#n 1</arg></clause></clause></clause></clause>

>  With just a single starting axiom
> ("is") I was able to bootstrap a conceptual universe full of 
skateboarding
> badgers. 

Whoa! My "We should invest in RDF" business case is practically writing 
itself!

> However, I suspect that it'll take another 20 years for it (or something
> like it) to become widely used. 

We've just bought a large authentication/authorisation product that uses 
RDF internally for all it's customer and account metadata. Admittedly this 
is a niche product even by technical publishing standards, but it's 
starting to creep in. I don't think they are doing anything you couldn't 
do more traditionally, but it's interesting to see the adoption.

> So the Semantic (with a large 'S') Web probably isn't happening any time
> soon... but that shouldn't stop you from creating your own semantic
> applications.

Indeed. I never much liked Tim Berners-Lee's Amazing Semantic Web of 
Wonders (tm), but I like some of the formal logical stuff under the hood.


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