[Zope-dev] RDF Musings and TinyTables
Shane Hathaway
shane@zope.com
Tue, 18 Feb 2003 14:21:17 -0500
I just read the RDF article published here:
http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/02/12/rdflib.html
I've understood the mechanics of RDF for a while, but never understood
what makes it better than what we already have. Now I think I get it:
RDF theory is a new kind of database abstraction. It's similar to a
relational database in that you put pieces of data into the database and
later search for data. But it's much more ad-hoc than a relational
database.
Serialization of RDF into XML and the relationship between RDF and the
Semantic Web are distinct concepts from RDF theory.
This ad-hoc data storage made me think of TinyTables. TinyTables is a
good Zope product that fills the need for simple tables of data, but it
needs attention. What if it got replaced by some Zope product called
"RDFBucket"? An RDFBucket object would let you input data in a variety
of ways, including object introspection, forms, and XML with embedded
RDF. It would let you run queries similar to ZCatalog. Maybe it would
also generate RDF for embedding metadata in web pages.
I'm wondering if I'm thinking in line with RDF theory, or if I've veered
off track. If you're familiar with RDF: What do you think?
Shane