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It's just me on the call. Call me at your leisure.
On Sep 16, 2013 8:37 AM, "Kingsley Idehen" < kidehen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 9/15/13 12:49 PM, John F Sowa wrote:
Paul,
I agree with some of your points, but I'd like to qualify and extend
others. My major disagreement is with the word 'complete':
PT
Along with XML, HTML, HTTP, and related W3C standards, we have
a complete suite of tools for delivering documents containing
the information needed to the people who need it to act for the
success of the enterprise.
I suggest that you replace the phrase "complete suite of" with
"useful first cut at".
John,
I've created a new subject heading so that theme of this discussion thread is a little more obvious to others.
Additional comments are placed inline below.
PT
I like Kingsley's "data-de-silo-fication" theme. (In fact, I'm soon to
give an internal tech talk called "Down With Silos! How linked data is
beautifying the information landscape").
Yes, but... And the major "but" is that context is essential. I don't
want to defend silos. But I do want to defend the three key terms in
Tim B-L's DAML proposal of Feb 2000:
Diversity, heterogeneity, and interoperability
Tim B-L in http://www.w3.org/2000/01/sw/DevelopmentProposal
Diversity, heterogeneity, and interoperability are the very goals that I have in mind when I refer to data-de-silo-fication . Basically, when dealing with Data, this is about making the critical transition from Open Database Connectivity (as delivered by DBMS and/or OS specific APIs) to Open Data Connectivity (which is what making Data webby or web-like via hypermedia resources enables).
As you know, the Semantic Web vision marketing kinda took place back to front i.e., too much emphasis was placed on the endgame at the expense of critical requisite infrastructure such as Linked Data (aka. webby or web-like structured data).
The Semantic Web concept is to do for data what HTML did for textual
information systems: to provide sufficient flexibility to be able to
represent all databases, and logic rules to link them together
to great added value.
HTML made documents webby (or web-like) via hypermedia.
RDF enables webby (or web-like) structured data representation via hypermedia. It also enables incorporation of semantics (entity definition and relations) as part of the aforementioned endeavor. Unfortunately for RDF, its virtues have been cloaked by a series of poor narratives. Examples include:
1. conflating RDF model theory and data representation formats as exemplified by the entire RDF/XML debacle
2. more recently, the tendency to conflate webby structured data representation, RDF, and predicate logic.
...
The goal of interoperability between heterogeneous components that we
build is one that will test the extent to which the Semantic Web is
achieving its promise.The more diverse the systems interoperating,
the greater the merit of the Semantic Web.
...
The diversity of systems successfully interfaced to the Semantic Web
will be an important indicator of success.
There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all tool or notation for
representing, using, relating, or reasoning about any aspect of human
knowledge.
I don't believe Paul is insinuating that one-size-fits all. Decoupling data from applications is something that's facilitated by simply using de-referencable URIs as denotation mechanisms with regards to structured data representation. For instance, using HTTP URIs to denote entities enables web-like structured representation (aka. Linked Data) construction via the age-old entity relationship model.
The main reason why natural languages are so difficult to
analyze is that they have achieved the ultimate level of flexibility:
they can represent anything that anyone may want to say.
There are also many important reasons for partitioning the Web and
blocking access, as TBL says:
In the Semantic Web we can represent the whole range of policies
as logical assertions using classical logic with quoting and some
axioms about digital signatures. We replace the fixed structure
of groups and accounts in the web server with a component that
verifies assertions of the form...
This is a critical issue that current IT systems handle with partial
success, but everyone knows that more is needed. But the current SW
tools have done nothing to help.
With RDF based Linked Data in place, you can actually address pressing issues such as privacy, attribute-based-access-controls (ABAC) [1][2].
Note, when I refer to RDF based Linked Data, it's a specific emphasis on the fusion of RDF model theory and webby structured data representation i.e., a variant of structured data representation endowed with human- and machine-readable semantics (entity definition and relation semantics). What Pat Hayes refers to as Blogic [3].
PT
One of the hallmarks of "legacy" systems is the unfortunate choice
to closely couple these components.
There are many good and bad features of current systems. But it is
counterproductive for SW advocates to use the word 'legacy' as a
general put-down of systems that solve mission-critical problems
-- especially when the SW toolkit cannot begin to address them.
The issue of 'legacy' ultimately boils down to how folks seek to work with data (as Ed outlined in his earlier post). Personally, I believe that open data connectivity (where data and database management systems are loosely coupled) is now replacing open database connectivity (which is dbms engine and host operating system constrained) at the apex of the data-exploitation-value-pyramid [4][5]. Put differently, contemporary agility pursuits (for individuals or enterprises) are no longer best served by conventional SQL RDBMS technology which actually suffers (massively) from a one-size-fits-all approach to everything :-)
Links:
[1] https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/posts/BBGtT6P3Cvv -- Attribute Based Access Controls (ABAC)
[2] http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/drafts/800-162/sp800_162_draft.pdf -- Attribute
[3] http://www.slideshare.net/PatHayes/blogic-iswc-2009-invited-talk -- Blogic
[4] http://bit.ly/14QWb4N -- post about Open Data Connectivity and Open Database Connectivity
[5] http://bit.ly/1aNpdFY -- Time for RDBMS Primacy Downgrade is Nigh!
Kingsley
John
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--
Regards,
Kingsley Idehen
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
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