Thursday, July 01, 2004

RDF - Just don't mention the Semantic Web

Metadata for the desktop "My premise then is that more metadata is required to create a usable desktop for users and manage the increasing volume of information stored in our homes. That's a conclusion other people are agreeing with, too. Microsoft's next-generation operating systems will ultimately include WinFS, a file system supporting the attachment of arbitrary metadata to files. Mac OS X is acquiring similar functionality. ReiserFS has been trying to do it for ages. Closer to GNOME, there are projects like Dashboard, Storage and iFolder."

"First introduced in 1998, the W3C's Resource Description Framework is a computer-processible way of describing things. And that's about as simple as it gets. Despite being mired for some time in controversy over an awkward XML expression, the current view and consensus over RDF is in terms of its data model. The data model is simple and expressive, and is the best starting point for understanding RDF."

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