Year: 2003

Categories
RDF Writing

Final TOC and home stretch

Next week I’m delivering to my editor the complete first draft of “Practical RDF” for O’Reilly. Yeah, finally. No one has seen the complete TOC, including the tools, APIs and whatever used in the book and I thought I would provide a heads up before the book is released for public review.

If you’re interested, the TOC is duplicated below. If you have concerns about the technology used, or are curious as to why I’m covering one tool over another, or suggestions about tools/apis/topics you feel I should have covered, please leave a comment or send me an email.

Once the book has had a look over by my editor, I’ll be posting OpenOffice versions of each chapter for chapter by chapter review at http://rdf.burningbird.net.

The book ended up featuring over 50 different tools and APIs, in seven different languages (Perl, PHP, Python, C, LISP, Java, C#, and even Javascript), on three different databases; most of the APIs and tools are currently in alpha/beta state, not to mention the RDF spec itself, now heading towards last call. This was a challenging and rather frustrating experience at times.

Grr.

But, most of the tools and APIs were freely given and open source, supported by people who want nothing more than to provide nifty technologies for people to use.

Grr-eat.

TOC:

 

Chapter 1. Introduction
This chapter will introduce the book, as well as provide a brief history of RDF including current efforts as of the date the first draft of the book.

What exactly is RDF?
A Brief History
RDF and the Semantic Web
Current Specification Efforts
The RDF Specifications
When to use and not use RDF
RDF Controversies
Related Technologies
The RDF Primer

Chapter 2. RDF: Heart and Soul
Focuses on the Concepts and Semantics specifications

The Search for Knowledge
The RDF Triple
The RDF Graph
The URI
RDF Serialization: N-Triples
Datatypes
Talking RDF: Lingo and Vocabulary
Sub-Graphs
Graph and Not Ground
Entailment
Equality
Assertions

Chapter 3. Basics of RDF/XML
The major elements of the RDF syntax are introduced and discussed. Covers the syntax and test cases docs

Serializing RDF to XML
Nodes
Stripped Syntax
Properties
URIs, Qnames, and Abbreviations
The Type Property
RDF Blank Nodes
More on RDF Data Types
RDF Shortcuts
The RDF Test Cases

Chapter 4. Specialized RDF Relationships: Reification, Collections, and Containers
More complex constructs with some semantic challenges.

RDF Containers
Basic Container syntax
Typed node emulation
RDF Collections
What Containers and Collections ‘mean’
Reified Statements
An Example of Reification
The Necessity of Reification and Higher-Order Statements
A Shorthand Reification Syntax
Why Big Ugly?
Why Reify?

Chapter 5 Important concepts from the RDF Vocabulary
The RDF Schema provides the roadmap to creating an RDF vocabulary. The “rules” are covered, with examples to clarify the more complex topics.

RDF Schema: Defining the Metadata
Metadata’s Role in Existing Applications
RDF Schema: Metadata Repository
Core RDF Schema Elements
Overview of the RDF Core Classes
Demonstrations of the RDF Core Classes
Refining RDF Vocabularies with Constraints
RDF Schema Alternatives

Chapter 6. Defining RDF Data Schemas
This chapter provides coverage of defining a custom vocabulary for RDF. Discussion will also cover PICS, as an example, as well as other examples.

What do we mean by Vocabulary
Defining the Vocabulary Business and Scope
Defining the Vocabulary Elements
The PostCon Elements
Prototyping the Vocabulary
Adding in Repeating Values and a container
Formalizing the Vocabulary with RDFS
Another Example: The Dublin Core
An overview of the Dublin Core MetaData Element Set
Dublin Core in RDF/XML
The Qualified Dublin Core elements
Mixing Vocabularies
Using DC-dot to generate DC RDF
When Precision isn’t enough

Chapter 7. Ontologies: RDF Business Models
Why Ontology?
DAML+OIL
RDF and OWL

Section II – RDF Tools
Now that we know what it is, how can we work with it?

Chapter 8. Merging RDF with Other Technologies
Using RDF with other applications.

RDF and Links
RDF and SOAP
Generating RDF with XSLT
RDF and UML
RDF and SVG

Chapter 9. Editing, Parsing, Generating, Converting, and Browsing RDF
Browsers
BrownSauce
Parsers
ARP
Raptor RDF/XML Parser
ICS-FORTH Validating RDF Parser
Javascript RDF Parser
Wilbur
Editors
SMORE — Semantic Markup, Ontology, and RDF Editor
RDF Editor written in Java
Converters
Grove’s ConvertToRDF
Convert RDF to iCalendar (Dan Connolly) – RDF Calendar task force
DMOZ RDF Parser for MySQL

Chapter 10. Jena: A Java-Based RDF API
Overview of the Classes
The Underlying Parser
The Model
The Query
The Iterators
DAML+OIL
Creating and Serializing a model
Very Quick Simple Look
Encapsulating the Vocabulary in a Java Wrapper Class
Adding in more complex structures
Creating a Typed node
Creating a container
Parsing and Querying an RDF Document
Just doing a basic dump
Accessing specific values
In Memory versus Persistent Memory Model Storage
A Brief look at DAML+OIL in Jena

Chapter 11 RDF and the Three P’s

RDF/XML and Perl
Ginger Alliance PerlRDF
Model Persistence and Basic Querying
Serializing RDF/XML
Examining the Schema
RDFStore
The PHP XML RDF Classes
RDF-API
Class Overview
Creating an RDF Model
Parsing and Querying an RDF Model
PHP Classes for XML
Class overview
Rdql
Persistent RDF – rdql db
Python Support
RDFlib
Building a basic Model and Serializing
Parsing a model and queries
TripleStore and ZODB

Chapter 12 Querying RDF: RDF as Data
Basic relational syntax of RDF query languages
Querying with Jena
The Query Language
RDF Query-o-Matic
Querying with PHP
The Query Language
RDF Query-o-Matic light
Inkling–Querying RDF Data using SquishQL
Sesame
RDF Server (rdftp)
Versa RDF Querying Language

Chapter 13. A Brief look at other RDF Application Environments
Whatever works with XML, works with RDF/XML
Overview of Redland — a multi-language -based RDF Framework
Working with the Redland Framework
Redland’s language du jour – C
Using the Language APIs
Perl and Python
Redfoot
RDF and NET
C# RDF Parser
4Suite

Section III – RDF Goes to Work
We know what it is, we know how to use it, now list some of the uses.

Chapter 14. Subscription and Aggregation with RDF/RSS (RSS 1.0)
This chapter focuses on RSS, including how to expose content, including exposing content through userland, other sources. Chapter also covers Meerkat.

RSS: A quick History
RSS 1.0: A quick introduction
A Detailed Look at the Specification
Channel
Title, Link, Description
Items
Image
Textinput
Item
Extending the Specification through Modules
The RSS Modules
Core: Dublin Core, Syndication, Content
Extended
Brief look at RDF/RSS Aggregators
AmphetaDesk
Meerkat
Aggregating on a Mac
Creating your own RDF/RSS Content
(RDF/RSS isn’t only for news feeds)
Build your own RDF/RSS Consumer
PHP – using an XML API
Python – using an RDF API
Java – using a specialized RSS API
Perl – Ditto
Validating and Converting to RDF/RSS

Chapter 15. Mozilla: User Interface Development with XUL and RDF
Covers Mozilla’s use of RDF to process template data within XUL. Strong enough and significant enough to leave as separate chapter.
The Concepts behind XUL
A Brief Review of the XUL User Interfaces
Dynamic Table of Contents using XUL/RDF
Nested TOC Data

Chap 16. A World of Other Uses
FOAF: Friend-of-a-Friend
DMOZ Directory Outputs and the DMOZ parser
RDF Gateway, a commercial RDF Database
Chandler: RDF within an Open Source PIM
RDF and Adobe: XMP
Creative Commons license
Tucana KnowledgeStore (TKS)
A look at the RDF projects underway at Sourceforge

Appendix A. A Detailed Look at the RDF Grammar

Get permission from W3C to duplicate the RDF Grammar and productions

Appendix B. RDF Resources

URLs and notes to as many RDF resources as we can scrape together

Categories
People

Excuse me?

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

We all know how much I like irony — almost as much as I like serendipity.

In Meg Hourihan’s latest weblog posting she writes:

 

It’s no wonder we’re seeing an increase in unemployment, people seem to have no idea how to apply for a job these days.

Meg then goes on to detail some of the problems shes had with applications, such as blank emails, obviously generic cover letters and so on. The irony enters the picture when she writes:

 

Of the more than 30 responses I’ve gotten so far, less than 1/3 have even followed the directions to apply.

Of the more than 30 responses… I would say that the current unemployment situation is more accurately reflected in the fact that Meg received 30+ job applications for one position.

Focusing on the actions or lack of actions of the unemployed doesn’t account for the worst unemployment figures this country has seen in a decade, regardless of the Bush Adminstration’s attempts to hide this information. Specifically it doesn’t take into account that the Dot Com explosion resulted in a glut in the technology market that is now resulting in unemployment among technologists that exceeds the national unemployment rate.

Seriously, I imagine that most of us who are unemployed would be glad to send tasteful little ‘thank you’ notes for an interview, if we’re just lucky enough to survive the flood of applications to get to that point.

Categories
Photography

Betcha the cat photo wins

wKen is running a once a month photo contest. This month, the photo must answer the question “I love _____”.

My favorite is a photograph of a glass of Guinness against a backdrop of a sunny afternoon in a neighborhood bar. It tends to reflect my interest in photographs that reflect humanity without necessarily having a human present.

There’s another picture I’m also partial to, and knowing webloggers, I have a feeling this one will win.

I’m not comfortable entering my own photographs, but I do like the idea of creating photographs that finish a thought, such as “I love ______”. You could learn so much about a person from the answer.

Categories
Weblogging

The third generation of weblogging

Recovered from the Wayback Machine.

Today I tackled the ontology sections of the RDF book, which left me feeling a little bit as if ants are crawling up my spine. Time for a little break, and a little weblogging.

I’ve been in an email chit-chat with Clay Shirky about online debates and weblogging. As with others in the past, I’m also trying to entice Clay into starting a weblog so he can be as vulner…accessible as the rest of us. One of the things I talked about in my last email to him is my belief that we’re heading into a new generation of weblog usage, one that will have impacts beyond the border of the traditional blog.

We’re starting to see a little of this already with the concept of LazyWeb. Considering that weblogging brings together both client and technologists, we have unique opportunities to explore new and innovative development approaches.

Someone mentions that they would like technology that does A. I think, wow that’s a great idea and I take a shot at creating a first draft of A. Someone else comes along and they like the concept and the first draft, but they have some improvements in the technology, resulting in A+. A fourth person comes along and says “But wouldn’t it be better if it did this also?” and the whole cycle starts again. Pure de-centralized, distributed, open source, open input development in action. If this isn’t “social software”, I don’t know what is.

And weblogging is maturing in ways other than just technologically. Consider the the first generation of the weblogging, based on discovering what weblogs are and how they work. This is analogous to a child learning what its legs are and how they can be used. Following the early exploration stage, there was the second weblogging generation, much of it based on links and popularity. This is so reminiscent of our teen years, and our desire to fit in, to be popular, that the analogy to human behavior is nothing less than astonishing.

I’m hoping that we’re heading into a third generation of weblogging, young adulthood if you will.

My fondest wish for this next year is to see a diminishment in the novelty of popularity; then we can get down to some serious communication. In 2002 our conversations were too dominated by Google, page hits, page rank, Blogdex, Daypop, and a host of new popularity indicators such as Blogging Ecosystem, Technorati, and Blogstreet. We applaud these technologies because we say they help us discover each other, but I’ve not once discovered another weblogger because of these tools. I usually discover them in the comments, here and elsewhere. And that’s as it should be.

Last year, all throughout weblogging, we had some intense cross-blog and cross-comment conversations, covering topics as diverse as terrorism, the war against Iraq, SFSU protests, technology, and even the recent one on girlism. I found these multi-threaded, engaged discussions to be far more exciting than the fact that hundreds or even thousands of faceless people have trooped through my pages. Yet most of these fascinating discussions — many stretching across dozens or even hundreds of weblogs in some form or another — barely made a blip on either Daypop or Blogdex.

Seriously, our value system is as wrongfully skewed to ‘hits’ as Google is.

flamingos2.jpgI started the Threadneedle project to capture this cross-conversation capability. In its first incarnation I discovered that my original concept was infeasible because of the space requirements and the forced centralization. Now, with trackback and increasing uses of other technologies, we’re starting to see ‘threadneedle’ take form, and we’re finding that what was wrong with my original concept is that it was based on one technology — threadneedle is not one single technology, it’s dozens created by as many or more people, all focusing in one way or another on Conversation — not hits.

How would you like to have a conversation with a thousand people all throughout the world? How long will it take a question to be answered when posed to 10,000 people? What kind of events can be influenced when you can collect 100,000 into one single voice?

Social software. That’s social software. And we even have SOAP and instant messaging and wireless and other techie tools to make it gadgety enough.

Now, I ask you, how can anyone possibly resist all of this?