RDF and Resources

[Paul Prescod]

RDF's definition of resource seems to be incompatible with the URI
specification that it references:

> All things being described by RDF expressions are called resources. 
> A resource may be an entire Web page; such as the HTML document 
> "http://www.w3.org/Overview.html" for example. A resource may be a 
> part of a Web page; e.g. a specific HTML or XML element within the 
> document source. A resource may also be a whole collection of pages; 
> e.g. an entire Web site. A resource may also be an object that is 
> not directly accessible via the Web; e.g. a printed book. Resources 
> are always named by URIs plus optional anchor ids (see [URI]). 

According to RFC 2396, a resource is something addressable by a URI
(without fragment identifier) -- a complete HTML or XML document, not a
part of it.

Also, I find it interesting to note that RDF does not seem to be able to
attach metadata to components of things that are not XML: frames of a
video, records in a database, paragraphs in a Word document and so forth.
We need the ability to do so.

-- 
 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for only himself
 http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

"Silence," wrote Melville, "is the only Voice of God." The assertion,
like its subject, cuts both ways, negating and affirming, implying both
absence and presence, offering us a choice; it's a line that the Society
of American Atheists could put on its letterhead and the Society of
Friends could silently endorse while waiting to be moved by the spirit
to speak. - Listening for Silence by Mark Slouka, Apr. 1999, Harper's

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