It’s All About Graphs

Stefano's Linotype ~ It's All About Graphs

The more I discover RDF and RDF query languages, the more itseems to me that it was all about that stupid RDF/XML syntax that prevented people from getting what RDF really was. RDF is a model for describing labelled directed graphs. That's it. You can add typing (RDFSchema) or inference (OWL), but the real deal is that you now have a way to describe graphs.

I always had a hard time explaining RDF to people because everyone saw RDF through XML glasses. I see now that, deep inside, people wanted XML to do what RDF does. That is, describe graphs of information and the relationships between the nodes. Once I got people thinking "RDF is not XML" it was a bit easier.

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