xml-dev - Re: Some questions

[Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net>]

"Eve L. Maler" wrote:
> 
> When people talk about RDF, the "meta" part is what I have trouble with in
> general.  In what way is markup not metadata?  In what way are element
> content and attribute values not also metadata (depending on what you do
> with them)?  It feels weird for one particular data model to claim to have
> cornered the metadata market.

Here are definitions I use that are mostly free of the ambiguity people
typically associate with the words content and metadata. Metadata is
property/value oriented so that you can ask questions in terms of "what
is the value of this property". Content is list within list oriented so
that you can ask: "what comes before this item, and what comes after
it."

RDF data is content if you look at the XML level (because the XML data
model doesn't make the <TITLE> element addressable as a property) but it
is metadata if you look at the RDF level (because RDF really WOULD make
the <TITLE> element addressable as a TITLE property).

-- 
 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for himself
"I always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more
specific." --Lily Tomlin

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