RE: [xml-dev] The Semantic Web: An Introduction

["Bullard, Claude L (Len)" <clbullar@ingr.com>]

One can inquire as to the usefulness.  A static 
system of relationships (eg, what some topic 
map systems provide) is essentially an inverted 
index:  useful for navigation given some topical 
criteria, but not as good for relationship discovery, 
data mining etc, at least innately.   An inference 
engine based analysis should enable one to better 
analyse content given sound assertions.  I think 
that is what the SW is about: the ability to 
do machine reasoning and get faster and more 
precise results over the ability to assemble 
a topic list then drill.   I would expect an 
RDF-enabled system to provide a shorter list 
and perhaps a better set of seeAlsos.  I would 
expect it to do better forecasting, project 
alternatives, create scenarios, task lists, 
and so forth.

A topic map expert should comment.  

Len 
http://www.mp3.com/LenBullard

Ekam sat.h, Vipraah bahudhaa vadanti.
Daamyata. Datta. Dayadhvam.h


-----Original Message-----
From: James Strachan [mailto:james_strachan@yahoo.co.uk]


I guess I've never truly grokked RDF, probably as I don't actively use
inference engines. Do other people use RDF other than for inference engines?

Agreed. It might be useful to be able to make assertions about arbitrary XML
Schema documents in an RDF-like way (in a seperate document) and then apply
them to XML instance documents.