Re: [xml-dev] Generality of HTTP

[Paul Prescod <paul@prescod.net>]

David Orchard wrote:
> 
>...
> 
> If I build an RDF application using URIs and I use gnutella/tcp to
> distribute it, is it part of the web?
> If I build a SOAP document and ship it via SMTP, is it part of the web?

Perhaps philosophically.

Practically, the web depends on the fact that all information is
connected to all other information. Your RDF stuff in Gnutella is only
accessible to those on Gnutella (a small subset of Web users and smaller
subset of "web clients"). Your SOAP stuff in SMTP is only available to
the recipient. If the recipient is a large corporation and it wants the
SOAP stuff to be widely visible it will save it to an intranet to be
served with HTTP.

 Paul Prescod