On Wed, 23 Apr 2003 21:09:48 -0400, Mike Champion <> wrote:
> http://www.computerworld.com/news/2003/story/0,11280,80479,00.html.
One other thing ... in this, TimBL is paraphrased as saying 'The Semantic
Web is about taking the relational database and "webbing it."' Chandler
(http://www.osafoundation.org/Chandler_Compelling_Vision.htm) uses RDF as a
"Pick-like" unstructured database, as near as I can tell. I can "grok" why
Chandler uses RDF and uses it in this way, given its mandate to 'collect
related items in a single place creating a context sensitive "view" of many
types of data, mixing-and-matching email, mailing lists, instant messages,
appointments, contacts, tasks, free-form notes, blogs, web pages,
documents, spreadsheets, slide shows, bookmarks, photos, MP3's, and so on
(and on).'
Granted that RDF is abstract and general enough to do just about anything,
but I find it curious that its real-world uses that I come in contact with
remind me more of a pre-relational network DBMS, but the Semantic Web is
being promoted as a way of web-enabling RDBMSs. Anyone want to comment on
this, or set me straight on how RDF is really used in Chandler?
