http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/
Kingsley Idehen's Blog Data Space
I have seen the future and it's full of Linked Data! :-)
kidehen@openlinksw.com
kidehen@openlinksw.com
2024-03-19T08:45:44Z
Virtuoso Universal Server 08.03.3327
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/weblog/public/images/vbloglogo.gif
Data Spaces
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-03-01#1662
2011-03-01T23:49:26Z
<p>There is increasing coalescence around the idea that HTTP-based <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1e93cbd0">Linked Data</a> adds a tangible dimension to the <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1dfdde10">World Wide Web</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a>). This <i><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Dimension</i> grants end-users, power-users, integrators, and developers the ability to experience the Web not solely as a <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x19d02b00">Information</a> Space</i> or <i>Document Space,</i> but now also as a <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x1ac33378">Data Space</a>.</i> </p> <p>Here is a simple What and Why guide covering the essence of Data Spaces.</p> <h2>What is a Data Space?</h2> <p>A Data Space is a point of presence on a network, where every <i>Data Object</i> (item or <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1d55f910">entity</a>) is given a <i>Name</i> (e.g., a <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1736ea28">URI</a>) by which it may be Referenced or Identified. </p> <p>In a Data Space, every <i>Representation</i> of those Data Objects (i.e., every <i>Object Representation</i>) has an <i>Address</i> (e.g., a <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1f17f5a8">URL</a>) from which it may be Retrieved (or "gotten").</p> <p>In a Data Space, every Object Representation is a time variant (that is, it changes over time), streamable, and format-agnostic <i>Resource.</i> </p> <p>An Object Representation is simply a Description of that Object. It takes the form of a graph, pictorially constructed from sets of 3 elements which are themselves named <i>Subject,</i> <i>Predicate,</i> and <i>Object</i> (or <i>SPO</i>); or <i>Entity,</i> <i>Attribute,</i> and <i>Value</i> (or <i>EAV</i>). Each <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id0x1dedcfe0">Entity</a>+Attribute+Value or Subject+Predicate+Object set (or <i>triple</i>), is one datum, one piece of data, one persisted observation about a given Subject or Entity.</p> <p>The underlying Schema that defines and constrains the construction of Object Representations is based on Logic, specifically <i>First-Order Logic</i>. Each Object Representation is a collection of persisted observations (<i>Data</i>) about a given Subject, which aid observers in materializing their perception (<i>Information</i>), and ultimately comprehension (<i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id0x1a4c7bf8">Knowledge</a></i>), of that Subject.</p> <h2>Why are Data Spaces important?</h2> <p>In the real-world -- which is networked by nature -- data is heterogeneously (or "differently") shaped, and disparately located. </p> <p>Data has been increasing at an alarming rate since the advent of computing; the interWeb simply provides <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id0x1ad97358">context</a> that makes this reality more palpable and more exploitable, and in the process virtuously ups the ante through increasingly exponential growth rates.</p> <p>We can't stop data heterogeneity; it is endemic to the nature of its producers -- humans and/or human-directed machines. What we can do, though, is create a powerful Conceptual-level "bus" or "interface" for data integration, based on <i>Data Description oriented Logic</i> rather than Data Representation oriented Formats. Basically, it's possible for us to use a <i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-order_predicate_logic" id="link-id0x1a481248">Common Logic</a></i> as the basis for expressing and blending SPO- or EAV-based Object Representations in a variety of Formats (or "dialects").</p> <p>The roadmap boils down to:</p> <ol> <li> <p>Assigning unambiguous Object Names to:</p> <ul> <li> <p>Every record (or, in table terms, every row); </p> </li> <li> <p>Every record attribute (or, in table terms, every field or column);</p> </li> <li> <p>Every record relationship (that is, every relationship between one record and another);</p> </li> <li> <p>Every record container (e.g., every table or view in a relational database, every named graph, every spreadsheet, every text file, etc.);</p> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <p>Making each Object Name resolve to an Address through which Create, Read, Update, and Delete ("CRUD") operations can be performed against (can <i>access</i>) the associated Object Representation graph.</p> </li> </ol>
2011-03-01T17:26:15-05:00
New Preconfigured Virtuoso AMI for Amazon EC2 Cloud comprised of Linked Data from BBC & DBpedia
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-02-18#1657
2011-02-19T01:20:30Z
<h2>What?</h2> <p>Introducing a new preloaded and preconfigured <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bbe32d8">Virtuoso</a> (Cluster Edition) AMI for the Amazon EC2 Cloud that hosts combined Linked Datasets from: </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/About" id="link-id0x1d21e780">DBpedia 3.6</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes" id="link-id0x1e1e0b10">BBC Programmes</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music" id="link-id0x1db12bd0">BBC Music</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/" id="link-id0x1bd46450">BBC Nature</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/" id="link-id0x1d1b2468">BBC Food Recipes</a> </li> </ul> <h2>Why?</h2> <p> Predictably instantiate a powerful database with high quality <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> and cross links within minutes, for personal or service specific use. </p> <h2>How?</h2> <p>Simply follow the instructions in our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSBBCMusicProgNatureFoodAndDBpedia36" id="link-id0x1d4f3210">Amazon EC2 guide for the BBC + DBpedia 3.6 Linked Dataset</a> guide.</p> <p>Your installation steps are as follows:</p> <ol> <li> Instantiate a Virtuoso EC2 AMI </li> <li> Mount the Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) snapshot that hosts the preloaded Virtuoso Database. </li> </ol> <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/reduxd/beyond-the-polar-bear" id="link-id0x1b384af0">BBC Linked Data Spaces Presentation</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_music_solo_artists_snapshot.png" id="link-id0x1a7a5ae0">BBC Music Linked Dataset Snapshot</a> -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_programmes_snapshot_sorted_by_genre.png" id="link-id0x1c2022a8">BBC Programmes Linked Dataset Snapshot</a> -- -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_nature_snapshot_sorted_by_adaptation.png" id="link-id0x1e138ac0">BBC Nature Linked Dataset Snapshot</a> -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_recipes_snapshot.png" id="link-id0x1b795100">BBC Food Recipes Snapshot </a> -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/bbc_linkeddata" id="link-id0x1a581cf8">My Del.icio.us bookmark collection re. BBC Linked Data Demos</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpediaBBC" id="link-id0x1dc0cc08">Amazon EC2 Snapshots for DBpedia 3.6 + BBC combo</a> -- delivers the BBC and DBpedia dataset combo via a mountable Elastic Block Storage (EBS) device usable with an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia351C" id="link-id0x1de33b50">Amazon EC2 Snapshots for DBpedia 3.6 & 3.5</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/download/" id="link-id0x1c3e27c8">Virtuoso Commercial Edition Download Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/clusterstcnf.html" id="link-id0x1d0ff170">Virtuoso Cluster Edition Guide</a> </li> </ul>
2011-03-29T09:52:17.000001-04:00
DBpedia + BBC (combined) Linked Data Space Installation Guide
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-02-17#1656
2011-02-17T22:15:41Z
<h2>What? </h2> <p> The <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x1c489cc8">DBpedia</a> + <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/BBC" id="link-id0x1bf12698">BBC</a> Combo Linked Dataset </i> is a preconfigured <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1b16cbb0">Virtuoso</a> Cluster (4 Virtuoso Cluster Nodes, each comprised of one Virtuoso Instance; initial deployment is to a single Cluster Host, but license may be converted for physically distributed deployment), available via the Amazon EC2 Cloud, preloaded with the following datasets: </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/About" id="link-id0x1d21e780">DBpedia 3.6</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes" id="link-id0x1e1e0b10">BBC Programmes</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music" id="link-id0x1db12bd0">BBC Music</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/" id="link-id0x1bd46450">BBC Nature</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/" id="link-id0x1d1b2468">BBC Food Recipes</a> </li> </ul> <h2>Why?</h2> <p>The BBC has been publishing <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1b15eb60">Linked Data</a> from its <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> <a class="auto-href" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x1c4c38a8">Data Space</a> for a number of years. In line with best practices for injecting Linked Data into the <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1e5acda0">World Wide Web</a> (Web), the BBC datasets are interlinked with other datasets such as DBpedia and MusicBrainz. </p> <p>Typical follow-your-nose exploration using a Web Browser (or even via sophisticated <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1d21e728">SPARQL</a> query crawls) isn't always practical once you get past the initial euphoria that comes from comprehending the Linked Data concept. As your queries get more complex, the overhead of remote sub-queries increases its impact, until query results take so long to return that you simply give up.</p> <p>Thus, maximizing the effects of the BBC's efforts requires Linked Data that shares locality in a Web-accessible Data Space — i.e., where all Linked Data sets have been loaded into the same data store or warehouse. This holds true even when leveraging SPARQL-FED style virtualization — there's always a need to localize data as part of any marginally-decent locality-aware cost-optimization algorithm.</p> <p>This DBpedia + BBC dataset, exposed via a preloaded and preconfigured Virtuoso Cluster, delivers a practical point of presence on the Web for immediate and cost-effective exploitation of Linked Data at the individual and/or service specific levels.</p> <h2>How?</h2> To work through this guide, you'll need to start with 90 GB of free disk space. (Only 41 GB will be consumed after you delete the installer archives, but starting with 90+ GB ensures enough work space for the installation.) <h3>Install Virtuoso</h3> <ol> <li> <p> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/download/" id="link-id0x1af0d230">Download Virtuoso installer archive(s)</a>. You must deploy the Personal or Enterprise Edition; the Open Source Edition does not support Shared-Nothing Cluster Deployment.</p> </li> <li> <p> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/pricing/" id="link-id0x1e089f40">Obtain a Virtuoso Cluster license</a>.</p> </li> <li> <p> <a href="http://wikis.openlinksw.com/dataspace/owiki/wiki/VirtuosoWikiWeb/VirtuosoInstallDocs" id="link-id0x1e86d060">Install Virtuoso</a>.</p> </li> <li> <p>Set key environment variables and start the OpenLink License Manager, using command (this may vary depending on your shell and install directory): </p> <blockquote> <code>. /opt/virtuoso/virtuoso-enterprise.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p> <i>Optional:</i> To keep the default single-server configuration file and demo database intact, set the <code>VIRTUOSO_HOME</code> environment variable to a different directory, e.g., </p> <blockquote> <code>export VIRTUOSO_HOME=/opt/virtuoso/cluster-home/</code> </blockquote> <p> <i><b>Note:</b> You will have to adjust this setting every time you shift between this cluster setup and your single-server setup. Either may be made your environment's default through the <code>virtuoso-enterprise.sh</code> and related scripts.</i> </p> </li> <li> <p> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/clusterstcnf.html" id="link-id0x1e184dc0">Set up your cluster</a> by running the <code>mkcluster.sh</code> script. Note that initial deployment of the <i>DBpedia + BBC Combo</i> requires a 4 node cluster, which is the default for this script.</p> </li> <li> <p>Start the Virtuoso Cluster with this command:</p> <blockquote> <code>virtuoso-start.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Stop the Virtuoso Cluster with this command:</p> <blockquote> <code>virtuoso-stop.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <h3>Using the DBpedia + BBC Combo dataset</h3> <ol> <li> <p>Navigate to your installation directory.</p> </li> <li> <p>Download the combo dataset installer script — <code><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/bbc-dbpedia-36-usa/bbc-dbpedia-install.sh" id="link-id0x195d7940">bbc-dbpedia-install.sh</a></code>.</p> </li> <li> <p>For best results, set the downloaded script to fully executable using this command:</p> <blockquote> <code>chmod 755 bbc-dbpedia-install.sh </code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Shut down any Virtuoso instances that may be currently running.</p> </li> <li> <p> <i>Optional:</i> As above, if you have decided to keep the default single-server configuration file and demo database intact, set the <code>VIRTUOSO_HOME</code> environment variable appropriately, e.g., </p> <blockquote> <code>export VIRTUOSO_HOME=/opt/virtuoso/cluster-home/</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Run the combo dataset installer script with this command:</p> <blockquote> <code>sh bbc-dbpedia-install.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <h3>Verify installation</h3> <p>The combo dataset typically deploys to EC2 virtual machines in under 90 minutes; your time will vary depending on your network connection speed, machine speed, and other variables.</p> <p>Once the script completes, perform the following steps:</p> <ol> <li> <p>Verify that the Virtuoso Conductor (HTTP-based Admin UI) is in place via:</p> <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/conductor</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Verify that the Virtuoso SPARQL endpoint is in place via:</p> <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/sparql</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Verify that the Precision Search & Find UI is in place via:</p> <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/fct</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> <p>Verify that the Virtuoso hosted PivotViewer is in place via:</p> <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/PivotViewer</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/reduxd/beyond-the-polar-bear" id="link-id0x1bd43bf0">BBC Linked Data Spaces Presentation</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_music_solo_artists_snapshot.png" id="link-id0x1a7a5ae0">BBC Music Linked Dataset Snapshot</a> -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_programmes_snapshot_sorted_by_genre.png" id="link-id0x1c2022a8">BBC Programmes Linked Dataset Snapshot</a> -- -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_nature_snapshot_sorted_by_adaptation.png" id="link-id0x1e138ac0">BBC Nature Linked Dataset Snapshot</a> -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://kidehen-images.s3.amazonaws.com/bbc_recipes_snapshot.png" id="link-id0x1b795100">BBC Food Recipes Snapshot </a> -- PivotViewer Page Screenshot </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/bbc_linkeddata" id="link-id0x1c0ffcc8">My Del.icio.us bookmark collection re. BBC Linked Data Demos</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpediaBBC" id="link-id0x1dc0cc08">Amazon EC2 Snapshots for DBpedia 3.6 + BBC combo</a> -- delivers the BBC and DBpedia dataset combo via a mountable Elasti<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C%2B%2B" id="link-id0x1c2ad728">c</a> Block Storage (EBS) device usable with an Amazon Machine Image (AMI) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia351C" id="link-id0x1de33b50">Amazon EC2 Snapshots for DBpedia 3.6 & 3.5</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/download/" id="link-id0x1c3e27c8">Virtuoso Commercial Edition Download Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/clusterstcnf.html" id="link-id0x1d0ff170">Virtuoso Cluster Edition Guide</a> </li> </ul>
2011-03-29T10:09:45.000001-04:00
SPARQL Guide for the Perl Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-25#1655
2011-01-25T16:05:17Z
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id0x1bdcab80">Perl</a> developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x17b447e8">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1cc76540">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1d944d78">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1c7a87c8">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing.</p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> # # Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store via Perl. # # # HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1d6465e8">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with CSV query results format as the default via mime type. # use CGI qw/:standard/; use LWP::UserAgent; use Data::Dumper; use Text::CSV_XS; sub sparqlQuery(@args) { my $query=shift; my $baseURL=shift; my $format=shift; %params=( "default-graph" => "", "should-sponge" => "soft", "query" => $query, "debug" => "on", "timeout" => "", "format" => $format, "save" => "display", "fname" => "" ); @fragments=(); foreach $k (keys %params) { $fragment="$k=".CGI::escape($params{$k}); push(@fragments,$fragment); } $query=join("&", @fragments); $sparqlURL="${baseURL}?$query"; my $ua = LWP::UserAgent->new; $ua->agent("MyApp/0.1 "); my $req = HTTP::Request->new(GET => $sparqlURL); my $res = $ua->request($req); $str=$res->content; $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new(); foreach $line ( split(/^/, $str) ) { $csv->parse($line); @bits=$csv->fields(); push(@rows, [ @bits ] ); } return \@rows; } # Setting Data Source Name (DSN) $dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia"; # Virtuoso pragmas for instructing SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET using the IRI in # FROM clause as Data Source URL en route to DBMS # record Inserts. $query="DEFINE get:soft \"replace\"\n # Generic (non Virtuoso specific SPARQL # Note: this will not add records to the # DBMS SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <$dsn> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}"; $data=sparqlQuery($query, "http://localhost:8890/sparql/", "text/csv"); print "Retrieved data:\n"; print Dumper($data); </pre> <h4>Output</h4> <pre> Retrieved data: $VAR1 = [ [ 's', 'p', 'o' ], [ 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia', 'http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type', 'http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing' ], [ 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia', 'http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type', 'http://dbpedia.org/ontology/Work' ], [ 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia', 'http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type', 'http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Software106566077' ], ... </pre> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> CSV was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a Perl developer that already knows how to use Perl for HTTP based data access within HTML. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1d29da98">URI</a> abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://cpansearch.perl.org/src/TOBYINK/RDF-Query-Client-0.103/README" id="link-id0x1c279130">RDF::Query::Client Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1653" id="link-id0x1cf307f0">SPARQL Guide for the Perl Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1652" id="link-id0x1b0ffb28">SPARQL Guide for the PHP Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1651" id="link-id0x1a8c5ae0">SPARQL Guide for the Python Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1648" id="link-id0x1b86ad28">SPARQL Guide for the Ruby Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
2011-01-26T18:11:13-05:00
Virtuoso + DBpedia 3.6 Installation Guide (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-24#1654
2011-01-25T01:08:55Z
<h3>What is <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x1d8b5df0">DBpedia</a>?</h3> <p> DBpedia is a community effort to provide a contemporary deductive database derived from Wikipedia content. Project contributions can be partitioned as follows: </p> <ol> <li> Ontology Construction and Maintenance </li> <li> Dataset Generation via Wikipedia Content Extraction & Transformation </li> <li> Live Database Maintenance & Administration -- includes actual <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1ba81190">Linked Data</a> loading and publishing, provision of <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1d8af808">SPARQL</a> endpoint, and traditional DBA activity </li> <li> Internationalization. </li> </ol> <h3>Why is DBpedia important?</h3> <p> Comprising the nucleus of the Linked Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> effort, DBpedia also serves as a fulcrum for the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of Linked Data by delivering a dense and highly-interlinked lookup database. In its most basic form, DBpedia is a great source of strong and resolvable identifiers for People, Places, Organizations, Subject Matter, and many other data items of interest. Naturally, it provides a fantastic starting point for comprehending the fundamental concepts underlying <a class="auto-href" href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0x1a8cc3d0">TimBL</a>'s initial <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id0x1cbbaf50">Linked Data</a> meme. </p> <h3>How do I use DBpedia?</h3> <p> Depending on your particular requirements, whether personal or service-specific, DBpedia offers the following: </p> <ul> <li> Datasets that can be loaded on your deductive database (also known as triple or quad stores) platform of choice </li> <li> Live browsable HTML+<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id0x1d6b2148">RDFa</a> based <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1d766a98">entity</a> description pages </li> <li> A wide variety of data formats for importing entity description data into a broad range of existing applications and services </li> <li> A SPARQL endpoint allowing ad-hoc querying over HTTP using the SPARQL query language, and delivering results serialized in a variety of formats </li> <li> A broad variety of tools covering query by example, faceted browsing, <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id0x1b330ff8">full text search</a>, entity name lookups, etc. </li> </ul> <h3>What is the DBpedia 3.6 + <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1d705780">Virtuoso</a> Cluster Edition Combo?</h3> <p> <a class="auto-href" href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id0x1c894338">OpenLink Software</a> has preloaded the DBpedia 3.6 datasets into a preconfigured Virtuoso Cluster Edition database, and made the package available for easy installation.</p> <h3>Why is the DBpedia+Virtuoso package important?</h3> <p> The DBpedia+Virtuoso package provides a cost-effective option for personal or service-specific incarnations of DBpedia. </p> <p>For instance, you may have a service that isn't best-served by competing with the rest of the world for ad-hoc query time and resources on the live instance, which itself operates under various restrictions which enable this ad-hoc query service to be provided at Web Scale.</p> <p>Now you can easily commission your own instance and quickly exploit DBpedia and Virtuoso's database feature set to the max, powered by your own hardware and network infrastructure. </p> <h3>How do I use the DBpedia+Virtuoso package?</h3> <p>Pre-requisites are simply:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://wikis.openlinksw.com/dataspace/owiki/wiki/VirtuosoWikiWeb/VirtuosoInstallConfig" id="link-id0x19e3e450">Functional Virtuoso Cluster Edition installation</a>. </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/pricing/" id="link-id0x1b703ad8">Virtuoso Cluster Edition License</a>. </li> <li>90 GB of free disk space -- you ultimately only need 43 gigs, but this our recommended free disk space size pre installation completion.</li> </ol> <p> To install the Virtuoso Cluster Edition simply perform the following steps: </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/download/" id="link-id0x17b41648">Download Software</a>. </li> <li> Run installer </li> <li> <p>Set key environment variables and start the OpenLink License Manager, using command (this may vary depending on your shell): </p> <blockquote> <code>. /opt/virtuoso/virtuoso-enterprise.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Run the <code>mkcluster.sh</code> script which defaults to a 4 node cluster </li> <li> Set <code>VIRTUOSO_HOME</code> environment variable -- if you want to start cluster databases distinct from single server databases via distinct root directory for database files (one that isn't adjacent to single-server database directories) </li> <li> Start Virtuoso Cluster Edition instances using command: <blockquote> <code>virtuoso-start.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Stop Virtuoso Cluster Edition instances using command: <blockquote> <code>virtuoso-stop.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <p>To install your personal or service specific edition of DBpedia simply perform the following steps:</p> <ol> <li> Navigate to your installation directory </li> <li> Download Installer script (<code><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/dbpedia-36-usa/dbpedia-install.sh" id="link-id0x1da0c978">dbpedia-install.sh</a></code>) </li> <li> Set execution mode on script using command: <blockquote> <code>chmod 755 dbpedia-install.sh </code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Shutdown any Virtuoso instances that may be currently running </li> <li> Set your <code>VIRTUOSO_HOME</code> environment variable, e.g., to the current directory, via command (this may vary depending on your shell): <blockquote> <code>export VIRTUOSO_HOME=`pwd`</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Run script using command: <blockquote> <code>sh dbpedia-install.sh</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <p> Once the installation completes (approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes from start time), perform the following steps: </p> <ol> <li> Verify that the Virtuoso Conductor (HTML based Admin UI) is in place via: <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/conductor</code> </blockquote> </li> <li> Verify that the Precision Search & Find UI is in place via: <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/fct</code> </blockquote> </li> <li>Verify that DBpedia's Green Entity Description Pages are in place via: <blockquote> <code>http://localhost:[port]/resource/DBpedia</code> </blockquote> </li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia351C" id="link-id0x1d819b90">Amazon EC2 Snapshots for DBpedia 3.6 & 3.5</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/download/" id="link-id0x1c3e27c8">Virtuoso Commercial Edition Download Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/clusterstcnf.html" id="link-id0x1d0ff170">Virtuoso Cluster Edition Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1594" id="link-id0x1c891cf8">What is the DBpedia Project?</a> </li> </ul>
2011-01-25T14:46:26-05:00
SPARQL Guide for the Javascript Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-21#1653
2011-01-21T19:59:49Z
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any Javascript developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x17b447e8">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1cc76540">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1d944d78">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1c7a87c8">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing.</p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> /* Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store via Javascript. */ /* HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1bc27a18">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with JSON query results format as the default via mime type. */ function sparqlQuery(query, baseURL, format) { if(!format) format="application/json"; var params={ "default-graph": "", "should-sponge": "soft", "query": query, "debug": "on", "timeout": "", "format": format, "save": "display", "fname": "" }; var querypart=""; for(var k in params) { querypart+=k+"="+encodeURIComponent(params[k])+"&"; } var queryURL=baseURL + '?' + querypart; if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest(); } else { xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } xmlhttp.open("GET",queryURL,false); xmlhttp.send(); return JSON.parse(xmlhttp.responseText); } /* setting Data Source Name (DSN) */ var dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia"; /* Virtuoso pragma "DEFINE get:soft "replace" instructs Virtuoso SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET using the IRI in FROM clause as Data Source URL with regards to DBMS record inserts */ var query="DEFINE get:soft \"replace\"\nSELECT DISTINCT * FROM <"+dsn+"> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}"; var data=sparqlQuery(query, "/sparql/"); </pre> <h4>Output</h4> <p> Place the snippet above into the <script/> section of an HTML document to see the <a href="http://twitpic.com/3s2vs3/full" id="link-id0x1cff2288">query result</a>. </p> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> JSON was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a Javascript developer that already knows how to use Javascript for HTTP based data access within HTML. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1d29da98">URI</a> abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1652" id="link-id0x1b0ffb28">SPARQL Guide for the PHP Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1651" id="link-id0x1a8c5ae0">SPARQL Guide for the Python Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1648" id="link-id0x1b86ad28">SPARQL Guide for the Ruby Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
2011-01-26T18:10:28-05:00
SPARQL Guide for the PHP Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-20#1652
2011-01-20T21:25:49Z
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP_programming_language" id="link-id0x1bdca7b8">PHP</a> developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1c894338">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1c319af0">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1d944d78">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1c7a87c8">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing e.g. local object binding re. PHP.</p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li> From your command line execute: aptitude search '^PHP26', to verify PHP is in place </li> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> #!/usr/bin/env php <?php # # Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store via PHP. # # HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1ce1d6d8">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with JSON query results format in mind. function sparqlQuery($query, $baseURL, $format="application/json") { $params=array( "default-graph" => "", "should-sponge" => "soft", "query" => $query, "debug" => "on", "timeout" => "", "format" => $format, "save" => "display", "fname" => "" ); $querypart="?"; foreach($params as $name => $value) { $querypart=$querypart . $name . '=' . urlencode($value) . "&"; } $sparqlURL=$baseURL . $querypart; return json_decode(file_get_contents($sparqlURL)); }; # Setting Data Source Name (DSN) $dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia"; #Virtuoso pragmas for instructing SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET #using the IRI in FROM clause as Data Source URL $query="DEFINE get:soft \"replace\" SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <$dsn> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}"; $data=sparqlQuery($query, "http://localhost:8890/sparql/"); print "Retrieved data:\n" . json_encode($data); ?> </pre> <h4>Output</h4> <pre> Retrieved data: {"head": {"link":[],"vars":["s","p","o"]}, "results": {"distinct":false,"ordered":true, "bindings":[ {"s": {"type":"<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1ca44a98">uri</a>","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/DBpedia"},"p": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/02\/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type"},"o": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2002\/07\/owl#Thing"}}, {"s": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/DBpedia"},"p": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/02\/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type"},"o": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/ontology\/Work"}}, {"s": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/resource\/DBpedia"},"p": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/02\/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type"},"o": {"type":"uri","value":"http:\/\/dbpedia.org\/class\/yago\/Software106566077"}}, ... </pre> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> JSON was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a PHP developer that already knows how to use PHP for HTTP based data access. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via URI abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1651" id="link-id0x1a8c5ae0">SPARQL Guide for the Python Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1648" id="link-id0x1b86ad28">SPARQL Guide for the Ruby Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
2011-01-25T10:36:58-05:00
SPARQL Guide for Python Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-19#1651
2011-01-19T17:13:30Z
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id0x1bdca7b8">Python</a> developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1c894338">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1c319af0">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1d944d78">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1c7a87c8">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing e.g. local object binding re. Python.</p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li> From your command line execute: aptitude search '^python26', to verify Python is in place </li> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> #!/usr/bin/env python # # Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store via Python. # import urllib, json # HTTP <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1bd91cf0">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with JSON query results format in mind. def sparqlQuery(query, baseURL, format="application/json"): params={ "default-graph": "", "should-sponge": "soft", "query": query, "debug": "on", "timeout": "", "format": format, "save": "display", "fname": "" } querypart=urllib.urlencode(params) response = urllib.urlopen(baseURL,querypart).read() return json.loads(response) # Setting Data Source Name (DSN) dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" # Virtuoso pragmas for instructing SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET # using the IRI in FROM clause as Data Source URL query="""DEFINE get:soft "replace" SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <%s> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}""" % dsn data=sparqlQuery(query, "http://localhost:8890/sparql/") print "Retrieved data:\n" + json.dumps(data, sort_keys=True, indent=4) # # End </pre> <h4>Output</h4> <pre> Retrieved data: { "head": { "link": [], "vars": [ "s", "p", "o" ] }, "results": { "bindings": [ { "o": { "type": "<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1b1470b8">uri</a>", "value": "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing" }, "p": { "type": "uri", "value": "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type" }, "s": { "type": "uri", "value": "http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" } }, ... </pre> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> JSON was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a Python developer that already knows how to use Python for HTTP based data access. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via URI abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1648" id="link-id0x1c9e26b0">SPARQL Guide for the Ruby Developer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
2011-01-25T10:35:46-05:00
SPARQL for the Ruby Developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-18#1648
2011-01-18T19:48:34Z
<h3>What?</h3> <p>A simple guide usable by any <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id0x1bb88908">Ruby</a> developer seeking to exploit <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1ae67500">SPARQL</a> without hassles.</p> <h3>Why?</h3> <p>SPARQL is a powerful query language, results serialization format, and an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access protocol from the W3C. It provides a mechanism for accessing and integrating data across <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1bc61d88">Deductive Database Systems</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1cc11420">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1b2e7780">Linked Data</a> circles) -- database systems (or data spaces) that manage proposition oriented records in 3-tuple (triples) or 4-tuple (quads) form. </p> <h3>How?</h3> <p>SPARQL queries are actually HTTP payloads (typically). Thus, using a RESTful client-server interaction pattern, you can dispatch calls to a SPARQL compliant data server and receive a payload for local processing e.g. local object binding re. Ruby. </p> <h4>Steps:</h4> <ol> <li> From your command line execute: aptitude search '^ruby', to verify Ruby is in place </li> <li>Determine which SPARQL endpoint you want to access e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d476520">DBpedia</a> or a local <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1bcfe140">Virtuoso</a> instance (typically: http://localhost:8890/sparql). </li> <li>If using Virtuoso, and you want to populate its quad store using SPARQL, assign "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1c7630b8">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL" (this is basic control, more sophisticated WebID based ACLs are available for controlling SPARQL access).</li> </ol> <h4>Script:</h4> <pre> #!/usr/bin/env ruby # # Demonstrating use of a single query to populate a # Virtuoso Quad Store. # require 'net/http' require 'cgi' require 'csv' # # We opt for CSV based output since handling this format is straightforward in Ruby, by default. # HTTP <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1acee348">URL</a> is constructed accordingly with CSV as query results format in mind. def sparqlQuery(query, baseURL, format="text/csv") params={ "default-graph" => "", "should-sponge" => "soft", "query" => query, "debug" => "on", "timeout" => "", "format" => format, "save" => "display", "fname" => "" } querypart="" params.each { |k,v| querypart+="#{k}=#{CGI.escape(v)}&" } sparqlURL=baseURL+"?#{querypart}" response = Net::HTTP.get_response(<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1d24dfd8">URI</a>.parse(sparqlURL)) return CSV::parse(response.body) end # Setting Data Source Name (DSN) dsn="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" #Virtuoso pragmas for instructing SPARQL engine to perform an HTTP GET #using the IRI in FROM clause as Data Source URL query="DEFINE get:soft \"replace\" SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <#{dsn}> WHERE {?s ?p ?o} " #Assume use of local installation of Virtuoso #otherwise you can change URL to that of a public endpoint #for example DBpedia: http://dbpedia.org/sparql data=sparqlQuery(query, "http://localhost:8890/sparql/") puts "Got data:" p data # # End </pre><h4>Output</h4> <pre> Got data: [["s", "p", "o"], ["http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia", "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type", "http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing"], ["http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia", "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type", "http://dbpedia.org/ontology/Work"], ["http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia", "http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#type", "http://dbpedia.org/class/yago/Software106566077"], ... </pre> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values" id="link-id0x1cac8420">CSV</a> was chosen over XML (re. output format) since this is about a "no-brainer installation and utilization" guide for a Ruby developer that already knows how to use Ruby for HTTP based data access. SPARQL just provides an added bonus to URL dexterity (delivered via URI abstraction) with regards to constructing Data Source Names or Addresses.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.taxonconcept.org/how-to/ruby-code-examples/how-do-i-use-ruby-to-query-a-sparql-endpoint.html" id="link-id0x1aa83678">SPARQL and Ruby SPARQL Client Library Example</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1646" id="link-id0x1c7af188">Simple Guide for using SPARQL with Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1ac1ba48">General SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/virtuoso_sparql_tutorial" id="link-id0x1c7be660">Virtuoso Specific SPARQL Tutorial Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1c52b438">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a>. </li> </ul>
2011-01-25T10:17:12.000002-05:00
Simple Virtuoso Installation & Utilization Guide for SPARQL Users (Update 5)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2011-01-16#1647
2011-01-16T07:06:21Z
<h3>What is <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1ab60ac0">SPARQL</a>?</h3> <p>A declarative query language from the W3C for querying structured propositional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> (in the form of 3-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuple" id="link-id0x1b1e0010">tuple</a> [triples] or 4-tuple [quads] records) stored in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deductive_database" id="link-id0x1cf8af98">deductive database</a> (colloquially referred to as triple or quad stores in <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1caf5050">Semantic Web</a> and <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x19d781b8">Linked Data</a> parlance).</p> <p>SPARQL is inherently platform independent. Like <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x1b879140">SQL</a>, the query language and the backend database engine are distinct. Database clients capture SPARQL queries which are then passed on to compliant backend databases.</p> <h3>Why is it important?</h3> <p>Like SQL for relational databases, it provides a powerful mechanism for accessing and joining data across one or more data partitions (named graphs identified by IRIs). The aforementioned capability also enables the construction of sophisticated Views, Reports (HTML or those produced in native form by desktop productivity tools), and data streams for other services.</p> <p>Unlike SQL, SPARQL includes result serialization formats and an HTTP based wire protocol. Thus, the ubiquity and sophistication of HTTP is integral to SPARQL i.e., client side applications (user agents) only need to be able to perform an HTTP GET against a <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1ba287e8">URL</a> en route to exploiting the power of SPARQL.</p> <h3>How do I use it, generally?</h3> <ol> <li>Locate a SPARQL endpoint (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/sparql" id="link-id0x1d7436b0">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id0x1bf20690">LOD Cloud Cache</a>, <a href="http://semantic.data.gov" id="link-id0x1a8ebc28">Data.Gov</a>, <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/sparql" id="link-id0x1be93070">URIBurner</a>, <a href="http://www.delicious.com/kidehen/sparql_endpoint" id="link-id0x1cce9b40">others</a>), or;</li> <li>Install a SPARQL compliant database server (quad or triple store) on your desktop, workgroup server, data center, or cloud (e.g., <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtuosoEC2AMI" id="link-id0x1cd697a0">Amazon EC2 AMI</a>)</li> <li>Start the database server</li> <li>Execute SPARQL Queries via the <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id0x1b99d790">SPARQL endpoint.</a> </li> </ol> <h3>How do I use SPARQL with <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1c9adc80">Virtuoso</a>?</h3> <p>What follows is a very simple guide for using SPARQL against your own instance of Virtuoso:</p> <ol> <li>Software Download and Installation</li> <li>Data Loading from Data Sources exposed at Network Addresses (e.g. HTTP URLs) using very simple methods</li> <li>Actual SPARQL query execution via SPARQL endpoint.</li> </ol> <h3>Installation Steps</h3> <ol> <li> Download <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSDownload" id="link-id0x1b795100">Virtuoso Open Source</a> or <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/virtwiz/virtuoso.php" id="link-id0x1cce46f0">Virtuoso Commercial</a> Editions </li> <li> Run installer (if using Commercial edition of Windows Open Source Edition, otherwise follow build guide) </li> <li> Follow post-installation guide and verify installation by typing in the command: virtuoso -? (if this fails check you've followed installation and setup steps, then verify environment variables have been set) </li> <li> Start the Virtuoso server using the command: virtuoso-start.sh </li> <li> Verify you have a connection to the Virtuoso Server via the command: isql localhost (assuming you're using default DB settings) or the command: isql localhost:1112 (assuming demo database) or goto your browser and type in: http://<virtuoso-server-host-name>:[port]/conductor (e.g. http://localhost:8889/conductor for default DB or http://localhost:8890/conductor if using Demo DB) </li> <li> Go to SPARQL endpoint which is typically -- http://<virtuoso-server-host-name>:[port]/sparql </li> <li> Run a quick sample query (since the database always has system data in place): select distinct * where {?s ?p ?o} limit 50 .</li> </ol> <h3>Troubleshooting</h3> <ol> <li>Ensure environment settings are set and functional -- if using Mac OS X or Windows, so you don't have to worry about this, just start and stop your Virtuoso server using native OS services applets</li> <li>If using the Open Source Edition, follow the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSMake#Getting%20Started" id="link-id0x1bfa7548">getting started guide</a> -- it covers PATH and startup directory location re. starting and stopping Virtuoso servers.</li> <li>Sponging (HTTP GETs against external Data Sources) within SPARQL queries is disabled by default. You can enable this feature by assigning "<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfsparql.html#rdfsupportedprotocolendpointuri" id="link-id0x1d566270">SPARQL_SPONGE</a>" privileges to user "SPARQL". Note, more sophisticated security exists via <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAuthPolicyFOAFSSL" id="link-id0x1a3c9eb8">WebID based ACLs</a>. </li> </ol> <h3>Data Loading Steps</h3> <ol> <li> Identify an RDF based structured data source of interest -- a file that contains 3-tuple / triples available at an address on a public or private HTTP based network </li> <li>Determine the Address (URL) of the RDF data source</li> <li>Go to your Virtuoso SPARQL endpoint and type in the following SPARQL query: DEFINE GET:SOFT "replace" SELECT DISTINCT * FROM <RDFDataSourceURL> WHERE {?s ?p ?o} </li> <li> All the triples in the RDF resource (data source accessed via URL) will be loaded into the Virtuoso Quad Store (using RDF Data Source URL as the internal quad store Named Graph IRI) as part of the SPARQL query processing pipeline. </li> </ol> <p> Note: the data source URL doesn't even have to be RDF based -- which is where the Virtuoso <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id0x1d1a0978">Sponger</a> Middleware comes into play (download and install the <a href="http://s3.amazonaws.com/opldownload/uda/vad-packages/6.1/virtuoso/rdf_mappers_dav.vad" id="link-id0x1d0e1530">VAD installer package</a> first) since it delivers the following features to Virtuoso's SPARQL engine: </p> <ol> <li> Transformation of data from non RDF data sources (file content, hypermedia resources, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a> services output etc..) into RDF based 3-tuples (triples)</li> <li> Cache Invalidation Scheme Construction -- thus, subsequent queries (without the define get:soft "replace" pragma will not be required bar when you forcefully want to override cache).</li> <li> If you have very large data sources like DBpedia etc. from CKAN, simply use our <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtBulkRDFLoader" id="link-id0x1d19b4b0">bulk loader</a> . </li> </ol> <h3>SPARQL Endpoint Discovery</h3> <p>Public SPARQL endpoints are emerging at an ever increasing rate. Thus, we've setup up a DNS lookup service that provides access to a large number of SPARQL endpoints. Of course, this doesn't cover all existing endpoints, so if our endpoint is missing please ping <a class="auto-href" href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x1d634848">me</a>.</p> <p>Here are a collection of commands for using DNS-SD to discover SPARQL endpoints:</p> <ol> <li>dns-sd -B _sparql._tcp sparql.openlinksw.com -- browse for services instances</li> <li>dns-sd -Z _sparql._tcp sparql.openlinksw.com -- output results in Zone File format</li> <li></li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.ensta.fr/~diam/ruby/online/ruby-doc-stdlib/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/index.html" id="link-id0x1b156610">Using HTTP from Ruby</a> -- you can just make <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSSparqlProtocol" id="link-id0x1d024d60">SPARQL Protocol URLs</a> re. SPARQL</li> <li> <a href="http://sparql.rubyforge.org/client/" id="link-id0x1cd43a48">Using SPARQL Endpoints via Ruby</a> -- Ruby example using DBpedia endpoint</li> <li> <a href="http://wikis.openlinksw.com/dataspace/owiki/wiki/OATWikiWeb/InteractiveSparqlQueryBuilder" id="link-id0x1b9d2190">Interactive SPARQL Query By Example (QBE) tool</a> -- provides a graphical user interface (as is common in SQL realm re. query building against <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id0x1bfffb70">RDBMS</a> engines) that works with any SPARQL endpoint </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRDFInsert" id="link-id0x1ab63de0">Other methods of loading RDF data into Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSponger" id="link-id0x1ca248e0">Virtuoso Sponger</a> -- architecture and how it turns a wide variety of non RDF data sources into SPARQL accessible data </li> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/example.html" id="link-id0x1be34758">Using OpenLink Data Explorer</a> (ODE) to populate Virtuoso -- locate a resource of interest; click on a bookmarklet or use <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id0x1ca84af0">context</a> menus (if using ODE extensions for Firefox, Safari, or Chrome); and you'll have SPARQL accessible data automatically inserted into your Virtuoso instance. </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1295" id="link-id0x1c9060f0">W3C's SPARQLing Data Access Ingenuity</a> -- an older generic SPARQL introduction post </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSPARQLRef" id="link-id0x1cf1e298">Collection of SPARQL Query Examples </a>-- GoodRelations (Product Offers), <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id0x1c0445d0">FOAF</a> (Profiles), <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id0x1b785e48">SIOC</a> (Data Spaces -- <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleBlog" id="link-id0x1b6c9f78">Blogs</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleWiki" id="link-id0x1c188280">Wikis</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleBookmarks" id="link-id0x1a9a8f98">Bookmarks</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleFeeds" id="link-id0x1720c658">Feed Collections</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleGallery" id="link-id0x1cdba348">Photo Galleries</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleBriefcase" id="link-id0x1c8f1148">Briefcase/DropBox</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleAddressbook" id="link-id0x1b5eb7e0">AddressBook</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleCalendar" id="link-id0x1c575120">Calendars</a>, <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSAtomOWLRefExampleDiscussions" id="link-id0x1c73be98">Discussion Forums</a>) </li> <li> <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/demo_queries/" id="link-id0x1b08aa00">Collection of Live SPARQL Queries against LOD Cloud Cache</a> -- simple and advanced queries. </li> </ol>
2011-01-19T10:43:35-05:00
Rough draft poem: Document, what art thou?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-11-11#1646
2010-11-11T18:44:36Z
<em>I am the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Container, Disseminator, and Canvas.<br /> I came to be when the cognitive skills of mankind deemed oral history inadequate.<br /> I am transcendent, I take many forms, but my core purpose is constant - Container, Disseminator, and Canvas.<br /> I am dexterous, so I can be blank, partitioned horizontally, horizontally and vertically, and if you get moi excited and I'll show you fractals.<br /> I am accessible in a number of ways, across a plethora of media.<br /> I am loose, so you can access my content too.<br /> I am loose in a cool way, so you can refer to moi independent of my content.<br /> I am cool in a loose way, so you can refer to my content independent of moi.<br /> I am even cool and loose enough to let you figure out stuff from my content including how its totally distinct from moi.<br /> <strong>But...</strong> <br /> I am possessive about my coolness, so all Containment, Dissemination, and Canvas requirements must first call upon moi, wherever I might be.<br /> <strong>So...</strong> <br /> If you postulate about my demise or irrelevance, across any medium, I will punish you with confusion!<br /> <strong>Remember...</strong> <br /> I just told you who I am. <br /> <strong>Lesson to be learned..</strong> <br /> When something tells you what it is, and it is as powerful as I, best you believe it.<br /> BTW -- I am Okay with HTTP response code 200 OK :-) </em>
2010-11-12T18:08:25-05:00
7 Things Brought to You by HTTP-based Hypermedia
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-11-08#1644
2010-11-08T21:43:28Z
<p>There are some very powerful benefits that accrue from the use of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id0x1b498648">HTTP</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypermedia" id="link-id0x1be1e208">Hypermedia</a>. 7 that come to mind immediately include: </p> <ol> <li>Structured & Platform Independent Enterprise <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id0x1ab5d6c8">Data Virtualization</a> -- concrete conceptual level access and provisioning of abstract domain entities such as Customers, Orders, Employees, Products, Countries, Competitors etc.</li> <li>Distributed Application State (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer" id="link-id0x1a8a0e38">REST</a>) -- application state transitions via links</li> <li> Structured Data Representation (<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1acf1aa0">Linked Data</a>) -- whole data data representation via links </li> <li> Structured Identity (<a href="http://esw.w3.org/WebID" id="link-id0x1a484548">WebID</a>) -- verifiable distributed identity </li> <li> Structured Profiles (<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id0xa00bca8">FOAF</a>) -- platform independent profiles for people and organizations </li> <li> Articulation of Structured Value Propositions (<a href="http://www.heppnetz.de/projects/goodrelations/" id="link-id0x1a4793d0">GoodRelations</a>) -- Product & Service Offers, Business Entities, Locations, Business Hours, etc. </li> <li> Structured Collaboration Spaces (<a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/" id="link-id0x1afb8b40">SIOC</a>) -- Blogs, Wikis, File Sharing, Discussion Forums, Aggregated Feeds, Statuses, Photo Galleries, Polls etc.</li> </ol>
2010-11-08T15:29:43-05:00
6 Things That Must Remain Distinct re. Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-11-03#1643
2010-11-03T17:02:32Z
<p>Conflation is the tech industry's equivalent of macroeconomic inflation. Whenever it rears it head, we lose value courtesy of diminishing productivity.</p> <p>Looking retrospectively at any technology failure -- enterprises or industry at large -- you will eventually discover -- at the core -- messy conflation of at least one of the following:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Model (Semantics) </li> <li> Data Object (<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x138a4c88">Entity</a>) Names (Identifiers) </li> <li> Data Representation Syntax (Markup) </li> <li> Data Access Protocol </li> <li> Data Presentation Syntax (Markup) </li> <li> Data Presentation Media. </li> </ol> <p>The <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id0x1b4a9918">Internet</a> & <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1a8f8700">World Wide Web</a> (InterWeb) are massive successes because their respective architectural cores embody the critical separation outlined above.</p> <p>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x156246e0">Linked Data</a> is going to become a global reality, and massive success, because it leverages inherently sound architecture -- bar conflationary distractions of RDF. :-)</p>
2010-11-04T11:01:39.000002-04:00
Virtuoso Linked Data Deployment 3-Step
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-10-29#1641
2010-10-29T22:54:32Z
<p>Injecting <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x17012e18">Linked Data</a> into the Web has been a major pain point for those who seek personal, service, or organization-specific variants of <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x196518a8">DBpedia</a>. Basically, the sequence goes something like this: </p> <ol> <li> You encounter DBpedia or the <a class="auto-href" href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id0x1b26d008">LOD</a> Cloud Pictorial.</li> <li> You look around (typically following your nose from link to link). </li> <li> You attempt to publish your own stuff. </li> <li> You get stuck. </li> </ol> <p>The problems typically take the following form:</p> <ol> <li> Functionality confusion about the complementary Name and Address functionality of a single <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0xa108a00">URI</a> abstraction </li> <li> Terminology confusion due to conflation and over-loading of terms such as Resource, <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1b3d08f8">URL</a>, Representation, Document, etc. </li> <li> Inability to find robust tools with which to generate Linked Data from existing data sources such as relational databases, CSV files, XML, Web Services, etc. </li> </ol> <p>To start addressing these problems, here is a simple guide for generating and publishing Linked Data using <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1a7841e0">Virtuoso</a>.</p> <h3>Step 1 - RDF Data Generation</h3> <p>Existing RDF data can be added to the Virtuoso RDF Quad Store via a variety of built-in data loader utilities.</p> <p>Many options allow you to easily and quickly generate RDF data from other data sources:</p> <ul> <li> Install the Sponger Bookmarklet for the <a href="http://uriburner.com" id="link-id0x1aa50800">URIBurner service</a>. Bind this to your own <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1a4255e0">SPARQL</a>-compliant backend RDF database (in this scenario, your local Virtuoso instance), and then Sponge some HTTP-accessible resources. </li> <li> Convert relational DBMS data to RDF using the Virtuoso RDF Views Wizard. </li> <li> Starting with CSV files, you can <ul> <li>Place them at an HTTP-accessible location, and use the Virtuoso <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id0x16f7ba58">Sponger</a> to convert them to RDF or; </li> <li> Use the CVS import feature to import their content into Virtuoso's relational data engine; then use the built-in RDF Views Wizard as with other <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id0x1982ea80">RDBMS</a> data. </li> </ul> </li> <li> Starting from XML files, you can <ul> <li> Use Virtuoso's inbuilt XSLT-Processor for manual XML to RDF/XML transformation or;</li> <li>Leverage the Sponger Cartridge for <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL" id="link-id0x1b350968">GRDDL</a>, if there is a transformation service associated with your XML data source, or;</li> <li>Let the Sponger analyze the XML data source and make a best-effort transformation to RDF.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h3>Step 2 - Linked Data Deployment</h3> <p> Install the <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/packages/6.2/virtuoso/fct_dav.vad" id="link-id0x19845ad0">Faceted Browser VAD package (<code>fct_dav.vad</code>)</a> which delivers the following:</p> <ol> <li> Faceted Browser Engine UI</li> <li> Dynamic Hypermedia Resource Generator <ul> <li>delivers descriptor resources for every <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1b3a69f0">entity</a> (data object) in the Native or Virtual Quad Stores</li> <li>supports a broad array of output formats, including HTML+<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id0x1a92d2f8">RDFa</a>, RDF/XML, N3/Turtle, NTriples, RDF-JSON, OData+Atom, and OData+JSON. </li> </ul> </li> </ol> <h3>Step 3 - Linked Data Consumption & Exploitation</h3> <p> Three simple steps allow you, your enterprise, and your customers to consume and exploit your newly deployed Linked Data -- </p> <ol> <li> Load a page like this in your browser: <code>http://<cname>[:<port>]/describe/?uri=<entity-uri></code> <ul> <li> <code><cname>[:<port>]</code> gets replaced by the host and port of your Virtuoso instance</li> <li> <code><entity-uri></code> gets replaced by the URI you want to see described -- for instance, the URI of one of the resources you let the Sponger handle. </li> </ul> </li> <li> Follow the links presented in the descriptor page. </li> <li>If you ever see a blank page with a hyperlink subject name in the About: section at the top of the page, simply add the parameter "&sp=1" to the URL in the browser's Address box, and hit [ENTER]. This will result in an "on the fly" resource retrieval, transformation, and descriptor page generation.</li> <li> Use the navigator controls to page up and down the data associated with the "in scope" resource descriptor. </li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flinkeddata.uriburner.com%2Fabout%2Fid%2Fentity%2Fhttp%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fo%2FASIN%2F006251587X" id="link-id0x1a8aeaf8">Sample Descriptor Page</a> (what you see post completion of the steps in this post) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1639" id="link-id0x1af66f38">What is Linked Data, really?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1613" id="link-id0x1acdbc58">Painless Linked Data Generation via URIBurner</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRDFInsert" id="link-id0x1abe3b18">How To Load RDF Data Into Virtuoso</a> (various methods)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtBulkRDFLoader" id="link-id0x1a441ff0">Virtuoso Bulk Loader Script for RDF</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtCsvFileBulkLoader" id="link-id0x190382e8">Bulk Loader Script for CSV</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRdb2RDFViewsGeneration#OneClickLinkedDataGenerationAndDemployment" id="link-id0x1ac9c9c0">Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data from ODBC accessible Relational Databases </a> </li> </ul>
2010-11-02T11:57:47.000001-04:00
Virtuoso Linked Data Deployment In 3 Simple Steps
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-10-29#1642
2010-10-29T22:54:32Z
<p>Injecting <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x17012e18">Linked Data</a> into the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> has been a major pain point for those who seek personal, service, or organization-specific variants of <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x196518a8">DBpedia</a>. Basically, the sequence goes something like this: </p> <ol> <li> You encounter DBpedia or the <a class="auto-href" href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id0x1b26d008">LOD</a> Cloud Pictorial.</li> <li> You look around (typically following your nose from link to link). </li> <li> You attempt to publish your own stuff. </li> <li> You get stuck. </li> </ol> <p>The problems typically take the following form:</p> <ol> <li> Functionality confusion about the complementary Name and Address functionality of a single <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0xa108a00">URI</a> abstraction </li> <li> Terminology confusion due to conflation and over-loading of terms such as Resource, <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1b3d08f8">URL</a>, Representation, Document, etc. </li> <li> Inability to find robust tools with which to generate Linked Data from existing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sources such as relational databases, CSV files, XML, Web Services, etc. </li> </ol> <p>To start addressing these problems, here is a simple guide for generating and publishing Linked Data using <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1a7841e0">Virtuoso</a>.</p> <h3>Step 1 - RDF Data Generation</h3> <p>Existing RDF data can be added to the Virtuoso RDF Quad Store via a variety of built-in data loader utilities.</p> <p>Many options allow you to easily and quickly generate RDF data from other data sources:</p> <ul> <li> Install the Sponger Bookmarklet for the <a href="http://uriburner.com" id="link-id0x1aa50800">URIBurner service</a>. Bind this to your own <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1a4255e0">SPARQL</a>-compliant backend RDF database (in this scenario, your local Virtuoso instance), and then Sponge some HTTP-accessible resources. </li> <li> Convert relational DBMS data to RDF using the Virtuoso RDF Views Wizard. </li> <li> Starting with CSV files, you can <ul> <li>Place them at an HTTP-accessible location, and use the Virtuoso <a class="auto-href" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id0x16f7ba58">Sponger</a> to convert them to RDF or; </li> <li> Use the CVS import feature to import their content into Virtuoso's relational data engine; then use the built-in RDF Views Wizard as with other <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id0x1982ea80">RDBMS</a> data. </li> </ul> </li> <li> Starting from XML files, you can <ul> <li> Use Virtuoso's inbuilt XSLT-Processor for manual XML to RDF/XML transformation or;</li> <li>Leverage the Sponger Cartridge for <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL" id="link-id0x1b350968">GRDDL</a>, if there is a transformation service associated with your XML data source, or;</li> <li>Let the Sponger analyze the XML data source and make a best-effort transformation to RDF.</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <h3>Step 2 - Linked Data Deployment</h3> <p> Install the <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/packages/6.2/virtuoso/fct_dav.vad" id="link-id0x19845ad0">Faceted Browser VAD package (<code>fct_dav.vad</code>)</a> which delivers the following:</p> <ol> <li> Faceted Browser Engine UI</li> <li> Dynamic Hypermedia Resource Generator <ul> <li>delivers descriptor resources for every <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1b3a69f0">entity</a> (data object) in the Native or Virtual Quad Stores</li> <li>supports a broad array of output formats, including HTML+<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id0x1a92d2f8">RDFa</a>, RDF/XML, N3/Turtle, NTriples, RDF-JSON, OData+Atom, and OData+JSON. </li> </ul> </li> </ol> <h3>Step 3 - Linked Data Consumption & Exploitation</h3> <p> Three simple steps allow you, your enterprise, and your customers to consume and exploit your newly deployed Linked Data -- </p> <ol> <li> Load a page like this in your browser: <code>http://<cname>[:<port>]/describe/?uri=<entity-uri></code> <ul> <li> <code><cname>[:<port>]</code> gets replaced by the host and port of your Virtuoso instance</li> <li> <code><entity-uri></code> gets replaced by the URI you want to see described -- for instance, the URI of one of the resources you let the Sponger handle. </li> </ul> </li> <li> Follow the links presented in the descriptor page. </li> <li>If you ever see a blank page with a hyperlink subject name in the About: section at the top of the page, simply add the parameter "&sp=1" to the URL in the browser's Address box, and hit [ENTER]. This will result in an "on the fly" resource retrieval, transformation, and descriptor page generation.</li> <li> Use the navigator controls to page up and down the data associated with the "in scope" resource descriptor. </li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flinkeddata.uriburner.com%2Fabout%2Fid%2Fentity%2Fhttp%2Fwww.amazon.com%2Fo%2FASIN%2F006251587X" id="link-id0x1a8aeaf8">Sample Descriptor Page</a> (what you see post completion of the steps in this post) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1639" id="link-id0x1af66f38">What is Linked Data, really?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1613" id="link-id0x1acdbc58">Painless Linked Data Generation via URIBurner</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRDFInsert" id="link-id0x1abe3b18">How To Load RDF Data Into Virtuoso</a> (various methods)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtBulkRDFLoader" id="link-id0x1a441ff0">Virtuoso Bulk Loader Script for RDF</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtCsvFileBulkLoader" id="link-id0x190382e8">Bulk Loader Script for CSV</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRdb2RDFViewsGeneration#OneClickLinkedDataGenerationAndDemployment" id="link-id0x1ac9c9c0">Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data from ODBC accessible Relational Databases </a> </li> </ul>
2010-11-02T11:55:31.000005-04:00
Business Of Linked Data: Data Quality Factors
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-10-25#1640
2010-10-25T17:50:23Z
<p>Via my "<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id0x1a39dd88">context</a> lenses" (i.e., my subjective view of the world) a unit of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> (or Datum) is like a cube of sugar, each side representing a value factor along the following dimensions:</p> <ol> <li> Identity -- via Resolvable URIs based Names for everything </li> <li> Data Representation Format Dexterity -- e.g., HTTP based Content Negotiation which loosens the coupling between Data Model Semantics and actual Data Representation (Syntax/Markup) </li> <li> Platform Agnostic Data Access -- e.g. via ubiquitous HTTP </li> <li> Change Sensitivity -- data warehouses are like real-world warehouses, goods rot and perish overtime </li> <li>Provenance -- data about the data (metadata) that helps establish "Who", "What", "When", "Where", and at least approximate or guesstimate "Why" </li> <li> Data Mesh Navigability -- delivered via inference rules.</li> </ol> <p>The quality of service factors above nullify many of the typical concerns associated data driven business models, such as:</p> <ul> <li> Wholesale Imports (crawls) - where your data is crawled and/or imported wholesale into a new <a class="auto-href" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x1b1aaa98">data space</a> with zero attribution to the source </li> <li> Lossy Attribution -- attribution is delivered in literal form which doesn't deliver branding fidelity across many value chain layers or entire life cycle of a given data item </li> <li> Service Provisioning -- effectively build any business model if you can align services with unambiguously identifiable consumers with actual data items or across entire data spaces. </li> </ul>
2010-10-25T17:09:02.000013-04:00
What is Linked Data, really?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-10-14#1645
2010-10-14T23:10:26Z
<p> <b> <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1e81beb0">Linked Data</a> </i> </b> is simply <i><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypermedia" id="link-id0x1d9d5e30">hypermedia</a>-based structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>.</i> </p> <p>Linked Data offers everyone a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a>-scale, Enterprise-grade mechanism for platform-independent creation, curation, access, and integration of data.</p> <p>The fundamental steps to creating Linked Data are as follows:</p> <ol> <li> <p>Choose a <i>Name Reference Mechanism</i> — i.e., URIs.</p> </li> <li> <p>Choose a <i>Data Model</i> with which to Structure your Data — minimally, you need a model which clearly distinguishes</p> <ol type="a"> <li> <i>Subjects</i> (also known as <i>Entities</i>)</li> <li> <i>Subject Attributes</i> (also known as <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x171a1808">Entity</a> Attributes</i>), and</li> <li> <i>Attribute Values</i> (also known as <i>Subject Attribute Values</i> or <i>Entity Attribute Values</i>).</li> </ol> </li> <li> <p>Choose one or more <i>Data Representation Syntaxes</i> (also called <i>Markup Languages</i> or <i>Data Formats</i>) to use when creating <i>Resources</i> with <i>Content</i> based on your chosen <i>Data Model.</i> Some Syntaxes in common use today are HTML+<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id0x1a95cc58">RDFa</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Notation3" id="link-id0x1f596330">N3</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TeamSubmission/turtle/" id="link-id0x16fdca68">Turtle</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/" id="link-id0x1d7cf0c0">RDF/XML</a>, <a href="http://sw.nokia.com/trix/TriX.html" id="link-id0x19690b60">TriX</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extensible_Resource_Descriptor" id="link-id0x1bb46968">XRDS</a>, <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/index.html" id="link-id0x18f63f20">GData</a>, <a href="http://odata.org" id="link-id0x19aee1e0">OData</a>, <a href="http://opengraphprotocol.org/" id="link-id0x1a43eb78">OpenGraph</a>, and many others.</p> </li> <li> <p>Choose a <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x19aa3900">URI</a> Scheme</i> that facilitates binding <i>Referenced Names</i> to the <i>Resources</i> which will carry your <i>Content</i> -- your <i>Structured Data.</i> </p> </li> <li> <p>Create <i>Structured Data</i> by using your chosen <i>Name Reference Mechanism,</i> your chosen <i>Data Model,</i> and your chosen <i>Data Representation Syntax,</i> as follows:</p> <ol type="a"> <li>Identify <i>Subject(s)</i> using <i>Resolvable URI(s).</i> </li> <li>Identify <i>Subject Attribute(s)</i> using <i>Resolvable URI(s).</i> </li> <li>Assign <i>Attribute Values</i> to <i>Subject Attributes.</i> These <i>Values</i> may be either <i>Literals</i> (e.g., STRINGs, BLOBs) or <i>Resolvable URIs.</i> </li> </ol> </li> </ol> <p>You can create Linked Data (hypermedia-based data representations) Resources from or for many things. Examples include: personal profiles, calendars, address books, blogs, photo albums; there are many, many more.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://socialmedia.net/linked-data-introduction" id="link-id0x1bb13d50">Linked Data an Introduction</a> -- simple introduction to Linked Data and its virtues</li> <li> <a href="http://gigaom.com/2010/10/11/jeff-jonas-big-data/" id="link-id0xa00d7e8">How Data Makes Corporations Dumb</a> -- Jeff Jonas (IBM) interview</li> <li> <a href="http://www.amundsen.com/hypermedia/" id="link-id0x18f64958">Hypermedia Types</a> -- evolving <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x1903b880">information</a> portal covering different aspects of Hypermedia resource types</li> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com" id="link-id0x18af0cf8">URIBurner </a>-- service that generates Linked Data from a plethora of heterogeneous data sources</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id0x1929eea0">Linked Data Meme</a> -- <a class="auto-href" href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0x1e8127c8">TimbL</a> design issues note about Linked Data</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1624" id="link-id0x18a5b768">Data 3.0 Manifesto</a> -- note about format agnostic Linked Data</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/About" id="link-id0x19ae9338">DBpedia</a> -- large Linked Data Hub</li> <li> <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/" id="link-id0x14d677f8">Linked Open Data Cloud</a> -- collection of Linked Data Spaces</li> <li> <a href="http://linkedopencommerce.com" id="link-id0x17c6dbf8">Linked Open Commerce Cloud </a>-- commerce (clicks & mortar and/or clicks & clicks) oriented <a class="auto-href" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x13959308">Linked Data Space</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x18ccb9e8">LOD Cloud Cache </a>-- massive Linked Data Space hosting most of the LOD Cloud Datasets</li> <li> <a href="http://lod2.eu" id="link-id0x1a472c20">LOD2 Initiative</a> -- EU Co-Funded Project to develop global <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id0x1c0ae7d0">knowledge</a> space from LOD</li>. </ol>
2010-11-09T13:53:01-05:00
What is Linked Data, really?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-10-14#1639
2010-10-14T21:54:31Z
<p> <b> <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1e81beb0">Linked Data</a> </i> </b> is simply <i><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypermedia" id="link-id0x1d9d5e30">hypermedia</a>-based structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>.</i> </p> <p>Linked Data offers everyone a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a>-scale, Enterprise-grade mechanism for platform-independent creation, curation, access, and integration of data.</p> <p>The fundamental steps to creating Linked Data are as follows:</p> <ol> <li> <p>Choose a <i>Name Reference Mechanism</i> — i.e., URIs.</p> </li> <li> <p>Choose a <i>Data Model</i> with which to Structure your Data — minimally, you need a model which clearly distinguishes</p> <ol type="a"> <li> <i>Subjects</i> (also known as <i>Entities</i>)</li> <li> <i>Subject Attributes</i> (also known as <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x171a1808">Entity</a> Attributes</i>), and</li> <li> <i>Attribute Values</i> (also known as <i>Subject Attribute Values</i> or <i>Entity Attribute Values</i>).</li> </ol> </li> <li> <p>Choose one or more <i>Data Representation Syntaxes</i> (also called <i>Markup Languages</i> or <i>Data Formats</i>) to use when creating <i>Resources</i> with <i>Content</i> based on your chosen <i>Data Model.</i> Some Syntaxes in common use today are HTML+<a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id0x1a95cc58">RDFa</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Notation3" id="link-id0x1f596330">N3</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TeamSubmission/turtle/" id="link-id0x16fdca68">Turtle</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/" id="link-id0x1d7cf0c0">RDF/XML</a>, <a href="http://sw.nokia.com/trix/TriX.html" id="link-id0x19690b60">TriX</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extensible_Resource_Descriptor" id="link-id0x1bb46968">XRDS</a>, <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/index.html" id="link-id0x18f63f20">GData</a>, and <a href="http://odata.org" id="link-id0x19aee1e0">OData</a>; there are many others.</p> </li> <li> <p>Choose a <i><a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x19aa3900">URI</a> Scheme</i> that facilitates binding <i>Referenced Names</i> to the <i>Resources</i> which will carry your <i>Content</i> -- your <i>Structured Data.</i> </p> </li> <li> <p>Create <i>Structured Data</i> by using your chosen <i>Name Reference Mechanism,</i> your chosen <i>Data Model,</i> and your chosen <i>Data Representation Syntax,</i> as follows:</p> <ol type="a"> <li>Identify <i>Subject(s)</i> using <i>Resolvable URI(s).</i> </li> <li>Identify <i>Subject Attribute(s)</i> using <i>Resolvable URI(s).</i> </li> <li>Assign <i>Attribute Values</i> to <i>Subject Attributes.</i> These <i>Values</i> may be either <i>Literals</i> (e.g., STRINGs, BLOBs) or <i>Resolvable URIs.</i> </li> </ol> </li> </ol> <p>You can create Linked Data (hypermedia-based data representations) Resources from or for many things. Examples include: personal profiles, calendars, address books, blogs, photo albums; there are many, many more.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.amundsen.com/hypermedia/" id="link-id0x18f64958">Hypermedia Types</a> -- evolving <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x1903b880">information</a> portal covering different aspects of Hypermedia resource types</li> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com" id="link-id0x18af0cf8">URIBurner </a>-- service that generates Linked Data from a plethora of heterogeneous data sources</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id0x1929eea0">Linked Data Meme</a> -- <a class="auto-href" href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0x1e8127c8">TimbL</a> design issues note about Linked Data</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1624" id="link-id0x18a5b768">Data 3.0 Manifesto</a> -- note about format agnostic Linked Data</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/About" id="link-id0x19ae9338">DBpedia</a> -- large Linked Data Hub</li> <li> <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/" id="link-id0x14d677f8">Linked Open Data Cloud</a> -- collection of Linked Data Spaces</li> <li> <a href="http://linkedopencommerce.com" id="link-id0x17c6dbf8">Linked Open Commerce Cloud </a>-- commerce (clicks & mortar and/or clicks & clicks) oriented <a class="auto-href" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x13959308">Linked Data Space</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x18ccb9e8">LOD Cloud Cache </a>-- massive Linked Data Space hosting most of the LOD Cloud Datasets</li> <li> <a href="http://lod2.eu" id="link-id0x1a472c20">LOD2 Initiative</a> -- EU Co-Funded Project to develop global <a class="auto-href" href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id0x1c0ae7d0">knowledge</a> space from LOD</li>. </ol>
2011-02-15T17:28:06.000002-05:00
Solving Real Problems by Leveraging Linked Data: Unambiguous & Verifiable Identity for HTTP Networks
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-07-11#1625
2010-07-12T03:25:03Z
<h3>Problem: Unambiguous Verifiable Network Identity.</h3> <p>How Does <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1b1ad1d0">Linked Data</a> Address This Problem? It provides critical infrastructure for the WebID Protocol that enables an innovative tweak of SSL/TLS. </p> <p>What about OpenID? The WebID Protocol embraces and extends OpenID (<strong><em>in an open and positive way</em></strong>) via the WebID + OpenID Hybrid variant of the protocol -- basic effect is that OpenID calls are re-routed to the WebID aspect which simply removes Username and Password Authentication from the authentication challenge interaction pattern.</p> <h3>WebID Components</h3> <ol> <li> X.509 Certificate and Private Key Generator </li> <li> Structured Profile Document (e.g. a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id0x1a301338">FOAF</a> based Profile) published to an HTTP Network (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1ba50e10">World Wide Web</a>) and accessible at an Address (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x12ded2e0">URL</a>) </li> <li> An Agent Identifier aka. WebID (an HTTP Name Reference re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x1b197378">URI</a> variant) that's the Subject of a Structured Profile Document (actually a Descriptor Resource)</li> <li> Mechanism for persisting Public Key data from X.509 Certificate to Structured Profile Document and associating it with Subject WebID (e.g. SPARUL or other HTTP based methods) </li> <li> Mechanism for de-referencing Public Key data associated with a WebID (from its Structured Profile Document) for comparison against Public Key data following successful standard SSL/TLS protocol handshake (e.g. via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x16d26ec8">SPARQL</a> Query). </li> </ol> <h3>Demo</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjgXsjd8PDE" id="link-id0x1b9cc4d8">WebID + OpenID Hybrid Protocol Demo using ODS, Stackoverflow.com, and identi.ca.</a> - YouTube Screencast Demo Part 1 using Firefox</li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXoxUo7Py4M " id="link-id0x1a2db140">WebID + OpenID Hybrid Protocol Demo using ODS, Stackoverflow.com, and identi.ca.</a> - YouTube Screencast Demo Part 2 using Safari </li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=webid&type=text&output=html" id="link-id0x1bc37a58">Prior Posts about WebIDs</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://payswarm.com/webid/drafts/ED-webid-20100711/" id="link-id0x1a0eecb8">Draft WebID Spec</a> </li> </ul>
2010-07-12T07:22:02.000018-04:00
Data 3.0 (a Manifesto for Platform Agnostic Structured Data) Update 5
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-04-16#1624
2010-04-16T21:09:05Z
<p>After a long period of trying to demystify and unravel the wonders of standards compliant structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access, combined with protocols (e.g., HTTP) that separate: </p> <ol> <li>Identity,</li> <li>Access,</li> <li>Storage,</li> <li>Representation, and</li> <li>Presentation.</li> </ol> <p>I ended up with what I can best describe as the Data 3.0 Manifesto. A manifesto for standards complaint access to structured data object (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1a0bc238">entity</a>) descriptors.</p> <h3>Some Related Work</h3> <p> <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/alexj/" id="link-id0x1a3c5b70">Alex James</a> (Program Manager <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/efdesign/" id="link-id0x1a3c5bd8">Entity Frameworks</a> at Microsoft), put together something quite similar to this via his Base4 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x13c374c8">blog</a> (around the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0 bootstrap time), sadly -- quoting Alex -- that post has gone where discontinued blogs and their host platforms go (deep deep irony here). </p> <p>It's also important to note that this manifesto is also a variant of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0x1a29f338">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id0x1a4e8580">Linked Data Design Issues</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id0x199efc30">meme</a> re. Linked Data, but totally decoupled from RDF (data representation formats aspect) and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x199efc58">SPARQL</a> which -- in my world view -- remain implementation details.</p> <h3>Data 3.0 manifesto</h3> <ul> <li>An "Entity" is the "Referent" of an "Identifier."</li> <li>An "Identifier" SHOULD provide a global, unambiguous, and unchanging (though it MAY be opaque!) "Name" for its "Referent".</li> <li>A "Referent" MAY have many "Identifiers" (Names), but each "Identifier" MUST have only one "Referent".</li> <li>Structured Entity Descriptions SHOULD be based on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id0x1a2a15c0">Entity-Attribute-Value (EAV) Data Model</a>, and SHOULD therefore take the form of one or more 3-tuples (triples), each comprised of: <ul> <li>an "Identifier" that names an "Entity" (i.e., Entity Name),</li> <li>an "Identifier" that names an "Attribute" (i.e., Attribute Name), and</li> <li>an "Attribute Value", which may be an "Identifier" or a "Literal".</li> </ul> </li> <li>Structured Descriptions SHOULD be CARRIED by "Descriptor Documents" (i.e., purpose specific documents where Entity Identifiers, Attribute Identifiers, and Attribute Values are clearly discernible by the document's intended consumers, e.g., humans or machines).</li> <li>Structured Descriptor Documents can contain (carry) several Structured Entity Descriptions</li> <li>Stuctured Descriptor Documents SHOULD be network accessible via network addresses (e.g., HTTP URLs when dealing with HTTP-based Networks).</li> <li>An Identifier SHOULD resolve (de-reference) to a Structured Representation of the Referent's Structured Description.</li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://twitpic.com/1g02q8/full" id="link-id0x1a3d1428">Referent, Identifier, and Descriptor/Sense (The Data Perception Trinity)</a> illustration</li> <li> <a href="http://twitpic.com/1g03vo/full" id="link-id0x1a353a20">Referent, Identifier, and Descriptor/Sense Trinity</a> (as exploited in <a href="http://esw.w3.org/Foaf%2Bssl" id="link-id0x135ed828">FOAF+SSL</a> based Secure WebIDs) illustration</li> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kidehen/understanding-linked-data-via-eav-model-based-structured-descriptions" id="link-id0x1961ae30">Demystifying Linked Data via EAV Model based Structured Descriptions</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1388" id="link-id0x1a28db38">What do people have against URIs and URLs?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id0x1a4cedc8">The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id0x19ac04c8">Simple Explanation of RDF and Linked Data Dynamics</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1547" id="link-id0x13c24748">Linked Data and Identity</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/Foaf%2Bssl/FAQ" id="link-id0x199ef720">FOAF+SSL FAQ</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2010Apr/0278.html" id="link-id0x1a361640">LOD Community Thread</a> (showing evolution of this manifesto based on feedback from members such as <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/foaf.rdf#cygri" id="link-id0x1a361668">Richard Cyganiak</a>).</li> <li> <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/base/starting-out.html#terms" id="link-id0x18e0b578">Googlebase Data API Docs</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/docs/2.0/basics.html" id="link-id0x199c77b0">Google Data Protocol</a> (GData)</li> <li> <a href="http://odata.org" id="link-id0x19d1e578">Microsoft's OData Protocol</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pmWojisM_E" id="link-id0x1a40a998">Magic of De-referencable Names and actual Data via Binky Video</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jyri/building-sites-around-social-objects-web-20-expo-sf-2009" id="link-id0x19ad7e70">Social Objects Presentation</a> (aka. Social Linked Data Objects) - by <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/jyri" id="link-id0x19e71700">Jyri Engeström</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reference_%28computer_science%29" id="link-id0x199c6178">What's a Reference?</a> </li> </ul>
2010-05-25T17:10:28.000001-04:00
URIBurner: Painless Generation & Exploitation of Linked Data (Update 1 - Demo Links Added)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-03-10#1613
2010-03-10T17:52:03Z
<h2>What is URIBurner? </h2> <p>A service from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id11a8a2768">OpenLink Software</a>, available at: <a href="http://uriburner.com" id="link-id11ace9988">http://uriburner.com</a>, that enables anyone to generate structured descriptions -on the fly- for resources that are already published to HTTP based networks. These descriptions exist as hypermedia resource representations where links are used to identify: </p> <ul> <li> the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id11ae10768">entity</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> object or datum) being described,</li> <li>each of its attributes, and</li> <li>each of its attributes values (optionally).</li> </ul> <p>The hypermedia resource representation outlined above is what is commonly known as an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id121aec368">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value (EAV) Graph. The use of generic HTTP scheme based Identifiers is what distinguishes this type of hypermedia resource from others.</p> <h2>Why is it Important?</h2> <p> The virtues (dual pronged serendipitous discovery) of publishing HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11f5f53e8">Linked Data</a> across public (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id11b14e1f8">World Wide Web</a>) or private (Intranets and/or Extranets) is rapidly becoming clearer to everyone. That said, the nuance laced nature of Linked Data publishing presents significant challenges to most. Thus, for Linked Data to really blossom the process of publishing needs to be simplified i.e., "just click and go" (for human interaction) or REST-ful orchestration of HTTP CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations between Client Applications and Linked Data Servers.</p> <h2>How Do I Use It?</h2> <p> In similar vane to the role played by FeedBurner with regards to Atom and RSS feed generation, during the early stages of the Blogosphere, it enables anyone to publish Linked Data bearing hypermedia resources on an HTTP network. Thus, its usage covers two profiles: Content Publisher and Content Consumer. </p> <h3> </h3> <h3>Content Publisher </h3> <h3> </h3> <p>The steps that follow cover all you need to do:</p> <ul> <li>place a <link /> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id11a62f908">tag</a> within your HTTP based hypermedia resource (e.g. within section for HTML )</li> <li>use a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id11e7e5228">URL</a> via the @href attribute value to identify the location of the structured description of your resource, in this case it takes the form: http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/{scheme-or-protocol}/{your-hostname-or-authority}/{your-local-resource}</li> <li>for human visibility you may consider adding associating a button (as you do with Atom and RSS) with the URL above.</li> </ul> <p> That's it! The discoverability (SDQ) of your content has just multiplied significantly, its structured description is now part of the Linked Data Cloud with a reference back to your site (which is now a bona fide HTTP based Linked Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id120a6e5c8">Space</a>).</p> <h4>Examples</h4> <p> <strong>HTML+<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id11ae8fdc8">RDFa</a> based representation of a structured resource description:</strong> </p> <blockquote> <link rel="describedby" title="Resource Description (HTML)"type="text/html" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/http/example.org/xyz.html"/></blockquote> <p> <strong>JSON based representation of a structured resource description:</strong> </p> <blockquote><link rel="describedby" title="Resource Description (JSON)" type="application/json" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/http/example.org/xyz.html"/></blockquote> <p> <strong>N3 based representation of a structured resource description:</strong> </p> <blockquote><link rel="describedby" title="Resource Description (N3)" type="text/n3" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/http/example.org/xyz.html"/></blockquote> <p> <strong>RDF/XML based representations of a structured resource description</strong>: </p> <blockquote><link rel="describedby" title="Resource Description (RDF/XML)" type="application/rdf+xml" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/http/example.org/xyz.html"/></blockquote> <h3>Content Consumer</h3> <p>As an end-user, obtaining a structured description of any resource published to an HTTP network boils down to the following steps:</p> <ol> <li>go to: http://uriburner.com</li> <li>drag the Page Metadata Bookmarklet link to your Browser's toolbar</li> <li>whenever you encounter a resource of interest (e.g. an HTML page) simply click on the Bookmarklet</li> <li>you will be presented with an HTML representation of a structured resource description (i.e., identifier of the entity being described, its attributes, and its attribute values will be clearly presented).</li> </ol> <h3>Examples</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/www.amazon.com/o/ASIN/1591842778" id="link-id11ba54a48">Description of a Book culled from an Amazon web page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/www.bestbuy.com/site/Flip+Video+-+UltraHD+Camcorder+-+Black/Chrome/9281984.p?id=1218073822126&skuId=9281984" id="link-id11f621848">Description of a product offering culled from a BestBuy web page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/reviews.cnet.com/digital-cameras/canon-eos-5d-mark/4505-6501_7-33280763.html?tag=tpr" id="link-id115f27e08">Description of a product (a camera) culled from a CNET web page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/cgi.ebay.com/23PORT-Canon-SLR-EOS-5D-Mark-II-Body-Only-New_W0QQitemZ140367785136QQcategoryZ31388QQcmdZViewItem#Offer" id="link-id120b4b258">Description of the same CNET product as an Offer on eBay</a> (exposed by the description above via seeAlso property value).</li> </ul> <p>If you are a developer, you can simply perform an HTTP operation request (from your development environment of choice) using any of the URL patterns presented below:</p> <a id="HTML:"> </a><strong>HTML: </strong> <ul> <li> <tt>curl -I -H "Accept: text/html" http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/{scheme}/{authority}/{local-path} </tt> </li> </ul> <h4> <a id="JSON:"> </a>JSON:</h4> <ul> <li> <tt>curl -I -H "Accept: application/json" http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/{scheme}/{authority}/{local-path} </tt> </li> <li> <tt>curl http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/data/json/{scheme}/{authority}/{local-path}</tt> </li> </ul> <h4> <a id="Notation_3_N3:"> </a>Notation 3 (N3):</h4> <ul> <li> <tt>curl -I -H "Accept: text/n3" http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/{scheme}/{authority}/{local-path} </tt> </li> <li> <tt>curl http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/data/n3/{scheme}/{authority}/{local-path}</tt> </li> </ul> <ul> <li> <tt>curl -I -H "Accept: text/turtle" http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/{scheme}/{authority}/{local-path}</tt> </li> <li> <tt>curl http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/data/ttl/{scheme}/{authority}/{local-path} </tt> </li> </ul> <h4> <a id="RDFXML:"> </a>RDF/XML:</h4> <ul> <li> <tt>curl -I -H "Accept: application/rdf+xml" http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/{scheme}/{authority}/{local-path} </tt> </li> <li> <tt>curl http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/data/xml/{scheme}/{authority}/{local-path} </tt> </li> </ul> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>URIBurner is a "deceptively simple" solution for cost-effective exploitation of HTTP based Linked Data meshes. It doesn't require any programming or customization en route to immediately realizing its virtues. </p> <p> If you like what URIBurner offers, but prefer to leverage its capabilities within your domain -- such that resource description URLs reside in your domain, all you have to do is perform the following steps:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/virtwiz/" id="link-id1158f8658">download a copy of Virtuoso</a> (for local desktop, workgroup, or data center installation) or</li> <li>instantiate <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtInstallationEC2" id="link-id11e03e558">Virtuoso via the Amazon EC2 Cloud</a> </li> <li>enable the Sponger Middleware component via the RDF Mapper VAD package (which includes <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSpongerCartridgeSupportedDataSources" id="link-id1205ffe78">cartridges for over 30 different resources types</a>)</li> </ol> <p>When you install your own URIBurner instances, you also have the ability to perform customizations that increase resource description fidelity in line with your specific needs. All you need to do is develop a custom extractor cartridge and/or meta cartridge. </p> <h2>Related:</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSponger" id="link-id120582118"> Virtuoso Sponger Middleware</a> -- (technology behind <a href="http://uriburner.com" id="link-id11b634448">URIBurner Service</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/screencasts/virtuoso-rdf-middleware3.swf" id="link-id12082e958">Animation demonstrating how the Virtuoso Sponger works</a>.</li> </ul>
2010-03-11T10:16:34.000003-05:00
Meshups Demonstrating How SPARQL-GEO Enhances Linked Data Exploitation (Update 2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-03-06#1612
2010-03-06T22:43:49Z
<p>Deceptively simple demonstrations of how <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11dfe45b8">Virtuoso</a>'s <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11a3d8968">SPARQL</a>-GEO extensions to SPARQL lay critical foundation for Geo Spatial solutions that seek to leverage the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11ae855b8">Linked Data</a>. </p> <h3>Setup <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id120a6f478">Information</a> </h3> <p>SPARQL Endpoint: <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id120401958">Linked Open Data Cache</a> (8.5 Billion+ Quad Store which includes data from Geonames and the <a href="http://dl-learner.org/Projects/LinkedGeoData" id="link-id11b8f31d8">Linked GeoData Project</a> Data Sets) .</p> <h3>Live Linked Data Meshup Links:</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://bit.ly/cyJjwo" id="link-id120396168">LinkedGeoData things within 2km ORDER BY Dist LIMIT 10 </a>(Use from <strong>iPhone</strong> only since its an iPhone oriented Linked Data driven application)</li> <li> <a href="http://uriburner.com/isparql/view/?query=PREFIX%20foaf%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fxmlns.com%2Ffoaf%2F0.1%2F%3E%0APREFIX%20lgv%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Flinkedgeodata.org%2Fvocabulary%23%3E%0Aconstruct%20%7B%3Fthing%20a%20%3Ftype%3B%0A%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%3B%0A%20foaf%3Aname%20%3Fname%7D%0Awhere%20%7B%0A%3Fthing%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%3Fthing%20lgv%3Aname%20%3Fname%20.%0A%3Fthing%20a%20%3Ftype.%0AFILTER%20%28bif%3Ast_intersects%20%28%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20%28-0.128056%2C%2051.508057%29%2C%202%29%29%0A%7D%0ALIMIT%20100&endpoint=http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql&resultview=map&maxrows=50" id="link-id1209a6f38">LinkedGeoData things within 2km of Trafalgar Square</a> | <a href="http://uriburner.com/isparql/view/?query=PREFIX%20foaf%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fxmlns.com%2Ffoaf%2F0.1%2F%3E%0APREFIX%20lgv%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Flinkedgeodata.org%2Fvocabulary%23%3E%0Aconstruct%20%7B%0A%20%3Fthing%20rdfs%3Atype%20%3Ftype%3B%0A%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%3B%0A%20foaf%3Aname%20%3Fname%7D%0Awhere%20%7B%0A%20%3Fthing%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%3Fthing%20lgv%3Aname%20%3Fname%20.%0A%20%3Fthing%20a%20%3Ftype.%0AFILTER%20(bif%3Ast_intersects%20(%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20(-0.128056%2C%2051.508057)%2C%202))%0A%7D%0Aorder%20by%20asc%20(bif%3Ast_distance%20(%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20(-0.128056%2C%2051.508057)))%0ALIMIT%20100&endpoint=http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql&resultview=map&maxrows=50" id="link-id11ebb07f8">ORDER By Distance - closest first</a> | <a href="http://uriburner.com/isparql/view/?query=PREFIX%20foaf%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fxmlns.com%2Ffoaf%2F0.1%2F%3E%0APREFIX%20lgv%3A%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Flinkedgeodata.org%2Fvocabulary%23%3E%0Aconstruct%20%7B%0A%20%3Fthing%20rdfs%3Atype%20%3Ftype%3B%0A%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%3B%0A%20foaf%3Aname%20%3Fname%7D%0Awhere%20%7B%0A%20%3Fthing%20geo%3Ageometry%20%3Fgeo%20.%0A%20%3Fthing%20lgv%3Aname%20%3Fname%20.%0A%20%3Fthing%20a%20%3Ftype.%0AFILTER%20(bif%3Ast_intersects%20(%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20(-0.128056%2C%2051.508057)%2C%202))%0A%7D%0Aorder%20by%20desc%20(bif%3Ast_distance%20(%3Fgeo%2C%20bif%3Ast_point%20(-0.128056%2C%2051.508057)))%0ALIMIT%20100&endpoint=http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql&resultview=map&maxrows=50" id="link-id1207a27e8">ORDER By Distance - most distant first</a> .</li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://delicious.com/kidehen/linked_data_demo" id="link-id11ac9a2a8">Collection of Live Linked Data Demos</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1587" id="link-id11aca1d68">Virtuoso's SPARQL-GEO Extensions</a> </li> </ul>
2010-03-24T11:44:24.000002-04:00
Revisiting HTTP based Linked Data (Update 1 - Demo Video Links Added)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-03-04#1611
2010-03-04T15:16:14Z
<p>Motivation for this post arose from a series of Twitter exchanges between <a href="http://ouseful.wordpress.com/about/#this" id="link-id115699ae8">Tony Hirst</a> and I, in relation to his <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id11a0cbc08">blog</a> post titled: <a href="http://ouseful.wordpress.com/2010/03/03/so-what-is-it-about-linked-data-that-makes-it-linked-data%e2%84%a2/" id="link-id1158f8ce8">So What Is It About Linked Data that Makes it Linked Data™ ?</a> </p> <p>At the end of the marathon session, it was clear to <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id11557da58">me</a> that a blog post was required for future reference, at the very least :-)</p> <h3>What is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11a7ee3a8">Linked Data</a>?</h3> <p>"<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id11a682338">Data Access by Reference</a>" mechanism for Data Objects (or Entities) on HTTP networks. It enables you to Identify a Data Object and Access its structured Data Representation via a single Generic HTTP scheme based Identifier (HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id125037288">URI</a>). Data Object representation formats may vary; but in all cases, they are <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypermedia" id="link-id115548f78">hypermedia</a> oriented, fully structured, and negotiable within the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id11c955888">context</a> of a client-server message exchange.</p> <h3>Why is it Important?</h3> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id125154778">Information</a> makes the world tick!</p> <p>Information doesn't exist without data to contextualize.</p> <p>Information is inaccessible without a projection (presentation) medium. </p> <p>All information (without exception, when produced by humans) is subjective. Thus, to truly maximize the innate heterogeneity of collective human intelligence, loose coupling of our information and associated data sources is imperative.</p> <h3>How is Linked Data Delivered?</h3> <p>Linked Data is exposed to HTTP networks (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id125321238">World Wide Web</a>) via hypermedia resources bearing structured representations of data object descriptions. Remember, you have a single Identifier abstraction (generic HTTP URI) that embodies: Data Object Name and Data Representation Location (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id1249a7a88">URL</a>).</p> <h3>How are Linked Data Object Representations Structured?</h3> <p>A structured representation of data exists when an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1250630d8">Entity</a> (Datum), its Attributes, and its Attribute Values are clearly discernible. In the case of a Linked Data Object, structured descriptions take the form of a hypermedia based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id126ed7608">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value (EAV) graph pictorial -- where each Entity, its Attributes, and its Attribute Values (optionally) are identified using Generic HTTP URIs. </p> <p>Examples of structured data representation formats (content types) associated with Linked Data Objects include:</p> <ul> <li>text/html</li> <li>text/turtle</li> <li>text/n3</li> <li>application/json</li> <li>application/rdf+xml</li> <li>Others </li> </ul> <h3>How Do I Create Linked Data oriented Hypermedia Resources?</h3> <p>You markup resources by expressing distinct entity-attribute-value statements (basically these a 3-tuple records) using a variety of notations:</p> <ul> <li>(X)HTML+<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id1252975b8">RDFa</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://n2.talis.com/wiki/RDF_JSON_Specification" id="link-id115015458">JSON</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.dajobe.org/2004/01/turtle/" id="link-id116458478">Turtle</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Notation3" id="link-id11a62f9f8">N3</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://swdev.nokia.com/trix/trix.html" id="link-id11a8f56b8">TriX</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/TriG/" id="link-id117156978">TriG</a>,</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/" id="link-id126f52a58">RDF/XML</a>, and</li> <li>Others (for instance you can use Atom data format extensions to model EAV graph as per OData initiative from Microsoft).</li> </ul> <p>You can achieve this task using any of the following approaches:</p> <ul> <li>Notepad</li> <li>WYSIWYG Editor </li> <li>Transformation of Database Records via Middleware</li> <li>Transformation of XML based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services output via Middleware</li> <li>Transformation of other Hypermedia Resources via Middleware</li> <li>Transformation of non Hypermedia Resources via Middleware</li> <li>Use a platform that delivers all of the above.</li> </ul> <h3>Practical Examples of Linked Data Objects Enable</h3> <ul> <li>Describe Who You Are, What You Offer, and What You Need via your structured profile, then leave your HTTP network to perform the REST (serendipitous discovery of relevant things)</li> <li>Identify (via map overlay) all items of interest based on a 2km+ radious of my current location (this could include vendor offerings or services sought by existing or future customers)</li> <li>Share the latest and greatest family photos with family members *only* without forcing them to signup for Yet Another Web 2.0 service or Social Network</li> <li>No repetitive signup and username and password based login sequences per Web 2.0 or Mobile Application combo</li> <li>Going beyond imprecise Keyword Search to the new frontier of Precision Find - Example, Find Data Objects associated with the keywords: Tiger, while enabling the seeker disambiguate across the "Who", "What", "Where", "When" dimensions (with negation capability)</li> <li>Determine how two Data Objects are Connected - person to person, person to subject matter etc. (LinkedIn outside the walled garden)</li> <li>Use any resource address (e.g <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id124fd8118">blog</a> or bookmark URL) as the conduit into a Data Object mesh that exposes all associated Entities and their social network relationships</li> <li>Apply patterns (social dimensions) above to traditional enterprise data sources in combination (optionally) with external data without compromising security etc.</li> </ul> <h3>How Do <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id124fd0d98">OpenLink Software</a> Products Enable Linked Data Exploitation?</h3> <p>Our data access middleware heritage (which spans 16+ years) has enabled us to assemble a rich portfolio of coherently integrated products that enable cost-effective evaluation and utilization of Linked Data, without writing a single line of code, or exposing you to the hidden, but extensive admin and configuration costs. Post installation, the benefits of Linked Data simply materialize (along the lines described above).</p> <p>Our main Linked Data oriented products include:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id125058d68">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> -- visualizes Linked Data or Linked Data transformed "on the fly" from hypermedia and non hypermedia data sources </li> <li> <a href="http://uriburner.com" id="link-id1251db6a8">URIBurner</a> -- a "deceptively simple" solution that enables the generation of Linked Data "on the fly" from a broad collection of data sources and resource types</li> <li> <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/wiki/ODS/" id="link-id1252caae8">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> -- a platform for enterprises and individuals that enhances distributed collaboration via Linked Data driven virtualization of data across its native and/or 3rd party content manager for: Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, Discussion Forums, Social Networks etc</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/overview/index.htm" id="link-id124809b58">OpenLink Virtuoso</a> -- a secure and high-performance native hybrid data server (Relational, RDF-Graph, Document models) that includes in-built Linked Data transformation middleware (aka. Sponger). </li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2616.txt" id="link-id125306d78">Hypertext Transfer Protocol 1.1 RFC</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.odata.org/docs/%5BMC-APDSU%5D.htm#_Toc246716495" id="link-id11c948e98">Open Data Protocol Glossary</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id126fae278">Simple Explanation of RDF and Linked Data Dynamics</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=linked%20data%0D%0A&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1252e0018">Collection of post from the past about Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1584" id="link-id124fefea8">Are We There Yet Re. Web++?</a> -- includes link to <a href="http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4233.html" id="link-id125188078">podcast conversation with Jon Udell</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_flake_is_pivot_a_turning_point_for_web_exploration.html" id="link-id11a501c28">Web of Linked Data Pivoting Demo from TED</a> -- by Microsoft's Gary Flake </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G29DBIEcIuQ" id="link-id1204fff18">Microsoft Pivot atop Virtuoso Quad Store's Faceted Browser Engine</a>-- My Demonstration of EAV model transcending data representation variations (i.e., RDF's EAV data model data served up in Microsoft CXML data representation format). </li> </ul>
2010-03-08T09:59:37.000010-05:00
Linked Data & Socially Enhanced Collaboration (Enterprise or Individual) -- Update 1
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-03-02#1610
2010-03-02T20:47:54Z
<p>Socially enhanced enterprise and invididual collaboration is becoming a focal point for a variety of solutions that offer erswhile distinct content managment features across the realms of Blogging, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, Discussion Forums etc.. as part of an integrated platform suite. Recently, <a href="http://www.socialtext.com/" id="link-id112be850">Socialtext</a> has caught my attention courtesy of its nice <a href="http://www.socialtext.com/products/socialnetworking.php" id="link-id145d9850">features and benefits page</a> . In addition, I've also found the <a href="http://mike2.openmethodology.org/" id="link-id14103cc8">Mike 2.0 portal</a> immensely interesting and valuable, for those with an enterprise collaboration bent.</p> <p>Anyway, Socialtext and Mike 2.0 (they aren't identical and juxtaposition isn't seeking to imply this) provide nice demonstrations of socially enhanced collaboration for individuals and/or enterprises is all about:</p> <ol> <li>Identifying Yourself</li> <li>Identifying Others (key contributors, peers, collaborators)</li> <li>Serendipitous Discovery of key contributors, peers, and collaborators</li> <li>Serendipitous Discovery by key contributors, peers, and collaborators</li> <li>Develop and sustain relationships via socially enhanced professional network hybrid</li> <li>Utilize your new "trusted network" (which you've personally indexed) when seeking help or propagating a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id13ad00d0">meme</a>.</li> </ol> <p>As is typically the case in this emerging realm, the critical issue of discrete "identifiers" (record keys in sense) for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> items, data containers, and data creators (individuals and groups) is overlooked albeit unintentionally. </p> <h3>How HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id112e1ba8">Linked Data</a> Addresses the Identifier Issue</h3> <p>Rather than using platform constrained identifiers such as: </p> <ul> <li>email address (a "mailto" scheme identifier), </li> <li>a dbms user account, </li> <li>application specific account, or</li> <li>OpenID.</li> </ul> <p>It enables you to leverage the platform independence of HTTP scheme Identifiers (Generic URIs) such that Identifiers for: </p> <ol> <li>You, </li> <li>Your Peers, </li> <li>Your Groups, and </li> <li>Your Activity Generated Data, </li> </ol> <p>simply become conduits into a mesh of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/images/My_Data_Spaces.png" id="link-id13fe1168">HTTP -- referencable and accessible -- Linked Data Objects</a> endowed with High SDQ (Serendipitious Discovery Quotient). For example my <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13bdcc80">Personal WebID </a>is all anyone needs to know if they want to explore:</p> <ol> <li>My Profile (which includes references to data objects associated with my interests, social-network, calendar, bookmarks etc.)</li> <li>Data generated by my activities across various data spaces (via data objects associated with my online accounts e.g. <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/feeds.delicious.com/v2/rss/kidehen?count=15" id="link-id141cce38">Del.icio.us</a>, <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/twitter.com/kidehen" id="link-id11802ce8">Twitter</a>, <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/www.last.fm/user/kidehen" id="link-id118bf470">Last.FM</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://uriburner.com/fct/rdfdesc/usage.vsp?g=http%3A%2F%2Fkingsley.idehen.name%2Fdataspace%2Fperson%2Fkidehen%23this&tp=4" id="link-id13c0f528">Linked Data Meshups via URIBurner</a> (or any other <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11334f00">Virtuoso</a> instance) that provide an extend view of my profile</li> </ol> <h3>How <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id14324eb0">FOAF</a>+SSL adds Socially aware Security </h3> <p>Even when you reach a point of equilibrium where: your daily activities trigger orchestratestration of CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations against Linked Data Objects within your socially enhanced collaboration network, you still have to deal with the thorny issues of security, that includes the following: </p> <ol> <li>Single Sign On, </li> <li>Authentication, and </li> <li>Data Access Policies.</li> </ol> <p>FOAF+SSL, an application of HTTP based Linked Data, enables you to enhance your Personal HTTP scheme based Identifer (or WebID) via the following steps (peformed by a FOAF+SSL compliant platform):</p> <ol> <li>Imprint WebID within a self-signed x.509 based public key (certificate) associated with your private key (generated by FOAF+SSL platform or manually via OpenSSL)</li> <li>Store public key components (modulous and exponent) into your FOAF based profile document which references your Personal HTTP Identifier as its primary topic</li> <li>Leverage HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id141f8b30">URL</a> component of WebID for making public key components (modulous and exponent) available for x.509 certificate based authentication challenges posed by systems secured by FOAF+SSL (directly) or OpenID (indirectly via FOAF+SSL to OpenID proxy services).</li> </ol> <p>Contrary to conventional experiences with all things PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) related, FOAF+SSL compliant platforms typically handle the PKI issues as part of the protocol implementation; thereby protecting you from any administrative tedium without compromising security.</p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>Understanding how new technology innovations address long standing problems, or understanding how new solutions inadvertently fail to address old problems, provides time tested mechanisms for product selection and value proposition comprehension that ultimately save scarce resources such as time and money. </p> <p>If you want to understand real world problem solution #1 with regards to HTTP based Linked Data look no further than the issues of secure, socially aware, and platform independent identifiers for data objects, that build bridges across erstwhile data silos.</p> <p>If you want to cost-effectively experience what I've outlined in this post, take a look at <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/wiki/ODS/" id="link-id13c21220">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (<a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/wiki/ODS/" id="link-id1422cdd8">ODS</a>) which is a distributed collaboration engine (enterprise of individual) built around the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14211c98">Virtuoso</a> database engines. It simply enhances existing collaboration tools via the following capabilities:</p> <p>Addition of Social Dimensions via HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_(object-oriented_programming)" id="link-id116ecd88">Data Object Identifiers</a> for all Data Items (if missing)</p> <ol> <li>Ability to integrate across a myriad of Data Source Types rather than a select few across RDBM Engines, LDAP, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services, and various HTTP accessible Resources (Hypermedia or Non Hypermedia content types)</li> <li>Addition of FOAF+SSL based authentication</li> <li>Addition of FOAF+SSL based Access Control Lists (ACLs) for policy based data access.</li> </ol> <h3>Related:</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id117b2610">Get Yourself A WebID in 5 Minutes or Less</a> via OpenLink Data Spaces (an application layer built atop Virtuoso)</li> <li> <a href="http://ods.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/ODS/ODSBriefcaseFOAFSSL" id="link-id140311a0">How To Share Resources Securely Using FOAF+SSL</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRbdeNMPCug" id="link-id11ad5448">FOAF+SSL & WebID Demonstration</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kidehen/linked-data-spaces-data-portability-access" id="link-id141f43a8">OpenLink Data Spaces & Data Portability</a>.</li> </ul>
2010-03-03T19:50:37-05:00
OpenLink Virtuoso - Product Value Proposition Overiew
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-02-26#1609
2010-02-26T19:12:32Z
<h2>Situation Analysis</h2> <p>Since the beginning of the modern IT era, each period of innovation has inadvertently introduced its fair share of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Silos. The driving force behind this anomaly remains an overemphasis on the role of applications when selecting problem solutions. Unfortunately, most solution selecting decision makers remain oblivious to the fact that most applications are architecturally monolithic; i.e., they fail to separate the following five layers that are critical to all solutions: </p> <ol> <li>Data Unit (Datum or Data Object) Identity,</li> <li>Data Storage/Persistence,</li> <li>Data Access,</li> <li>Data Representation, and</li> <li>Data Presentation/Visualization. </li> </ol> <p>The rise of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id13fe21b0">Internet</a>, and its exponentially-growing user-friendly enclave known as the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id1233c608">World Wide Web</a>, is bringing the intrinsic costs of the monolithic application architecture anomaly to bear -- in manners unanticipated by many. For example, the emergence of network-oriented solutions across the realms of Enterprise 2.0-based Collaboration and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), combined with the overarching influence of Social Media, are producing more heterogeneously-structured and disparately-located data sources than people can effectively process.</p> <p>As is often the case, a variety of problem and product monikers have emerged for the data access and integration challenges outlined above. Contemporary examples include Enterprise <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13f7e458">Information</a> Integration, Master Data Management, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id13f57da0">Data Virtualization</a>. Labeling aside, the fundamental issues of the unresolved Data Integration challenge boil down to the following:</p> <ul> <li>Data Model Heterogeneity</li> <li>Data Quality (Cleanliness)</li> <li>Semantic Variance across Contexts (e.g., weights and measures).</li> </ul> <p>Effectively solving today's data integration challenges requires a move away from monolithic application architecture to loosely-coupled, network-centric application architectures. Basically, we need a ubiquitous network-centric application protocol that lends itself to loosely-coupled across-the-wire orchestration of data interactions. In short, this will be what revitalizes the art of application development and deployment.</p> <p>The World Wide Web is built around a network application protocol called HTTP. This protocol intrinsically separates the five layers listed earlier, thereby enabling:</p> <ul> <li>Use of Generic HTTP URIs as Data Object (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id113b7318">Entity</a>) Identifiers;</li> <li>Identifier Co-reference, such that multiple <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_(object-oriented_programming)" id="link-id117151d8">Data Object Identifiers</a> may reference the same Data Object;</li> <li>Use of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id13fa4fa0">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value Model to describe Data Objects using real world modeling friendly conceptual graphs;</li> <li>Use of HTTP URLs to Identify Locations of Resources that bear (host) Data Object Descriptions (Representations);</li> <li>Data Access mechanism for retrieving Data Object Representations from persistent or transient storage locations.</li> </ul> <h2>What is <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id116af950">Virtuoso</a>?</h2> <p>A uniquely designed to address today's escalating Data Access and Integration challenges without compromising performance, security, or platform independence. At its core lies an unrivaled commitment to industry standards combined with unique technology innovation that transcends erstwhile distinct realms such as: </p> <ul> <li>Data Management (<a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/rdbms-engine.html" id="link-id11943dc0">Relational</a>, <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/rdf-quad-store.html" id="link-id12312240">RDF Graph</a>, or Document), </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/middleware.htm" id="link-id115d71c0">Data Access Middleware</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/web-application-server.html" id="link-id142ca788">Web Application & Services Deployment</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/main/linked-data.html" id="link-id112b92c0">Linked Data Deployment</a>, and </li> <li>Messaging. </li> </ul> <p>When Virtuoso is installed and running, HTTP-based Data Objects are automatically created as a by-product of its powerful data virtualization, transcending data sources and data representation formats. The benefits of such power extend across profiles such as:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/information-and-knowledge-worker-benefits" id="link-id118df198">Information & Knowledge Workers</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/systems-integrator-benefits" id="link-id1429d178">Systems Integrators & Architects</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/distributed-collaboration-benefits" id="link-id142fa2a0">Distributed Collaboration & Social Media</a>, </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/cloud-computing-benefits" id="link-id11aee6b0">Cloud Computing</a>, and </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/application-developer-benefits" id="link-id142440b8">Application Development</a>. </li> </ul> <h2>Product Benefits Summary</h2> <ul> <li> <b>Enterprise Agility</b> — Virtuoso lets you mix-&-match best-of-class combinations of Operating Systems, Programming Environments, Database Engines and Data-Access Middleware when building or tweaking your IS infrastructure, without the typical impedance of vendor-lock-in.</li> <li> <b>Data Model Dexterity</b> — By supporting multiple protocols and data models in a single product, Virtuoso protects you against costly vulnerabilities such as: perennial acquisition and accumulation of expensive data model specific DBMS products that still operate on the fundamental principle of: proprietary technology lock-in, at a time when heterogeneity continues to intrinsically define the information technology landscape.</li> <li> <b>Cost-effectiveness</b> — By providing a single point of access (and single-sign-on, SSO) to a plethora of Web 2.0-style social networks, Web Services, and Content Management Systems, and by using Data Object Identifiers as units of Data Virtualization that become the focal points of all data access, Virtuoso lowers the cost to exploit emerging frontiers such as socially-enhanced enterprise collaboration.</li> <li> <b>Speed of Exploitation</b> — Virtuoso provides the ability to rapidly assemble 360-degree conceptual views of data, across internal line-of-business application (CRM, ERP, ECM, HR, etc.) data and/or external data sources, whether these are unstructured, semi-structured, or fully structured.</li> </ul> <p>Bottom line, Virtuoso delivers unrivaled flexibility and scalability, without compromising performance or security.</p> <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's BLOG [127]/1567" id="link-id13ee6840">HTTP URI Abstraction and Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/09/09/talking-with-kingsley-idehen-about-mastering-your-own-search-index/" id="link-id1428b698">Be The Master of Your Own Search Index</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://walkingoncoals.blogspot.com/2009/12/whos-data-is-it-part-1.html" id="link-id117db508">Who's Data Is It?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1482" id="link-id13f64d90">MDM & Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1453" id="link-id118861d8">What is Linked Data Oriented RDF-zation?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1444" id="link-id11820d70">Semantic Web: Travails to Harmony Illustrated</a> </li> </ul> <p> </p>
2010-02-27T12:46:36-05:00
Re-introducing the Virtuoso Virtual Database Engine
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-02-17#1608
2010-02-17T21:38:01Z
<p>In recent times a lot of the commentary and focus re. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id16a22f48">Virtuoso</a> has centered on the RDF Quad Store and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id112d82a0">Linked Data</a>. What sometimes gets overlooked is the sophisticated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id6493cc8">Virtual Database</a> Engine that provides the foundation for all of Virtuoso's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> integration capabilities.</p> <p>In this post I provide a brief re-introduction to this essential aspect of Virtuoso.</p> <h3>What is it?</h3> <p>This component of Virtuoso is known as the Virtual Database Engine (VDBMS). It provides transparent high-performance and secure access to disparate data sources that are external to Virtuoso. It enables federated access and integration of data hosted by any <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13c26008">ODBC</a>- or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id166604c0">JDBC</a>-accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id139dfdb8">RDBMS</a>, RDF Store, XML database, or Document (Free Text)-oriented Content Management System. In addition, it facilitates integration with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services (SOAP-based SOA RPCs or REST-fully accessible Web Resources). </p> <h3>Why is it important?</h3> <p>In the most basic sense, you shouldn't need to upgrade your existing database engine version simply because your current DBMS and Data Access Driver combo isn't compatible with ODBC-compliant desktop tools such as Microsoft Access, Crystal Reports, BusinessObjects, Impromptu, or other of ODBC, JDBC, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id13c7ceb8">ADO</a>.NET, or OLE DB-compliant applications. Simply place Virtuoso in front of your so-called "legacy database," and let it deliver the compliance levels sought by these tools</p> <p>In addition, it's important to note that today's enterprise, through application evolution, company mergers, or acquisitions, is often faced with disparately-structured data residing in any number of line-of-business-oriented data silos. Compounding the problem is the exponential growth of user-generated data via new social media-oriented collaboration tools and platforms. For companies to cost-effectively harness the opportunities accorded by the increasing intersection between line-of-business applications and social media, virtualization of data silos must be achieved, and this virtualization must be delivered in a manner that doesn't prohibitively compromise performance or completely undermine security at either the enterprise or personal level. Again, this is what you get by simply installing Virtuoso.</p> <h3>How do I use it?</h3> <p>The VDBMS may be used in a variety of ways, depending on the data access and integration task at hand. Examples include: </p> <h4>Relational Database Federation</h4> <p>You can make a single ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLE DB, or XMLA connection to multiple ODBC- or JDBC-accessible RDBMS data sources, concurrently, with the ability to perform intelligent distributed joins against externally-hosted database tables. For instance, you can join internal human resources data against internal sales and external stock market data, even when the HR team uses <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id16706720">Oracle</a>, the Sales team uses <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-ide5a15c8">Informix</a>, and the Stock Market figures come from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id13c0e138">Ingres</a>!</p> <h4>Conceptual Level Data Access using the RDF Model</h4> <p>You can construct RDF Model-based Conceptual Views atop Relational Data Sources. This is about generating HTTP-based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id115150f8">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value (E-A-V) graphs using data culled "on the fly" from native or external data sources (Relational Tables/Views, XML-based Web Services, or User Defined Types).</p> <p>You can also derive RDF Model-based Conceptual Views from Web Resource transformations "on the fly" -- the Virtuoso <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id1675db50">Sponger</a> (RDFizing middleware component) enables you to generate RDF Model Linked Data via a RESTful Web Service or within the process pipeline of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id166b8d90">SPARQL</a> query engine (i.e., you simply use the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id167d00c8">URL</a> of a Web Resource in the FROM clause of a SPARQL query).</p> <p>It's important to note that Views take the form of HTTP links that serve as both Data Source Names and Data Source Addresses. This enables you to query and explore relationships across entities (i.e., People, Places, and other Real World Things) via HTTP clients (e.g., Web Browsers) or directly via SPARQL Query Language constructs transmitted over HTTP.</p> <h4>Conceptual Level Data Access using ADO.NET <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id13c6bb60">Entity</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id16ad3f68">Frameworks</a> </h4> <p>As an alternative to RDF, Virtuoso can expose ADO.NET Entity Frameworks-based Conceptual Views over Relational Data Sources. It achieves this by generating Entity Relationship graphs via its native ADO.NET Provider, exposing all externally attached ODBC- and JDBC-accessible data sources. In addition, the ADO.NET Provider supports direct access to Virtuoso's native RDF database engine, eliminating the need for resource intensive Entity Frameworks model transformations.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtLinkRemoteTables" id="link-id1183acd8">Attaching ODBC or JDBC accessible Relational Tables to Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRdb2RDFViewsGeneration#One-Click%20Linked%20Data%20Generation%20&%20Deployment" id="link-id113f2fd8">Using an HTML based Wizard to Generate RDF based Linked Views over Relational Tables</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bj7AbJ0ZYCk&feature=channel" id="link-id16ad4480">Screencast Demonstrating Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data Views Part 1</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXNlcISS0aY&feature=channel" id="link-id114eb720">Screencast Demonstrating Wizard based generation of RDF based Linked Data Views Part 1</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSponger" id="link-id116e5810">Generating RDF based Linked Data from non RDF based Web Resources via the Sponger</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAdoNet35Provider" id="link-id16706118">Building ADO.NET based Entity Frameworks Views over Relational Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSilverlightSPARQLExample" id="link-id139c1278">Building Silverlight Rich Internat Applicaitons using ADO.NET, Entity Frameworks, and RDF based Linked Data</a>.</li> </ul>
2010-02-17T16:46:53-05:00
The Business Of Linked Data (BOLD) Discussion Space
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1596
2010-01-31T22:48:36Z
<p>I've created a new discussion space that's squarely focused on the business development and marketing aspects of "HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id129e32d8">Linked Data" (Linked Data</a>). As its name indicates, It's a BOLD attempt to fill a VoiD. :-)</p> <h3>Background</h3> <p>A few months ago, <a href="http://blog.aldobucchi.com/#this" id="link-id1110eb30">Aldo Bucchi</a> posted a message to the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id111d08a0">LOD</a> <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/" id="link-id118b3778">mailing list</a> seeking a discussion space for more business and marketing oriented topic, in relation to Linked Data. At the time, my assumption was that the existing LOD mailing list served that purpose absolutely fine, but in due course I came to realize that Aldo's request had a much lager foundation than I initially suspected.</p> <h3>Historic Oversight</h3> <p>Linked Data, like its umbrella <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id16ceb618">Semantic Web</a> Project, has suffered from an inadvertent oversight on the parts of many of its enthusiasts (myself included): 100% of the discussion spaces are created by, geared towards, or dominated by researchers (from Academia primarily) and/or developers. Thus, at the very least, we've been operating in an echo chamber that only feed the existing void between the core community and those who are more interested in discussing business and marketing related topics.</p> <p>The new discussion space seeks to cover the following:</p> <ol> <li> Brainstorming Value Proposition Articulation</li> <li>War Story Exchanges</li> <li>Case Studies and Use-cases</li> <li>Market Research & Positioning (for instance Linked Data is killer technology that redefines <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1d491e90">Data</a> Integration, but none of the major research firms currently make that connection)</li>. </ol> <p>How Do I Join The Conversation? Simply sign up on the Google hosted <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/business-of-linked-data-bold" id="link-id129e4d08">BOLD mailing list</a>, introduce yourself (ideally), and then start conversing! :-)</p>
2010-01-31T17:48:48-05:00
Getting The Linked Data Value Pyramid Layers Right (Update #2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1595
2010-01-31T22:46:47Z
<p> One of the real problems that pervades all routes to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13539328">Linked Data</a> value prop. incomprehension stems from the layering of its value pyramid; especially when communicating with -initially detached- end-users. </p> <p> <strong>Note to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1c85f498">Web</a> Programmers:</strong> Linked Data is about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1c85f650">Data</a> (Wine) and not about Code (Fish). Thus, it isn't a "programmer only zone", far from it. More than anything else, its inherently inclusive and spreads its participation net widely across: Data Architects, Data Integrators, Power Users, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id13600d98">Knowledge</a> Workers, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id149f8230">Information</a> Workers, Data Analysts, etc.. Basically, everyone that can "click on a link" is invited to this particular party; remember, it is about "Linked Data" not "Linked Code", after all. :-) </p> <h3>Problematic Value Pyramid Layering</h3> <p> Here is an example of a Linked Data value pyramid that I am stumbling across --with some frequency-- these days (note: 1 being the pyramid apex):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10e85538">SPARQL</a> Queries</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id1495b578">RDF</a> Data Stores</li> <li> RDF Data Sets </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id158e4be0">HTTP</a> scheme URIs</li> </ol> <p> Basically, Linked Data deployment (assigning de-referencable HTTP URIs to DBMS records, their attributes, and attribute values [optionally] ) is occurring last. Even worse, this happens in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id626d988">context</a> of Linked Open Data oriented endeavors, resulting in nothing but confusion or inadvertent perpetuation of the overarching pragmatically challenged "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id111774b8">Semantic Web</a>" stereotype. </p> <p> As you can imagine, hitting SPARQL as your introduction to Linked Data is akin to hitting <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id151f9938">SQL</a> as your introduction to Relational Database Technology, neither is an elevator-style value prop. relay mechanism. </p> <p> In the relational realm, killer demos always started with desktop productivity tools (spreadsheets, report-writers, SQL QBE tools etc.) accessing, relational data sources en route to unveiling the "Productivity" and "Agility" value prop. that such binding delivered i.e., the desktop application (clients) and the databases (servers) are distinct, but operating in a mutually beneficial manner to all, courtesy of a data access standards such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1519aac0">ODBC</a> (Open Database Connectivity). </p> <p> In the Linked Data realm, learning to embrace and extend best practices from the relational dbms realm remains a challenge, a lot of this has to do with hangovers from a misguided perception that RDF databases will somehow completely replace <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id110dec88">RDBMS</a> engines, rather than compliment them. Thus, you have a counter productive variant of NIH (Not Invented Here) in play, taking us to the dreaded realm of: Break the Pot and You Own It (exemplified by the 11+ year Semantic Web Project comprehension and appreciation odyssey). </p> <p> From my vantage point, here is how I believe the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/images/URI_Data_Source_SemWeb.png" id="link-id1592f528">Linked Data value pyramid should be layered</a>, especially when communicating the essential value prop.: </p> <ol> <li> HTTP URLs -- LINKs to documents (Reports) that users already appreciate, across the public Web and/or Intranets </li> <li> HTTP URIs -- typically not visually distinguishable from the URLs, so use the Data exposed by de-referencing a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id11209ce8">URL</a> to show how each Data Item (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1449b558">Entity</a> or Object) is uniquely identified by a Generic HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id112065f8">URI</a>, and how clicking on the said URIs leads to more structured metadata bearing documents available in a variety of data representation formats, thereby enabling flexible data presentation (e.g., smarter HTML pages) </li> <li> SPARQL -- when a user appreciates the data representation and presentation dexterity of a Generic HTTP URI, they will be more inclined to drill down an additional layer to unravel how HTTP URIs mechanically deliver such flexibility </li> <li> RDF Data Stores -- at this stage the user is now interested data sources behind the Generic HTTP URIs, courtesy of natural desire to tweak the data presented in the report; thus, you now have an engaged user ready to absorb the "How Generic HTTP URIs Pull This Off" message </li> <li>RDF Data Sets -- while attempting to make or tweak HTTP URIs, users become curious about the actual data loaded into the RDF Data Store, which is where data sets used to create powerful Lookup Data Spaces (e.g., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id110675c0">DBpedia</a>) come into play such as those from the <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2009-07-14.html" id="link-id11127ff8">LOD</a> constellation as exemplified by <a href="http://wiki.dbpedia.org/Datasets" id="link-id14a2fad8">DBpedia (extractions from Wikipedia)</a>.</li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1565" id="link-id149c7048">Exploring the Linked Data Value Proposition</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id14998f98">Simple Explanation of Linked Data & RDF Dynamics</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1546" id="link-id114fbd58">What is the Linked Data Meme About?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1547" id="link-id1447ada0">Linked Data & Data Item Identifiers (Identity)</a> </li> </ul>
2010-01-31T17:47:04-05:00
What is the DBpedia Project? (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1594
2010-01-31T22:45:55Z
<p>The recent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:DBpedia" id="link-id1120a260">Wikipedia imbroglio</a> centered around <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id14a5e588">DBpedia</a> is the fundamental driver for this particular <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id113ddc10">blog</a> post. At time of writing this blog post, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBpedia" id="link-id158edec0">DBpedia project definition in Wikipedia</a> remains unsatisfactory due to the following shortcomings:</p> <ol> <li>inaccurate and incomplete definition of the Project's What, Why, Who, Where, When, and How</li> <li>inaccurate reflection of project essence, by skewing focus towards <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1bc892d0">data</a> extraction and data set dump production, which is at best a quarter of the project.</li> </ol> <p>Here are some insights on DBpedia, from the perspective of someone intimately involved with the other three-quarters of the project.</p> <h3>What is DBpedia?</h3> <p>A live <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1c0c0cc0">Web</a> accessible RDF model database (Quad Store) derived from Wikipedia content snapshots, taken periodically. The RDF database underlies a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11ba0ad0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1183c978">Space</a> comprised of: HTML (and most recently HTML+<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id602eab8">RDFa</a>) based data browser pages and a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11af5400">SPARQL</a> endpoint.</p> <p>Note: <a href="http://blog.dbpedia.org/2009/11/11/dbpedia-34-released/" id="link-id110b8248">DBpedia 3.4</a> now exists in snapshot (warehouse) and <a href="http://dbpedia-live.openlinksw.com/stats/" id="link-id6473258">Live Editions</a> (currently being hot-staged). This post is about the snapshot (warehouse) edition, I'll drop a different post about the DBpedia Live Edition where a new Delta-Engine covers both extraction and database record replacement, in realtime.</p> <h3>When was it Created?</h3> <p>As an idea under the moniker "DBpedia" it was conceptualized in late 2006 by researchers at University of Leipzig (lead by Soren Auer) and Freie University, Berlin (lead by <a href="http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/en/institute/pwo/bizer/" id="link-id14982c78">Chris Bizer</a>). The first public instance of DBpedia (as described above) was released in February 2007. The official DBpedia coming out party occurred at <a href="http://www2007.org/" id="link-id1497c788">WWW2007</a>, Banff, during the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/BanffGathering" id="link-id1448b9e8">inaugural Linked Data gathering</a>, where it showcased the virtues and immense potential of <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id152257e0">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id111759a8">Linked Data meme</a>.</p> <h3>Who's Behind It?</h3> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id110e70f8">OpenLink Software</a> (developers of OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14462f60">Virtuoso</a> and providers of Web Hosting infrastructure), University of Leipzig, and Freie Univerity, Berlin. In addition, there is a burgeoning community of collaborators and contributors responsible DBpedia based applications, cross-linked data sets, ontologies (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id11244aa0">OpenCyc</a>, <a href="http://www.ontologyportal.org/" id="link-id110e4a40">SUMO</a>, <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id11109e48">UMBEL</a>, and <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/yago-naga/yago/" id="link-id10fb4218">YAGO</a>) and other utilities. Finally, DBpedia wouldn't be possible without the global content contribution and curation efforts of Wikipedians, a point typically overlooked (albeit inadvertently).</p> <h3>How is it Constructed?</h3> <p>The steps are as follows:</p> <ol> <li> RDF data set dump preparation via Wikipedia content extraction and transformation to RDF model data, using the N3 data representation format - Java and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id111c93b8">PHP</a> extraction code produced and maintained by the teams at Leipzig and Berlin </li> <li> Deployment of Linked Data that enables Data browsing and exploration using any HTTP aware user agent (e.g. basic Web Browsers) - handled by OpenLink Virtuoso (handled by Berlin via the Pubby Linked Data Server during the early months of the DBpedia project) </li> <li> SPARQL compliant Quad Store, enabling direct access to database records via SPARQL (Query language, REST or SOAP Web Service, plus a variety of query results serialization formats) - OpenLink Virtuoso since first public release of DBpedia </li> </ol> <p> In a nutshell, there are four distinct and vital components to DBpedia. Thus, DBpedia doesn't exist if all the project offered was a collection of RDF data dumps. Likewise, it doesn't exist if you have a SPARQL compliant Quad Store without loaded data sets, and of course it doesn't exist if you have a fully loaded SPARQL compliant Quad Store is up to the cocktail of challenges presented by live Web accessibility.</p> <h3>Why is it Important?</h3> <p> It remains a live exemplar for any individual or organization seeking to publishing or exploit HTTP based Linked Data on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id118e6388">World Wide Web</a>. Its existence continues to stimulate growth in both density and quality of the burgeoning Web of Linked Data.</p> <h3>How Do I Use it?</h3> <p> In the most basic sense, simply browse the HTML pages en route to discovery erstwhile relationships that exist across <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id112def88">named entities</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-id1591c5f8">subject matter concepts</a> / headings. Beyond that, simply look at DBpedia as a master lookup table in a Web hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id11762618">distributed database</a> setup; enabling you to mesh your local domain specific details with DBpedia records via structured relations (triples or 3-tuples records) comprised of HTTP URIs from both realms e.g., owl:sameAs relations.</p> <h3>What Can I Use it For?</h3> <p> Expanding on the Master-Details point above, you can use its rich <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1170c000">URI</a> corpus to alleviate tedium associated with activities such as: </p> <ol> <li>List maintenance - e.g., Countries, States, Companies, Units of Measurement, Subject Headings etc.</li> <li>Tagging - as a compliment to existing practices</li> <li>Analytical Research - you're only a LINK (URI) away from erstwhile difficult to attain research data spread across a broad range of topics</li> <li>Closed Vocabulary Construction - rather than commence the futile quest of building your own closed vocabulary, simply leverage Wikipedia's human curated vocabulary as our common base. </li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id14a2e698">Pre-loaded and Pre-configured instances of DBpedia 3.4</a> - via publicly shared <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/ebs/" id="link-id1147fcf0">Amazon Elastic Block Storage</a> Snapshots</li> <li> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfperformancetuning.html#rdfperfgeneraldbpedia" id="link-id149ab528">Virtuoso & DBpedia Tunning Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dowhatimean.net/2009/11/whats-in-a-name-and-the-linked-data-police" id="link-id110cba10">What's In a Name & The Linked Data Police</a>. </li> </ul>
2010-01-31T17:46:10.000002-05:00
Getting The Linked Data Value Pyramid Layers Right (Update #2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1593
2010-01-31T22:44:04Z
<p> One of the real problems that pervades all routes to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13539328">Linked Data</a> value prop. incomprehension stems from the layering of its value pyramid; especially when communicating with -initially detached- end-users. </p> <p> <strong>Note to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Programmers:</strong> Linked Data is about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> (Wine) and not about Code (Fish). Thus, it isn't a "programmer only zone", far from it. More than anything else, its inherently inclusive and spreads its participation net widely across: Data Architects, Data Integrators, Power Users, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id13600d98">Knowledge</a> Workers, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id149f8230">Information</a> Workers, Data Analysts, etc.. Basically, everyone that can "click on a link" is invited to this particular party; remember, it is about "Linked Data" not "Linked Code", after all. :-) </p> <h3>Problematic Value Pyramid Layering</h3> <p> Here is an example of a Linked Data value pyramid that I am stumbling across --with some frequency-- these days (note: 1 being the pyramid apex):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10e85538">SPARQL</a> Queries</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id1495b578">RDF</a> Data Stores</li> <li> RDF Data Sets </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id158e4be0">HTTP</a> scheme URIs</li> </ol> <p> Basically, Linked Data deployment (assigning de-referencable HTTP URIs to DBMS records, their attributes, and attribute values [optionally] ) is occurring last. Even worse, this happens in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id626d988">context</a> of Linked Open Data oriented endeavors, resulting in nothing but confusion or inadvertent perpetuation of the overarching pragmatically challenged "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id111774b8">Semantic Web</a>" stereotype. </p> <p> As you can imagine, hitting SPARQL as your introduction to Linked Data is akin to hitting <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id151f9938">SQL</a> as your introduction to Relational Database Technology, neither is an elevator-style value prop. relay mechanism. </p> <p> In the relational realm, killer demos always started with desktop productivity tools (spreadsheets, report-writers, SQL QBE tools etc.) accessing, relational data sources en route to unveiling the "Productivity" and "Agility" value prop. that such binding delivered i.e., the desktop application (clients) and the databases (servers) are distinct, but operating in a mutually beneficial manner to all, courtesy of a data access standards such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1519aac0">ODBC</a> (Open Database Connectivity). </p> <p> In the Linked Data realm, learning to embrace and extend best practices from the relational dbms realm remains a challenge, a lot of this has to do with hangovers from a misguided perception that RDF databases will somehow completely replace <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id110dec88">RDBMS</a> engines, rather than compliment them. Thus, you have a counter productive variant of NIH (Not Invented Here) in play, taking us to the dreaded realm of: Break the Pot and You Own It (exemplified by the 11+ year Semantic Web Project comprehension and appreciation odyssey). </p> <p> From my vantage point, here is how I believe the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/images/URI_Data_Source_SemWeb.png" id="link-id1592f528">Linked Data value pyramid should be layered</a>, especially when communicating the essential value prop.: </p> <ol> <li> HTTP URLs -- LINKs to documents (Reports) that users already appreciate, across the public Web and/or Intranets </li> <li> HTTP URIs -- typically not visually distinguishable from the URLs, so use the Data exposed by de-referencing a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id11209ce8">URL</a> to show how each Data Item (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1449b558">Entity</a> or Object) is uniquely identified by a Generic HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id112065f8">URI</a>, and how clicking on the said URIs leads to more structured metadata bearing documents available in a variety of data representation formats, thereby enabling flexible data presentation (e.g., smarter HTML pages) </li> <li> SPARQL -- when a user appreciates the data representation and presentation dexterity of a Generic HTTP URI, they will be more inclined to drill down an additional layer to unravel how HTTP URIs mechanically deliver such flexibility </li> <li> RDF Data Stores -- at this stage the user is now interested data sources behind the Generic HTTP URIs, courtesy of natural desire to tweak the data presented in the report; thus, you now have an engaged user ready to absorb the "How Generic HTTP URIs Pull This Off" message </li> <li>RDF Data Sets -- while attempting to make or tweak HTTP URIs, users become curious about the actual data loaded into the RDF Data Store, which is where data sets used to create powerful Lookup Data Spaces (e.g., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id110675c0">DBpedia</a>) come into play such as those from the <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2009-07-14.html" id="link-id11127ff8">LOD</a> constellation as exemplified by <a href="http://wiki.dbpedia.org/Datasets" id="link-id14a2fad8">DBpedia (extractions from Wikipedia)</a>.</li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1565" id="link-id149c7048">Exploring the Linked Data Value Proposition</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id14998f98">Simple Explanation of Linked Data & RDF Dynamics</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1546" id="link-id114fbd58">What is the Linked Data Meme About?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1547" id="link-id1447ada0">Linked Data & Data Item Identifiers (Identity)</a> </li> </ul>
2010-02-01T09:02:14.000004-05:00
What is the DBpedia Project? (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1592
2010-01-31T22:43:08Z
<p> The recent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:DBpedia" id="link-id1120a260">Wikipedia imbroglio</a> centered around <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id14a5e588">DBpedia</a> is the fundamental driver for this particular <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id113ddc10">blog</a> post. At time of writing this blog post, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DBpedia" id="link-id158edec0">DBpedia project definition in Wikipedia</a> remains unsatisfactory due to the following shortcomings:</p> <ol> <li> inaccurate and incomplete definition of the Project's What, Why, Who, Where, When, and How</li> <li> inaccurate reflection of project essence, by skewing focus towards <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> extraction and data set dump production, which is at best a quarter of the project.</li> </ol> <p> Here are some insights on DBpedia, from the perspective of someone intimately involved with the other three-quarters of the project.</p> <h3> What is DBpedia?</h3> <p> A live <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> accessible RDF model database (Quad Store) derived from Wikipedia content snapshots, taken periodically. The RDF database underlies a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11ba0ad0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1183c978">Space</a> comprised of: HTML (and most recently HTML+<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id602eab8">RDFa</a>) based data browser pages and a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11af5400">SPARQL</a> endpoint.</p> <p> Note: <a href="http://blog.dbpedia.org/2009/11/11/dbpedia-34-released/" id="link-id110b8248">DBpedia 3.4</a> now exists in snapshot (warehouse) and <a href="http://dbpedia-live.openlinksw.com/stats/" id="link-id6473258">Live Editions</a> (currently being hot-staged). This post is about the snapshot (warehouse) edition, I'll drop a different post about the DBpedia Live Edition where a new Delta-Engine covers both extraction and database record replacement, in realtime.</p> <h3> When was it Created?</h3> <p> As an idea under the moniker "DBpedia" it was conceptualized in late 2006 by researchers at University of Leipzig (lead by Soren Auer) and Freie University, Berlin (lead by <a href="http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/en/institute/pwo/bizer/" id="link-id14982c78">Chris Bizer</a>). The first public instance of DBpedia (as described above) was released in February 2007. The official DBpedia coming out party occurred at <a href="http://www2007.org/" id="link-id1497c788">WWW2007</a>, Banff, during the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/BanffGathering" id="link-id1448b9e8">inaugural Linked Data gathering</a>, where it showcased the virtues and immense potential of <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id152257e0">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id111759a8">Linked Data meme</a>.</p> <h3> Who's Behind It?</h3> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id110e70f8">OpenLink Software</a> (developers of OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14462f60">Virtuoso</a> and providers of Web Hosting infrastructure), University of Leipzig, and Freie Univerity, Berlin. In addition, there is a burgeoning community of collaborators and contributors responsible DBpedia based applications, cross-linked data sets, ontologies (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id11244aa0">OpenCyc</a>, <a href="http://www.ontologyportal.org/" id="link-id110e4a40">SUMO</a>, <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id11109e48">UMBEL</a>, and <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/yago-naga/yago/" id="link-id10fb4218">YAGO</a>) and other utilities. Finally, DBpedia wouldn't be possible without the global content contribution and curation efforts of Wikipedians, a point typically overlooked (albeit inadvertently).</p> <h3> How is it Constructed?</h3> <p> The steps are as follows:</p> <ol> <li> RDF data set dump preparation via Wikipedia content extraction and transformation to RDF model data, using the N3 data representation format - Java and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id111c93b8">PHP</a> extraction code produced and maintained by the teams at Leipzig and Berlin</li> <li> Deployment of Linked Data that enables Data browsing and exploration using any HTTP aware user agent (e.g. basic Web Browsers) - handled by OpenLink Virtuoso (handled by Berlin via the Pubby Linked Data Server during the early months of the DBpedia project)</li> <li> SPARQL compliant Quad Store, enabling direct access to database records via SPARQL (Query language, REST or SOAP Web Service, plus a variety of query results serialization formats) - OpenLink Virtuoso since first public release of DBpedia</li> </ol> <p> In a nutshell, there are four distinct and vital components to DBpedia. Thus, DBpedia doesn't exist if all the project offered was a collection of RDF data dumps. Likewise, it doesn't exist without a fully populated SPARQL compliant Quad Store. Last but not least, it doesn't exist if you have a fully loaded SPARQL compliant Quad Store isn't up to the cocktail of challenges (query load and complexity) presented by live Web database accessibility.</p> <h3> Why is it Important?</h3> <p> It remains a live exemplar for any individual or organization seeking to publishing or exploit HTTP based Linked Data on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id118e6388">World Wide Web</a>. Its existence continues to stimulate growth in both density and quality of the burgeoning Web of Linked Data.</p> <h3> How Do I Use it?</h3> <p> In the most basic sense, simply browse the HTML based resource decriptor pages en route to discovering erstwhile undiscovered relationships that exist across <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id112def88">named entities</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-id1591c5f8">subject matter concepts</a> / headings. Beyond that, simply look at DBpedia as a master lookup table in a Web hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id11762618">distributed database</a> setup; enabling you to mesh your local domain specific details with DBpedia records via structured relations (triples or 3-tuples records), comprised of HTTP URIs from both realms e.g., via owl:sameAs relations.</p> <h3> What Can I Use it For?</h3> <p> Expanding on the Master-Details point above, you can use its rich <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1170c000">URI</a> corpus to alleviate tedium associated with activities such as:</p> <ol> <li> List maintenance - e.g., Countries, States, Companies, Units of Measurement, Subject Headings etc.</li> <li> Tagging - as a compliment to existing practices</li> <li> Analytical Research - you're only a LINK (URI) away from erstwhile difficult to attain research data spread across a broad range of topics</li> <li> Closed Vocabulary Construction - rather than commence the futile quest of building your own closed vocabulary, simply leverage Wikipedia's human curated vocabulary as our common base.</li> </ol> <h3> Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id14a2e698">Pre-loaded and Pre-configured instances of DBpedia 3.4</a> - via publicly shared <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/ebs/" id="link-id1147fcf0">Amazon Elastic Block Storage</a> Snapshots</li> <li> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfperformancetuning.html#rdfperfgeneraldbpedia" id="link-id149ab528">Virtuoso & DBpedia Tunning Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dowhatimean.net/2009/11/whats-in-a-name-and-the-linked-data-police" id="link-id110cba10">What's In a Name & The Linked Data Police</a>.</li> </ul>
2010-09-15T18:10:51.000002-04:00
5 Very Important Things to Note about HTTP based Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1591
2010-01-31T22:31:35Z
<ol> <li> It isn't <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id115dfd68">World Wide Web</a> Specific (HTTP != World Wide Web)</li> <li> It isn't Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Specific </li> <li> It isn't about "Free" (Beer or Speech) </li> <li> It isn't about Markup (so don't expect to grok it via "markup first" approach) </li> <li>It's about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13a6aa98">Hyperdata</a> - the use of HTTP and REST to deliver a powerful platform agnostic mechanism for Data Reference, Access, and Integration.</li> </ol> <p> When trying to understand HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id18aa1490">Linked Data</a>, especially if you're well versed in DBMS technology use (User, Power User, Architect, Analyst, DBA, or Programmer) think: <br /> </p> <ul> <li> Open Database Connectivity (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1428fba0">ODBC</a>) without operating system, data model, or wire-protocol specificity or lock-in potential </li> <li> Java Database Connectivity (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id18d3c2a8">JDBC</a>) without programming language specificity </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id125725b8">ADO</a>.NET without .NET runtime specificity and .NET bound language specificity </li> <li> OLE-DB without Windows operating system & programming language specificity </li> <li> XMLA without XML format specificity - with Tabular and Multidimensional results formats expressible in a variety of data representation formats. </li> <li>All of the above scoped to the Record rather than Container level, with Generic HTTP scheme URIs associated with each Record, Field, and Field value (optionally) </li> </ul> <p>Remember the need for Data Access & Integration technology is the by product of the following realities:</p> <ol> <li> Human curated data is ultimately dirty, because: <ul> <li>our thick thumbs, inattention, distractions, and general discomfort with typing, make typos prevalent</li> <li>database engines exist for a variety of data models - Graph, Relational, Hierarchical;</li> <li>within databases you have different record container/partition names e.g. Table Names;</li> <li>within a database record container you have records that are really aspects of the same thing (different keys exist in a plethora of operational / line of business systems that expose aspects of the same <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id13378338">entity</a> e.g., customer data that spans Accounts, CRM, ERP application databases);</li> <li>different field names (one database has "EMP" while another has "Employee") for the same record</li>.</ul> </li> <li>Units of measurement is driven by locale, the UK office wants to see sales in Pounds Sterling while the French office prefers Euros etc.</li> <li>All of the above is subject to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id17e46398">context</a> halos which can be quite granular re. sensitivity e.g. staff travel between locations that alter locales and their roles; basically, profiles matters a lot.</li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1364" id="link-id128f0fe8">ODBC and WODBC (Web Open Database Connectivity) Comparison</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1364" id="link-id1367cd18">Creating, Deploying, and Exploiting Linked Data Presentation</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.odata.org/" id="link-id122ab708">Open Data Protocol Project</a> </li> </ul>
2010-02-01T09:00:56-05:00
5 Game Changing Things about the OpenLink Virtuoso + AWS Cloud Combo
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-31#1590
2010-01-31T22:29:34Z
<p> Here are 5 powerful benefits you can immediately derive from the combination of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id17eb8988">Virtuoso</a> and Amazon's AWS services (specifically the EC2 and EBS components): <br /> </p> <ol> <li> Acquire your own personal or service specific <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1423e520">data space</a> in the Cloud. Think DBase, Paradox, FoxPRO, Access of yore, but with the power of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id136c6290">Oracle</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id11b269b8">Informix</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microsoft_SQL_Server" id="link-id138084b8">Microsoft SQL Server</a> etc.. using a Conceptual, as opposed to solely Logical, model based DBMS (i.e., a Hybrid DBMS Engine for: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id132a7938">SQL</a>, RDF, XML, and Full Text) </li> <li> Ability to share and control access to your resources using innovations like <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id17ee9d28">FOAF</a>+SSL, OpenID, and OAuth, all from one place </li> <li> Construction of personal or organization based FOAF profiles in a matter of minutes; by simply creating a basic DBMS (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id14784ae0">ODS</a> application layer) account; and then using this profile to create strong links (references) to all your Data silos (esp. those from the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0 realm) </li> <li> Load data sets from the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id17e6ac98">LOD</a> cloud or Sponge existing Web resources (i.e., on the fly data transformation to RDF model based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17e65d38">Linked Data</a>) and then use the combination to build powerful lookup services that enrich the value of URLs (think: Web addressable reports holding query results) that you publish </li> <li> Bind all of the above to a domain that you own (e.g. a .Name domain) so that you have an attribution-friendly "authority" component for resource URLs and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id118a08d8">Entity</a> URIs published from your Personal Linked Data Space on the Web (or private HTTP network). </li> </ol> <p> In a nutshell, the AWS Cloud infrastructure simplifies the process of generating Federated presence on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id1380af38">Internet</a> and/or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id11633b10">World Wide Web</a>. Remember, centralized networking models always end up creating data silos, in some <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id142006f0">context</a>, ultimately! :-) </p>
2010-02-01T08:59:36-05:00
Virtuoso Chronicles from the Field: Nepomuk, KDE, and the quest for a sophisticated RDF DBMS.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-28#1602
2010-01-28T16:14:04Z
<p>For this particular user experience chronicle, I've simply inserted the content of <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com" id="link-id1368b4d8">Sebastian Trueg</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/what-we-did-last-summer-and-the-rest-of-2009-a-look-back-onto-the-nepomuk-development-year-with-an-obscenely-long-title/#comments" id="link-id139dddb0">What We Did Last Summer (And the Rest of 2009) – A Look Back Onto the Nepomuk Development Year ...</a>, directly into this post, without any additional commentary or modification.</p> <div class="snap_preview"> <p>2009 is over. <em>Yeah, sure, trueg, we know that, it has been over for a while now!</em> Ok, ok, I am a bit late, but still I would like to get this one out - if only for my archive. So here goes.</p> <h2> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id64672f0">Virtuoso</a> </h2> <p>Let’s start with the major topic of 2009 (and also the beginning of 2010): The new Nepomuk database backend: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/" id="link-id13cc47e0">Virtuoso</a>. Everybody who used Nepomuk had the same problems: you either used the <a href="http://openrdf.org/" id="link-id13a4ac88">sesame2</a> backend which depends on Java and steals all of your memory or you were stuck with <a href="http://librdf.org/" id="link-id11b6a550">Redland</a> which had the worst performance and missed some <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id139d82b8">SPARQL</a> features making important parts of Nepomuk like queries unusable. So more than a year ago I had the idea to use the one GPL’ed database server out there that supported RDF in a professional manner: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id139fd948">OpenLin</a>k’s <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/" id="link-id12329590">Virtuoso</a>. It has all the features we need, has a very good performance, and scales up to dimensions we will probably never reach on the desktop (<em>yeah, right, and 64k main memory will be enough forever!</em>). So very early I started coding the necessary Soprano plugin which would talk to a locally running Virtuoso server through <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id14930d90">ODBC</a>. But since I ran into tons of small problems (as always) and got sidetracked by other tasks I did not finish it right away. OpenLink, however, was very interested in the idea of their server being part of every KDE installation (why wouldn’t they ;)). So they not only introduced a <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/databaseadmsrv.html#ini_Parameters" id="link-id136763c0">lite-mode</a> which makes Virtuoso suitable for the desktop but also helped in debugging all the problems that I had left. Many test runs, patches, and a Virtuoso 5.0.12 release later <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/virtuoso-once-more-with-feeling/" id="link-id13c5a5a0">I could finally announce the Virtuoso integration</a> as usable.</p> <p>Then end of last year I dropped the support for sesame2 and redland. Virtuoso is now the only supported database backend. The reason is simple: Virtuoso is way more powerful than the rest - not only in terms of performance - and it is fully implemented in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C%2B%2B" id="link-id13a17cd8">C</a>(++) without any traces of Java. Maybe even more important is the integration of the full text index which makes the previously used CLucene index unnecessary. Thus, we can finally combine full text and graph queries in one SPARQL query. This results in a cleaner API and way faster return of search results since there is no need to combine the results from several queries anymore. A direct result of that is the new <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/namespaceNepomuk_1_1Query.html" id="link-id149a9fd8">Nepomuk Query API</a> which I will discuss later.</p> <p>So now the only thing I am waiting for is the first bugfix release of Virtuoso 6, i.e. 6.0.1 which will fix the bugs that make 6.0.0 fail with Nepomuk. Should be out any day now. :)</p> <h2>The Nepomuk Query API</h2> <p>Querying <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> in Nepomuk pre-KDE-4.4 could be done in one of two ways: 1. Use the very limited capabilities of the <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/classNepomuk_1_1ResourceManager.html" id="link-id139ad3d0">ResourceManager</a> to list resources with certain properties or of a certain type; or 2. Write your own <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk/AdvancedQueries" id="link-id13c74608">SPARQL query using ugly QString::arg replacements</a>.</p> <p>With the introduction of Virtuoso and its awesome power we can now do pretty much everything in one query. This allowed <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13c4cf18">me</a> to finally create a query API for KDE: <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/classNepomuk_1_1Query_1_1Query.html" id="link-id602e818">Nepomuk::Query::Query</a> and friends. I won’t go into much detail here since I did that <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/convenient-querying-in-libnepomuk/" id="link-id11282ff8">before</a>.</p> <p>All in all you should remember one thing: whenever you think about writing your own SPARQL query in a KDE application - have a look at libnepomukquery. It is very likely that you can avoid the hassle of debugging a query by using the query API.</p> <p>The first nice effect of the new API (apart from me using it all over the place obviously) is the new query interface in Dolphin. Internally it simply combines a bunch of <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/classNepomuk_1_1Query_1_1Term.html" id="link-id11952270">Nepomuk::Query::Term</a> objects into a <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/nepomuk/html/classNepomuk_1_1Query_1_1AndTerm.html" id="link-id13aa85b8">Nepomuk::Query::AndTerm</a>. All very readable and no ugly query strings.</p> <div id="attachment_234" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 610px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dolphin-kde-4-4-search-panel.png" id="link-id11454028"><img class="size-full wp-image-234" title="Dolphin Search Panel in KDE SC 4.4" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/dolphin-kde-4-4-search-panel.png?w=600&h=208" alt="" width="600" height="208" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Dolphin Search Panel in KDE SC 4.4</p> </div> <h2>Shared Desktop Ontologies</h2> <p>An important part of the <a href="http://nepomuk.semanticdesktop.org/" id="link-id13a35a90">Nepomuk research project</a> was the creation of a set of <a href="http://www.semanticdesktop.org/ontologies/" id="link-id123a6700">ontologies</a> for describing desktop resources and their metadata. After the <a href="http://xesam.org/main/XesamAbout" id="link-id13c70ab8">Xesam</a> project under the umbrella of <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/" id="link-id139e2108">freedesktop.org</a> had been convinced to use RDF for describing file metadata they developed their own ontology. Thanks to Evgeny (phreedom) Egorochkin and Antonie Mylka both the Xesam ontology and the Nepomuk <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id119be318">Information</a> Elements Ontology were already very close in design. Thus, it was relatively easy to merge the two and be left with only one ontology to support. Since then not only KDE but also <a href="http://strigi.sourceforge.net/" id="link-id123b63f0">Strigi</a> and <a href="http://projects.gnome.org/tracker/" id="link-id13d02a30">Tracker</a> are using the Nepomuk ontologies.</p> <p>At the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit I met some of the guys from Tracker and we tried to come up with a plan to create a joint project to maintain the ontologies. This got off to a rough start as nobody really felt responsible. So I simply took the initiative and released the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/oscaf/files/" id="link-id148d7078">shared-desktop-ontologies</a> version 0.1 in November 2009. The result was a s***-load of hate-mails and bug reports due to me breaking KDE build. But in the end it was worth it. Now the package is established and other projects can start to pick it up to create data compatible to the Nepomuk system and Tracker.</p> <p>Today the ontologies (and the shared-desktop-ontologies package) are maintained in the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/oscaf/" id="link-id10ce1038">Oscaf project at Sourceforge</a>. The situation is far from perfect but it is a good start. If you need specific properties in the ontologies or are thinking about creating one for your own application - come and join us in the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/oscaf/report/1" id="link-id11413910">bug tracker</a>…</p> <h2>Timeline KIO Slave</h2> <p>It was at the Akonadi meeting that Will Stephenson and myself got into talking about mimicking some <a href="http://live.gnome.org/Zeitgeist" id="link-id116888b0">Zeitgeist</a> functionality through Nepomuk. Basically it meant gathering some data when opening and when saving files. We quickly came up with a hacky patch for KIO and <a href="http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/kio/html/classKFileDialog.html" id="link-id13637348">KFileDialog</a> which covered most cases and allowed us to track when a file was modified and by which application. This little experiment did not leave that state though (it will, however, this year) but another one did: Zeitgeist also provides a fuse filesystem which allows to browse the files by modification dates. Well, whatever fuse can do, KIO can do as well. <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/just-another-way-of-browsing-your-files/" id="link-id13cf58c0">Introducing the timeline:/ KIO slave</a> which gives a calendar view onto your files.</p> <p> <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/just-another-way-of-browsing-your-files/" id="link-id113d4988"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-208" title="timeline-october" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/timeline-october.png?w=300&h=235" alt="" width="300" height="235" /> </a> </p> <h2>Tips And Tricks</h2> <p>Well, I thought I would mention the <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk/TipsAndTricks" id="link-id116357d0">Tips And Tricks</a> section I wrote for the <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk" id="link-id14473520">techbase</a>. It might not be a big deal but I think it contains some valuable information in case you are using Nepomuk as a developer.</p> <h2>Google Summer Of Code 2009</h2> <p>This time around I had the privilege to <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/04/22/nepomuk-in-the-summer-x2/" id="link-id116b0cf8">mentor two students</a> in the Google Summer of Code. Alessandro Sivieri and Adam Kidder did outstanding work on <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/gsoc-wrap-up-part-1/" id="link-id13c9f2f8">Improved Virtual Folders</a> and the <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/08/28/gsoc-wrap-up-part-2/" id="link-id123bac00">Smart File Dialog</a>.</p> <p>Adam’s work lead me to some heavy improvements in the Nepomuk KIO slaves myself which I only finished this week (more details on that coming up). Alessandro continued his work on faceted file browsing in KDE and created:</p> <h3>Sembrowser</h3> <p>Alessandro is following up on his work to make faceted file browsing a reality in 2010 (and KDE SC 4.5). Since it was too late to get faceted browsing into KDE SC 4.4 he is working on <a href="http://www.kde-apps.org/content/show.php/Sembrowser?content=117692" id="link-id117c67d0">Sembrowser</a>, a stand-alone faceted file browser which will be the grounds for experiments until the code is merged into Dolphin.</p> <div id="attachment_238" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/sembrowser.png" id="link-id13aa8e80"><img class="size-medium wp-image-238" title="sembrowser" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/sembrowser.png?w=300&h=189" alt="" width="300" height="189" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Faceted Browsing in KDE with Sembrowser</p> </div> <h2>Nepomuk Workshops</h2> <p>In 2009 I organized the first Nepomuk workshop in Freiburg, Germany. And also the second one. While <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/the-first-nepomuk-workshop-its-a-wrap/" id="link-id13b553e0">I reported properly on the first one</a> I still owe a summary for the second one. I will get around to that - sooner or later. ;)</p> <h2>CMake Magic</h2> <p> <a href="http://soprano.sourceforge.net/" id="link-id148bfad8">Soprano</a> gives us a nice command line tool to create a C++ namespace from an ontology file: <a href="http://soprano.sourceforge.net/apidox/trunk/soprano_devel_tools.html" id="link-iddac3b58">onto2vocabularyclass</a>. It produces nice convenience namespaces like <a href="http://soprano.sourceforge.net/apidox/trunk/namespaceSoprano_1_1Vocabulary_1_1NAO.html" id="link-idfd4b970">Soprano::Vocabulary::NAO</a>. Nepomuk adds another tool named <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk/ResourceGenerator" id="link-id11b60200">nepomuk-rcgen</a>. Both were a bit clumsy to use before. Now we have nice cmake macros which make it very simple to use both.</p> <p>See the <a href="http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/Metadata/Nepomuk/ResourceGenerator" id="link-id11963490">techbase article</a> on how to use the new macros.</p> <h2>Bangarang</h2> <p>Without my <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-iddcbd7c8">knowledge</a> (imagine that!) Andrew Lake created an amazing new media player named <a href="http://bangarangkde.wordpress.com/" id="link-id113d9500">Bangarang</a> - <em>a Jamaican word for noise, chaos or disorder.</em> This player is Nepomuk-enabled in the sense that it has a media library which lets you browse your media files based on the Nepomuk data. It remembers the number of times a song or a video has been played and when it was played last. It allows to add detail such as the TV series name, season, episode number, or actors that are in the video - all through Nepomuk (I hope we will soon get <a href="http://thetvdb.com/" id="link-id1154d7a0">tvdb</a> integration).</p> <div id="attachment_242" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang2.png" id="link-id148bcdb8"><img class="size-medium wp-image-242" title="bangarang2" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang2.png?w=300&h=208" alt="" width="300" height="208" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Edit metadata directly in Bangarang</p> </div> <div id="attachment_243" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 303px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang-dolphin-fileinfo.png" id="link-id11c70a48"><img class="size-full wp-image-243" title="bangarang-dolphin-fileinfo" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang-dolphin-fileinfo.png?w=293&h=242" alt="" width="293" height="242" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">Dolphin showing TV episode metadata created by Bangarang</p> </div> <div id="attachment_245" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang-dolphin-search.png" id="link-id149200f8"><img class="size-medium wp-image-245" title="bangarang-dolphin-search" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang-dolphin-search.png?w=300&h=212" alt="" width="300" height="212" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">And of course searching for it works, too...</p> </div> <div id="attachment_244" class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="width: 310px"> <a href="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang1.png" id="link-id114f7c80"><img class="size-medium wp-image-244" title="bangarang1" src="http://trueg.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/bangarang1.png?w=300&h=225" alt="" width="300" height="225" /> </a> <p class="wp-caption-text">And it is pretty, too...</p> </div> <p>I am especially excited about this since finally applications not written or mentored by me start contributing Nepomuk data.</p> <h2>Gran Canaria Desktop Summit</h2> <p>2009 was also the year of the first Gnome-KDE joint-conference. Let me make a bulletin for completeness and refer to <a href="http://trueg.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/gran-canaria-desktop-summit-2009-the-nepomuk-perspective/" id="link-id143ff668">my previous blog post reporting on my experiences on the island</a>.</p> <p>Well, that was by far not all I did in 2009 but I think I covered most of the important topics. And after all it is ‘just a blog entry’ - there is no need for completeness. Thanks for reading.</p> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id118a1950"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godelicious/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id148ffb08"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/delicious/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gostumble/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id13c65a88"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/stumble/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/godigg/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id119b85a0"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/digg/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/goreddit/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" id="link-id13f5d6b8"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/reddit/trueg.wordpress.com/232/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=trueg.wordpress.com&blog=6648236&post=232&subd=trueg&ref=&feed=1" /> </div>"
2010-02-01T09:02:55-05:00
One Technology That Will Rock 2010 (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2010-01-02#1601
2010-01-02T17:30:38Z
<p>Thanks to the <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/" id="link-id114eb070">TechCrunch</a> post titled: <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/01/ten-technologies-2010/" id="link-id1146e550">Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010</a>, I've been able to quickly construct a derivative post that condenses the ten item list down to a Single Technology That Will Rock 2010 :-)</p> <p>Sticking with the TechCrunch layout, here is why all roads simply lead to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11141d50">Linked Data</a> come 2010 and beyond: </p> <ol> <li> <strong>The Tablet: </strong>a new form factor addition re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id13f09418">Internet</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> application hosts which is just another way of saying: Linked Data will be accessible from Tablet applications.</li> <li> <strong>Geo:</strong> GPS chips are now standard features of mobile phones, so <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/12/23/location-2010/" id="link-id112cfdd0">geolocation</a> is increasingly becoming a necessary feature for any killer app. Thus, GeoSpatial Linked Data and GeopSpatial Queries are going to be a critical success factor for any endeavor that seeks to engage mobile applications developers and ultimately their end-users. Basiacally, you want to be able to perform Esoteric Search from these devices of the form: Find Vendors of a Camcorder (e.g., with a Zoom Factor: Weight Ratio of X) within a 2km Radius of my current location. Or how many items from my WishList are available from a Vendor within a 2km radius of my current location. Conversely, provide Vendors with the ability to spot potential Customers within a 2km of a given "clicks & mortar" location (e.g. BestBuy store).</li> <li> <strong>Realtime Search: </strong>Rich Structured Profiles that leverage standards such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id140ece38">FOAF</a> and <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/foaf_ssl_creating_a_global" id="link-id11856318">FOAF+SSL</a> will enable Highly Personalized Realtime Search (HPRS) without compromisng privacy. Tecnically, this is about <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/WebID" id="link-id13ec6260">WebID</a>s securely bound to X.509 Certificates, providing access to verifiable and highly navigable Personal Profile <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Spaces that also double as personal search index entry points.</li> <li> <strong>Chrome OS: </strong>Just another operating system for exploiting the burgeoning Web of Linked Data</li> <li> <strong>HTML5: </strong>Courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id115b08f0">RDFa</a>, just another mechanism for exposing Linked Data by making HTML+RDFa a bona fide markup for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Metadata" id="link-id1195b070">metadata</a> (i.e., format for describing real world objects via their attribute-value graphs)</li> <li> <strong>Mobile Video:</strong> Simplifies the production and sharing of Video annotations (comments, reviews etc.) en route to creating rich Linked Discourse Data Spaces.</li> <li> <strong>Augmented Reality:</strong> Ditto</li> <li> <strong>Mobile Transactions:</strong> As per points 1&2 above, Vendor Discovery and Transaction Conusmation will increasingly be driven by high SDQ applications. The "Funnel Effect" (more choices based on individual preferences) will be a critical success factor for any one operating in the Mobile Transaction realm. Note, without Linked Data you cannot deliver scalable solutions that handle the combined requirements of: SDQ, "Funnel Effect", and Mobile Device form factor, will simply maginify the importance of Web accessible Linked Data.</li> <li> <strong>Android:</strong> An additional platform for items 1-8; basically, 2010 isn't going to be an iPhone only zone. Personally, this reminds <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id111ab5e8">me</a> of a battle from the past i.e., Microsoft vs Apple, re. desktop computing dominance. Google has studied history very well :-)</li> <li> <strong>Social CRM:</strong> this is simply about applying points 1-9 alongide the construction of Linked Data from eCRM Data Spaces.</li> </ol> <p>As I've stated in the past (across a variety of mediums), you cannot build applications that have long term value without addressing the following issues:</p> <ol> <li>Data Item or Object Identity</li> <li>Data Structure -- Data Models</li> <li>Data Representation -- Data Model <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1148eaf8">Entity</a> & Relationships Representation mechanism (as delivered by metadata oriented markup)</li> <li>Data Storage -- Database Management Systems</li> <li>Data Access -- Data Access Protocols </li> <li>Data Presentation -- How you present Views and Reports from Structured Data Sources</li> <li>Data Security -- Data Access Policies</li> </ol> <p>The items above basically showcase the very essence of the HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1239af68">URI</a> abstraction that drives HTTP based Linked Data; which is also the basic payload unit that underlies <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer" id="link-id11489a98">REST</a>.</p> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p>I simply hope that the next decade marks a period of broad appreciation and comprehension of Data Access, Integration, and Management issues on the parts of: application developers, integrators, analysts, end-users, and decision makers. Remember, without structured Data we cannot produce or share <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13cb5040">Information</a>, and without Information, we cannot produce of share <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id647abb0">Knowledge</a>.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1567" id="link-id13fa3a20">HTTP URI Abstraction and Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.dataflux.com/dfblog/?p=1458," id="link-id138f3ea8">First Law of Data Quality</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://walkingoncoals.blogspot.com/2009/12/whos-data-is-it-part-1.html" id="link-id13efccb8">Who's Data Is It?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1442" id="link-id1355df68">Serendipitous Discovery Quotient</a> (SDQ)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.seangolliher.com/2009/linked-data/serendipitous-discovery-quotient-sdq-the-future-of-seo-or-an-abstract-concept/" id="link-id11217cb8">SDQ: The Future of SEO or an Abstract Concept?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1587" id="link-id139cfbe0">SPARQL & GeoSpatial Indexing</a> (implications of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id13f51b78">SPARQL</a>-GEO)</li> <li> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/09/09/talking-with-kingsley-idehen-about-mastering-your-own-search-index/" id="link-id13c5c248">Mastering Your Own Search Index</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/11/23/talking-with-martin-hepp-about-solving-the-paradox-of-choice/" id="link-id135ba4d0">Solving the Paradox of Choice</a>.</li> </ul>
2010-02-01T09:02:41-05:00
The Business Of Linked Data (BOLD) Discussion Space
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-12-04#1600
2009-12-04T19:40:08Z
<p>I've created a new discussion space that's squarely focused on the business development and marketing aspects of "HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id129e32d8">Linked Data" (Linked Data</a>). As its name indicates, It's a BOLD attempt to fill a VoiD. :-)</p> <h3>Background</h3> <p>A few months ago, <a href="http://blog.aldobucchi.com/#this" id="link-id1110eb30">Aldo Bucchi</a> posted a message to the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id111d08a0">LOD</a> <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/" id="link-id118b3778">mailing list</a> seeking a discussion space for more business and marketing oriented topic, in relation to Linked Data. At the time, my assumption was that the existing LOD mailing list served that purpose absolutely fine, but in due course I came to realize that Aldo's request had a much lager foundation than I initially suspected.</p> <h3>Historic Oversight</h3> <p>Linked Data, like its umbrella <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id16ceb618">Semantic Web</a> Project, has suffered from an inadvertent oversight on the parts of many of its enthusiasts (myself included): 100% of the discussion spaces are created by, geared towards, or dominated by researchers (from Academia primarily) and/or developers. Thus, at the very least, we've been operating in an echo chamber that only feed the existing void between the core community and those who are more interested in discussing business and marketing related topics.</p> <p>The new discussion space seeks to cover the following:</p> <ol> <li> Brainstorming Value Proposition Articulation</li> <li>War Story Exchanges</li> <li>Case Studies and Use-cases</li> <li>Market Research & Positioning (for instance Linked Data is killer technology that redefines <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Integration, but none of the major research firms currently make that connection)</li>. </ol> <p>How Do I Join The Conversation? Simply sign up on the Google hosted <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/business-of-linked-data-bold" id="link-id129e4d08">BOLD mailing list</a>, introduce yourself (ideally), and then start conversing! :-)</p>
2010-02-01T09:02:27.000001-05:00
Personal and/or Service Specific Linked Data Spaces in the Cloud: DBpedia 3.4
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-11-16#1589
2009-11-16T18:17:46Z
<p> We have just released an Amazon EC2 based public Snapshot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id18e899b8">DBpedia</a> 3.4. Thus, you can now instantiate a personal and/or service specific variant of the DBpedia 3.4 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id168dec90">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id18911268">Space</a>. Basically, you can replicate what we host, within minutes (as opposed to days). In addition, you no longer need to squabble --on an unpredictable basis with others-- for the infrastructure resources behind DBpedia's public instance, when using the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id18d5bd78">SPARQL</a> Endpoint, Faceted Search & Find Services, or HTML Browser Pages etc.</p> <h3>How Does It work?</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtInstallationEC2" id="link-id115932b8">Instantiate a Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> (paid variety, which is aggressively priced at $49.99 for setup and $19.99 per month thereafter)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id182dc800"> Mount the shared DBpedia 3.4 public snapshot</a> </li> <li> Start Virtuoso Server</li> <li> Start exploiting the DBpedia Linked Data Space.</li> </ol> <h3>What Interfaces are exposed?</h3> <ol> <li> SPARQL Endpoint</li> <li> Linked Data Viewer Pages (as you see in the public DBpedia instance)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtFacetBrowserInstallConfig" id="link-id117f6e80">Faceted Search & Find UI and Web Services</a> (REST or SOAP)</li> <li> All the inference rules for <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id144b84a8">UMBEL</a>, SUMO, YAGO, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id16b69da8">OpenCYC</a>, and DBpedia-OWL <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> dictionaries</li> <li>Type Correlations Between DBpedia and Freebase</li> </ol> <p>Enjoy!</p>
2009-11-16T13:30:20-05:00
Personal and/or Service Specific Linked Data Spaces in the Cloud: DBpedia 3.4
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-11-16#1599
2009-11-16T18:17:46Z
<p> We have just released an Amazon EC2 based public Snapshot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id18e899b8">DBpedia</a> 3.4. Thus, you can now instantiate a personal and/or service specific variant of the DBpedia 3.4 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id168dec90">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id18911268">Space</a>. Basically, you can replicate what we host, within minutes (as opposed to days). In addition, you no longer need to squabble --on an unpredictable basis with others-- for the infrastructure resources behind DBpedia's public instance, when using the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id18d5bd78">SPARQL</a> Endpoint, Faceted Search & Find Services, or HTML Browser Pages etc.</p> <h3>How Does It work?</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtInstallationEC2" id="link-id115932b8">Instantiate a Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> (paid variety, which is aggressively priced at $49.99 for setup and $19.99 per month thereafter)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAWSDBpedia34S" id="link-id182dc800"> Mount the shared DBpedia 3.4 public snapshot</a> </li> <li> Start Virtuoso Server</li> <li> Start exploiting the DBpedia Linked Data Space.</li> </ol> <h3>What Interfaces are exposed?</h3> <ol> <li> SPARQL Endpoint</li> <li> Linked Data Viewer Pages (as you see in the public DBpedia instance)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtFacetBrowserInstallConfig" id="link-id117f6e80">Faceted Search & Find UI and Web Services</a> (REST or SOAP)</li> <li> All the inference rules for <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id144b84a8">UMBEL</a>, SUMO, YAGO, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id16b69da8">OpenCYC</a>, and DBpedia-OWL <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> dictionaries</li> <li>Type Correlations Between DBpedia and Freebase</li> </ol> <p>Enjoy!</p>
2010-02-01T08:58:14-05:00
Conversation with Jon Udell: Are We There Yet Re. Web++ ?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-09-10#1584
2009-09-10T15:03:01Z
<p> Personally, I believe that we've actually reached a watershed moment re. the evolution of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> from a mesh of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id123169a8">Linked Data</a> Containers (Web of Linked Documents) to a mesh of Linked Data Items (entities or real world objects).</p> <p> The journey towards this watershed moment started with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id14f69f48">Semantic Web</a> Project, gained focus and pragmatism via the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id11155f78">Linked Data meme</a>, attained substance & credibility via efforts such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id15857c78">DBpedia</a> and the resulting cloud of <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2009-07-14.html" id="link-id16adf918">Open Linked Data Spaces</a>, and finally arrived at the most important destination of all: broad comprehension and coherence, via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id1229b960">RDFa</a>. </p> <p> Over the years, I've chronicled the journey above via entries in this particular <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id14f76338">data space</a> (my <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-idfd32c88">blog</a>) and most recently, via my rapid-fire comments and debates on <a href="http://twitter.com" id="link-id11339e80">Twitter</a> (basically hastag #linkeddata account: <a href="http://twitter.com/kidehen#this" id="link-id115e9af8">kidehen</a>). </p> <p> On a parallel front re. my chronicles, I've periodically had conversations with <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/about/" id="link-id11829170">Jon Udell</a>, who has always provided a coherent sounding board and reconciliation framework for my world views and open data access vision; naturally, this has a lot to do with his holistic grasp of the big picture issues, associated technical details, and special communication prowess :-) </p> <p> Against this backdrop, I refer you to my <a href="http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4233.html" id="link-id14ac9c08">most recent podcast conversation with Jon</a>, which is about how the tandem of HTML+RDFa and the <a href="http://www.heppnetz.de/projects/goodrelations/" id="link-id14279be8">GoodRelations vocabulary</a> deliver the critical missing links re. broad comprehension of the Semantic Web vision en route to mass exploitation. </p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://webbackplane.com/node/57" id="link-id113b5b00">Mark Birbeck Introduces RDFa</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://webbackplane.com/rdfa-handbook" id="link-id11b36ac0">RDFa Handbook</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/wiki/GoodRelations#CookBook:_GoodRelations_Recipes_and_Examples" id="link-id1519f458">GoodRelations Usage Examples & Templates</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2009/09/09/talking-with-kingsley-idehen-about-mastering-your-own-search-index/" id="link-id11a62ce0">Be the master of your own search index</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://itc.conversationsnetwork.org/shows/detail4312.html" id="link-id115d54f0">Jon Udell Interviews Martin Hepp about GoodRelations, RDFa, and Esoteric Web Search</a> <br /> </li> </ul>
2010-02-01T08:58:04.000002-05:00
The URI, URL, and Linked Data Meme's Generic HTTP URI (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-08-07#1567
2009-08-07T18:34:50Z
<h3> Situation Analysis</h3> <p> As the "<a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id12f96a00">Linked Data" meme</a> has gained momentum you've more than likely been on the receiving end of dialog with Linked Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> community members (myself included) that goes something like this:</p> <blockquote> <cite>"Do you have a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id139252a0">URI</a>", "Get yourself a URI", "Give <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id140eab68">me</a> a de-referencable URI" etc..</cite> </blockquote> <p> And each time, you respond with a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id112c1860">URL</a> -- which to the best of your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id140b51c0">knowledge</a> is a bona fide URI. But to your utter confusion you are told: Nah! You gave me a Document URI instead of the URI of a real-world thing or object etc..</p> <h3> What's up with that?</h3> <p> Well our everyday use of the Web is an unfortunate conflation of two distinct things, which have Identity: Real World Objects (RWOs) & Address/Location of Documents (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id144838b0">Information</a> bearing Resources).</p> <p> The "Linked Data" meme is about enhancing the Web by unobtrusively reintroducing its core essence: the generic HTTP URI, a vital piece of Web Architecture DNA. Basically, its about so realizing the full capabilities of the Web as a platform for Open Data Identification, Definition, Access, Storage, Representation, Presentation, and Integration.</p> <h3> What is a Real World Object?</h3> <p> People, Places, Music, Books, Cars, Ideas, Emotions etc..</p> <h3> What is a URI?</h3> <p> A Uniform Resource Identifier. A global identifier mechanism for network addressable data items. Its sole function is Name oriented Identification.</p> <h4> URI Generic Syntax</h4> <p> The constituent parts of a URI (from <a href="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2396.txt" id="link-id1180c700">URI Generic Syntax RFC</a>) are depicted below: <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/generic_uri_syntax_image.png" /> </p> <h3> What is a URL?</h3> <p> A location oriented HTTP scheme based URI. The HTTP scheme introduces a powerful and inherent duality that delivers:</p> <ol> <li> Resource Address/Location Identifier</li> <li> Data Access mechanism for an Information bearing Resource (Document, File etc..)</li> </ol> <p> So far so good!</p> <h3> What is an HTTP based URI?</h3> <p> The kind of URI <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11100a28">Linked Data</a> aficionados mean when they use the term: URI.</p> <p> An HTTP URI is an HTTP scheme based URI. Unlike a URL, this kind of HTTP scheme URI is devoid of any Web Location orientation or specificity. Thus, Its inherent duality provides a more powerful level of abstraction. Hence, you can use this form of URI to assign Names/Identifiers to Real World Objects (RWO). Even better, courtesy of the Identity/Address duality of the HTTP scheme, a single URI can deliver the following:</p> <ol> <li> RWO Identfier/Name</li> <li> RWO Metadata document Locator (courtesy of URL aspect)</li> <li> Negotiable Representation of the Located Document (courtesy of HTTP's content negotiation feature).</li> </ol> <h3> What is Metadata?</h3> <p> Data about Data. Put differently, data that describes other data in a structured manner.</p> <h3> How Do we Model Metadata?</h3> <p> The predominant model for metadata is the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11193d30">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value + Classes & Relationships model (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11725710">EAV</a>/CR). A model that's been with us since the inception of modern computing (long before the Web).</p> <h3> What about RDF?</h3> <p> The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a framework for describing Web addressable resources. In a nutshell, its a framework for adding Metadata bearing Information Resources to the current Web. Its comprised of:</p> <ol> <li> Entity-Attribute-Value (aka. Subject-Predictate-Object) plus Classes & Relationships (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data_dictionary" id="link-id138df0f8">Data Dictionaries</a> e.g., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_Ontology_Language" id="link-id116bf590">OWL</a>) metadata model</li> <li> A plethora of instance data representation formats that include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id13360b90">RDFa</a> (when doing so within (X)HTML docs), Turtle, N3, TriX, RDF/XML etc.</li> </ol> <h3> What's the Problem Today?</h3> <p> The ubiquitous use of the Web is primarily focused on a Linked Mesh of Information bearing Documents. URLs rather than generic HTTP URIs are the prime mechanism for Web tapestry; basically, we use URLs to conduct Information -- which is inherently subjective -- instead of using HTTP URIs to conduct "Raw Data" -- which is inherently objective.</p> <blockquote> <strong>Note:</strong> Information is "data in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1395ca50">context</a>", it isn't the same thing as "Raw Data". Thus, if we can link to Information via the Web, why shouldn't we be able to do the same for "Raw Data"?</blockquote> <h3> How Does the Link Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id1160ab70">meme</a> solve the problem?</h3> <p> The meme simply provides a set of guidelines (best practices) for producing Web architecture friendly metadata. Meaning: when producing EAV/CR model based metadata, endow Subjects, their Attributes, and Attribute Values (optionally) with HTTP URIs. By doing so, a new level of Link Abstraction on the Web is possible i.e., "Data Item to Data Item" level links (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id137a78a0">hyperdata</a> links). Even better, when you de-reference a RWO hyperdata link you end up with a negotiated representations of its metadata.</p> <h3> Conclusion</h3> <p> Linked Data is ultimately about an HTTP URI for each item in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data_hierarchy" id="link-id1393c3e0">Data Organization Hierarchy</a> :-)</p> <h3> Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2009Aug/0000.html" id="link-id140c1e78">History of how "Resource" became part of URI</a> - historic account by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1172b128">TimBL</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id1338cbd0">Linked Data Design Issues Document</a> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id13536ad8">TimBL</a>'s initial Linked Data Guide</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1561" id="link-id116c1af8">Linked Data Rules Simplified</a> - My attempt at simplifying the Linked Data Meme without <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id116c3b40">SPARQL</a> & RDF distraction</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1547" id="link-id135dd1b8">Linked Data & Identity</a> - another related post</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1565" id="link-id134afc50">The Linked Data Meme's Value Proposition</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1323" id="link-id1251e9248">So What Does "HREF" stand for anyway?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://delicious.com/kidehen/identifier_scheme" id="link-id14cc7e18">My Del.icio.us hosted Bookmark Data Space for Identity Schemes</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web.html" id="link-id115a3748">TimBL's Ted Talk re. "Raw Linked Data"</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.infoq.com/articles/roa-rest-of-rest" id="link-id11b25558">Resource Oriented Architecture</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.blipfoto.com/view.php?id=465380&month=2&year=2010" id="link-id139824c8">More Famous Than Simon Cowell</a> .</li> </ol>
2010-03-28T12:19:00-04:00
Why Do We Put Stuff On The Web, Really?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-07-24#1566
2009-07-24T15:54:26Z
<p>As espoused by the Ubuntu philosophy, no Human is an Island. Thus, although the objects of our sociality are vast and varied; that said, the basic foundation still centers on the pursuit and/or delivery of products and services.</p> <p>Today, the we put stuff on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> because we want it do be discovered as part of a "sharing act". Likewise, we make regular use of Search Engine Services because we want to "Find" stuff in a productive manner.</p> <p>Putting, the above in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1340d970">context</a>, you don't need to be Einstein to figure out that to date the Web hasn't enabled vendors to describe their products and services clearly. Likewise, it hasn't enabled us to describe what we want, when we want it, and how much we are willing to pay etc. Basically, the SDQ of Web Content is excruciatingly low!</p> <p> The <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id1357e068">Linked Data meme</a> is about using the essence of the Web -- HTTP URIs -- as the mechanism for conducting <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> across the Web that unambiguously unveils basic things like:</p> <ol> <li> Using a personal profile to describe exactly who I am, my interests, favorite things, what I want (wishlist), what I have to offer (offerlist) etc.</li> <li> Using an company profile to describe my entire product catalog, inventory levels, store locations, distributor and reseller networks, feature specs, price specs, deal terms and duration, and even opening and closing hours.</li> </ol> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>A Web of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id124f7778">Linked Data</a> enables a complete redefinition of eCommerce, and that's just for starters :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1442" id="link-id112b62c0">Post Introducing SDQ</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.seangolliher.com/2009/linked-data/serendipitous-discovery-quotient-sdq-the-future-of-seo-or-an-abstract-concept/" id="link-id110cf500">Serendipitous Discovery Quotient (SDQ): The Future of SEO? Or an Abstract Concept?</a> </li> </ul>
2009-07-24T21:00:21-04:00
Exploring the Value Proposition of Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-07-23#1565
2009-07-24T00:17:19Z
<h3>What is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id138c9aa8">Linked Data</a>?</h3> <p> The primary topic of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id12f86100">meme</a> penned by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id115b4c98">TimBL</a> in the form of a <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id1333f300">Design Issues Doc</a> (note: this is how TimBL has shared his thoughts since the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/" id="link-id1128a1d0">Beginning of the Web</a>). </p> <p> There are a number of dimensions to the meme, but its primary purpose is the reintroduction of the HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id13c43cb8">URI</a> -- a vital component of the Web's core architecture. </p> <h3> What's Special about HTTP URIs?</h3> <p> They possess an intrinsic duality that combines persistent and unambiguous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Identity with platform & representation format independent Data Access. Thus, you can use a string of characters that look like a contemporary Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id119cd8a0">URL</a> to unambiguously achieve the following: </p> <ol> <li>Identity or Name Anything of Interest</li> <li>Describe Anything of Interest by associating the Description Subject's Identity with a constellation of Attribute and Value pairs (technically: an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id1133e8a8">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value or Subject-Predicate-Object graph)</li> <li>Make the Description of Named Things of Interest discoverable on the Web by implicitly binding the aforementioned to Documents that hold their descriptions (technically: metadata documents or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1391da40">information</a> resources)</li> </ol> <h3>What's the basic value proposition of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id113bb690">Linked Data meme</a>?</h3> <p>Enabling more productive use of the Web by users and developers alike. All of which is achieved by tweaking the Web's Hyperlinking feature such that it now includes Hypertext and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1337a3f0">Hyperdata</a> as link types.</p> <p>Note: Hyperdata Linking is simply what an HTTP URI facilitates.</p> <p>Examples problems solved by injecting Linked Data into the Web:</p> <ol> <li>Federated Identity by enabling Individuals to unambiguously Identify themselves (Profiles++) courtesy of existing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id13926e28">Internet</a> and Web protocols (e.g., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id13646ec8">FOAF</a>+SSL's WebIDs which combine Personal Identity with X.509 certificates and HTTPs based client side certification)</li> <li>Security and Privacy challenge alleviation by delivering a mechanism for policy based data access that feeds off federated individual identity and social network (graph) traversal</li> <li>Spam Busting via the above</li>. <li> Increasing the Serendipitous Discovery Quotient (SDQ) of Web accessible resources by embedding Rich Metadata into (X)HTML Documents e.g., structured descriptions of your "WishLists" and "OfferLists" via a common set of terms offered by vocabularies such as <a href="http://www.heppnetz.de/projects/goodrelations/" id="link-id1199b4d0">GoodRelations</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id1334cfb0">SIOC</a> </li> <li>Coherent integration of disparate data across the Web and/or within the Enterprise via "Data Meshing" rather than "Data Mashing"</li> <li>Moving beyond imprecise statistically driven "Keyword Search" (e.g. Page Rank) to "Precision Find" driven by typed link based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id135f6fe8">Entity</a> Rank plus Entity Type and Entity Property filters.</li> </ol> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p>If all of the above still falls into the technical mumbo-jumbo realm, then simply consider Linked Data as delivering Open Data Access in granular form to Web accessible data -- that goes beyond data containers (documents or files).</p> <p>The value proposition of Linked Data is inextricably linked to the value proposition of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id1356f5c0">World Wide Web</a>. This is true, because the Linked Data meme is ultimately about an enhancement of the current Web; achieved by reintroducing its architectural essence -- in new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id11300828">context</a> -- via a new level of link abstraction, courtesy of the Identity and Access duality of HTTP URIs.</p> <p>As a result of Linked Data, you can now have Links on the Web for a Person, Document, Music, Consumer Electronics, Products & Services, Business Opening & Closing Hours, Personal "WishLists" and "OfferList", an Idea, etc.. in addition to links for Properties (Attributes & Values) of the aforementioned. Ultimately, all of these links will be indexed in a myriad of ways providing the substrate for the next major period of Internet & Web driven innovation, within our larger human-ingenuity driven innovation continuum.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.ebusiness-unibw.org/wiki/GoodRelations#Recipes_and_Examples" id="link-id11386648">Recipes for Describing Your Business and its Offerings using the GoodRelations Vocabulary / Schema</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://slidesix.com/view/SolvingRealProblemsUsingLinkedData" id="link-id13658ee0">Solving Real Problems with RDF based Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=linked%20data&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1175a650">Other Linked Data Posts from this Blog oriented Linked Data Space</a> (goes back a few years!)</li> <li>Various practical <a href="http://delicious.com/kidehen/linked_data_demo" id="link-id13390cf8">Linked Data demo links from my Del.icio.us Bookmark oriented Data Space</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id132cda80">My personal WebID</a> which is conduit to a Linked Data mesh covering vast variety of things I've opted to share with others via the Web (best viewed using a Linked Data aware User Agent like ODE).</li> </ul>
2009-07-24T08:20:01-04:00
Important Things to Note about the World Wide Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-07-23#1564
2009-07-23T13:27:11Z
<p>Based on the prevalence of confusion re. the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id135eee50">Linked Data meme</a>, here are a few important points to remember about the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id1118b210">World Wide Web</a>.</p> <ol> <li>Its an HTTP based Network Cluster within the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id1332a6e8">Internet</a> (remember: Networks are about meshes of Nodes connected by Links)</li> <li>Its underlying <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> model is that of a Network (we've had Network Data models for eons. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id13350310">EAV</a>/CR is an example)</li> <li>Links are facilitated via URIs</li> <li>Until recently the granularity of Networking on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> was scoped to Data Containers (documents) (due to prevalence of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id12f7c078">URL</a> style links</li> <li>The Linked Data meme adds Data Item (Datum) level granularity to World Wide Web networking via HTTP URIs</li> <li>Data Items become Web Reference-able when you Identify/Name them using HTTP based URIs</li> <li>An HTTP <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id135ffdb8">URI</a> implicitly binds a Web Reference-able Data Item (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id113afb60">Entity</a>, Datum, Data Object, Resource) to its Web Accessible Metadata</li> <li>Web Accessible Metadata resides within Data Containers (documents or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11402318">information</a> resources)</li> <li>The representation of a Web Accessible Metadata container is negotiable</li> <li>I am able to write and dispatch this <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x770cbd0">blog</a> post courtesy of the Web features listed above</li> <li>You are able to explore the many dimensions to data exposed by this blog should you decide to explore the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x7acd540">Linked Data</a> mesh exposed by this post's HTTP URI (via its permalink permalink)</li> </ol> <p>The HTTP URI is the secret sauce of the Web that is powerfully and unobtrusively reintroduced via the Linked Data meme (classic back to the future act). This powerful sauce possess a unique power courtesy of its inherent duality i.e., how it uniquely combines Data Item Identity (think keys in traditional DBMS parlance) with Data Access (e.g. access to negotiable representations of associated metadata).</p> <p>As you can see, I've made no mention of RDF or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1183bd48">SPARQL</a>, and I can still articulate the inherent value of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id132e7058">Linked Data</a>" dimension that the "Linked Data" meme adds to the World Wide Web.</p> <p>As per usual this post is a live demonstration of Linked Data (dog-food style) :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.semanticsincorporated.com/2009/07/if-linked-data-is-a-brand-it-has-big-problems-to-address.html" id="link-id1171d4e8">Greg Boutin's post about Linked Data Brand Management</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://iandavis.com/blog/2009/07/the-linked-data-brand" id="link-id12db0880">Ian Davis' "Linked Data Brand" post</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://cloudofdata.com/2009/07/does-linked-data-need-rdf/" id="link-id13537230">Paul Miller's "Does Linked Data need RDF" post</a> </li> </ul>
2009-07-23T10:33:58-04:00
Linked Data Rules Simplified
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-06-26#1561
2009-06-26T14:49:03Z
<p>As a compliment to the most recent <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id11a6a9b8">Linked Data Design Issues</a> note by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id114c1ae8">TimBL</a>, I would like to add this subtle tweak to the enumerated rules:</p> <ol> <li> Identify or Name things using HTTP URIs </li> <li> Describe things using the RDF metadata model </li> <li> Increase link <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> mesh density on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> by linking (referring) to things in other data spaces using their HTTP URIs. </li> </ol> <p> If you perform the steps above, on any HTTP network (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-iddbef1f0">World Wide Web</a>), you implicitly bind the Names/Identifiers of things to negotiable representations of their metadata (description) bearing documents. </p> <p> Also note, you can create and deploy the resulting RDF metadata using any of the following approaches:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id14442c00">RDFa</a> within (X)HTML documents</li> <li> N3, Turtle, TriX, RDF/XML etc. based documents </li> <li>Programmatically generated variants of 1&2.</li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1546" id="link-id1181ebf0">What is the Linked Data meme about?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id13039a98">Simple Explanation of RDF and Linked Data Dynamics</a> </li> </ul>
2009-06-26T23:18:24.000003-04:00
BBC Linked Data Meshup In 3 Steps
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-06-12#1560
2009-06-12T18:09:08Z
<h3>Situation Analysis:</h3> <p>Dr. Dre is one of the artists in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1117a230">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id10ff0fc0">Space</a> we host for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/BBC" id="link-id13cdba70">BBC</a>. He is also referenced in music oriented <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> spaces such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id119688a0">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://musicbrainz.org/" id="link-id146f7d00">MusicBrainz</a> and <a href="http://last.FM" id="link-id15f50698">Last.FM</a> (to name a few). </p> <h3>Challenge:</h3> <p>How do I obtain a holistic view of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id147a1490">entity</a> "Dr. Dre" across the BBC, MusicBrainz, and Last.FM data spaces? We know the BBC published Linked Data, but what about Last.FM and MusicBrainz? Both of these data spaces only expose XML or JSON data via REST APIs?</p> <h3>Solution:</h3> Simple 3 step Linked Data Meshup courtesy of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSponger" id="link-id147faf78">Virtuoso's in-built RDFizer Middleware</a> "the Sponger" (think <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id115ecea0">ODBC</a> Driver Manager for the Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id11806418">Web</a>) and its numerous Cartridges (think ODBC Drivers for the Linked Data Web). <h3>Steps:</h3> <ol> <li> Go to Last.FM and search using pattern: Dr. Dre (you will end up with this <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id11778f10">URL</a>: http://www.last.fm/music/Dr.+Dre)</li> <li> Go to the Virtuoso powered <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14f40338">BBC Linked Data Space home page</a> and enter: http://bbc.openlinksw.com/about/html/http://www.last.fm/music/Dr.+Dre</li> <li> Go to the BBC Linked Data Space home page and type full text pattern (using default tab): Dr. Dre, then view <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/fct/rdfdesc/usage.vsp?g=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fmusic%2Fartists%2F5f6ab597-f57a-40da-be9e-adad48708203%23artist&tp=4&sid=519&urilookup=&orig_refr=http://bbc.openlinksw.com/describe/?url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/5f6ab597-f57a-40da-be9e-adad48708203" id="link-id119ac658">Dr. Dre's metadata via the Statistics Link</a>. </li> </ol> <h3>What Happened?</h3> <p>The following took place:</p> <ol> <li> Virtuoso <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id11a46fd8">Sponger</a> sent an HTTP GET to Last.FM</li> <li> Distilled the "Artist" entity "Dr. Dre" from the page, and made a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id1297cc68">Linked Data graph</a> </li> <li> Inverse Functional Property and sameAs reasoning handled the Meshup (augmented graph from a conjunctive query processing pipeline)</li> <li>Links for "Dr. Dre" across <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fdbpedia.org%2Fresource%2FDr._Dre" id="link-id119e63e8">BBC (sameAs), Last.FM (seeAlso), via DBpedia URI</a>.</li> </ol> <p>The <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/about/rdf/http/www.last.fm/music/Dr.+Dre#this" id="link-id111f6130">new enhanced URI for Dr. Dre</a> now provides a rich holistic view of the aforementioned "Artist" entity. This URI is usable anywhere on the Web for Linked Data Conduction :-)</p> <h3>Related (as in NearBy)</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/n2/archives/617" id="link-idf3e0898">Augmenting Last.fm Data with BBC data on the Talis Platform</a> </li> </ul>
2009-06-12T16:38:34.000046-04:00
Understanding the BBC's Virtuoso Powered Linked Data Space
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-06-11#1559
2009-06-11T21:59:31Z
<p> The <a href="http://welcomebackstage.com/2009/06/bbc-backstage-sparql-endpoint/" id="link-id12969860">BBC's recently announced Linked Data space for Programmes and Music data</a>, joins a growing list of immediately useful "<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id110918f8">Virtuoso</a> Powered" linked data spaces, driving the burgeoning Web of Linked Data. Others include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id12c0e720">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://www.bio2rdf.org/" id="link-id14ee63a8">Bio2RDF</a>, NeuroCommons etc (the <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2009-03-27.html" id="link-id129a8588">click friendly version of the LOD-Cloud</a> diagram reveals a snapshot of other Virtuoso driven linked data spaces).</p> <h3>Why is it important?</h3> <p> As a leading media organization, the BBC's use of Linked Data provides a clear beacon to other media players re. the imminence of a serious Linked Data induced sector inflection. In a nutshell, every Web Site has to evolve into a Linked Data Space: a location on the Web that provides granular access to discrete data items in line with the core principles of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id11a14710">Linked Data meme</a>.</p> <p> Remember, the essence of the Linked Data meme is simply this: you reference data items and access their metadata, in variety of formats via a single HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1136b1c8">URI</a>. This approach to Web data publishing is compatible with any HTTP aware user agent (e.g., your Web Browser or tools & applications that provide abstracted access to HTTP).</p> <h3>How Do I use it?</h3> <p>There a number of very powerful things available to end-users and developers alike.</p> <h4>End-Users:</h4> <p> The most powerful feature of our variant of the BBC's Linked Data Space is the exposure of Faceted Find (think Search++ and beyond). Thus, you can go the the <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com" id="link-id12a32770">home page of the service</a> and commence data discovery and exploration via any of the following interfaces:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id1179d618">Full Text Search</a> Tab -- type in a full text pattern and then experience <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/facet_doc.html" id="link-id12c6dab0">Linked Data Entity Ranking as opposed to Page Ranking</a> </li> <li>URI Lookup (By Label) Tab -- type in part of a URI and let the system auto-complete by looking up Entity Labels</li> <li>URI Lookup (Raw String Pattern) Tab -- type in part of a URI and let the system auto-complete by looking up the raw URI</li> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/ode/" id="link-id114b53c8">OpenLink Data Explorer Service</a> -- "deceptively simple" Linked Data explorer and Data Mesher (simply type in a URI or Text pattern, then view the data via a myriad of entity type specific viewer tabs).</li> </ul> <p>Once you are comfortable with at least one of the items above, you can exploit the system further by performing any of the following:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/page/void/Dataset" id="link-id117616c0">Explore the Linked Data Space via Data Dictionary</a> -- click on a Named Data Set URI and then <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/describe/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fontology%2Fpo%2FEpisode" id="link-id11664778">explore Class instances</a> (rdf:type property values) </li> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/fct/rdfdesc/usage.vsp?g=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fmusic%2Fartists%2F5f6ab597-f57a-40da-be9e-adad48708203%23artist&tp=4&sid=519&urilookup=&orig_refr=http://bbc.openlinksw.com/describe/?url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/5f6ab597-f57a-40da-be9e-adad48708203" id="link-id128a1aa8">Explore Entity Metadata</a> -- currently labeled "Statistics" but really is "Metadata" that describes data about an Entity (how you discern identifier co-reference, indirect identifiers, references from other data sets, and provenance/source graphs).</li> </ul> <h4> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1136cc60">Information</a> Architects & Developers</h4> <ul> <li>Bare bones <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id13c15448">SPARQL</a> Endpoint -- usable by SPARQL aware user agents </li> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo/" id="link-id114ed7f0">SPARQL Query Tool</a> -- type in SPARQL and interact with result pages that enable URI navigation (de-referencing)</li> <li> <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/isparql" id="link-id12a25b38">iSPARQL Query By Example</a> -- paint your SPARQL Query and Learn <a href="http://wikis.openlinksw.com/dataspace/owiki/wiki/OATWikiWeb/InteractiveSparqlQueryBuilder" id="link-id13c0c578">SPARQL by Example</a> (just take defaults and then click "OK" to get in)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtFacetBrowserInstallConfig" id="link-id15001fe0">Virtuoso Facets API</a> - REST API for Faceted Browsing & Navigation across Linked Data Set Dimensions.</li> </ul> <h3>Disambiguated Search (aka. Search++ or Find)</h3> <p> In line with the time-tested "embrace and extend" pattern, we provide Full Text search capability, but unlike Google, Yahoo!, Bing and other search engines, we don't use use "Page Rank" algorithm to sort results; instead, we use an "Entity Rank" algorithm since we are dealing with an RDF based Graph model DBMS where links exist between entities across instance data and data dictionary (vocabularies, schemas, ontologies) boundaries. In addition, when you get results (by clicking "show values" or "show values with distinct counts") that list entities associated with a full text search pattern, we take a quantum leap beyond search engines by allowing you to use "Entity Type" and/or "Entity Properties" (all of these have HTTP URIs too) to set your own <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id13c15c30">context</a> for what you seek.</p> <p>Much more to come in the form of <a href="http://bbc.openlinksw.com/fct/facet.vsp?cmd=featured&sid=423&no_qry=1" id="link-id128a0fd0">BBC specific demo queries</a> and tutorials :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> Live <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14eb3010">LOD Cloud Cache</a> instance that combines BBC data with other data sets from the LOD Cloud (in a single Virtuoso RDF DBMS hosting 5 Billion+ triples & counting) </li> </ul>
2009-06-26T23:15:13.000001-04:00
Library of Congress & Reasonable Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-05-05#1556
2009-05-05T17:53:24Z
<p> While exploring the <a href="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/" id="link-id1488cca8">Subject Headings Linked Data Space</a> (LCSH) recently unveiled by the <a href="http://id.loc.gov/" id="link-id1672ad10">Library of Congress</a>, I noticed that the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id158fef78">URI</a> for the subject heading: <a href="http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh95000541#concept" id="link-id14c8d3e8">World Wide Web</a>, exposes an "owl:sameAs" link to resource URI: "info:lc/authorities/sh95000541" -- in fact, a URI.URN that isn't HTTP protocol scheme based.</p> <p> The observations above triggered a <a href="http://search.twitter.com/search?q=&ands=&phrase=&ors=&nots=&tag=linkeddata&lang=all&from=kidehen&to=edsu&ref=&near=&within=15&units=mi&since=2009-05-01&until=2009-05-05&rpp=10" id="link-id14e21ba0">discussion thread on Twitter</a> that involved: <a href="http://twitter.com/edsu" id="link-ide411808">@edsu</a>, <a href="http://twitter.com/iand" id="link-id11915ed0">@iand</a>, and <a href="http://twitter.com/kidehen" id="link-id1519c028">moi</a>. Naturally, it morphed into a live demonstration of: human vs machine, interpretation of claims expressed in the RDF graph.</p> <h3>What makes this whole thing interesting?</h3> <p>It showcases (in Man vs Machine style) the issue of unambiguously discerning the meaning of the owl:sameAs claim expressed in the LCSH <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id17004728">Linked Data Space</a>.</p> <h4>Perspectives & Potential Confusion</h4> <p> From the Linked Data perspective, it may spook a few people to see owl:sameAs values such as: "info:lc/authorities/sh95000541", that cannot be de-referenced using HTTP. </p> <p> It may confuse a few people or user agents that see URI de-referencing as not necessarily HTTP specific, thereby attempting to de-reference the URI.URN on the assumption that it's associated with a "<a href="http://www.handle.net/overviews/overview.html" id="link-id155517a8">handle system</a>", for instance.</p> <p> It may even confuse RDFizer / RDFization middleware that use owl:sameAs as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> provider attribution mechanism via hint/nudge URI values derived from original content / data URI.URLs that de-reference to nothing e.g., an original resource URI.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id119e0d80">URL</a> plus "#this" which produces URI.URN-URL -- think of this pattern as "owl:shameAs" in a sense :-)</p> <h3> Unambiguously Discerning Meaning</h3> <p> Simply bring OWL reasoning (inference rules and reasoners) into the mix, thereby negating human dialogue about interpretation which ultimately unveils a mesh of orthogonal view points. Remember, OWL is all about infrastructure that ultimately enables you to express yourself clearly i.e., say what you mean, and mean what you say. </p> <h3>Path to Clarity (using <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id1537aa68">Virtuoso</a>, its in-built Sponger Middleware, and Inference Engine):</h3> <ol> <li>GET the data into the Virtuoso Quad store -- what the sponger does via its <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://id.loc.gov/authorities/sh95000541#concept" id="link-id1669fa40">URIBurner Service</a> (while following designated predicates such as owl:sameAs in case they point to other mesh-able data sources)</li> <li>Query the data in Quad Store with "owl:sameAs" inference rules enabled</li> <li>Repeat the last step with the inference rules excluded.</li> </ol> <h4>Actual <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id17374110">SPARQL</a> Queries:</h4> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/lcsh_www_subject_heading.isparql" id="link-id16c986d0">SPARQL Query against the HTTP based Subject Heading URI for WWW</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/lcsh_www_subject_heading_sameAs_inference_on.isparql" id="link-id16d4fea0">SPARQL Query (with reasoning via inference rule for owl:sameAs)</a> against the URN based Subject Heading URI for WWW</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/lcsh_www_subject_heading_no_sameAs_inference_on.isparql" id="link-id11bad768">SPARQL Query (*without* reasoning via inference rule for owl:sameAs)</a> against the URN based Subject Heading URI for WWW</li> </ul> <h4>Observations:</h4> <p> The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-ide6acf68">SPARQL</a> queries against the Graph generated and automatically populated by the Sponger reveal -- without human intervention-- that: "info:lc/authorities/sh95000541", is just an alternative name for < xmlns="http" id.loc.gov="id.loc.gov" authorities="authorities" sh95000541="sh95000541" concept="concept">, and that the graph produced by LCSH is self-describing enough for an OWL reasoner to figure this all out courtesy of the <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl%23sameAs" id="link-id13e364b0">owl:sameAs</a> property :-).</p> <p>Hopefully, this post also provides a simple example of how <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_Ontology_Language" id="link-id158a3fe8">OWL</a> facilitates "Reasonable Linked Data". </p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1455" id="link-id164e19f8">State of the Linked Data Web</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=474" id="link-id11973d10">Making Linked Data Reasonable Using Description Logics Series</a> - post by <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-id1184bfb8">Mike Bergman</a> </li> </ul>
2009-05-06T14:26:15.000034-04:00
Linked Data & Identity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-04-29#1547
2009-04-29T20:05:58Z
<blockquote> <cite>A person, organization, place, idea, subject matter topic/heading, and other real world things possess "identity" -- that is, a constellation of characteristics that distinguish them from any other identity. Associated with this abstraction can be a label used as a reference, or "identifier". This is the distinction between a thing and the name of the thing.</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p>section from <a href="http://www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-dkim-overview-11.txt" id="link-id15a13d40">IETF's Domain Keys spec</a>. (paraphrased by <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13d88ed8">me</a>) </p>.</blockquote> <p>The <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id11d5b9a8">Linked Data meme</a> is based on the use of HTTP based URIs as reference / identifier labels associated with the "identity abstraction" referred to above. Thus, when you de-reference (request <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id14706fb8">information</a> about) an HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id12b4ea50">URI</a> you ultimately end up with a resource <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id12127e20">URL</a> that exposes the "constellation of characteristics" mentioned above, in a representation negotiated at request time -- between an HTTP client and server e.g., (X)HTML, JSON, XML, RDF/XML, N3, Turtle, Trix, others :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1546" id="link-id11b67288">What is the Linked Data meme About?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1543" id="link-id151fa890">Simple Explanation of RDF & Linked Data Dynamics</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.handle.net/" id="link-id11d9cd30">Handle</a> -- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id0x131986f0">Internet</a> wide Identity Scheme and Resolution System</li> </ul>
2009-05-01T12:25:49-04:00
What is the Linked Data Meme about?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-04-29#1546
2009-04-29T15:32:49Z
<p>The act of using URIs to "refer to" (reference) <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> addressable <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> objects. It's also the act of using the same <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id12b41fc0">URI</a> to de-reference the description of a referenced data object; in this case, the representation of the description is negotiated by a Web client and/or Web server. Thus, you can access the description of a data object via data representation formats such as: JSON, XML, (X)HTML, RDF/XML, N3, Turtle, TriX etc. </p> <p> <strong>Note:</strong> In proper Web parlance, a data object is referred to as a resource.</p> <h3>Simple example (using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x131005a0">DBpedia</a>)</h3> <p>In the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x13299d20">Linked Data</a> realm, If you want to make a reference to the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id0x188210a8">Linked Data meme</a> in a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x158a3fc0">blog</a> post, you are better off using the resource <strong>URI</strong>: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data, instead of the Web page <strong><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x142865b0">URL</a></strong>: http://dbpedia.org/page/Linked_Data, which is the address of a physical document (an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x15884030">information</a> conveying artifact) that at best visually presents the negotiated representation of a resource description.</p> <h3>Why is this valuable?</h3> <p>In the simplest sense, you only have one focal point for referencing (referring to) and de-referencing (retrieving data about) a given Web resource. It protects you from the impact of Web document location changes (amongst many other things).</p> <p>Remember, a single URI is a conduit into a realm where the identity, access, representation, presentation, and storage of a resource (data object) are completely distinct. It's the mechanism for conducting data across network, machine, operating system, dbms engine, application, and service (API) boundaries. Thus, without "linked data meme" prescribed URI referencing and de-referencing, we are simply back to "business as usual" re. the industry at large, where networks, operating systems, dbms engines, applications, and services (APIs) become the basis for "data lock-in" and silo construction.</p> <h3>Going forward</h3> <p>Take a second to think about the profound virtues of the ubiquitous Web of Linked Document URLs that we have today, and then apply that thinking to the burgeoning Web of Linked Data URIs, that has just turned corner and heading in everyone's direction at full blast.</p> <p> <strong>Note to "Social Media" players:</strong> Who you know isn't the canonical object of sociality. What you are i.e., your description and the data objects it exposes, are real objects of your sociality :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%22Linked%20Data%22&type=text&output=html" id="link-id14d44430">Other post in this Blog Data Space associated with "Linked Data"</a>. </li> </ul>
2009-04-29T16:31:10-04:00
Simple Explanation of RDF and Linked Data Dynamics
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-04-24#1543
2009-04-24T20:59:08Z
<h3>What is RDF?</h3> <p>The acronym stands for: Resource Description Framework. And that's just what it is.</p> <p>RDF is comprised of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Model (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11bb5cd8">EAV</a>/CR Graph) and Data Representation Formats such as: N3, Turtle, RDF/XML etc.</p> <p>RDF's essence is about: "Entities" and "Attributes" being <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id14362100">URI</a> based, while "Values" may be URI or Literals (typed or untyped) based. </p> <p>URIs are <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id139066e8">Entity</a> Identifiers.</p> <h3>What is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11ed5340">Linked Data</a>?</h3> <p>Short for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of Linked Data" or "Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id13f4b878">Web</a>".</p> <p>A term coined by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id117b4310">TimBL</a> that describes an HTTP based "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id138fed30">data access by reference</a> pattern" that uses a single pointer or handle for "referring to" and "obtaining actual data about" an entity.</p> <p>Linked Data uses the deceptively simple messaging scheme of HTTP to deliver a granular entity reference and access mechanism that transcends traditional computing boundaries such as: operating system, application, database engines, and networks.</p> <h3>How are Linked Data & RDF Related?</h3> <p>Linked Data simply mandates the following re. RDF:</p> <ul> <li>URIs should be HTTP based so that you can "refer to" (Reference) an Entity, its Attributes, or URI based Attribute values via the Web (infact any HTTP based network e.g., Intranets and Extranets)</li> <li> URIs should also be HTTP based so that you can use them to de-reference resource descriptions via the Web (or Intranets and Extranets).</li> </ul> <p> <strong>Note:</strong> by Entity I am also referring to: a resource (Web parlance), data item, data object, real-world object, or datum. </p> <p>Linked Data is also about, using URIs and HTTP's content negotiation feature to separate: presentation, representation, access, and identity of data items. Even better, content negotiation can be driven by user agent and/or data server based quality of service algorithms (representation preference order schemes).</p> <p>To conclude, Linked Data is ultimately about the realization that: Data is the new Electricity, and it's conductors are URIs :-)</p> <p> <strong>Tip to governments of the world</strong>: we are in exponential times, the current downturn is but one side of the "exponential times ledger", the other side of the "exponential times ledger" is simply about unleashing "raw data" -- in structured form -- into the Web, so that "citizen analysts" can blossom and ultimately deliver the transparency desperately sought at every level of the economic value chain. Think: "raw data ready" whenever you ponder about "shovel ready" infrastructure projects!</p>
2009-04-24T17:14:41-04:00
Take N: Yet Another OpenLink Data Spaces Introduction
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-04-22#1542
2009-04-22T18:46:18Z
<h3>Problem:</h3> <p>Your Life, Profession, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id0x1c6687f8">Internet</a> do not need to become mutually exclusive due to "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x1c6696e8">information</a> overload".</p> <h3>Solution:</h3> <p> A platform or service that delivers a point of online presence that embodies the fundamental separation of: Identity, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Access, Data Representation, Data Presentation, by adhering to Web and Internet protocols.</p> <h3>How:</h3> <p> Typical post installation (Local or Cloud) task sequence:</p> <ol> <li> Identify myself (happens automatically by way of registration)</li> <li>If in an LDAP environment, import accounts or associate system with LDAP for account lookup and authentication</li> <li> Identify Online Accounts (by fleshing out profile) which also connects system to online accounts and their data</li> <li>Use Profile for granular description (Biography, Interests, WishList, OfferList, etc.)</li> <li>Optionally upstream or downstream data to and from my online accounts</li> <li>Create content Tagging Rules</li> <li>Create rules for associating Tags with formal URIs</li> <li>Create automatic Hyperlinking Rules for reuse when new content is created (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id11a7c660">Blog</a> posts)</li> <li>Exploit Data Portability virtues of RSS, Atom, OPML, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id13f54d50">RDFa</a>, RDF/XML, and other formats for imports and exports</li> <li>Automatically <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id121ddff0">tag</a> imported content</li> <li>Use function-specific helper application UIs for domain specific data generation e.g. AddressBook (optionally use vCard import), Calendar (optionally use iCalendar import), Email, File Storage (use WebDAV mount with copy and paste or HTTP GET), Feed Subscriptions (optionally import RSS/Atom/OPML feeds), Bookmarking (optionally import bookmark.html or XBEL) etc..</li> <li>Optionally enable "Conversation" feature (today: Social Media feature) across the relevant application domains (manage conversations under covers using NNTP, the standard for this functionality realm) </li> <li>Generate HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id13d5d378">Entity</a> IDs (URIs) for every piece of data in this burgeoning <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id11a69670">data space</a> </li> <li>Use REST based APIs to perform CRUD tasks against my data (local and remote) (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11a76e10">SPARQL</a>, GData, Ubiquity Commands, Atom Publishing)</li> <li>Use OpenID, OAuth, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id11c9b3e0">FOAF</a>+SSL, FOAF+SSL+OpenID for accessing data elsewhere</li> <li>Use OpenID, OAuth, FOAF+SSL, FOAF+SSL+OpenID for Controlling access to my data (Self Signed Certificate Generation, Browser Import of said Certificate & associated Private Key, plus persistence of Certificate to FOAF based profile data space in "one click")</li> <li>Have a simple UI for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id14015bd0">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value or Subject-Predicate-Object arbitrary data annotations and creation since you can't pre model an "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_world_assumption" id="link-id11cd8548">Open World</a>" where the only constant is data flow</li> <li>Have my Personal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id142beee8">URI</a> (Web ID) as the single entry point for controlled access to my HTTP accessible data space</li> </ol> <p> I've just outlined a snippet of the capabilities of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id13d64740">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> platform. A platform built using OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13d74170">Virtuoso</a>, architected to deliver: open, platform independent, multi-model, data access and data management across heterogeneous data sources. </p> <p> All you need to remember is your URI when seeking to interact with your data space.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id13c97948">Get Yourself a URI (Web ID) in 5 Minutes or Less!</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%22data%20spaces%22&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1431e088">Various posts over the years about Data Spaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1415" id="link-id11f837f0">Future of Desktop Post</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://bnode.org/blog/2009/04/22/semantic-web-apps-to-simplify-my-life" id="link-id1393f8a8">Simplify My Life Post</a> by <a href="http://bnode.org/about" id="link-id11da0cc8">Bengee Nowack</a> </li> </ol>
2009-04-22T15:32:06.000020-04:00
Live Virtuoso instance hosting Linked Open Data (LOD) Cloud
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-03-30#1539
2009-03-30T16:27:26Z
<p>We have reached a beachead re. the <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11a035e0">Virtuoso instance hosting the Linked Open Data (LOD) Cloud</a>; meaning, we are not going to be performing any major updates and deletions short-term, bar incorporation of fresh data sets from the Freebase and <a href="http://www.bio2rdf.org/" id="link-id121d7278">Bio2RDF</a> projects (both communities a prepping new RDF data sets).</p> <p>At the current time we have loaded 100% of all the very large data sets from the <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2009-03-05.html" id="link-id1441f7e0">LOD Cloud</a>. As result, we can start the process of exposing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16c53de8">Linked Data</a> virtues in a manner that's palatable to users, developers, and database professionals across the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x20165290">Web</a> 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 spectrums.</p> <h3>What does this mean?</h3> <p>You can use the "Search & Find" or"<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id119c6878">URI</a> Lookup" or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id157acde8">SPARQL</a> endpoint associated with the LOD cloud hosting instance to perform the following tasks:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li>Find entities associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id11a82f28">full text search</a> patterns -- Google Style, but with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id131b6380">Entity</a> & Text proximity Rank instead of Page Rank, since we are dealing with Entities rather than documents about entities</li> <li>Find and Lookup entities by Identifier (URI) -- which is helpful when locating URIs to use for identify entities in your own linked data spaces on the Web</li> <li>View entity descriptions via a variety of representation formats (HTML, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id11e323b0">RDFa</a>, RDF/XML, N3, Turtle etc.)</li> <li>Determine uses of entity identifiers across the LOD cloud -- which helps you select preferred URIs based on usage statistics.</li> </ol> <h3>What does it offer Web 1.0 and 2.0 developers?</h3> <p> If you don't want to use the <a href="http://lod.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id15c1ec30">SPARQL based Web Service</a>, or other Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id15ebd3b0">Web</a> oriented APIs for interacting with the LOD cloud programmatically, you can simply use the powerful <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtuosoFacetsWebService" id="link-id12e556a8">REST style Web Service</a> that provides <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id12138090">URL</a> parameters for performing full text oriented "Search", entity oriented "Find" queries, and faceted navigation over the huge data corpus with results data returned in JSON and XML formats.</p> <h3>Next Steps:</h3> <p> Amazon have agreed to add all the LOD Cloud data sets to their existing <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/publicdatasets" id="link-id11989aa8">public data sets collective</a>. Thus, the data sets we are loading will be available in "raw data" (RDF) format on the public data sets page via Named Elastic Block Storage (EBS) Snapshots); meaning, you can make an EC2 AMI (e.g. a Linux, Windows, Solaris) and install an RDF quad or triple store of choice into your AMI, then simply load data from the LOD cloud based on your needs.</p> <p> In addition to the above, we are also going to offer a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtInstallationEC2" id="link-id13982a88">Virtuoso 6.0 Cluster Edition based LOD Cloud AMI</a> (as we've already done with <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIDBpediaInstall" id="link-id12cba108">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIMusicBrainzInstall" id="link-id1390d338">MusicBrainz</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMINeuroCommonsInstall" id="link-id15801668">NeuroCommons</a>, and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIBio2rdfInstall" id="link-id133e0840">Bio2Rdf</a>) that will enable you to simply instantiate a personal and service specific edition of Virtuoso with all the LOD data in place and fully tuned for performance and scalability; basically, you will simply press "Instantiate AMI" and a LOD cloud <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id15ccbf80">data space</a>, in true Linked Data from, will be at your disposal within minutes (i.e. the time it takes the DB to start).</p> <p>Work on the migration of the LOD data to EC2 starts this week. Thus, if you are interested in contributing an RDF based data set to the LOD cloud now is the time to get your archive links in place on the (see: <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/DataSetRDFDumps" id="link-id154d6f88">ESW Wiki page for LOD Data Sets</a>).</p>
2009-04-01T14:26:22.000002-04:00
How Linked Data will change Advertising
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-03-22#1534
2009-03-23T04:39:49Z
<p>This post is a reply to <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/" id="link-id11f11e90">Jason Kolb</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2009/03/using-advertising-to-take-over-the-world.html" id="link-id15528ae8">Using Advertising to Take Over the World</a>. Jason's post is a response to <a href="http://scobleizer.com/" id="link-id11a41fd0">Robert Scoble</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://scobleizer.com/2009/03/21/why-facebook-has-never-listened-and-why-it-definitely-wont-start-now/" id="link-id143e2d88">Why Facebook has never listened and why it definitely won’t start now.</a> </p> <p>Jason:</p> <p>Scoble is sensing what comes next, but in my opinion, describes it using an old obtrusive advertising model anecdote.</p> <p>I've penned a post or two about the "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1458" id="link-id15247e90">Magic of You</a>" which is all about the new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x20b2da18">Web</a> power broker (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id15552ba0">Entity</a>: "You").</p> <p>Personally, I've long envisaged a complete overhaul of advertising where obtrusive advertising simply withers away; ultimately replaced by an unobtrusive model that is driven by individualized relevance and high doses of serendipity. Basically, this is ultimately about "taking the Ad out of item placement in Web pages".</p> <p>The fundamental ingredients of an unobtrusive advertising landscape would include the following Human facts:</p> <ol> <li>We are social beings and need stuff from time to time </li> <li>We know what we need and would like to "Find stuff" when we are in "I Need Stuff" mode.</li> </ol> <p>Ideally, we would like to be able to simply state the following, via a Web accessible profile:</p> <ol> <li> Here are my "Wants" or "Needs" (my Wish-List) </li> <li> Here are the products and services that I "Offer" (my Offer-List).</li> </ol> <p>Now put the above into the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id157388c8">context</a> of an evolving Web where <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x226b34d0">data</a> items are becoming more visible by the second, courtesy of the "<a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id11ab8f80">Linked Data" meme</a>. Thus, things that weren't discernable via the Web: "People", "Places", "Music", "Books", "Products", etc., become much easier to identify and describe.</p> <p>Assuming the comments above hold true re. the Web's evolution into a collection of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11bf4830">Linked Data</a> Spaces, and the following occur:</p> <ol> <li> Structured profile pages become the basic units of Web presence</li> <li> Wish-Lists and Offer-Lists are exposed by profile pages</li> </ol> <p>Wish-Lists and Offer-Lists will gradually start bonding with increasing degrees of serendipity courtesy of exponential growth in Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id154a92f8">Web</a> density. </p> <p>So based on what I've stated so far, Scoble would simply browse the Web or visit his profile page, and in either scenario enjoy a "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQbVD5hlddk" id="link-id118d3878">minority report</a>" style of experience albeit all under his control (since he is the one driving his Web user agent).</p> <p>What I describe above simply comes down to "Wish-lists" and associated recommendations becoming the norm outside the confines of Amazon's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id11a6c710">data space</a> on the Web. Serendipitous discovery, intelligent lookups, and linkages are going to be the fundamental essence of Linked Data Web oriented applications, services, agents.</p> <p>Beyond Scoble, it's also important to note that access to data will be controlled by entity "You". Your data space on the Web will be something you will controll access to in a myriad of ways, and it will include the option to provide licensed access to commercial entities on your terms. Naturally, you will also determine the currency that facilitates the value exchange :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1458" id="link-id11799a58">The Numerati & The Magic of You!</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1442" id="link-id15246d50">Serendipitous Discovery Quotient (SDQ) Explained</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQbVD5hlddk" id="link-id1360f6d0">Minority Report Clip</a> </li> </ul>
2009-03-25T08:30:58-04:00
Simple Compare & Contrast of Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-03-14#1531
2009-03-14T18:20:00Z
<p>Here is a tabulated "compare and contrast" of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> usage patterns 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.</p> <table border="1" width="715" height="286"> <tbody> <tr> <td> </td> <td><strong>Web 1.0</strong></td> <td><strong>Web 2.0</strong></td> <td><strong>Web 3.0</strong></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Simple Definition</strong></td> <td>Interactive / Visual Web</td> <td>Programmable Web</td> <td><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id117a9a98">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id146bcdb0">Web</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Unit of Presence</strong></td> <td>Web Page</td> <td>Web Service Endpoint</td> <td><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id11a66c60">Data Space</a> (named structured data enclave)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Unit of Value Exchange</strong></td> <td>Page <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id146083f8">URL</a></td> <td>Endpoint URL for API</td> <td>Resource / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id121b2148">Entity</a> / Object <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1467ed00">URI</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Granularity</strong></td> <td>Low (HTML)</td> <td>Medium (XML)</td> <td>High (RDF)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Defining Services</strong></td> <td>Search </td> <td>Community (Blogs to Social Networks) </td> <td>Find</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Participation Quotient</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium</td> <td>High</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Serendipitous Discovery Quotient </strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium</td> <td>High</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Referencability Quotient </strong></td> <td>Low (Documents)</td> <td>Medium (Documents)</td> <td>High (Documents and their constituent Data)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Subjectivity Quotient</strong></td> <td>High</td> <td>Medium (from A-list bloggers to select source and partner lists)</td> <td>Low (everything is discovered via URIs)</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <strong><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Transclusion" id="link-id155308d8">Transclusence</a> </strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium (Code driven Mashups)</td> <td>HIgh (Data driven Meshups)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>What You See Is What You Prefer (WYSIWYP)</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium </td> <td>High (negotiated representation of resource descriptions)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Open Data Access (Data Accessibility)</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium (Silos)</td> <td>High (no Silos)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Identity Issues Handling</strong></td> <td>Low</td> <td>Medium (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenID" id="link-id119d77f8">OpenID</a>)</td> <td><p>High (<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/foaf+ssl" id="link-id135cc348">FOAF+SSL</a>)</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Solution Deployment Model</strong></td> <td>Centralized</td> <td>Centralized with sprinklings of Federation</td> <td>Federated with function specific Centralization (e.g. Lookup hubs like <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1496d1d0">LOD</a> Cloud or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1571f690">DBpedia</a>)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Model Orientation</strong></td> <td>Logical (Tree based DOM)</td> <td>Logical (Tree based XML)</td> <td>Conceptual (Graph based RDF)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>User Interface Issues</strong></td> <td>Dynamically generated static interfaces</td> <td>Dyanically generated interafaces with semi-dynamic interfaces (courtesy of XSLT or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id118399e8">XQuery</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id14b00ba0">XPath</a>)</td> <td>Dynamic Interfaces (pre- and post-generation) courtesy of self-describing nature of RDF</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>Data Querying</strong></td> <td><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id14fdd948">Full Text Search</a></td> <td>Full Text Search</td> <td>Full Text Search + Structured Graph Pattern Query Language (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id154a9368">SPARQL</a>)</td> </tr> <tr> <td><strong>What Each Delivers</strong></td> <td>Democratized Publishing</td> <td>Democratized Journalism & Commentary (Citizen Journalists & Commentators)</td> <td>Democratized Analysis (Citizen Data Analysts)</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <strong><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Star_Wars" id="link-id155ce920">Star Wars Edition Analogy</a> </strong></td> <td>Star Wars (original fight for decentralization via rebellion)</td> <td>Empire Strikes Back (centralization and data silos make comeback)</td> <td>Return of the JEDI (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1474" id="link-id11706640">FORCE</a> emerges and facilitates decentralization from "Identity" all the way to "Open Data Access" and "Negotiable Descriptive Data Representation")</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p>Naturally, I am not expecting everyone to agree with <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id15be20c0">me</a>. I am simply making my contribution to what will remain facinating discourse for a long time to come :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2007/10/web-30----the-a.html" id="link-id14a9d738">Web 3.0 The Best Official Definition Imaginable</a> -- Nova Spivack's </li> </ul>
2009-04-29T13:21:25.000004-04:00
Important Movie and Ultimate Linked Data Documentary (Update 3)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-03-06#1530
2009-03-06T20:04:37Z
<p>If you are still grappling with the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id15cfb138">Semantic Web</a> Project" and one of its more distinguished deliverables: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15340548">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id141f88b8">Web</a>, then please make time to watch and digest the imminence of this <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7190175107515525470" id="link-id15394f88">1990 documentary</a> about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperland" id="link-id153951e0">Hypermedia</a> titled: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperland" id="link-id153f7998">Hyperland</a>, by the late <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Douglas_Adams" id="link-id15d2ac88">Douglas Adams</a>.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOsPKjbMvxY" id="link-id117ab018">Hyperland Documentary</a> -- Youtube </li> <li> <a href="http://hyperworlds.org/" id="link-id152dd5d0">Hyperworlds</a> - Ted Nelson Presentation</li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IQFjTnDozo" id="link-id1533dba0">The Invention of the World Wide Web</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAvNlh2Z0GI" id="link-id117a0238">The Web's Secret Stories</a> - TED Presentation (basically about using the Web reveal [connections] commonality via [dots] individuality pre. Twitter</li> <li> <a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pattie_maes_demos_the_sixth_sense.html" id="link-id154b32f0">Pattie Mae demonstrates 6th sense</a> - an example of what will be done with Linked Data re. user interaction.</li> <li> <a href="http://conferences.ted.com/TED2009/" id="link-id11ea40c8">TimBL's TED 2009 Linked Data Presentation</a> </li> </ul>
2009-03-15T10:35:49.000003-04:00
Response to: What is Web 3.0 and Why Should I Care?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-29#1524
2009-01-29T18:16:44Z
<p>Another post done in response to lost comments. This time, the comments relate to Robin Bloor's article titled: <a href="http://havemacwillblog.com/2008/12/16/what-is-web-30-and-why-should-i-care/" id="link-id12e79d70">What is Web 3.0 and Why Should I Care?</a> </p> <p>Robin:</p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_3.0" id="link-id12db8fb0">Web 3.0 </a>is fundamentally about the World Wid Web becoming a structured database equipped with a formal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> model (RDF which is a moniker for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11490990">Entity-Attribute-Value</a> with Classes & Relationships based Graph Model), query language, and a protocol for handling divrerse data representational requirements via negotiation</p>. <p>Web 3.0 is about a Web that facilitates serendipitous discovery of relevant things; thereby making serendipitous discovery quotient (SDQ), rather than search engine optimization (SEO), the critical success factor that drives how resources get published on the Web.</p> <p>Personally, I believe we are on the cusp of a major industry inflection re. how we interact with data hosted in computing spaces. In a nutshell, the conceptual model interaction based on real-world entities such as people, places, and other things (including abstract subject matter) will usurp traditional logical model interaction based on rows and columns of typed and/or untyped literal values exemplified by relational data access and management systems.</p> <p>Labels such as "Web 3.0", "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13664538">Linked Data</a>", and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id157ff968">Semantic Web</a>", are simply about the aforementioned model transition playing out on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id114bd0e8">World Wide Web</a> and across private Linked Data Webs such as Intranets & Extranets, as exemplified emergence of the "Master Data Management" label/buzzword.</p> <h3>What's the critical infrastructure supporting Web 3.0?</h3> <p>As was the case with Web Services re. Web 2.0, there is a critical piece of infrastructure driving the evolution in question, and in this case it comes down to the evolution of Hyperlinking.</p> <p>We now have a new and complimentary variant of Hyperlinking commonly referred to as "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id152ed150">Hyperdata</a>" that now sits alongside "Hypertext". Hyperdata when used in conjunction with HTTP based URIs as Data Source Names (or Identifiers), delivers a potent and granular data access mechanism scoped down to the datum (object or record) level; which is much different from the document (record or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1141e830">entity</a> container) level linkage that Hypertext accords.</p> <p>In addition, the incorporation of HTTP into this new and enhanced granular Data Source Naming mechanism also addresses past challenges relating to separation of data, data representation, and data transmission protocols -- remember XDR woes familiar to all sockets level programmers -- courtesy of in-built content negotiation. Hence, via a simple HTTP GET --against a Data Source Name exposed by a Hyperdata link -- I can negotiate (from client or server sides) the exact representation of the description (entity-attribute-value graph) of an Entity / Data Object / Resource, dispatched by a data server.</p> <blockquote>For example, this is how a description of entity "<strong><a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id141ce520">Me</a></strong>" ends up being available in (X)HTML or RDF document representations (as you will observe when you click on that link to my Personal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id15f9fed0">URI</a>).</blockquote> <p> The foundation of what I describe above comes from:</p> <ol> <li> Entity-Attribute-Value & Class Relationship Data Model (originating from LISP era with detours via the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object_database" id="link-id12db8fb0">Object Database</a> era. into the Triples approach in RDF) </li> <li>Use of HTTP based Identifiers in the Entity <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id1193af48">ID</a> construction process</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1348f188">SPARQL</a> query language for the Data Model.</li> </ol> <p>Some live examples from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id12e62a50">DBpedia</a>:</p> <ul> <li> http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data</li> <li>http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperdata</li> <li>http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model</li> <li>http://dbpedia.org/resource/Benjamin_Franklin</li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1519?sid=5097848d70f69738bd366e2b6374672c&realm=wa" id="link-id13c31500">The End of RDBMS Primacy is Nigh</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id1356e6a0">Linking Open Data Community</a> </li> </ul>
2009-01-29T13:45:11-05:00
ebiz RDF & Data Integration Article Retort
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-29#1522
2009-01-29T15:12:15Z
<p>Yesterday, I stumbled across an <a href="http://www.ebizq.net" id="link-id13e41be8">ebiz</a> article by <a href="http://www.ebizq.net/MT4/mt-cp.cgi?__mode=view&blog_id=43&id=16" id="link-id11c080a0">David Linthicum</a> titled:<a href="http://www.ebizq.net/blogs/linthicum/2009/01/rdf_and_data_integration.php" id="link-id13620940"> RDF & Data Integration</a>. Naturally, I read it, and while reading encountered a number of inaccuracies that compelled <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id152f4828">me</a> to comment on the post. </p> <p>Today, I revisited the same article -- and to my shock and horror -- my comments do not exist (note: the site did accept my comments yesterday!). Even more frustrating for me, I now have to expend time I don't have re-writing my comments due to the depth and danger of the inaccuracies in this post re. RDF in general.</p> <h3>Important Note to ebiz and David: </h3> <p>Please look into what happened to my comments. It's too early for me to conclude that subjective censorship is a play on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> -- which isn't a hard copy journalistic format style of platform where editors get away with such shenanigans. The Web is a sticky database, and outer joining is well and truly functional (meaning: exclusion and omission ultimately come back to bite via full outer join query results against the Web DB).</p> <p>By the way, if you publish the comments I made to the post (yesterday), I will add a note to this post, accordingly.</p> <p>Yes! David just confirmed to me via <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://dbpedia.org/resource/Category:Data_modeling" id="link-id15293c20">Twitter</a> that this is yet another comment system related issue and absolutely no intent to censor etc. His words <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/rdf/http://twitter.com/DavidLinthicum/status/1159201301%23this" id="link-id14e5ac98">Twervatim</a> :-) </p> <p>For sake of clarity, I've itemized the inaccuracies and applied my correction comments (inline) accordingly:</p> <blockquote> <h3>Inaccuracy #1:</h3> <p>Resource Description Framework (RDF), a part of the XML story, provides interoperability between applications that exchange <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id15f48080">information</a>. </p> <h3>Correction #1: </h3> <p>RDF and XML are not inextricably linked in any way. RDF is part Data Model (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id119a7300">EAV</a>/CR style Graph) with associated markup and data serialization formats that include: N3, Turtle, TriX, RDF/XML etc.</p> <h3>Inaccuracy #2:</h3> <p>RDF uses XML to define a foundation for processing metadata and to provide a standard metadata infrastructure for both the Web and the enterprise. </p> <h3>Correction #2: </h3> <p>RDF/XML is an XML based markup and data serialization format. As a markup language it can be used for creating RDF model records/statements (using Subject, Predicate, Object or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id15120c28">Entity</a>, Attribute, Value). As a serialization format, it provides a mechanism for marshaling RDF data across data managers and data consumers.</p> <h3>Inaccuracy #3:</h3> <p>The difference between the two is that XML is used to transport data using a common format, while RDF is layered on top of XML defining a broad category of data. </p> <h3>Correction #3:</h3> <p>See earlier corrections above.</p> <h3>Inaccuracy #4:</h3> <p>When the XML data is declared to be of the RDF format, applications are then able to understand the data without understanding who sent it. </p> <h3>Correction #4:</h3> <p>You do not declare data to be of RDF format. RDF isn't a format it is a data model (as stated above). You can "up lift" or map data from XML to RDF (hierarchical to graph model mapping). Likewise you can "down shift" or map data from RDF to XML (example: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id146966c0">SPARQL</a> SELECT query patterns "down shift" to SPARQL Results XML, which isn't RDF/XML, while keeping access to graphs via URIs or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id14282528">Entity</a> Identifiers that reside within the serialization).</p> <h3>Inaccuracy #5:</h3> <p>RDF extends the XML model and syntax to be specified for describing either resources or a collection of information. (XML points to a resource in order to scope and uniquely identify a set of properties known as the schema.).</p> <h3>Correction #5:</h3> <p>See earlier comments. </p> </blockquote> <p>The single accurate paragraph in this ebiz article lies right at the end and it states the following:</p> <blockquote> <cite>"I've always thought RDF has been underutilized for data integration, and it's really an old standard. Now that we're focused on both understanding and integrating data, perhaps RDF should make a comeback."</cite> </blockquote> <h3>Related:</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/SW-FAQ#whrdfxml" id="link-id1534cdc8">Semantic Web FAQ fragment re. RDF and XML</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20data%20integration&type=text&output=html" id="link-id15a7dbc0">Various posts re. RDF and Data Integration</a> from this <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id15da4618">Blog</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1120d810">Data Space</a>.</li> </ul>
2009-01-29T16:25:58-05:00
Time for RDBMS Primacy Downgrade is Nigh! (No Embedded Images Edition - Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-27#1520
2009-01-27T19:19:44Z
<p> As the world works it way through a "once in a generation" economic crisis, the long overdue downgrade of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id15750540">RDBMS</a>, from its pivotal position at the apex of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x24ea3650">data</a> access and data management pyramid is nigh.</p> <h3>What is the Data Access, and Data Management Value Pyramid?</h3> <p> As depicted below, a top-down view of the data access and data management value chain. The term: apex, simply indicates value primacy, which takes the form of a data access API based entry point into a DBMS realm -- aligned to an underlying data model. Examples of data access APIs include: Native Call Level Interfaces (CLIs), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id11c254c0">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id149b16a8">JDBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id11451eb0">ADO</a>.NET, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OLE_DB" id="link-id15b02478">OLE-DB</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML_for_Analysis" id="link-id1181fa10">XMLA</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1f8394a8">Web</a> Services.</p> See: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/Agility_Value_Factors_Pyramid.png" id="link-id146cadd8"> AVF Pyramid Diagram.</a> <p> The degree to which ad-hoc views of data managed by a DBMS can be produced and dispatched to relevant data consumers (e.g. people), without compromising concurrency, data durability, and security, collectively determine the "Agility Value Factor" (AVF) of a given DBMS. Remember, agility as the cornerstone of environmental adaptation is as old as the concept of evolution, and intrinsic to all pursuits of primacy. </p> <p>In simpler business oriented terms, look at AVF as the degree to which DBMS technology affects the ability to effectively implement "Market Leadership Discipline" along the following pathways: innovation, operation excellence, or customer intimacy. </p> <h3>Why has RDBMS Primacy has Endured?</h3> <p> Historically, at least since the late '80s, the RDBMS genre of DBMS has consistently offered the highest AVF relative to other DBMS genres en route to primacy within the value pyramid. The desire to improve on paper reports and spreadsheets is basically what DBMS technology has fundamentally addressed to date, even though conceptual level interaction with data has never been its forte.</p> See: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/Old_RDBMS_Primacy_Pyramid.png" id="link-id134dab90"> RDBMS Primacy Diagram.</a> <p> For more then 10 years -- at the very least -- limitations of the traditional RDBMS in the realm of conceptual level interaction with data across diverse data sources and schemas (enterprise, Web, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id116001c0">Internet</a>) has been crystal clear to many RDBMS technology practitioners, as indicated by some of the quotes excerpted below:</p> <blockquote> <cite> <p> "Future of Database Research is excellent, but what is the future of data?" </p> "..it is hard for <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id14932398">me</a> to disagree with the conclusions in this report. It captures exactly the right thoughts, and should be a must read for everyone involved in the area of databases and database research in particular." <p>-- <a href="http://jhingran.typepad.com/anant_jhingrans_musings/" id="link-id11334c50">Dr. Anant Jingran</a>, CTO, IBM <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id150c7970">Information</a> Management Systems, commenting on the <a href="http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/claremont/" id="link-id11c3b408">2007 RDBMS technology retreat</a> attended by a number of key DBMS technology pioneers and researchers.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <cite> <p> "<a href="http://www.databasecolumn.com/2007/09/one-size-fits-all.html" id="link-id15c14f08">One size fits all: A concept whose time has come and gone</a> </p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> They are direct descendants of System R and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id146da780">Ingres</a> and were architected more than 25 years ago</li> <li> They are advocating "one size fits all"; i.e. a single engine that solves all DBMS needs. </li> </ol> <p>-- Prof. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stonebraker" id="link-id145c4e28">Michael Stonebreaker</a>, one of the founding fathers of the RDBMS industry.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <p>Until this point in time, the requisite confluence of "circumstantial pain" and "open standards" based technology required to enable an objective "compare and contrast" of RDBMS engine virtues and viable alternatives hasn't occurred. Thus, the RDBMS has endured it position of primacy albeit on a "one size fits all basis". </p> <h4>Circumstantial Pain</h4> <p> As mentioned earlier, we are in the midst of an economic crisis that is ultimately about a consistent inability to connect dots across a substrate of interlinked data sources that transcend traditional data access boundaries with high doses of schematic heterogeneity. Ironically, in a era of the dot-com, we haven't been able to make meaningful connections between relevant "real-world things" that extend beyond primitive data hosted database tables and content management style document containers; we've struggled to achieve this in the most basic sense, let alone evolve our ability to connect inline with the <a href="http://www.vldb2007.org/program/slides/s1161-brodie.pdf" id="link-id11a0dcf0">exponential rate at which the Internet & Web are spawning "universes of discourse" (data spaces) that emanate from user activity</a> (within the enterprise and across the Internet & Web). In a nutshell, we haven't been able to upgrade our interaction with data such that "conceptual models" and resulting "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id12da4b00">context</a> lenses" (or facets) become concrete; by this I mean: real-world <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id146a48a8">entity</a> interaction making its way into the computer realm as opposed to the impedance we all suffer today when we transition from conceptual model interaction (real-world) to logical model interaction (when dealing with RDBMS based data access and data management). </p> <p>Here are some simple examples of what I can only best describe as: "critical dots unconnected", resulting from an inability to interact with data conceptually:</p> <strong>Government (Globally) -</strong> <p> Financial regulatory bodies couldn't effectively discern that a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Credit_default_swap" id="link-id115ba0e0">Credit Default Swap</a> is an Insurance policy in all but literal name. And in not doing so the cost of an unregulated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Insurance" id="link-id158d4960">insurance policy</a> laid the foundation for exacerbating the toxicity of fatally flawed mortgage backed securities. Put simply: a flawed insurance policy was the fallback on a toxic security that financiers found exotic based on superficial packaging.</p> <strong>Enterprises - </strong> <p> Banks still don't understand that capital really does exists in tangible and intangible forms; with the intangible being the variant that is inherently dynamic. For example, a tech companies intellectual capital far exceeds the value of fixture, fittings, and buildings, but you be amazed to find that in most cases this vital asset has not significant value when banks get down to the nitty gritty of debt collateral; instead, a buffer of flawed securitization has occurred atop a borderline static asset class covering the aforementioned buildings, fixtures, and fittings. </p> <p> In the general enterprise arena, IT executives continued to "rip and replace" existing technology without ever effectively addressing the timeless inability to connect data across disparate data silos generated by internal enterprise applications, let alone the broader need to mesh data from the inside with external data sources. No correlations made between the growth of buzzwords and the compounding nature of data integration challenges. It's 2009 and only a miniscule number of executives dare fantasize about being anywhere within distance of the: relevant information at your fingertips vision. </p> <p> Looking more holistically at data interaction in general, whether you interact with data in the enterprise space (i.e., at work) or on the Internet or Web, you ultimately are delving into a mishmash of disparate computer systems, applications, service (Web or SOA), and databases (of the RDBMS variety in a majority of cases) associated with a plethora of disparate schemas. Yes, but even today "rip and replace" is still the norm pushed by most vendors; pitting one mono culture against another as exemplified by irrelevances such as: FOSS/LAMP vs Commercial or Web vs. Enterprise, when none of this matters if the data access and integration issues are recognized let alone addressed (see: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1497?sid=0df0294caee8b37925c6a888bbbca136&realm=wa" id="link-id15c27300">Applications are Like Fish and Data Like Wine</a>). </p> <p> Like the current credit-crunch, exponential growth of data originating from disparate application databases and associated schemas, within shrinking processing time frames, has triggered a rethinking of what defines data access and data management value today en route to an inevitable RDBMS downgrade within the value pyramid.</p> <h3>Technology</h3> <p>There have been many attempts to address real-world modeling requirements across the broader DBMS community from Object Databases to Object-Relational Databases, and more recently the emergence of simple <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id1128dad0">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value model DBMS engines. In all cases failure has come down to the existence of one or more of the following deficiencies, across each potential alternative:</p> <ol> <li>Query language standardization - nothing close to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id16002d60">SQL</a> standardization</li> <li>Data Access API standardization - nothing close to ODBC, JDBC, OLE-DB, or ADO.NET</li> <li>Wire protocol standardization - nothing close to HTTP</li> <li>Distributed Identity infrastructure - nothing close to the non-repudiatable digital Identity that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id14926b18">foaf</a>+ssl accords</li> <li>Use of Identifiers as network based pointers to data sources - nothing close to RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16180a28">Linked Data</a> </li> <li>Negotiable data representation - nothing close to Mime and HTTP based Content Negotiation</li> <li>Scalability especially in the era of Internet & Web scale.</li> </ol> <h4>Entity-Attribute-Value with Classes & Relationships (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id13e741b8">EAV</a>/CR) data models</h4> <p>A common characteristic shared by all post-relational DBMS management systems (from Object Relational to pure Object) is an orientation towards variations of EAV/CR based data models. Unfortunately, all efforts in the EAV/CR realm have typically suffered from at least one of the deficiencies listed above. In addition, the same "one DBMS model fits all" approach that lies at the heart of the RDBMS downgrade also exists in the EAV/CR realm.</p> <h3>What Comes Next?</h3> <p>The RDBMS is not going away (ever), but its era of primacy -- by virtue of its placement at the apex of the data access and data management value pyramid -- is over! I make this bold claim for the following reasons: </p> <ol> <li> The Internet aided "Global Village" has brought "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_World_Assumption" id="link-id1148e560">Open World</a>" vs "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_World_Assumption" id="link-id11967cd0">Closed World</a>" assumption issues to the fore e.g., the current global economic crisis remains centered on the inability to connect dots across "Open World" and "Closed World" data frontiers </li> <li> Entity-Attribute-Value with Classes & Relationships (EAV/CR) based DBMS models are more effective when dealing with disparate data associated with disparate schemas, across disparate DBMS engines, host operating systems, and networks. </li> </ol> <p>Based on the above, it is crystal clear that a different kind of DBMS -- one with higher AVF relative to the RDBMS -- needs to sit atop today's data access and data management value pyramid. The characteristics of this DBMS must include the following:</p> <ol> <li> Every item of data (Datum/Entity/Object/Resource) has Identity</li> <li> Identity is achieved via Identifiers that aren't locked at the DBMS, OS, Network, or Application levels</li> <li> Object Identifiers and Object values are independent (extricably linked by association)</li> <li> Object values should be de-referencable via Object Identifier</li> <li> Representation of de-referenced value graph (entity, attributes, and values mesh) must be negotiable (i.e. content negotiation)</li> <li>Structured query language must provide mechanism for Creation, Deletion, Updates, and Querying of data objects</li> <li> Performance & Scalability across "Closed World" (enterprise) and "Open World" (Internet & Web) realms.</li> </ol> <p>Quick recap, I am not saying that RDBMS engine technology is dead or obsolete. I am simply stating that the era of RDBMS primacy within the data access and data management value pyramid is over. </p> <p>The problem domain (conceptual model views over heterogeneous data sources) at the apex of the aforementioned pyramid has simply evolved beyond the natural capabilities of the RDBMS which is rooted in "Closed World" assumptions re., data definition, access, and management. The need to maintain domain based conceptual interaction with data is now palpable at every echelon within our "Global Village" - Internet, Web, Enterprise, Government etc.</p> <p>It is my personal view that an EAV/CR model based DBMS, with support for the seven items enumerated above, can trigger the long anticipated RDBMS downgrade. Such a DBMS would be inherently multi-model because you would need to the best of RDBMS and EAV/CR model engines in a single product, with in-built support for HTTP and other Internet protocols in order to effectively address data representation and serialization issues.</p> <h4>EAV/CR Oriented Data Access & Management Technology</h4> <p>Examples of contemporary EAV/CR frameworks that provide concrete conceptual layers for data access and data management currently include:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id115d1cb0"> Resource Description Framework</a> (RDF) - an EAV/CR based framework</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id116cf810">RDF Linked Data </a>- EAV/CR based framework that mandates de-referencable HTTP based Identifiers</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id13daa160">ADO.NET Entity Frameworks</a> - Microsoft .NET based EAV/CR framework</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/Core_Data" id="link-id11111838">Core Data Services </a>- Mac OS X based EAV/CR framework that evolved from NeXT's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Enterprise_Objects_Framework" id="link-id15c27df0">Enterprise Object Frameworks</a> (EOF).</li> </ul> <p>The frameworks above provide the basis for a revised AVF pyramid, as depicted below, that reflects today's data access and management realities i.e., an Internet & Web driven global village comprised of interlinked distributed data objects, compatible with "Open World" assumptions.</p> See: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/New_EAV_RDBMS_Pyramid.png" id="link-id158e0760">New EAV/CR Primacy Diagram.</a> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dynamicorange.com/2009/01/22/blueblog-how-and-why-glue-is-using-amazon-simpledb-instead-of-a-relational-database/" id="link-id15e07c10">How & Why Glue is Using Amazon SimpleDB</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/clamen/OODBMS/Manifesto/htManifesto/node4.html#SECTION00022000000000000000" id="link-id116cf450">Object Database Manifesto (Identity excerpt)</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.unixspace.com/context/databases.html" id="link-id150b2c20">Database Models Overview</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEj9vqVvHPc&feature=related" id="link-id0x1135d978">Ted Nelson Explaining Irregularity and Idiosyncrasy of Data Structures</a> - ZigZag Demo </li> </ul>
2009-03-17T11:50:58-04:00
The Time for RDBMS Primacy Downgrade is Nigh!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-24#1519
2009-01-25T00:04:00Z
<p> As the world works it way through a "once in a generation" economic crisis, the long overdue downgrade of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id15750540">RDBMS</a>, from its pivotal position at the apex of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x66a74b8">data</a> access and data management pyramid is nigh.</p> <h3>What is the Data Access, and Data Management Value Pyramid?</h3> <p> As depicted below, a top-down view of the data access and data management value chain. The term: apex, simply indicates value primacy, which takes the form of a data access API based entry point into a DBMS realm -- aligned to an underlying data model. Examples of data access APIs include: Native Call Level Interfaces (CLIs), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id11c254c0">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id149b16a8">JDBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id11451eb0">ADO</a>.NET, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OLE_DB" id="link-id15b02478">OLE-DB</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML_for_Analysis" id="link-id1181fa10">XMLA</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x2fef498">Web</a> Services.</p> <div> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/Agility_Value_Factors_Pyramid.png" /> </div> <p> The degree to which ad-hoc views of data managed by a DBMS can be produced and dispatched to relevant data consumers (e.g. people), without compromising concurrency, data durability, and security, collectively determine the "Agility Value Factor" (AVF) of a given DBMS. Remember, agility as the cornerstone of environmental adaptation is as old as the concept of evolution, and intrinsic to all pursuits of primacy. </p> <p>In simpler business oriented terms, look at AVF as the degree to which DBMS technology affects the ability to effectively implement "Market Leadership Discipline" along the following pathways: innovation, operation excellence, or customer intimacy. </p> <h3>Why has RDBMS Primacy has Endured?</h3> <p> Historically, at least since the late '80s, the RDBMS genre of DBMS has consistently offered the highest AVF relative to other DBMS genres en route to primacy within the value pyramid. The desire to improve on paper reports and spreadsheets is basically what DBMS technology has fundamentally addressed to date, even though conceptual level interaction with data has never been its forte.</p> <div> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/Old_RDBMS_Primacy_Pyramid.png" /> </div> <p> For more then 10 years -- at the very least -- limitations of the traditional RDBMS in the realm of conceptual level interaction with data across diverse data sources and schemas (enterprise, Web, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id116001c0">Internet</a>) has been crystal clear to many RDBMS technology practitioners, as indicated by some of the quotes excerpted below:</p> <blockquote> <cite> <p> "Future of Database Research is excellent, but what is the future of data?" </p> "..it is hard for <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id14932398">me</a> to disagree with the conclusions in this report. It captures exactly the right thoughts, and should be a must read for everyone involved in the area of databases and database research in particular." <p>-- <a href="http://jhingran.typepad.com/anant_jhingrans_musings/" id="link-id11334c50">Dr. Anant Jingran</a>, CTO, IBM <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id150c7970">Information</a> Management Systems, commenting on the <a href="http://db.cs.berkeley.edu/claremont/" id="link-id11c3b408">2007 RDBMS technology retreat</a> attended by a number of key DBMS technology pioneers and researchers.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <cite> <p> "<a href="http://www.databasecolumn.com/2007/09/one-size-fits-all.html" id="link-id15c14f08">One size fits all: A concept whose time has come and gone</a> </p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> They are direct descendants of System R and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id146da780">Ingres</a> and were architected more than 25 years ago</li> <li> They are advocating "one size fits all"; i.e. a single engine that solves all DBMS needs. </li> </ol> <p>-- Prof. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stonebraker" id="link-id145c4e28">Michael Stonebreaker</a>, one of the founding fathers of the RDBMS industry.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <p>Until this point in time, the requisite confluence of "circumstantial pain" and "open standards" based technology required to enable an objective "compare and contrast" of RDBMS engine virtues and viable alternatives hasn't occurred. Thus, the RDBMS has endured it position of primacy albeit on a "one size fits all basis". </p> <h4>Circumstantial Pain</h4> <p> As mentioned earlier, we are in the midst of an economic crisis that is ultimately about a consistent inability to connect dots across a substrate of interlinked data sources that transcend traditional data access boundaries with high doses of schematic heterogeneity. Ironically, in a era of the dot-com, we haven't been able to make meaningful connections between relevant "real-world things" that extend beyond primitive data hosted database tables and content management style document containers; we've struggled to achieve this in the most basic sense, let alone evolve our ability to connect inline with the <a href="http://www.vldb2007.org/program/slides/s1161-brodie.pdf" id="link-id11a0dcf0">exponential rate at which the Internet & Web are spawning "universes of discourse" (data spaces) that emanate from user activity</a> (within the enterprise and across the Internet & Web). In a nutshell, we haven't been able to upgrade our interaction with data such that "conceptual models" and resulting "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id12da4b00">context</a> lenses" (or facets) become concrete; by this I mean: real-world <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id146a48a8">entity</a> interaction making its way into the computer realm as opposed to the impedance we all suffer today when we transition from conceptual model interaction (real-world) to logical model interaction (when dealing with RDBMS based data access and data management). </p> <p>Here are some simple examples of what I can only best describe as: "critical dots unconnected", resulting from an inability to interact with data conceptually:</p> <strong>Government (Globally) -</strong> <p> Financial regulatory bodies couldn't effectively discern that a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Credit_default_swap" id="link-id115ba0e0">Credit Default Swap</a> is an Insurance policy in all but literal name. And in not doing so the cost of an unregulated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Insurance" id="link-id158d4960">insurance policy</a> laid the foundation for exacerbating the toxicity of fatally flawed mortgage backed securities. Put simply: a flawed insurance policy was the fallback on a toxic security that financiers found exotic based on superficial packaging.</p> <strong>Enterprises - </strong> <p> Banks still don't understand that capital really does exists in tangible and intangible forms; with the intangible being the variant that is inherently dynamic. For example, a tech companies intellectual capital far exceeds the value of fixture, fittings, and buildings, but you be amazed to find that in most cases this vital asset has not significant value when banks get down to the nitty gritty of debt collateral; instead, a buffer of flawed securitization has occurred atop a borderline static asset class covering the aforementioned buildings, fixtures, and fittings. </p> <p> In the general enterprise arena, IT executives continued to "rip and replace" existing technology without ever effectively addressing the timeless inability to connect data across disparate data silos generated by internal enterprise applications, let alone the broader need to mesh data from the inside with external data sources. No correlations made between the growth of buzzwords and the compounding nature of data integration challenges. It's 2009 and only a miniscule number of executives dare fantasize about being anywhere within distance of the: relevant information at your fingertips vision. </p> <p> Looking more holistically at data interaction in general, whether you interact with data in the enterprise space (i.e., at work) or on the Internet or Web, you ultimately are delving into a mishmash of disparate computer systems, applications, service (Web or SOA), and databases (of the RDBMS variety in a majority of cases) associated with a plethora of disparate schemas. Yes, but even today "rip and replace" is still the norm pushed by most vendors; pitting one mono culture against another as exemplified by irrelevances such as: FOSS/LAMP vs Commercial or Web vs. Enterprise, when none of this matters if the data access and integration issues are recognized let alone addressed (see: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1497?sid=0df0294caee8b37925c6a888bbbca136&realm=wa" id="link-id15c27300">Applications are Like Fish and Data Like Wine</a>). </p> <p> Like the current credit-crunch, exponential growth of data originating from disparate application databases and associated schemas, within shrinking processing time frames, has triggered a rethinking of what defines data access and data management value today en route to an inevitable RDBMS downgrade within the value pyramid.</p> <h3>Technology</h3> <p>There have been many attempts to address real-world modeling requirements across the broader DBMS community from Object Databases to Object-Relational Databases, and more recently the emergence of simple <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id1128dad0">Entity</a>-Attribute-Value model DBMS engines. In all cases failure has come down to the existence of one or more of the following deficiencies, across each potential alternative:</p> <ol> <li>Query language standardization - nothing close to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id16002d60">SQL</a> standardization</li> <li>Data Access API standardization - nothing close to ODBC, JDBC, OLE-DB, or ADO.NET</li> <li>Wire protocol standardization - nothing close to HTTP</li> <li>Distributed Identity infrastructure - nothing close to the non-repudiatable digital Identity that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id14926b18">foaf</a>+ssl accords</li> <li>Use of Identifiers as network based pointers to data sources - nothing close to RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16180a28">Linked Data</a> </li> <li>Negotiable data representation - nothing close to Mime and HTTP based Content Negotiation</li> <li>Scalability especially in the era of Internet & Web scale.</li> </ol> <h4>Entity-Attribute-Value with Classes & Relationships (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id13e741b8">EAV</a>/CR) data models</h4> <p>A common characteristic shared by all post-relational DBMS management systems (from Object Relational to pure Object) is an orientation towards variations of EAV/CR based data models. Unfortunately, all efforts in the EAV/CR realm have typically suffered from at least one of the deficiencies listed above. In addition, the same "one DBMS model fits all" approach that lies at the heart of the RDBMS downgrade also exists in the EAV/CR realm.</p> <h3>What Comes Next?</h3> <p>The RDBMS is not going away (ever), but its era of primacy -- by virtue of its placement at the apex of the data access and data management value pyramid -- is over! I make this bold claim for the following reasons: </p> <ol> <li> The Internet aided "Global Village" has brought "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_World_Assumption" id="link-id1148e560">Open World</a>" vs "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Closed_World_Assumption" id="link-id11967cd0">Closed World</a>" assumption issues to the fore e.g., the current global economic crisis remains centered on the inability to connect dots across "Open World" and "Closed World" data frontiers </li> <li> Entity-Attribute-Value with Classes & Relationships (EAV/CR) based DBMS models are more effective when dealing with disparate data associated with disparate schemas, across disparate DBMS engines, host operating systems, and networks. </li> </ol> <p>Based on the above, it is crystal clear that a different kind of DBMS -- one with higher AVF relative to the RDBMS -- needs to sit atop today's data access and data management value pyramid. The characteristics of this DBMS must include the following:</p> <ol> <li> Every item of data (Datum/Entity/Object/Resource) has Identity</li> <li> Identity is achieved via Identifiers that aren't locked at the DBMS, OS, Network, or Application levels</li> <li> Object Identifiers and Object values are independent (extricably linked by association)</li> <li> Object values should be de-referencable via Object Identifier</li> <li> Representation of de-referenced value graph (entity, attributes, and values mesh) must be negotiable (i.e. content negotiation)</li> <li>Structured query language must provide mechanism for Creation, Deletion, Updates, and Querying of data objects</li> <li> Performance & Scalability across "Closed World" (enterprise) and "Open World" (Internet & Web) realms.</li> </ol> <p>Quick recap, I am not saying that RDBMS engine technology is dead or obsolete. I am simply stating that the era of RDBMS primacy within the data access and data management value pyramid is over. </p> <p>The problem domain (conceptual model views over heterogeneous data sources) at the apex of the aforementioned pyramid has simply evolved beyond the natural capabilities of the RDBMS which is rooted in "Closed World" assumptions re., data definition, access, and management. The need to maintain domain based conceptual interaction with data is now palpable at every echelon within our "Global Village" - Internet, Web, Enterprise, Government etc.</p> <p>It is my personal view that an EAV/CR model based DBMS, with support for the seven items enumerated above, can trigger the long anticipated RDBMS downgrade. Such a DBMS would be inherently multi-model because you would need to the best of RDBMS and EAV/CR model engines in a single product, with in-built support for HTTP and other Internet protocols in order to effectively address data representation and serialization issues.</p> <h4>EAV/CR Oriented Data Access & Management Technology</h4> <p>Examples of contemporary EAV/CR frameworks that provide concrete conceptual layers for data access and data management currently include:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id115d1cb0"> Resource Description Framework</a> (RDF) - an EAV/CR based framework</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id116cf810">RDF Linked Data </a>- EAV/CR based framework that mandates de-referencable HTTP based Identifiers</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id13daa160">ADO.NET Entity Frameworks</a> - Microsoft .NET based EAV/CR framework</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/Core_Data" id="link-id11111838">Core Data Services </a>- Mac OS X based EAV/CR framework that evolved from NeXT's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Enterprise_Objects_Framework" id="link-id15c27df0">Enterprise Object Frameworks</a> (EOF).</li> </ul> <p>The frameworks above provide the basis for a revised AVF pyramid, as depicted below, that reflects today's data access and management realities i.e., an Internet & Web driven global village comprised of interlinked distributed data objects, compatible with "Open World" assumptions.</p> <div> <image src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/New_EAV_RDBMS_Pyramid.png"></image> </div> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://allanslibrary.blogspot.com/2009/06/semantic-way.html" id="link-id0xb8c5e498">The Semantic Way</a> - Alan Cho's Summary of <a href="http://www.pwc.com/extweb/home.nsf/docid/1308AF8EA7929CCA852575BA00720F26" id="link-id0xb80f5e10">PwC 2009 tech forecast report on the Semantic Web</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_the_relational_database_doomed.php" id="link-id0xb8c20658">Is the RDBMS Doomed</a> - <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com">ReadWriteWeb</a> Article</li> <li> <a href="http://www.metabrew.com/article/anti-rdbms-a-list-of-distributed-key-value-stores/" id="link-id0x1ab4778">Anti-RDBMS: a list of Distributed Key-Value Stores</a> - by <a href="http://www.last.fm/user/RJ" id="link-id0x5a968060">Richard Jones</a> (CTO Last.FM)</li> <li> <a href="http://dynamicorange.com/2009/01/22/blueblog-how-and-why-glue-is-using-amazon-simpledb-instead-of-a-relational-database/" id="link-id15e07c10">How & Why Glue is Using Amazon SimpleDB</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/clamen/OODBMS/Manifesto/htManifesto/node4.html#SECTION00022000000000000000" id="link-id116cf450">Object Database Manifesto (Identity excerpt)</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.unixspace.com/context/databases.html" id="link-id150b2c20">Database Models Overview</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEj9vqVvHPc&feature=related" id="link-id0x66b0850">Ted Nelson Explaining Irregularity and Idiosyncrasy of Data Structures</a> - ZigZag Demo </li> </ul>
2009-06-03T18:09:58.000001-04:00
In Response to: This is Not the Future (Update #3)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-13#1518
2009-01-13T04:18:12Z
<p>As I cannot post directly to Glenn's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id149ad010">blog</a> titled: <a href="http://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=log&id=319" id="link-id113ed070">This is Not the Near Future (Either)</a>, I have to basically respond to him here, in blog post form :-(</p> <p>What is our <a href="http://b3s.openlinksw.com/fct/facet.vsp" id="link-id10fbeec0">"Search" and "Find" demonstration</a> about? It is about how you use the "Description" of "Things" to unambiguously locate things in a database at <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Scale.</p> <p>To our perpetual chagrin, we are trying to demonstrate an engine -- not UI prowess -- but the immediate response is to jump to the UI aesthetics.</p> <p>Google, Yahoo etc.. offer a simple input form for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id14296fb8">full text search</a> patterns, they have a processing window for completing full text searches across Web Content indexed on their servers. Once the search patterns are processed, you get a page ranked result set (collection of Web pages basically that claim/state: we found N pages out of a document corpus of about M indexed pages). </p> <p> <strong>Note:</strong> the estimate aspect of traditional search results in like "advertising small print" the user lives with the illusion that all possible documents on the Web (or even <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id13436b50">Internet</a>) have been searched whereas in reality: 25% of the possible total is a major stretch; since the Web and Internet are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal_dimension_on_networks" id="link-id1105ec48">fractal networks</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scale-free_network" id="link-id111ad558">scale-free</a>, inherently growing at exponential rates "ad infinitum" across boundless dimensions of human comprehension.</p> <p> The power of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id111dc7c8">Linked Data</a> ultimately comes down to the fact that the user constructs the path to what they seek via the properties of the "Things" in question. The routes are not hardwired since <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id15cbc6f8">URI</a> de-referencing (follow your nose pattern) is available to Linked Data aware query engines and crawlers. </p> <p>We are simply trying to demonstrate how you can combine the best of full text search with the best of structured querying while reusing familiar interaction patterns from Google/Yahoo. Thus, you start with full text search, find get all the entities associated with the pattern, then use the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1512c8a8">entity</a> types or entity properties to find what you seek.</p> <p>You state in your post:</p> <blockquote> <cite>"To state the obvious caveat, the claim OpenLink is making about this demo is not that it delivers better search-term relevance, therefore the ranking of searching results is not the main criteria on which it is intended to be assessed." </cite> </blockquote> <p> Correct. </p> <blockquote> <cite> "On the other hand, one of the things they are bragging about is that their server will automatically cut off long-running queries. So how do you like your first page of results?". </cite> </blockquote> <p> Not exactly correct. We are performing aggregates using a configurable interactive time factor. Example: tell <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id12fb67c0">me</a> how many entities of type: Person, with interest: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id159bffc8">Semantic Web</a>, exist in this database within 2 seconds. Also understand that you could retry the same query and get different numbers within the same interactive time factor. It isn't your basic "query cut-off". </p> <blockquote> <cite> "And on the other other hand, the big claim OpenLink is making about this demo is that the aggregate experience of using it is better than the aggregate experience of using "traditional" search. So go ahead, use it. If you can."</cite> </blockquote> <p>Yes, "Microsoft" was a poor example for sure, the example could have been pattern: "glenn mcdonald", which should demonstrate the fundamental utility of what we are trying to demonstrate i.e., entity disambiguation courtesy of entity properties and/or entity type filtering.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=glenn+mcdonald" id="link-id15e4dbc8">Compare Googles results for: Glenn McDonald</a> with those from our demo (which dissambiguate "Glenn McDonald" via associated properties and/or types), assuming we both agree that your Web Site or Blog Home isn't the center of your entity graph or personal <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id15754528">data space</a> (i.e., data about you); so getting your home page at the top of the Google page rank offers limited value, in reality.</p> <p>What are we bragging about? A little more than what you attempt to explain. Yes, we are showing that we can find stuff within a processing window, but understand the following:</p> <ul> <li> Processing Time Window (or interactive time) is configurable </li> <li> Data Corpus is a Billion+ Triples (from <a href="http://challenge.semanticweb.org/" id="link-id149a25e0">Billion Triples Challenge Data Set</a>) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id15e13180">SPARQL</a> doesn't have Aggregation capabilities by default (we have implemented <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSArticleBISPARQL2" id="link-id1593a550">SPARQL-BI</a> to deliver aggregates for analytics against large data sets, we even handle the TPC-H industry standard benchmark with SPARQL-BI)</li> <li> Paging isn't possible without aggregates, and doing aggregates on a Billion+ triples as part of a query processing cycle isn't trivial stuff (otherwise it would be everywhere due to inherent and obvious necessity).</li> </ul> <p>I hope I've clarified what's going on with our demo? If not, pose your challenge via examples and I will respond with solutions or simply cry out loud: "no mas!".</p> <p>As for your "Mac OX X Leopard" comments, I can only say this: I emphasized that this is a demo, the data is pretty old, and the input data has issues (i.e. some of the input data is bad as your example shows). The purpose of this demo is not about the text per se., it's about the size of the data corpus and faceted querying. We are going to have the entire <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id15dfec08">LOD</a> Cloud loaded into the real thing, and in addition to that our Sponger Middleware will be enabled, and then you can take issue with data quality as per your reference to "Cyndi Lauper" (btw - it takes one property filter to find <a href="http://b3s.openlinksw.com/fct/facet.vsp?cmd=set_view&sid=552&type=text-properties&limit=20&offset=0" id="link-id1496d2a0">information about her quickly</a> using "<strong>dbpprop:name</strong>" after filtering for properties with text values).</p> <p>Of all things, this demo had nothing to do with UI and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11009090">Information</a> presentation aesthetics. It was all about combining full text search and structured queries (sparql behind the scenes) against a huge data corpus en route to solving challenges associated with faceted browsing over large data sets. We have built a service that resides inside <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id118b36a8">Virtuoso</a>. The Service is naturally of the "Web Service" variety and can be used from any consumer / client environment that speaks HTTP (directly or indirectly).</p> <p>To be continued ...</p>
2009-01-21T19:02:47-05:00
A Linked Data Web Approach To Semantic "Search" & "Find" (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-09#1517
2009-01-09T23:34:50Z
<p>The first salvo of what we've been hinting about re. server side faceted browsing over Unlimited <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> within configurable Interactive Time-frames is now available for experimentation at: <a href="http://b3s.openlinksw.com/fct/facet.vsp" id="link-ide41d210">http://b3s.openlinksw.com/fct/facet.vsp</a>.</p> <h3>Simple example / demo:</h3> <p>Enter search pattern: Microsoft</p> <p>You will get the usual result from a full text pattern search i.e., hits and text excerpts with matching patterns in boldface. This first step is akin to throwing your net out to sea while fishing.</p> <p> Now you have your catch, what next? Basically, this is where traditional text search value ends since <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/regular_expression" id="link-id113b6840">regex</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id1151c140">xpath</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id14565db8">xquery</a> offer little when the structure of literal text is the key to filtering or categorization based analysis of real-world entities. Naturally, this is where the value of structured querying of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11bc8208">linked data</a> starts, as you seek to use <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id150e7298">entity</a> descriptions (combination of attribute and relationship properties) to "Find relevant things".</p> <p>Continuing with the demo.</p> <p>Click on "Properties" link within the Navigation section of the browser page which results in a distillation and aggregation of the properties of the entities associated with the search results. Then use the "Next" link to page through the properties until to find the properties that best match what you seek. Note, this particular step is akin to using the properties of the catch (using fishing analogy) for query filtering, with each subsequent property link click narrowing your selection further.</p> <p>Using property based filtering is just one perspective on the data corpus associated with the text search pattern; thus, you can alter perspectives by clicking on the "Class" link so that you can filter you search results by entity type. Of course, in a number of scenarios you would use a combination of entity types and entity properties filters to locate the entities of interest to you. </p> <h3>A Few Notes about this demo instance of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14453088">Virtuoso</a>:</h3> <ul> <li> Lookup Data Size (Local Linked Data Corpus): 2 Billion+ Triples (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id13447558">entity-attribute-value</a> tuples)</li> <li> This is a *temporary* teaser / precursor to the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id14e3bfc8">LOD</a> (Linking Open Data Cloud) variant of our Linked Data driven "Search" & "Find" service; we decided to implement this functionality prior to commissioning a larger and more up to date instance based on the entire LOD Cloud</li> <li> The browser is simply using a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id138b5688">Virtuoso</a> PL function that also exists in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Service form for loose binding by 3rd parties that have a UI orientation and focus (our UI is deliberately bare boned).</li> <li>The properties and entity types (classes) links expose formal definitions and dictionary provenance <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id10ecc8e0">information</a> materialized in an HTML page (of course your browser or any other HTTP user agent can negotiation alternative representations of this descriptive information)</li> <li> <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id117b95e0">UMBEL</a> based inference rules are enabled, giving you a live and simple demonstration of the virtues of Linked Data Dictionaries for example: click on the description link of any property or class from the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id1595dd88">foaf</a> (friend-of-a-friend vocabulary), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id151315e8">sioc</a> (semantically-interlinked-online-communities ontology), <a href="http://musicontology.com/" id="link-id15b9d6e8">mo</a> (music ontology), <a href="http://bibliontology.com/" id="link-id114257e8">bibo</a> (bibliographic data ontology) namespaces to see how the data between these lower level vocabularies or ontologies are meshed with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id15b9be80">OpenCyc</a>'s upper level ontology. </li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1515" id="link-id14694eb8">Faceted Search: Unlimited Data in Interactive Time</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/Virtuoso Anytime: No Query Is Too Complex (updated)" id="link-id1356c630">Virtuoso Anytime: No Query Is Too Complex</a> </li> </ul>
2009-01-10T13:55:56.000001-05:00
New ADO.NET 3.x Provider for Virtuoso Released (Update 2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-08#1514
2009-01-08T04:36:47Z
<p>I am pleased to announce the immediate availability of the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtAdoNet35Provider" id="link-id142e7390">Virtuoso ADO.NET 3.5 data provider</a> for Microsoft's .NET platform.</p> <h3>What is it?</h3> <p>A data access driver/provider that provides conceptual <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id11c36c00">entity</a> oriented access to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id12fb8618">RDBMS</a> data managed by Virtuoso. Naturally, it also uses Virtuoso's in-built virtual / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id115bedc8">federated database</a> layer to provide access to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id15153c08">ODBC</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13418908">JDBC</a> accessible RDBMS engines such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id134d72f0">Oracle</a> (7.x to latest), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id15757b88">SQL</a> Server (4.2 to latest), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Sybase" id="link-id15ef8d48">Sybase</a>, IBM <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id12f56aa0">Informix</a> (5.x to latest), IBM <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_DB2" id="link-id119feb38">DB2</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id14e3d6c8">Ingres</a> (6.x to latest), Progress (7.x to OpenEdge), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id11295630">MySQL</a>, PostgreSQL, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Firebird_database_server" id="link-id12f40448">Firebird</a>, and others using our ODBC or JDBC bridge drivers.</p> <h3>Benefits?</h3> <h4>Technical:</h4> <p>It delivers an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id14012040">Entity-Attribute-Value + Classes & Relationships model</a> over disparate data sources that are materialized as .NET Entity Framework Objects, which are then consumable via ADO.NET Data Object Services, LINQ for Entities, and other ADO.NET data consumers.</p> <p>The provider is fully integrated into Visual Studio 2008 and delivers the same "ease of use" offered by Microsoft's own SQL Server provider, but across Virtuoso, Oracle, Sybase, DB2, Informix, Ingres, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Progress_4GL" id="link-id158d1fe8">Progress (OpenEdge</a>), MySQL, PostgreSQL, Firebird, and others. The same benefits also apply uniformly to Entity Frameworks compatibility.</p> <p> Bearing in mind that Virtuoso is a multi-model (hybrid) data manager, this also implies that you can use .NET Entity Frameworks against all data managed by Virtuoso. Remember, Virtuoso's SQL channel is a conduit to Virtuoso's core; thus, RDF (courtesy of <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SPASQL" id="link-id133c9b70">SPASQL</a> as already implemented re. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtJenaProvider" id="link-id11380b80">Jena</a>/<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSesame2Provider" id="link-id10fc0c88">Sesame</a>/<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtRDFDriverRedland" id="link-id1390f730">Redland</a> providers), XML, and other data forms stored in Virtuoso also become accessible via .NET's Entity Frameworks.</p> <br /> <h4>Strategic:</h4> <p>You can choose which entity oriented data access model works best for you: RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id151354f0">Linked Data</a> & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id15dc5eb0">SPARQL</a> or .NET Entity Frameworks & <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework#Entity_SQL" id="link-id14404e80">Entity SQL</a>. Either way, Virtuoso delivers a commercial grade, high-performance, secure, and scalable solution.</p> <br /> <h3>How do I use it?</h3> Simply follow one of guides below: <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEntityFrameworkSchoolDbWinFormApp" id="link-id15e5c580">Using Visual Studio 2008 & Virtuoso to build an Entity Frameworks based Windows forms application</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtUsingMsAdoNetDataServicesWithVirtuoso" id="link-id157912b0">Using Visual Studio 2008 & Virtuoso to build an ADO.NET Data Services based application</a> </li> </ul> <p> <b>Note:</b> When working with external or 3rd party databases, simply use the Virtuoso Conductor to link the external data source into Virtuoso. Once linked, the remote tables will simply be treated as though they are native Virtuoso tables leaving the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id15b04b18">virtual database</a> engine to handle the rest. This is similar to the role the Microsoft JET engine played in the early days of ODBC, so if you've ever linked an ODBC data source into Microsoft Access, you are ready to do the same using Virtuoso.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1420" id="link-id160afdd0">Entity Oriented Data Access</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1474" id="link-id113eeb50">Yoda & the Data FORCE.</a> </li> </ul>
2009-01-08T09:12:50.000006-05:00
Linked Data Web Collaborators: Introducing Structured Dynamics
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-03#1513
2009-01-03T04:03:33Z
<p>As indicated in posts from Fred Giasson and <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-id152486c0">Mike Bergman</a>, the <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id1163fb28">Zitgist</a> incubation effort that contributed to the delivery of vital <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1163ff68">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id112a1338">Web</a> infrastructure components such as <a href="http://www.talkdigger.com/" id="link-id11938fe8">TalkDigger</a> (discourse discovery and participation), <a href="http://www.pingthesemanticweb.com/about/" id="link-id15da46f0">PingTheSemanticWeb</a> (ground-zero <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> source for most <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id15ff68f0">Semantic Web</a> search engines), <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id112fddb0">UMBEL</a> (binding layer for Upper and Lower Ontologies amongst other things), <a href="http://musicontology.com" id="link-id157ff9e0">Music Ontology</a> (enabling meaningful description of Music), and <a href="http://bibliontology.com/" id="link-id11459180">Bibliographic Ontology</a> (enabling meaningful description of Bibliographic content), is now ready to continue its business development and technology growth as a going concern known as <a href="http://www.structureddynamics.com/" id="link-id110c3b50">Structured Dynamics</a>.</p> <p>With great joy and pride, I wish Structured Dynamics all the success they deserve. Naturally, the collaborations and close relationship between <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id11849528">OpenLink Software</a> and its latest technology partner will continue -- especially as we collectively work towards a more comprehendible and pragmatic Web of Linked Data for developers (across Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and beyond), end-users (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id15246af8">information</a>- and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id15d27888">knowledge</a>-workers), and entrepreneurs (driven by quality and tangible value contribution).</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/02/structured-dynamics-for-the-new-year/" id="link-id13bf7fd0">Structured Dynamics for the New Year</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=468" id="link-id111e9e88">A New Year, a New Beginning and a New Venture</a> </li> </ul>
2009-01-02T23:27:26-05:00
My Hopes for Linked Data in 2009 (Update #2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2009-01-02#1512
2009-01-02T18:39:23Z
<p>Happy New Year!</p> <p>In 2009 I hope the following happens re. "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15acc7d0">Linked Data</a>":</p> <ol> <li>We realize it's a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id1101eb90">Meme</a> </li> <li>We collectively connect the Meme to the concept of granular hyperlinks between <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> entities/objects (datum to datum linkage aka. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id113d96a0">Hyperdata</a> Linking)</li> <li>We generally connect the Meme to technology ancestry such as the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id1136d980">Entity-Attribute-Value with Classes & Relationships</a> (EAV/CR) data model (then broader commonality with erstwhile unrelated realms will be unveiled e.g., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id1122ab80">Entity Frameworks from Microsoft</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Core_Data" id="link-id138b5b28">Core Data from Apple</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpledb" id="link-id118576d0">SimpleDB</a> from Amazon, and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freebase_(database)" id="link-id19107a90">Freebase Graph Model DB</a> amongst others)</li> <li>We instinctively connect the Meme to the concept of Entity Oriented Data Access and Management (RDF based Linked Data is basically EAV/CR scheme that uses HTTP based Pointers for Entity, Attribute, and Relationship Identifiers)</li> <li>We naturally connect the Meme with the notion that an identifier for a unit of data (aka. Datum) should be the conduit to a negotiable representation of said Datum's description (i.e., it's attribute and relationship properties in HTML, XHTML, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id151cc688">RDFa</a>, Turtle, N3, RDF/XML etc., for example)</li> <li>We ultimately connect the Meme with a conceptual-level approach to data integration across disparate data sources (also known as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Master_Data_Management" id="link-id1596b8d8">Master Data Management</a> (MDM) ).</li> </ol> <p> 2009 is about a reboot on a monumental scale. We need new thinking, new technology, new approaches, and new solutions. No matter what route we take, we can't negate the importance of "Data". When dealing with organic or inorganic computers systems -- Data is simply everything!</p> <p> The ability of individuals and enterprises to access, mesh, and disseminate data to relevant nodes across public and private networks will ultimately determine the winners and losers in the new frontier, ushered in by 2009.</p> <p> Do not take data access and data management technology for granted. User interfaces come and ago, application logic comes and goes, but your data stays with you forever. If you are mystified by data access technology then make 2009 the year of data access technology demystification :-) </p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1510" id="link-id11246da8">Linked Data & The Year 2009</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20access&type=text&output=html" id="link-id11848a20">Various posts from my blog space</a> </li> </ul>
2009-01-06T21:35:19.000002-05:00
Is Linked Data Always Relevant?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-12-29#1509
2008-12-29T22:32:00Z
<p>I pose the question above because I stumbled across an interesting claim about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id1193b2b0">OpenLink Software</a> and its representatives expressed in the <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id14e4e730">ReadWriteWeb</a> post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/xbrl_mashing_up_financial_statements.php" id="link-id1119ecd8">XBRL: Mashing Up Financial Statements</a>, where the following claim is made:</p> <blockquote> <cite>"..There is evidence that they promote <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11933ec0">LINKED DATA</a> at any expense without understanding the rationale behind other approaches...".</cite> </blockquote> <p> To answer the question above, Linked Data is always relevant as long as we are actually talking about "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x199ba780">Data</a>" which is simply the case all of the time, irrespective of interaction medium.</p> <p>If XBRL can be disconnected in anyway from Linked Data, I desperately would like to be enlightened (as per my comments to the post). Why wouldn't anyone desire the ability to navigate the linked data inherent in any financial report? Every <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1145b868">entity</a> in an XBRL instance document is an entity, directly or indirectly related to other entities. Why "Mash" the data when you can harmonize XBRL data via a Generic Financial Dictionary (schema or ontology) such that descriptions of Balance Sheet, P&L, and other entities are navigable via their attributes and relationships? In short, why "Mash" (code based brute force joining across disparately shaped data) when you can "Mesh" (natural joining of structured data entities)?</p> <p>"Linked Data" is about the ability to connect all our observations (data)? , perceptions (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11b79e98">information</a>), and inferences / conclusions (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id143e0aa8">knowledge</a>) across a spectrum of interaction media. And it just so happens that the RDF data model (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity-Attribute-Value_model" id="link-id114e68b0">Entity-Attribute-Vaue</a> + Class Relationships + HTTP based Object Identifiers), a range of RDF data model serialization formats, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id115bca28">SPARQL</a> (Query Language and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1c1ef2c8">Web</a> Service combo) actually make this possible, in a manner consistent with the essence of the global space we know as the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id13dc10d8">World Wide Web</a>.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/britainfromabove/stories/visualisations/communication.shtml" id="link-id115f3858">BBC's Britain from Above</a> (core message: Data is Everything).</li> </ul>
2008-12-31T12:57:41-05:00
Bio2Rdf EC2 AMI is now Ready! (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-12-23#1508
2008-12-23T15:37:45Z
<p>Adding to the collection of Amazon EC2 AMI based knowledgebases already unveiled for <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIDBpediaInstall" id="link-id117a3710">DBpedia</a> and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMINeuroCommonsInstall" id="link-id11293c10">NeuroCommons</a>, we now have a <a href="http://www.bio2rdf.org/" id="link-id14ba6338">Bio2Rdf</a> knowledgebase AMI.</p> <h3>What is Bio2Rdf?</h3> <p>A community developed knowledgebase comprised of Bio Informatics <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> from across <a href="http://www.freebase.com/view/user/bio2rdf/public/sparql" id="link-id1468fb90">30 or so public data sources</a>. The standard deployment of Bio2Rdf includes a a federation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id111962a8">SPARQL</a> endpoints provided by project members and collaborators.</p> <h3>What is the Bio2Rdf EC2 AMI?</h3> <p> An Amazon EC2 hosted variant of the Bio2Rdf knowledgebase. In addition to providing a SPARQL endpoint, the data exposed by the Amazon AMI is published in compliance with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1560ac50">Linked Data</a> publishing best practices espoused by the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id153aff30">Linking Open Data community</a> (<a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1390d968">LOD</a>).</p> <h3>Benefits?</h3> <p>The ability to instantiate a personal or service-specific variant of this powerful knowledgebase via the Amazon EC2 Cloud. Instead of a 22+ hour error prone odyssey - you simply get down to the task of data analysis and integration within 1.5 hrs (when setting up you AMI for the first time).</p> <h3>How do I get going?</h3> Just follow the instructions in the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIBio2rdfInstall" id="link-id114fc4a8">Bio2Rdf EC2 AMI installation guide</a>. <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://bio2rdf.wiki.sourceforge.net/" id="link-id19109ed8">Bio2Rdf Wiki</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://bio2rdf.wiki.sourceforge.net/Demo+queries" id="link-id1134c988">Sample Bio2Rdf Queries Collection</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VirtuosoEC2AMI" id="link-id11c28e08">Virtuoso's Amazon Machine Image (AMI) for EC2 Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdBd14rjcs0" id="link-id14b4a390">Cloud Computing Explanation Video</a> </li> </ul>
2008-12-24T11:05:13-05:00
Cool URIs, Fish, and Wine
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-12-12#1497
2008-12-12T21:41:03Z
<p>I've just read <a href="http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/about/" id="link-id152d07f0">James Governor</a>'s insightful post titled: <a href="http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/04/05/why-applications-are-like-fish-and-data-is-like-wine/" id="link-id14e9a200">Why Applications Are Like Fish and Data is Like Wine</a>, where he sums up the comparative value of applications (code containers) and data as follows:</p> <blockquote>"<cite>Only one improves with age. With apologies to the originator of the phrase - “Hardware is like fish, operating systems are like wine.</cite>”</blockquote> <p>Yes! Applications are like Fish and Data like Wine, which is basically what <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id115defd0">Linked Data</a> is fundamentally about, especially when you inject memes such as "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/" id="link-id1438f878">Cool URIs</a>" into the mix. Remember, the essence of Linked Data is all about a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of Linked Data Objects endowed with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_(object-oriented_programming)" id="link-id114df410">Identifiers</a> that don't change i.e., they occupy one place in public (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id1195e010">World Wide Web</a>) or private (your corporate <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id1149f1b0">Intranet</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id11927c80">Extranet</a>) networks, keeping the data that they expose relevant (as in fresh), accessible, and usable in many forms courtesy of the data access & representation dexterity that HTTP facilitates, when incorporated into object identifiers.</p> <p> Here is another excerpt from his post that rings true (amongst many others): </p> <blockquote> <cite>What am I talking about? Processes change, and need to change. Baking data into the application is a bad idea because the data can’t then be extended in useful, and “unexpected ways”. But not expecting corporate data to be used in new ways is kind of like not expecting the Spanish Inquisition. But… “NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition! Amongst our weaponry are such diverse elements as: fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency, an almost fanatical devotion to the Pope.” (sounds like Enterprise Architecture ...).</cite> </blockquote> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1482" id="link-id111b6618">Master Data Management & RDF based Linked Data</a> </li> </ul>
2009-01-23T17:22:00.000005-05:00
Virtuoso+Neurocommons EC2 AMI released! (Update - 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-12-08#1491
2008-12-08T21:13:04Z
<h3>What is Neurocommons?</h3> <p>Excerpted from the <a href="http://neurocommons.org/" id="link-id142131b8">project home page</a>:</p> <blockquote> <cite>The NeuroCommons project seeks to make all scientific research materials - research articles, annotations, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>, physical materials - as available and as useable as they can be. We do this by both fostering practices that render <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id112f8418">information</a> in a form that promotes uniform access by computational agents - sometimes called "interoperability". We want <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id1195f9b0">knowledge</a> sources to combine meaningfully, enabling semantically precise queries that span multiple information sources.</cite> </blockquote> <p>In a nutshell, a great project that makes practical use of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1e945010">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id115de818">Web</a> technology in the areas of computational biology and neuroscience.</p> <h3>What is <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0xa1eda880">Virtuoso</a> and Neurocommons AMI for EC2?</h3> <p>A pre-installed and fully tuned edition of Virtuoso that includes a fully configured Neurocommons Knowledgebase (in RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id114d8c88">Linked Data</a> form) on Amazon's EC2 Cloud platform.</p> <h3>Benefits?</h3> <p>Generally, it provides a no-hassles mechanism for instantiating personal-, organization-, or service-specific instances of a very powerful research knowledgebase within approximately 1.15 hours compared to a lengthy rebuild from RDF source data alternative that takes 14 hours or more, depending on machine hardware configuration and host operating system resources.</p> <h3>Features:</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/sparql.neurocommons.org" id="link-id154c5710">Neurocommons public instance</a> functionality replica (re. RDF and (X)HTML resource description representations & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1188e5f0">SPARQL</a> endpoint)</li> <li> Local <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id117092a8">URI</a> de-referencing (so no contention with public endpoint) as part of the RDF Linked Data Deployment</li> <li> Fully tuned Virtuoso instance for neurocommons knowledgebase. </li> </ol> <h3>Installation Guide</h3> Simply read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMINeuroCommonsInstall" id="link-id15267570">Virtuoso+NeuroCommons EC2 AMI installation guide</a>. <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://sciencecommons.org/about/science-commons-dylan-video/" id="link-id14cb22f0">Science Commons Video</a> </li> </ul>
2008-12-10T22:48:49-05:00
Virtuoso+DBpedia AMI for EC2 now Live!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-12-01#1490
2008-12-01T16:04:28Z
<h3>What is <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11015c60">Virtuoso</a>+<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1140b6f0">DBpedia</a> AMI for EC2?</h3> <p>A pre-installed and fully tuned edition of Virtuoso that includes a fully configured DBpedia instance on Amazon's EC2 Cloud platform.</p> <h3>Benefits?</h3> <p>Generally, it provides a no hassles mechanism for instantiating personal, organization, or service specific instances of DBpedia within approximately 1.5 hours as opposed to a lengthy rebuild from RDF source <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> that takes between 8 - 22 hours depending on machine hardware configuration and host operating system resources.</p> <p>From a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Entrepreneur perspective it offers all of the generic benefits of a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id1148ac90">Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> plus the following:</p> <ol> <li> Instant bootstrap of a dense Lookup Hub for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14c94590">Linked Data Web</a> oriented solutions</li> <li> No exposure to any of the complexities and nuances associated with deployment of dereferencable URIs (you have a DBpedia replica)</li> <li> Predictable performance and scalability due localization of query processing (you aren't sharing the public DBpedia server with the rest of the world). </li> </ol> <h3>Features:</h3> <ol> <li> DBpedia public instance functionality replica (re. RDF and (X)HTML resource description representations & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1188e5f0">SPARQL</a> endpoint)</li> <li> Local <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id117092a8">URI</a> de-referencing (so no contention with public endpoint) as part of the Linked Data Deployment</li> <li> Fully tuned Virtuoso instance for DBpedia data set hosting. </li> </ol> <h3>How Do I Get Started?</h3> Simply read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIDBpediaInstall" id="link-id15836e90">Virtuoso-DBpedia EC2 AMI installation guide</a>. <p>Here are a few live examples of DBpedia resource URIs deployed and de-referencable via one of my EC2 based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id14930ab0">personal data spaces</a>:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1104a740">Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Entity-attribute-value_model" id="link-id11200f48">Entity-Attribute-Value</a> (aka. Triples) Model</li> <li> <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Hyperdata" id="link-id11235ef0">Hyperdata</a> Linking (aka. <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Object_hyperlinking" id="link-id15493b90">Object Hyperlinking</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://kingsley.idehen.name/resource/Barack_Obama" id="link-id15497580">Barack Obama</a> </li> </ul>
2008-12-12T11:22:27-05:00
Introducing Virtuoso Universal Server (Cloud Edition) for Amazon EC2
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-28#1489
2008-11-28T19:27:12Z
<h3>What is it?</h3> <p>A pre-installed edition of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14bea838">Virtuoso</a> for Amazon's EC2 Cloud platform.</p> <h3>What does it offer?</h3> From a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Entrepreneur perspective it offers: <ol> <li> Low cost entry point to a game-changing Web 3.0+ (and beyond) platform that combines <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id11309b38">SQL</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id135f7988">RDF</a>, XML, and Web Services functionality</li> <li> Flexible variable cost model (courtesy of <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/devpay/" id="link-id17941018">EC2 DevPay</a>) tightly bound to revenue generated by your services</li> <li> Delivers federated and/or centralized model flexibility for you SaaS based solutions</li> <li> Simple entry point for developing and deploying sophisticated database driven applications (SQL or RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14ea6b10">Linked Data Web</a> oriented)</li> <li> Complete framework for exploiting OpenID, OAuth (including Role enhancements) that simplifies exploitation of these vital Identity and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Access technologies</li> <li>Easily implement RDF Linked Data based Mail, Blogging, Wikis, Bookmarks, Calendaring, Discussion Forums, Tagging, Social-Networking as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id11519928">Data Space</a> (data containers) features of your application or service offering</li> <li>Instant alleviation of challenges (e.g. service costs and agility) associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DataPortability" id="link-id111cb610">Data Portability</a> and Open Data Access across Web 2.0 data silos</li> <li> LDAP integration for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id114a8270">Intranet</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id10fe4f08">Extranet</a> style applications.</li> </ol> <p>From the DBMS engine perspective it provides you with one or more pre-configured instances of Virtuoso that enable immediate exploitation of the following services:</p> <ol> <li> RDF Database (a Quad Store with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id11911bf8">SPARQL</a> & SPARUL Language & Protocol support)</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id110544c8">SQL</a> Database (with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1524c7d0">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id14cfb658">JDBC</a>, OLE-DB, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id110ec6c8">ADO</a>.NET, and XMLA driver access)</li> <li>XML Database (XML Schema, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id10ebf218">XQuery</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id142a7898">Xpath</a>, XSLT, Full Text Indexing)</li> <li>Full Text Indexing.</li> </ol> <p>From a Middleware perspective it provides:</p> <ol> <li> RDF Views (Wrappers / Semantic Covers) over SQL, XML, and other data sources accessible via SOAP or REST style Web Services</li> <li> Sponger Service for converting non RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11931c60">information</a> resources into RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id118f7168">Linked Data</a> "on the fly" via a large collection of pre-installed RDFizer Cartridges.</li> </ol> <p>From the Web Server Platform perspective it provides an alternative to LAMP stack components such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id10f7b780">MySQL</a> and Apace by offering</p> <ol> <li> HTTP Web Server</li> <li> WebDAV Server</li> <li> Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id1268daa8">Application Server</a> (includes <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id1585d238">PHP</a> runtime hosting)</li> <li> SOAP or REST style Web Services Deployment</li> <li> RDF Linked Data Deployment</li> <li> SPARQL (SPARQL Query Language) and SPARUL (SPARQL Update Language) endpoints</li> <li>Virtuoso Hosted PHP packages for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id15568818">MediaWiki</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id110bd7a8">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id10f66918">Wordpress</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id13fda4d0">phpBB3</a> (just install the relevant Virtuoso Distro. Package). </li> </ol> <p>From the general System Administrator's perspective it provides:</p> <ol> <li> Online Backups (Backup Set dispatched to S3 buckets, FTP, or HTTP/WebDAV server locations)</li> <li>Synchronized Incremental Backups to Backup Set locations</li> <li>Backup Restore from Backup Set location (without exiting to EC2 shell).</li> </ol> <p>Higher level user oriented offerings include:</p> <ol> <li>OpenLink Data Explorer front-end for exploring the burgeoning Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id11646dc8">Web</a> </li> <li> Ajax based SPARQL Query Builder (iSPARQL) that enables SPARQL Query construction by Example</li> <li>Ajax based SQL Query Builder (QBE) that enables SQL Query construction by Example.</li> </ol> <p>For Web 2.0 / 3.0 users, developers, and entrepreneurs it offers it includes Distributed Collaboration Tools & Social Media realm functionality courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id11009930">ODS</a> that includes:</p> <ol> <li> Point of presence on the Linked Data Web that meshes your Identity and your Data via URIs</li> <li> System generated Social Network Profile & Contact Data via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id1185a1c0">FOAF</a>?</li> <li> System generated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id14791890">SIOC</a> (Semantically Interconnected Online Community) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1577cad8">Data Space</a> (that includes a Social Graph) exposing all your Web data in RDF Linked Data form</li> <li> System generated OpenID and automatic integration with FOAF</li> <li> Transparent Data Integration across Facebook, Digg, LinkedIn, FriendFeed, Twitter, and any other Web 2.0 data space equipped with RSS / Atom support and/or REST style Web Services</li> <li> In-built support for SyncML which enables data synchronization with Mobile Phones.</li> </ol> <h3>How Do I Get Going with It?</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id114e1600">Standard Installation Guide</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtEC2AMIDBpediaInstall" id="link-id110a98e8">Personal or Service Specific DBpedia Installation Guide</a> </li> </ul>
2008-11-28T16:06:02.000006-05:00
Your Personal Edition of DBpedia in the Clouds
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-25#1486
2008-11-25T23:23:26Z
<p>We are just about done with an end-to-end workflow pattern that enables reconstitution of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id112a4aa0">DBpedia</a> 3.2 instances in the Clouds courtesy of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11969f70">Virtuoso</a> and EC2.</p> <p>Basically this is how it works.</p> <ol> <li>Instantiate a Virtuoso EC2 AMI (paid variety)</li> <li>Install the special EC2 extensions (ec2ext_dav.vad) VAD via the Conductor UI or iSQL</li> <li>Restore the Virtuoso+DBpedia backup from our S3 bucket</li> <li>After approx. 1 hr, you will have a complete DBpedia replica in your own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id1169c358">data space</a> on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10fd39a8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id141d0c80">Web</a>.</li> </ol> <p>DBpedia replica implies:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id116dfd78">SPARQL</a> Endpoint</li> <li>Linked Data Viewer Pages (as you see in the public DBpedia instance)</li> <li>All requisite re-write rules for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id114ab148">URI</a> de-referencing and attribution (i.e., low cost triples that links back to main DBpedia using terms from our little Attribution Ontology) </li> <li>All the inference rules for <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id112d4860">UMBEL</a>, YAGO, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id14612e80">OpenCYC</a>, and DBpedia-OWL data dictionaries </li> <li>All Full Text Indexes</li> <li>All Bitmap Indexes.</li> </ol> <p>Tomorrow is the official go live day (due to last minute price changes), but you can instantiate a paid <a href="https://aws-portal.amazon.com/gp/aws/user/subscription/index.html?ie=UTF8&offeringCode=6CB89F71" id="link-id115da1a8">Virtuoso AMI</a> starting now :-)</p> <p>To be continued...</p>
2008-11-25T18:55:55-05:00
Cool Fractal Animations
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-08#1483
2008-11-08T16:20:33Z
<p>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> is essentially <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractal" id="link-id16c7e290">Fractal</a> in form, so when thinking about the Web it sometimes helps to have cool <a href="http://fractalanimation.com/" id="link-id1b189108">fractal animations</a> at one's disposal. </p> <p>Also, when you watch these fractal animations, you should ultimately understand why a centralized approach to "Web Presence" is inherently flawed :-)</p>
2008-11-08T16:07:33.000006-05:00
Master Data Management (MDM) & RDF based Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-05#1482
2008-11-05T22:53:13Z
<p>It is getting clearer by the second that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Master_Data_Management" id="link-id167265a8">Master Data Management</a> and RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17940750">Linked data</a> are two realms separated by a common desire to provide "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1be08e68">Entity</a> Oriented Data Access" to heterogeneous data sources (within the enterprise and/or across the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id19b8bdd8">World Wide Web</a>).</p> <p>Here is how I see Linked Data providing tangible value to MDM tools vendors and users:</p> <ol> <li> Open access to Entities across MDM instances served up by different MDM solutions acting as Linked Data publishers (i.e., expose MDM Entities as RDF resources endowed with de-referencable URIs thereby enabling <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11137b48">Hyperdata</a>-style linking) </li> <li> Use of RDF-ization middleware to hook disparate data sources (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id13154ae0">SQL</a>, XML, and other data sources) into existing MDM packages (i.e., the MDM solutions become consumers of RDF Linked Data).</li> </ol> <p> Of course <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13b70e20">Virtuoso</a> was designed and developed to deliver the above from day one (circa. 1998 re. the core and 2005 re. the use of RDF for the final mile) as depicted below: </p> <div> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/vconc650.jpg" /> </div> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=mdm&type=text&output=html" id="link-id15f8abd8">Other MDM related posts</a> </li> </ul>
2008-11-05T18:19:02-05:00
YODA & the Data FORCE
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-03#1474
2008-11-03T17:32:49Z
<p> The original <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html" id="link-id13b25ba8">design document</a> (by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id181e4c70">TimBL</a>) that lead to the WWW (*an important read*) was very clear about the need to create an "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id10f23918">information</a> space" that connects heterogeneous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sources. Unfortunately, in trying to create a moniker to distinguish one aspect of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> (the Linked Document Web) from the part that was overlooked (the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11096818">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1b9c6b98">Web</a>), we ended up with a project code name that's fundamentally a misnomer in the form of: "The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10ffe228">Semantic Web</a>".</p> <p> If we could just take "The Semantic Web" moniker for what it was -- a code name for an aspect of the Web -- and move on, things will get much clearer, fast!</p> <p> Basically, what is/was the "Semantic Web" should really have been code named: ("You" Oriented Data Access) as a play on: Yoda's appreciation of the FORCE (Fact ORiented Connected Entities) -- the power of inter galactic, interlinked, structured data, fashioned by the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id191b22e0">World Wide Web</a> courtesy of the HTTP protocol.</p> <div> <img alt="Image" src="http://motivationalspeaker1.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/yoda.jpg" /> </div> <p> As stated in a earlier post, the next phase of the Web is all about the magic of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1a7395f0">entity</a> "You". The single most important item of reference to every Web user would be the Person Entity <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id16ab9308">ID</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1d403c88">URI</a>). Just by remembering your Entity ID, you will have intelligent pathways across, and into, the FORCE that the Linked Data Web delivers. The quality of the pathways and increased density of the FORCE are the keys to high <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1442" id="link-id1c549b28">SDQ</a> (tomorrows SEO). Thus, the SDQ of URIs will ultimately be the unit determinant of value to Web Users, along the following personal lines, hence the critical platform questions:</p> <ul> <li> Does your platform give <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id175afe00">me</a> Identity (a URI) with high SDQ?</li> <li> Do the Data Source Names (URIs) in your Data Spaces deliver high SDQ?</li> </ul> <p> While most industry commentators continue to ponder and pontificate about what "The Semantic Web" is (unfortunately), the real thing (the "FORCE") is already here, and self-enhancing rapidly.</p> <p> Assuming we now accept the FORCE is simply an RDF based Linked Data moniker, and that RDF Linked Data is all about the Web as a structured database, we should start to move our attention over to practical exploitation of this burgeoning global database, and in doing so we should not discard <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id19e2c6e0">knowledge</a> from the past such as the many great examples available gratis from the Relational Database realm. For instance, we should start paying attention to the discovery, development, and deployment of high level tools such as query builders, report writers, and intelligence oriented analytic tools, none of which should -- at first point of interaction -- expose raw RDF or the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id117921f0">SPARQL</a> query language. Along similar lines of thinking, we also need development environments and frameworks that are counterparts to Visual Studio, ACCESS, File Maker, and the like.</p> <h3> Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1458" id="link-id1cec1a40">Numerati & The Magic of You!</a> </li> </ul>
2010-07-20T13:53:06-04:00
Entity Oriented Data Access
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-03#1475
2008-11-03T17:32:08Z
<p>Recent <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/perturbation" id="link-id1bdb9ec8">perturbations</a> in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Access and Data Management technology realms are clear signs of an imminent inflection. In a nutshell, the focus of data access is moving from the "Logical Level" (what you see if you've ever looked at a DBMS schema derived from an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id18735f38">Entity</a> Data Model) to the "Conceptual Level" (i.e., the Entity Model becoming concrete).</p> <p>In recent times I've stumbled across Master Data Management (MDM) which is all about entities that provide holistic views of enterprise data (or what I call: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id18f07ec8">Context</a> Lenses). I've also stumbled across emerging tensions in the .NET realm between Linq to Entities and Linq to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id19429e88">SQL</a>, where in either case the fundamental issues comes down to the optimal paths "Conceptual Level Access" over the "Logical Logical Level" when dealing with data access in the .NET realm.</p> <p> Strangely, the emerging realm of RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id115b3780">Linked Data</a>, MDM, and .NET's Entity Frameworks, remain strangely disconnected.</p> <p>Another oddity is the obvious, but barely acknowledged, blurring of the lines between the "traditional enterprise employee" and the "individual <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Netizen" id="link-id0x1ffd8640">netizen</a>". The fusion between these entities is one of the most defining characteristics of how the Web is reshaping the data landscape.</p> <p>At the current time, I tend to crystalize my data access world view under the moniker: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1474" id="link-id1544ee60">YODA</a> ("You" Oriented Data Access), based on the following:</p> <ol> <li> Entities are the new focal point of data access, management, and integration </li> <li> "You" are the entry point (Data Source Name) into this new realm of inter connected Entities that the Web exposes</li> <li> "You" the "Person" Entity is associated with many other "Things" such as "Organizations", "Other People", "Books", "Music", "Subject Matter" etc. </li> <li> "You" the "Person" needs Identity in this new global database, which is why "You" need to Identify "Yourself" using an an HTTP based Entity <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id145d0438">ID</a> (aka. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1873ad08">URI</a>) </li> <li> When "You" have an ID for "Yourself" it becomes much easier for the essence of "You" to be discovered via the Web </li> <li> When "Others" have IDs for "Themselves" on the Web it becomes much easier for "You" to serendipitously discover or explicitly "Find" things on the Web. </li> </ol> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.infoq.com/news/2008/11/DLINQ-Future" id="link-id17501eb0">Is LINQ to SQL truly dead?</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1420" id="link-id10fbf920">Virtuoso, Linked Data, and Linq2Rdf</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1224" id="link-id19c44b00">Enterprise 0.0, Linked Data, and the Semantic Data Web</a> (*an old post*)</li> </ul>
2008-11-03T22:51:48-05:00
Virtuoso Installation Screencasts
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-11-02#1469
2008-11-02T01:44:27Z
<p>As promised in an earlier post titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1461" id="link-id1c412298">Virtuoso, PHP 3.5 Runtime Hosting, phpBB3, and Linked Data</a>, here are direct links to the "silent movies" mentioned in the past:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_Vista_Linked_Data_Demo.mov" id="link-id13ea5790">Installing Virtuoso on Vista with PHP Hosting</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_MacOSX_Linked_Data_Demo.mov" id="link-id135299d8">Installing Virtuoso on Mac OS X (Leopard) with PHP Hosting</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_MacOSX_Linked_Data_Demo.mov" id="link-id1275fd88">EC2 Installation Part 1</a> (*AMIs take about 5 minutes to get assembled*)</li> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_MacOSX_Linked_Data_Demo.mov" id="link-id10f78ae8">EC2 Installation Part 2</a> (*post AMI creation part*)</li> </ul> <p>Virtuoso is an extremely compact product that is very easy to install. The ease of installation carries over to the PHP runtime when bound to Virtuoso.</p>
2008-11-02T16:20:21-05:00
Welcoming Freebase to the Linked Data Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-31#1468
2008-10-31T15:02:00Z
Finally! That's all I can say re. Freebase :-) They've now plugged their database and their community driven <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> curation efforts into the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id111fe3b0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1cd46860">Web</a>. <p>Here are some examples of how we distill Entities (People, Places, Music, and other things) from Freebase (X)HTML pages (meaning: we don't have to start from RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1115cfe8">information</a> resources as data sources for the eventual RDF Linked Data we generate):</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://www.freebase.com/view/en/barack_obama" id="link-id1957da00">Barack Obama</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://www.freebase.com/view/en/hillary_rodham_clinton" id="link-id175786d8">Hillary Rodham Clinton</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://www.freebase.com/view/en/john_mccain" id="link-id1c7ada58">Johan McCain</a> </li> </ul> <p>Tip: Install our <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id17a69a20">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> extension for Firefox. Once installed, simply browse through Freebase, and whenever you encounter a page about something of interest, simply use the following sequences to distill (via the Page Description feature) the entities from the page you are reading:</p> <ul> <li> CTRL-Click (Mac OS X) </li> <li> Right+Click (Windows & Linux) </li> </ul> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1455" id="link-id17758840">State of the Linked Data Web</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1454" id="link-idea627e8">Dynamic Linked Data Web Constellation</a> </li> </ul>
2008-10-31T11:23:35.000002-04:00
Dog-fooding: Linked Data and OpenLink Product Portfolio
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-24#1463
2008-10-24T22:05:42Z
<p>Thanks to RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1cf5c700">Linked Data</a>, it's becoming a lot easier for us to explain and reveal the depth of the OpenLink technology portfolio.</p> <p>Here is a look at our offerings by product family:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/about/html/http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/uda" id="link-id1161c6d0">Universal Data Access Drivers</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/about/html/http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/virtuoso" id="link-id17945fc8">Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/about/html/http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/dca" id="link-id10f899c0">Distributed Collaborative Applications</a> (DCA)</li> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/development" id="link-id1c55ac70">Developer Kits & Frameworks</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/utilities" id="link-id1a735e50">Benchamark & Diagnostic Utilities</a> </li> </ul> <p>As you explore the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10fc4af8">Linked Data graph</a> exposed via our product portfolio, I expect you to experience, or at least spot, the virtuous potential of high SDQ (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1442" id="link-id13847698">Serendipitous Discovery Quotient</a>) courtesy of Linked Data, which is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 3.0's answer to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Search_engine_optimization" id="link-id115ad4f0">SEO</a>. For instance, how <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/dbms_family/Oracle" id="link-id1cda63c8">Database</a>, <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/opsys_family/Windows" id="link-id1a803f18">Operating System</a>, and <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/processor/universal_1" id="link-id19cbaba0">Processor</a> family paths in the product portfolio graph (data network) unveil a lot more about <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink%23this" id="link-ide9b7070">OpenLink Software</a> than meets the proverbial "eye" :-)</p>
2008-10-24T18:13:50-04:00
Virtuoso, PHP Runtime Hosting: phpBB, Wordpress, Drupal, MediaWiki, and Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-24#1461
2008-10-24T19:55:00Z
<p> Runtime hosting is functionality realm of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id1189fee8">Virtuoso</a> that is sometimes easily overlooked. In this post I want to provide a simple no-hassles HOWTO guide for installing Virtuoso on Windows (32 or 64 Bit), Mac OS X (Universal or Native 64 Bit), and Linux (32 or 64 Bit). The installation guide also covers the instantiation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id118af3a8">phpBB3</a> as verification of the Virtuoso hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id12736b88">PHP</a> 3.5 runtime.</p> <h3> What are the benefits of PHP Runtime Hosting?</h3> <p> Like <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Apache" id="link-id111ca408">Apache</a>, Virtuoso is a bona-fide <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id110d2aa8">Application Server</a> for PHP based applications. Unlike Apache, Virtuoso is also the following:</p> <ul> <li> a Hybrid Native DBMS Engine (Relational, RDF-Graph, and Document models) that is accessible via industry standard interfaces (solely)</li> <li> a Virtual DBMS or Master <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Manager (MDM) that virtualizes heterogeneous data sources (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id0x22b6f0c8">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id0x23af98c8">JDBC</a>, Web Services, Hypermedia Resources, Non Hypermedia Resources)</li> <li> an <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20middleware&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1116aad8">RDF Middleware</a> solution for RDF-zation of non RDF resources across the Web and enterprise Intranets and/or Extranets (in the form of Cartridges for data exposed via REST or SOA oriented SOAP interfaces)</li> <li> an RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10fbe088">Linked Data</a> Server (meaning it can deploy RDF Linked Data based on its native and/or virtualized data)</li> </ul> <p> As result of the above, when you deploy a PHP application using Virtuoso, you inherit the following benefits:</p> <ol> <li> Use of PHP-<a href="http://www.iodbc.org" id="link-id1159e070">iODBC</a> for in-process communication with Virtuoso</li> <li> Easy generation of RDF Linked Data Views atop the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x24f44c98">SQL</a> schemas of PHP applications</li> <li> Easy deployment of RDF Linked Data from virtualized data sources</li> <li> Less <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/LAMP_stack" id="link-id1179dff0">LAMP</a> monoculture (*there is no such thing as virtuous monoculture*) when dealing with PHP based Web applications.</li> </ol> <p> As indicated in prior posts, producing RDF Linked Data from the existing Web, where a lot of content is deployed by PHP based content managers, should simply come down to RDF Views over the SQL Schemas and deployment / publishing of the RDF Views in RDF Linked data form. In a nutshell, this is what Virtuoso delivers via its PHP runtime hosting and pre packaged VADs (Virtuoso Application Distribution packages), for popular PHP based applications such as: <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id120cc6368">phpBB3</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id111ff1c0">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id111e26f8">WordPress</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id10ea0258">MediaWiki</a>.</p> <p> In addition, to the RDF Linked Data deployment, we've also taken the traditional LAMP installation tedium out of the typical PHP application deployment process. For instance, you don't have to rebuild PHP 3.5 (32 or 64 Bit) on Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux to get going, simply install Virtuoso, and then select a VAD package for the relevant application and you're set. If the application of choice isn't pre packaged by us, simply install as you would when using Apache, which comes dow to situating the PHP files in your Web structure under the Web Application's root directory.</p> <h3> Installation Guide</h3> <ol> <li> Download the Virtuoso installer for Windows (<a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/downwiz/login.vsp?pfam=2&pform=26&pcat=47&prod=virtuoso-uim-unisvr-ent&os=i686-generic-win-32&os2=i686-generic-win-32&xpfam=virtuoso&xpform=personal&xpcat=unisvr&xos=i686-generic-win-32&release-dbms=6.1-virt61" id="link-id11d084578">32 Bit msi file</a> or <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/downwiz/login.vsp?pfam=2&pform=26&pcat=47&prod=virtuoso-uim-unisvr-ent&os=x86_64-generic-win-64&os2=x86_64-generic-win-64&xpfam=virtuoso&xpform=personal&xpcat=unisvr&xos=x86_64-generic-win-64&release-dbms=6.1-virt61" id="link-id11aea67a8">64 Bit msi file</a>), Mac OS X (<a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/downwiz/login.vsp?pfam=2&pform=26&pcat=47&prod=virtuoso-uim-unisvr-ent&os=universal-apple-macosx10.6-32&os2=universal-apple-macosx10.6-32&xpfam=virtuoso&xpform=personal&xpcat=unisvr&xos=universal-apple-macosx10.6-32&release-dbms=6.1-virt61" id="link-id11a93bef8">Universal Binary dmg file</a>), or instantiate the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/oat/wiki/main/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id111fe248">Virtuoso EC2 AMI</a> (*search for pattern: "Virtuoso when using the Firefox extension for EC2 as the AMI ID is currently: ami-7c31d515 and name: virtuoso-test/virtuoso-cloud-beta-9-i386.manifest.xml, for latest cut*)</li> <li> Run the installer (or download the movies using the links in the related section below)</li> <li> Go to the Virtuoso Conductor (*which will show up at the end of the installation process* or go to http://localhost:8890/conductor)</li> <li> Go to the "Admin" tab within the (X)HTML based UI and select the "Packages" sub-menu item (a Tab)</li> <li> Pick phpBB3 (or any other pre-packaged PHP app) and then click on "Install/Upgrase"</li> <li> The watch one of my silent movies or read the initial startup guides for Virtuoso hosted phpBB3, Drupal, Wordpress, MediaWiki.</li> </ol> <h3> Related</h3> <p> At the current time, I've only provided links to ZIP files containing the Virtuoso installation "silent movies". This approach is a short-term solution to some of my current movie publishing challenges re. YouTube and Vimeo -- where the compressed output hasn't been of acceptable visual quality. Once resolved, I will publish much more "Multimedia Web" friendly movies :-)</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_Vista_Linked_Data_Demo.mov.zip" id="link-id11642450">Windows Vista (x64) Installation Movie</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_MacOSX_Linked_Data_Demo.mov.zip" id="link-id11210498">Mac OS X (x64 & Universal binary) Installation Movie</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://my-movies.s3.amazonaws.com/Virtuoso_PHPBB3_EC2_AMI_Linked_Data_Demo.zip" id="link-id111ff268">Virtuoso EC2 Cloud Edition Installation Movie</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtuosoPHP" id="link-id12038b6c8">Guide for PHP based Application Deployment using Virtuoso</a> </li> </ul>
2010-03-25T21:19:59-04:00
The Virtuous Web of Linked Data -- Business Perspective (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-24#1462
2008-10-24T15:56:55Z
<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling" id="link-id115d8420">Orri Erling</a> (Program Manager: OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id111293d8">Virtuoso</a>) has dropped a well explained reiteration of the essence of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id115d85a0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1161b138">Web</a>" or "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Web" with an emphasis on the business value. His post is titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1459" id="link-id1109d340">State of the Semantic Web (Part 1) - Sociology, Business, and Messaging</a>. <p>Typically, Orri's post are targeted at the hard core RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id115e2818">SQL</a> DBMS audiences, but in this particular post, he shoots straight at the business community revealing "Opportunity Cost" containment as the invisible driver behind the business aspects of any market inflection.</p> <p>Remember, the Web isn't ubiquitous because its users mastered the mechanics and virtues of HTML and/or HTTP. Web ubiquity is a function of the opportunity cost of not being on the Web, courtesy of the network effects of hyperlinked documents -- i.e., the instant gratification of traversing documents on the Web via a single click action. In similar fashion, the Linked Data Web's ubiquity will simply come down to the opportunity cost of not being "inside the Web", courtesy of the network effects of hyperlinked entities (documents, people, music, books, and other "Things"). </p> <p>Here are some excerpts from Orri's post:</p> <blockquote> <cite>Every time there is a major shift in technology, this shift needs to be motivated by addressing a new class of problem. This means doing something that could not be done before. The last time this happened was when the relational database became the dominant IT technology. At that time, the questions involved putting the enterprise in the database and building a cluster of line of business applications around the database. The argument for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id113779e8">RDBMS</a> was that you did not have to constrain the set of queries that might later be made, when designing the database. In other words, it was making things more ad hoc. This was opposed then on grounds of being less efficient than the hierarchical and network databases which the relational eventually replaced.</cite> <cite>Today, the point of the Data Web is that you do not have to constrain what your data can join or integrate with, when you design your database. The counter-argument is that this is slow and geeky and not scalable. See the similarity?</cite> <cite>A difference is that we are not specifically aiming at replacing the RDBMS. In fact, if you know exactly what you will query and have a well defined workload, a relational representation optimized for the workload will give you about 10x the performance of the equivalent RDF warehouse. OLTP remains a relational-only domain. </cite> <cite>However, when we are talking about doing queries and analytics against the Web, or even against more than a handful of relational systems, the things which make RDBMS good become problematic.</cite> </blockquote> <p>If we think about Web 1.0 as a period where the distinguishing noun was: "Author", and Web 2.0 the noun: "Journalist", we should be able to see that what comes next is the noun: "Analyst". This new generation analyst would be equipped with de-referencable Web Identity courtesy of their Person <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id111ab7d0">Entity</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id10f23220">URI</a>. The analyst's URI would also be the critical component of Web based low cost attribution ecosystem; one that ultimately turns the URI into the analyst's brand emblem / imprint.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <a href="http://blog.whatfettle.com/about/" id="link-id1120fb88">Paul Downey</a> - <a href="http://blog.whatfettle.com/2008/10/24/on-the-vanity-of-demanding-attribution/" id="link-id111590b8">Vanity of Demanding Attribution</a> </ul>
2008-10-24T14:49:18-04:00
The Numerati & The Magic of You!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-21#1458
2008-10-21T15:42:52Z
<p>In response to <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id111d6ae8">ReadWriteWeb</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/who_will_control_your_data_web30.php" id="link-id113c27e0">Who will own your Data in Web 3.0 World?</a>. My simple answer: You!</p> <p>You will control your data in the Web 3.0 realm. If somehow this remains somewhat incomprehensible and nebulous (as is typical in this emerging realm) then simply think about this as: The Magic of You!</p> <p>Remember, "You" was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Magazine" id="link-id144c52a8">Times</a> person of the year as an acknowledgement of the Web 2.0 phenomenon, and maybe this time next year it would simply be the "Magic of Being You" that's the person of the year :-)</p> <p>Web 3.0 brings databasing to the Web (as a feature). The single most important action item at this stage is the act of creating a record for yourself, in this new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id11540b50">distributed database</a> held together by an HTTP based Network (e.g., the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id115a02f8">World Wide Web</a>).</p> <h3>Related:</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id113aead0">Get yourself a Web Database ID in 5 minutes or less</a> </li> <li> 2006 Callout from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id118acdd8">TimBL</a>: <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/71" id="link-id11126580">Get Yourself a URI</a> </li> <li> Just watch the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBqByfoLGdU" id="link-id13d19568">Numerati Video</a> </li> </ol>
2010-02-01T08:55:22.000017-05:00
The Trouble with Labels (Contd.): Data Integration & SOA
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-12#1457
2008-10-12T18:53:44Z
<p>I just stumbled across an post from <a href="http://www.itbusinessedge.com" id="link-id10f82f50">ITBusines Edge</a> titled: <a href="http://www.itbusinessedge.com/item/?ci=48119" id="link-id10f37b90">How Semantic Technology Can Help Companies with Integration</a>. While reading the post I encountered the term: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Master_Data_Management" id="link-id11055eb8">Master Data Manager (MDM)</a>, and wondered to myself, "what's that?" only to realize it's the very same thing I described as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id13985af0">Data Virtualization</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id1167c720">Virtual Database technology</a> (circa. 1998).</p> <p>Now, if re-labeling can confuse <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id14aaaaf0">me</a> when applied to a realm I've been intimately involved with for eons (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id112042f0">internet</a> time). I don't want to imagine what it does for others who aren't that intimately involved with the important data access and data integration realms. </p> <p>On the more refreshing side, the article does shed some light on the potency of RDF and OWL when applied to the construction of conceptual views of heterogeneous data sources.</p> <blockquote> <cite>"How do you know that data coming from one place calculates net revenue the same way that data coming from another place does? You’ve got people using the same term for different things and different terms for the same things. How do you reconcile all of that? That’s really what semantic integration is about." </cite> </blockquote> <p>BTW - I discovered this article via another titled: <a href="http://www.itbusinessedge.com/blogs/mia/?p=485" id="link-id11134098">Understanding Integration And How It Can Help with SOA</a>, that covers SOA and Integration matters. Again, in this piece I feel the gradual realization of the virtues that RDF, OWL, and RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11048740">Linked Data</a> bring to bear in the vital realm of data integration across heterogeneous data silos.</p> <h3>Conclusion</h3> <p>A number of events, at the micro and macro economic levels, are forcing attention back to the issue of productive use of existing IT resources. The trouble with the aforementioned quest is that it ultimately unveils the global IT affliction known as: heterogeneous data silos, and the challenges of pain alleviation, that have been ignored forever or approached inadequately as clearly shown by the rapid build up of SOA horror stories in the data integration realm.</p> <p>Data Integration via conceptualization of heterogenous data sources, that result in concrete conceptual layer data access and management, remains the greatest and most potent application of technologies associated with the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10fa5050">Semantic Web</a>" and/or "Linked Data" monikers.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/23/21FEinnovidehen_1.html" id="link-id118c9c00">InforWorld 2003 Innovator article</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html" id="link-id11057298">2006 Podcast Interview with Jon Udell</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Enterprise_Information_Integration" id="link-id13f89030">Enterprise Information Integration</a> </li> <li>One of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20integration&type=text&output=html" id="link-id11048b98">several posts</a> about our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10fef0e0">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id10e5a068">Universal Server</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1406" id="link-id111d5aa8">Conceptual Model based data integration</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory" id="link-id11020108">History of Virtuoso</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/me/" id="link-id1101e7b0">Mike Bergman</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=459" id="link-id10fdb640">WOA: A New Enterprise Partner for Linked Data</a> </li> </ul>
2008-10-12T18:54:22-04:00
The Calamitous Nature of Opportunity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-10#1456
2008-10-10T16:30:53Z
<p>As articulated in timeless fashion by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Albert_Einstein" id="link-id160b76b8">Albert Einstein</a>: </p> <blockquote> <cite>The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. </cite> </blockquote> <p>This quote also applies to the current global financial mess because the essence of this crisis remains inextricably linked to dependency on outdated "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Closed_world_assumption" id="link-id14a6b6c0">closed world</a>" systems.</p> <h3>How we got here (5,000 ft. view)</h3> <p>We have a global human network that depends on systems driven by, and confined to, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> silos! Every time you hear a CEO, Government Official, work colleague, neighbor, sibling, or relative tell you they didn't see it coming, just remember: </p> <ul> <li>For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction</li> <li>For every debit there is a credit</li> <li>What goes around, comes around</li> <li> <a href="http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/245" id="link-id12ace758">No man is an Island</a> (little tweak: Human)</li> <li>We are all Linked whether we like it or not</li> <li>System preserving reboots are a feature of all intelligently designed systems.</li> </ul> <h3>Why there won't be a Depression</h3> <p>There won't be a depression because we can't afford one. Just like we couldn't afford to continue with the manner in which our systems work today. Unlike the '30s, we all know that there are no absolute safe havens right now, we have enough <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13d0c258">information</a> at our disposal to eventually understand (post panic) that stuffing the mattress isn't an option (even government bonds won't cut it, ditto money market accounts).</p> <h3>The Opportunity</h3> <p>Take a deep breadth and tell traditional media to "shut up". As per usual, the traditional mass media wants to have it both ways by stoking the panic and maxing out on the frenzy with reckless abandon (as per usual). If there is a time to appreciate the blogosphere and quality journalism etc.. It's now.</p> <p> Anyway, as the saying goes: "It's always darkest before dawn", and as bizarre as this may sound in some quarters, things will ultimately change for the better. It just so happened that a really big cane was required in order for us to change our dysfunctional ways :-(</p> <p>I recently wrote a post about "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1440" id="link-id115387f8">zero based cognition</a>" that sought to bring attention to the power of "Human Thought" in relation to value creation.</p> <p>Innovative creation and dissemination of value is how we will eventually get out of the current mess (as we've done in the past). The predictability of the aforementioned reality is significantly increased by the sheer link density and resulting "network effects" potential of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id14a595e8">Internet</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id1112a570">World Wide Web</a>. Our ability to "connect the dots" as part of our value creation, dissemination, and consumption processing pipelines is what will ultimately separate the winners from the losers (individuals, enterprises, nations).</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://yihongs-research.blogspot.com" id="link-id14b0fb90">Yihong Ding</a>'s insightful <a href="http://yihongs-research.blogspot.com/2008/10/financial-crisis-who-will-be-winner.html" id="link-id112197b0">perspectives</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/" id="link-id112d4ad8">Jason Kolb</a>'s poignant piece titled: <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/10/the-year-the-innovation-died.html" id="link-id10fe7008">The Year Innovation Died</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/the-tech-observer/2008/10/09/tech-start-ups-and-the-economys-best-hope?tid=true" id="link-id14a80788">Tech Start-ups and the Economy's Best Hope</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9050474362583451279" id="link-id11053b90">Money as Debt</a> - (a documentary spotted by <a href="http://hyperdata.org/blog/" id="link-id114c0e30">Danja</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/peter_kafka" id="link-id10f01b10">Peter Kalfka</a>'s post: <a href="http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/12/startup-advice-how-to-make-the-collapse-work-for-you" id="link-id10de8058">Smart Startup Advice: Don't Panic - Profit</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nathan-gardels/soros-end-of-financial-cr_b_134008.html" id="link-id10fef1e8">George Soros Interview</a> </li> <li>Mark Cuban (<a href="http://blogmaverick.com/" id="link-ide8b5298">Blog Maverick</a>) echoing "<a href="http://blogmaverick.com/2008/10/23/the-cure-to-our-economic-problems/" id="link-id10e630d8">Entrepreneurship is the key"</a> sentiment.</li> </ul>
2008-10-23T22:20:17-04:00
State of the Linked Data Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-10#1455
2008-10-10T02:27:44Z
<p> The evolution of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> into a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id13d825f8">federated database</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11821e18">information</a> space, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id147f5d20">knowledge</a>-base hybrid continues at frenetic pace.</p> <p> As more <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14a805a8">Linked Data</a> is injected into the Web from the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id114ebeb8">Linking Open Data community</a> and other initiatives, it's important to note that "Linked Data" is available in a variety of forms such as:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Model Definition oriented Linked Data (aka. Data Dictionary)</li> <li> Data Model Instance Data (aka. Instance Data)</li> <li> Linked Data oriented solutions that leverage the smart data substrate that Models and Instance Data meshes deliver.</li> </ul> <p> Note: The common glue across the different types of Linked Data remains the commitment to data object (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1103afe8">entity</a>) identification and access via de-referencable URIs (aka. record / entity level data source names).</p> <p> As stated in my recent post titled: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id11743278">Semantic Web</a>: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1444" id="link-id10f44ce0">Travails to Harmony Illustrated</a>. Harmonious intersections of instance data, data dictionaries (schemas, ontologies, rules etc.) provide a powerful substrate (smart data) for the development and deployment of "People" and/or "Machine" oriented solutions. Of course, others have commented on these matters and expressed similar views (see related section below).</p> <p> The clickable venn diagram below, provides a simple exploration path that exposes the linkage that already exists, across the different Linked Data types, within the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1132fe60">Linked Data Web</a>.</p> <div> <map name="LiveCloud"> <area coords="356,136,120" href="http://umbel.org/images/lod_constellation.html" shape="circle" /> <area coords="140,136,120" href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2008-09-18.html" shape="circle" /> <area coords="248,280,120" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/ClickableVirtSpongerCloud" shape="circle" /> </map> <img alt="Image" border="0" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/ldp_presentation/images/linked_data_people_schems_venn.png" usemap="#LiveCloud" /> </div> <h3> Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://jhingran.typepad.com/" id="link-id14aeb438">Anant Jingran</a>'s insightful <a href="http://intranet.usnet.private:8893/anant_jhingrans_musings/2008/08/future-of-database-research-is-excellent-but-what-is-the-future-of-data.html" id="link-id1158ca98">LDP Conference Trip report</a> </li> <li> Anant's recent post about the <a href="http://jhingran.typepad.com/anant_jhingrans_musings/2008/08/future-of-database-research-is-excellent-but-what-is-the-future-of-data.html" id="link-id1128fd78">future of Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/me/" id="link-id1114d330">Mike Bergman</a> - <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/457/a-new-constellation-in-the-linking-open-data-lod-sky/" id="link-id114780f8">A New Constellation in the Linking Open Data (LOD) Sky</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://fgiasson.com/me/" id="link-id14aedaf0">Frederick Giasson</a> - <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2008/09/04/exploding-dbpedias-domain-using-umbel" id="link-id12daa6d0">Exploding DBpedia Domain using UMBEL</a> </li> </ul>
2010-03-28T18:25:19-04:00
Dynamic Linked Data Constellation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-09#1454
2008-10-09T21:23:25Z
<p>Now that the virtues of dynamic generation of RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14c429a0">Linked Data</a> are becoming clearer, I guess it's time to unveil the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13d7c7e0">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id115d0c20">Sponger</a> driven Dynamic Linked Data constellation diagram.</p> <p>Our diagram depicts the myriad of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sources from which RDF Linked Data is generated "on the fly" via our data source specific RDF-zation cartridges/drivers. It also unveils how the sponger leverages the Linked Data constellations of <a href="http://umbel.org/" id="link-id14bd5700">UMBEL</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id110f5a48">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://www.bio2rdf.org/" id="link-id11494bc0">Bio2Rdf</a>, and others for lookups.</p> <map name="GraffleExport"> <area shape="circle" coords="723,292,36" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://xbel.sourceforge.net/bookmarks/xbel.xbel" /> <area shape="circle" coords="423,309,36" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/grddl-wg/doc29/hotel-data.html" /> <area shape="circle" coords="592,285,36" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3067/2590298570_304a594899_t.jpg" /> <area shape="circle" coords="685,220,36" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://microformats.org/feed/" /> <area shape="circle" coords="817,182,36" 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<area shape="circle" coords="337,343,36" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/urn:lsid:ubio.org:namebank:12292" /> <area shape="circle" coords="585,494,36" href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/html/http://www.discogs.com/release/634302" /> <area shape="circle" coords="491,409,36" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VirtSponger" /> <area shape="poly" coords="992,603,1015,557,1061,557,1100,592,1076,638,1030,638,992,603" href="http://bio2rdf.org/wiki/attach/Main/bio2rdfmap_blanc.png" /> <area shape="poly" coords="995,454,1018,408,1064,408,1103,443,1079,489,1033,489,995,454" href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/bizer/pub/lod-datasets_2008-09-18.html" /> <area shape="poly" coords="919,117,943,71,989,71,1027,106,1004,152,958,152,919,117" href="http://umbel.org/images/081005_lod_constellation.png" /> </map> <img alt="Image" border="0" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/sponger-cloud.png" usemap="#GraffleExport" />
2008-10-17T10:45:53.000004-04:00
What is Linked Data oriented RDF-ization?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-06#1453
2008-10-06T20:14:26Z
<p>RDF-ization is a term used by the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id14b4ebd0">Semantic Web</a> community to describe the process of generating RDF from non RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Sources such as (X)HTML, Weblogs, Shared Bookmark Collections, Photo Galleries, Calendars, Contact Managers, Feed Subscriptions, Wikis, and other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13f2a2e0">information</a> resource collections. </p> <p>If the RDF generated, results in an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id11281278">entity</a>-to-entity level network (graph) in which each entity is endowed with a de-referencable HTTP based ID (a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id148200f0">URI</a>), we end up with an enhancement to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> that adds <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id112a5980">Hyperdata</a> linking across extracted entities, to the existing Hypertext based Web of linked documents (pages, images, and other information resource types). Thus, I can use the same <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id10ebc630">URL</a> linking mechanism to reference a broader range of "Things" i.e., documents, things that documents are about, or things loosely associated with documents.</p> <p>The <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id144304a8">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id14a96400">Sponger</a> is an example of an <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20middleware&type=text&output=html" id="link-id14d36938">RDF Middleware</a> solution from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id117e5c50">OpenLink Software</a>. It's an in-built component of the Virtuoso <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id14b4d0e0">Universal Server</a>, and deployable in many forms e.g., Software as Service (SaaS) or traditional software installation. It delivers RDF-ization services via a collection of Web information resource specific Cartridges/Providers/Drivers covering Wikipedia, Freebase, CrunchBase, WikiCompany, OpenLibrary, Digg, eBay, Amazon, RSS/Atom/OPML feed sources, XBRL, and many more.</p> <p>RDF-ization alone doesn't ensure valuable RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14a75b48">Linked Data</a> on the Web. The process of producing RDF Linked Data is ultimately about the art of effectively describing resources with an eye for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1442fea0">context</a>. </p> <h3>RDF-ization Processing Steps</h3> <ol> <li> Entity Extraction</li> <li> Vocabulary/Schema/Ontology (Data Dictionary) mapping</li> <li> HTTP based Proxy URI generation</li> <li>Linked Data Cloud Lookups (e.g., perform <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id14432f00">UMBEL</a> lookup to add "isAbout" fidelity to graph and then lookup <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id14485f40">DBpedia</a> and other <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id115ea410">LOD</a> instance data enclaves for Identical individuals and connect via "owl:sameAs")</li> <li> RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id14ae31c0">Linked Data Graph</a> projection that uses the description of the container information resource to expose the URIs of the distilled entities.</li> </ol> <p>The animation that follows illustrates the process (5,000 feet view), from grabbing resources via HTTP GET, to injecting RDF Linked Data back into the Web cloud:</p> <div> <embed src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/screencasts/virtuoso-rdf-middleware.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="800" height="600"></embed> </div> <p>Note: the Shredder is a Generic Cartridge, so you would have one of these per data source type (information resource type).</p>
2008-10-07T17:35:24-04:00
Where Are All the RDF-based Semantic Web Applications?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-10-01#1447
2008-10-01T23:09:00Z
<p> In response to the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id15971040">Semantic Web</a> Technology" application classification scheme espoused by <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id16391540">ReadWriteWeb</a> (RWW), emphasized in the post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/rdf_semantic_web_apps.php" id="link-id1157eaa0">Where are all the RDF-based Semantic Web Apps?</a>, here is my attempt to clarify and reintroduce what <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id15a43758">OpenLink Software</a> offers (today) in relation to Semantic Web technology. </p> <p> From the RWW Top-Down category, which I interpret as: technologies that produce RDF from non RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sources. Our product portfolio is comprised of the following; <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14f05818">Virtuoso Universal Server</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id162c8630">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>, <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com" id="link-id134e1a00">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>, and <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id160b3bf8">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> (which includes ubiquity commands).</p> <h3>Virtuoso Universal Server functionality summary:</h3> <ol> <li>Generation of RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id161d5f50">Linked Data</a> Views of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id161d5978">SQL</a>, XML, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services in general </li> <li>Deployment of RDF Linked Data </li> <li>"On the Fly" generation of RDF Linked Data from Document Web <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/" id="link-id178bbc08">information resources</a> (i.e. distillation of entities from their containers e.g. Web pages) via Cartridges / Drivers</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id162c2118">SPARQL</a> query language support </li> <li>SPARQL extensions that bring SPARQL closer to SQL e.g Aggregates, Update, Insert, Delete Named Graph support (i.e. use of logical names to partition RDF data within Virtuoso's multi-model dbms engine) </li> <li>Inference Engine (currently in use re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id14f563c0">DBpedia</a> via Yago and <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id113273b8">UMBEL</a>)</li> <li>Host and exposes data from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id123d3bd8">Drupal</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id141adf40">Wordpress</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id1604b450">MediaWiki</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id141013a8">phpBB3</a> as RDF Linked Data via in-built support for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id14661e58">PHP</a> runtime</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/ODSInstallationEC2" id="link-id146c84d0">Available as an EC2 AMI</a> </li> <li>etc..</li> </ol> <h3>OpenLink Data Spaces functionality summary:</h3> <ol> <li>Simple mechanism for Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id15473770">Web</a> enabling yourself by giving you an <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id15f6d278">HTTP based User ID</a> (a de-referencable <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id15aaeb68">URI</a>) that is linked to a <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id15a7a840">FOAF based Profile page</a> and OpenID</li> <li>Binds all your data sources (blogs, wikis, bookmarks, photos, calendar items etc. ) to your URI so can "Find" things by only remembering your URI</li> <li>Makes your profile page and personal URI the focal point of Linked Data Web presence</li> <li>Delivers Data Portability (using data access by value or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id16212838">data access by reference</a>) across data silos (e.g. Web 2.0 style social networks)</li> <li>Allows you make annotations about anything in your own <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id14668010">Data Space</a>(s) on the Web without exposure to RDF markup</li> <li>A Briefcase feature that provides a WebDAV driven RDF Linked Data variant of functionality seen in Mac OS X Spotlight and WinFS with the addition of SPARQL compliance</li> <li>Automatically generates <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id14691440">RDFa</a> in its (X)HTML pages</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id14fae7b8">Blog</a>, Wiki, WebDAV File Server, Shared Bookmarks, Calendar, and other applications that look and feel like Web 2.0 counterparts but emitt RDF Linked Data amongst a plethora of data exchange formats</li> <li>Available as an EC2 AMI</li> <li>etc..</li> </ol> <h3>OpenLink Ajax Toolkit functionality summary:</h3> <ol> <li>Provides binding to SQL, RDF, XML, and Web Services via Ajax Database Connectivity Layer (you only need an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id11550548">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13ae5f68">JDBC</a>, OLE-DB, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id162803e8">ADO</a>.NET, XMLA Driver, or Web Service on the backend for dynamic data access from Javascript)</li> <li>All controls are Ajax Database Connectivity bound (widgets get their data from Ajax Database Connectivity data sources)</li> <li>Bundled with Virtuoso and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id161dfe90">ODS</a> installations.</li> <li>etc.</li> </ol> <h3>OpenLink Data Explorer functionality summary</h3> <ol> <li>Distills entities associated with information resource style containers (e.g. Web Pages or files) as RDF Linked Data</li> <li>Exposes the RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id12a42ed8">Linked Data graph</a> associated with information resources (see the Linked Data behind Web pages)</li> <li>Ubiquity commands for invoking the above</li> <li>Available as a <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/ode" id="link-id15a0d2b0">Hosted Service</a> or <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id138b9fa8">Firefox Extension</a> </li> <li>Bundled with Virtuoso and ODS installations</li> <li>etc.</li> </ol> <h3>Note:</h3> <p>Of course you could have simply looked up <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink" id="link-id14ef2c10">OpenLink Software's FOAF based Profile page</a> (*note the Linked Data Explorer tab*), or simply passed the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id14cbf5c8">FOAF</a> profile page <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id16453e28">URL</a> to a Linked Data aware client application such as: <a href="http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/ode" id="link-id15a80500">OpenLink Data Explorer</a>, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id1586a360">Zitgist</a> <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id16249f60">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://beckr.org/marbles" id="link-id15993fb0">Marbles</a>, and <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id14d63048">Tabulator</a>, and obtained information. Remember, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id138ba838">OpenLink Software</a> is an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1173e120">Entity</a> of Type: <a href="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Organization" id="link-id138b87b8">foaf:Organization</a>, on the burgeoning Linked Data Web :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html" id="link-id163a0c88">Linked Data Planet Keynote</a> (RDFa based remix edition)</li> <li> <a href="http://semanticbusiness.blogspot.com/2008/09/report-on-cusp-global-review-of.html" id="link-id11471a40">On The Cusp: A Global Review of the Semantic Web Industry.</a> </li> </ul>
2008-10-02T15:27:41-04:00
Semantic Web: Travails to Harmony Illustrated (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-27#1444
2008-09-27T19:14:48Z
<h3>All about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Dictionary issues</h3> <p>Over emphasis on <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data_dictionary" id="link-id10e99460"><a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Description_logic" id="link-id0xa2800c0">Description Logics</a></a> (RDFS, OWL, Inference & Reasoning etc) matters without any actual real-world instance <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x9d3a838">data</a> (e.g., lot's of reasoning over RDF in zip files or local drives).</p> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/ldp_presentation/images/linked_data_people_schems_venn2_missing_lod.png" /> <h3>All about Linking Openly accessible RDF Data Sets</h3> <p>Over emphasis on Instance Data without Data Dictionary appreciation and utilization (e.g., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10ea0728">Linked Data</a> instance level linkage via "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-ref/#sameAs-def" id="link-id10f2f650">owl:sameAs</a>"). </p> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/ldp_presentation/images/linked_data_people_schems_venn2_missing_dict.png" /> <h3>All about Applications & Frameworks</h3> <p>Here we are dealing with numerous applications and frameworks that inextricably bind Instance Data Management and Data Dictionaries. Basically, an all or nothing proposition, if you want to delve into the RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id110b4970">Linked Data</a> solutions realm.</p> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/ldp_presentation/images/linked_data_people_schems_venn2_missing_modularity.png" /> <p>Often overlooked, is the fact that the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-ide398d40">Linked Data Web</a> - as an aspect of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id19653440">Semantic Web</a> innovation continuum - is fundamentally about designing and constructing an "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_world_assumption" id="link-id19cac3a0">Open World</a>" compatible DBMS for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id127fd198">Internet</a>. Thus, erstwhile "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Closed_world_assumption" id="link-id1252b338">Closed World</a>" DBMS components such as Data Dictionaries (handlers of Data Definition, Referential Integrity etc.) and actual Instance Data, are now distributed and loosely coupled. Thus, your data could be in one <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id12bf6338">Data Space</a> while the data dictionary resides in another. In actual fact, you could have several loosely bound data dictionaries that serve the specific Inference and Reasoning needs of a variety of applications, services, or agents. </p> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/ldp_presentation/images/linked_data_people_schems_venn2.png" />
2008-09-28T15:18:53-04:00
The Linked Data Market via a BCG Matrix (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-25#1442
2008-09-25T20:42:49Z
<p>The sweet spot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 3.0 (or any other Web.vNext moniker) is all about providing Web Users with a structured and interlinked <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> substrate that facilitates serendipitous discovery of relevant "Things" i.e., a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10db3b48">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id170db618">Web</a> -- a Web of Linkable Entities that goes beyond documents and other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id110a5d30">information</a> resource (data containers) types.</p> <p>Understanding potential <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id19e21c60">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id16d008d0">Web</a> business models, relative to other Web based market segments, is best pursued via a<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/BCG_diagram" id="link-id14734148"> BCG Matrix</a> diagram, such as the one I've constructed below:</p> <br /> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/ldp_presentation/images/linked_data_sdq_quadarant.png" /> <br /> <h3>Notes:</h3> <h4>Link Density</h4> <ul> <li>Web 1.0's collection of "Web Sites" have relatively low link density relative to Web 2.0's user-activity driven generation of semi-structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14c302d8">linked data</a> spaces (e.g., Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, RSS/Atom Feeds, Photo Galleries, Discussion Forums etc..)</li> <li>Semantic Technologies (i.e. "<strong>Semantics Inside</strong> style solutions") which are primarily about "Semantic Meaning" culled from Web 1.0 Pages also have limited linked density relative to Web 2.0</li> <li>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1286ab58">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-ide81ab20">Web</a>, courtesy of the open-ended linking capacity of URIs, matches and ultimately exceeds Web 2.0 link density.</li> </ul> <h4>Relevance</h4> <ul> <li>Web 1.0 and 2.0 are low relevance realms driven by hyperlinks to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id173db890">information</a> resources ((X)HTML, RSS, Atom, OPML, XML, Images, Audio files etc.) associated with Literal Labels and Tagging schemes devoid of explicit property based resource description thereby making the pursuit of relevance mercurial at best</li> <li>Semantic Technologies offer more relevance than Web 1.0 and 2.0 based on the increased <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id124de510">context</a> that semantic analysis of Web pages accords</li> <li>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id111c4850">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id16e4e4c0">Web</a>, courtesy of URIs that expose self-describing data entities, match the relevance levels attained by Semantic Technologies.</li> </ul> <h4>Serendipity Quotient (SDQ)</h4> <ul> <li>Web 1.0 has next to no serendipity, the closest thing is <a href="http://google.com" id="link-id16dceec8">Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button</a> </li> <li>Web 2.0 possess higher potential for serendipitous discovery than Web 1.0, but such potential is neutralized by inherent subjectivity due to its human-interaction-focused literal foundation (e.g., tags, voting schemes, wiki editors etc.)</li> <li>Semantic Technologies produce islands-of-relevance with little scope for serendipitous discovery due to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id18078e60">URI</a> invisibility, since the prime focus is delivering more <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1253cc38">context</a> to Web search relative to traditional Web 1.0 search engines.</li> <li>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x201d0ae8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10c7fb70">Web</a>'s use of URIs as the naming and resolution mechanism for exposing structured and interlinked resources provides the highest potential for serendipitous discovery of relevant "Things"</li> </ul> <p>To conclude, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0x23ebbf90">Web</a>'s market opportunities are all about the evolution of the Web into a powerful substrate that offers a unique intersection of "Link Density" and "Relevance", exploitable across horizontal and vertical market segments to solutions providers. Put differently, SDQ is how you take "The Ad" out of "Advertising" when matching Web users to relevant things :-)</p>
2008-09-26T12:36:56-04:00
View Plurality Deficiency & Programming Language Autism
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-17#1441
2008-09-17T14:38:20Z
<p>I've just read a really nice post by <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/about/html/http://bblfish.net/people/henry/card%23me" id="link-idea954a0">Henry Story</a> titled: <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/are_oo_languages_autistic" id="link-id110164a8">Are OO Languages Autistic?</a> </p> <p>In typical style, Henry walks you through his point of view using simple but powerful illustrations. Here is a key statement in his post that really struck <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id10f82150">me</a>:</p> <blockquote> <cite>"In order to be able to have a mental theory one needs to be able to <strong>understand that other people may have a different view of the world</strong>. On a narrow three dimensional understanding of 'view', this reveals itself in that people at different locations in a room will see different things. One person may be able to see a cat behind a tree that will be hidden to another. In some sense though these two views can easily be merged into a coherent description."</cite> </blockquote> <p>Opaque <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> pages (e.g., generated by Semantic Technology inside offerings that will not expose or share <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id10f81420">entity</a> URIs), irrespective of how smart the underlying page generation and visualization technology may be, a fundamentally autistic and counter intuitive as we move toward a Web of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10cc3d80">Linked Data</a>.</p> <p>Preoccupation with the "V" aspect of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Model-view-controller" id="link-id10fa86b0">M-V-C</a> trinity is inadvertently compounding and the problem of digital autism on the Web. Unbeknownst to the purveyors of data silos and proprietary service lock-in, digital autism on the Web ultimately implies Web business model autism.</p>
2008-09-17T10:54:48.000004-04:00
Zero-based Cognition (Difference between Humans & Machines)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-17#1440
2008-09-17T13:43:21Z
<p>Human beings, courtesy of the gift of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cognition" id="link-id10f3d278">cognition</a>, are capable of creating reusable <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id10f76078">information</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id10c10518">knowledge</a> from simple or complex observations in an abstract realm. A machine on the other hand can only discover and infere based on a substrate of structured and interlinked data, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0xdda2b88">information</a>, or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id0xcf58b18">knowledge</a> in a concrete human created realm e.g., a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10f3d640">Linked Data</a>.</p> As is quite common these days, <a href="http://yihongs-research.blogspot.com/" id="link-id10ecf268">Yihong Ding</a> has written another great piece titled: <a href="http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=542&doc_id=163916l" id="link-id10fb6558">A New Take on Internet-Based AI</a>, that delves into this specific matter. Yihong expresses an vital insight as excerpted below: <blockquote> <cite>"Artificial intelligence is supposed to let machines do things for people. The risk is that we may rely too much on them. Two months ago, for instance, writer Nicolas Carr asked whether <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google" id="link-id115e9bb8">Google is making us stupid</a>. In my recent <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id10d9ceb0">blog</a> series "<a href="http://altsearchengines.com/2008/08/22/the-age-of-google-part-1-of-4/" id="link-id10c8de60">The Age of Google</a>," I extended Carr’s discussion. Due to the success of Google, we are relying more on objective search than on active thinking to answer questions. In consequence, the more Google has advanced its service, the farther Google users have drifted from active thinking</cite>."</blockquote> <blockquote> <cite>"But at least one form of human thinking cannot be replaced by machines. I am not talking about inference/discovery (which machines may be capable of doing) but about creation/generation-from-nothing (which I don’t believe machines may ever do)."</cite> </blockquote> <p>I tend to describe our ability to create/generate-from-nothing as "Zero-based Cognition", which is initially about "thought" and the eventually about "speed of thought dissemination" and "global thought meshing". </p> <p>In a peculiar sense, Zero-based cognition is analogous to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Zero_Based_Budgeting" id="link-id10ccbf78">Zero-based budgeting</a> from the accounting realm :-)</p>
2008-10-17T07:23:42.000003-04:00
Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0 (Yet Again)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-15#1439
2008-09-15T17:33:44Z
<p>If your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> presence doesn't extend beyond (X)HTML web pages, you are only participating in Web usage Dimension 1.0.</p> <p>If your Web presence goes beyond (X)HTML pages, via the addition of REST or SOAP based Web Services, then you re participating in Web usage dimension 2.0.</p> <p>If you Web presence includes all of the above, with the addition of structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> interlinked with structured data across other points of presence on the Web, then you are participating in Web usage dimension 3.0 i.e., "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14d48d30">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id14d47280">Web</a>" or "Web of Data" or "Data Web".</p> <p>BTW - If you've already done all of the above, and you have started building intelligent agents that exploit the aforementioned structured interlinked data substrate, then you are already in Web usage dimension 4.0.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul>Prior posts about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20evolution&type=text&output=html" id="link-id10e8b978">Web usage pattern evolution</a> </ul>
2008-09-15T13:48:15-04:00
The Trouble with Labels
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-12#1438
2008-09-12T01:47:05Z
<p>Unfortunately our fixation with "Labels" and the artificial link that exist between "Labels" and so-called "first mover advantage" continue to impede our progress to clarity about matters such as a fully functional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of interlinked <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>.</p> <p> A while back I watched <a href="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/kevin_kelly_on_the_next_5_000_days_of_the_web.html" id="link-id14c2c740">Kevin Kelly's 5,000 days presentation at TED</a>. During the presentation, I kept on scratching my head, wondering why phrases like "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xb154550">Linked Data</a>", "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xb5927b8">Semantic Web</a>", "Web of Data", "Data Web" where so unnaturally disconnected from his session narrative.</p> <p>Yesterday I watched <a href="http://www.techcrunch50.com/2008/conference/presenter.php?presenter=63#video" id="link-id14f6e1a8">IMINDI's TechCrunch 50 presentation</a>, and once again I saw the aforementioned pattern repeat itself. This time around, the poor founders of this "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0xae767f0">Web</a>" oriented company (which is what they are in reality) took a totally undeserved pasting from a bunch of panelist incapable of seeing beyond today (Web 2.0) and yesterday (initial Web bootstrap).</p> <p>Anyway, thanks to the Web, this post will make a small contribution towards re-connecting the missing phrases to these "Linked Data Web" presentations.</p>
2008-09-16T10:07:49.000015-04:00
Business Value of Linked Data (Enterprise Angle)?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-11#1437
2008-09-11T18:59:24Z
<p>All enterprises run IS/MIS/EIS systems that are supposed to enable optimized exploitation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1408bee8">information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id14c429a8">knowledge</a>. Unfortunately, applications, services (SOAP or REST), database engines, middleware, operating systems, programming languages, development frameworks, network protocols, network topologies, or some other piece of infrastructure, eventually lay claim (possessively) to the data.</p> <p>Courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10f98db8">Linked Data</a>, we are now able to extend the "document to document" linking mechanism of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> (Hypertext Linking) to more granular "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id14410810">entity</a> to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id10dbb420">entity</a>" level linking. And in doing so, we have a layer of abstraction that in one swoop alleviates all of the infrastructure oriented data access impediments of yore. I know this sounds simplistic, but be rest assured, imbibing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14b6af20">Linked Data</a>'s value proposition is really just that simple, once you engage solutions (e.g. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14ce6a20">Virtuoso</a>) that enable you to deploy <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1151c718">Linked Data</a> across your enterprise.</p> <h3>Example: </h3> <p>Microsoft ACCESS, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id14ef3b08">SQL</a> Server, and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10d865b8">Virtuoso</a> all use the Northwind <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id10b04250">SQL</a> DB Schema as the basis of the demonstration database shipped with each DBMS product. This schema is comprised of common IS/MIS entities that include: Customers, Contacts, Orders, Products, Employees etc.</p> <p>What we all really want to do as data, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id110dd7a0">information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id11484408">knowledge</a> consumers and/or dispatchers, is be no more than a single "mouse click" away from relevant data/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id10c755c8">information</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id1464ac88">knowledge</a> data access and/or exploration. Even better (but not always so obvious), we also want anyone in our network (company, division, department, cube-cluster) to inherit these data access efficiencies.</p> <p>In this example, the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI" id="link-id14ab8ed0">Web Page about the Customer "ALKI"</a> provides <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id14bdb360">me</a> with a myriad of exploration and data access paths e.g., when I click on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id10c388e0">foaf</a>:primarytopic property value link.</p> <p>This simple example, via a single Web Page, should put to rest any doubts about the utility of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xb042fd8">Linked Data</a>. Of course this is <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=alfki&type=text&output=html" id="link-id10ccccf0">an old demo</a>, but this time around the UI is minimalist as my prior attempts skipped a few steps i.e., starting from within a <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10f8a530">Linked Data explorer/browser</a>.</p> <p>Important note: I haven't exported <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x16dfc2a0">SQL</a> into an RDF data warehouse, I am converting the SQL into RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> on the fly which has two fundamental benefits:</p> <ol> <li>No vulnerability to changes in the source DBMS</li> <li>Superior performance over the RDF warehouse since the source schema is SQL based and I can leverage the optimization of the underlying SQL engine when translating between <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0xd9a4030">SPARQL</a> and SQL.</li> </ol> <p>Enjoy!</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1434" id="link-id11338a48">Requirements for Relational to RDF Mapping</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1433" id="link-id10d84278">Handling Graph Transitivity in a SQL/RDF Hybrid Engine</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/oerling/weblog/Orri%20Erling%27s%20Blog/1431" id="link-id10c762e8">How Virtuoso handles the Web Aspects of Linked Data Queries</a>.</li> </ol>
2008-09-11T15:52:48.000050-04:00
Linked Data, Ubiquity Commands, and Resource Descriptions (Update 3)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-05#1430
2008-09-05T05:43:00Z
<div> <p> <a href="http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/" id="link-id11258ea0">Ubiquity</a> from <a href="http://labs.mozilla.com/" id="link-id112ebe28">Mozilla Labs</a>, provides an alternative entry point for experiencing the "Controller" aspect of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0xa0d2ccd0">Web</a>'s natural compatibility with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Model-view-controller" id="link-id10ec1a08">MVC</a> development pattern. As I've noted (in <a href="http://myopenlink.net/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=kidehen-blog-0&q=mvc&type=text&output=html" id="link-id15390f28">various posts</a>) <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services, as practiced by the REST oriented Web 2.0 community or SOAP oriented SOA community within the enterprise, is fundamentally about the ("Controller" aspect of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Model-view-controller" id="link-id13c0d758">MVC</a>. </p> <p>Ubiquity provides a commandline interface for direct invocation of Web Services. For instance, in our case, we can expose the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10b04708">Virtuoso</a>'s in-built <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20middleware&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1113ae38">RDF Middleware</a> ("Sponger") and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1457b3b8">Linked Data</a> deployment services via a single command of the form: describe-resource <url> </p> <p>To experience this neat addition to Firefox you need to do the following:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="https://people.mozilla.com/%7Eavarma/ubiquity-0.1.1.xpi" id="link-id13b15e88">Download</a> and install the Ubiquity Extension for Firefox</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ubiq" id="link-id10e85880">Subscribe</a> to the OpenLink Command for Resource Description</li> <li>Click on CTRL+Space (Windows / Linux) or Option+Space (Mac OS X)</li> <li>Type in: describe-resource <a-web-resource-url> </li> </ol> <h3>How to unsubscribe</h3> At the current time, you need to do this if you've installed commands using ubiquity 0.1.0 and seek to use newer versions of the same commands after upgrading to ubiquity 0.1.1. <ol> <li>To unsubscribe use type "about:ubiquity" into browser</li> <li>Click on unsubscribe links associated with you command subscription list</li> </ol> <p>Enjoy!</p> </div>
2008-09-08T09:00:51-04:00
What's Up with Chrome?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-03#1429
2008-09-03T20:33:32Z
<p>Here are a few descriptions of pages covering Google's Chrome browser:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/09/03/google-chrome-my-verdict/" id="link-id14b2ad20">Daniel Lewis</a> - Comparative Analysis</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/rdf/http://www.crunchbase.com/product/chrome%23this" id="link-id120f35d0">CrunchBase</a> - Product Page</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/381659273/" id="link-id13e28090">GigaOM</a> - Industry Analysis</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome" id="link-id10db3e48">Wikipedia</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10031661-56.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20" id="link-id14a17f78">CNET</a> - Privacy Issues Analysis</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/vF9P80B90XI/security_flaw_in_google_chrome.php" id="link-id14bdf6a8">ReadWriteWeb</a> - Security Issues Analysis</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/chromes-evil-terms-of-service.html" id="link-id140af0a8">OakLeaf</a> - SaaS Terms Analysis</li> </ul> <p>As per usual, this is part post and part <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id140af0a8">Linked Data</a> demo. This time around, I am showcasing Proxy/Wrapper based dereferencable URIs and a new "Page Description" feature that showcases the capabilities of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id11291898">Virtuoso</a>'s in-built RDFization Middleware. Also note, the resource descriptions (RDF) are presented using an HTML page.</p>
2008-09-04T08:39:02.000014-04:00
Programming the Universe
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-09-02#1428
2008-09-02T17:03:59Z
<p>I continue to be intrigued by <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThinkingSpace" id="link-id14aa0000">Yihong Ding's</a> shared insights as expressed in part 2 of his <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id17b07d90">blog</a> series titled: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThinkingSpace/~3/381149959/programming-universe-part-two.html" id="link-id10c9f740">Programming the Universe</a>. The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id10fbc0f8">blog</a> series shares Yihong's thoughts and reflections stimulated by the book, also titled: <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Programming-Universe-Quantum-Computer-Scientist/dp/1400033861/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1217201256&sr=1-1" id="link-id14a34190">Programming the Universe</a>.</p> <p> What strikes <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id111dd940">me</a> the most, is how sharing his findings act as serendipitous connectors to related insights and points of view, that ultimately create deeper shared <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id10d78460">knowledge</a> about the core subject matter, courtesy of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> hosted Blogosphere.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1390" id="link-id1723bd88">Metcalfe, Einstein, and Linked Data.</a> </li> </ul>
2008-09-03T07:56:50-04:00
Connecting Freebase, Wikipedia, DBpedia, and other Linked Data Spaces (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-29#1427
2008-08-29T17:53:47Z
<p>Here are some demonstrations of (X)HTML based representations of resource descriptions from <a href="http://www.freebase.com" id="link-id12275470">Freebase</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id168abcc0">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists" id="link-id107c75c8">BBC Music Beta</a>, <a href="http://crunchbase.com" id="link-id1322e9a0">CrunchBase</a>, <a href="http://sw.opencyc.org" id="link-id16e09ea8">OpenCyc</a>, and <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id188687c0">UMBEL</a> etc. What is really being demonstrated here is the use of Proxy / Wrapper URIs to expose powerful links across entities distilled from their container documents (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13e117b0">information</a> resources). Of course, you see exactly the same technique in action whenever you visit <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10afe178">DBpedia</a> pages. Again, we are moving the concept of Linking from the document to document level, down to the document-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id16032730">entity</a> to document-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id13eef3d8">entity</a> level. The evolution of network link focal points is illustrated in slides <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html#(15)" id="link-id183523a8">15</a> to <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html#(22)" id="link-id18270200">22</a> of my <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html" id="link-id16f0a7c8">Linked Data Planet presentation</a> remix.</p> <h3>Live Examples</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://www.freebase.com/view/en/abraham_lincoln" id="link-id11cf00b8">Abraham Lincoln</a> - Freebase (note: link from Freebase to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id17db1620">DBpedia</a> via Wikipedia)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://www.crunchbase.com/company/amazon" id="link-id171d9930">Amazon</a> - CrunchBase (note: links from CruncBase to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0x1ed41510">DBpedia</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/artists/cc197bad-dc9c-440d-a5b5-d52ba2e14234" id="link-id10a01dc0">Cold Play</a> - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/BBC" id="link-id12fa5648">BBC</a> Music Beta (note: links to <a href="http://musicbrainz.org/" id="link-id126f71c8">Musicbrainz</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html" id="link-id1732e820">Linked Data Planet Presentation</a> - Also a Slidy, Bibo Ontology, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id104869a8">RDFa</a> usage example</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://sw.opencyc.org/2008/06/10/concept/en/Music" id="link-id1699d628">Music</a> - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id126c74f0">OpenCyc</a> Concept which exposes a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15687380">Hyperdata</a> link to its equivalent <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy/html/http://umbel.org/ns/sc/Music" id="link-id13ebbac0">UMBEL Subject Concept</a> and back</li> </ol> <h4> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10537a28">Virtuoso</a>'s RDFization Middleware & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10869440">Linked Data</a> Deployment Architecture Diagram</h4> <div> <table border="1"> <tr> <td><br /> <br /> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/ldp_presentation/images/linked_data_gen_opts3.png" /> <br /> <br /> </td> </tr> </table> </div> <p>Note: You can substitute my examples using any <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> resource <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id105a3e20">URL</a>. The underlying RDFization and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id18155cd0">Linked Data</a> deployment functionality of the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f56ed0">Virtuoso</a> demo instance takes care of everything else. Also note that the HTML based resource description page capability is now deployed as part of the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id17db1128">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id100a7630">Sponger</a> component of every <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id109eed20">Virtuoso</a> installation starting with from version <a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/shownotes.php?group_id=161622&release_id=622380" id="link-id1441f530">5.0.8.</a> </p>
2008-08-29T14:57:02.000001-04:00
Is the Semantic Web necessary (and feasible)?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-29#1426
2008-08-29T15:00:50Z
<p>Here is another "Linked Discourse" effort via a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id13edcda8">blog</a> post that attempts to add perspective to a developing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> based conversation. In this case, the conversation originates from <a href="http://geekaustin.org" id="link-id15a33728">Juan Sequeda</a>'s recent interview with <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/luxzia" id="link-id182a4a80">Jana Thompson</a> titled: <a href="http://geekaustin.org/2008/08/21/juan-sequeda-jana-thompson-necessity-semantic-web/" id="link-id146e1f40">Is the Semantic Web necessary (and feasible)?</a> </p> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: What are the benefits you see to the business community in adopting semantic technology? </cite> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id1941e3b0">Me</a>: Exposure, exploitation, of untapped treasure trove of interlinked <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13593fc0">information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id1290c318">knowledge</a> across disparate IT infrastructure via conceptual entry points (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id107bad60">Entity</a> IDs / URIs / Data Source Names) that refer to as "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id15fab9f8">Context</a> Lenses".</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Jana: Do you think these benefits are great enough for businesses to adopt the changes?</cite> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x584ffe0">Me</a>: Yes, infrastructural heterogeneity is a fact of corporate life (growth, mergers, acquisitions etc). Any technology that addresses these challenges is extremely important and valuable. Put differently, the opportunity costs associated with IT infrastructural heterogeneity remains high!</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: How large do you think this impact will actually be?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Huge, enterprise have been aware of their data, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x1b8057b0">information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id0x1b3e3760">knowledge</a> treasure troves etc. for eons. Tapping into these via a materialization of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> at your fingertips" vision is something they've simply been waiting to pursue without any platform lock-in, for as long as I've been in this industry.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: I’ve heard, from contacts in the Bay Area, that they are skeptical of how large this impact of semantic technology will actually be on the web itself, but that the best uses of the technology are for fields such as medical information, or as you mentioned, geo-spatial data.</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Unfortunately, those people aren't connecting the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10a337d8">Semantic Web</a> and open access to heterogeneous data sources, or the intrinsic value of holistic exploration location of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0xaa58c520">entity</a> based data networks (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id188a1910">Linked Data</a>).</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Jana: Are semantic technologies going to be part of the web because of people championing the cause or because it is actually a necessary step?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x9eb9aca0">Linked Data</a> technology on the Web is a vital extension of the current Web. Semantic Technology without the "Web" component, or what I refer to as "Semantics Inside only" solutions, simply offer little or no value as Web enhancements based on their incongruence with the essence of the Web i.e., "Open Linkage" and no Silos! A nice looking Silo is still a Silo.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: In the early days of the web, there was an explosion of new websites, due to the ease of learning HTML, from a business to a person to some crackpot talking about aliens. Even today, CSS and XHTML are not so difficult to learn that a determined person can’t learn them from W3C or other tutorials easily. If OWL becomes the norm for websites, what do you think the effects will be on the web? Do you think it is easy enough to learn that it will be readily adopted as part of the standard toolkit for web developers for businesses?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Correction, learning HTML had nothing to do with the Web's success. The value proposition of the Web simply reached critical mass and you simply couldn't afford to not be part of it. The easiest route to joining the Web juggernaut was a Web Page hosted on a Web Site. The question right now is: what's the equivalent driver for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id12e25c98">Web</a> bearing in mind the initial Web bootstrap. My answer is simply this: Open Data Access i.e., getting beyond the data silos that have inadvertently emerged from Web 2.0.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Jana: Following the same theme, do you think this will lead to an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id17041398">internet</a> full of corporate-controlled websites, with sites only written by developers rather than individuals?</cite> </blockquote> <p> Me: Not at all, we will have an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id0x16a4abe0">Internet</a> owned by it's participants i.e., You and the agents that work on your behalf.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: So, you are imagining technologies such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id107d1d70">Drupal</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id13f48db8">Wordpress</a>, that allow users to manage sites without a great deal of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge">knowledge</a> of the nuts and bolts of current web technologies?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Not at all! I envisage simple forms that provide conduits to powerful meshes of interlinked data spaces associated with Web users.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: Given all of the buzz, and my own familiarity with ontology, I am just very curious if the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1955d360">semantic web</a> is truly necessary? </cite> </blockquote> <p>Me:This question is no different than saying: I hear the Web is becoming a Database, and I wonder if a Data Dictionary is necessary, or even if access to structured data is necessary. It's also akin to saying: I accept "Search" as my only mechanism for Web interaction even though in reality, I really want to be able to "Find" and "Process" relevant things at a quicker rate than I do today, relative to the amount of information, and information processing time, at my disposal.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: Will it be worth it to most people to go away from the web in its current form, with keyword searches on sites like Google, to a richer and more interconnected internet with potentially better search technology?</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: As stated above, we need to add "Find" to the portfolio of functions we seek to perform against the Web. "Finding" and "Searching" are mutually inclusive pursuits at different ends of an activity spectrum.</p> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Jana: For our more technical readers, I have a few additional questions: If no standardization comes about for mapping relational databases to domain ontologies, how do you see that as influencing the decisions about adoption of semantic technology by businesses? After all, the success of technology often lives or dies on its ease of adoption.</cite> </blockquote> <p>Me: Standardization of<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/Rdb2RdfXG/StateOfTheArt" id="link-id10abbc30"> RDBMS to RDF Mapping</a> is not the critical success factor here (of course it would be nice). As stated earlier, the issue of data integration that arises from IT infrastructural heterogeneity has been with decision makers in the enterprise for ever. The problem is now seeping into the broader consumer realm via Web ubiquity. The mistakes made in the enterprise realm are now playing out in the consumer Web realm. In both realms the critical success factors are:</p> <ol> <li> Scalable productivity relative to exponential growth of data generated across Intranets, Extranets, and the Internet</li> <li>Concept based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id0x114e6888">Context</a> Lenses that transcend logical and physical data heterogeneity by putting dereferencable URIs in front of the Line of Business Application Data and/or Web Data Spaces such as Blogs, Wikis, Discussion Forums etc.).</li> </ol>
2008-08-29T11:08:12.000002-04:00
The Essence of the Matter re. Information Overload
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-28#1425
2008-08-28T12:17:55Z
<p>The title of this post is an expression of my gut reaction to the quotes below, which originate from <a href="http://leobard.twoday.net/" id="link-id104b2308">Leo Sauermann</a>'s post about the <a href="http://leobard.twoday.net/stories/5151765/" id="link-id1889d5d8">Nepomuk Semantic Desktop for KDE</a>:</p> <blockquote> <cite><strong>Ansgar Bernardi</strong>, deputy head of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id16d79970">Knowledge</a> Management Department at Deutsches Forschungszentrum für Künstliche Intelligenz (DFKI, or the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence) and Nepomuk's coordinator, explains, "The basic problem that we all face nowadays is how to handle vast amounts of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13a01b58">information</a> at a sensible rate." According to Bernardi, Nepomuk takes a traditional approach by creating a meta-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> layer with well-defined elements that services can be built upon to create and manipulate the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id102433e8">information</a>.</cite> </blockquote> <p> The comment above echoes my sentiments about the imminence of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x10dd6c20">information</a> overload" due to the vast amounts of user generated content on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id139926b0">Internet</a> as a whole. We are going to need to process more an more data within a fixed 24 hour timeframe, while attempting to balance our professional and personal lives. Be rest assured, this is a very serious issue, and you cannot event begin to address it without a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id188ebc20">Linked Data</a>.</p> <blockquote> <cite>"The first idea of building the semantic desktop arose from the fact that one of our colleagues could not remember the girlfriends of his friends," Bernard says, more than half-seriously. "Because they kept changing -- you know how it is. The point is, you have a vast amount of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> on your desktop, hidden in files, hidden in emails, hidden in the names and structures of your folders. Nepomuk gives a standard way to handle such information."</cite> </blockquote> <p>If you get a personal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id171dd2e0">URI</a> for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id18294318">Entity</a> "You", via a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id188a1b10">Linked Data</a> aware platform (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id167ad840">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>) that virtualizes data across your existing Web data spaces (blogs, feed subscriptions, wikis, shared bookmarks, photo galleries, calendars, etc.), you then only have to remember your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id171c3ef0">URI</a> whenever you need to "Find" something, imagine that!</p> <p>To conclude, "information overload" is the imminent challenge of our time, and the keys to challenge alleviation lie in our ability to construct and maintain (via solutions) few <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1074ade0">context</a> lenses (URIs) that provide coherent conduits into the dense mesh of structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xd30b090">Linked Data</a> on the Web. </p>
2008-08-28T15:56:20-04:00
Crunchbase & Semantic Web Interview (Remix - Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-27#1424
2008-08-27T18:16:37Z
<p>After reading <a href="http://blog.crunchbase.com/2008/08/26/building-a-semantic-web-interview-with-benjamin-nowack/" id="link-id16b8e0e0">Bengee's interview with CrunchBase</a>, I decided to knock up a quick interview remix as part of my usual attempt to add to the developing discourse.</p> <blockquote> <cite><a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/" id="link-id17c8e7b8">CrunchBase</a>: When we released the <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/help/api" id="link-id16681f68">CrunchBase API</a>, you were one of the first developers to step up and quickly released a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com's%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1395" id="link-id1016d5f0">CrunchBase Sponger Cartridge</a>. Can you explain what a CrunchBase Sponger Cartridge is?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13243300">Me</a>: A Sponger Cartridge is a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access driver for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Resources that plugs into our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id17042f08">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1399b588">Universal Server</a> (DBMS and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id137fd188">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id100b23d8">Web</a> Server combo amongst other things). It uses the internal structure of a resource and/or a web service associated with a resource, to materialize an RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10418750">Linked Data graph</a> that essentially describes the resource via its properties (Attributes & Relationships). </blockquote> <br /> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/images/ldp4.png" /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: And what inspired you to create it?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id12fa60c0">Me</a>: Bengee built a new space with your data, and we've built a space on the fly from your data which still resides in your domain. Either solution extols the virtues of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101a8d28">Linked Data</a> i.e. the ability to explore relationships across data items with high degrees of serendipity (also colloquially known as: following-your-nose pattern in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id14a3ff30">Semantic Web</a> circles).</blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://cb.semsol.org/" id="link-id182a0170">Bengee</a> posted a notice to the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id131e8d10">Linking Open Data Community</a>'s public <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2008Jul/0110.html" id="link-id11dd0720">mailing list announcing his effort</a>. Bearing in mind the fact that we've been using <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1144" id="link-id117cf6e8">middleware to mesh the realms of Web 2.0 and the Linked Data Web</a> for a while, it was a no-brainer to knock something up based on the conceptual similarities between <a href="http://wikicompany.org/wiki/Main_Page" id="link-id13b87a68">Wikicompany</a> and CrunchBase. In a sense, a quadrant of orthogonality is what immediately came to mind re. Wikicompany, CrunchBase, Bengee's RDFization efforts, and ours.</blockquote> <blockquote>Bengee created an RDF based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id133c8fc8">Linked Data</a> warehouse based on the data exposed by your API, which is exposed via the <a href="http://cb.semsol.org/" id="link-id1826f928">Semantic CrunchBase</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id102d8890">data space</a>. In our case we've taken the "RDFization on the fly" approach which produces a transient <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16a0b8d0">Linked Data</a> View of the CrunchBase data exposed by your APIs. Our approach is in line with our world view: all resources on the Web are data sources, and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1668e6c8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id188e7da0">Web</a> is about incorporating HTTP into the naming scheme of these data sources so that the conventional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id13490710">URL</a> based hyperlinking mechanism can be used to access a structured description of a resource, which is then transmitted using a range negotiable representation formats. In addition, based on the fact that we house and publish a lot of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id169aa568">Linked Data</a> on the Web (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10af10e8">DBpedia</a>, <a href="http://www.pingthesemanticweb.com/about/" id="link-id10a2b710">PingTheSemanticWeb</a>, and others), we've also automatically meshed Crunchbase data with related data in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1403cd40">DBpedia</a> and Wikicompany data.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: Do you know of any apps that are using CrunchBase Cartridge to enhance their functionality?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id177d24c8">Me</a>: Yes, the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10725ca0">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> which provides CrunchBase site visitors with the option to explore the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17dedea8">Linked Data</a> in the CrunchBase <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id13f02a00">data space</a>. It also allows them to "Mesh" (rather than "Mash") CrunchBase data with other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11fb3ba0">Linked Data</a> sources on the Web without writing a single line of code. </blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: You have been immersed in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id12e18a00">Semantic Web</a> movement for a while now. How did you first get interested in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id15132110">Semantic Web</a>?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0xddaa9c8">Me</a>: We saw the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id188b3330">Semantic Web</a> as a vehicle for standardizing conceptual views of heterogeneous data sources via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10350978">context</a> lenses (URIs). In 1998 as part of our strategy to expand our business beyond the development and deployment of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id171d6798">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id138120a0">JDBC</a>, and OLE-DB data providers, we decided to build a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id13ea6618">Virtual Database</a> Engine (see: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSHistory" id="link-id11a4fa30">Virtuoso History</a>), and in doing so we sought a standards based mechanism for the conceptual output of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id101a1248">data virtualization</a> effort. As of the time of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html" id="link-id18882cf8">seminal unveiling of the Semantic Web in 1998</a> we were clear about two things, in relation to the effects of the Web and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id12fa2c58">Internet</a> data management infrastructure inflections: 1) Existing DBMS technology had reached it limits 2) Web Servers would ultimately hit their functional limits. These fundamental realities compelled us to develop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id102b09a0">Virtuoso</a> with an eye to leveraging the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id11984d98">Semantic Web</a> as a vehicle from completing its technical roadmap.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: Can you put into layman’s terms exactly what RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1066dcf0">SPARQL</a> are and why they are important? Do they only matter for developers or will they extend past developers at some point and be used by website visitors as well?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: RDF (Resource Description Framework) is a Graph based Data Model that facilitates resource description using the <a href="http://www.eslincanada.com/englishlesson2.html" id="link-id178b94a8">Subject, Predicate, and Object principle</a>. Associated with the core data model, as part of the overall framework, are a number of markup languages for expressing your descriptions (just as you express presentation markup semantics in HTML or document structure semantics in XML) that include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id188db0a8">RDFa</a> (simple extension of HTML markup for embedding descriptions of things in a page), N3 (a human friendly markup for describing resources), RDF/XML (a machine friendly markup for describing resources).</blockquote> <blockquote> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id188c2030">SPARQL</a> is the query language associated with the RDF Data Model, just as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id13f0ffe0">SQL</a> is a query language associated with the Relational Database Model. Thus, when you have RDF based structured and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id166874d0">linked data</a> on the Web, you can query against Web using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1016cc98">SPARQL</a> just as you would against an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id101c9708">Oracle</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id11cb0b18">SQL</a> Server/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_DB2" id="link-id10760ec0">DB2</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id1066c8c0">Informix</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id18894f40">Ingres</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-iddc9ebb0">MySQL</a>/etc.. DBMS using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id1030d120">SQL</a>. That's it in a nutshell.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: On your website you wrote that “RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id168e9ad0">SPARQL</a> as productivity boosters in everyday web development”. Can you elaborate on why you believe that to be true?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: I think the ability to discern a formal description of anything via its discrete properties is of immense value re. productivity, especially when the capability in question results in a graph of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x179f6328">Linked Data</a> that isn't confined to a specific host operating system, database engine, application or service, programming language, or development framework. RDF <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> is about infrastructure for the true materialization of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id13e475b8">Information</a> at Your Fingertips" vision of yore. Even though it's taken the emergence of RDF Linked Data to make the aforementioned vision tractable, the comprehension of the vision's intrinsic value have been clear for a very long time. Most organizations and/or individuals are quite familiar with the adage: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id13e38a30">Knowledge</a> is Power, well there isn't any <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id188b7348">knowledge</a> without accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id140415d0">Information</a>, and there isn't any accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id11a976e8">Information</a> without accessible Data. The Web has always be grounded in accessibility to data (albeit via compound container documents called Web Pages).</blockquote> <blockquote>Bottom line, RDF based Linked Data is about Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id1206bfb8">Data access by reference</a> using URIs (HTTP based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-idfaa6ce0">Entity</a> IDs / Data Object IDs / Data Source Names), and as I said earlier, the intrinsic value is pretty obvious bearing in mind the costs associated with integrating disparate and heterogeneous data sources -- across intranets, extranets, and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id188ecc68">Internet</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>CrunchBase: In his definition of Web 3.0, Nova Spivack proposes that the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id12e2d968">Semantic Web</a>, or Semanti<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id105744c0">c</a> Web technologies, will be force behind much of the innovation that will occur during Web 3.0. Do you agree with Nova Spivack? What role, if any, do you feel the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13fa4218">Semantic Web</a> will play in Web 3.0?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>Me: I agree with Nova. But I see Web 3.0 as a phase within the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id188c9000">Semantic Web</a> innovation continuum. Web 3.0 exists because Web 2.0 exists. Both of these Web versions express usage and technology focus patterns. Web 2.0 is about the use of Open Source technologies to fashion Web Services that are ultimately used to drive proprietary Software as Service (SaaS) style solutions. Web 3.0 is about the use of "Smart Data Access" to fashion a new generation of Linked Data aware Web Services and solutions that exploit the federated nature of the Web to maximum effect; proprietary branding will simply be conveyed via quality of data (cleanliness, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id188d2ef8">context</a> fidelity, and comprehension of privacy) exposed by URIs.</blockquote> <p>Here are some examples of the CrunchBase Linked Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id122756f8">Space</a>, as projected via our CruncBase Sponger Cartridge:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Famazon" id="link-id13e0fd18">Amazon.com</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fmicrosoft" id="link-id13eef9e0">Microsoft</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fgoogle" id="link-id13fe47a0">Google</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fapple" id="link-id170c73b8">Apple</a> </li> </ol>
2008-08-27T20:35:15-04:00
Nice Quote about Information Architecture & World Wide Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-27#1421
2008-08-27T14:47:12Z
<p>Even with the marginal degrees of serendipitous discovery that the current document oriented <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> offers, it's still possible to stumble across poignant gems such as this statement from <a href="http://www.inspireux.com/" id="link-id12432e10">InspireUX</a> :</p> <img alt="Image" src="http://www.inspireux.com/wp-content/uploads/67.gif" /> <br /> <br /> <p>The statement above resonates with a lot of my fundamental views about the essence of Web. It also drives right at the core of what we are trying to address with the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id121118f8">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> (ODE) which simply isn't about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1a7fcc00">Linked Data</a> visualization, but the combination of visualization, user interaction, and unobtrusive exposure and exploitation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> Entities culled from the existing Web of Linked Documents. ODE consumes and processes URIs or URLs. Thus, as long as the (X)HTML container / host document keeps URIs or URLs in "agent view", ODE will give you the option to interact with the-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>-behind Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x177c1dd0">information</a> resources (e.g., Web Pages, Images, Audio etc..)</p> <p>Do remember, "mission-critical" is no longer a corporate / enterprise theme. The lines of demarcation between the individual and enterprise are blurring at warp speed.</p>
2008-08-27T11:03:39-04:00
Virtuoso, Linked Data, and Linq2Rdf (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-26#1420
2008-08-26T12:36:05Z
<p>There are many challenges that have dogged attempts to mesh the DBMS & Object Technology realms for years, critical issues include:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access & manipulation impedance arising from Model mismatches between Relational Databases and Object Oriented & Object based Languages</li> <li> Record / Data Object Referencing by ID. </li> </ol> <p>The big deal about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resourcei/Language_Integrated_Query" id="link-id101df2c0">LINQ</a> has been the singular focus on addressing point 1, in particular.</p> <p>I've already written about the Linq2Rdf effort that meshes the best of .NET with the virtues of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10193ae8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id17143870">Web</a>". </p> <p>Here is an architecture diagram that seeks to illustrate the powerful data access and manipulation options that the combination of Linq2RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10595ce0">Linked Data</a> deliver:</p> <br /> <img alt="Image" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/linqtordf/linqtordf2.png" /> <p>What may not have been obvious to most in the past, is the fact that Mapping from Object Models to Relational Models wasn't really the solution to the problem at hand. Instead, the mapping should have been the other way around i.e., Relational to Object Model mapping. The emergence of RDF and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id11e5a240">RDBMS</a> to RDF mapping technology is what makes this age-old headache addressable in very novel ways.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.html" id="link-id10a9aa08">RDBMS to RDF Mapping</a> - W3C Workshop Presentation </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Relational_to_RDF_Mapping/Virtuoso_Relational_to_RDF_Mapping.html" id="link-id16d47330">Virtuoso RDBMS to RDF Mapping</a> - W3C Rdb2Rdf Incubator Group Presentation </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_RDF_Views/Virtuoso_RDF_Views_1.html" id="link-id1403c4c8">Creating RDF Views over SQL Data Sources</a> - Technology Tutorial</li> </ol>
2008-08-27T07:51:23.000002-04:00
DBpedia Architecture
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-22#1416
2008-08-22T02:50:07Z
<p>Here is a pictorial of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia">DBpedia</a>'s <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> Deployment & Data Management architecture:</p> <p> <br /> <img alt="Image" style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://wiki.dbpedia.org/files/virtuoso_linked_data_deployment.png" /> </p> <p>Key points:</p> <p> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com:80/virtuoso/rdfapiandsql.html" id="link-id13dcfb98">SPASQL</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> extension for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL">SQL</a>) enables the intelligent resource representation request handling and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a> dereferencing, that underlies "Linked Data" (i.e., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Hyperdata</a> Linking) to occur in-process.<br /> </p>
2008-08-21T22:50:09.000001-04:00
The Future of the Desktop
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-21#1415
2008-08-21T15:26:18Z
<p> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/" id="link-id13ba6d90">Jason Kolb</a> (who <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/08/the-future-of-t.html" id="link-id1524e210">initially</a> nudged me to chime in), and then <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/future_of_the_desktop.php" id="link-id13a182c0">ReadWriteWeb</a>, and of course <a href="http://www.twine.com/item/11bshgkbr-1k5/the-future-of-the-desktop" id="link-id13f1e1f0">Nova's Twine about the topic</a>, have collectively started an interesting discussion about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a>.vNext (3.0 and beyond) under the heading: The Future of the Desktop.</p> <p>My contribution to the developing discourse takes the form of a Q&A session. I've taken the questions posed and provided answers that express my particular points of view: </p> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Is the desktop of the future going to just be a web-hosted version of the same old-fashioned desktop metaphors we have today?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: No, it's going to be a more <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/webarch/" id="link-id1524d4a0">Web Architecture</a> aware and compliant variant exposed by appropriate metaphors.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The desktop of the future is going to be a hosted web service</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: A vessel for exploiting the virtues of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10827ad0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id155bc698">Web</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Browser is Going to Swallow Up the Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Literally, of course not! Metaphorically, of course! And then the Browser metaphor will decomposes into function specific bits of Web interaction amenable to orchestration by its users.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The focus of the desktop will shift from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1667e2e0">information</a> to attention</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: No! <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id104bb9c8">Knowledge</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id1524dd48">Information</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> sharing courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10723640">Hyperdata</a> & Hypertext Linking.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Users are going to shift from acting as librarians to acting as daytraders</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: They were Librarians at Web 1.0, Journalist at Web 2.0, and Analysts in Web 3.0 (i.e, analyze structured and interlinked data), and CEOs in Web 4.0 (i.e. get Agents to do stuff intelligently en route to making decisions).</blockquote> <blockquote> <br /> <cite>Q: The Webtop will be more social and will leverage and integrate collective intelligence</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13a01ed0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id106343a8">Web</a> vessel will only require you to fill in your profile (once) and then serendipitous discovery and meshing of relevant data will simply happen (the serendipity quotient will grow in line with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10560050">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id100f4940">Web</a> density).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The desktop of the future is going to have powerful semantic search and social search capabilities built-in</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: It is going to be able to "Find" rather than "Search" for stuff courtesy of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10a18a70">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10a976f0">Web</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite> Q: Interactive shared spaces will replace folders</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Data Spaces and their URIs (Data Source Names) replace everything. You simply choose the exploration metaphor that best suits you space interaction needs.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Portable Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Ubiquitous Desktop i.e. do the same thing (all answers above) on any device connected to the Web.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The Smart Desktop</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: Vessels with access to Smart Data (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1666e4e8">Linked Data</a> + Action driven <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id171d1ff0">Context</a> sprinklings).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Federated, open policies and permissions</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: More federation for sure, XMPP will become a lot more important, and OAuth will enable resurgence of the federated aspects of the Web and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id100a66a8">Internet</a>.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The personal cloud</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id104ba580">Personal Data Spaces</a> plugged into Clouds (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id15bbb970">Intranet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id1026d6b0">Extranet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id140508c8">Internet</a>).</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: The WebOS</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: An operating system endowed with traditional Database and Host Operating system functionality such as: RDF Data Model, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-idd86f48">SPARQL</a> Query Language, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id13f47268">URI</a> based <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointer" id="link-id1055bc78">Pointer mechanism</a>, and HTTP based message Bus.</blockquote> <br /> <blockquote> <cite>Q: Who is most likely to own the future desktop?</cite> </blockquote> <blockquote>A: You! And all you need is a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id106b79e8">URI</a> (an ID or Data Source Name for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id133c88a0">Entity</a> You") and a Profile Page (a place where "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id15fa8060">Entity</a> You" is Describe by You).</blockquote> <h3>One Last Thing</h3> <p>You can get a feel for the future desktop by <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/#Download" id="link-id165ec048">downloading</a> and then installing the <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id13baba38">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> plugin for Firefox, which allows you to switch viewing modes between Web Page and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13f12410">Linked Data</a> behind the page. :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id12496e48">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/GetAPersonalURIIn5MinutesOrLess" id="link-id1027f060">Get Yourself a URI in 5 Minutes or Less</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/DataPortability_and_DataSpaces/DataPortability_and_DataSpaces.html" id="link-id10890f70">Linked Data Spaces & Data Portability</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html" id="link-id137efdf8">Linked Data Conference Keynote</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id1239d300">RDFa</a> based remix edition that includes vital bits from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1317a048">TimBL</a>'s <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com/" id="link-id165f57c8">Linked Data Planet presentation</a>).</li> </ul>
2008-08-21T15:59:25.000001-04:00
Yahoo! and the Linked Data Web in a Nutshell
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-19#1414
2008-08-19T19:43:00Z
<p>This automated mail from Yahoo! speaks for itself re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id133de628">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1404ff40">Web</a> incomprehension!</p> <blockquote> <cite><p> Greetings! </p> <p> This is an automated email from Yahoo! Application Gallery. Please do not reply to this email message. We regret to inform you that your application '<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id1056e6e0">Blog</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id170bde38">Data Space</a>' has been rejected. You can view all your applications <a href="http://gallery.yahoo.com/mypage" id="link-id1045f988">here</a>. Moderator Comments: insufficient info </p> <p> Regards, </p> <p> The Yahoo! Application Gallery Team </p> <p> Your use of Yahoo! Application Gallery is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ </p> </cite> </blockquote> <h3>Message to Yahoo!:</h3> <p> Why bother? You clearly see the Web in a totally different light to the rest of us.</p> <p>If you want to private label the Web, then fine, just don't park your vehicle in the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id100a8000">Linked Data</a>" or "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1085c490">Semantic Web</a>" spots.</p> <p>The Web doesn't need any subjectivity bootstraps or booster-shots, it just needs open access to Structured and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> via URIs.</p> <h3>Kind of Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThinkingSpace/~3/369221488/age-of-google-4-future.html" id="link-id128d6fd8">Yihong Ding's Age of Google (4)</a> </li> </ul>
2008-08-19T17:54:38.000008-04:00
Response to: Whole Data Post (Update 3)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-15#1413
2008-08-15T13:06:12Z
<p>This post is in response to <a href="http://www.furia.com" id="link-id107907b8">Glenn McDonald</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=log&id=308" id="link-id13dcf2d0">Whole Data</a>, where he highlights a number of issues relating to "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1016c1f0">Semantic Web</a>" marketing communications and overall messaging, from his perspective.</p> <p> By coincidence, Glenn and I presented at this month's Cambridge <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-idd526f48">Semantic Web</a> Gathering.</p> <p>I've provided a dump of Glenn's issues and my responses below:</p> <h3>Issue - RDF</h3> <ul> <li>Ingenious <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> decomposition idea, but: </li> <li>too low-level; the assembly language of data, where we need Java or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id103f3dd0">Ruby</a> </li> <li>"resource" is not the issue; there's no such thing as "metadata", it's all data; "meta" is a perspective </li> <li>lists need to be effortless, not painful and obscure </li> <li>nodes need to be represented, not just implied; they need types and literals in a more pervasive, integrated way. </li> </ul> <h4>Response:</h4> <p>RDF is a Graph based Data Model it stands for Resource Description Framework. The Metadata data angle comes from it's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meta_Content_Framework" id="link-id1690df60">Meta Content Framework (MCF)</a> origins. You can express and serialize data based on the RDF Data Model using: Turtle, N3, TriX, N-Triples, and RDF/XML.</p> <h3>Issue - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10234b38">SPARQL</a> (and Freebase's MQL)</h3> <p>These are just appeasement: <br />- old query paradigm: fishing in dark water with superstitiously tied lures; only works well in carefully stocked lakes <br />- we don't ask questions by defining answer shapes and then hoping they're dredged up whole.</p> <h4>Response:</h4> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id16e45e50">SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://www.freebase.com/view/freebase/api" id="link-id13e7d468">MQL</a>, and <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb387145.aspx" id="link-id1516fbd8">Entity-SQL</a> are Graph Model oriented Query Languages. Query Languages always accompany Database Engines. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id13f8c100">SQL</a> is the Relational Model equivalent. </p> <h3>Issue - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id171dee68">Linked Data</a> </h3> <p>Noble attempt to ground the abstract, but: <br />- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1576d5f8">URI</a> dereferencing/namespace/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_world_assumption" id="link-id15f50180">open-world</a> issues focus too much technical attention on cross-source cases where the human issues dwarf the technical ones anyway <br />- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id105df458">FOAF</a> query over the people in this room? forget it. <br />- link asymmetry doesn't scale <br />- identity doesn't scale <br />- generating RDF from non-graph sources: more appeasement, right where the win from actually converting could be biggest! </p> <h4>Response:</h4> <p>Innovative use of HTTP to deliver "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_%28computer_science%29" id="link-id13eeab20">Data Access by Reference</a>" to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13492610">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id105dfc10">Web</a>.</p> <p>When you have a Data Model, Database Engine, and Query Language, the next thing you need is a Data Access mechanism that provides "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id100ef2c0">Data Access by Reference</a>". <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id16692e88">ODBC</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1699b970">JDBC</a> (amongst others) provide "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)" id="link-id16034b48">Data Access by Reference</a>" via Data Source Names. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16690118">Linked Data</a> is about the same thing (URIs are Data Source Names) with the following differences:</p> <ul> <li>Naming is scoped to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1195dc48">entity</a> level rather than container level</li> <li>HTTP's use within the data source naming scheme expands the referencability of the Named <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id10485760">Entity</a> Descriptions beyond traditional confines such as applications, operating systems, and database engines. </li> </ul> <h3> Issue - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id104684d0">Giant Global Graph</a> </h3> <p>Hugely motivating and powerful idea, worthy of a superhero (Graphius!), but: <br />- giant and global parts are too hard, and starting global makes every problem harder <br />- local projects become unmanageable in global <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id12497088">context</a> (Cyc, Freebase data-modeling lists...). And my thus my plea, again. Forget "semantic" and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a>", let's fix the database tech first: <br />- node/arc data-model, path-based exploratory query-model <br />- data-graph applications built easily on top of this common model; building them has to be easy, because if it's hard, they'll be bad <br />- given good database tech, good web data-publishing tech will be trivial! <br />- given good tools for graphs, the problems of uniting them will be only as hard as they have to be.</p> <h4>Response:</h4> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id144466d8">Giant Global Graph</a> is just another moniker for a "Web of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15c2c738">Linked Data</a>" or "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14e73520">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10aef200">Web</a>".</p> <p>Multi-Model Database technology that meshes the best of the Graph & Relational Models exist. In a nutshell, this is what <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13492e10">Virtuoso</a> is all about and it's existed for a very long time :-)</p> <p> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id105a4f58">Virtuoso</a> is also a Virtual DBMS engine (so you can see Heterogeneous Relational Data via Graph Model <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id15845110">Context</a> Lenses). Naturally, it is also a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id109e2c78">Linked Data</a> Deployment platform (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1086d650">Linked Data</a> Sever). </p> <p>The issue isn't the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id107f1ba8">Semantic Web</a>" moniker per se., it's about how <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xba72818">Linked Data</a> (foundation layer of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id101dbf50">Semantic Web</a>) gets introduced to users. As I said during the MIT Gathering: "The Web is experienced via Web Browsers primarily, so any enhancement to the Web must be exposed via traditional Web Browsers", which is why we've opted to simply add "View <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> Sources" to the existing set of common Browser options that includes:</p> <ol> <li>View page in rendered form (default)</li> <li>View page source (i.e., how you see the markup behind the page)</li> </ol> <p>By exposing the Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id15a04b70">Web</a> option as described above, you enable the Web user to knowingly transition from the traditional Rendered (X)HTML page view to the Linked Data View (i.e., structured data behind the page). This simple "User Interaction" tweak makes the notion of exploiting a Structured Web becomes somewhat clearer.</p> <p>The Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10a187d0">Web</a> isn't a panacea. It's just an addition to the existing Web that enrichens the things you can do with the Web. It's predominance, like any application feature, will be subject to the degrees to which it delivers tangible value or matrializes internal and external opportunity costs.</p> <p>Note: The Web isn't ubiquitous today becuase all it's users groked HTML Markup. It's ubquitity is a function of opportunity costs: there simply came a point in the Web boostrap when nobody could afford the opportunity costs associated with being off the Web. The same thing will play out with Linked Data and the broader <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10a97330">Semantic Web</a> vision.</p> <b>Links:</b> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2_TimBL_v3.html(15)" id="link-id137fc560">Linked Data Journey part of my Linked Data Planet Presentation Remix</a>(from slides 15 to 22 - which include bits from <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1048a968">TimBL</a>'s presentation)</li> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com" id="link-id1667df98">OpenLink Data Explorer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://ode.openlinksw.com/example.html" id="link-id137ee860">OpenLink Data Explorer Screenshots and examples</a>.</li> </ol>
2008-08-15T18:31:48-04:00
DBpedia 3.1 is now Live!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-13#1411
2008-08-13T17:54:31Z
<a href="http://dbpedia.org/About" id="link-id10afcac0">DBpedia</a> 3.1 is now live. The release highlights are as follows:<br /> <ul> <li>116,7 million triples (27% increase over prior release) </li> <li>better <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/%7Esuchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id14095ce0">YAGO</a> mapping (instances associated with YAGO classes)</li> <li>Geo extractor code has been improved and is now run for all 14 languages</li> <li>New (X)HTML based Resource/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1682b988">Entity</a> Description Page (Example:<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1045d8c0"> Linked Data</a>)</li> </ul>Enjoy!<br /> <br />
2008-08-14T08:15:47-04:00
.NET, LINQ, and RDF based Linked Data (Update 2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-03#1408
2008-08-03T16:07:09Z
<p>At OpenLink, we've been investigating <a href="http://code.google.com/p/linqtordf/" id="link-id1296eb18">LinqToRdf</a>, an exciting project from <a href="http://aabs.wordpress.com/" id="link-id13e860a8">Andrew Matthews</a> that seeks to expose the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id105d84f8">Semantic Web</a> technology space to the large community of .NET developers. </p> <p>The LinqToRdf project is about binding LINQ to RDF. It sits atop <a href="http://razor.occams.info/" id="link-id102e3b10">Joshua Tauberer</a>'s <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id1471b0d0">C</a># based <a href="http://razor.occams.info/code/semweb/" id="link-id14cb9030">Semantic Web/RDF library</a> which has been out there for a while and works across Microsoft .NET and it's open source variant "Mono".</p> <p>Historically, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13ee9f40">Semantic Web</a> realm has been dominated by RDF frameworks such as <a href="http://www.openrdf.org/" id="link-id109f8a68">Sesame</a>, <a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/" id="link-id144c3210">Jena</a> and <a href="http://librdf.org/" id="link-id10600228">Redland</a>; which by their Open Source orientation, predominantly favor non-Windows platforms (Java and Linux). Conversely, Microsoft's .NET frameworks have sought to offer Conceptualization technology for heterogeneous Logical <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Sources via .NET's <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id10726628">Entity Frameworks</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id13e7edd8">ADO.NET</a>, but without any actual bindings to RDF. </p> <p>Interestingly, believe it or not, .NET already has a data query language that shares a number of similarities with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1042f480">SPARQL</a>, called <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id105a46b0">Entity</a>-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id1041d2e8">SQL</a>, and a very innovative programming language called LINQ; that offers a blend of constructs for natural data access and manipulation across relational (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id139f5848">SQL</a>), hierarchical (XML), and graph (Object) models without the traditional object language->database impedance tensions of the past.</p> <p>With regards to all of the above, we've just released a mini white paper that covers the exploitation of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/linqtordf/linqtordf1.htm" id="link-id14b2f138">RDF-based Linked Data using .NET via LINQ</a>. The paper offers a an overview of LinqToRdf, plus enhancements we've contributed to the project (available in <a href="http://aabs.wordpress.com/2008/08/01/announcing-linqtordf-v08/" id="link-id101defa8">LinqToRdf v0.8</a>.). The paper includes real-world examples that tap into a MusicBrainz powered <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101ffd18">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id105cb858">Space</a>, the Music Ontology, the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f55860">Virtuoso</a> RDF Quad Store, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id12826718">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id1030cb60">Sponger</a> Middleware, and our RDfization Cartridges for Musicbrainz. </p> Enjoy!
2008-08-08T08:54:01.000002-04:00
Virtuoso's Universal Server Architecture (Conceptual & Technical)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-03#1406
2008-08-03T13:07:12Z
As they say, a picture speaks a thousand words, so I am exposing two views of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13fe7df8">Virtuoso</a> that have been on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> for while. <br /> <br />Remember, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f53ed0">Virtuoso</a> offers <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> management, data access, web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id109f04b0">application server</a>, enterprise service bus, and virtualization of disparate and heterogeneous data sources, as part of a single, multi threaded, cross-platform server solution; hence it's description as a "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id104d2e48">Universal Server</a>".<br /> <br />Conceptual View:<br /> <br /> <img alt="Image" style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/vconc650.jpg" /> <br /> <br />Technical View (kinda missing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id10660110">PHP</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id1053d9b8">Perl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id107bc9c0">Python</a> runtime hosting in the Virtual Application Sever realm):<br /> <br /> <img alt="Image" style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/images/virtuoso3arch.gif" /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x13cf3798">Virtuoso</a>'s architecture is not a reaction to current trends. The diagrams above are pretty old (with minor touch ups in recent times). At <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id13e194c0">OpenLink Software</a>, we've have a consistent world-view re. standards and the vital role they play when it comes to developing software that enables the construction and exploitation of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id133c84a8">Context</a> Lenses" that tap into a substrate of Virtualized Logical Data Sources (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id104d1c30">SQL</a>, XML, RDF, Web Services, Full Text etc.).<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
2008-08-05T18:07:45-04:00
Time for Context Lenses (Update)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-02#1405
2008-08-02T19:06:57Z
As the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id13dfe618">Linked Data meme</a> continues on it's quest to unravel the mysteries of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10527b30">Semantic Web</a> vision, it's quite gratifying to see that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id104f58b0">data virtualization</a> comprehension: creating "Conceptual Views" into logically organized "Disparate & Heterogeneous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Sources" via "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id14a46998">Context</a> Lenses" is taking shape, as illustrated in the "<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/SemanticBusiness/%7E3/353668031/note-to-self-virtualconceptual-as-wwwsw.html" id="link-id13179dd8">note-to-self</a>" post by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidprovost" id="link-id1403dc88">David Provost</a>.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />Virtualization of heterogeneous data sources is only achievable if you have a dexterous data model based "Bus" into which the data sources are plugged. RDF has offered such a model for a long time.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <img alt="Image" style="max-width: 800px;" src="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/diagrams/sw-clients.png" /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />When heterogeneous data sources are plugged into an RDF based integration bus e.g., customer records sourced from a variety of tables, across a plethora of databases, you can only end up with true value if the emergent entities from such an effort are coherently linked and (de)referencable; which is what <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id12b06e20">Linked Data</a>'s fundamental preoccupation with dereferencable URIs is all about. Of course, Even when you have all of the above in place, you also need to be able to construct "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id103c2c80">Context</a> Lenses" i.e., <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id1037a260">context</a> driven views of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13e48ab8">Linked Data</a> Mesh (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101c7718">Linked Data</a> Spaces).<br /> <br /> <br />Additional Diagrams:<br /> <br /> <br />1. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2824%29" id="link-id10808cb8">Clients of the RDF Bus</a> <br />2. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2825%29" id="link-id11e5a300">RDF Bus Server plugins: Scripts that emit RDF</a> <br />3. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2826%29" id="link-id13ea46a0">RDF Bus Servers: RDF Data Managers (Triple or Quad Stores)</a> <br />4. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2827%29" id="link-id101d3470">RDF Bus Servers: Relational to RDF Mappers (RDF Views, Semantic Covers etc.)</a> <br />5. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2828%29" id="link-id1052c450">RDF Bus Server plugins: XML to RDF Mappers </a> <br />6. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2829%29" id="link-id10281ec0">RDF Bus Server plugins: GRDDL based XSLT stylesheets that emit RDF</a> <br />7. <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/#%2830%29" id="link-id1444faf0">RDF Bus Server plugins: Intelligent RDF Middleware</a> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />
2008-08-04T11:24:50.000001-04:00
Linked Data, Meshups, Twitter, and Friendfeed
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-08-01#1402
2008-08-01T02:11:31Z
<p>Here are some links from my Friendfeed and Twitter <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Spaces that expose a number of recent <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xa91a798">Linked Data</a> "Meshup" examples:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://friendfeed.com/kidehen" id="link-id101740a8">Friendfeed</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://twitter.com/kidehen" id="link-id104baa80">Twitter</a> </li> </ul> <p>Enjoy!</p>
2008-07-31T22:17:35-04:00
WUPnP Cheatsheet
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-07-28#1397
2008-07-29T03:37:55Z
<p> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/07/28/wupnp-cheatsheet/#comments" id="link-id133b9048">WUPnP Cheatsheet</a>: "</p> <p>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1ccdfc68">Web</a> Universal Plug and Play (<acronym title="Web Universal Plug and Play">WUPnP</acronym>) Cheatsheet:</p> <p> <img src="http://vanirsystems.com/images/wupnparch.png" alt="Web Universal Plug and Play (WUPnP) Cheatsheet" width="50%" /> </p> <p>Essentially, if you build an application and use the technologies suggested in the ‘glue section’ then your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1d626818">web</a> application/service (whether it’s front-end or back-end) will fit into many many other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a> applications/services… and therefore also more manageable for the future! This is WUPnP.</p> <p>Key technologies for making your services/applications as sticky as possible:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dereferenceable_Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1016cbd8">Dereferenceable URI’s</a> (which indicate <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id101d7790">HTTP</a> networking)</li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID" id="link-id12ea5e68">OpenID</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth" id="link-id12e1acf0">OAuth</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARQL" id="link-id133d34e0">SPARQL</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data" id="link-id106a7040">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id1072d890">RDF</a> (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDFa" id="link-id14040c38">RDFa</a>) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Ontology_Language" id="link-id1044dda8">OWL</a> </li> </ul> <p>Web-based plug and play fun!</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id10a15838">Daniel Lewis</a>.)</p>
2008-07-29T13:06:40-04:00
CrunchBase gets hooked up with the Linked Data Web!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-07-25#1395
2008-07-25T14:01:01Z
<p>It's getting really hot in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15eea8f8">Linked Data</a> land! Two days ago <a href="http://bnode.org/about" id="link-id107e2f70">Benjamin Nowack</a> pinged the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id11b93670">LOD</a> community about his <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/2008Jul/0110.html" id="link-id1022a270">RDFization of Crunchbase</a> (sample (X)HTML view: http://cb.semsol.org/company/opera-software) courtesy of Crounchbase releasing an API. As you know, I've always equated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Service API to Database CLIs (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id16327528">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id1027f410">JDBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id10683850">ADO</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id13beb9b8">NET</a> etc.) as both offer code level hooks into <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Spaces.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Naturally, we've decided to join the Crunchbase RDFization party, and have just completed a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10282208">Virtuoso</a> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id10acf0f8">Sponger</a> Cartridge (an RDFizer) for Crouncbase. What we add in our particular cartridge is additional meshing with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id115e2a98">DBpedia</a> and Wikicompany <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id132f0568">Linked Data</a> Spaces, plus RDFizaton of the Crunchbase (X)HTML pages :-)</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>As I've postulated for a while, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13304010">Linked Data</a> is about data "Meshing" and "Meshups". This isn't a buzzword play. I am pointing out an important distinction between "Mashups" and "Meshpus". Which goes as follows: "Mashups" are about code level joining devoid of structured modelling, hence the revelation of code as opposed to data when you look behind a "Mashup". "Meshups" on the other hand, are about joining disparate structured data sources across the Web. And when you look behind a "Meshup" you see structured data (preferably <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id143bdb68">Linked Data</a>) that enables further "Meshing".</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>I truly believe that we are now inches away from critical mass re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14829640">Linked Data</a>, and because we are dealing with data, the network-effect will be sky-high! I shudder to think about the state of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1c41d150">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id133364e8">Web</a> in 12 months time. Yes, I am giving the explosion 12 months (or less). These are very exciting times.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <p>Demo Links:</p> <p></p> <p></p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ode/?uri%5B%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fcb.semsol.org%2Fcompany%2Fopera-software&" id="link-id12fe1dc8">Opera Software via Benjee's Linked Data Space for Cunchbase</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ode/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crunchbase.com%2Fcompany%2Fopera-software" id="link-id10739a18">Opera Software via our Linked Data Space for Crunchbas</a> </li> </ul> <p></p> <p></p> <p>For best experience I encourage you to look at the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8062" id="link-id1499a0f8">OpenLink Data Explorer extension</a> for Firefox (2.x - 3.x). This enables you to go to Crunchbase (X)HTML pages (and other sites on the Web of course), and then simply use the "View | <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> Sources" main or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10051b50">context</a> menu sequence to unveil the Linked Data Sources associated with any Web Page.</p> <p></p> <p>Of course there is much more to come!</p>
2008-07-29T21:43:27-04:00
Twine Opens Up Linked Data Style!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-07-25#1394
2008-07-25T02:18:00Z
<p>Note to Nova: big time welcome to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10a424f0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id13351960">Web</a>!</p> <p>I've just digested <a href="http://www.twine.com/item/1w3ckhq8-997" id="link-id103a38b0">Nova</a>'s post <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2008/07/subscribe-to-my.html" id="link-id105be838">announcing the opening up of Twine</a>. My test was simple, I opened up his Twine page using Firefox (with the new <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8062" id="link-id103d2148">OpenLink Data Explorer extension</a> in place), and then simply executed the following browser menu sequence:</p> <ol> <li>View</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id102b7880">Linked Data</a> Sources</li> </ol> <p>And voila! The Twine page morphs into a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id137b5cd0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id10467260">Space</a> where each <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id16296328">entity</a> presented is endowed with <a href="http://intranet.usnet.private:8893/RPC2" id="link-id1053b2f0">dereferencable URIs</a>; enabling me to traverse and/or <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ode/?uri%5B%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twine.com%2Ftwine%2F1p2dqhdx-1jg%2Fnova-spivack-my-public-twine&uri%5B%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.twine.com%2Fitem%2F1w3ckhq8-997&uri%5B%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fperson%2Fkidehen&" id="link-id106eb2a0">Mesh</a> his data with other <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> Spaces such as <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id12e51748">mine</a>, for instance.</p> <p>This is what Linked Data is all about! The fun has only just begun :-)</p>
2008-07-29T21:52:27.000004-04:00
Response to: Where's the Killer Semantic Web Application (Update #2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-26#1391
2008-06-26T18:28:14Z
<p>As is often the case these days, it's much easier to drop a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id13519b98">blog</a> post than it is to make a simple comment in an "old media" style<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id134e92c8"> data space </a>:-(</p> <blockquote> <p> <cite>My use of "old media" implies: a place that still seeks subscriber data (no OpenID etc..), for the umpteenth time, as the toll fee for discourse development and participation on the Web.</cite> </p> </blockquote> <p>Anyway, here is what I attempted to post as a comment to Dan Grigorovici's post titled: <a href="http://www.semanticweb.com/article.php/12160_3753806_2" id="link-id134dfb80">Where is the Semantic Web Killer App?</a> </p> <p>Dan,</p> <p>An intriguing post to say the least :-) </p> <p>"<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id134265c0">Linked Data</a>" and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id133d7048">Semantic Web</a>" aren't synonymous, they are simply connected, infrastructure DNA-wise. You can have "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1096cb70">Semantic Web</a>" style graphs (i.e RDF Data) and not have "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id133f0f48">Linked Data</a>" as per <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id134fc7c0">Linked Data</a> deployment tenets and best practices, a very important point.</p> <p>I've stated repeatedly, the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id134f03e8">Linked Data</a>" emphasis has more to do with focusing on a point of crystallization within the larger "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id134104f0">Semantic Web</a>" vision, so here is a quick recap:</p> <h3>What is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id133decd0">Linked Data</a>?</h3> <p>A term coined by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1340dd28">TimBL</a> that describes an application of HTTP to the time-tested process of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Reference_(computer_science)">Data Access by Reference</a>". "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10695c20">Linked Data</a>" adds vital items to the "Data Access by Reference" pattern that have been erstwhile unattainable:</p> <ul> <li> The use of a Data Source Naming scoped to Database / Data Container Records as opposed to Tables, Views, Stored Procedures, Databases, and other Record Container tuple collections. Example: in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-idd9c8af8">ODBC</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id130b0df0">JDBC</a>, a Data Source Name's scope stops at the Table / View level. In the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> realm you get an added layer of granularity due to record level name scope</li> <li>Incorporation of HTTP into the Data Source Naming scheme, which injects the expanse of the Web into the Data Access Range of the Data Source Name (i.e. a Named Record); so you can reference a record's description directly via HTTP which is simply a major deal (to put things mildly).</li> </ul> <p>So we have HTTP based URIs as the Data Sources Names for a "Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1044a2d8">Web</a>" i.e a Web of inter-connected Data Source Names that de-emphasize the importance of their host containers (Compound Documents / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id134e0d38">Information</a> Resources).</p> <p>The business case or value proposition of "Linked Data" is synonymous with the value proposition of data access technologies such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13400500">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id134f0250">JDBC</a>. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id10923840">ADO</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id134ef878">NET</a>, OLE-DB, XMLA, and others (enterprise or consumer) in relation to the Individual and Enterprise pursuit of agility; in a realm where data is growing exponentially, and the maximum processing time in a single day remains 24 hrs. Data Access & Data Integration are timeless challenges due to the following constants:</p> <ul> <li> Structured Data Schema Heterogeneity - we will always model the same things differently</li> <li>Dirtiness of Data within Structured Data Containers - we are error prone due to laziness / sloppiness, time constraints, and the inherent limitation of our DNA based CPUs when dealing with large volumes of data.</li> </ul> <p> Note: The line between the Enterprise & Individuals continue to blur by the second, this is something I covered during my <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2.html" id="link-id13479488">Linked Data Planet keynote</a>, which is like most things I put on the Web (via this <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id130ac870">blog</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id10923ba8">data space</a>), is a live and practical demonstration of the virtues of Linked Data courtesy of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id133fd270">RDFa</a>, the <a href="http://bibliontology.com/" id="link-id134248d8">Bibliographic Ontology</a>, and dereferencable URIs (i.e. HTTP based Data Source Names for Documents and the Entities they host).</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://zitgist.com/labs/linked_data.html" id="link-id104778a8">Linked Data FAQ</a> - by <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-idd8e71b0">Mike Bergman</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2008/st_infoporn_1607" id="link-id134c1e80">The Planetary Computer</a> from <a href="http://www.wired.com" id="link-id13416518">Wired Magazine</a> - which is basically the effect of Linked Data under a different label (note to Wired: "Tired of old Media repetitive Registrations" when seeking to make comments in the OpenID era!).</li> </ul>
2008-07-19T15:50:46-04:00
Metcalfe, Einstein, and Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-23#1390
2008-06-23T20:48:30Z
<p>Metcalfe’s law states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system (n²), where the linkages between users (nodes) exist by definition. For <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id106b0c10">information</a> bases, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> objects are the nodes. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13fc5940">Linked Data</a> works to add the connections between the nodes.</p> <p>I would tweak of the law modification expressed in <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-id1401cce0">Mike Bergman</a>'s <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/AI3_AdaptiveInformation/%7E3/318146056/" id="link-id104fc870">post</a> which states:</p> <blockquote> <cite>the value of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14b74530">Linked Data</a> network is proportional to the square of the number of links between the data objects.</cite> </blockquote> By simply injecting "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10ca1eb8">Context</a>" which is what a high fidelity <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x9c3d088">linked data</a> mesh facilitates i.e. a mesh of weighted links endowed with specifically typed links (as opposed to a single ambiguous type unspecific link), you end up with an even more insight into the power of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10cebfc8">Web</a>. <h3>Channeling Einstein</h3> <p>How about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Albert_Einstein" id="link-id1115dd38">Einstein</a>'s famous equaton: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass-energy_equivalence" id="link-id1a783ab8">E=mc<sup>2</sup></a>? I am talking Energy (vitality) and Mass equivalence, where "E" is for Energy, "m" for Network Mesh base Mass ( where each <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x97482d0">entity</a> network node contains sub-particles that are themselves dense network meshes all endowed with typed links and weightings), and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_%28programming_language%29" id="link-id10b632c0">c</a>" is for computer processing speed (processing speed is growing exponentially!). When you beam queries down a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id14398d00">context</a> rich mesh (a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10acf280">giant global graph</a> comprised of named and dereferencable data sources), especially a mesh to which we are all connected, what do you get? Infrastructure for generating an unbelievable amount of intellectual energy (the result of exploding the sub-data-graphs within graph nodes) that is much better equipped to handle current and future challenges. Even better, we end up making constructive use of Einstein's findings (remember, we built a bomb the first time around!). <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/" id="link-id10ece0b8">TimBL</a> articulates this fundamental value of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> in slightly different language, but at the core, this is the essence of the Web as I believe he envisioned; the ability to connect us all in such a way that we exploit our collective manpower and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id1300bf58">knowledge</a> constructively and unobtrusively, en route to making the world a much better place :-)</p> <p>Note: None of this in incongruent with being compensated (i.e. making money) for contributing tangible value into, or around, the Mesh we know as the Web :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Business_@_the_Speed_of_Thought" id="link-id1095d330">Business at the Speed of Thought</a> - by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Bill_Gates" id="link-id14043c50">Bill Gates</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.gladwell.com/blink/index.html" id="link-id1043a4d0">Blink</a> - by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Malcolm_Gladwell" id="link-id13825918">Malcolm Gladwell</a> </li> </ul>
2008-09-02T13:03:01-04:00
A Simple Linked Data Guide for the Enterprise
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-23#1389
2008-06-23T19:29:16Z
<p> <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-id12dd9d88">Mike Bergman</a> has just published a nice <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AI3_AdaptiveInformation/~3/318146056/" id="link-id10b96a98">Linked Data FAQ</a> aimed at Enterprise audiences. His post draws on a collection of questions collated from a plethora of interactions with Enterprise oriented folks during last week's <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com" id="link-id12276c00">Linked Data Planet conference</a>.</p> <p>Enjoy!</p>
2008-06-23T16:54:29-04:00
What do people have against URLs or URIs? (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-22#1388
2008-06-22T22:36:14Z
<p>Stumbled across a nice post titled: <a href="http://derivadow.com/2008/06/22/what-do-people-have-against-urls" id="link-id10c035c8">What do people have against URLs</a>?. My answer: Everything, if they don't understand the inherent power of URLs when incorporated into the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Source Naming" mechanism of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> called: URIs :-)</p> <p>URIs are simple to use i.e you simply click on them via a user agents UI. However, URLs when incorporated into Data Source Naming en route to constructing HTTP based Identifiers, that deliver HTTP based pointers to the location / address of a Resource Descriptions, another matter.</p> <p>I touched on this issue in my <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2.html" id="link-id1076e998">Linked Data Planet keynote</a> last week, and I must say, it did set off a light.</p> <p>I believe, we can only get the broader Web community to comprehend the utility of URIs (Web Data Source Names) by exposing said utility via the Web's Universal Client (Web Browser). For instance, how do URN based Identity / Naming schemes help in a world dominated by Web Browsers that only grok "http://"? From my vantage point, the practical solution is for data providers who already have "doi", "lsid" and other Handle based Identifiers in place, to embark upon http-to-native-naming-scheme-proxying.</p> <p>In my usual "dog-fooding" and "practice what you preach" fashion, this is exactly what we do in the new <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/~kidehen/Public/rdfb.xpi" id="link-id13038bb0">Linked Data Web extension</a> that we've decided to reveal to the public (albeit late beta). Thus, when you use an existing browser to view pages with "lsid" or "doi" URNs, you still enjoy the utility of getting at the "Raw <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1090f2a0">Linked Data</a> Sources" that these names expose.</p>
2008-06-23T09:37:57.000003-04:00
My Linked Data Planet Keynote (Updated with missing link)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-19#1387
2008-06-19T05:25:00Z
<p>I've finally found a second to drop a note about my keynote.</p> <p>The keynote: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2.html" id="link-id103acfb8">Creating, Deploying, and Exploiting Linked Data</a>, sought to achieve the fundamental goal of: Demystify the concept of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id107134e8">Linked Data</a>" using anecdotal material that resonates with enterprise decision makers.</p> <p>To my pleasure, 90% of the audience members confirmed familiarization with the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Source Name" concept of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id106d97a8">Open Database Connectivity</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10956268">ODBC</a>). Thus, all I had to do was map "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10a55728">Linked Data</a>" to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10e77210">ODBC</a>, and then unveil the fundamental add-ons that "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10d1d290">Linked Data</a>" delivers:</p> <ul> <li>The ability to give database records names (Identifiers)</li> <li>The use of HTTP in the database record naming mechanism - which expands a named database record's reference scope via the expanse of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> (i.e HTTP based Identifiers called URIs).</li> </ul> <p>I believe a majority of attendees came to realize that the combination above injects a new Web interaction dynamic: access to "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-id110978d0">Subject matter Concepts</a>" and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id10ea5160">Named Entities</a> contained within a page via HTTP base Data Source Names (URIs).</p> <p>BTW - My presentation is a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id109e5e30">Linked Data Space</a> in it's own right courtesy of the <a href="http://bibliontology.com/" id="link-id10e76d90">Bibliographic Ontology</a> (which provides slide show modeling) and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id10d48e40">RDFa</a> that allows me to embed annotations into my <a href="http://www.w3.org/Talks/Tools/Slidy/" id="link-id104be488">Slidy</a> based presentation :-)</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Creating_Deploying_Exploiting_Linked_Data2/Linked_Data_2008_keynote.ppt" id="link-id10a63640">PowerPoint</a> version of Presentation</li> <li> <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/rumito/linked-data-planet-key-note/" id="link-id103aaff8">Slideshare hosted </a>version</li> <li> <a href="http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/rumito-72460-linked-data-planet-key-note-2008-keynote-science-technology-ppt-powerpoint/" id="link-id10b97c68">Authorstream hosted </a>version</li> <li> <a href="http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dc7jvc6m_1061gz888hdb" id="link-id10e01640">Google Docs hosted </a>version</li> </ul>
2008-06-19T09:48:14-04:00
Missing Bits from semanticweb.com Interview
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-13#1386
2008-06-13T02:02:56Z
<p>Yikes! I've just discovered that the final part of the semanticweb.com's interview with <a href="http://www.cs.umd.edu/~hendler/2003/foaf.rdf#jhendler" id="link-id10483c28">Jim Hendler</a> and I, includes critical paragraphs that omit my example links :-( As you can imagine, this is a quite excruciating, bearing in mind that "Literals" are of marginal value in a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1418a578">Linked Data</a> world.</p> <p>Anyway, thanks to the Blogosphere, I can attempt to fix this problem myself -- via this post :-)</p> <p> <strong>Q. If you wanted to provide a bewildered but still curious novice a public example of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id107e67d0">Linked Data</a> at work in their everyday life, what would it be?</strong> </p> <p> <strong><a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id13851f80">Kingsley Idehen</a>:</strong> Any one of the following:</p> <p> <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2" id="link-id144c84b0">My Linking Open Data community Profile Page</a> - the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10339910">Linked Data</a> integration is exposed via the "Explore <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a>" Tab <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri%5B%5D=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fkidehen&" id="link-id12116d10">My Linked Data Space</a> - viewed via OpenLink's AJAR (Asynchronous Javascript and RDF) based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10728ed0">Linked Data</a> Brower <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fkidehen%2Fcalendar%2FKingsley%2527s%2520Calendar" id="link-id144ef138">My Events Calendar Tag Cloud</a> - a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xb8fdf10">Linked Data</a> view of my Calendar Space using an RDF-aware browser In all cases, you have the ability to explore my data spaces by simply clicking on the links, which on the surface appear to be standard hypertext links, although in reality you are dealing with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id142827a8">hyperdata</a> links (i.e., links to entities that result in the generation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id144c8438">entity</a> description pages that expose <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id149c9cf8">entity</a> properties via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10551628">hyperdata</a> links). Thus, you have a single page that describes me in a very rich way since it encompasses all data associated with me, covering: personal profile, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id10ac5148">blog</a> posts, bookmarks, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id122ff4b0">tag</a> clouds, social networks etc.</p> <p> <strong>Q. What would you show the CEO or CTO of a company outside the tech industry?</strong> </p> <p> <strong><a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id106143a8">Kingsley Idehen</a>:</strong> A link to the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI#this" id="link-id106144e0">Entity ALFKI</a>, from the popular Northwind Database associated with Microsoft Access and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id10ca6f68">SQL</a> Server database installations. This particular link exposes a typical enterprise <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id14202348">data space</a> (orders, customers, employees, suppliers ...) in a single page. The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id144e9070">hyperdata</a> links represent intricate data relationships common to most business systems that will ultimately seek to repurpose existing legacy data sources and SOA services as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a>. Alternatively, I would show the same links via the <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI" id="link-id10e2e1d0">Zitgist Data Viewer</a> (another Linked Data-aware browser). In both cases, I am exploiting direct access to entities via HTTP due to the protocols incorporation into the Data Source Naming scheme.</p>
2008-06-13T09:01:40.000003-04:00
Internet.com Interviews Jim Hendler & I
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-12#1385
2008-06-12T00:40:19Z
<p>The build up to <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com" id="link-id110a2350">Linked Data Planet</a> continues... Here is <a href="http://www.semanticweb.com" id="link-id11083a68">semanticweb.com</a>'s interview with <a href="http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~hendler/" id="link-id10c4e560">Jim Hendler</a> and *<a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this" id="link-id10e71dc8">I</a>* titled: <a href="http://www.semanticweb.com//article.php/3751731" id="link-id1071c688">Linked Data Leaders - The Semantic Web is Here</a>.</p>
2008-06-11T20:55:15-04:00
Linked Data in Action: Library of Congress
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-11#1384
2008-06-11T16:36:40Z
<p>As I start my countdown to the upcoming <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com" id="link-id106a81b8">Linked Data Planet conference</a>, here is the first of a series of posts geared towards showcasing practical use of the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id109470d0">Linked Data Web</a>.</p> <p>First up, the Library of Congress, take a look at the following pages which are "Human" and machine based "User Agent" friendly:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://lcsh.info/sh85118553#concept" id="link-id102927f8">Science</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://lcsh.info/sh85062913#concept" id="link-id10f13820">Humanities</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://lcsh.info/sh85082139#concept" id="link-id10ca5c58">Mathematics</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://lcsh.info/sh85020816#concept" id="link-id1230aef8">Cataloging</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://lcsh.info/sh95000541#concept" id="link-id1110e140">World Wide Web</a> </li> </ul> <p>Key point: The pages above are served up in line with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id102f96a8">Linked Data</a> deployment and publishing tenets espoused by the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id10685ed8">Linking Open Data Community</a> (<a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id103915b0">LOD</a>) which include (in my preferred terminology):</p> <ul> <li>Giving "Names" to things you observe (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Source Names or "DSNs" for short)</li> <li>Use HTTP URLs in your data source naming scheme so that "access by reference" to your data sources exploits the expanse of the HTTP driven <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> i.e make your DSNs "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1071cb88">Linked Data Source Names</a>" (LDNS)</li> <li>Remember that Documents / Pages are compound in nature, and they aren't the only data sources we would want to name; a document's LDSN must be distinct from the LDSNs used for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-id10c020d0">subject matter concepts</a> and/or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-ide7a0a58">named entities</a> associated with a document </li> <li> Use the RDF Data Model to express structure within your data source(s)</li> <li>Use LDSNs when constructing statements/claims/assertions/records (triples) inside your structured data sources</li> <li> When publishing Web Pages related to your data sources; use at least one of the following to methods to guide user agents to data sources associated with your published page; the HTML <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/RPC2" id="link-id12326c48">LINK tag</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id10751788">RDFa</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL" id="link-id1050e290">GRDDL</a>, or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Content_negotiation" id="link-id12e930b0">Content Negotiation</a>. </li> </ul> <p>The items above are features that users and decision makers should start to hone into when seeking, and evaluating, platforms that facilitate cost-effective exploitation of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x9dde928">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0x18c3b1c0">Web</a>.</p>
2008-06-11T13:16:31.000010-04:00
Reasoning Matters Contd
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-06#1373
2008-06-06T18:29:02Z
<p>I just stumbled across a post titled: <a href="http://clarkparsia.com/weblog/2008/06/06/why-reasoning-matters-consistency-checking/" id="link-id11003f00">Why Reasoning Matters: Consistency Checking</a> from <a href="http://clarkparsia.com/about" id="link-id137e8bc0">Clark and Parsia</a> </p> <p>As you can see from my recent post about how we've started the process of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1372" id="link-id100b7d20">inoculating DBpedia against the potential dangers of "contextual incoherence"</a>, we are entering a newer era in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id106c35e0">Semantic Web</a>'s evolution. My post and the one from Clark & Parsia both touch different aspects of the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Dictionary" for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x9d80080">Semantic Web</a> issue.</p> <p>Note: in my universe of discourse, a Data Dictionary manifests when the constraints and class hierarchies defined in an ontology (e.g. a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a> accessible shared ontology) are functionally bound to a data manager. Interestingly the binding can take the following forms:</p> <ul> <li>Engine Hosted - which is what you get with <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com:80/virtuoso/rdfsparqlrule.html#rdfsparqlruleintro" id="link-id105c4408">Virtuoso's in-built Inference Engine</a> </li> <li>External - which is what you get when the Inference Engine is a distinct component from the data manager (example: <a href="http://pellet.owldl.org/owlgres" id="link-id13fa37f8">Owlgres</a> which can sit in front of 3rd party <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id107127e8">SPARQL</a> endpoints via ARQ)</li> </ul> <p>The classification terminology I use above is very much off-the-cuff, its sole purpose is architectural distinction.</p> <p>Anyway, it's really nice to see that we are entering an era re. the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> vision, where the virtues of reasoning are getting simpler to demonstrate and articulate.</p> <p>In a nutshell, the point-point data integration era is coming to an end! The era of intelligent ontology based enterprise data integration is nigh!</p> <p>Of course, there is much more to come on the practical utility front, so stay tuned as we work our way through the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10424078">DBpedia</a> inoculation program.</p>
2008-06-06T14:38:54-04:00
DBpedia receives shot #1 of CLASSiness vaccine
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-05#1372
2008-06-05T17:11:34Z
<p> The current live instance of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id107c7b60">DBpedia</a> has just received dose #1 of a series of planned "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10d3ec78">Context</a>" oriented booster shots. These shots seek to to protect <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id143648f0">DBpedia</a> from contextual incoherence as it grows in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> set expanse and popularity. Dose #1 (vaccine label: <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id16d497d0">Yago</a>) equips <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id13f90120">DBpedia</a> with a functional (albeit non exclusive) Data Dictionary component courtesy of the <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id10509a08">Yago</a> Class Hierarchy .</p> <p> When the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10a1b378">DBpedia</a> & <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id10934068">Yago</a> integration took place last year (around WWW2007, Banff) there was a little, but costly omission that occurred: nobody sought to load the <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id106e47f0">Yago</a> Class Hierarchy into the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13f90890">Virtuoso</a>'s Inference Engine :-(</p> <p> Anyway, the Class Hierarchy has now been loaded into the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id100004f8">Virtuoso</a>'s inference engine (as <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id139900e8">Virtuoso</a> Inference Rules) and the following queries are now feasible using the live <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id109b02c8">Virtuoso</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id143624d8">DBpedia</a> instance hosted by <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id12f918c0">OpenLink Software</a>:</p> <p> -- Find all Fiction Books associated with a property "dbpedia:name" that has literal value: "The Lord of the Rings" .</p> <p> <span _fck_bookmark="1" style="display: none; "> </span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">DEFINE input:inference "http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#"<br /> </span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span class="Apple-style-span">PREFIX rdf: &lt;http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#&gt;</span> </span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX dbpedia: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/property&gt;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX yago: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/class/yago&gt;&nbsp;</span></span> </p> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><br /> </span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">SELECT DISTINCT ?s</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">FROM < xmlns="http" dbpedia.org="dbpedia.org">//dbpedia.org></span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">WHERE {</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s a yago:Fiction106367107 .</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s dbpedia:name "The Lord of the Rings"@en .</span></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">}</span></span> </div> <p> -- Variant of query with <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10870920">Virtuoso</a>'s Full Text Index extension via the bif:contains function/magic predicate</p> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">DEFINE input:inference "http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#"</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX rdf: &lt;http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#&gt;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX dbpedia: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/property&gt;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">PREFIX yago: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/class/yago&gt;&nbsp;</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">SELECT DISTINCT ?s ?n</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">FROM < xmlns="http" dbpedia.org="dbpedia.org">//dbpedia.org></span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">WHERE {</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s a yago:Fiction106367107 .</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s dbpedia:name ?n .</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?n bif:contains 'Lord and Rings'</span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">}</span></span> </p> <p> -- Retrieve all individuals instances of Fiction Class which should include all Books.</p> <p> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size:16px;">DEFINE input:inference "http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#"<br /> </span></span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"> <span style="font-size:16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span">PREFIX rdf: &lt;http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#&gt;</span> </span></span> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size:16px;">PREFIX dbpedia: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/property&gt;<br /> </span></span> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><br /> </span> </p> <p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Helvetica"> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><span style="font-size:16px;">PREFIX yago: &lt;http://dbpedia.org/class/yago&gt;&nbsp;</span></span> </p> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;"><br /> </span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">SELECT DISTINCT ?s</span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">FROM < xmlns="http" dbpedia.org="dbpedia.org">//dbpedia.org></span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">WHERE {</span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">?s a yago:Fiction106367107 .</span> </div> <div> <span style="font-family:courier new,courier,monospace;">} LIMIT 50</span> </div> <p> Note: you can also move the inference pragmas to the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13dd0d20">Virtuoso</a> Sever side i.e place the inference rules in a server instance config file, thereby negating the need to place "define input:inference 'http://dbpedia.org/resource/inference/rules/yago#'" pragmas directly in your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10dddd08">SPARQL</a> queries.</p> <h3> Related</h3> <ul> <li> Mike's <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=431" id="link-id13f2f318">UMBEL: Making Linked Data Classy</a>post</li> <li> Fred's announcement about the <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/12/20/second-version-of-yago-more-facts-and-entities/" id="link-id10a1b178">Yago revamp en route to UMBEL</a> </li> <li> <uo> <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2008/04/20/exploding-the-domain-umbel-web-services-by-zitgist/" id="link-id14363358">Expanding Data Object Domains via UMBEL</a> </uo> </li> <li> My <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=umbel&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1101ca98">Prior posts about UMBEL</a> </li> </ul>
2010-07-13T10:45:40-04:00
1995
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-04#1371
2008-06-04T21:05:17Z
<p> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/06/04/1995/#comments" id="link-id10422580">1995</a>: "</p> <p>1995 (and the early 90’s) must have been a visionaries time of dreaming… most of their dreams are happening today.</p> <p>Watch <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Steve_Jobs" id="link-id102d3868">Steve Jobs</a> (then of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/NeXT" id="link-id13fa5140">NeXT</a>) discuss what he thinks will be popular in 1996 and beyond at <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenStep" id="link-id10df20e0">OpenStep</a> Days 1995:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=odqojmB6C_Y" id="link-id103534a0">‘The Future of Objects, 3/5″ by Steve Jobs (YouTube Video)</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=j7WpcRReDlo" id="link-id13f31910">‘The Future of Objects, 4/5″ by Steve Jobs (YouTube Video)</a> </li> </ul> <p>Heres a spoiler:</p> <ul> <li>There is static <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">web</a> document publishing</li> <li>There is dynamic web document publishing</li> <li>People will want to buy things off the web: e-commerce</li> </ul> <p>The thing that OpenStep propose is:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WebObjects" id="link-id10762ed8">WebObjects</a>: an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object-oriented_programming" id="link-id1107f680">Object Oriented</a> representation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> available in distributed form over the web</li> </ul> <p>What Steve was suggesting was one of the beginnings of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data_Web" id="link-id1047b568">Data Web</a>! Yep, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Portable_Distributed_Objects" id="link-id105c5330">Portable Distributed Objects</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Enterprise_Objects_Framework" id="link-id1006c850">Enterprise Objects Framework</a> was one of the influences of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id143cf598">Semantic Web</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1075c898">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0x1e9ade30">Web</a>…. not surprising as <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id10b56c80">Tim Berners-Lee</a> designed the initial web stack on a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/NeXT" id="link-id105edcb0">NeXT</a> computer!</p> <p>I’m going to spend a little time this evening figuring out how much ‘distributed objects’ stuff has been taken from the OpenStep stuff into the Objective-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id0x19fe21b8">C</a> + Cocoa environment. (<- I guess I must be quite geeky ;-))</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id1092ed90">Daniel Lewis</a>.)</p>
2008-06-06T07:54:33.000010-04:00
Nice Presentation about Semantic Web by Nova Spivack
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-06-03#1370
2008-06-03T18:53:47Z
<p> <a href="http://thenextweb.org/2008/06/03/video-nova-spivack-making-sense-of-the-semantic-web/" id="link-id1046bfc8">Nova Spivack delivers a nice Semantic Web presentation</a> at <a href="http://2008.thenextweb.org/" id="link-idff1b7d8">NextWeb</a>. My only differences with Nova are:</p> <ul>-- Timeframe - I believe we are closer to 2020 than he envisages</ul> <ul>-- Business models - there are going to be new business models courtesy of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x1f71c1b0">Semantic Web</a> effect.</ul> <p>Anyway, enjoy!</p> <p>BTW - The only reason why the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> is perceived as complex relative to the original Document <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> is simple this: The Semantic Web was designed in public view by the W3C and many collaborators, whereas the Document Web simply came into public view and consciousness as a somewhat finished solution.</p>
2008-06-03T15:06:33.000004-04:00
Web Evolution
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-26#1367
2008-05-26T14:51:59Z
<a href="http://yihongs-research.blogspot.com" id="link-id109b5500">Yihong Ding</a> has posted an interesting series of posts under the banner: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ThinkingSpace/~3/297992608/revision-of-web-evolution-series.html" id="link-id130cb6e8">Web Evolution</a>. Post number 4 in the series covers: <a href="http://yihongs-research.blogspot.com/2007/08/mapping-between-web-evolution-and-human.html" id="link-id10275ec0">Web Evolution and Human Growth</a>. This particular post is orthogonal (related but independent) to some of my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20web%20evolution&type=text&output=html" id="link-id10b1cf18">earlier posts about Web Evolution</a>.
2008-05-27T07:45:51.000003-04:00
State of the Semantic Web Presentation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-22#1365
2008-05-22T20:38:28Z
<p>Unfortunately a number of Linking Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> (<a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-idffe3680">LOD</a>) community / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1017b420">Linked Data</a> tribe members (myself included) aren't at the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10035c28">Semantic Web</a> Technologies conference in San Jose (we are in a busy period for <a href="http://idehen.net/dataspace/kidehen/calendar/MyCalendar" id="link-id10228c50">Semantic Web Technology related Conferences</a>). But all isn't lost as <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/" id="link-id100be140">Ivan Herman</a> (W3C <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id10181b78">Semantic Web</a> Activity Lead) , <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1004a7e8">LOD</a> member, and SWEO colleague has carried the banner with aplomb.</p> <p>Ivan's presentation titled: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2008/Talks/0518-SanJose-IH/HTML/Overview.html" id="link-id11011990">State of the Semantic Web</a>, is a must view for those who need a quick update on where things are re. the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id101797b0">Semantic Web</a> in general.</p> <p>I also liked the fact that in proper "Lead by example" manner, his presentation isn't PDF or PPT based, it's a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Document :-)</p> <p>Hint: as per usual, this post contains a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id100bdc28">Linked Data</a> demo nugget. This time around, it's in the form of a shared calendar covering a large number of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1002dd00">Semantic Web</a> Technology events. All I had to do was subscribe to a number of WebDAV accessible iCal files from my <a href="http://idehen.net/dataspace/kidehen/calendar/MyCalendar" id="link-id10f90900">Calendar Data Space</a> and the platform did the rest i.e. produce <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10044188">Linked Data</a> Objects for events associated with a plethora of conferences.</p> <p>If you assimilate Ivan's presentation properly, you will note I've just generated, and shared, a large number of URIs covering a range of conference events. Thus, you can extend my contributions (thereby enriching the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1018ea80">GGG</a>) by simply associating additional data from your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10180538">Linked</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id10103330">Data Space</a> with mine. All you have to do is use my calendar data objects URIs in your statements.</p>
2008-05-23T06:53:08-04:00
Context, Tagging, Semantic Web, and Linked Data (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-22#1366
2008-05-22T17:23:02Z
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/about.html" id="link-id101d8750">Nova Spivack</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/typepad/MindingThePlanet/~3/295624567/tagging-and-the.html" id="link-id11067248">Tagging and the Semantic Web: Tags as Objects</a>, I stumbled across a related post by <a href="http://www.designmills.com/" id="link-idffb9a38">John Clarke</a> titled: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DesignMills/~3/294554634/" id="link-id101d6138">Tagging and the Semantic Web</a>. Both of these posts use the common practice of tagging to shed light on the increasing realization that "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id11011f98"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1356" id="link-id1003f248">The Pursuit of Context</a></a>" is the fusion point between the current <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> and its evolution into a structured Web of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id101d6788">Linked Data</a>.</p> <h3>How Semantic Tagging Works (from a 1000 feet)</h3> <p>When tagging a document, the semantic tagging service passes the content of a target document through a processing pipeline (a distillation process of sorts) that results in automagic extraction of the following:</p> <ul> -- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id1015fdd0">Named Entities</a> </ul> <ul>-- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-id100ccff8">Subject matter Entities</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-idfe9a898">Subject matter Concepts</a> reflecting topics covered by the document</ul> <p>Once the extraction phase is completed, a user is presented with a list of "suggested tags" using a variety of user interaction techniques. The literal values of elected Tags are then associated with one or more <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-idfed5eb0">Tag</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id101ae0c8">Tag</a> Meaning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Objects, with each Object type endowed with a unique Identifier.</p> <h3>Issues to Note</h3> <p>Broad acceptance that: "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id100b9010">Context</a> is king", is gradually taking shape. That said, "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id101d2670">Context</a>" landlocked within Literal values offers little over what we have right now (e.g. at <a href="http://del.icio.us" id="link-id1004be08">Del.icio.us</a> or <a href="http://www.technorati.com" id="link-id100421c8">Technorati</a>), long term. By this I mean: if the end product of semantically enhanced tagging leaves us with: Literal <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id101e5730">Tag</a> values only, Tags associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id1004a890">Tag</a> Data Objects endowed with platform specific Identifiers, or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id100364f8">Tag</a> Data Objects with any other Identity scheme that excludes <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id101e6630">HTTP</a>, the ability of Web users to discern or derive multiple perspectives from the base <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10180868">Context</a> (exposed by semantically enhanced Tags) will be lost, or severely impeded at best.</p> <p>The shape, form, and quality of the lookup substrate that underlies semantic tagging services, ultimately affects "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id10160f28">context</a> fidelity" matters such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id100f2618">Entity</a> Disambiguation. The importance of quality lookup infrastructure on the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10044b10">Linked Data Web</a> is the reason why <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id10102360">OpenLink Software</a> is intimately involved with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id110760f8">DBpedia</a> and <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id1015fc68">UMBEL</a> projects. </p> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>I am immensely happy to see that the Web 2.0 and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-idffb8ca8">Semantic Web</a> communities are beginning to coalesce around the issue of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id101656b0">Context</a>". This was the case at the <a href="http://events.linkeddata.org/ldow2008/" id="link-id1017b878">WWW2008 Linked Data Workshop</a>, I am feeling a similar vibe emerging from the <a href="http://www.semantic-conference.com/" id="link-idffb9978">Semantic Web Technologies</a> conference currently nearing completion in San Jose. Of course, I will be talking about, and demonstrating practical utility of all of this, at the upcoming <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com" id="link-id10042168">Linked Data Planet</a> conference.</p> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/tagcloud" id="link-id147a1848">My Data Space Tag Cloud</a> (*a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x24756e98">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x24c2bd20">Space</a>*) </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.faviki.com/" id="link-id101ac668">Faviki</a> (note: this service needs to expose <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1042cdc0">Linked Data</a> compliant <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id1038c2e0">Tag</a> URIs) </ul> <ul> <a href="http://moat-project.org/ontology" id="link-id10199770">MOAT Ontology</a> </ul>
2008-05-27T18:36:37-04:00
ODBC & WODBC Comparison
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-20#1364
2008-05-20T19:37:53Z
<p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id100eb550">ODBC</a> delivers open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-idffd2338">data</a> access (by reference) to a broad range of enterprise databases via a '<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id104fd1d8">C</a>' based API. Thanks to the <a href="http://www.iodbc.org" id="link-id104721b0">iODBC</a> and <a href="http://www.unixodbc.org" id="link-id10954990">unixODBC</a> projects, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10494670">ODBC</a> is available across broad range of platforms beyond Windows.</p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id0xc900928">ODBC</a> identifies <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10f82200">data</a> sources using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0xcaad080">Data</a> Source Names (DSNs). </p> <p> WODBC (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Open Database Connectivity) delivers open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access to Web Databases / Data Spaces. The Data Source Naming scheme: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1009ce40">URI</a> or IRI, is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id101fc1b0">HTTP</a> based thereby enabling data access by reference via the Web. </p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity">ODBC</a> DSNs bind ODBC client applications to Tables, Views, Stored Procedures. </p> <p>WODBC DSNs bind you to a Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id10182a88">Space</a> (e.g. my <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id105a7858">FOAF based Profile Page</a> where you can use the "Explore Data Tab" to look around if you are a human visitor) or a specific <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id10bd8578">Entity</a> within a Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id10780dc0">Space</a> (i.e <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id10848e08">Person Entity Me</a>).</p> <p>ODBC Drivers are built using APIs (DBMS Call Level Interfaces) provided by DBMS vendors. Thus, a DBMS vendor can chose not to release an API, or do so selectivity, for competitive advantage or market disruption purposes (it's happened!).</p> <p>WODBC Drivers are also built using APIs (Web Services associated with a Web Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xcbe6348">Space</a>). These drivers are also referred to as <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20middleware&type=text&output=html" id="link-id16564058">RDF Middleware</a> or RDFizers. The "Web" component of WODBC ensures openness, you publish Data with URIs from your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1064a768">Linked Data</a> Server and that's it; your data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">space</a> or specific data entities are live and accessible (by reference) over the Web!</p> <p>So we have come full circle (or cycle), the Web is becoming more of a structured database everyday! What's new is old, and what's old is new! </p> <p>Data Access is everything, without "Data" there is no <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id100a9de8">information</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge" id="link-id10bb67e8">knowledge</a>. Without "Data" there's not notion of vitality, purpose, or value.</p> <p>URIs make or break everything in the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10a71638">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10494400">Web</a> just as ODBC DSNs do within the enterprise. </p> <p>I've deliberately left <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10a05280">JDBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id104e4a70">ADO</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id10215668">NET</a>, and OLE-DB out of this piece due to their respective programming languages and frameworks specificity. None of these mechanisms match the platform availability breadth of ODBC.</p> <p>The Web as a true <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Model-view-controller" id="link-id108ee598">M</a>-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Model-view-controller" id="link-id0xcda5e90">V</a>-C pattern is now crystalizing. The "M" (Model) component of M-V-C is finally rising to the realm of broad attention courtesy of the "<a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html" id="link-id1024ff08">Linked Data" meme</a> and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1831b418">Semantic Web</a>" vision.</p> <p>By the way, M-V-C lines up nicely with Web 1.0 (Web Forms / Pages), Web 2.0 (Web Services based APIs), and Web 3.0 (Data Web, Web of Data, or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xb6d0e90">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0xb22a158">Web</a>) :-)</p>
2008-05-20T15:46:11-04:00
Commercializing the Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-16#1363
2008-05-16T22:04:01Z
<p>Unfortunately, I could only spend 4 days at the recent <a href="http://www2008.org/" id="link-id196acf60">WWW2008</a> event in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Beijing" id="link-id1974fe28">Beijing</a> (I departed the morning following the <a href="http://events.linkeddata.org/ldow2008/" id="link-id1863f858">Linked Data Workshop</a>), so I couldn't take my slot on the "Commercializing the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id18990f90">Semantic Web</a> panel" etc.. Anyway, thanks to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x18f29310">Web</a> I can still inject my points of view in the broad <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> based discourse. Well so I hoped, when I attempted to post a comment to Paul Miller's ZDNet domain hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id180d6750">blog</a> thread titled: <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/semantic-web/?p=132" id="link-id12d206c0">Commercialising the Semantic Web</a>.</p> <p>Unfortunately, the cost of completing ZDNet's unwieldy signup process simply exceeded the benefits of dropping my comments in their particular space :-( Thus, I'll settle for a trackback ping instead.</p> <p>What follows is the cut and paste of my intended comment contributions to Paul's post.</p> <p>Paul,</p> <p> As discussed earlier this week during <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2008/05/kingsley-idehen-talks-about-openlink-software-linked-data-and-the-semantic-web.php" id="link-id1332fb48">our podcast session</a>, commercialization of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id17382338">Semantic Web</a> technology shouldn't be a mercurial matter at this stage in the game :-) It's all about looking at how it provides value :-)</p> <p>From the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10d4f4a8">Linked Data</a> angle, the ability to produce, dispatch, and exploit "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id13bed160">Context</a>" across an array of "Perspectives" from a plethora of disparate <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id1731e5f0">data</a> sources on the Web and/or behind corporate firewalls, offers immense commercial value.</p> <p> <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/" id="link-id1975d248">Yahoo's Searchmonkey</a> effort will certainly bring clarity to some of the points I made during the podcast re. the role of URIs as "value consumption tickets" (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id173eb7b0">Data</a> Services are exposed via URIs). There has to be a trigger (in user space) that compels Web users to seek broader, or simply varied, perspectives as a response to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1c7e7f60">data</a> encountered on the Web. Yahoo! is about to put this light on in a big way (imho).</p> <p>The "self annotating" nature of the Web is what ultimately drives the manifestation of the long awaited <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xa18a83e8">Semantic Web</a>. I believe I postulated about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=self%20annotation&type=text&output=html" id="link-id173d7458">"Self Annotation & the Semantic Web" in a number of prior posts</a> which, by the way, should be <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&type=text&kwds=self%20annotation&OpenSearch" id="link-id10b12208">DataRSS compatible right now</a> due to Yahoo's support of OpenSearch <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1b8412e8">Data</a> Providers (which this <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id170b8df8">Blog</a> Space has been for eons).</p> <p>Today, have many communities adding strucuture to the Web (via their respective tools of preference) without explicitly realizing what they are contributing. Every RSS/Atom feed, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id183d5178">Tag</a>, Weblog, Shared Bookmark, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WikiWord" id="link-id10c5e758">Wikiword</a>, Microformat, Microformat++ (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Embedded_RDF" id="link-id16d8ee40">eRDF</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id1059a688">RDFa</a>), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL" id="link-id1090ae10">GRDDL</a> stylesheet, and RDFizer etc.. is a piece of structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>.</p> <p>Finally, the different communities are all finding ways to work together (thank heavens!) and the results are going to be cataclysmic when it all plays out :-)</p> <p>Data, Structure, and Extraction are the keys to the Semantic Life! First you get the Data in a container (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id180e5648">information</a> resource), and then you add Structure to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id103801e0">information</a> resource (RSS, Atom, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microformats" id="link-id17825e40">microformats</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id189a8738">RDFa</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Embedded_RDF" id="link-id1933d5c0">eRDF</a>, SIOC, FOAF, etc.), once you have Structure RDFization (i.e. transformation to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id19744878">Linked Data</a>) is a synch thanks to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id180dde30">RDF</a> Middleware (as per <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&type=text&kwds=self%20annotation&OpenSearch" id="link-id16dc3130">earlier RDF middleware posts</a>).</p>
2008-05-18T10:58:26.000003-04:00
Commercializing the Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-16#1362
2008-05-16T20:02:45Z
<p>Unfortunately, I could only spend 4 days at the recent <a href="http://www2008.org/" id="link-id196acf60">WWW2008</a> event in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Beijing" id="link-id1974fe28">Beijing</a> (I departed the morning following the <a href="http://events.linkeddata.org/ldow2008/" id="link-id1863f858">Linked Data Workshop</a>), so I couldn't take my slot on the "Commercializing the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id18990f90">Semantic Web</a> panel" etc.. Anyway, thanks to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> I can still inject my points of view in the broad Web based discourse. Well so I hoped, when I attempted to post a comment to Paul Miller's ZDNet domain hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id180d6750">blog</a> thread titled: <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/semantic-web/?p=132" id="link-id12d206c0">Commercialising the Semantic Web</a>.</p> <p>Unfortunately, the cost of completing ZDNet's unwieldy signup process simply exceeded the benefits of dropping my comments in their particular space :-( Thus, I'll settle for a trackback ping instead.</p> <p>What follows is the cut and paste of my intended comment contributions to Paul's post.</p> <p>Paul,</p> <p> As discussed earlier this week during <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2008/05/kingsley-idehen-talks-about-openlink-software-linked-data-and-the-semantic-web.php" id="link-id1332fb48">our podcast session</a>, commercialization of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id17382338">Semantic Web</a> technology shouldn't be a mercurial matter at this stage in the game :-) It's all about looking at how it provides value :-)</p> <p>From the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10d4f4a8">Linked Data</a> angle, the ability to produce, dispatch, and exploit "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id13bed160">Context</a>" across an array of "Perspectives" from a plethora of disparate <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id1731e5f0">data</a> sources on the Web and/or behind corporate firewalls, offers immense commercial value.</p> <p> <a href="http://developer.yahoo.com/searchmonkey/" id="link-id1975d248">Yahoo's Searchmonkey</a> effort will certainly bring clarity to some of the points I made during the podcast re. the role of URIs as "value consumption tickets" (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id173eb7b0">Data</a> Services are exposed via URIs). There has to be a trigger (in user space) that compels Web users to seek broader, or simply varied, perspectives as a response to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1c7e7f60">data</a> encountered on the Web. Yahoo! is about to put this light on in a big way (imho).</p> <p>The "self annotating" nature of the Web is what ultimately drives the manifestation of the long awaited <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xa18a83e8">Semantic Web</a>. I believe I postulated about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=self%20annotation&type=text&output=html" id="link-id173d7458">"Self Annotation & the Semantic Web" in a number of prior posts</a> which, by the way, should be <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&type=text&kwds=self%20annotation&OpenSearch" id="link-id10b12208">DataRSS compatible right now</a> due to Yahoo's support of OpenSearch <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Providers (which this <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id170b8df8">Blog</a> Space has been for eons).</p> <p>Today, have many communities adding strucuture to the Web (via their respective tools of preference) without explicitly realizing what they are contributing. Every RSS/Atom feed, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id183d5178">Tag</a>, Weblog, Shared Bookmark, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WikiWord" id="link-id10c5e758">Wikiword</a>, Microformat, Microformat++ (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Embedded_RDF" id="link-id16d8ee40">eRDF</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id1059a688">RDFa</a>), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL" id="link-id1090ae10">GRDDL</a> stylesheet, and RDFizer etc.. is a piece of structured data.</p> <p>Finally, the different communities are all finding ways to work together (thank heavens!) and the results are going to be cataclysmic when it all plays out :-)</p> <p>Data, Structure, and Extraction are the keys to the Semantic Life! First you get the Data in a container (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id180e5648">information</a> resource), and then you add Structure to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id103801e0">information</a> resource (RSS, Atom, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microformats" id="link-id17825e40">microformats</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa" id="link-id189a8738">RDFa</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Embedded_RDF" id="link-id1933d5c0">eRDF</a>, SIOC, FOAF, etc.), once you have Structure RDFization (i.e. transformation to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id19744878">Linked Data</a>) is a synch thanks to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id180dde30">RDF</a> Middleware (as per <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&type=text&kwds=self%20annotation&OpenSearch" id="link-id16dc3130">earlier RDF middleware posts</a>).</p>
2008-05-16T16:15:29.000001-04:00
My Talis Podcast re. Semantic Web, Linked Data, and OpenLink Software
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-16#1361
2008-05-16T00:10:23Z
<p> <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2008/05/kingsley-idehen-talks-about-openlink-software-linked-data-and-the-semantic-web.php" id="link-id1036b118">My podcast interview</a> with <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/pau1mi11er" id="link-id1026ed10">Paul Miller</a> of <a href="http://www.talis.com" id="link-id12d210d8">Talis</a> is out. As I listened to the podcast (naturally awkward affair) I got a first hand sense of Paul's mastery of the art of interviewing, even when dealing with a fast talking <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id180e1208">data</a> blitzers like me. Personally, I think I still talk a little too fast (the Nigerian in me), especially when the subject matter hones right into the epicenter of my professional passions: Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id1737a258">Data</a> Access and Heterogeneous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id180f0668">Data</a> Integration (aka. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id10c62348">Virtual Database</a> Technology) -- so you may need to rewind every now and then during the interview :-)</p> <p>During this particular podcast interview, I deliberately wanted to have an conversation about the practical value of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id180c9f88">Linked Data</a>, rather than the technical innards. The fundamental utility of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17387618">Linked Data</a> remains somewhat mercurial, and I am certainly hoping to do my bit at the upcoming <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id183ec288">Linked Data</a> Planet conference re. demonstrating and articulating <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1401f250">linked data</a> value across the blurring realms of "the individual" and "the enterprise".</p> <p> <strong>Note to my old schoolmates on Facebook</strong>: when you listen to this podcast you will at least reconcile "Uyi Idehen" with "<a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id180a7060">Kingsley Idehen</a>". Unfortunately, Facebook refuses to let me Identify myself in the manner I choose. Ideally, I would like to have the name: "Kingsley (Uyi) Idehen" associated with my Facebook ID since this is the Identifier known to my personal network of friends, family, and old schoolmates. This Identity predicament is a long running Identity case study in the making.</p>
2008-05-16T12:53:49.000002-04:00
On "Semantic", "Semantic Web", and "Linked Data Web"
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-15#1360
2008-05-15T14:11:13Z
<p> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/" id="link-id102f4e00">Nova Spivack</a> has just penned a post titled: <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2008/05/on-the-differen.html" id="link-id101a2300">On the Difference Between "Semantic" and "Semantic Web</a>", where he covers the fundamental difference between "Semantic" (what I call "Semantics Inside") and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id11dd0578">Semantic Web</a>" applications. I would like to extend the distinctions further by adding the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10b54ca0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id106f73d0">Web</a>" distinctions to the developing discourse. </p> <p>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1089ff48">Linked Data Web</a> (aka. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10653828">Linked Data</a>) describes <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id134abfb0">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id140283a8">data</a> injected into the Web, where the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_(object-oriented_programming)" id="link-id1029ebf0">Data Object Identifiers</a> (URIs) in an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id1011b180">RDF</a> graph (collection of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id103a4960">RDF</a> triples) are endowed with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id104362d8">HTTP</a> based URIs. The net effect of this approach to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id107963a0">Data</a> Object Identity is that it facilitates "Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id1331f640">Data</a> Access by Reference" on the Web (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10a3c608">data</a> dereferencing).</p> <p>If you recall pre Web ubiquity, in the enterprise realm for instance, Open Database Connectivity (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id12c6dd40">ODBC</a>) emerged as a mechanism for separating <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id13d6a5b0">Data</a> Access and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10b29488">Data</a> Management in the database oriented Client-Sever model. Although <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id106a8bd8">ODBC</a> gave you access to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a>, the data access entry point took the form of a data access specific naming mechanism called a "Data Source Name" (DSN). <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id106eef18">ODBC</a> DSNs typically exposed Tables or Views. The same thing applies to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id12c6dfe8">JDBC</a> where a non <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id104cb620">HTTP</a> based URN scheme applies.</p> <p>Zip forward to where we are today on the Web; the Web is evolving from a Document centric Database to a Distributed <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object_database" id="link-id12d15268">Object Database</a>, and you should see that in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10716bb8">Linked Data</a> we are now truly looking at the best of all worlds: Web Open Database Connectivity (WODBC) with the following advantages:</p> <ul>- direct Access to a single Record (an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1037d530">Entity</a>) or Record Sets (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10d48e98">RDF</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id1402c8f0">Entity</a> Sets) by reference over <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id10bae7a8">HTTP</a> across disparate Data Spaces on the Web</ul> <ul>- the ability to mesh disparate data sources without being impeded by back-end DBMS engine model, vendor, host operating development frameworks, or host operating system specificity</ul> <ul>- an opportunity to learn from the enterprise DBMS market and Client-Server markets of yore with regards to the shape and form of next generation <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10fe4558">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10153c98">Web</a> oriented solutions.</ul> <p>To conclude, we now have "Semantics Inside" (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id109d1280">RDF</a> or non <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a>), "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id106741a8">Semantic Web</a>" (RDF graphs with Object Identifiers that may or may not be <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id1011cc28">HTTP</a> based), and "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10793f70">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id149ecc10">Web</a>" (RDF graphs with Object Identifiers that must be <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id10a3b860">HTTP</a> based and dereferencable) oriented applications, in the emerging landscape associated with the "Semantics" moniker.</p> <p>As per usual, this post is a record in my <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id1020e240">Blog</a> oriented <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id105cbf90">Data Space</a> on the Web. The permalink of this post is a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id10ce53a8">URI</a> constructed with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1082f0f8">Giant Global Graph</a> enrichment in mind :-)</p>
2008-05-15T14:31:38.000004-04:00
Comments about recent Semantic Gang Podcast
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-02#1357
2008-05-02T21:44:31Z
<p>After listening to the <a href="http://semanticgang.talis.com/2008/05/02/april-2008-the-semantic-web-gang-discuss-a-wikipedia-for-data/" id="link-id1089e218">latest Semantic Web Gang podcast</a>, I found myself agreeing with some of the points made by <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold" id="link-id10b91e58">Alex Iskold</a>, specifically: </p> <ul>-- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id106e24e0">Linked Data</a> does not implicitly imply making all your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id17ab3d48">data</a> public</ul> <ul>-- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11fdcef0">Linked Data</a> principles benefit <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id109756e8">Intranet</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id1099cfd8">Extranet</a> style <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10cd25b0">data</a> integration (trumps alternative <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id14f29940">distributed database</a> integration approaches any day)</ul> <ul>-- Business exploitation of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xca51940">Linked Data</a> on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> will certainly be driven by the correlation of opportunity costs (which is more than likely what Alex meant by "use cases") associated with the lack of URIs originating from the domain of a given business (Tom Heath: also effectively alluded to this via his <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/BBC" id="link-id16f33348">BBC</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id10decf38">URI</a> land grab anecdotes; same applies Georgi's examples)</ul> <ul>-- History is a great tutor, answers to many of today's problems always lie somewhere in plain sight of the past.</ul> <p>Of course, I also believe that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> serves Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1afebd58">Data</a> Integration across the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id10aa5668">Internet</a> very well too, and the fact that it will be beneficial to businesses in a big way. No individual or organization is an island, I think the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id0xb25fbd0">Internet</a> and Web have done a good job of demonstrating that thus far :-) We're all <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> nodes in a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id5d8a3a8">Giant Global Graph</a>.</p> <p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id17cac8a0">Daniel lewis</a> did shed light on the read-write aspects of the Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10be8590">Web</a>, which is actually very close to the callout for a Wikipedia for Data. <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id10a810c0">TimBL</a> has been working on this via <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id184b7108">Tabulator</a> (see <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2007/tab/tutorial/editing.mov" id="link-id1416f1e8">Tabulator Editing Screencast</a>), <a href="http://bnode.org/about" id="link-id17e33750">Bengamin Nowack</a> also added <a href="http://arc.semsol.org/download/plugins/data_wiki" id="link-id1688cc40">similar functionality to ARC</a>, and of course we support the same <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10bff7c8">SPARQL</a> UPDATE into an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id168ace08">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id10641878">information</a> resource via the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0xddb5240">RDF</a> Sink feature of our WebDAV and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/OdsBriefcase" id="link-id0x11199310">ODS</a>-Briefcase implementations.</p>
2008-05-05T20:06:42.000004-04:00
In Perpetual Pursuit of Context
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-02#1356
2008-05-02T19:18:33Z
<p>I've always been of the opinion that concise value proposition articulation shouldn't be the achilles of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id158efe90">Semantic Web</a>. As the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13a2db40">Linked Data</a> wave climbs up the "value Appreciation and Comprehension chain", it's getting clearer by the second that "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id109316f0">Context</a>" is a point of confluence for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id108daa60">Semantic Web</a> Technologies and easy to comprehend value, from the perspectives of those outside the core community.</p> <p>In today's primarily Document centric <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a>, the pursuit of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id14edadd0">Context</a> is akin to pursuing a mirage in a desert of user generated content. The quest is labor intensive, and you ultimaely end up without water at the end of the pursuit :-)</p> <p>Listening to the <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2008/05/christine-connors-talks-about-semantic-technologies-at-dow-jones.php" id="link-id12d5e1c0">Christine Connor's podcast interview with Talis</a> simply reinforces my strong belief that "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Context_%28language_use%29" id="link-id0x1ec69518">Context</a>, Context, Context" is the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xa279438">Semantic Web</a>'s equivalent of Real Estate's "Location, Location, Location" (ignore the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Subprime_lending" id="link-id140b8098">subprime</a> loans mess for now). The critical thing to note is that you cannot unravel "Context" from existing Web content without incorporating powerful disambiguation technology into an "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id15a2f380">Entity</a> Extraction" process. Of course, you cannot even consider seriously pursing any <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id10868a18">entity</a> extraction and disambiguation endeavor without a lookup backbone that exposes "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id168dc230">Named Entities</a>" and their relationships to "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Topic" id="link-id17cb1950">Subject matter Concepts</a>" (BTW - this is what <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-id14f406a0">UMBEL</a> is all about). Thus, when looking at the broad subject of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a>, we can also look at "Context" as the vital point of confluence for the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id12d67e38">Data</a> oriented (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14f8daf0">Linked Data</a>) and the "Linguistic Meaning" oriented perspectives.</p> <p>I am even inclined to state publicly that "Context" may ultimately be the foundation for <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=dimension%20web%204.0%20&type=text&output=html" id="link-id17cb0708">4th "Web Interaction Dimension"</a> where practical use of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Artificial_intelligence" id="link-id10b15088">AI</a> leverages a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x1ebf9310">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10b27018">Web</a> substrate en route to exposing new kinds of value :-)</p> <p>"Context" may also be the focal point of concise value proposition articulation to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Venture_Capital" id="link-id10837578">VCs</a> as in: "My solution offers the ability to discover and exploit "Context" iteratively, at the rate of $X.XX per iteration, across a variety of market segments :-)</p>
2008-05-03T15:07:32-04:00
XTech Talks covering Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-05-02#1355
2008-05-02T14:53:08Z
<p>Courtesy a post by <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/bizer#this" id="link-id10868548">Chris Bizer</a> to the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id15739748">LOD</a> community <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-lod/" id="link-id10fae0f8">mailing list</a>, here is a list of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id140a0880">Linked Data</a> oriented talks at the upcoming <a href="http://2008.xtech.org" id="link-id12801f00">XTech</a> 2008 event (also see the <a href="http://2008.xtech.org/public/schedule/grid" id="link-id10f65940">XTech 2008 Schedule</a> which is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1258a4c8">Linked Data</a> friendly). Of course, I am posting this to my <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id140a29c0">Blog</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id12d5a640">Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id10979b80">Space</a> with the sole purpose of adding <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id176be078">data</a> to the rapidly growing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1099aec8">Giant Global Graph</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10d72d88">Linked Data</a>, basically adding to my collection of live <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11014000">Linked Data</a> utility demos :-)</p> <p>Here is the list:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://2008.xtech.org/public/schedule/detail/561" id="link-id17df4d78">Linked Data Deployment</a> (<a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id17c47d28">Daniel Lewis</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id108fce00">OpenLink Software</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://2008.xtech.org/public/schedule/detail/524" id="link-id1068c0e0">The Programmes Ontology</a> (Tom Scott, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/BBC" id="link-id1566da50">BBC</a> and all) </li> <li> <a href="http://2008.xtech.org/public/schedule/detail/528" id="link-id1072be40">SemWebbing the London Gazette</a> (Jeni Tennison, The Stationery Office) </li> <li> <a href="http://2008.xtech.org/public/schedule/detail/583" id="link-id1099e4e0">Searching, publishing and remixing a Web of Semantic Data</a> (<a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/cygri#this" id="link-id17e25b78">Richard Cyganiak</a>, DERI Galway) </li> <li> <a href="http://2008.xtech.org/public/schedule/detail/477" id="link-idf9764c8">Building a Semantic Web Search Engine: Challenges and Solutions</a> (Aidan Hogan, DERI Galway) </li> <li>'<a href="http://2008.xtech.org/public/schedule/detail/550" id="link-id140a3c50">That's not what you said yesterday!</a>' - evolving your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> API (<a href="http://iandavis.com/id/me" id="link-id14f8d498">Ian Davis</a>, Talis) </li> <li> <a href="http://2008.xtech.org/public/schedule/detail/527" id="link-id10c5a9c8">Representing, indexing and mining scientific data using XML and RDF: Golem and CrystalEye</a> (<a href="http://wwmm.ch.cam.ac.uk/blogs/walkingshaw/" id="link-id108c5e28">Andrew Walkingshaw</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/University_of_Cambridge" id="link-id10891560">University of Cambridge</a>)</li> </ol> <p>For the time challenged (i.e. those unable to view this post using it's permalink / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id10db39f0">URI</a> as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10f29bb8">data</a> source via the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id10f72778">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id107b73b0">Zitgist</a> <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id1686d528">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id110479e8">DISCO Hyperdata Browser</a>, or <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id140ba0e8">Tabulator</a>), the benefits of this post are as follows:</p> <ul> <li>automatic <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id172d2fc8">URI</a> generation for all linked items in this post</li> <li>automatic propagation of tags to <a href="http://del.icio.us" id="link-id10547380">del</a>.<a href="http://del.icio.us" id="link-id1093cc10">icio</a>.<a href="http://del.icio.us" id="link-id168ce3a0">us</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com" id="link-id17aa8af0">Technorati</a>, and <a href="http://www.pingthesemanticweb.com/about/" id="link-id10868ad8">PingTheSemanticWeb</a> </li> <li>automatic association of formal meanings to my Tags using the <a href="http://moat-project.org/ontology" id="link-id10c98608">MOAT Ontology</a> </li> <li>automatic collation and generation of statistical <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10a4d1d8">data</a> about my tags using the SCOT Ontology (*missing link is a callout to SCOT <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id168b7c10">Tag</a> Ontology folks to sort the project's home page <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id11fd4118">URL</a> at the very least*) </li> <li>explicit typing of my Tags as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SKOS" id="link-id10940eb8">SKOS</a> Concepts. </li> </ul> <p>Put differently, I cost-effectively contribute to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10a081a8">GGG</a> across all <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20dimensions&type=text&output=html" id="link-id10597530">Web interaction dimensions</a> (1.0, 2.0, 3.0) :-)</p>
2008-05-05T17:07:17-04:00
Clearing Up RDF misrepresentation once again!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-30#1352
2008-04-30T15:51:17Z
<p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id12d57690">Daniel Lewis</a> has penned a post titled: <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/04/30/clearing-up-some-misconceptions-again/" id="link-id10c99f18">Clearing up some misconceptions..again</a>, in response to <a href="http://elgg.org/bwerdmuller/foaf#elgg2" id="link-id14fe1bc8">Ben Werdmuller</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=477" id="link-id141cee58">Introducing the Open Data Definition</a>. </p> <p>The great thing about the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id105991a8">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10a6ec78">Web</a> is that it's much easier to discovery and respond to these points of view before the ink dries :-) Ben certainly needs to take a look at the <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/FAQ" id="link-id10f78958">Semantic Web FAQ</a> pre or post assimilation of Daniel's response.</p>
2008-04-30T12:07:58.000001-04:00
Linked Data enters state of Evoluation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-29#1351
2008-04-29T19:56:14Z
<p>During a brief chat with <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mhausenblas#this" id="link-idfeb0100">Michael Hausenblas</a> about a new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1049feb0">Linked Data</a> project he is championing called: <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData/LForum" id="link-id16a857d8">LForum</a>, I made a freudian slip, in the form of the typo: <strong>Evoluation</strong>, which at the time was supposed to have been: <strong>Evolution</strong>. Anyway, we had a chuckle and realized we were on to something, so I proceeded to formalize the definition: </p> <blockquote> <cite>Evoluation is evolution devoid of the randomness of mutation. A state of being in which it is possible to evaluate and choose evolutionary paths.</cite> </blockquote> <p> <strong>Evoluation</strong> actually describes where we are today in relation to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id105c1518">World Wide Web</a>; to the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id103f9d00">Linking Open Data community</a> (<a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1048c210">LOD</a>), it's taking the path towards becoming a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id104c3a20">Giant Global Graph</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id104968e0">Linked Data</a>; to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0 community, it's simply a collection of Web Services and associated APIs; and to many others, it remains an opaque collection of interlinked documents.</p> <p>The great thing about the Web is that it allows netizens to explore a plethora of paths without adversely affecting the paths of others. That said, controlling one's path may take mutation out of evolution, but we are still left with the requirement to adapt and eventually survive in a competitive environment. Thus, although we can evaluate and choose from the many paths the Web's evolution offers us, the path that delivers the most benefits ultimately dominates. :-) </p>
2008-04-29T16:25:47-04:00
Linked Data Trip Report - Part 1 (Update 2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-28#1343
2008-04-28T18:48:33Z
<p>Typo cleansed edition :-)</p> <h2>Objectives</h2> <ul> <li>Meet <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id12c52e40">LOD</a> Community Members</li> <li>Participate in Workshop </li> </ul> <h3>Meeting <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id10456058">LOD</a> Community Members</h3> <p>Although the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> continues to shrink the planet by removing the restrictions of geopgrahic location, meeting people face-to-face remains invaluable (*priceless in Mastercard AD speak*). Naturally, meeting and chatting with as many <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1382d4f8">LOD</a> community members as possible was high up on my agenda.</p> <h3>Participate in Workshop </h3> <p>As one of the co-chairs of the Linking Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id143a8c30">Data</a> Workshop (<a href="http://events.linkeddata.org/ldow2008/" id="link-id10621d70">LODW</a>), I had a 5 minute workshop opening slot during which I spoke about the following:</p> <h4>Where we are today: </h4> <p>We have <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id109b40a0">DBpedia</a> as a major hub on the burgeoning <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1074f248">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id101ed948">Web</a>. When OpenLink offered to host <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10cd1b20">DBpedia</a> (a combination of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13d19880">Virtuoso</a> DBMS Software and sizable backend Hardware infrastructure), it did so knowing that such an effort would emphatically address the "chicken and egg" conundrum that, prior to this undertaking, stifled the ability to demonstrate practical utility of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id13835980">HTTP</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14a89c28">Linked Data</a>.<br /> <br /> Today, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10aa9fe0">Linked Data</a> bootstrap mission has been accomplished.</p> <h4>Where we go next:</h4> <p>Although <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id12fe5d98">DBpedia</a> is a hub (ground zero of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14aca9b8">Linked Data</a>), we have to put it into perspective in relation to a new set of needs and expectations moving forward. Today, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1027f098">DBpedia</a> is a Sun at the heart of a Solar System within the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14a6adf8">Linked Data</a> Galaxy. But unlike Space as we know it, in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyberspace" id="link-id14a80398">Cyberspace</a> we can have connectivity and collaboration across Solar Systems -- life exists elsewhere and we are part of a collaborative collective unimpeded by constraints of space travel etc. Thus, expect to see the emergence of other Solar Systems accessible to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id14904998">DBpedia</a> and its collections of planets (see. <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id1097d200">LOD</a> <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/" id="link-id14acecf0">diagram</a>). Examples underway include <a href="http://umbel.org/about/" id="link-idfe92c08">UMBEL</a> which will serve the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id107fac40">Linked Data</a> planets from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cyc" id="link-id12fb9e88">OpenCyc</a> (Subject Matter Concepts), <a href="http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~suchanek/downloads/yago/" id="link-id147ea790">Yago</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id14ae83a8">Named Entities</a>), and <a href="http://www.bio2rdf.org/" id="link-id10890640">Bio2RDF</a> (which provides powerful Bio Informatics based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1439a858">Linked Data</a> planet).</p> <p>I urged the community to veer more aggressively towards developing and demonstrating practical <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id11f8e188">Linked Data</a> driven solutions that are aligned to well known problems. Of course, I encouraged all presenters to make this an integral part of their presentations :-) </p> <h4>Workshop Summary: </h4> <p>The workshop was well attended and I found all the presentations engaging and full of enthusiasm. </p> <p>As the sessions progressed, it became clear during a number of accompanying Q&A sessions that a new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-idff249b0">Linked Data</a> exploitation frontier is emerging. The frontier in question takes the form of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10f73b50">Linked Data</a> substrate capable of addressing the taxonomic needs of solutions aimed at automated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id10d16e00">Named Entity Extraction</a>, Disambiguation, Subject matter Concept alignment, transparently integrated with existing Web Content. Thus, we are moving beyond the minting and deployment of of dereferencable URIs and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10419210">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id151520d0">data</a> sets to automagically associating existing Web Content with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Named_entity_recognition" id="link-id105573b0">Named Entities</a> (People, Organizations, Places, Events etc..) and Subject matter Concepts (Politics, Music, Sports, and others) while remaining true to the <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id14579108">Linking Open Data Community</a> creed i.e. ensuring the Named <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id147d31e8">Entity</a> and Subject matter Concept URIs are available to user agents or users seeking to produce alternative <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id14ae41f0">data</a> views (i.e. Mesh-ups).</p> <p>I will get to part 2 of this report once the actual workshop sessions slides go live (*these are different from the <a href="http://events.linkeddata.org/ldow2008/" id="link-id1034eee8">pre-event PDFs links</a>*).</p>
2008-04-29T11:07:43.000002-04:00
Linked Data Illustrated and a Virtuoso Functionality Reminder
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-28#1342
2008-04-28T17:32:47Z
<a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id156ceb30">Daniel Lewis</a> has put together a nice <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/04/27/linked-data-the-role-of-the-data-server/" id="link-id10456040">collection of Linked Data related posts</a> that illustrate the fundamentals of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1033f6f0">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id106fa168">Web</a> and the vital role that <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10141c20">Virtuoso</a> plays as a deployment platform. Remember, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10301e38">Virtuoso</a> was architected in 1998 (see <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory" id="link-id10c44088">Virtuoso History</a>) in anticipation of the eventual <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id1383a1e8">Internet</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Intranet" id="link-id1028e770">Intranet</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Extranet" id="link-id14b07b40">Extranet</a> level requirements for a different kind of Server. At the time of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14ad24a8">Virtuoso</a>'s inception, many thought our desire to build a multi-protocol, multi-model, and multi-purpose, virtual and native <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id108dac48">data</a> server was sheer craziness, but we pressed on (courtesy of our vision and technical capabilities). Today, we have a very sophisticated <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id14a65d48">Universal Server</a> Platform (in Open Source and Commercial forms) that is naturally equipped to do the following via very simple interfaces: <ul> - Produce <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id11fb1170">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10871da8">Linked Data</a> from non <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id156ec3d0">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10f0ca38">Data</a> Sources (Heterogeneous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id15133078">SQL</a>, XML, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> Services)</ul> <ul> - Provide highly scalable <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10585940">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id15151e10">Data</a> Management via a Quad Store (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id1530d640">DBpedia</a> is an example of a live demonstration)</ul> <ul> - Sophisticated Deployment of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10141c80">Linked Data</a> that exploits the power of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1064fa18">SPARQL</a> </ul> <ul> - Powerful WebDAV innovations that simplify read-write mode interaction with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id1396ff68">Linked Data</a> </ul> <ul> - Use Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id108256e8">Data Virtualization</a> to address the pain and frustration associated with Web <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id147e65f8">Data</a> Silos (e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-idffaf078">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> layer stop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14ae8fe8">Virtuoso</a> that delivers <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xa0fb5e40">Personal Data Spaces</a> / Unified Storage in the Clouds) </ul> <ul> - Deliver a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10869700">Linked Data</a> development and deployment platform to .<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/.NET_Framework" id="link-id1514cac0">NET</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Visual_Basic" id="link-id10c107a8">VB</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id101f3c68">C</a>#) , Java, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id106e4710">PHP</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id10277448">Ruby</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id10a75748">Perl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id12fdb118">Python</a>, '<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C_(programming_language)" id="link-id10c9d9e0">C</a>', <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/C%2B%2B" id="link-id10392400">C++</a>, and other developers </ul> <ul>- More...</ul>
2008-04-28T14:47:06.000001-04:00
Explaining the Granular Social Network
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-15#1341
2008-04-15T21:03:54Z
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://www.vimeo.com/user321809/l:embed_898144" id="link-id10c725a8">Thomas Vander Wal</a>'s interesting <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id142dfb90">blog</a> post titled: Explaining the Granular Social Network, I found a nice video that highlights the Who + What you know aspect of Social Networking ad the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1054bc58">GGG</a> in general. </p> <p>As I can't quite remix Videos on the spur of the moment (yet), I would encourage you to watch the video and then click on the link to <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id130b7410">my FOAF Profile</a>, then follow the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id18485a48">Linked Data</a>" tab to see how <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id14070380">Linked Data</a> oriented platforms (in my case <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id10a30f60">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>) that exist today actually deliver what's explained in the video. </p> <p>"What You Know" (<a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/03/users-as-data-c.html" id="link-id140f4e28">Data & Friend Networks</a>) ultimately trumps "Who You Know" (Friend only Networks). The exploitation power of this reality is enhanced exponentially via the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xdcf0460">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0xa008f990">Web</a> once the implications of beaming <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-idfdfa2f0">SPARQL</a> queries down specific URIs (entry points to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id15ce0dc0">Linked Data</a> graphs) become clearer :-)</p>
2008-04-15T17:22:42-04:00
Linked Data enabling PHP Applications
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-10#1334
2008-04-10T18:09:49Z
<p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id10820610">Daniel lewis</a> has penned a variation of post about <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/04/10/simplified-adding-wordpress-blogs-into-the-linked-data-web-using-virtuoso/" id="link-id10827948">Linked Data enabling PHP applications</a> such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id10426278">Wordpress</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id13f431c0">phpBB3</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id10dd8760">MediaWiki</a> etc.</p> <p>Daniel simplifies my post by using diagrams to depict the different paths for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id10adcc08">PHP</a> based applications exposing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id107b4e60">Linked Data</a> - especially those that already provide a significant amount of the content that drives <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id13b0ab48">Web</a> 2.0.</p> <p>If all the content in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1d499470">Web</a> 2.0 <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id12bd3b10">information</a> resources are distillable into discrete <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id10962060">data</a> objects endowed with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id176a30e8">HTTP</a> based IDs (URIs), with zero "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20tax&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1098bcd8">RDF handcrafting Tax</a>", what do we end up with? A <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1372ce88">Giant Global Graph</a> of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xa29f0658">Linked Data</a>; the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> as a Database.</p> <p>So, what used to apply exclusively, within enterprise settings re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Database" id="link-id12d91448">Oracle</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_DB2" id="link-id13dd27d8">DB2</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IBM_Informix" id="link-id108e6b98">Informix</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ingres" id="link-id13383708">Ingres</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Sybase" id="link-idfed8aa8">Sybase</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microsoft_SQL_Server" id="link-id10b8b190">Microsoft SQL Server</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id13066ea8">MySQL</a>, PostrgeSQL, Progress Open Edge, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Firebird_database_server" id="link-id104f0a78">Firebird</a>, and others, now applies to the Web. The Web becomes the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id105a5340">Distributed Database</a> Bus" that connects database records across disparate databases (or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0xc706c68">Data</a> Spaces). These databases manage and expose records that are remotely accessible "by reference" via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id0x1c8f7fe0">HTTP</a>.</p> <p>As I've stated at every opportunity in the past, Web 2.0 is the greatest thing that every happened to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id13d65278">Semantic Web</a> vision :-) Without the "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=Web%202.0%20%20conundrum&type=text&output=html" id="link-id100d16d0">Web 2.0 Data Silo Conundrum</a>" we wouldn't have the cry for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Portability" that brings a lot of clarity to some fundamental Web 2.0 limitations that end-users ultimately find unacceptable.</p> <p> In the late '80s, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-idff4f0d0">SQL</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL_Access_Group" id="link-id138fbd40">Access Group</a> (now part of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/X/Open" id="link-id104ee010">X</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/X/Open" id="link-id0xac9eab8">Open</a>) addressed a similar problem with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id106d2008">RDBMS</a> silos within the enterprise that lead to the SAG <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Call_Level_Interface" id="link-id105d45d0">CLI</a> which is exists today as Open Database Connectivity.</p> <p>In a sense we now have WODBC (Web Open Database Connectivity), comprised of Web Services based CLIs and/or traditional back-end DBMS CLIs (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13f58708">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10aa81e0">JDBC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id5fddb68">ADO</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id0x9f085a10">NET</a>, OLE-DB, or Native), Query Language (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10adb5c8">SPARQL</a> Query Language), and a Wire Protocol (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol">HTTP</a> based <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/" id="link-id126fa068">SPARQL Protocol</a>) delivering Web infrastructure equivalents of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0x1d0a5fc8">SQL</a> and RDA, but much better, and with much broader scope for delivering profound value due to the Web's inherent openness. Today's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id0xc88ed68">PHP</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Python_programming_language" id="link-id10a70530">Python</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Ruby_programming_language" id="link-id13d9da18">Ruby</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tcl" id="link-id10a3c2a8">Tcl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Perl" id="link-id13e1b6f0">Perl</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ASP.NET" id="link-id10810388">ASP</a>.<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ASP.NET" id="link-id0xa22ce378">NET</a> developer is the enterprise <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/4GL" id="link-id1396a500">4GL</a> developer of yore, without enterprise confinement. We could even be talking about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/5GL" id="link-id1077f250">5GL</a> development once the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> interaction is meshed with dynamic languages (delivering higher levels of abstraction at the language and data interaction levels). Even the underlying schemas and basic design will evolve from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Closed_world_assumption" id="link-id10b280c8">Closed World</a> (solely) to a mesh of Closed & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_world_assumption" id="link-id104b9978">Open World</a> view schemas.</p>
2008-04-10T14:12:47-04:00
Adding Wordpress Blogs into the Linked Data Web using Virtuoso
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-09#1333
2008-04-09T21:27:34Z
<p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id101103b0">Wordpress</a> is a Weblog platform comprised of the following: </p> <ol> <li>User Interface - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id107ba368">PHP</a> </li> <li>Application Logic - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id107066b8">PHP</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id13968340">Data</a> Storage (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id104c5350">SQL</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id1076d790">RDBMS</a>) - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id109c4ea0">MySQL</a> via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id133af570">PHP</a>-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-idf0b03b0">MySQL</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id13217630">Application Server</a> - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Apache" id="link-id108219d8">Apache</a> </li> </ol> <p>In the form above (the norm), <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id105c6d88">Wordpress</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id104938f8">data</a> can be injected into the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id107a5f18">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id177329c0">Web</a> via RDFization middleware such as the<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id10531b50">Virtuoso Sponger</a> (built into all <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10d7e710">Virtuoso</a> instances) and <a href="http://triplr.org/" id="link-id107dcab8">Triplr</a>. The downside of this approach is that the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id1055ab68">blog</a> owner doesn't necessary possess full control over their contributions to the emerging <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-idfed0358">Giant Global Graph</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10d70668">Linked Data</a>.</p> <p>Another route to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id104c7f68">Linked Data</a> exposure is via <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0xa255fb50">Virtuoso</a>'s Metaschema Language for producing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10968388">RDF</a> Views over <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id13f594c8">ODBC</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Java_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id138f69a8">JDBC</a> accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id1393c068">Data</a> Sources, that enables the following setup:</p> <ol> <li>User Interface - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PHP" id="link-id0x9fb9c478">PHP</a> </li> <li>Application Logic - PHP </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0xc605960">Data</a> Storage (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0xc2be608">SQL</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database_management_system" id="link-id0xc7a28a8">RDBMS</a>) - <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MySQL" id="link-id0xc7228f0">MySQL</a> via the PHP-MySQL <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> access interface </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtual_Database" id="link-id134b1ee8">Virtual Database</a> linkage of MySQL Tables into Virtuoso </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-idfe31548">RDF</a> View generated over the Virtual SQL Tables </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Application_server" id="link-id0xb8dfa68">Application Server</a> - Virtuoso which provides <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xc149518">Linked Data</a> Deployment such that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id10ad9ca0">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> is exposed when requested by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-idfd352e0">Web</a> User Agents.</li> </ol> <p>Alternatively, you can also exploit Virtuoso as the SQL DBMS, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0x9ec4f440">RDF</a> DBMS, Application Server, and Linked Data Deployment platform:</p> <ol> <li>User Interface - PHP </li> <li> Application Logic - PHP </li> <li>Data Storage (SQL RDBMS) - Virtuoso via PHP-<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id14197218">ODBC</a> data access interface (* <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id103d1a80">ODBC</a> is Virtuoso's native SQL CLI/API *) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> View generated over the Native SQL Tables </li> <li>Application Server - Virtuoso which provides Linked Data Deployment such that RDF Linked Data is exposed when requested by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id13918d68">Web</a> User Agents (e.g. <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-idff835f0">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id1372e510">Zitgist</a> <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id109c3048">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id105d97f0">DISCO Hyperdata Browser</a>, and <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id10cc20d8">Tabulator</a>). </li> </ol> <h2 align="left">Benefits?</h2> <ul> <li>Each user account gets a proper Linked Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id108c92b0">URI</a> (ID) that can me meshed/smushed with other IDs (so you add data from this new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-idfd39648">blog</a> space to other linked data sources associated with you other URIs/IDs) </li> <li>Each post gets a proper <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id10add540">URI</a> All data is now query-able via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id101b98f0">SPARQL</a> Discoverability increases exponentially (without drop in relevance in either direction i.e. discovering or being discovered)</li> </ul> <p>How Do I map the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id12e448c0">WordPress</a> SQL Schema to RDF using Virtuoso? </p> <ul> <li>Determine the RDF Schema or Ontologies that define the Classes for which you will be producing instance data (e.g. SIOC and FOAF) </li> <li>Declare <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-idfaf5c80">URI</a>/IRI generator functions (*special Virtuoso functions*) </li> <li>Use <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id100436b8">SPARQL</a> Graph patterns to apply <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0x9de74950">URI</a>/IRI generator functions to Tables, Views, Table Values mode Stored Procedures, Query Resultsets as part of RDBMS to RDF mapping </li> </ul> <p> Read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/dataspace/dav/wiki/Main/VOSSQL2RDF" id="link-idfaf5d58">Meta Schema Language guide</a> or simply apply our "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id0x9ef73c78">WordPress</a> SQL Schema to RDF" script to your Virtuoso hosted instance. Of course, there are other mappings that cover other PHP applications deployed via Virtuoso:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/PhpBB" id="link-id179f4870">phpBB3</a> SQL Schema to RDF </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id10b263d8">Drupal</a> SQL Schema to RDF </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id10263a40">MediaWiki</a> SQL Schema to RDF </li> </ul> <h2>Live Demos?</h2> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/phpBB3" id="link-id17761e88">Virtuoso Hosting phpBB3</a> (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/phpBB3/user/demo#this" id="link-id10087e68">example User URI</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/drupal" id="link-id1091f1d8">Virtuoso Hosting Drupal</a> (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/drupal/user/demo#this" id="link-id13e3d468">example User URI</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/mediawiki" id="link-id10531be0">Virtuoso Hosting MediaWiki</a> (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/mediawiki/user/KingsleyIdehen#this" id="link-id109c5d40">example User URI</a>)</li> </ul>
2008-04-10T12:33:05.000003-04:00
Recent Data Portability, Linked Data, and Open Data Access Podcasts
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-04-09#1332
2008-04-09T17:15:56Z
<p>I just listen to, and very much enjoyed (lots of chuckling) <a href="http://www.dajobe.org/" id="link-id177310c8">Dave Beckett</a>'s podcast interview on the <a href="http://talk.talis.com/" id="link-id1056ec98">Talis podcast network</a>. Clearly Dave has a bent for funny project names etc.. He also introduced "Inter-Webs" (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Spaces in my parlance) towards the end of the interview.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.mediaslate.org/wp/about/" id="link-idfc558f0">Trent Adams</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/49b/4b5" id="link-id107137b0">Steve Greenberg</a>, and I, also had a podcast chat about <a href="http://www.mediaslate.org/wp/2008/03/29/dataportability-in-motion-podcast/" id="link-id10663ec8">Web Data Portability and Accessibility (Linked Data)</a>. I also remixed <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/" id="link-id104617f0">Jon Breslin</a>'s "<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Cloud/dataportability-and-me-introducing-sioc-foaf-and-the-semantic-web/" id="link-id12ca2c70">Data Portability & Me</a>" presentation to produce: "<a href="http://www.slideshare.net/Cloud/data-accessibility-and-me-introducing-sioc-foaf-and-the-linked-data-web/" id="link-idfdf0cd8">Data Accessibility & Me</a>". </p> <p>The podcasts interviews and presentations provide contributions to the broadening discourse about Open Data Access / Connectivity on the Web.</p>
2008-04-09T13:22:23.000002-04:00
The Cost of doing the Right Thing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-27#1330
2008-03-27T18:41:43Z
<p>One of the biggest impediments to the adoption of technology is the cost burden typically associated with doing the right thing. For instance, requirements for making the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph">GGG</a>) buzz would include the following (paraphrasing <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i">TimBL</a>'s original <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html">Linked Data meme</a>): </p> <ul>-- identifying the things you observe, or stumble upon, using URIs (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity">Entity</a> IDs)</ul> <ul>-- construct URIs using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol">HTTP</a> so that the Web provides a channel for referencing things elsewhere (remote object referencing)</ul> <ul>-- Expose things in your <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">Space</a>(s) that are potentially useful to other Web users via URIs</ul> <ul>-- Link to other Web accessible things using their URIs.</ul> <p>The list is nice, but actual execution can be challenging. For instance, when writing a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog">blog</a> post, or constructing a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WikiWord">WikiWord</a>, would you have enough disposable time to go searching for these URIs? Or would you compromise and continue to inject "Literal" values into the Web, leaving it to the reasoning endowed human reader to connect the dots?</p> <p>Anyway, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> is now equipped with a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Glossary">Glossary</a> system that allows me to manage terms, meaning of terms, and hyper-linking of phrases and words matching associated with my terms. The great thing about all of this is that everything I do is scoped to <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen">my Data Space</a> (my universe of discourse), I don't break or impede the other meanings of these terms outside my Data Space. The Glossary system can be shared with anyone I choose to share it with, and even better, it makes my upstreaming (rules based replication) style of blogging even more productive :-) </p> <p>Remember, on the Linked Data Web, who you know doesn't matter as much as what your are connected to, directly or indirectly. <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/">Jason Kolb</a> covers this issue in his post: <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/03/users-as-data-c.html" id="link-id1586a468">People as Data Connectors</a>, and so doesFrederick Giasson via a recent post titled: <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2008/03/11/networks-are-everywhere/" id="link-id108b9010">Networks are everywhere</a>. For instance, this blog post (or the entire Blog) is a bona fide <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> Linked Data Source, you can use it as the Data Source of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> Query to find things that aren't even mentioned in this post, since all you are doing is beaming a query through my Data Space (a container of Linked Data Graphs). On that note, let's re-watch <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/">Jon Udell</a>'s <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/queryingBlogs.html" id="link-id108c0908">"On-Demand-Blogosphere" screencast from 2006</a> :-)</p>
2008-03-29T00:50:07.000002-04:00
Semantic Web Patterns: A Guide to Semantic Technologies (Update 2)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-27#1329
2008-03-27T00:08:13Z
<p>For all the one-way feed consumers and aggregators, and readers of the original post, here is a variant equipped hyperlinked phrases as opposed to words. As I stated in the prior post, the post (like most of my posts) was part experiment / dog-fodding of automatic tagging and hyper-linking functionality in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x194f56f0">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id0x1bddde00">ReadWriteWeb</a> via <a href="http://alexiskold.wordpress.com/" id="link-id154ae848">Alex Iskold's post</a> have delivered another iteration of their "Guide to Semantic Technologies". </p> <p>If you look at the title of this post (and <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/readwriteweb/%7E3/257943334/semantic_web_patterns.php" id="link-id10a9a900">their article</a>) they seem to be accurately providing a guide to Semantic Technologies, so no qualms there. If on the other hand, this is supposed to he a guide to the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0x15ccef28">Semantic Web</a>" as prescribed by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0xb94a2d40">TimBL</a> then they are completely missing the essence of the whole subject, and demonstrably so I may add, since the entities: "<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com">ReadWriteWeb</a>" and "<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold" id="link-id0x19960308">Alex Iskold</a>" are only describable today via the attributes of the documents they publish i.e their respective blogs and hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x1a719968">blog</a> posts.</p> <blockquote> <p>Preoccupation with Literal objects as describe above, implies we can only take what "ReadWriteWeb" and "<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold">Alex Iskold</a>" say "Literally" (<a href="http://dbpedia/resource/Grep" id="link-id0xbc8568f8">grep</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/regular_expression" id="link-id0x1d915e70">regex</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id0xbc617820">XPath</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id0x150e1c50">Xquery</a> are the only tools for searching deeper in this Literal realm), we have no sense of what makes them tick or where they come from, no history (bar "About Page" blurb), no <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> connections beyond anchored text (more pointers to opaque data sources) in post and blogrolls. The only connection between this post and them is the my deliberate use of the same literal text in the Title of this post.</p> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i">TimBL</a>'s vision as espoused via the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a>" vision is about the production, consumption, and sharing of Data Objects via HTTP based Identifiers called URIs/IRIs (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0xb867ced0">Hyperdata</a> Links / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x3c8f438">Linked Data</a>). It's how we use the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id0xbcb04f20">Distributed Database</a> where (as <a href="http://www.cs.umd.edu/~hendler/2003/foaf.rdf#jhendler" id="link-id0xb8595f18">Jim Hendler</a> once stated with immense clarity): I can point to records (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0xbc9c8ab8">entity</a> instances) in your database (aka <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x3b911c0">Data Space</a>) from mine. Which is to say that if we can all point to data entities/objects (not just data entities of type "Document") using these Location, Value, and Structure independent Object Identifiers (courtesy of HTTP) we end up with a much more powerful Web, and one that is closer to the "Federated and Open" nature of the Web.</p> <p>As I stated in a prior post, if you or your platform of choice aren't producing de-referencable URIs for your data objects, you may be Semantic (this data model predates the Web), but there is no "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0xbcb968b0">World Wide Web</a>" in what you are doing.</p> <h2>What are the Benefits of the Semantic Web?</h2> <ul> <strong>Consumer</strong> - "Discovery of relevant things" and be being "Discovered by relevant things" (people, places, events, and other things)</ul> <ul> <strong>Enterprise</strong> - ditto plus the addition of enterprise domain specific things such as market opportunities, product portfolios, human resources, partners, customers, competitors, co-opetitors, acquisition targets, new regulation etc..)</ul> <h2>Simple demo:</h2> <blockquote> <p>I am a <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x150661b0">Kingsley Idehen</a>, a Person who authors <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen" id="link-id0x3b956d0">this weblog</a>. I also share bookmarks gathered over the years across an array of subjects via <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/bookmark/KingsleyBookmarks" id="link-id0x164fecb0">my bookmark data space</a>. I also subscribe to a number of RSS/Atom/RDF feeds, which I share via my feeds subscription data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">space</a>. Of course, all of these data sources have Tags which are collectively exposed via my <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/weblog/MyBlogDataSpace/tagcloud" id="link-id0x15188c50">weblog tag-cloud</a>, feeds subscriptions <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id0x5f38b98">tag</a>-cloud, and <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/bookmark/KingsleyBookmarks/tagcloud" id="link-id0xb93c2a50">bookmarks tag-cloud</a> data spaces.</p> <p>As I don't like repeating myself, and I hate wasting my time or the time of others, I simply share <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen" id="link-id0x3aeba98">my Data Space</a> (a collection of all of my purpose specific data spaces) via the Web so that others (friends, family, employees, partners, customers, project collaborators, competitors, co-opetitors etc.) can can intentionally or serendipitously discover relevant data en route to creating new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x14e35d78">information</a> (perspectives) that is hopefully exposed others via the Web.</p> </blockquote> <p>Bottom-line, the Semantic Web is about adding the missing "Open Data Access & Connectivity" feature to the current Document Web (we have to beyond <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/regular_expression">regex</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia/resource/Grep">grep</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath">xpath</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery">xquery</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id0x1c1bf9c8">full text search</a>, and other literal scrapping approaches). The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0x14c9e0e8">Web</a> of de-referencable data object URIs is the critical foundation layer that makes this feasible.</p> <p> Remember, It's not about "Applications" it's about Data and actually freeing Data from the "tyranny of Applications". Unfortunately, application inadvertently always create silos (esp. on the Web) since <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity">entity</a> data modeling, open data access, and other database technology realm matters, remain of secondary interest to many application developers.</p> <p>Final comment, RDF facilitates Linked Data on the Web, but all RDF isn't endowed with de-referencable URIs (a major source of confusion and misunderstanding). Thus, you can have RDF Data Source Providers that simply project RDF data silos via Web Services APIs if RDF output emanating from a Web Service doesn't provide out-bound pathways to other data via de-referencable URIs. Of course the same also applies to Widgets that present you with all the things they've discovered without exposing de-referencable URIs for each item.</p> <p>BTW - my final comments above aren't in anyway incongruent with devising successful business models for the Web. As you may or may not know, OpenLink is not only a major platform provider for the Semantic Web (expressed in our UDA, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0xb919b098">Virtuoso</a>, OpenLink Data Spaces, and OAT products), we are also actively seeding Semantic Web (tribe: Linked Data of course) startups. For instance, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id0x1481b218">Zitgist</a>, which now has <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-id0xb869bb18">Mike Bergman</a> as it's CEO alongside <a href="http://fgiasson.com/me/" id="link-id0x1d18fe50">Frederick Giasson</a> as CTO. Of course, I cannot do <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/">Zitgist</a> justice via a footnote in a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog">blog</a> post, so I will expand further in a separate post.</p> <h2>Additional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> about this blog post: </h2> <ol> <li> I didn't spent hours looking for URIs used in my hyperlinks</li> <li> The post is best viewed via an RDF Linked Data aware user agents (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id0x19af3468">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>, Zitgist <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id0x13b17138">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id0xbc8579e0">DISCO Hyperdata Browser</a>, <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id0x18ad0ec8">Tabulator</a>).</li> </ol>
2008-07-16T21:43:36-04:00
Semantic Web Patterns: A Guide to Semantic Technologies (Update 1)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-26#1328
2008-03-26T22:44:00Z
<p> <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id11846528">ReadWriteWeb</a> via <a href="http://alexiskold.wordpress.com/" id="link-id154ae848">Alex Iskold</a> have delivered another iteration of their "Guide to Semantic Technologies". </p> <p>If you look at the title of this post (and <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Er/readwriteweb/%7E3/257943334/semantic_web_patterns.php" id="link-id10a9a900">their article</a>) they seem to be accurately providing a guide to Semantic Technologies, so no qualms there. If on the other hand, this is supposed to he a guide to the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xbcb19320">Semantic Web</a>" as prescribed by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id0xb8725878">TimBL</a> then they are completely missing the essence of the whole subject, and demonstrably so I may add, since the entities: "<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id0x16804040">ReadWriteWeb</a>" and "<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold" id="link-id0x13f08538">Alex Iskold</a>" are only describable today via the attributes of the documents they publish i.e their respective blogs and hosted <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0x1850ca98">blog</a> posts. </p> <blockquote> <p>Preoccupation with Literal objects as describe above, implies we can only take what "<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com">ReadWriteWeb</a>" and "<a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/iskold">Alex Iskold</a>" say "Literally" (<a href="http://dbpedia/resource/Grep" id="link-id0xb95a6a40">grep</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/regular_expression" id="link-id0x1a719968">regex</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath" id="link-id0xb89d78b8">XPath</a>/<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id0x1bddde00">Xquery</a> are the only tools for searching deeper in this Literal realm), we have no sense of what makes them tick or where they come from, no history (bar "About Page" blurb), no <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> connections beyond anchored text (more pointers to opaque data sources) in post and blogrolls. The only connection between this post and them is the my deliberate use of the same literal text in the Title of this post.</p> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i">TimBL</a>'s vision as espoused via the "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a>" vision is about the production, consumption, and sharing of Data Objects via HTTP based Identifiers called URIs/IRIs (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x150e7be0">Hyperdata</a> Links / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x18e50818">Linked Data</a>). It's how we use the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/federated_database_system" id="link-id0x194f56f0">Distributed Database</a> where (as <a href="http://www.cs.umd.edu/~hendler/2003/foaf.rdf#jhendler" id="link-id0x17043b38">Jim Hendler</a> once stated with immense clarity): I can point to records (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity" id="link-id0x1476f788">entity</a> instances) in your database (aka <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces" id="link-id0x2621140">Data Space</a>) from mine. Which is to say that if we can all point to data entities/objects (not just data entities of type "Document") using these Location, Value, and Structure independent Object Identifiers (courtesy of HTTP) we end up with a much more powerful Web, and one that is closer to the "Federated and Open" nature of the Web.</p> <p>As I stated in a prior post, if you or your platform of choice aren't producing de-referencable URIs for your data objects, you may be Semantic (this data model predates the Web), but there is no "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0xb860eec8">World Wide Web</a>" in what you are doing.</p> <h2>What are the Benefits of the Semantic Web?</h2> <ul> <strong>Consumer</strong> - "Discovery of relevant things" and be being "Discovered by relevant things" (people, places, events, and other things)</ul> <ul> <strong>Enterprise</strong> - ditto plus the addition of enterprise domain specific things such as market opportunities, product portfolios, human resources, partners, customers, competitors, co-opetitors, acquisition targets, new regulation etc..)</ul> <h2>Simple demo:</h2> <blockquote> <p>I am a <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id0x15394798">Kingsley Idehen</a>, a Person who authors <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen" id="link-id0x2556670">this weblog</a>. I also share bookmarks gathered over the years across an array of subjects via <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/bookmark/KingsleyBookmarks" id="link-id0x142eaa10">my bookmark data space</a>. I also subscribe to a number of RSS/Atom/RDF feeds, which I share via my feeds subscription data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">space</a>. Of course, all of these data sources have Tags which are collectively exposed via my <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/weblog/MyBlogDataSpace/tagcloud" id="link-id0x140b8050">weblog tag-cloud</a>, feeds subscriptions <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id0x15158d60">tag</a>-cloud, and <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/bookmark/KingsleyBookmarks/tagcloud" id="link-id0xb8652490">bookmarks tag-cloud</a> data spaces.</p> <p>As I don't like repeating myself, and I hate wasting my time or the time of others, I simply share <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen" id="link-id0x13b63208">my Data Space</a> (a collection of all of my purpose specific data spaces) via the Web so that others (friends, family, employees, partners, customers, project collaborators, competitors, co-opetitors etc.) can can intentionally or serendipitously discover relevant data en route to creating new <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0x14365150">information</a> (perspectives) that is hopefully exposed others via the Web.</p> </blockquote> <p>Bottom-line, the Semantic Web is about adding the missing "Open Data Access & Connectivity" feature to the current Document Web (we have to beyond <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/regular_expression">regex</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia/resource/Grep">grep</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XPath">xpath</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery">xquery</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id0x15ccef28">full text search</a>, and other literal scrapping approaches). The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id0x1a2810b8">Web</a> of de-referencable data object URIs is the critical foundation layer that makes this feasible.</p> <p> Remember, It's not about "Applications" it's about Data and actually freeing Data from the "tyranny of Applications". Unfortunately, application inadvertently always create silos (esp. on the Web) since <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Entity">entity</a> data modeling, open data access, and other database technology realm matters, remain of secondary interest to many application developers.</p> <p>Final comment, RDF facilitates Linked Data on the Web, but all RDF isn't endowed with de-referencable URIs (a major source of confusion and misunderstanding). Thus, you can have RDF Data Source Providers that simply project RDF data silos via Web Services APIs if RDF output emanating from a Web Service doesn't provide out-bound pathways to other data via de-referencable URIs. Of course the same also applies to Widgets that present you with all the things they've discovered without exposing de-referencable URIs for each item.</p> <p>BTW - my final comments above aren't in anyway incongruent with devising successful business models for the Web. As you may or may not know, OpenLink is not only a major platform provider for the Semantic Web (expressed in our UDA, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x19e44e80">Virtuoso</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xb8637720">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>, and OAT products), we are also actively seeding Semantic Web (tribe: Linked Data of course) startups. For instance, <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/" id="link-id0x397b940">Zitgist</a>, which now has <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/mkbergman#this" id="link-id0x5fabcf0">Mike Bergman</a> as it's CEO alongside <a href="http://fgiasson.com/me/" id="link-id0xb84720f8">Frederick Giasson</a> as CTO. Of course, I cannot do <a href="http://zitgist.com/about/">Zitgist</a> justice via a footnote in a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog">blog</a> post, so I will expand further in a separate post.</p> <h2>Additional <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> about this blog post:</h2> <ol> <li> I didn't spent hours looking for URIs used in my hyperlinks </li> <li> The post is best viewed via an RDF Linked Data aware user agents (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id0x3ac1b68">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>, Zitgist <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id0x1d8e7ec0">Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id0x19af3468">DISCO Hyperdata Browser</a>, <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id0x1532e630">Tabulator</a>).</li> </ol>
2008-07-16T21:43:04-04:00
Linked Data is vital to Enterprise Integration driven Agility
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-21#1325
2008-03-22T01:56:00Z
<p> <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/207/489" id="link-id10914030">John Schmidt</a>, from Informatica, penned an interesting post titled: <a href="http://blogs.informatica.com/enterprise_data_management/2008/03/it_doesnt_matter_integration_d.html" id="link-idd6d76d8">IT Doesn't Matter - Integration Does</a>. </p> <p>Yes, integration is hard, but I do profoundly believe that what's been happening on the Web over the last 10 or so years also applies to the Enterprise, and by this I absolutely do not mean "Enterprise 2.0" since "2.0" and productive agility do not compute in my realm of discourse. </p> <blockquote>large collections of RSS feeds, Wikiwords, Shared Bookmarks, Discussion Forums etc.. when disconnected at the data level (i.e. hosted in pages with no access to the "data behind") simply offer information deluge and inertia (there are only so many hours for processing opaque information sources in a given day).</blockquote> <p>Enterprises fundamentally need to process information efficiently as part of a perpetual assessment of their relative competitive Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SWOT_analysis" id="link-id10776fe8">SWOT</a>), in existing and/or future markets. Historically, IT acquisitions have run counter intuitively to the aforementioned quest for "Ability" due to the predominance of "rip and replace" approach technology acquisition that repeatedly creates and perpetuates information silos across Application, Database, Operating System, Development Environment boundaries. The sequence of events typically occurs as follows:</p> <ol> <li> applications are acquired on a problem by problem basis</li> <li>back-end application databases are discovered once ad-hoc information views are sought by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information_worker" id="link-id10a111c8">information workers</a> </li> <li>back-end database disparity across applications is discovered once holistic views are sought by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge_worker" id="link-id107997d8">knowledge workers</a> (typically <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Domain_expert" id="link-id102ddf08">domain experts</a>).</li> </ol> <p>In the early to mid 90's (pre ubiquitous Web), operating system, programming language, operating system, and development framework independence inside the enterprise was technically achievable via ODBC (due to it's platform independence). That said, DBMS specific <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id10889d20">ODBC</a> channels alone couldn't address the holistic requirements associated with Conceptual Views of disparate data sources, hence the need for Data Access Virtualization via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Federated_database_system" id="link-id10884490">Virtual Database</a> Engine technology.</p> <p>Just as is the case on the Web today, with the emergence of the "Linked Data" meme, enterprises now have a powerful mechanism for exploiting the Data Integration benefits associated with generating Data Objects from disparate data sources, endowed with HTTP based IDs (URIs).</p> <p>Conceptualizing access to data exposed Databases APIs, SOA based Web Services (SOAP style Web Services), Web 2.0 APIs (REST style Web Services), XML Views of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id117f8a00">SQL</a> Data (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL/XML" id="link-id104bb730">SQLX</a>), pure XML etc.. is problem area addressed by RDF aware middleware (<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/ConverterToRdf" id="link-id10a9deb8">RDFizers</a> e.g <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-id10256fb0">Virtuoso Sponger</a>).</p> <img alt="Image" src="http://myopenlink.net:8890/%7Ekidehen/Public/images/URI_Data_Source_Pyra_Enterp.png" /> <p>Here are examples of what <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.html" id="link-id129a6a30">SQL Rows exposed as RDF Data Objects </a>(identified using HTTP based URIs) would look like outside or behind a corporate firewall:</p> <ul> Customer - <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI#this" id="link-id1183acd8">Alfreds Futterkiste</a> </ul> <ul>Customer Contact - <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/CustomerContact/ALFKI#this" id="link-id11746bb0">Maria Anders</a> </ul> <ul>Salesrep - <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Employee/NancyDavolio1#this" id="link-idff76ed8">Nancy Davolio</a> </ul> <ul>Customer Orders Numbers - <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Order/11084#this" id="link-id10ca2648">11084</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Order/11011#this" id="link-id11736160">11011</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Order/11078#this" id="link-id108156e0">11078</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Order/11088#this" id="link-id10747f30">11085</a> </ul> <p>What's Good for the Web Goose (<a href="http://kidehen.idehen.net/dataspace/person/kidehen%23this%3E" id="link-id10a33c50">Personal Data Space URIs</a>) is good for the Enterprise Gander (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this" id="link-id109fbbe0">Enterprise Data Space URIs</a>).</p> <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <a href="http://blogs.informatica.com/enterprise_data_management/2008/02/data_access_a_cultural_or_tech.html" id="link-idffe8168">Data Access - A Cultural or Technical Challenge?</a> </ul>
2008-03-22T14:13:41.000002-04:00
Semantic Web Advocate of Tribe Linked Data! (Updated)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-20#1324
2008-03-20T16:03:35Z
<p>These days I increasingly qualify myself and my Semantic Web advocacy as falling under the realm Linked Data. Thus, I tend to use the following introduction: I am <a href="http://kidehen.idehen.net/dataspace/person/kidehen%23this" id="link-idfd257f0">Kingsley Idehen</a>, of the Tribe <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-idfec62f8">Linked Data</a>.</p> <p>The aforementioned qualification is increasingly necessary for the following reasons:</p> <ol> <li>The Semantic Web vision is broad and comprised of many layers</li> <li>A new era of confusion is taking shape just as we thought we had quelled the prior AI dominated realm of confusion</li> <li>None of the Semantic Web vision layers are comprehensible in practical ways without a basic foundation</li> <li>Open Data Access is the foundation of the Semantic Web (in prior post I used the term: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1037" id="link-idfe71640">Semantic Web Layer 1</a>)</li> <li>URIs units of Open Data Access in Semantic Web parlance i.e.. each datum on the Web must have an ID (minted by the host Data Space).</li> </ol> <p>The terms <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id1224e020">GGG</a>, Linked Data, Data Web, Web of Data, and Web 3.0 (when I use this term) all imply URI driven Open Data Access for the Web Database (maybe call this <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-idfeb86e8">ODBC</a> for the Web) -- ability to point to records across data spaces without any adverse effect to the remote data spaces. It's really important to note that none of the aforementioned terms have nothing to do with the "Linguistic Meaning of blurb". Building a smarter document exposed via a URL without exposing descriptive data links doesn't provide open access to information data sources. </p> <p>As human beings we are all endowed with reasoning capability. But we can't reason without access to data. Dearth of openly accessible structured data is the source of many ills in cyberspace and across society in general. Today we still have Subjectivity reigning over Objectivity due to the prohibitive costs of open data access.</p> <p>We can't cost-effectively pursue objectivity without cost-effective infrastructure for creating alternative views of the data behind information sources (e.g. Web Pages). More Objectivity and less Subjectivity is what the next Web Frontier is about. At OpenLink we simply use the moniker: Analysis for All! Everyone becomes a data analyst in some form, and even better, the analysis are easily accessible to anyone connected to the Web. Of course, you will be able to share special analysis with your private network of friends and family, or if you so choose, not at all :-)</p> <p>Recap, it's important to note that Linked Data is the foundation layer of the Semantic Web vision. It's not only facilitates open data access, it also enables data integration (Meshing as opposed to Mashing) across disparate data schemas</p> <p>As demonstrated by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/about" id="link-idfe37fd8">DBpedia</a> and the <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/2007/10/lod/" id="link-idfeeef40">Linked Data Solar system</a> emerging around it, if you <a href="http://www.w3.org/Provider/Style/URI" id="link-idee98310">URI everything, then everything is Cool</a>.</p> <p>Linked Data and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information_silo" id="link-idfcae4a0">Information Silos</a> are mutually exclusive concepts. Thus, you cannot produce a web accessible Information Silo and then refer to it as "Semantic Web" technology. Of course, it might be very Semantic, but it's fundamentally devoid of critical "Semantic Web" essence (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DNA" id="link-id10dddd08">DNA</a>).</p> <p>My acid test for any Semantic Web solution is simply this (using a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/User_agent" id="link-idff7b4e8">Web User Agent or Client</a>):</p> <ol> <li>go to the profile page of the service</li> <li>ask for an RDF representation of my profile (by this I mean "get me the raw data in structured form")</li> <li>attempt to traverse the structured data graph (RDF) that the service provides via live de-referncable URIs.</li> </ol> <p>Here is the Acid test against my Data Space:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://kidehen.idehen.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-idfd2e5c8">My Profile Page</a> (HTML representation dispatched via an instance of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id10d3d0f8">OpenLink Data Spaces</a>)</li> <li>Click on the "Linked Data Tab" (HTML representation endowed with Data Links the link to information resources containing other structured descriptions of things).</li> </ol>
2008-03-20T16:29:47-04:00
So, What Does "HREF" Stand For, Anyway
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-12#1323
2008-03-12T16:08:46Z
<p>As per usual I am writing this post with the aim of killing a number of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme" id="link-id0x1caa10d8">meme</a>-birds with a single post in relation to the emerging <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id156867c8">Linked Data Web</a>.</p> <p>*On* the ubiquitous <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id0x1e5a1a08">Web</a> of "Linked Documents", HREF means (by definition and usage): <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext" id="link-id16078f10">Hypertext</a> Reference to an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id0x9e840368">HTTP</a> accessible <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x9e570ce8">Data</a> Object of Type: "Document" (an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id0xccc6ee8">information</a> resource). Of course we don't make the formal connection of Object Type when dealing with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> on a daily basis, but whenever you encounter the "resource not found" condition notice the message: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/HTTP_404" id="link-id153b4d98">HTTP/1.0 404</a> Object Not Found, from the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol">HTTP</a> Server tasked with retrieving and returning the resource. </p> <p>*In* the Web of "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id0x9ed9fb78">Linked Data</a>", a complimentary addition to the current Web of "Linked Documents", HREF is used to reference <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Objects that are of a variety of "Types", not just "Documents". And the way this is achieved, is by using <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Surrogate_key" id="link-id153d4438">Data Object Identifiers</a> (URIs / IRIs that are generated by the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> deployment platform) in the strict sense i.e. Data Identity (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id0xc9ef280">URI</a>) is separated from Data Address (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id0x1cb62390">URL</a>). Thus, you can reference a Person Data Object (aka an instance of a Person Class) in your HREF and the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id1554e458">HTTP</a> Server returns a Description of the Data Object via a Document (again, an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information">information</a> resource). A document containing the Description of a Data Object typically contains HREFs to other Data Objects that expose the Attributes and Relationships of the initial Person Data Object, and it this collection of Data Objects that is technically called a "Graph" -- which is what <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0xc67a780">RDF</a> models.</p> <blockquote>What I describe above is basic stuff for anyone that's familiar with Object Database or Distributed Objects technology and concepts.</blockquote> <h2> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator">URL</a> confusion</h2> <p>The Linked Document Web is a collection of physical resources that traverse the Web Information Bus in palatable format i.e documents. Thus, Document Object Identity and Document Object Data Address can be the same thing i.e. a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id1525d028">URL</a> can serve as the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id16e50b50">ID/URI</a> of a Document Data Object.</p> <p>The Linked Data Web on the other hand, is a Distributed Object Database, and each Data Object must be uniquely defined, otherwise we introduce ambiguity that ultimately taints the Database itself (making incomprehensible to reasoning challenged machines). Thus we must have unique Object IDs (URIs / IRIs) for People, Places, Events, and other things that aren't Documents. Once we follow the time tested rules of Identity, People can then be associated with the things they create (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id0xc7c3ce0">blog</a> posts, web pages, bookmarks, wikiwords etc). <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> is about expressing these graph model relationships while RDF serialization formats enables the information resources to transport these data object link ladden information resources to requesting User Agents.</p> <p>Put in more succinct terms, all documents on the Web are compound documents in reality (e.g. mast contain a least an image these days). The Linked Data Web is about a Web where Data Object IDs (URIs) enable us to distill source data from the information contained in a compound document.</p> <h2>Examples:</h2> <ol> <li><http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this> - the ID (URI minted from URL via addition of #this) of a Data Object of Type Person that Identifies me. The Person definition I use comes from the FOAF vocabulary/schema/ontology/data dictionary</li> <li><http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2> - the URI (also a URL) of a FOAF file that contains a description of the Data <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id0xca491e0">Object ID</a>: <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this> (me)</li> <li>As an information resource <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2> can be dispatched from an HTTP server to a User Agent in (X)HTML, RDF/XML, N3/Turtle representations via HTTP Content Negotiation (<strong>note:</strong> Look at the "Linked Data" tab to see one example of what Data Links facilitate re. Data Discovery and Exploration)</li> <li>If I choose an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29">Object ID</a> of <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2/this> instead of <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this> then the HTTP Server should not return an information resource (i.e provide 200 OK response) when a User Agent requests a resource via HTTP using the URI: <http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2/this>, because a Data Object ID (URI) and the Data Object Address (URL) cannot be the same when my Data Object isn't of Type Document; the sever has to use response code 303 to redirect the user agent to the URL of an information resource that matches the Content-type designated in the HTTP Request or determine representation based on it's own quality of service rules for the information resource associated with the Object ID (URI).</li> </ol> <p>The degree of unobtrusiveness of new technology, concepts, or new applications of existing technology, is what ultimately determines eventual uptake and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Meme">meme</a> virulence (network effects). For a while, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xc86cda0">Semantic Web</a> meme was mired in confusion and general misunderstanding due to a shortage of practical use case scenario demos. </p> <p>The emergence of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0xc614158">SPARQL</a> Query Language has provided critical infrastructure for a number of products, projects, and demos, that now make the utility of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> vision mush clearly via the simplicity of Linked Data, as exemplified by the following:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/organization/lod#this" id="link-id0xc7c19f0">Linking Open Data Community</a> - collection of People and Linked Data Spaces (across a variety of domains)</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id0xcb1c398">DBpedia</a> - Ground zero for experiencing and comprehending Linked Data</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id0xc16e458">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> - a simple solution for creating Linked Data Web presence via from existing Web Data Sources (Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tag" id="link-id0xc340200">Tag</a> Spaces, Web Sites, Social Networking Services, Web Services, Discussion Forums etc..)</li> <li>OpenLink <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0xca83470">Virtuoso</a> - a Universal Server for generating, managing, and deploying RDF Linked Data from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id0xcce3870">SQL</a>, XML, Web Services based data sources</li> </ol> Why Is This Post a Linked Data Demo, Again? Place the permalink of this post in a Linked Data aware user agent (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id17b79488">OpenLink RDF Browser1</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser2" id="link-id15957150">OpenLink RDF Browser2</a>, <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/" id="link-id15550cf8">Zitgist</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-id1565a680">DISCO</a>, <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id15700350">Tabulator</a>), and the you can see the universal of interlinked data exposed by this post. The Title of this post should not be the sole mechanism for determining that it is Linked to other posts about the same topic. <h2>Related</h2> <ul> <a href="http://tomayko.com" id="link-id15c56720">Ryan Tomayko</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://tomayko.com/writings/wtf-is-an-href-anyway" id="link-id1514a328">So, What Does "HREF" Stand For, Anyway</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://torrez.us/who#elias" id="link-id14eec928">Elias Torre</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://torrez.us/archives/2008/03/10/563/" id="link-id15722c08">The Web FTW</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/" id="link-id1576c118">Cool URIs for the Semantic Web.</a> </ul>
2008-04-10T16:13:50-04:00
New W3C Incubator Group: Relational Database to RDF Mapping
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-05#1320
2008-03-05T17:13:35Z
<p>The new <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/rdb2rdf/" id="link-id17fb5440">RDB2RDF Incubator Group</a> is now official. The group is sponsored by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Oracle_Corporation" id="link-id1c93f338">Oracle</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hewlett-Packard" id="link-id18f4bce8">HP</a>, PartnersHealth, and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/organization/openlink#this>" id="link-id175ed3a8">OpenLink Software</a>.</p> <h2>Goals</h2> <p>The goal of this effort is standardization of approaches (syntax and methodology) for mapping Relational Data Model instance data to RDF (Graph Data Model).</p> <h2>Benefits</h2> <p>Every record in a relational table/view/stored procedure (Table Valued Functions/Procedures) is declaratively morphed into an Entity (instance of a Class associated with a Schema/Ontology). The derived entities become part of a graph that exposes relationships and relationship traversal paths that have lower JOIN Costs than attempting the same thing directly via SQL. In a nutshell, you end up with a conceptual interface atop a logical data layer that enables a much more productive mechanism for exploring homogeneous and/or heterogeneous data without confinement at the DB instance, SQL DBMS type, host operating system, local area network, or wide area network levels.</p> <p>Just as we have to mesh the Linked Data and Document Webs, unobtrusively. It's also important that the same principles to apply to exposure of RDBMS hosted data as RDF based Linked Data.</p> <p>We all know that a large amount of data driving the IT engines of most enterprises resides in <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Relational_database" id="link-id190ee500">Relational Databases</a>. And contrary to recent <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_11_things_to_know.php" id="link-id175e6c58">RDBMS vs RDF database misunderstandings</a> espoused (hopefully inadvertently) by some commentators, Relational Database engines aren't going away anytime soon. Meshing Relational (logical) and Graph (conceptual) data models a natural progression along an evolutionary path towards: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.html" id="link-id175e56c0">Analysis for All</a>. By the way, there is a parallel evolution occurring in others realms such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET_Entity_Framework" id="link-id13037248">Microsoft's ADO.NET's Entity Framework</a>.</p> <h2>How would I use RDB2RDF Mapping?</h2> <p>To Unobtrusively expose existing data sources as RDF Linked Data. The links that follow provide examples:</p> <ul>-- Enterprise Databases e.g. Northwind SQL Database as Linked Data (<a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI" id="link-id176c79c0">Zitgist View</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI" id="link-id175ed1b8">OpenLink RDF Browser View</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser/?browse_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fdemo.openlinksw.com%2FNorthwind%2FCustomer%2FALFKI%23this" id="link-id16ee5730">DISCO Browser View</a>, <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html?uri=http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI#this" id="link-id18e35570">Tabulator View</a>)</ul> <ul>-- Content Management e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id17687bf0">Drupal</a> hosted <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/drupal/user/demo" id="link-id179ed818">Blog Posts as Linked Data</a> </ul> <ul>-- Weblog Platform e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id17441650">Wordpress</a> hosted <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/wordpress/user/demo" id="link-id18fab188">Blog Posts as Linked Data</a> </ul> <ul>-- Wiki Platform e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id1c93e1c8">MediaWiki</a> hosted <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/mediawiki/user/KingsleyIdehen" id="link-id17d05448">Wikiwords as Linked Data</a> </ul> <h2>Related</h2> <ol> <li>Virtuoso's Meta Schema Language for Declaratively generating RDF Views of SQL Data (<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_RDF_Views/Virtuoso_RDF_Views_1.html#(1)" id="link-id19156058">Presentation</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/pdf/Virtuoso_SQL_to_RDF_Mapping.pdf" id="link-id18bab048">White Paper</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/rdf_views/virtuoso_rdf_views_example.html" id="link-id18e36480">Tutorial</a>, and <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfviews.html" id="link-id18e34380">Online Docs</a>)</li> <li>ESW Wiki's Collection of<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfAndSql" id="link-id18d3b5d8"> SQL-RDF Mapping Tools</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.bitaplanet.com/article.php/3696281" id="link-id12dc20e8">What the Semantic Web means for your Business </a> </li> </ol>
2008-03-11T13:58:24-04:00
My 5 Favorite Things about Linked Data on the Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-05#1319
2008-03-05T04:49:10Z
<ol> <li>End to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Buzzword" id="link-id17844268">Buzzword</a> Blur - how buzzwords are used to obscure comprehension of core concepts. Let <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SKOS" id="link-id17445960">SKOS</a>, <a href="http://moat-project.org/" id="link-id175e6d80">MOAT</a>, <a href="http://scot-project.org/2007/04/03/scot-ontology-model/" id="link-id17fb2440">SCOT</a> reign! </li> <li>End of Data Silos - you don't own me, my data, my data's mobility (import/export), or accessibility (by reference) just because I signed up for Yet Another Software as Service (ySaaS)</li> <li>End of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Misinformation" id="link-id17fb02d0">Misinformation</a> - Sins of omission will no longer go unpunished the era of self induced amnesia due to competitive concerns is over, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Coopetition" id="link-id18f01838">Co-opetition</a> shall reign (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/Raymond_Noorda" id="link-id176cdb28">Ray Noorda</a> always envisoned this reality)</li> <li>Serendipitous information and data discovery gets cheaper by the second - you're only a link away for a universe of relevant and accessible data </li> <li>Rise of Quality - Contrary to historic president (due to all of the above) well engineered solutions will no longer be sure indicators of commercial failure</li> </ol> <p>BTW - <a href="http://bnode.org/about" id="link-id18d3eb20">Benjamin Nowack</a> penned an interesting post titled: <a href="http://bnode.org/blog/2008/03/04/semantic-web-aliases" id="link-id17fafc20">Semantic Web Aliases</a>, that covers a variety of labels used to describe the Semantic Web. The great thing about this post is that it provides yet another demonstration-in-the-making for the virtues of Linked Data :-)</p> <p>Labels are harmless when their sole purpose is the creation of routes of comprehension for concepts. Unfortunately, Labels aren't always constructed with concept comprehension in mind, most of the time they are artificial inflectors and deflectors servicing marketing communications goals.</p> <p>Anyway, irrespective of actual intent, I've endowed all of the labels from Bengee's post with URIs as my contribution important disambiguation effort re. the Semantic Web: </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id18e476d8">Semantic Web</a> (timbl) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/04/WebData" id="link-id17fb2ca0">Web of Data</a> (timbl) </li> <li> <a href="http://tantek.com/presentations/2004etech/realworldsemanticspres.html" id="link-id1bd0a110">lowercase semantic [wW]eb </a>(tantek) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.stefandecker.org/blog/archives/7-Semantic-Web-2.0....html" id="link-id1bd08808">Semantic Web 2.0</a> (by stefandecker, IIRC) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_3.0" id="link-id175e7098">Web 3.0</a> (by <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/about.html" id="link-id19202cb8">nova</a> and others) </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_network" id="link-id1bd097f8">Semantic Graph</a> (by nova and others) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperdata" id="link-id177a5b58">Hyperdata</a> (by <a href="http://dannyayers.com/" id="link-id178fdfc0">danja</a>) <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17442ce8">Linked Data</a> (by timbl, and implemented by the <a href="http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/institute/pwo/suhl/mitarbeiter/BizerChristian.html" id="link-id174431f8">Chris Bizer</a> and <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/foaf.rdf%23cygri" id="link-id1c37a478">Richard Cyganiak</a> inspired, <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id1b93c368">Linking Open Data Community</a> and it's poster project <a href="http://dbpedia.org" id="link-id18d399f0">DBpedia</a>) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=linked%20data%20web&type=text&output=html" id="link-id18e344f0">Linked Data Web</a> (by <a href="http://community.linkeddata.org/dataspace/person/kidehen2#this" id="link-id1c853578">kidehen</a>) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=390" id="link-id16c0e998">Structured Web</a> (by <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com" id="link-id18f4bd28">mkbergman</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=semantic%20data%20web&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1a4284d8">Semantic Data Web</a> (by <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen%23this" id="link-id16ce8888">kidehen</a>) </li> <li>SemWeb (by the developer community) </li> <li>GGG - <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/215" id="link-id17687f18">The Giant Global Graph</a> (by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1916f8d0">timbl</a>) <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2008/03/web_3g.php" id="link-id198c2938">Web 3G</a> (by <a href="http://iandavis.com/id/me" id="link-id17fb3d78">iand</a>) </li> </ul> <p>As per usual this post is best appreciated when processed via an Linked Data aware user agent.</p>
2008-03-09T11:48:35.000004-04:00
Driving Lanes on the Web based Information Super Highway
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-03-04#1318
2008-03-04T23:16:32Z
<p>Post absorption of<a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2008/03/web_3g.php" id="link-id19156118"> Web 3G commentary</a> emanating from the <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalitie" id="link-id1c37b868">Talis blog</a> space. <a href="http://iandavis.com/id/me" id="link-id1a6b3360">Ian Davis</a> appears to be expending energy on the definition of, and timeframes for, the next Web Frontier (which is actually here btw) :-)</p> <p> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/danieljohnlewis#this" id="link-id1907f9f8">Daniel Lewis</a> also penned an <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/03/04/web-3g/" id="link-id18f8f740">interesting post in response to Ian's</a>, that actually triggered this post.</p> <p>I think definition time has long expired re. the Web's many <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20dimensions&type=text&output=html" id="link-id1a41b078">interaction dimensions, evolutionary stages, and versions</a>.</p> <p>On my watch it's simply demo / dog-food time. Or as <a href="http://danbri.org" id="link-id17847778">Dan Brickley</a> states: <a href="http://danbri.org/words/2008/03/04/288" id="link-idb4a34a8">Just Show It</a>.</p> <p>Below, I've created a tabulated view of the various lanes on the Web's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information_superhighway" id="link-id17cff4c8">Information Super Highway</a>. Of course, this is a Linked Data demo should you be interested in the universe of data exposed via the links embedded in this post :-)</p> <table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <caption> The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id167bd1a8">Web</a>'s Information Super Highway Lanes </caption> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"></td> <td width="194" valign="top"></td> <td width="302" valign="top"></td> <td width="330" valign="top"></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"><div align="center"></div></td> <td width="194" valign="top"> <p align="center"> <strong>1.0</strong> </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"> <p align="center"> <strong>2.0</strong> </p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"> <p align="center"> <strong>3.0</strong> </p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Desire</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information" id="link-id16c0b9a0">Information</a> Creation & Retrieval </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Creation, Retrieval, and Extraction </p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">Distillation of Data from Information </p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Idea_virus" id="link-id17003280">Meme</a> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Linkage (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext" id="link-id1b939870">Hypertext</a>) </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Mashing (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Mashup_%28web_application_hybrid%29" id="link-id18baf9e0">Mash-ups</a>)</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id18f01838">Linked Data</a> Meshing (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hyperdata" id="link-id18a1de38">Hyperdata</a>)</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Enabling Protocol</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"> <p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id190ed430">HTTP</a> </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">HTTP</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">HTTP</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Markup </strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"> <p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/HTML" id="link-id1a41b438">HTML</a> </p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XHTML" id="link-id18d4a340">(X)HTML</a>& various <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id17faf780">XML</a> based formats (RSS, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Atom_%28standard%29" id="link-id17928df0">ATOM</a>, others) </p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Turtle_(syntax)" id="link-id17b22478">Turtle</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Notation_3" id="link-id1c871a58">N3</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDF/XML" id="link-id1c508bf8">RDF/XML</a>, others</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>Basic Data Unit </strong></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Resource (Data Object) of type "Document" </div></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Resource (Data Object) of type "Document" </div></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Resource (Data Object) that may be one of a variety of Types: Person, Place, Event, Music etc.</div></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" height="148" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Basic Data Unit Identity </strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left">Resource <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Locator" id="link-id1bd05908">URL</a> (Web Data Object Address) </p> <p align="left"> </p> </td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Resource URL (Web Data Object Address)</p> <p align="left"> </p> </td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">Unique Identifier (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id174404d8">URI</a>) that is indepenent of actual Resource (Web Data Object) Address. </p> <p align="left">Note: An Identifier by itself has no utility beyond Identifying a place around which actual data may be clustered. </p> <p align="left"> </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Query or Search</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Full_text_search" id="link-id18d3d020">Full Text Search</a> patterns</p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Full Text Search patterns</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"> <p align="left">Structured Querying via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id175ebd30">SPARQL</a> </p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Deployment</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left"> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_server" id="link-id1a6b0b28">Web Server</a> (Document Server)</p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Web Server + Web Services Deployment modules</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">Web Server + Linked Data Deployment modules (Data Server)</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Auto-discovery </strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><div align="left"><link rel="alternate"..></div></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left"><link rel="alternate"..></p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left"><link rel="alternate" | "meta"..>, basic and/or transparent content negotiation</p></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top"><strong>Target User </strong></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Humans </div></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Humans & Text extraction and manipulation oriented agents (Scrappers) </div></td> <td valign="top"><div align="left">Agents with varying degrees of data processing intelligence and capacity </div></td> </tr> <tr> <td valign="top">Serendipitous Discovery Quotient (SDQ)</td> <td valign="top">Low</td> <td valign="top">Low</td> <td valign="top">High </td> </tr> <tr> <td width="97" valign="top"> <p> <strong>Pain</strong> </p></td> <td width="194" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Opacity</p></td> <td width="302" valign="top"><p align="left">Information Silos</p></td> <td width="330" valign="top"><p align="left">Data Graph Navigability (Quality)</p></td> </tr> </table>
2008-03-04T18:17:56-05:00
Linked Data Solution for Exposing OpenLink Product Portfolio
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-16#1317
2008-02-16T21:08:17Z
<p>At <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com" id="link-id14a37688">OpenLink Software</a>, we've had an immense problem explaining the depth and breadth of our product porfolio via traditional Document Web pages. Thanks to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id101bc330">SPARQL</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id105d2d28">Linked Data</a>, we are now able to use <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%2528object-oriented_programming%2529" id="link-id1341fbd0">Web Data Object IDs</a> (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-idf101908">HTTP</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id135cd8a0">URI</a>s) to produce super SKUs for every item in our product portfolio. Even better, we are able to handle the additional challenge of exposing features and benefits which by their very nature are mercurial across an array of fronts (products releases, product formats, and supported platforms etc). </p> <p> Now I can simply state the following using Linked Data (hyperdata) links:</p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Software" id="link-idfafc070">OpenLink Software</a>'s product porfolio is comprised of the following product families: <ol> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/uda#this" id="link-idf856aa8">Universal Data Access Drivers Suite (UDA)</a> for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-idfc5f498">ODBC</a>, JDBC, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-idfc20120">ADO.NET</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OLE_DB" id="link-id11579a08">OLE-DB</a>, and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML_for_Analysis" id="link-id1067d098">XMLA</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/dca#this" id="link-id1318b3f8">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/virtuoso#this" id="link-idf8d7ea0">Virtuoso</a> </li> </ol> <p> We no longer have to explain (repeatedly) why our drivers exist in <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_format/express#this" id="link-idf76e1f0">Express</a>, <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_format/st#this" id="link-idf861be8">Lite</a>, and <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_format/mt#this" id="link-id128da1e0">Multi-Tier</a> Edition formats, or why you ultimately need Multi-Tier Drivers over Single Tier Drivers (Express or Lite Editions) since you ultimately heed <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_format_feature/RulesEngineBasedSecurity#this" id="link-idf8d70b0">high-performance, data encryption, and policy based security</a> across each of the data access driver formats.</p>
2008-02-25T15:08:04-05:00
Contd: Why we need Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-11#1316
2008-02-12T00:19:00Z
<p>Increasingly, I am encountering commentary from the <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id166f5440">ReadWriteWeb</a> data space that highlights critical problems solved by a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data" id="link-id1698f0e0">Linked Data</a> Web. Unfortunately, most of the time, there is a disconnect between the problem and the solution. By this I mean: technology in the Semantic Web realm isn't seen as the solution.</p> <p>A while back, I wrote a post titled:<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1267" id="link-id1676b440">Why we need Linked Data</a>. The aim of the post was to bring attention to the implications of <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2008/01/23/an-interesting-talk-by-mike-brodie/" id="link-id16f14740">exponential growth of User Generated Content</a> (typically, semi-structured and unstructured data) on the Web. The growth in question is occurring within a fixed data & information processing timeframe (i.e. there will always be 24hrs in a day), which sets the stage for Information Overload as expressed in a recent post from ReadWriteWeb titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/visualizing_social_media_fatigue.php" id="link-id164a6278">Visualizing Social Media Fatigue</a>.</p> <p>The emerging "Web of Linked Data" augments the current "Web of Linked Documents", by providing a structured data corpus partitioned by containers I prefer to call: Data Spaces. These spaces enable Linked Data aware solutions to deliver immense value such as, complex data graph traversal, starting from document beachheads, that expose relevant data within a faction of the time it would take to achieve the same thing using traditional document web methods such as full text search patterns, scraping, and mashing etc.</p> <p>Remember, our DNA based data & information system far exceeds that of any inorganic system when it comes to reasoning, but it remains immensely incapable of accurately and efficiently processing huge volumes of data & information -- irrespective of data model.</p> <p>The Idea behind the Semantic Web has always been about an evolution of the Web into a structured data collective comprised of interlinked Data items and Data Containers (Data Spaces). Of course we can argue forever about the Semantics of the solution (ironically), but we can't shirk away from the impending challenges that "Information Overload" is about to unleash on our limited processing time and capabilities.</p> <p>For those looking for a so called "killer application" for the Semantic Web, I would urge you to align this quest with the "Killer Problem" of our times, because when you do so you will that all routes lead to: Linked Data that leverages existing Web Architecture. </p> <p>Once you understand the problem, you will hopefully understand that we all need some kind of "Data Junction Box" that provides a "Data Access Focal Point" for all of the data we splatter across the net as we sign up for the next greatest and latest Web X.X hosted service, or as we work on a daily basis with a variety of tools within enterprise Intranets.</p> <p>BTW - these "Data Junction Boxes" will also need to be unobtrusively bound to our individual Identities. </p>
2008-02-26T08:16:43.000005-05:00
Additional OpenLink Data Spaces Features
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-09#1315
2008-02-09T17:54:35Z
<p> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id13df7aa0">Daniel Lewis</a> has published another post about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id170b4ce8">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (ODS) functionality titled:<a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/02/09/a-few-new-features-in-openlink-data-spaces/#comments" id="link-idf6ad9e8">A few new features in OpenLink Data Spaces</a>, that exposes additional features (some hot out the oven).</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Space" id="link-id16f42c90">OpenLink Data Spaces (<acronym title="OpenLink Data Spaces">ODS</acronym>)</a> now officially supports:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://apml.pbwiki.com/" id="link-id15baf3e0">Attention Profiling Markup Language (<acronym title="Attention Profiling Markup Language">APML</acronym>)</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://moat-project.org/" id="link-iddd45db0">Meaning of a Tag (<acronym title="Meaning of a Tag">MOAT</acronym>)</a> in conjunction with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SKOS" id="link-id14b97300">Simple Knowledge Organisation System (SKOS)</a> and <a href="http://scot-project.org/" id="link-id16e84910">Social-Semantic Cloud of Tags (<acronym title="Social-Semantic Cloud of Tags">SCOT</acronym>)</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://oauth.net/" id="link-id13e5ae50">OAuth - an Open Authentication Protocol</a> </li> </ul> <p>Which means that OpenLink Data Spaces support all of the main standards being discussed in the DataPortability Interest Group!</p> <p> <strong><em>APML Example:</em> </strong> </p> <p>All users of ODS automatically get a dynamically created APML file, for example: <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/apml.xml" id="link-id14b59220">APML profile</a> for <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen#this" id="link-id13dbb298">Kingsley Idehen</a> </p> <p>The URI for an APML profile is: http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/<ods-username>/apml.xml</p> <p> <em><strong>Meaning of a Tag Example:</strong> </em> </p> <p>All users of ODS automatically have tag cloud information embedded inside their <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-idf7182c8"><acronym title="Semantically Interlinked Online Communities">SIOC</acronym></a> file, for example: SIOC for Kingsley Idehen on the Myopenlink.net installation of ODS.</p> <p>But even better, MOAT has been implemented in the ODS Tagging System. This has been demonstrated in a recent test blog post by my colleague Mitko Iliev, the blog post comes up on the tag search: <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/imitko/weblog/Mitko%27s%20Weblog/tag/paris" id="link-idfc14cf0">http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/imitko/weblog/Mitko%27s%20Weblog/tag/paris</a> </p> <p>Which can be put through the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/" id="link-id14954fc8">OpenLink Data Browser</a>:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fimitko%2Fweblog%2FMitko%2527s%2520Weblog%2Ftag%2Fparis" id="link-id164edd88">OpenLink Data Browser with Mitko Iliev’s Paris Blog Tag</a> </li> </ul> <p> <strong><em>OAuth Example:</em> </strong> </p> <p>OAuth Tokens and Secrets can be created for any ODS application. To do this:</p> <ol> <li> you can log in to <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/ods/index.html" id="link-id167224c0">MyOpenlink.net</a> beta service, the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ods/index.html" id="link-id169733d8">Live Demo ODS installation</a>, an <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1261" id="link-id14b2d380">EC2 instance</a>, or your local installation</li> <li>then go to ‘Settings’</li> <li>and then you will see ‘OAuth Keys’</li> <li>you will then be able to choose the applications that you have instantiated and generate the token and secret for that <abbr title="application">app</abbr>.</li> </ol> <p> <strong>Related Document (Human) Links</strong> </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/Ods" id="link-id16d1c2d8">OpenLink Data Spaces Official Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id16d8c500">OpenLink Software Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-idf6b05f0">OpenLink Data Spaces Wikipedia Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.apml.org/" id="link-id12d8bbd0">Attention Profiling Markup Language Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://moat-project.org/" id="link-id137e7108">Meaning of a Tag Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/" id="link-id110f1028">Simple Knowledge Organisation Systems Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://scot-project.org/" id="link-id14b8d1e0">Social-Semantic Cloud of Tags Project Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://oauth.net/" id="link-id12da2dd0">OAuth Protocol Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.dataportability.org/" id="link-id13f52e08">DataPortability.org Website</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.sioc-project.org/" id="link-id15ebb6a0">Semantically Interlinked Online Communities Project Website<br /> </a> </li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Remember (as per my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1314" id="link-id16ea8bb8">most recent post about ODS</a>), ODS is about unobtrusive fusion of Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0+ usage and interaction patterns. Thanks to a lot of recent standardization in the Semantic Web realm (e.g SPARQL), we are now employ the MOAT, SKOS, and SCOT ontologies as vehicles for Structured Tagging.</p> <h2>Structured Tagging?</h2> <p>This is how we take a key <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-id1884ac58">Web 2.0 </a>feature (think 2D in a sense), bend it over, to create a Linked Data Web (Web 3.0) experience unobtrusively (see <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20dimensions&type=text&output=html" id="link-id14b3d8a0">earlier posts re. Dimensions of Web</a>). Thus, nobody has to change how they tag or where they tag, just expose ODS to the URLs of your Web 2.0 tagged content and it will produce URIs (Structured Data Object Identifiers) and a lnked data graph for your Tags Data Space (nee. Tag Cloud). ODS will construct a graph which exposes tag subject association, tag concept alignment / intended meaning, and tag frequencies, that ultimately deliver "relative disambiguation" of intended Tag Meaning (i.e. you can easily discern the taggers meaning via the Tags actual Data Space which is associated with the tagger). In a nutshell, the dynamics of relevance matching, ranking, and the like, change immensely without futile timeless debates about matters such as: </p> <ul>What's the Linked Data value proposition?</ul> <ul>What's the Linked Data business model?</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id105abcb0">XML</a> vs <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id14b27b28">RDF</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XQuery" id="link-id10572dd0">XQuery</a> vs <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1326d4c8">SPARQL</a> </ul> <ul>What's the Semantic Web Killer application?</ul> <p>We can just get on with demonstrating Linked Data value using what exists on the Web today. This is the approach we are deliberately taking with ODS.</p> <h2>Related Items</h2> <ul> <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano" id="link-id170849b0">Stefano Mazzocch</a>'s <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/linotype/news/85/" id="link-idfde2e08"> response to Clay Shirky's 2005 talk</a> titled: <a href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2005/view/e_sess/6117" id="link-id13f45030">Ontology is Overrated: Links, Tags and Post-hoc Metadata</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://tomgruber.org" id="link-id16c745b8"> Tom Gruber</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-of-folksonomy.htm" id="link-id13cbe7b0">Ontology of Folksonomy: A Mash-up of Apples and Oranges</a> </ul>. <p> <strong>Tip:</strong> This post is best viewed via an RDF aware User Agent (e.g. a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id14b325b8">Browser</a> or <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id164bfab0">Data Viewer</a>). I say this because the permalink of this post is a URI in a Linked Data Space (My Blog) comprised of more data than meets the eye (i.e. what you see when you read this post via a Document Web Browser) :-)</p>
2008-02-11T11:38:03.000006-05:00
10 Reasons to use OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-08#1314
2008-02-08T17:33:45Z
<p>Via post by <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog" id="link-id1480d7c0">Daniel Lewis</a>, titled:<a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/02/08/10-reasons-to-use-openlink-data-spaces/#comments" id="link-id1320a618">10 Reasons to use OpenLink Data Spaces</a> </p> <blockquote> <p>There are quite a few reasons to use <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Space" id="link-id103eb060">OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)</a>. Here are 10 of the reasons why I use ODS:</p> <ol> <li>Its native support of DataPortability Recommendations such as <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RSS" id="link-id18957e88">RSS</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Atom_%28standard%29" id="link-id1410a9c0">Atom</a>, <a href="http://www.apml.org/" id="link-idfde4b90">APML</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Yadis" id="link-id1328c260">Yadis</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OPML" id="link-id10133f70">OPML</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Microformat" id="link-id16e19be0">Microformats</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id12deef98">FOAF</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id15fb99b0">SIOC</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenID" id="link-id1390ae10">OpenID</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OAuth" id="link-id14dcce70">OAuth</a>.</li> <li>Its native support of Semantic Web Technologies such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id15fc75a0">RDF</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id14255238">SPARQL</a>/<a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com/~afs/SPARQL-Update.html" id="link-id15fe2e40">SPARUL</a> for querying.</li> <li>Everything in ODS is an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object_%28computer_science%29" id="link-id11c204a0">Object</a> with its own <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id14812560">URI</a>, this is due to the underlying <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Object-relational_database" id="link-idf663e08">Object-Relational</a> Architecture provided by <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1484e4c8">Virtuoso</a>.</li> <li>It has all the social media components that you could need, including: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog" id="link-id10120b58">blogs</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wiki" id="link-id14d9a608">wikis</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_network_service" id="link-idf0b3a30">social networks</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Aggregator" id="link-id188d7c78">feed readers</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Customer_relationship_management" id="link-id134a2c48">CRM</a> and a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Calendar" id="link-idf66af80">calendar</a>.</li> <li>It is expandable by installing pre-configured components (called VADs), or by re-configuring a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/LAMP_%28software_bundle%29" id="link-id102e8008">LAMP</a> application to use <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id13fe2b68">Virtuoso</a>. Some examples of current VADs include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/MediaWiki" id="link-id1011d9f0">MediaWiki</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/WordPress" id="link-id13624060">Wordpress</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Drupal" id="link-id100c4510">Drupal</a>.</li> <li>It works with external webservices such as: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Facebook" id="link-id131fe6d0">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Del.icio.us" id="link-idfdd1580">del.icio.us</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Flickr" id="link-id1496aff0">Flickr.</a> </li> <li>Everything within OpenLink Data Spaces is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id17114c00">Linked Data</a>, which provides more meaningful information than just plain structural information. This meaningful information could be used for complex inferencing systems, as ODS can be seen as a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Expert_system" id="link-id15ea4108">Knowledge Base</a>.</li> <li>ODS builds bridges between the existing static-document based web (aka ‘<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_1.0" id="link-idf08b338">Web 1.0</a>‘), the more dynamic, services-oriented, social and/or user-orientated webs (aka ‘<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-idfde26e0">Web 2.0</a>‘) and the web which we are just going into, which is more data-orientated (aka ‘<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_3.0" id="link-idf9b7328">Web 3.0</a>’ or ‘Linked Data Web’).</li> <li>It is fully supportive of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cloud_computing" id="link-id189480d0">Cloud Computing</a>, and can be installed on <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Amazon_Elastic_Compute_Cloud" id="link-id10026778">Amazon EC2</a>.</li> <li>Its released free under the GNU <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GNU_General_Public_License" id="link-id16002fb0">General Public License (GPL)</a>. [note]However, it is technically dual licensed as it lays on top of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id132d4238">Virtuoso Universal Server</a> which has both Commercial and GPL licensing[/note]</li> </ol> </blockquote> <p>The features above collectively provide users with a Linked Data Junction Box that may reside with corporate intranets or "out in the clouds" (Internet). You can consume, share, and publish data in a myriad of formats using a plethora of protocols, without any programming. ODS is simply about exposing the data from your Web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0 application interactions in structured from, with Linking, Sharing, and ultimately Meshing (not Mashing) in mind.</p> <p> <strong>Note:</strong> Although ODS is equipped with a broad array of Web 2.0 style Applications, you do not need to use native ODS apps in order to exploit it's power. It binds to anything that supports the relevant protocols and data formats.</p>
2008-02-08T17:08:43-05:00
Data Spaces, User Identity, and Data Portability
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-04#1311
2008-02-04T14:54:40Z
<p>If your Data Space was a Solar System, your personal Identity would be the Sun. I say this because your Identity is the conduit (access mechanism) to your data graph; the data you generate from various application interaction activities such as: Blogging, Bookmarking, Photo Sharing, Feed Aggregation etc.</p> <p> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com" id="link-id1082e330">Daniel Lewis</a> has just published a nice blog post titled: <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2008/02/04/the-data-space-philosophy/" id="link-id102c7ff0">The Data Space Philosophy</a>, that puts the underlying Data Space concept in perspective.</p> <p>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id103021f0">Linked Data</a> Web is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id130e28e8">Giant Global Graph</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id16cec640">Data Spaces</a> (meshes of data and identity exposed by graphs connecting data and identity)</p> <p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_portability" id="link-id10a41148">Data Portability</a> ultimately depends on platforms that provide unobtrusive generation of Linked Data (for data referencing) alongside support for a plethora of industry standard data formats -- which is what <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-iddf76678">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> has been about for a very long time :-)</p> <h2>Related</h2> <ul>- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_%28philosophy%29" id="link-id13fdf718">Identity - Philosophy</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_%28mathematics%29" id="link-id103d9368">Identity - Mathematics</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id102d4300">Identity - Object Oriented Programming</a> </ul>
2008-02-04T10:06:43-05:00
Virtuoso Universal Server 5.0.4 Release Details
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-04#1310
2008-02-04T14:25:22Z
<p>We've just released version 5.0.4 of the Virtuoso Universal Server platform for SQL, XML, and RDF. The new release includes the following enhancements:</p> <h2>Web Server:</h2> <ul>- HTTP 1.1 compliant Transparent content-negotiation in URL-rewrite rules for Linked Data Deployment.</ul> <h2>RDF Data Management:</h2> <ul>- New providers for the Jena, Sesame and Redland frameworks</ul> <ul>- support for SPARQL INSERT and UPDATE via HTTP POST</ul> <ul>- New SPARQL-BI extenstions that make Business Intelligence feasible via SPARQL</ul> <ul>- new "rdf_sink" folder for handling HTTP PUTs into WebDAV that automatically sync with Quad Store.</ul> <ul>- There are new Sponger (RDFizer) cartridges that map Amazon book-search results to the Biliographic Ontology, supports production of Linked Data from OAI, XBRL, and Yahoo finance data sources.</ul> <ul>- HTTPS protocol support added to Sponger</ul> <ul>- performance optimizations for SPARQL `DESCRIBE' and `CONSTRUCT', alongside general performance enhancements for RDF data set loading.</ul> <h2>Core DBMS Engine:</h2> <ul>- PHP hosting a module re-implemented as a Virtuoso plugin inline with otherlanguage hosting modules</ul> <ul>- improved deadlock condtion management</ul> <ul>- enhanced POP and FTP server side protocol implementations that allow larger data transfers.</ul> <h2>Additional Information</h2> <ul>- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1099c740">DBpedia URI</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id10ae8590">Product Home Page</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id107ece60">Wikipedia Page</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://sev.prnewswire.com/computer-electronics/20080131/NETH04931012008-1.html" id="link-id135fec60">Virtuoso 5.0.4 Press Release</a> </ul>
2008-02-04T20:30:43.000001-05:00
Linked Data -- Summing Up The Last 12 Months
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-02-03#1307
2008-02-03T22:02:56Z
<p> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com" id="link-idffb6838">Mike Bergman</a> has just penned a post titled: <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=416" id="link-id106acde0">Linked Data Comes of Age</a>, that provides a nice 12 month summation of Linked Data and the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData" id="link-id1863ef90">Linking Open Data Community project</a>'s efforts to date.</p> <p>Like most of us in the Linked Data community, he sees the upcoming <a href="http://www.linkeddataplanet.com/" id="link-id10cc0c08">Linked Data Conference by Jupiter</a> as a watershed moment.</p>
2008-02-03T17:17:17.000004-05:00
FOAF-ing Linked Data is quite SIOC-ing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-31#1306
2008-01-31T02:40:12Z
<p>The title of this post is a "Tongue in cheek" expression of euphoria now that I have <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-idfa63488">FOAF</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-idfa976f0">SIOC</a> (pronounced SHOCK) based data spaces exposed via <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-idfde41f8">my FOAF</a> and <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen" id="link-idfdca6c8">my SIOC</a> information resource (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id16d0b0d8">RDF</a> files) <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-idfa97070">URI</a>s.</p> <p>If you want to explore who I know, what I read, and what I've tagged (amongst other things), all you have to do is:</p> <ol> <li>Beam a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-idfdca878">SPARQL</a> query down my data space URIs which expose FOAF or SIOC based interconnected <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-idfa954e8">Linked Data</a> graphs.</li> <li> Walkthrough using an RDF Browser until you reach a beachhead and then beam your SPARQL from there (remember you only need the URI of the RDF Data Source, and while in my Data Space every data item has a proper URI).</li> </ol> <p>Some Tools that help you comprehend what I am saying:</p> <h2>Browsers</h2> <ul> Zitgist Data Viewer (<a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen" id="link-id16d410c0">SIOC</a> and <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-idfa489e8">FOAF</a> data spaces)</ul> <ul>OpenLink RDF Browser (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fkidehen" id="link-idfa8b0d8">SIOC</a> and <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fperson%2Fkidehen" id="link-idfa974a8">FOAF</a> data spaces)</ul> <ul>DISCO (<a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser/?browse_uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%2Fkidehen%2Fspace%23this" id="link-idfa62288">SIOC</a> and <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-idf940338">FOAF</a> data spaces)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/release/tabulator/0.8/tab.html" id="link-id16d6a4b8">Tabulator</a> </ul> <h2>Query Tools</h2> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo" id="link-idfdd43b8">SPARQL Demo</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql" id="link-idfa96bd0">iSPARQL QBE</a> </ul>
2008-02-01T18:20:34-05:00
SPARQL based RDF Store Benchmarks via DBpedia
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-17#1298
2008-01-18T01:10:00Z
<p> <a href="http://christianhbecker.com/contact/" id="link-id1436ad98">Christian Becker</a> has delivered the final cut of an initial iteration of his <a href="http://dbpedia.org" id="link-id143223c8">DBpedia</a> based <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/benchmarks-200801/" id="link-id1729ebc8">RDF Data Stores benchmark</a>. This particular exercise brought some very interesting things to our attention re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id17178108">Virtuoso</a>'s default mode of operation:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x1c519718">Virtuoso</a> is a Quad Store in a Triple Store world -- it supports <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0x1cce9730">RDF</a> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data" id="link-id0x1934f0b8">data</a> set storage partitioning via <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/#namedGraphs" id="link-id13f6c948">Named Graphs</a> and it requires the use of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id0x1eeb1b28">SPARQL</a> FROM clause to scope query patterns to appropriate <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">data</a> sets. Otherwise, it looks across all hosted data sets for matching patterns</li> <li>We should be able to use our server side configuration settings to make the Quad Store behave like a Triple Store (meaning we set the list of applicable named graphs as part of the session configuration)</li> <li>Provide hints to users about missing POGS, PSOG, and SOPG bitmap indexes when <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> query patterns received by the server are deemed suboptimal (we do know the execution costs of each query)</li> </ol> <p>How Do I create the missing Bitmap Indexes?</p> <p>Go to the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/HTML" id="link-id1733e248">HTML</a> based Virtuoso Conductor, iSQL command line interface, or an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ODBC" id="link-id1427f338">ODBC</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/JDBC" id="link-id16edfa08">JDBC</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/ADO.NET" id="link-id1716af90">ADO.NET</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OLE_DB" id="link-id1725e5e0">OLE DB</a> client and execute:</p> <b><pre>CREATE BITMAP index <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a>_QUAD_POGS on DB.DBA.RDF_QUAD (P,O,G,S); <br />CREATE BITMAP index RDF_QUAD_PSOG on DB.DBA.RDF_QUAD (P,S,O,G); <br />CREATE BITMAP index RDF_QUAD_SOPG on DB.DBA.RDF_QUAD (S,O,P,G); </pre></b> <h3>Related</h3> <ul> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfStoreBenchmarking" id="link-id14de2630">RDF Store Benchamrking Wiki</a> </ul>
2008-05-05T08:06:45-04:00
Semantic Data Web Epiphanies: One Node at a Time
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-17#1300
2008-01-17T22:59:00Z
<p>In 2006, I stumbled across <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com" id="link-id17165b98">Jason Kolb</a> (online) via a 4-part series of posts titled: <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the_1.html" id="link-id14204cf8">Reinventing the Internet</a>. At the time, I realized that Jason was postulating about what is popularly known today as "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_portability" id="link-id1412b280">Data Portability</a>", so I made contact with him (blogosphere style) via a post of my own titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1033" id="link-id13b1cb20">Data Spaces, Internet Reinvention, and the Semantic Web</a>. Naturally, I tried to unveil to Jason the connection between his vision and the essence of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id143117f0">Semantic Web</a>. Of course, he was skeptical :-)</p> <p>Jason recently moved to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Massachusetts" id="link-id13c4a470">Massachusetts</a> which lead to me pinging him about our earlier blogosphere encounter and the emergence of a <a href="http://dataportability.org/" id="link-id17395c60">Data Portability Community</a>. I also informed him about the fact that <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Tim_Berners-Lee" id="link-id105507f0">TimBL</a>, myself, and a number of other Semantic Web technology enthusiasts, frequently meet on the 2nd Tuesday of each month at the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology" id="link-id1719f798">MIT</a> hosted <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/CambridgeSemanticWebGatherings" id="link-id1734d460">Cambridge Semantic Web Gatherings</a>, to discuss, demonstrate, debate all aspects of the Semantic Web. Luckily (for both of us), Jason attended the last event, and we got to meet each other in person.</p> <p>Following our face to face meeting in Cambridge, a number of follow-on conversations ensued covering, Linked Data and practical applications of the Semantic Web vision. Jason writes about our exchanges a recent post titled: <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2008/01/the-semantic-we.html" id="link-id13be6280">The Semantic Web</a>. His passion for Data Portability enabled me to use <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/FoafOpenid" id="link-id141516a8">OpenID and FOAF integration</a> to connect the Semantic Web and Data Portability via the Linked Data concept.</p> <p>During our conversations, Jason also eluded to the fact that he had already encountered <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Software" id="link-id17038218">OpenLink Software</a> while working with our <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_category/odbc#this" id="link-id14325f08">ODBC Drivers</a> (part of or <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product_family/uda#this" id="link-id11ab1008">UDA product family</a>) for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Informix" id="link-id125858d0">IBM Informix</a> (<a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product/odbc-informix-st#this" id="link-id13b85e30">Single-Tier</a> or <a href="http://data.openlinksw.com/oplweb/product/odbc-informix-mt#this" id="link-id13edceb0">Multi-Tier</a> Editions) a few years ago (interesting random connection).</p> <p>As I've stated in the past, I've always felt that the Semantic Web vision will materialize by way of a global epiphany. The count down to this inevitable event started at the birth of the blogosphere, ironically. And accelerated more recently, through the emergence of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-id171d4ec8">Web 2.0</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/Social_network" id="link-id140da830">Social Networking</a>, even more ironically :-)</p> <p>The blogosphere started the process of Data Space coalescence via RSS/Atom based semi-strucutured data enclaves, Web 2.0 RDFpropagated Web Service usage en route to creating service provider controlled, data and information silosRDF, Social NetworkingRDF brought attention to the fact that User Generated Data wasn't actually owned or controlled by the Data Creators etc.</p> <p>The emergence of "Data Portability" has created a palatable moniker for a clearly defined, and slightly easier to understand, problem: the meshing of Data and Identity in cyberspace i.e. individual points of presence in cyberspace, in the form of "Personal Data Spaces in the Clouds" (think: doing really powerful stuff with .name domains). In a sense, this is the critical inflection point between the document centric "Web of Linked Documents" and the data centric "Web or Linked Data". There is absolutely no other way solve this problem in a manner that alleviates the imminent challenges presented by information overload -- resulting from the exponential growth of user generated data across the Internet and enterprise Intranets.</p>
2008-01-18T02:27:27.000004-05:00
W3C's SPARQLing Data Access Ingenuity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-15#1295
2008-01-15T22:58:53Z
<p>The W3C officially unveiled the SPARQL Query Language today via a press release titled: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/12/sparql-pressrelease" id="link-id10074ca8">W3C Opens Data on the Web with SPARQL</a>.</p> <h2>What is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id10183f60">SPARQL</a>?</h2> <p>A query language for the burgeoning Structured & <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10426b18">Linked Data</a> Web (aka <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-idffde090">Semantic Web</a> / <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id103e3688">Giant Global Graph</a>). Like <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id103365f8">SQL</a>, for the Relational Data Model, it provides a query language for the Graph based <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDF" id="link-id103e33e8">RDF</a> Data Model.</p> <p>It's also a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer" id="link-id1036a3d0">REST</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SOAP" id="link-id103b36d8">SOAP</a> based Web Service that exposes SPARQL access to RDF Data via an endpoint. </p> <p>In addition, it's also a Query Results Serialization format that includes <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id1023bc60">XML</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/JSON" id="link-id102c3f88">JSON</a> support.</p> <h2>Why is it Important?</h2> <p>It brings important clarity to the notion of the "Web as a Database" by transforming existing Web Sites, Portals, and Web Services into bona fide corpus of Mesh-able (rather than Mash-able) Data Sources. For instance, you can perform queries that join one or more of the aforementioned data sources in exactly the same manner (albeit different syntax) as you would one or more SQL Tables. </p> <h3>Example:</h3> <p>-- SPARQL equivalent of SQL SELECT * against my personal data space hosted FOAF file</p> <b><pre> SELECT DISTINCT ?s ?p ?o FROM <http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen> WHERE {?s ?p ?o}</pre></b> <p>-- SPARQL against my social network -- Note: My SPARQL will be beamed across all of contacts in the social networks of my contacts as long as they are all HTTP URI based within each data space</p> <b><pre>PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> SELECT DISTINCT ?Person FROM <http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen> WHERE {?s a foaf:Person; foaf:knows ?Person}</pre></b> <p>Note: you can use the basic <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql" id="link-id1007d9b8">SPARQL Endpoint</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql" id="link-id102c3e08">SPARQL Query By Example</a>, or <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo" id="link-id10201f98">SPARQL Query Builder Demo tool</a> to experiment with the demonstration queries above.</p> <h2>How Do I use It?</h2> <p>SPARQL is implemented by RDF Data Management Systems (Triple or Quad Stores) just as SQL is implemented by Relational Database Management Systems. The aforementioned data management systems will typically expose SPARQL access via a SPARQL endpoint.</p> <h2>Where are it's implementations?</h2> <p>A SPARQL implementors Testimonial page accompanies the SPARQL press release. In addition the is a growing collection of implementations on the<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SparqlImplementations" id="link-id10066ca8"> ESW Wiki Page for SPARQL compliant RDF Triple & Quad Stores</a>.</p> <h2>Is this really a big deal?</h2> <p>Yes! SPARQL facilitates an<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-id101ee5b0"> unobtrusive manifestation of a Linked Data Web</a> by way of natural extension of the existing Document Web i.e these Web enclaves co-exist in symbiotic fashion. </p> <p>As <a href="http://dbpedia.org" id="link-id1037edc0">DBpedia</a> very clearly demonstrates, Linked Data makes the Semantic Web demonstrable and much easier to comprehend. Without SPARQL there would be no mechanism for <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data.html" id="link-id10455da8">Linked Data deployment</a>, and without Linked Data there is no mechanism for Beaming Queries (directly or indirectly) across the Giant Global Graph of data hosted by Social Networks, Shard Bookmarks Services, Weblogs, Wikis, RSS/Atom/OPML feeds, Photo Galleries and other Web accessible Data Sources (Data Spaces).</p> <h2>Related items</h2> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/" id="link-id102021d8">Cool URIs</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/pub/LinkedDataTutorial/" id="link-id1020d5c0">Publishing Linked Data Tutorial</a> </ul> <ul a="a" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef"> Detailed SPARQL Query Examples using SIOC Data Spaces</ul> <ul> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSFOAFRef" id="link-id102c4608">Detailed SPARQL Query Examples using FOAF Data Spaces</a> </ul>
2008-01-17T15:41:04.000006-05:00
Semantic Web Killer Application?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-10#1293
2008-01-10T19:49:00Z
<p>In response to the <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com" id="link-id0x1f562c28">ReadWriteWeb</a> piece titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_what_is_the_killer_app.php" id="link-id0x16961368">Semantic Web: What is the Killer App.</a> by <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/about_alex.php" id="link-id0x16909678">Alex Iskold</a>:</p> <p>Information overload and Data Portability are two of the most pressing and imminent challenges affecting every individual connected to the global village exposed by the Internet and World Wide Web. I wrote an earlier post titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1267" id="link-idfeb7718">Why We Need Linked Data</a> that shed light on frequently overlooked realities about the Document Web.</p> <p>The real Killer application of the Semantic Web (imho) is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id10571ef0">Linked Data</a> (or Hyperdata), just as the killer application of the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id102be888">Document Web</a> was Linked Documents (Hyperlinks). Linked Data enables human users (indirectly) and software agents (directly in response to human instruction) to traverse Web Data Spaces (Linked Data enclaves within the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_Global_Graph" id="link-id10b6ba08">Giant Global Graph</a>).</p> <p>Semantic Web applications (conduits between humans and agents) that take advantage of Linked Data include:</p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBpedia" id="link-id10fcc8f8">DBpedia</a> - General Knowledge sourced from <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wikipedia" id="link-id10570808">Wikipedia</a> and a host of other Linked Data Spaces.</p> <p>Various Linked Data Browsers: <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com" id="link-id139a2300">Zitgist Data Viewer</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser" id="link-id12fb46f0">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>, <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser" id="link-idff652c0">DISCO Browser</a>, and TimBL's <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2005/ajar/ajaw/tab.html" id="link-idff63998">Tabulator</a>.</p> <p> <a href="http://zlinks.zitgist.com/" id="link-idff62b90">zLknks </a>- Linked Data Lookup technology for Web Content Publishing systems (note: more to come on this in a future post).</p> <p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenLink_Data_Spaces" id="link-id1054a708">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> - a solution for Data Portability via a Linked Data Junction Box for Web 1.0 ((X)HTML Document Webs), 2.0 (XML Web Services based Content Publishing, Content Syndication, and Aggregation), and 3.0 (Linked Data) Data Spaces. Thus, via my URI (when viewed through a Linked Data Browser/Viewer) you can traverse my Data Space (i.e my Linked Data Graph) generated by the following activities:</p> <ul>Blog Posts publishing</ul> <ul>My RSS & Atom Content Subscriptions (what used to be called a "Blogroll")</ul> <ul>My Bookmarks (from my Desktop and Del.icio.us)</ul> <ul>and other things I choose to share with the public via the Web</ul> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-idff89b08">Virtuoso</a> - a Universal Server Platform that includes <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSRDF" id="link-id12ff8810">RDF Data Management</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-idf7739b8">RDFization Middleware</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.html" id="link-id1025ca28">SQL-RDF Mapping</a>, <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data/Virtuoso_Deploying_Linked_Data.html" id="link-id1324db10">RDF Linked Data Deployment</a>, alongside a hybrid/multi-model, virtual/federated data service in a single product offering.</p> <p></p>BTW - There is a <a href="http://events.linkeddata.org/ldow2008/" id="link-id117a0190">Linked Data Workshop</a> at this years <a href="http://www2008.org/" id="link-id102abe28">World Wide Web conference</a>. Also note the <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/HCLS/WWW2008" id="link-id100c3a88">Healthcare & Life Science Workshop</a> which is a related Linked Data technology and Semantic Web best practices realm.
2008-02-04T20:32:42.000003-05:00
Linked Data Workshop -- WWW2008
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-10#1291
2008-01-10T18:03:28Z
<p>At the forth coming <a href="http://www2008.org/" id="link-id1516f4b0">World Wide Web 2008 Conference</a> there will be an entire workshop dedicated to the emerging <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id154a7c98">Linked Data</a> Web (aka Linked Data). The <a href="http://events.linkeddata.org/ldow2008/" id="link-idd28f0b8">Linked Data Workshop</a> will include: Presentations, Demonstrations, Tutorials, and Research Papers from a variety on organizations and individuals associated with this very exciting aspect of the Web.</p> <p>The deadline for submitting papers, presentations, demo, and tutorial proposals is the 28th of January, 2008.</p>
2008-01-10T13:03:29.000004-05:00
Politics, Old Media, and Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-07#1290
2008-01-07T03:30:21Z
<p>According to current media:</p> <p>Senator <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Barack_Obama" id="link-idfa3e498">Barack Obama</a> is a beacon of change within the democratic party while Senator <a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/Hillary_Rodham_Clinton" id="link-idfd9ead8">Hillary Clinton</a> is status quo.</p> <p>According to the data in the <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/" id="link-idfcdd5f0">GovtTrack.us</a> data space:</p> <p>Senator Barack Obama is a rank-and-file Democrat according to <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?id=400629" id="link-idfc172f8">GovTrack's analysis of his track record in congress</a>. Whereas, Senator Hillary Clinton is a radical democrat, according to the same <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd?id=300022" id="link-idf9463c8">Govt. Track analysis of her track record in congress</a>.</p> <p>Who do we believe? The GovtTrack.us performance data, old media pundits, or postulations of the candidates? GovtTrack.us is a new approach to candidate vetting. It provides data in traditional <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/" id="link-idf9cadc0">Document Web</a> and <a href="http://www.govtrack.us/sparql.xpd" id="link-idfb7af50">Linked Data Web</a> forms, placing analytic power in the hands of the citizen.</p> <p>Here are insights into the track records of Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama via the Zitgist <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id13325908">Linked Data</a> Viewer:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd%3Fid%3D300022" id="link-idfada448">Senator Hillary Clinton</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dataviewer.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//www.govtrack.us/congress/person.xpd%3Fid%3D400629" id="link-idfa3a860">Senator Barack Obama</a> </li> </ol> <p>Note: I am not aligned to any political party or candidate, this is just a demonstration of Linked Data that has a high degree of poignancy relative to US primary elections etc..</p>
2008-01-07T12:22:15.000002-05:00
2008, Facebook Data Portability, and the Giant Global Graph of Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-05#1289
2008-01-05T17:11:55Z
<p>As 2007 came to a close I repeatedly mulled over the idea of putting together a usual "year in review" and a set of predictions for the coming year etc. Anyway, the more I pondered, the smaller the list became. While pondering (as 2008 rolled around), the <a href="http://www.techmeme.com/080103/p154#a080103p154" id="link-id113db9a0">Blogosphere was set ablaze with the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Robert_Scoble" id="link-idfe12a58">Robert Scoble</a>'s announcement of his account suspension by Facebook</a>. Of course, many chimed in expressing views either side of the ensuing debate: <a href="http://www.scripting.com/stories/2008/01/03/scobleAndHisFacebookData.html" id="link-id161e7c48">Who is right -- Scoble or Facebook</a>. The more I assimilated the views expressed about this event, the more ironic I found the general discourse, for the following reasons:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2.0" id="link-id16f6f3e0">Web 2.0</a> is fundamentally about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_service" id="link-id1770f3c0">Web Services</a> as the prime vehicle for interactions across "points of Web presence"</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Facebook" id="link-id162f3f60">Facebook</a> is a Web 2.0 hosted service for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_Networking" id="link-id16e1dfc8">social networking</a> that provides Web Services APIs for accessing data in the Facebook data space. You have to do so "on the fly" within clearly defined constraints i.e you can interact with data across your social network via Facebook APIs, but you cannot cache the data (perform an export style dump of the data)</li> <li> Facebook is a main driver of the term: "social graph", but their underlying data model is relational and the Web Services response (data you get back) doesn't return a data graph, instead it returns an tree (i.e XML)</li> <li> <a href="http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=scoble+semantic+web&btnG=Search+Blogs" id="link-id16680d08">Scoble's had a number of close encounters with Linked Data Web | Semantic Data Web | Web 3.0 aficionados</a> in various forms throughout 2007, but still doesn't quite make the connection between Web Services APIs as part of a processing pipeline that includes structured data extraction from XML data en route to producing Data Graphs comprised of Data Objects (Entities) endowed with: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Identity_%28object-oriented_programming%29" id="link-id16af1f98">Unique Identifiers</a>, Classification or Categorization schemes, Attributes, and Relationships prescribed by one or more shared Data Dictionaries/Schemas/Ontologies</li> <li> A global information bus that exposes a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id16ce7c68">Linked Data</a> mesh comprised of Data Objects, Object Attributes, and Object Relationships across "points of Web presence" is what <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i" id="link-id1aa304e0">TimBL</a> described in 1998 (<a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html" id="link-id1a822db0">Semantic Web Roadmap</a>) and more recently in 2007 (<a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/215" id="link-id181e5998">Giant Global Graph</a>)</li> <li> The Linked Data mesh (i.e Linked Data Web or GGG) is anchored by the use of HTTP to mint Location, Structure, and Value independent Object Identifiers called <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id16eae370">URI</a>s or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/IRI" id="link-idffe16b8">IRI</a>s. In addition, the Linked Data Web is also equipped with a query language, protocol, and results serialization format for XML and JSON called: SPARQL. </li> </ol> <p>So, unlike Scoble, I am able to make my Facebook Data portable without violating Facebook rules (no data caching outside Facebook realm) by doing the following:</p> <ol> <li> Use an RDFizer for Facebook to convert XML response data from Facebook Web Services into RDF "on the fly" Ensure that my RDF is comprised of Object Identifiers that are HTTP based and thereby dereferencable (i.e. I can use SPARQL to unravel the Linked Data Graph in my Facebook data space)</li> <li> The act of data dereferencing enables me to expose my Facebook Data as Linked Data associated with my <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id16b3e9d0">Personal URI</a> </li> <li> This interaction only occurs via my data space and in all cases the interactions with data work via my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1172" id="link-id16c628b8">RDFizer middleware</a> (e.g the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/Virtuoso_Sponger_1/Virtuoso_Sponger_1.html" id="link-id1572fb28">Virtuoso Sponger</a>) that talks directly to Facebook Web Services. </li> </ol> <p>In a nutshell, my Linked Data Space enables you to reference data in my data space via Object Identifiers (URIs), and some cases the Object IDs and Graphs are constructed on the fly via RDFization middleware.</p> <p>Here are my URIs that provide different paths to my Facebook Data Space:</p> <ul> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id16f817a8"> Personal URI</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/proxy?url=http%3A//www.facebook.com/people/Kingsley_Idehen/605980750&force=rdf&login=kidehen" id="link-id1a8e5950">My Facebook Data Space</a> (best viewed via a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fpeople%2FKingsley_Idehen%2F605980750%26force%3Drdf%26login%3Dkidehen" id="link-id15476588">Linked Data Browser/Viewer</a> session) </ul> <ul> <a href="http://myopenlink.net/proxy?url=http%3A//www.facebook.com/album.php%3Faid%3D14768%26id%3D605980750&force=rdf&login=kidehen" id="link-id16e3bcf0">My Facebook Photo Gallery -- WWW2007 Photo Collection</a> (also best viewed via a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fproxy%3Furl%3Dhttp%253A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Falbum.php%253Faid%253D14768%2526id%253D605980750%26force%3Drdf%26login%3Dkidehen" id="link-id16e10270">Linked Data Browser/Viewer</a> session) </ul> <p>To conclude, 2008 is clearly the inflection year during which we will final unshackle Data and Identity from the confines of "Web Data Silos" by leveraging the HTTP, SPARQL, and RDF induced virtues of Linked Data. </p> <p>Related Posts:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/2008_the_rise_of_linked" id="link-id156baac0">2008 and the Rise of Linked Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/data_portability_scoble_explains" id="link-id16291310">Scoble Right, Wrong, and Beyond</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://scobleizer.com/2007/11/30/talking-with-tim-berners-lee-inventor-of-the-web/" id="link-id163c9c38">Scoble interviewing TimBL</a> (note to Scoble: re-watch your interview since he made some specific points about Linked Data and URIs that you need to grasp)</li> <li>Prior Blog posts my this Blog Data Space that include the literal patterns: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=scoble%20semantic%20web&type=text&output=html" id="link-id163e6cd0">Scoble Semantic Web</a> </li> </ol>
2008-01-07T11:44:42.000007-05:00
OpenOffice.org, SPARQL, and the Linked Data Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2008-01-04#1288
2008-01-05T02:50:00Z
<p>Question posed by Dan Brickley via a blog post: SQL, OpenOffice: <a href="http://danbri.org/words/2008/01/04/245" id="link-id1689abd8">would a JDBC driver for SPARQL protocol make sense?</a> </p> <p>Writing a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/JDBC_driver" id="link-id16a96580">JDBC Driver</a> for <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1a908a70">SPARQL</a> is a little overkill. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenOffice.org" id="link-id16ae69a8">OpenOffice.org</a> simply needs to make <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML" id="link-id168d3880">XML</a> or Web Data (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/HTML" id="link-id1a7f1f50">HTML</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XHTML" id="link-id16c1ae60">XHTML</a>, and XML) bonafide data sources within its "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Pivot_table" id="link-id16665398">Pivot Table</a>" functionality realm. Then all that would then be required is a <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/#select" id="link-id168bcbe8">SPARQL SELECT Query</a> transported via the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/" id="link-id16c1bbc0">SPARQL Protocol</a> with results sent back using the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-XMLres/" id="link-id1aa61118">SPARQL XML results serialization</a> format (all part of a single SPARQL Protocol URL).</p> <p>Excel successfully consumes the following information resource URI: http://tinyurl.com/yvoccj (a tiny url for a SPARQL SELECT against my<a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/person/kidehen" id="link-id16702ba8"> FOAF file</a>).</p> <p>Alternatively, and currently achievable, you could simply use <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SPASQL" id="link-id1a1b6b78">SPASQL</a> (SPARQL within SQL) using a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DBMS" id="link-id1661f240">DBMS</a> engine that supports SQL, SPARQL, and SPARQL e.g. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id168bba60">Virtuoso</a>. </p> <p> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/rdfapiandsql.html" id="link-id167d9508">Virtuoso SPASQL support</a> is exposed via it's <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Open_Database_Connectivity" id="link-id16c62160">ODBC</a> and/or JDBC Drivers. Thus you can do things such as: </p> <ol> <li>Use a SPARQL Query in the FROM CLAUSE of a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL" id="link-id1657a3a8">SQL</a> statement</li> <li>Execute SPARQL via SQL processor by prepending SPARQL query text with the literals "sparql" </li> </ol> <p>BTW - My News Years Resolution: get my act together and shrink the ever increasing list of "simple & practical Virtuoso use case demos" on my todo which now spans all the way back to 2006 :-(</p>
2008-02-04T20:42:50.000004-05:00
Discussion: OpenLink Data Spaces
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-12-01#1280
2007-12-01T15:41:56Z
<p>I've been a little busier than usual, of late. So busy, that even minimal blog based discourse participation has been a challenge. Anyway, during this quiet period, a number of interesting data streams have come my way that relate to <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex" id="link-id142b7e40">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (ODS). Thus, in typical fashion, I'll use this post (via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id1474d810">URI</a>s) to contribute a few nodes to the <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/215" id="link-id149d8210">Giant Global Graph </a>that is the Web of Structured <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id139f9190">Linked Data</a>, also known as the <a href="http:dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1470e588">Data Web, Semantic Data Web, or Web of Data</a> (also see <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20web'&type=text&output=html" id="link-id13a4f828">prior Data Web posts</a>).</p> <p>Here goes:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://bizcast.typepad.com/" id="link-id14769268">Alan Wilensky</a> recalls his <a href="http://bizcast.typepad.com/clients/2007/11/social-networks.html" id="link-id14478c48">early encounters with OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (circa. 2004)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.vanirsystems.co.uk/foaf.rdf" id="link-id14516938">Daniel Lewis</a> shares his "<a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2007/11/29/where-is-the-semantic-web-well-it-is-here-already/" id="link-id149e2518">state of the Semantic Data Web"</a> findings</li> <li> <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2007/11/30/openlink-data-spaces/" id="link-id14cddaf0">Daniel Lewis experiences OpenLink Data Space first hand</a> en route to creating Data Spaces in the Clouds (the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1261" id="link-id146c35c8">Fourth Platform</a>).</li> </ol> <p>In addition, in one week, courtesy of the Web, UK Semnantic Web Gatherings in <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2007/11/cindy_che_and_other_interestin.php" id="link-id14304738">Bristol</a> and <a href="http://oxford.geeknights.net/2007/nov-28th/" id="link-id145589d8">Oxford</a>, I <a href="http://vanirsystems.com/danielsblog/2007/11/21/wanted-job/" id="link-id1399de08">discover</a>, interview, and employ Daniel :-) Imagine how long this would have taken to pull off via the Document Web, assuming I would even discover Daniel.</p> <p>As with all things these days, the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web" id="link-id1477a7e0">Web</a> and <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Internet" id="link-id14c3f428">Internet</a> change everything, which includes talent discovery and recruitment.</p> <p>A Global Social graph that is a mesh of Linked Data enables the process of recruitment, marketing, and other elements of busines management to be condensed down to a sending powerful beams across the aforementioned Graph :-) The only variable pieces are the traversal paths exposed to your beam via the beam's entry point URI. In my case, <a href="http://kidehen.idehen.net/dataspace/person/kidehen#this" id="link-id1395e5f0">I have a single URI</a> that exposes a Graph of critical paths for the Blogosphere (i.e data spaces of RSS Atom Feeds). Thus, I can discover if your profile matches the requirements associated with an opening at OpenLink Software (most of the time) before you do :-)</p> <p>BTW - I just noticed that John Breslin described ODS as social-graph++ in his recent post, titled: <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2007/11/30/tales-from-the-sioc-o-sphere-part-6/" id="link-id14c82bc8">Tales from the SIOC-o-sphere, part 6</a>. In a funny way, this reminds of a post from the early blogosphere days about <a href="http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/news/1427/commercial-server-supports-four-weblog-apis" id="link-id14a24c58">platforms and Weblog APIs </a>(circa. 2003) about ODS (then exposed via the Blog Platform realm of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id14745100">Virtuoso</a>).</p>
2007-12-01T15:26:12-05:00
Reminder: Why We Need Linked Data!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-11-02#1267
2007-11-02T22:50:00Z
<blockquote> <p>"The phrase Open Social implies portability of personal and social data. That would be exciting but there are entirely different protocols underway to deal with those ideas. As some people have told me tonight, it may have been more accurate to call this "OpenWidget" - though the press wouldn't have been as good. We've been waiting for data and identity portability - is this all we get?" <br /> [Source: <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/[Excerpted from: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/178622741/opensocial_three_big_concerns.php]" id="link-id1143a428">Read/Write Web's Commentary & Analysis of Google's OpenSocial API</a>]</p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p>..Perhaps the world will read the terms of use of the API, and realize this is not an open API; this is a free API, owned and controlled by one company only: Google. Hopefully, the world will remember another time when Google offered a free API and then pulled it. Maybe the world will also take a deeper look and realize that the functionality is dependent on Google hosted technology, which has its own terms of service (including adding ads at the discretion of Google), and that building an OpenSocial application ties Google into your application, and Google into every social networking site that buys into the Dream. Hopefully the world will remember. Unlikely, though, as such memories are typically filtered in the Great Noise....</p>[Source: <a href="http://burningbird.net/technology/terms/" id="link-id116f8c98">Poignant commentary excerpt from <a href="http://burningbird.net" id="link-id11216e98">Shelly Power's Blog</a></a> (as always)]</blockquote> <p>The "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id1102bc20">Semantic Data Web</a>" vision has always been about "Data & Identity" portability across the Web. Its been that and more from day one.</p> <p>In a nutshell, we continue to exhibit varying degrees of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Cognitive_dissonance" id="link-id121bb728">Cognitive Dissonance</a> re the following realities:</p> <ol> <li>The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Network" id="link-id114567b0">Network</a> is the Computer (Internet/Intranet/Extranet depending on your TCP/IP usage scenarios)</li> <li>The Web is the OS (ditto) and it provides a communications subsystem (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s+BLOG+%5B127%5D/1231" id="link-id1212b390">Information BUS</a>) comprised of</li> <ul>- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Hypertext_Transfer_Protocol" id="link-id11b1b760">HTTP</a> Protocol</ul> <ul>- <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier" id="link-id11043020">URI</a>s (pointer system for identifying, accessing, and manipulating data)</ul> <li>HTTP based Interprocess (i.e Web Apps are processes when you discard the HTML UI and interact with the application logic containers called "Web Services" behind the pages) ultimately hit data</li> <li>Web Data is best Modeled as a Graph (RDF, Containers/Items/Item Types, Property & Value Pairs associated with something, and other labels)</li> <li>Network are Graphs and vice versa</li> <li>Social Networks are graphs where nodes are connected via social connectors ( [x]--knows-->[y] ) </li> <li>The Web is a Graph that exposes a People and Data Network (to the degree we allude to humans not being data containers i.e. just nodes in a network, otherwise we are talking about a Data Network)</li> <li>Data access and manipulation depends inherently on canonical Data Access mechanisms such as Data Source Identifiers / Names (time-tested practice in various DBMS realms)</li> <li>Data is forever, it is the basis of Information, and it is increasing exponentially due to proliferation of Web Services induced user activities (User Generated Content)</li> <li>Survival, Vitality, Longevity, Efficiency, Productivity etc.. are all depend on our ability to process data effectively in a shrinking time continuum where Data and/or Information overload is the alternative.</li> </ol> <p> The Data Web is about Presence over Eyeballs due to the following realities:</p> <ol> <li>Eyeballs are input devices for a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/DNA" id="link-id118b29a0">DNA</a> based processing system (Humans). The aforementioned processing system can reason very well, but simply cannot effectively process masses of data or information</li> <li>Widgets offer little value long term re. the imminent data and information overload dilemma, ditto Web pages (however pretty), and any other Eyeballs-only centric Web Apps</li> <li>Computers (machines) are equipped with inorganic (non DNA) based processing power, they are equipped to process huge volumes of data and/or information, but they cannot reason</li> <li>To be effective in the emerging frontier comprised of a Network Computer and a Web OS, we need an effective mechanism that makes best use of the capabilities possessed by humans and machines, by shifting the focus to creation and interaction with points of "Data Web Presence" that openly expose "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data_structure" id="link-id10e56458">Structured Linked Data</a>". </li> </ol> <p>This is why we need to inject a mesh of Linked Data into the existing Web. This is what the often misunderstood vision of the "Semantic Data Web" or "Web of Data" or "Web or Structured Data" is all about. </p> <p>As stated earlier (point 10 above), "Data is forever" and there is only more of it to come! Sociality and associated Social Networking oriented solutions are at best a spec in the Web's ocean of data once you comprehend this reality.</p> <p>Note: I am writing this post as an early implementor of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GData" id="link-id11349808">GData</a> and an implementor of <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id120f3a68">RDF Linked Data</a> technology and a "Web Purist". </p> <blockquote> <p>OpenSocial implementation and support across our relevant product families: <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Virtuoso_Universal_Server" id="link-id1217bf20">Virtuoso</a> (i.e the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/html/VirtSpongerWhitePaper.html" id="link-id12154258">Sponger Middleware</a> for RDF component), <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/Ods" id="link-id11369930">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (Data Space Controller / Services), and the <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com/" id="link-id113e4da0">OpenLink Ajaxt Toolkit</a> (i.e OAT Widgets and Libraries), is a triviality now that the OpenSocial APIs are public. </p> </blockquote> <p>The concern I have, and the problem that remains mangled in the vast realms of Web Architecture incomprehension, is the fact that GData and GData based APIs cannot deliver Structured Linked Data in line with the essence of the Web without introducing "lock-in" that ultimately compromises the "Open Purity" of the Web. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Facebook" id="link-id11073980">Facebook</a> and Google's <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/opensocial/docs/" id="link-id1215e020">OpenSocial</a> response to the Facebook juggernaut (i.e. open variant of the Facebook Activity Dashboard and Social Network functionality realms, primarily), are at best icebergs in the ocean we know as the "World Wide Web". The nice and predictable thing about icebergs is that they ultimately melt into the larger ocean :-)</p> On a related note, I had the pleasure of attending the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/" id="link-id1106f678">W3C's RDF and DBMS Integration Workshop</a>, last week. The event was well attended by organizations with knowledge, experience, and a vested interested in addressing the issues associated with exposing none RDF data (e.g. SQL) as RDF, and the imminence of data and/or information overload covered in different ways via the following presentations: <ul>- <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/presentations/RDF_Mapping_Presentation_W3C_workshop3.ppt" id="link-id11053440">RDF Views of SQL Data</a> - <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling" id="link-id1218bf70">Orri Erling </a>on behalf of OpenLink Software</ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.michaelbrodie.com/documents/Brodie%20VLDB%202007%20V3.zip" id="link-id11eda380">Computer Science 2.0</a> (covering User Generated Content Explosion) - Michael Brodie</ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/talks/Finding_our_way.ppt" id="link-id113b9620">Experiences re. solving SPARQL Access to Distributed Data Sources</a> - Phil Ashworth </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/program" id="link-id11265180">Other presentations</a> </ul>.
2007-11-02T18:52:34-04:00
Virtuoso 5.0.2 Released!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-10-06#1265
2007-10-06T16:03:49Z
<p>A new release of Virtuoso is now available in both <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/" id="link-id1282d260">Open Source</a> and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id1317deb0">Commercial</a> variants. The main features and Enhancements associated with this release include:</p> <ul> * 64-bit Integer Support</ul> <ul> * RDF Sink Folders for WebDAV - enabling RDF Quad Store population by simply dropping RDF files into WebDAV or via HTTP (meaning you can use CURL as an RDF in put mechanism for instance)</ul> <ul>* Additional Sponger Cartridges from Audio binary files (i.e ID3 tag extraction and Music Ontology mapping which exposes the fine details of music as RDF based Structured Data; one for the DJs & Remixers out there!)</ul> <ul>* New Sponger Cartridges for Facebook, Freebase, Wikipedia, GRDDL, RDFa, eRDF and more</ul> <ul>* Support for PHP 5.2 runtime hosting (Virtuoso is a bona fide deployment platform for: Wordpress, MediaWiki, phpBB, Drupal etc.)</ul> <ul>* Enhanced UI for managing <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data" id="link-id12837b20">RDF Linked Data</a> deployment (covering Multi Homed domains, Virtual Directories associated with URL-rewrite rules</ul> <ul>* Demonstration Database includes <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/Whitepapers/html/rdf_views/virtuoso_rdf_views_example.html" id="link-id130c2830">SQL-RDF Views </a>& SQL Table samples for the THALIA Web Data Integration benchmark and test-suite</ul> <ul>* Tutorial Application includes Linked Data style SQL-RDF Views for the Northwind SQL DBMS schema (which is the same as the standard Virtuoso demo atabase schema)</ul> <ul>* SQL-RDF Views implementation of the TPC-D benchmark (Yes, we can run this grueling SQL benchmark via RDF views of SQL Data!)</ul> <ul>* A new Amazon EC2 Image for Virtuoso that enables you to instantiate a fully configured instance comprising the Virtuoso core,<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex" id="link-id126c5eb8"> OpenLink Data Spaces</a> platform and the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat" id="link-id1341cb68">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a> (OAT) (we now have bona fide Data Spaces in the Clouds as an addition to the emerging Semantic Data Web mesh).</ul> <p>Download Lnks: </p> <ul>* <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSDownload" id="link-id12745128">Open Source Edition</a> </ul> <ul>* <a href="http://download.openlinksw.com/download/product_matrix.vsp?p=f_os&fm=26&fam=2&df=16" id="link-id12f15ed0">Commercial Edition</a> </ul>
2007-10-08T10:27:27-04:00
Fourth Platform: Data Spaces in The Cloud (Update)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-22#1261
2007-09-22T23:43:00Z
<p>I've written extensively on the subject of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20spaces&type=text&output=html" id="link-id134c2280">Data Spaces</a> in relation to the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20web%0D%0A&type=text&output=html" id="link-id105aef90">Data Web</a> for while. I've also written sparingly about <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex" id="link-id105bd100">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (a Data Web Platform that build using Virtuoso). On the other hand, I haven't shed much light on installation and deployment of OpenLink Data Spaces.</p> <p> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net" id="link-id14347f20">Jon Udell</a> recently penned a post titled: <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2007/09/21/the-fourth-platform/" id="link-id1439ed48">The Fourth Platform</a>. The post arrives at a spookily coincidental time (this happens quite often between Jon and I as demonstrated last year during our <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3" id="link-id107d17a8">podcast</a>; the "Fourth" in his Innovators Podcast series).</p> <p>The platform that Jon describes is "Cloud Based" and comprised of Storage and Computation. I would like to add Data Access and Management (native and virtual) under the fourth platform banner with the end product called: "Cloud based Data Spaces". </p> <p>As I write, we are releasing a Virtuoso AMI (Amazon Image) labeled: virtuoso-dataspace-server. This edition of<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com" id="link-id13543210"> Virtuoso</a> includes the OpenLink Data Spaces Layer and all of the OAT applications we've been developing for a while.</p> <h2>What Benefits Does this offer?</h2> <ol> <li>Personal Data Spaces in the Cloud - a place where you can control and consolidate data across your Blogs, Wikis, RSS/Atom Feed Subscriptions, Shared Bookmarks, Shared Calendars, Discussion Threads, Photo Galleries etc</li> <li>All the data in your Data <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Spaces">Space</a> is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL" id="link-id1149a4f8">SPARQL</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GData" id="link-id107a9f28">GData</a> accessible.</li> <li>All of the data in your Personal Data Space is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> from the get go. Each Item of data is <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a> addressable</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SIOC" id="link-id104f4160">SIOC</a> support - your Blogs, Wikis, Bookmarks etc.. are based on the SIOC ontology for Semantically Interlinking Online Communities (think: Open social-graph++) </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Friend_of_a_friend" id="link-id105beb78">FOAF</a> support - your FOAF Profile page provides a URI that is an in-road to all Data in your Data Space.</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenID" id="link-id1144e138">OpenID</a> support - your Personal Data Space ID is usable wherever OpenID is supported. OpenID and FOAF are integrated as per latest FOAF specs</li> <li>Two Integration with Facebook - You can access your Data Space from Facebook or access Facebook from your Data Space</li> <li>Unified Storage - The WebDAV based filesystem provides Cloud Storage that's integrated with Amazon S3; It also exposes all of your Data Space data via a traditional filesystem UI (think virtual Spotlight); You can also mount this drive to your local filesystem via your native operating system's WebDAV support</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SyncML" id="link-id11128f48">SyncML</a> - you can sync calendar and contact details with your Data Space in the cloud from your Mobile phone.</li> <li>A practical Semantic Data Web solution - based on Web Infrastructure and doesn't require you to do anything beyond exposing URIs for data in your Data Spaces.</li> </ol> <h2> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Amazon_Elastic_Compute_Cloud" id="link-id115d1920">EC2</a>-AMI Details:</h2> <ul>AMI ID: ami-e2ca2f8b</ul> <ul>Manifest file: virtuoso-images/virtuoso-dataspace-server.manifest.xml</ul> <h2>Installation Guide:</h2> <ol> <li>Get an Amazon Web Services (AWS) account</li> <li>Signup for S3 and EC2 services</li> <li>Install the EC2 plugin for Firefox</li> <li>Start the EC2 plugin</li> <li>Locate the row containing <b>ami-7c31d515 Manifest virtuoso-test/virtuoso-cloud-beta-9-i386.manifest.xml </b>(sort using the AMI ID or Manifest Columns or search on pattern: virtuoso, due to name flux)</li> <li>Start the Virtuoso Data Space Server AMI</li> <li>Wait 4-5 minutes (*take a few minutes to create the pre-configured Linux Image*)</li> <li>Connect to http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>http://your-ec2-instance-cname:8890/ Log in with user/password dba/dba</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>Go to the Admin UI (Virtuoso Conductor) and change the PWDs for the 'dba' and 'dav' accounts (*Important!*)</li> <li>Give the "SPARQL" user "SPARQL_UPDATE" privileges (required if you want to exploit the in-built Sponger Middleware)</li> <li>Click on the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/OpenLink_Data_Spaces">ODS</a> (OpenLink Data Spaces) link to start an Personal Editon of OpenLink Data Spaces (or go to: http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/ods/index.html)</li> <li>Log-in using the username and password credentials for the 'dav' account (or register a new user note: OpenID is an option here also) Create an Data Space Application Instance by clicking on a Data Space App. Tab</li> <li>Import data from your existing Web 2.0 style applications into OpenLink Data Spaces e.g. subscribe to a few RSS/Atom feeds via the "Feeds Manager" application or import some Bookmarks using the "Bookmarks" application</li> <li>Then look at the imported data in Linked Data form via your ODS generated URIs based on the patterns: http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/person/your-ods-id#this (URI for You the Person), http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/person/your-ods-id (FOAF File URI), http://your-ec2-instance-cname/dataspace/your-ods-id (SIOC File URI)<br /> </li> </ol> <h2> (OAT) from your Data Space instance</h2>Install the OAT VAD package via the Admin UI and then apply the URI patterns below within your browser:<br /> <ol> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/oatdemo - Entire OAT Demo Collection</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/rdfbrowser - RDF Browser</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/isparql - SPARQL Query Builder (iSPARQL)</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/qbe - SQL Query Builder (iSQL)</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/formdesigner - Forms Builder (for building Meshups based on RDF, SQL, or Web Servives Data Souces)</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/dbdesigner - SQL DB Schema Designer (note a Visual SQL-RDF Mapper is also on it's way</public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> <li>http://<public_dns_name_of_your_instance>:8890/DAV/JS/ - To view the OAT Tree (there are some experimental demos that are missing from the main demo app etc..) </public_dns_name_of_your_instance> </li> </ol> <p>There's more to come!</p>
2008-10-26T17:59:33-04:00
Nice Collection of Plain English Demos (Wikis, RSS, Social-Networking)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-22#1258
2007-09-22T20:22:11Z
<p>Nice Collection of plain english demos:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.commoncraft.com/video-wikis-plain-english">Wikis</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.commoncraft.com/rss_show">RSS</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.commoncraft.com/video-social-networking">Social-Networking</a> </li> </ol> <p>The Social-Networking demo is explained using a Social-Graph visual. Interesting, the demo validates <a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/person/html/Tim/Finin/">Tim Finn</a>'s point of view as expressed in his post titled: <a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2007/09/22/is-it-a-social-network-or-a-social-graph/#comments">Is it a social network or a social graph</a> :-)</p>
2007-09-22T16:27:12-04:00
Semantic Web Value Proposition
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-20#1254
2007-09-21T02:23:00Z
<p>The motivation behind this post is a response to the <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com">Read/WriteWeb</a> post titled: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php">Semantic Web: Difficulties with the Classic Approach</a>.</p> <p>First off, I am going to focus on the Semantic Data Web aspect of the overall Semantic Web vision (a continuum) as this is what we have now. I am also writing this post as a deliberate contribution to the discourse swirling around the real topic: Semantic Web Value Proposition.</p> <h2>Situation Analysis</h2> <p>We are in the early stages of the long anticipated<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Knowledge_economy"> Knowledge Economy</a>. That being the case, it would be safe to assume that information access, processing, and dissemination are of utmost importance to individuals and organizations alike. You don't produce knowledge in a vacum! Likewise, you can produce Information in a vacum, you need Data.</p> <h2>The Semantic Data Web's value to Individuals</h2> <b>Problem:</b> <p>Increasingly, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Blog">Blogs</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Wiki">Wikis</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_bookmarking">Shared Bookmarks</a>, Photo Galleries, Discussion Forums, Shared Calendars and the like, have become invaluable tools for individual and organizational participation in Web enabled global discourse (where a lot of knowledge is discovered). These tools, are typically associated with <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_2">Web 2.0</a>, implying Read-Write access via <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_service">Web Services</a>, centralized application hosting, and data lock-in (silos).</p> <p>The reality expressed above is a recipe for "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Information_overload">Information Overload</a>" and complete annihilation of ones effective pursuit and exploitation of knowledge due "Time Scarcity" (note: disconnecting is not an option). Information abundance is inversely related to available processing time (for humans in particular). In my case for instance, I was actively subscribed to over 500+ RSS feeds in 2003. As of today, I've simply stopped counting, and that's just my Weblog Data Space. Then add to that, all of the Discussions I track across Blogs, wikis, message boards, mailing lists, traditional usnet discussion forumns, and the like, and I think you get the picture. </p> <p>Beyond information overload, Web 2.0 data is "Semi-Structured" by way of it's dominant data containers ((X)HTML, RSS, Atom documents and data streams etc.) lacking semantics that formally expose individual data items as distinct entities, endowed with unambiguous naming / identification, descriptive attributes (a type of property/predicate), and relationships (a type of property/predicate).</p> <b>Solution:</b> <p>Devise a standard for Structured Data Semantics that is compatible with the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1231">Web Information BUS</a>.</p> <p>Produce <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=153">structured data</a> (entities, entity types, entity relationships) from Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 resources that already exists on the Web such that individual entities, their attributes, and relationships are accessible and discernible to software agents (machines).</p> <p>Once the entities are individually exposed, the next requirement is a mechanism for selective access to these entities i.e. a query language. </p> <p> Semantic Data Web Technologies that facilitate the solution described above include:</p> <b>Structured Data Standards:</b> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDF">RDF</a> - Data Model for structured data</ul> <ul>RDF/XML - A serialization format for RDF based structured data</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Notation_3">N3</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Turtle_%28syntax%29">Turtle</a> - more human friendly serialization formats for RDF based structured data</ul> <b>Entity Exposure & Generation:</b> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL">GRDDL</a> - enables association between XHTML pages and XSLT stylesheets that facilitates loosely coupled "on the fly" extraction of RDF from non RDF documents</ul> <ul> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa">RDFa</a> - enables document publishers or viewers (i.e those repurposing or annotating) to embed structured data into existing XHTML documents</ul> <ul> <a href="http://research.talis.com/2005/erdf/wiki/Main/RdfInHtml">eRDF</a> - another option for embedding structured RDF data within (X)HTML documents</ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/?id=1172">RDF Middleware</a> - typically incorporating GRDDL, RDFa, eRDF, and custom extraction and mapping as part of a structured data production pipeline</ul>. <b>Entity Naming & Identification:</b> <p>Use of URIs or IRIs for uniquely identifying physical (HTML Documents, Image Files, Multimedia Files etc..) and abstract (People, Places, Music, and other abstract things). </p> <b>Entity Access & Querying:</b> <ul> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> Query Language - the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SQL">SQL</a> analog of the Semantic Data Web that enables query constructs that target named entities, entity attributes, and entity relationships</p> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a> - a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer">REST</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SOAP">SOAP</a> style Web Service for transporting SPARQL Queries to Structured Data Sources.</ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-XMLres/">SPARQL Results Serialization Formats</a> - query results serialization formats that includes XML(sparql+xml) and JSON.</ul> <h2>The Semantic Data Web's value to Organizations</h2> <b>Problem:</b> <p>Organizations are rife with a plethora of business systems that are built atop a myriad of database engines, sourced from a variety of DBMS vendors. A typical organization would have a different database engine, from a specific DBMS vendor, underlying critical business applications such as: Human Resource Management (HR), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Accounting, Supply Chain Management etc. In a nutshell, you have DBMS Engines, and DBMS Schema heterogeneity permeating the IT infrastructure of organizations on a global scale, making Data & Information Integration the biggest headache across all IT driven organizations.</p> <b>Solution:</b> <p>Alleviation of the pain (costs) associated with Data & Information Integration. </p> <b>Semantic Data Web offerings:</b> <p>A dexterous data model (RDF) that enables the construction of conceptual views of disparate data sources across an organization based on existing web architecture components such as HTTP and URIs.</p> <p>Existing middleware solutions that facilitate the exposure of SQL DBMS data as RDF based Structured Data include:</p> <ul> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSSQLRDF">Virtuoso's Meta Schema Language for RDF Views of SQL Data</a> (also see the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/pdf/Virtuoso_SQL_to_RDF_Mapping.pdf">Virtuoso SQL-RDF Technical White Paper</a>)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/D2RQ/">D2RQ</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://ccnt.zju.edu.cn/projects/dartgrid">DataGrid</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfAndSql">Others</a> </ul> <p> BTW - There is an upcoming <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/03/RdfRDB/">W3C Workshop covering the integration of SQL and RDF data</a>.</p> <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>The Semantic Data Web is here, it's value delivery vehicle is the URI. The URI is a conduit to Interlinked Structured Data (RDF based Linked Data) derived from existing data sources on the World Wide Web alongside data continuously injected into the Web by organizations world wide. Ironically, the Semantic Data Web only platform that crystallizes the: Information at Your Fingertips vision, without development environment, operating system, application, or database lock-in. You simply click on a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data URI</a> and the serendipitous exploration and discovery of data commences.</p> <p>The unobtrusive emergence of the Semantic Data Web is a reflection of the soundness of the underlying Semantic Web vision.</p> <p>If you are excited about <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Mashup_%28web_application_hybrid%29">Mash-ups</a> then your are a Semantic Web enthusiast and benefactor in the making, because you only "Mash" (brute force data extraction and interlinking) because you can't "Mesh" (natural data extraction and interlinking). Likewise, if you are a social-networking, open social-graph, or portable social-network enthusiast, then you are also a Semantic Data Web benefactor and enthusiasts, because your "values" (yes, the values associated with the properties that define you e.g your interests etc) are the fundamental basis for portable, open, social-networking, which is what the Semantic Data Web hands to you on a platter without compromise (i.e. data lock-in or loss of data ownership).</p> <b>Some practical examples of Semantic Data Web prowess:</b> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.readwriteweb.com%2Farchives%2Fsemantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php">Read/WriteWeb via the OpenLink Data Web Browser</a> (click on the different viewing tabs to see what structured data exploitation in action)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://browser.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//www.readwriteweb.com/archives/semantic_web_difficulties_with_classic_approach.php">Read/WriteWeb via the Zitgist Data Web Browser</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http:/dbpedia.org">DBpedia</a> (*note: I deliberately use DBpedia URIs in my posts where I would otherwise have used a Wikipedia article URI*)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/zitgist-browser-linker/">Zitgist zLinks</a> - <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=400">Mike Bergman's Blog Post also demonstrating zLinks</a> </ul>
2007-09-21T08:05:07.000009-04:00
RDF Browser View of My Hyperdata & Linked Data Post
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-19#1253
2007-09-19T20:46:59Z
<p>Bearing in mind we are all time challenged, here are links to OpenLink and Zitgist RDF Browser views of my earlier blog post re. Hyperdata & Linked Data.</p> <p> </p> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.openlinksw.com%2Fdataspace%2Fkidehen%40openlinksw.com%2Fweblog%2Fkidehen%40openlinksw.com%2527s%2520BLOG%2520%255B127%255D%2F1252">OpenLink RDF Browser view of Hyperdata & Linked Data post</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://browser.zitgist.com/?uri=http%3A//www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%2527s%2520BLOG%2520%255B127%255D/1252">Zitgist Browser view of Hyperdata & Linked Data post</a> </ul> <p>Both browsers should lead you to the posts from Danny, Nova, and Tim. In both cases the URI < xmlns="http" www.openlinksw.com="www.openlinksw.com" dataspace="dataspace" kidehen="kidehen" openlinksw.com="openlinksw.com" weblog="weblog" s="s" blog="blog" b127="b127" d="d"> is a pointer to structured data (in my Blog Data Space) if your user agent (browser or other Web Client) requests an RDF representation of this post via its HTTP request payload (what the Browser are doing via the "Accept:" headers).</> </p> <p>As you can see the Data Web is actually here! Without RDF generation upheaval (or Tax).</p>
2007-09-19T21:26:02-04:00
Web of Linked Data & Hyperdata
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-19#1252
2007-09-19T18:46:08Z
<p>I've just read the extensive post by <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/">Nova Spivack</a> titled: <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2007/09/a-bottle-that-p.html">The Semantic Web, Collective Intelligence and Hyperdata</a>, courtesy of a post by <a href="http://dannyayers.com/me">Danny Ayres</a> titled: <a href="http://dannyayers.com/2007/09/19/confused-about-the">Confused about the Semantic Web</a> , in response to a post by <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/tim">Tim O'Reilly</a> titled: <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/09/economist_confu.html">Economist Confused About the Semantic Web?</a> .</p> <p>My Comments:</p> <p>Hyperdata is short for HyperLinked Data :-) The same applies to <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a>. Thus, we have two literal labels for the same core Concept. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP">HTTP</a> is the enabling protocol for "Hyper-linking" Documents and associated Structured Data via the World Wide Web (Web for short). Data Links associated with Structured Data contained in, or hosted by, Documents on the Web.</p> <p> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa">RDFa</a>, eRDF, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/GRDDL">GRDDL</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SPARQL">SPARQL</a> Query Language, SPARQL Protocol (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/SOAP">SOAP</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Representational_State_Transfer">REST</a> service), SPARQL Results Serializations (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/XML">XML</a> or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/JSON">JSON</a>) collectively provide a myriad of unobtrusive routes to structured data embedded within, or associated with, existing Web Documents.</p> <p>As Danny already states, ontologies are not prerequisites for producing structured data using the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> Data Model. They simply aid the ability to express one's self clearly (i.e. no repetition or ambiguity) across a broad audience of machines (directly) and their human masters (indirectly).</p> <p>Using the crux of this post as the anecdote: The <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Data Web</a> would simplify the process of claiming and/or proving that Linked Data and Hyperdata describe the same concept. It achieves this by using Triples (Subject, Predicate, Object) expressed in various forms (<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Notation_3">N3</a>, <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Turtle_(syntax)">Turtle</a>, RDF/XML etc.) to formalize claims in a form palatable to electronic agents (machines) operating on behalf of Humans. In a nutshell, this increases human productive by completely obliterates the erstwhile exponential costs of discovering data, information, and knowledge.</p> <p>BTW - for full effect, view this post (i.e. cut and paste the Permalink URI of this post, below) into an RDF Browser such as:</p> <ul>- <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/rdfbrowser/">OpenLink RDF Browser</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://browser.zitgist.com/">Zitgist Browser</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/rdf_browser/">DISCO</a> </ul> <ul>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/ajar/tab">Tabulator</a> </ul>
2008-02-04T20:43:55.000003-05:00
Yet Another RDFa Demo
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-09-03#1249
2007-09-03T17:59:02Z
<p> <a href="http://www.ivan-herman.net/Ivan_Herman">Ivan Herman</a> just posted another nice example of practical <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDFa">RDFa</a> usage in a blog post titled: <a href="http://ivanherman.wordpress.com/2007/09/03/yet-another-rdfa-processor…/">Yet Another RDFa Proccessor</a>. In his post, Ivan exposes a <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a> for his<a href="http://www.ivan-herman.net/foaf.html"> FOAF-in-RDFa file</a>.</p> <p>Since I am <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s%20BLOG%20%5B127%5D/1243">aggressively tracking RDFa developments</a>, I decided to quickly view <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/ivan_herman_foaf_via_rdfa.wqx">Ivan's FOAF-in-RDFa file via the OpenLink RDF Browser</a>. The full implications are best understood when you click on each of the Browser's Tabs -- each providing a different perspective on this interesting addition to the Semantic Data Web (note: the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/04/fresnel-info/">Fresnel</a> Tab which demonstrates declarative UI templating using N3).</p> <h3>What's Going on Here?</h3> <p>The <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">OpenLink RDF Browser</a> is a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_internet_application">Rich Internet Application</a> built using OAT (<a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>). In my case, I am deploying the RDF Browser from a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso</a> instance, which implies that the Browser is able to use the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1172">Virtuoso Sponger</a> Middleware (exposed as a REST Service at the Virtuoso instance endpoint: /proxy); which includes an RDFa Cartridge comprised of a metadata extractor and an <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/RDF_Schema">RDF Schema</a> / <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Web_Ontology_Language">OWL Ontology</a> mapper. That's it!</p>
2008-02-04T20:44:37.000009-05:00
The Power of Structured Data Exposure via RDFa
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-08-23#1243
2007-08-23T22:41:36Z
I regularly check announcement from <a href="http://ben.adida.net/">Ben Adida</a> re. <a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/RDFa">RDFa</a> as part of a perpetual certification process for my ODS based Weblog. The most recent post from Ben contains a link to an "<a href="http://rdfa.info/rdfa-in-the-wild/">RDFa in the Wild</a>" portal (in the making).<br /> <br />One I installed Opertaor 0.8 and then scanned a few of the pages from the RDFa portal. <a href="http://www.kaply.com/operator/operator.xpi">Operator 0.8</a> didn't do much for me i.e. if the RDFa didn't express RDF aligned in some form to a microformat that it understood, it simply routed it's findings to a generic "resource" category :-( Of course, it is possible to enhance this aspect of Operator (and I may get round to that some day). Anyway, I pressed on, and took one of the more interesting URIs from the RDFa page and pasted that into the OpenLink RDF Browser instead. Here are the links:<br /> <br />1. <a href="http://seal.ifi.unizh.ch/%7Emhermann/pax/web/index.php/publication/rdfalist%20">Semantically annotated publication database using Ajax</a> (a page containing structured data expressed in RDF and exposed via RDFa)<br /> <br />2. <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fseal.ifi.unizh.ch%2F%7Emhermann%2Fpax%2Fweb%2Findex.php%2Fpublication%2Frdfalist">Same Page via OpenLink RDF Browser<br /> </a> <br />The RDF Browser uses the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=sponger&type=text&output=html">Virtuoso Sponger</a> to extract the embedded <a href="http://dbpedia.org/page/RDF">RDF</a> from RDFa embedded in the page.
2008-02-04T20:45:02.000004-05:00
Social-Networking & Semantic Web (update)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-08-11#1241
2007-08-11T13:15:39Z
<p>An update for RSS crawlers that don't have synchronization capability etc..</p> <p>"Reasonable Humans" continue to struggle with the congruency of social-networking and the Semantic Web. Funnily enough, our less capable counterparts (in the reasoning department) don't have such struggles. Here is my little interaction with an IRC Bot called "<a href="http://inamidst.com/phenny/">Phenny</a>" (possibly mother of the Agent Web or Web of Agents or Web 4.0):</p> <blockquote> <pre></pre><p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w web<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> web n. 1: An intricate network suggesting something that was formed by weaving or interweaving<br /> <b>phenny:</b> web n. 2: An intricate trap that entangles or ensnares its victim<br /> <b>phenny:</b> web v. 1: Construct or form a web, as if by weaving.</p> <b><br />kidehen:</b> .w network<br /> <p> <b>phenny:</b> network n. 1: An interconnected system of things or people<br /> <b>phenny:</b> network n. 2: (broadcasting) a communication system consisting of a group of broadcasting stations that all transmit the same programs<br /> <b>phenny:</b> network v. 1: Communicate with and within a group.</p> <br /> <p> <br /> <b>kidehen:</b> .w social<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> social n. 1: A party of people assembled to promote sociability and communal activity<br /> <b>phenny:</b> social a. 1: Relating to human society and its members<br /> <b>phenny:</b> social a. 2: Living together or enjoying life in communities or organized groups.</p> <p> <br /> <b>kidehen:</b> .w semantic<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> semantic a. 1: Of or relating to meaning or the study of meaning.<br /> </p> <br /> <p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w graph<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> graph n. 1: A visual representation of the relations between certain quantities plotted with reference to a set of axes<br /> <b>phenny:</b> graph v. 1: Represent by means of a graph<br /> <b>phenny:</b> graph v. 2: Plot upon a graph.</p> <p>Note: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_theory">Wikipedia's Graph definition</a> is the one the applies to RDF :-)</p> </blockquote> <p>To conclude, the whole <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Data Web</a> vision and Open <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Social_Networking">social-networking</a> go hand-in-hand. You can't attain "Open social-networking" without appreciating the underlying <a href="http://rdfabout.com/quickintro.xpd">core concepts</a> (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=structured%20data&type=text&output=html">Structured Data</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/#section-Concepts">Graphs, and Triples</a>). There is no way around the reality that all <a href="http://www.tei-c.org/P4X/GD.html">networks are graphs</a>. Of course, this doesn't imply that solution users (end-users) have to master <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Graph_theory">graph theory</a> en route to network participation and exploitation. It simply implies that solution developers need some graph data model appreciation, or a graph data model aware platform, when developing social-networking solutions that seek to leverage the Web.<br /> </p>Funnily enough, my session with the Phenny Bot was triggered by a prior session between <a href="http://metacognition.info/index.html">Chimezie Ogbuji</a> (who also trains a Bot called "<a href="http://metacognition.info/Emeka/index.html">Emeka</a>" that does SPARQL) and said Bot:<blockquote> <p></p> <pre></pre> <p> <br /> <b>chimezie:</b> .w tautology<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> tautology n. 1: (logic) a statement that is necessarily true<br /> <b>phenny:</b> tautology n. 2: Useless repetition.<br /> </p> <p> <br /> <b>chimezie:</b> .ety tautology<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> "1579, from L.L. tautologia 'representation of the same thing' (c.350), from Gk. tautologia, from tautologos 'repeating what has been said,' from tauto 'the same' + -logos 'saying,' related to legein 'to say' (see lecture)." - http://etymonline.com/?term=tautology</p> </blockquote> <p>That lead me to the following sequence (preceding the initial IRC session dump in this post):</p> <blockquote> <pre></pre> <p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w conflagration<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> conflagration n. 1: A very intense and uncontrolled fire.<br /> <br /> </p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w imbroglio<br /> <p> <b>phenny:</b> imbroglio n. 1: An intricate and confusing interpersonal or political situation<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> imbroglio n. 2: A very embarrassing misunderstanding.<br /> </p> <br /> <p> <b>kidehen:</b> .w buzzword<br /> <br /> <b>phenny:</b> buzzword n. 1: Stock phrases that have become nonsense through endless repetition.<br /> </p> </blockquote> <p>In sense, proposing the Semantic Data Web as a solution to open social-networiing challenges, more often than not results in your "No Semantic Web here" <b>imbroglio</b>. In a sense, the shortest path to a <b>buzzword</b> fueled <b>conflagration</b> :-) </p>
2007-08-15T18:14:36.000003-04:00
Market Leadership Discipline (MLD) & Upcoming Keynotes
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-08-08#1239
2007-08-08T17:13:44Z
<p>There are two upcoming keynotes that I will be giving in the months of September and October in relation to the burgeoning <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=Semantic%20Data%20Web&type=text&output=html">Semantic Data Web</a>. The events are: <a href="http://aksw.org/SocialSemanticWebConference">SABRE Conference about the Social Semantic Web</a> and <a href="http://www.semanticwebstrategies.com/conference/keynotes.php">Jupiter's Semantic Web Strategies Fall Event</a>.</p> <p> The abstract of my Semantic Web Strategies keynote contains a reference to the acronym MLD but it doesn't really expose what MLD is (i.e. initial acronym source isn't clearly identified in the abstract's opening paragraph). Thus, I am attempting to fix the aforementioned anomally via this blog post :-)</p> <p>Market Leadership Discipline (MLD) is defined as follows: A strategy adopted by a company for attaining leadership in a given marketplace.</p> <p>MLD strategies usually take one of the following forms:</p> <ol> <li> Product Innovation - common amongst most startup and perpetual startup mode companies </li> <li>Customer Intimacy - common amongst large and established market leaders </li> <li>Operational Excellence - common amongst companies (established or startup) that use Information Technology to enhance operations behind the deliver of products and services.</li> </ol> <p>MLD is a critical component of Enterprise Agility.</p>
2008-02-04T20:45:26.000005-05:00
OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT) 2.6 Released!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-08-01#1238
2007-08-01T18:34:07Z
<p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Software</a> are pleased to announce release 2.6 of the <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com">OpenLink AJAX Toolkit</a> (OAT).</p> <p> New Semantic Data Web related features and enhancements include:</p> <ul> * A Javascript-based <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/04/fresnel-info/">Fresnel</a> processor enabling declarative RDF-based display templates for RDF Data Sources</ul> <ul>* An XSLT template for generating HTML pages from the Fresnel processor's XML output</ul> <ul>* <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/isparql/index.html">Interactive Query Builder for SPARQL</a> (iSPARQL). This version of the iSPARQL application includes support for INSERTs and DELETEs</ul> <ul>* Enhanced Javascript-based N3/Turtle parser</ul> <ul>* New Navigator viewer panel for <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">RDF Browser</a>.</ul> Related Items: <ul>*<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat">Project Home Page</a> </ul> <ul>*<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat/files">Source Code</a> </ul> <ul>*<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">Live Features Demonstrations</a>.</ul>
2007-08-01T14:49:17-04:00
Injecting Facebook Data into the Semantic Data Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-27#1237
2007-07-27T08:22:00Z
<p>I now have the first cut of a Facebook application called: Dynamic Linked Data Pages. </p> <h3>What is a Dynamic Linked Data Page (DLD)?</h3> <p>A dynamically generated Web Page comprised of Semantic Data Web style data links (formally typed links) and traditional Document Web links (generic links lacking type specificity).</p> <p>Linked Data Pages will ultimately enable Facebook users to inject their public data into the Semantic Data Web as RDF based Linked Data. For instance, my Facebook Profile & Photo albums data is now available as RDF, without paying a cent of RDF handcrafting tax, thanks to the Virtuoso Sponger (middleware for producing RDF from non RDF data sources) which is now equipped with a new RDFizer Cartridger for the Facebook Query Language (FQL) and RESTful Web Service.</p> <p>Demo Notes:</p> <p>When you click on a link in DLD pages, you will be presented with a lookup that exposes the different interaction options associated with a given URI. Examples include:</p> <ol> <li> Explore - find attributes and relationships that apply to the clicked URI</li> <li>Dereference (get the attributes of the clicked URI)</li> <li>Bookmark - store the URI for subsequent use e.g meshing with other URIs from across the Web</li> <li>(X)HTML Page Open - traditional Document Web link (i.e. just opens another Web document as per usual)</li> </ol> <p>Remember, the facebook URLs (links to web pages) are being converted, on the fly, into RDF based Structured Data ( graph model database) i.e Entity Sets that possess formally defined characteristics (attributes) and associations (relationships).</p> <h3>Dynamic Linked Data Pages</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Explore_Facebook_Profile.isparql">My facebook Profile</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Explore_Facebook_Photo_Album.isparql">My facebook Photo Album</a> </li> </ol> <h3>Saved RDF Browser Sessions</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Exploring_Facebook_Profile.wqx">My facebook Profile</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Exploring_Facebook_Photo_Gallery.wqx">My facebook Photo Album</a> </li> </ol> <h3>Saved SPARQL Query Definitions</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Explore_Facebook_Profile.rq">My facebook Profile Query</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Exploring_Facebook_Photo_Album.rq">My facebook Photo Album Query</a> </li> </ol>
2009-02-11T07:40:11-05:00
Virtuoso Sponger & RDFa
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-25#1236
2007-07-25T11:15:14Z
<p>Triggered by <a href="http://ivanherman.wordpress.com/2007/07/22/yet-another-rdfa-converter/">Ivan's Herman's post about Triplr </a>and <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-rdfa-primer/">RDFa</a>, I quickly took the <a href="http://rdfa.info/">RDFa Info page URI</a> from his post and pasted it into the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>. As expected, I received <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/RDFa_Tracker.wqx">RDF Triples from the RDFa Data Source</a>. </p> <p>Note:This all happens because the <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat">OAT</a> based RDF Browser simply makes a call to the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s+BLOG+%5B127%5D/1172">Virtuoso Sponger</a>'s REST service which is exposed at the endpoint "/proxy" (note: this is standard with all Virtuoso Installations).</p>
2007-07-25T07:03:46-04:00
Another Paper Discussing RDF Data Publishing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-24#1234
2007-07-24T00:55:19Z
<p>I stumbled across an article titled: <a href="http://www.openarchives.org/ore/documents/CompoundObjects-200705.html">Thoughts on Compound Documents</a>, from the <a href="http://www.openarchives.org/">Open Archives initiative</a> (OAI). The article discusses the increasingly popular topic of deploying structured data containers on the Web.</p> <p>This article, <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=389">like the one from Mike</a>, and our soon to be released Linked Data Deployment white paper, collectively address the main topic without inadvertent distraction by the misnomer: non-information resource. For instance, the OAI article uses the term: Generic Resource instead of Non-informaton Resource.</p> <p>The Semantic Data Web is here, but we need to diffuse this reality across a broader spectrum of Web communities, so as to avoid unnecessary uptake inertia that can arise due basic incomprehension of key concepts such as <a href="http://linkeddata.org">Linked Data</a> deployment.</p>
2007-07-24T22:02:56-04:00
A Structured Web of Data Picture....
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-22#1233
2007-07-22T21:44:37Z
<p>As the saying goes, "A picture speaks a thousand words..". In this post I simply provide a Data Web view of Mike Bergman's post titled: <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=391">More Structure, More Terminology and (hopefully) More Clarity</a>. I am hoping the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/DataWeb/Mike_Bergman_Terminology_and_Structured_Data.wqx">OpenLink RDF Browser view of Mike's post</a> aids in the understanding of the following terms:</p> <ol> <li> Structured Data</li> <li>Structured Data Resources</li> <li>Information Resources</li> </ol> <p>Note: I make no reference to "non information" resource, since a non-information resource is a data resource that may or may not contain 100% structured data. Also note that even when structured, the format may not be RDF.</p>
2007-07-22T19:18:25-04:00
Terminology & Specificity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-20#1232
2007-07-20T17:15:04Z
<p>Terminology is a pain to construct, and an even bigger pain to diffuse effectively, when dealing with large collections of superficially heterogeneous, and factually homogeneous, interlinked individuals.</p> <p>In my "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com%27s+BLOG+%5B127%5D/1231">Linked Data & Web Information BUS</a>" post (plus a few LOD mailing list posts), I had the delight and displeasure (on the brain primarily) of attempting to get terminology right with regards to Information- and Non-Information Web Resources. I eventually settled for Data Sources instead of the simpler and more obvious term: Data Resources :-)</p> <p>Thus, I redefine the URIs from earlier past as follows:</p> <ul>http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI (Information Resource)</ul> <ul>http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI#this (Data Resource)</ul> <p> Thanks to today's internet connectivity, it took a simple Skype ping from <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/">Mike Bergman</a>, and a 30 minute (or so) session that followed for us to arrive at "Data Resource" as a clearer term for Non Information Resources.</p> <p>Mike has promised to write a detailed post covering our Linked Data and the Structured Web terminology meshing odyssey.</p>
2008-02-04T20:47:01.000001-05:00
Linked Data & The Web Information BUS
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-20#1231
2007-07-20T07:50:00Z
<p> <a href="http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/ueber_uns/team/chris_bizer.htm">Chris Bizer</a>, <a href="http://richard.cyganiak.de/">Richard Cyganiak</a>, and <a href="http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/tom/html">Tom Heath</a> have just published a <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/pub/LinkedDataTutorial/">Linked Data Publishing Tutorial</a> that provides a guide to the mechanics of Linked Data injection into the Semantic Data Web.</p> <p> On different, but related, thread, <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com">Mike Bergman</a> recently penned a post titled: <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/AI3_AdaptiveInformation/~3/134989485/">What is the Structured Web?</a>. Both of these public contributions shed light on the "Information BUS" essence of the World Wide Web by describing the evolving nature of the payload shuttled by the BUS. </p> <h3>What is an Information BUS? </h3> <p>Middleware infrastructure for shuttling "Information" between endpoints using a messaging protocol.</p> <p>The Web is the dominant Information BUS within the Network Computer we know as the "Internet". It uses HTTP to shuttle information payloads between "Data Sources" and "Information Consumers" - what happens when we interact with Web via User Agents / Clients (e.g Browsers). </p> <h3>What are Web Information Payloads?</h3> <p>HTTP transported streams of contextualized data. Hence the terms: "Information Resource" and "Non Information" when reading material related to <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/httpRange-14/2007-05-31/HttpRange-14#iddiv2104118728">http-range-14 and Web Architecture</a>. For example, an (X)HTML document is a specific data context (representation) that enables us to perceive, or comprehend, a data stream originating from a Web Server as a Web Page. On the other hand, if the payload lacks contextualized data, a fundamental Web requirement, then the resource is referred to as a "Non Information" resource. Of course, there is really no such thing as a "Non Information" resource, but with regards to Web Architecture, it's the short way of saying: "the Web Transmits Information only". That said, I prefer to refer to these "Non Information" resources as "Data Sources", are term well understood in the world of Data Access Middleware (ODBC, JDBC, OLEDB, ADO.NET etc.) and Database Management Systems (Relational, Objec-Relational, Object etc).</p> <p>Examples of Information Resource and Data Source URIs:</p> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI">http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI</a> (Information Resource)</ul> <ul> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql?query=CONSTRUCT+{+%3Chttp%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI%23this%3E+%3Fp+%3Fo+}+FROM+%3Chttp%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind%3E+WHERE+{+%3Chttp%3A//demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI%23this%3E+%3Fp+%3Fo+}&format=application/rdf%2Bxml">http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI#this</a> (Data Source)</ul> <p>Explanation: The Information Resource is a conduit to the Entity identified by Data Source (an entity in my RDF Data Space that is the Subject or Object of one of more Triple based Statements. The triples in question can that can be represented as an RDF resource when transmitted over the Web via an Information Resource that takes the form of a SPARQL REST Service URL or a Physical RDF based Information Resource URL). </p> <h3>What about Structured Data?</h3> <p>Prior to the emergence of the Semantic Data Web, the payloads shuttled across the Web Information BUS comprised primarily of the following:</p> <ol> <li>HTML - Web Resource with presentation focused structure (Web 1.0 dominant payload form)</li> <li>XML - Web Resource with structure that separates presentation and data (Web 2.0's dominant payload form).</li> </ol> <p>The Semantic Data Web simply adds <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a> to the payload formats that shuttle the Web Information BUS. RDF addresses formal data structure which XML doesn't cover since it is semi-structured (distinct data entities aren't formally discernible). In a nutshell, an RDF payload is basically a conceptual model database packaged as an Information Resource. It's comprised of granular data items called "Entities", that expose fine grained properties values, individual and/or group characteristics (attributes), and relationships (associations) with other Entities.</p> <h3>Where is this all headed? </h3> <p>The Web is in the final stages of the 3rd phase of it's evolution. A phase characterized by the shuttling of structured data payloads (RDF) alongside less data oriented payloads (HTML, XHTML, XML etc.). As you can see, <a href="http://linkeddata.org">Linked Data</a> and Structured Data are both terms used to describe the addition of more data centric payloads to the Web. Thus, you could view the process of creating a Structured Web of Linked Data as follows:</p> <ol> <li>Identify or Create Structured Data Sources</li> <li>Name these Data Sources using Data Source URIs</li> <li>Expose Structured Data Sources to the Web as Linked Data using Information Resource (conduit) URIs</li> </ol> <h3>Conclusions</h3> <p>The Semantic Data Web is an evolution of the current Web (an Information Space) that adds structured data payloads (RDF) to current, less data oriented, structured payloads (HTML, XHTML, XML, and others).</p> <p>The Semantic Data Web is increasingly seen as an inevitability because it's rapidly reaching the point of critical mass (i.e. network effect kick-in). As a result, Data Web emphasis is moving away from: "What is the Semantic Data Web?" To: "How will Semantic Data Web make our globally interconnected village an even better place?", relative to the contributions accrued from the Web thus far. Remember, the initial "Document Web" (Web 1.0) bootstrapped because of the benefits it delivered to blurb-style content publishing (remember the term electronic brochure-ware?). Likewise, in the case of the "Services Web" (Web 2.0), the bootstrap occurred because it delivered platform independence to Web Application Developers - enabling them to expose application logic behind Web Services. It is my expectation that the Data Integration prowess of the Data Web will create a value exchange realm for data architects and other practitioners from the database and data access realms.</p> <h3>Related Items</h3> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=153">Mike Bergman's post about Semi-Structured Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=structured%20data&type=text&output=html">My Posts covering Structured and Un-Structured Containers</a> </li> </ol>
2007-08-08T18:26:55-04:00
Open Knowledge Definition
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-15#1228
2007-07-15T17:14:35Z
<p>It's really nice to see that the issue of Open Data is really gathering momentum as expressed in the "<a href="http://www.opendefinition.org/1.0">Open Knowledge Definition</a>".</p>
2007-07-15T13:00:04.000002-04:00
Open Data Heads-Up to all U.S. Citizens!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-07-13#1227
2007-07-13T19:31:43Z
Meeting <a href="http://wwmm.ch.cam.ac.uk/blogs/murrayrust">Prof. Peter Murray-Rust</a>, in person, was one of my personal highlights at <a href="http://www2007.org/">WWW2007</a>; especially as we are both unashamedly passionate about "Open Data Access" :-) Peter is an avid blogger, and his most recent post is an <a href="http://wwmm.ch.cam.ac.uk/blogs/murrayrust/?p=409">Open Data callout to all U.S. citizens</a>.
2007-07-13T15:31:52.000002-04:00
Enterprise 0.0, Linked Data, and Semantic Data Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-06-14#1224
2007-06-14T15:28:26Z
<p>Last week we <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virt_501.htm">officially released Virtuoso 5.0.1</a> (in Commercial and Open Source Editions). The press release provided us with an official mechanism and timestamp for the current Virtuoso feature set.</p> <p>A vital component of the new Virtuoso release is the finalization of our SQL to RDF mapping functionality -- enabling the declarative mapping of SQL Data to RDF. Additional technical insight covering other new features (delivered and pending) is provided by <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/oerling/">Orri Erling</a>, as part of a series of post-Banff posts.</p> <h2>Why is SQL to RDF Mapping a Big Deal?</h2> <p>A majority of the world's data (especially in the enterprise realm) resides in SQL Databases. In addition, Open Access to the data residing in said databases remains the biggest challenge to enterprises for the following reasons:</p> <ol> <li> SQL Data Sources are inherently heterogeneous because they are acquired with business applications that are in many cases inextricably bound to a particular DBMS engine </li> <li> Data is predictably dirty </li> <li> DBMS vendors ultimately hold the data captive and have traditionally resisted data access standards such as ODBC (*trust me they have, just look at the unprecedented bad press associated with ODBC the only truly platform independent data access API. Then look at how this bad press arose..*) </li> </ol> <p> Enterprises have known from the beginning of modern corporate times that data access, discovery, and manipulation capabilities are inextricably linked to the "Real-time Enterprise" nirvana (hence my use of 0.0 before this becomes 3.0).</p> <p>In my experience, as someone whose operated in the data access and data integration realms since the late '80s, I've painfully observed enterprises pursue, but unsuccessfully attain, full control over enterprise data (the prized asset of any organization) such that data-, information-, knowledge-workers are just a click away from commencing coherent platform and database independent data drill-downs and/or discovery that transcend intranet, internet, and extranet boundaries -- serendipitous interaction with relevant data, without compromise!</p> <p>Okay, situation analysis done, we move on.. </p> <p>At our most recent (<a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/CambridgeSemanticWebGatherings/Meeting/2007-06-12_Gathering">12th June</a>) monthly <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/CambridgeSemanticWebGatherings">Semantic Web Gathering</a>, I unveiled to <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card#i">TimBL</a> and a host of other attendees a simple, but powerful, demonstration of how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a>, as an aspect of the <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070409_961951.htm">Semantic Data Web</a>, can be applied to enterprise data integration challenges.</p> <h2>Actual SQL to RDF Mapping Demo / Experiment</h2> <h4>Hypothesis</h4> A SQL Schema can be effectively mapped declaratively to RDF such that SQL Rows morph into RDF Instance Data (Entity Sets) based on the Concepts & Properties defined in a Concrete Conceptual Data Model oriented Data Dictionary (<a href="http://www.w3schools.com/rdf/rdf_schema.asp">RDF Schema</a> and/or <a href="http://www.w3schools.com/rdf/rdf_owl.asp">OWL Ontology</a>). In addition, the solution must demonstrate how "Linked Data in the Web" is completely different from "Data on the Web" or "Linked Data on the Web" (btw - <a href="http://kasei.us/people/Tom_Heath/">Tom Heath</a> eloquently unleashed this point in his recent <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2007/06/tom_heath_talks_with_talis_abo.php">podcast interview with Talis</a>). <h4>Apparatus</h4> An Ontology - in this case we simply derived the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/SQLRDFIntegraton/Explore_Northwind_Ontology.isparql">Northwind Ontology</a> from the XML Schema based CSDL (<a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/adonet/archive/2007/01/30/entity-data-model-part-1.aspx">Conceptual Schema Definition Language</a>) used by Microsoft's public <a href="http://astoria.mslivelabs.com/Default.aspx">Astoria demo</a> (specifically the <a href="http://astoria.mslivelabs.com/termsOfUseNorthwind.aspx?returnURL=Northwind">Northwind Data Services demo</a>). SQL Database Schema - <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/library/media/1033/technet/images/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/sscpop07_big.gif">Northwind</a> (comes bundled with ACCESS, SQL Server, and Virtuoso) comprised of tables such as: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/schemas/northwind#Customer">Customer</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/schemas/northwind#Employee">Employee</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/schemas/northwind#Product">Product</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/schemas/northwind#Category">Category</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/schemas/northwind#Supplier">Supplier</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/schemas/northwind#Shipper">Shipper</a> etc. <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/">OpenLink Virtuoso</a> - SQL DBMS Engine (although this could have been any <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Database_Connectivity">ODBC</a> or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_Database_Connectivity">JDBC</a> accessible Database), <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/Whitepapers/pdf/Virtuoso_SQL_to_RDF_Mapping.pdf">SQL-RDF Metaschema Language</a>, HTTP URL-rewriter, WebDAV Engine, and DBMS hosted XSLT processor Client Tools -<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql/"> iSPARQL Query Builder</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">RDF Browser</a> (which could also have been <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/ajar/tab">Tabulator</a> or<a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/disco/"> DISCO</a> or a standard Web Browser) <h4>Experiment / Demo</h4> <ol> <li> Declaratively map the Northwind SQL Schema to RDF using the Virtuoso Meta Schema Language (see: <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/SQLRDFIntegraton/northwind_sql_rdf.sql">Virtuoso PL based Northwind_SQL_RDF script</a>) </li> <li> Start browsing the data by clicking on the URIs that represent the RDF Data Model Entities resulting from the SQL to RDF Mapping </li> </ol> <h4>Observations</h4> <ol> <li> Via a single Data Link click I was able to obtain specific information about the Customer represented by the URI <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/Northwind/Customer/ALFKI">"ALFKI"</a> (act of URI Dereferencing as you would an Object ID in an Object or Object-Relational Database) </li> <li> Via a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/SQLRDFIntegraton/Explore_Northwind.isparql">Dynamic Data Page </a> I was able to explore all the entity relationships or specific entity data (i.e Exploratory or Entity specific dereferencing) in the Northwind Data Space </li> <li> I was able to perform similar exploration (as per item 2) using our <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/SQLRDFIntegraton/Explore_Northwind_Customer_ALFKI.wqx">OpenLink Browser. </a> </li> </ol> <h4>Conclusions</h4> <p>The vision of data, information, or knowledge at your fingertips is nigh! Thanks to the infrastructure provided by the Semantic Data Web (URIs, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF Data Model</a>, variety of RDF Serialization Formats[<a href="http://www.dajobe.org/2004/01/turtle/">1</a>][<a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Notation3">2</a>][<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-rdf-syntax-grammar-20020325/">3</a>], and Shared Data Dictionaries / Schemas / Ontologies [<a href="http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/">1</a>][<a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">2</a>][<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-guide/">3</a>][<a href="http://musicontology.com/">4</a>][<a href="http://bblfish.net/work/atom-owl/2006-06-06/AtomOwl.html">5</a>]) it's now possible to Virtualize enterprise data from the Physical Storage Level, through the Logical Data Management Levels (Relational), up to a Concrete Conceptual Model (Graph) without operating system, development environment or framework, or database engine lock-in.</p> <h2>Next Steps</h2> <p>We produce a shared ontology for the CRM and Business Reporting Domains. I hope this experiment clarifies how this is quite achievable by converting XML Schemas to RDF Data Dictionaries (RDF Schemas or Ontologies). Stay tuned :-) </p> <p>Also watch <a href="http://news.com.com/1606-2-6189377.html">TimBL amplify and articulate Linked Data value</a> in a recent interview.</p> <h2>Other Related Matters</h2> <p>To deliver a mechanism that facilitates the crystallization of this reality is a contribution of boundless magnitude (as we shall all see in due course). Thus, it is easy to understand why even "her majesty", the queen of England, simply had to get in on the act and <a href="http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page1880.asp">appoint TimBL to the "British Order of Merit</a>" :-)</p> <p>Note: All of the demos above now work with IE & Safari (a "remember what Virtuoso is epiphany") by simply putting Virtuoso's DBMS hosted XSLT engine to use :-) This also applies to my earlier collection of demos from the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=hello%20data%20web&type=text&output=html">Hello Data Web</a> and other <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=.isparql&type=text&output=html">Data Web & Linked Data related demo style posts</a>.</p>
2008-02-04T23:19:26.000001-05:00
Exploring The Semantic Web & SPARQL FAQs, Linked Data Style!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-05-31#1205
2007-05-31T21:59:20Z
<p>The recently released <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/SW-FAQ">Semantic Web FAQ</a> (authored by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/">Ivan Herman</a>) has some neat Rich Internet and <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/">Semantic Data Web</a> embellishments contributed by Ivan and <a href="http://thefigtrees.net/lee/blog/">Lee Feigenbaum</a>. As a result, we not only have a great Semantic Web FAQ document, we also inherit a coherent piece of "demo fodder" that aids the general (S)emantic (W)eb (E)ducation and (O)reach (<a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/">SWEO</a>) that is clearly in full swing.</p> <p>Of course, this also enables me to provide yet another Semantic Data Web demo in the form of additional viewing perspectives for the aforementioned FAQ (just click to see):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/semantic_web_faq_overview.isparql">Semantic Web FAQ via Dynamic Data Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/browser_sessions/exploring_semantic_web_faq.wqx">Semantic Web FAQ via OpenLink Browser</a> </li> </ol> <p>Lee also embarked on a similar embellishment effort re. the<a href="http://thefigtrees.net/lee/sw/sparql-faq"> SPARQL Query Language FAQ</a> thereby enabling me to also offer alternative viewing perspectives along similar lines:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/sparql_faq_overview.isparql">SPARQL FAQ via Dynamic Data Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/browser_sessions/exploring_sparql_faq.wqx">SPARQL FAQ via OpenLink Browser</a> </li> </ol>
2007-05-31T17:43:47.000001-04:00
Exploring a Music Data Space via Linked Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-05-25#1204
2007-05-25T22:57:32Z
<p> <a href="http://fgiasson.com/">Frederick Giasson</a> has put out a number of interesting posts (via his <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/">blog</a>) about a conceptual <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/05/24/the-music-data-space">Music Data Space</a> (one of many Data Spaces that will ultimately permeate the Semantic Data Web). Anyway, While reading his initial post covering <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/05/22/browsing-musicbrainzs-dataset-via-uri-dereferencing">Music Domain URIs and Linked Data</a>, it occurred to me that by only exposing the raw RDF instance data (RDF/XML format in this case) via URIs for: Diana Ross, Paul McCartney, The Beatles, and Madonna, the essence of the post may not be revealed to all, so I've knocked up a few demos to illustrate the core message:</p> <p> <b>Note</b>: the enhanced hyperlink (typed data link) lookup presents options to perform an Explore (all data about subject across Domains in the data space i.e. data links to and from Subject), Dereference (specific data in the Subject's Domain i.e. data links originating from subject).</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/Diana_Ross.isparql">Diana Ross</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/Paul_McCartney.isparql">Paul McCartney</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/The_Beatles.isparql">The Beatles</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/Madonna.isparql">Madonna</a> </li> </ol> <p>I built these Linked Data Pages by simply doing the following:</p> <ol> <li>Open up our <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com">OAT</a> based <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/isparql">iSPARQL (Interactive SPARQL Query By Example)</a> Tool</li> <li>Paste a URI of Interest into the Data Source URI input field</li> <li>Execute the Query (hitting the ">" button) </li> <li>Saving the Query to WebDAV as a Linked Data Page (or what I initial called Dynamic Data Web pages in my Hello Data Web series of posts).</li> <li>Share your Data, Information, Knowledge with others via URIs (as shown in the section above). </li> </ol>
2008-02-04T23:20:47.000003-05:00
Shared Ontologies Linked Data Style!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-05-25#1203
2007-05-25T21:12:36Z
<p>As the <a href="http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2007/05/linked_data_the_real_semantic.php">Linked Data meme</a> beams across the Web, it is important to note that Ontology / Schema sharing and reuse is critical to the overall vitality of the burgeoning Semantic Data Web.</p> <p>The items that follow attempt to demonstrate the point by way of SIOC (<a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities Ontology</a>) and MO (<a href="http://musicontology.com/">Music Ontology</a>) domain exploration:</p> <p> <b>Linked Data or Dynamic Data Web Pages</b>:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/music_ontology_overview.isparql">Music Ontology Overview</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/sioc_ontology_overview.isparql">SIOC Ontology Overview</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/sioc_types_ontology_module.isparql">SIOC Type Ontology Module</a> (how you extend SIOC Concepts unobtrusively)</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/sioc_services_ontology_overview.isparql">SIOC Services Ontology Module</a> (how you extend SIOC in relation to Services Modeling).</li> </ol> <p> <b>Semantic Web Browser Sessions</b>:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/browser_sessions/exploring_music_the_ontology.wqx">Music Ontology Overview via OpenLink RDF Browser</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/browser_sessions/exploring_sioc.wqx">SIOC Ontology Overview via OpenLink RDF Browser</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/browser_sessions/exploring_sioc_types_modules.wqx">SIOC Type Ontology Module </a>via OpenLink RDF Browser<br /> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/browser_sessions/exploring_sioc_services.wqx">SIOC Services Ontology Module </a>via OpenLink RDF Browser.</li> </ol> <p>Key point, if you are modeling People, Communities, Organizations, Documents, and other entities in the People, Organizations, Documents etc. Data Space, don't forget to : FOAF-FOAF-FOAF it Up! :-)</p>
2007-06-01T19:54:05.000001-04:00
Exploring FOAF Linked Data Style!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-05-25#1202
2007-05-25T15:41:35Z
<p>Over the last few hours the FOAF project received a <a href="http://dannyayers.com/2007/05/25/foaf-0">wakeup call</a> via <a href="http://danbri.org/">Dan Brickley</a>'s <a href="http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec">FOAF 0.9</a> "touch" effort.</p> <p>Naturally, this triggered an obvious opportunity to demonstrate the prowess of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data">Linked Data</a> on the Semantic Web. What follows is a quick dump of what I sent to the <a href="http://lists.foaf-project.org/mailman/listinfo/foaf-dev">foaf-dev</a> mailing list:</p> <p>Here are variety of FOAF Views built using:</p> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">OpenLink RDF Browser</a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/isparql">Interactive SPARQL QBE </a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/sparql">Raw SPARQL Endpoint</a> </ul> <p>Enabling you to explore the following lines:</p> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/foaf_overview.isparql">FOAF Overview via a Linked Data Page</a> (same as Dynamic Data Page) </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/linked_data_pages/foaf_overview_by_status.isparql">FOAF Overview by Term Status via Linked Data Page</a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/queries/foaf_overview.rq">FOAF Overview SPARQL Query (.rq File)</a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dataweb/queries/foaf_overview_by_status.rq">FOAF Overview by Term Status</a> </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://tinyurl.com/2hpeau">FOAF Overview via OpenLink RDF Browser</a> </ul>
2007-05-25T14:36:47-04:00
It's the Community, Cupid!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-05-04#1193
2007-05-04T20:37:15Z
<p>The term "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community">Community</a>" is beginning resonate across the increasing number of conversations centered around the growing appreciation of the <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2007/tc20070409_961951.htm">Semantic Data Web Vision</a>. I've been troubled in the past with the once growing tendency to disconnect <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network">social networks</a> from Graph based Conceptual Data Models as expressed in the underlying infrastructure (Data Management layer) of many first generation social networking services.</p> <p>Last week, <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com">John Breslin</a> published a post that contained a very nice presentation of what is best described as "<a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2007/04/23/t-sioc-object-centred-sociality/">Objects of Our Sociality</a>". The presentation provides insight into the elements that collectively drive the creation of People & Data networks (communities). The presentation certainly unveils the often forgotten fact that although People & Data network construction is always socially driven, our intentions aren't always amorous :-)</p> <p>At the core of the<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=semantic%20data%20web&type=text&output=html"> Semantic Data Web vision</a> is the desire to leverage the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect">network effects</a>" that communities provide, while exponentially reducing the cost of knowledge creation, discovery, and exchange in the process.</p> <p>In short, the Semantic Data Web ultimately enables us to collectively do our bit for a greater good! Thus, quoting <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">TimBL</a>, "<a href="http://www.w3.org/2006/Talks/0314-ox-tbl/#(22)">you do your bit and others will do theirs</a>" :-)</p>
2008-02-04T23:20:25.000002-05:00
XBRL Ontology Project
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-21#1189
2007-04-21T01:17:51Z
<p>Introducing the XBRL Ontology Project.</p> <p>The <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/xbrl-ontology-specification-group/msg/a4172167a42bab6e">XBRL Ontology Project</a> seeks to address the obvious need to bring structured financial data into the emerging Semantic Data Web as articulated in this excerpt from the inaugural mailing list post:</p> <blockquote> <p>The parallel evolution of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBRL">XBRL</a> and the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> is one of the more puzzling current day technology misnomers: </p> <cite>The Semantic Web expresses a vision about a Web of Data connected by formal meaning (Context). Congruently, XBRL espouses a vision whereby by formally defined Financial Data is accessible via the Web (and other networks). Sadly, we have an abundance of XBRL Taxonomies, pretty wide adoption of the XBRL standard globally, but not a single RDFS Schema or OWL Ontology, derived from said taxonomies, in sight!</cite> </blockquote> <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/xbrl-ontology-specification-group/msg/a4172167a42bab6e">Read on...</a>" <p>(Via <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/xbrl-ontology-specification-group">XBRL Ontology Specification Group Google Group</a>.)</p>
2008-02-04T23:20:04.000014-05:00
What's OpenLink Software been Up To?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-19#1187
2007-04-19T23:47:40Z
<p> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com">Mike Bergman</a> has written a very detailed <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=355">article about OpenLink Software and it's product portfolio</a> that basically answers the question: What has OpenLink been Up To?</p> <p>As the company's founder, it was quite compelling to read a third party article that accurately navigates and articulates the depth of work that we've undertaken since <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory">that seminal moment in 1997</a> when we decided to extend our product portfolio beyond the <a href="http://uda.openlinksw.com">Universal Data Access Drivers</a> family.</p> <p>Of course I also take this opportunity to slip in another Semantic Data Web demo :-) Thus, take a look at this mother of all blog posts from Mike via the following:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mkbergman.com%2F%3Fp%3D355">OpenLink RDF Browser Session</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dbpedia/Dynamic_Pages/Mike_Bergman_Reviews_OpenLink_Software.isparql">Dynamic Data Web Page</a> </li> </ol> <p>Note: In both cases above, you use the "Explore" or "Dereference" options of the Data Link (typed hyperlink) to traverse the RDF data that has been materialized "on the fly" courtesy of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1172">Virtuoso's in-built RDF Middleware</a> (called the Sponger).</p> <p>BTW - I am assembling a collection of interesting <a href="http://dbpedia.org">DBpedia</a> based Dynamic pages that showcase the depth of knowledge available from <a href="http://wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a>. If you're a current or future technology entrepreneur (or VC trying to grok the Semantic Web) then you certainly need to look at:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dbpedia/Dynamic_Pages/All_About_Venture_Capital.isparql">Venture Capital</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dbpedia/Dynamic_Pages/All_About_Venture_Capital_Firms.isparql">Venture Capital Firms</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dbpedia/Dynamic_Pages/All_About_Venture_Capitalists.isparql">Venture Capitalists</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/dbpedia/Dynamic_Pages/Entrepreneurs_By_Nationality.isparql">Entrepreneurs By Nationality</a> </li> </ol>
2008-02-04T20:47:40.000001-05:00
Presentation: RDF REST and the future of Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-16#1186
2007-04-16T14:31:31Z
<p>A nice presentation about Data Programmability and the journey towards RDF based Concrete Conceptual Models by <a href="http://www.base4.net/Blog.aspx">Alex James</a> Titled: <a href="http://www.base4.net/Blog.aspx?ID=365">RDF REST and the future of Data</a>. </p>
2007-04-16T22:38:30.000002-04:00
Semantic Web Data Spaces
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-13#1185
2007-04-13T21:15:54Z
<b>Web Data Spaces</b> <p>Now that broader understanding of the Semantic Data Web is emerging, I would like to revisit the issue of "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20spaces'&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a>".</p> <p>A Data Space is a place where Data Resides. It isn't inherently bound to a specific Data Model (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_model">Concept Oriented</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_model">Relational</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchical_database">Hierarchical</a> etc..). Neither is it implicitly an access point to Data, Information, or Knowledge (the perception is purely determined through the experiences of the user agents interacting with the Data Space.</p> <p>A Web Data Space is a Web accessible Data Space.</p> <p>Real world example:</p> <p>Today we increasing perform one of more of the following tasks as part of our professional and personal interactions on the Web:</p> <ol> <li>Blog via many service providers or personally managed weblog platforms</li> <li>Create Event Calendars via <a href="http://upcoming.com">Upcoming.com</a> and <a href="http://eventful.com">Eventful</a> </li> <li>Maintain and participate in Social Networks (e.g. <a href="http://facebook.com">Facebook</a>, <a href="http://orkut.com">Orkut</a>, <a href="http://myspace.com">MySpace</a>)</li> <li>Create and Participate in Discussions (note: when you comment on blogs or wikis for instance, you are participating in, or creating, a conversation)</li> <li>Track news by subscribing to <a href="http://web.resource.org/rss/1.0/">RSS 1.0</a>, <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/rss/rss.html">RSS 2.0</a>, or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_(standard)">Atom</a> Feeds</li> <li>Share Bookmarks & Tags via <a href="http://del.icio.us">Del.icio.us</a> and other Services</li> <li>Share Photos via <a href="http://flickr.com">Flickr</a> </li> <li>Buy, Review, or Search for books via <a href="http://amazon.com">Amazon</a> </li> <li>Participates in auctions via <a href="http://ebay.com">eBay</a> </li> <li>Search for data via <a href="http://google.com">Google</a> (of course!)</li> </ol> <p> <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/">John Breslin</a> has nice a <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/20051015a.gif">animation depicting the creation of Web Data Spaces</a> that drives home the point.</p> <b>Web Data Space Silos</b> <p> Unfortunately, what isn't as obvious to many netizens, is the fact that each of the activities above results in the creation of data that is put into some context by you the user. Even worse, you eventually realize that the service providers aren't particularly willing, or capable of, giving you unfettered access to your own data. Of course, this isn't always by design as the infrastructure behind the service can make this a nightmare from security and/or load balancing perspectives. Irrespective of cause, we end up creating our own "Data Spaces" all over the Web without a coherent mechanism for accessing and meshing these "Data Spaces".</p> <b>What are Semantic Web Data Spaces?</b> <p>Data Spaces on the Web that provide granular access to RDF Data.</p> <b>What's OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS) About?</b> <blockquote> <p>Short History</p> <p>In anticipation of this the "Web Data Silo" challenge (an issue that we tackled within internal enterprise networks for years) we commenced the development (circa. 2001) of a distributed collaborative application suite called OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS). The project was never released to the public since the problems associated with the deliberate or inadvertent creation of Web Data silos hadn't really materialized (silos only emerged in concreted form after the emergence of the Blogosphere and Web 2.0). In addition, there wasn't a clear standard Query Language for the RDF based Web Data Model (i.e. the SPARQL Query Language didn't exist).</p> </blockquote> <p> Today, ODS is delivered as a packaged solution (in Open Source and Commercial flavors) that alleviates the pain associated with Data Space Silos that exist on the Web and/or behind corporate firewalls. In either scenario, ODS simply allows you to create Open and Secure Data Spaces (via it's suite of applications) that expose data via SQL, RDF, XML oriented data access and data management technologies. Of course it also enables you to integrates transparently with existing 3rd party data space generators (Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmrks, Discussion etc. services) by supporting industry standards that cover:</p> <ol> <li> Content Publishing - Atom, <a href="http://www.sixapart.com/developers/product_documentation/movable_type/">Moveable Type</a>, <a href="http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi">MetaWeblog</a>, Blogger protocols </li> <li> Content Syndication Formats - RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom, OPML etc. </li> <li> Data Management - <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL">SQL</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a>, XML, Free Text </li> <li> Data Access - SQL, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>, GData, Web Services (SOAP or REST styles), WebDAV/HTTP </li> <li> Semantic Data Web Middleware - <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/01/rdxh/spec">GRDDL</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xslt">XSLT</a>, SPARQL, XPath/XQuery, HTTP (Content Negotiation) for producing RDF from non RDF Data ((X)HTML, Microformats, XML, Web Services Response Data etc). </li> </ol> <p>Thus, by installing ODS on your Desktop, Workgroup, Enterprise, or public Web Server, you end up with a very powerful solution for creating Open Data access oriented presence on the "Semantic Data Web" without incurring any of the typically assumed "RDF Tax".</p> <p>Naturally, ODS is built atop <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso</a> and of course it exploits Virtuoso's feature-set to the max. It's also beginning to exploit functionality offered by the OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">OAT</a>).</p>
2007-04-13T18:19:29.000001-04:00
Describing the Semantic Data Web (Take 3)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-05#1180
2007-04-06T00:50:00Z
<p> <a href="http://scobleizer.com/2007/04/05/i-finally-get-semantic-web/">Scobleizer's had a Semantic Web Epiphany</a> but can't quite nail down what his discovered in laymans prose :-)</p> <p>Well, I'll have a crack at helping him out i.e. defining the Semantic Data Web in simple terms with linked examples :-) </p> <p>Tip: Watch the recent <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/video/semantic">TimBL video interview re. the Semantic Data Web</a> before, during, or after reading this post.</p> <p>Here goes!</p> <p>The popular Web is a "Web of Documents". The Semantic Data Web is a "Web of Data". Going down a level, the popular web connects documents across the web via hyperlinks. The Semantic Data Web connects data on the web via hyperlinks. Next level, hyperlinks on the popular web have no inherent meaning (lack context beyond: "there is another document"). Hyperlinks on the Semantic Data Web have inherent meaning (they possess context: "there is a Book" or "there is a Person" or "this is a piece of Music" etc..).</p> <p>Very simple example:</p> <p>Click the traditional web document <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/URL">URL</a>s for <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/">Dan Connolly</a> and <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a>. Then attempt to discern how they are connected. Of course you will see some obvious connections by reading the text, but you won't easily discern other data driven connections. Basically, this is no different to reading about either individual in a print journal, bar the ability to click on hyperlinks that open up other pages. The Data Extraction process remains labour intensive :-(</p> <p>Repeat the exercise using the traditional web document URLs as Data Web <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a>s, this time around, paste the hyperlinks above into an RDF aware Browser (in this case the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">OpenLink RDF Browser</a>). Note, we are making a subtle but critical change i.e. the URLs are now being used as Semantic Data Web URIs (a small-big-deal kind of thing).</p> <p>If you're impatient or simply strapped for time (aren't we all these days), simply take a look at these links:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople%2FConnolly%2F">Dan Connolly (DanC) RDF Browser Session permalink</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople%2FBerners-Lee%2F">Tim Berners-Lee (TimBL) RDF Browser Session permalink</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri[]=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople%2FConnolly%2F&uri[]=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople%2FBerners-Lee%2F&">TimBL and DanC combined RDF Browser Session permalink</a> </li> </ol> <p>Note: There are other RDF Browsers out there such as: </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/ajar/tab">Tabulator</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/disco/">DISCO</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://objectviewer.semwebcentral.org/">Objectviewer</a> </li> </ol> <p>All of these RDF Browsers (or User Agents) demonstrate the same core concepts in subtly different ways.</p> <p>If I haven't lost you, proceed to a post I wrote a few weeks ago titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1144">Hello Data Web (Take 3 - Feel the "RDF" Force)</a>.</p> <p>If you've made it this far, simply head over to <a href="http://dbpedia.org">DBpedia</a> for a lot of fun :-) </p> <p> <b>Note Re. my demos</b>: we make use of SVG in our RDF Browser which makes them incompatible with IE (6 or 7) and Safari. That said, Firefox (1.5+), Opera 9.x, WebKit (Open Source Safari), and Camino work fine.</p> <p>Note to Scoble: </p> <p>All the Blogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarks, Image Galleries, Discussion Forums and the like are Semantic Web Data Spaces. The great thing about all of this is that through RSS 2.0's wild popularity, Blogosphere has done what I postulated about a while back: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=887">The Semantic Web would be self-annotating</a>, and so it has come to be :-) </p> <p>To prove the point above: paste your blog's URL into the OpenLink RDF Browser and see it morph into a Semantic Data Web URI (a pointer to Web Data that's you've created) once you click the "Query" button (click on the TimeLine tab for full effect). The same applies to del.icio.us, Flickr, Googlebase, and basically any REST style Web Service as per my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1172">RDF Middleware</a> post. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.snee.com/bobdc.blog/2007/04/semantic_web_project_ideas_num.html">Lazy Semantic Web</a> Callout:</p> <p>If you're a good animator (pro or hobbyist), please produce an animation of a document going through a shredder. The strips that emerge from the shredder represent the granular data that was once the whole document. The same thing is happening on the Web right now, we are putting photocopies of (X)HTML documents through the shredder (in a good way) en route to producing granular items of data that remain connected to the original copy while developing new and valuable connections to other items of Web Data. </p> <p>That's it!</p>
2007-04-13T17:15:42-04:00
More Ajax Security
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-04#1177
2007-04-04T12:16:21Z
<p>The Recent security Ajax security alert <a href="http://blogs.usnet.private:8893/RPC2"></a> have attracted comments from: </p> <p> <a href="http://burningbird.net/">Shelley Powers</a> via her post titled: <a href="http://burningbird.net/adding-ajax/more-ajax-security/"> More Ajax Security </a> and many others.</p> <p>In anticipation of the obvious concerns of many Javascript based developers,<a href="http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/ondras"> Ondrej Zara</a> (lead developer of the <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>) has written a post titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oat/index.vspx?page=&id=1176">OAT and JS Hijacking</a>, that explains the security aspects our Javascript Toolkit in relation to this alert</p>
2007-04-04T19:49:07.000003-04:00
Open Source and Open Data Movements
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-04-01#1175
2007-04-01T22:02:15Z
<p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=69141977-7514-443d-800b-1f95c1ff8dbe">Dare Obasanjo's post about the issue of Open Data</a> (or Open Data Access), indicates that the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Data">Open Data</a>" issue is gradually beginning to resonate across a broader audience.</p> <p>From my perspective on things I prefer to align my articulation of the changes that are occurring across our industry (courtesy of the Internet Inflection) to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller">MVC pattern</a>.</p> <p>Re. the Web Versions (or Dimensions of Interaction):</p> <ul> Web 1.0 - (V)iewer (Interactive Web experienced via Browser) </ul> <ul> Web 2.0 - (C)ontroller Web (via Web Services API) </ul> <ul> Web 3.0 - (M)odel (via the RDF Data Model as the basis for an Open and Standards based Concrete Conceptual Data Model)</ul> <p>The same applies to evolution of Openness:</p> <ul> Early work by Sun and other early UNIX Vendors - (V)iewer (Interaction with the same OS across different hardware platforms)</ul> <ul>Open Source Movement - (C)ontroller (Open Access to Application Source Code )</ul> <ul>Open Data - (M)odel (*where we are now* Freeing the Date from the Applications and Services while moving the application development focus to a Concrete Conceptual Data Model focus. The Data Web is a classic example.)</ul> <p>In the (C)ontroller realm where the focal point is Application Logic, data access issues aren't obvious (*I recall <a href="http://207.22.26.166/bytecols/1999-11-03.html">my battles with Richard Stallman re. the appropriate Open Source License variant for iODBC</a> during the embryonic years of database and data access technology on Linux*). Data is an enigma in this realm, unfortunately. This implies that "Data Lock-in" occurs deliberately, but in most cases, inadvertently when we make Application Logic the focal point of everything. Another example is Web 2.0 in which the norm (unfortunately) is to suck in your data, and then refuse to give you complete ownership over how it is used (including the fact that you may want to share it elsewhere).</p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Data">Open Data</a> is a really big deal which is why the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/">SWEO</a> supported <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData">Linking Open Data Project</a> is a very big deal. The good news is that this movement is gathering moment at an exponential rate :-)
2007-04-01T17:55:55.000001-04:00
RDF based Integration Challenges (update)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-30#1174
2007-03-30T21:18:26Z
<p> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/">Danny Ayers</a> responds, via his post titled: <a href="http://dannyayers.com/2007/03/30/sampling">Sampling</a>, to "Stefano Mazzochi's post about <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/101/">Data Integration using Semantic Web Technologies</a>.</p> <blockquote> <p>"There is a potential problem with republication of transformed data, in that right away there may be inconsistency with the original source data. Here provenance tracking (probably via named graphs) becomes a must-have. The web data space itself can support very granular separation. Whatever, data integration is a hard problem. But if you have a uniform language for describing resources, at least it can be possible."<br /> </p> <p>Alex James also chimes in with valuable insights in his post: <a href="http://www.base4.net">Sampling the global data model</a>, where he concludes:</p> <blockquote>"Exactly we need to use projected views, or conceptual models. ' <p> See a projected view can be thought of as a conceptual model that has some mapping to a *sampling* of the global data model.</p> <p>The benefits of introducing this extra layer are many and varied: Simplicity, URI predictability, Domain Specificity and the ability to separate semantics from lower level details like data mapping.</p> <p>Unfortunately if you look at today’s ORMs you will quickly notice that they simply map directly from Object Model to Data Model in one step.</p> <p>This naïve approach provides no place to manage the mapping to a conceptual model that sampling the world’s data requires.</p> <p>What we need to solve the problems Stefano sees is to bring together the world of mapping and semantics. And the place they will meet is simply the Conceptual Model."</p> </blockquote> <p>Data Integration challenges arise because the following facts hold true all of the time (whether we like it or not):</p> <ol> <li>Data Heterogeneity is a fact of life at the intranet and internet levels </li> <li>Data is rarely clean</li> <li>Data Integration prowess are ultimately measured by pain alleviation</li> <li>A some point human participation is required, but the trick is to move human activity up the value chain</li> <li>Glue code size and Data Integration success are inversely related</li> <li>Data Integration is best addressed via "M" rather than "C" (if we use the MVC pattern as a guide. "V" is dead on arrival for the scrappers out there)</li> </ol> <p>In 1997 we commenced the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/">Virtuoso</a> Virtual DBMS Project that morphed into the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso Universal Server</a>; A fusion of DBMS functionality and Middleware functionality in a single product. The goal of this undertaking remains alleviation of the costs associated with Data Integration Challenges by Virtualizing Data at the Logical and Conceptual Layers.</p> <p>The Logical Data Layer has been concrete for a while (e.g Relational DBMS Engines), what hasn't reached the mainstream is the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=conceptual%20data%20model&type=text&output=html">Concrete Conceptual Model</a>, but this is changing fast courtesy of the activity taking place in the realm of RDF.</p> <p>RDF provides an Open and Standards compliant vehicle for developing and exploiting Concrete Conceptual Data Models that ultimately move the Human aspect of the "Data Integration alleviation quest" higher up the value chain. </p> </blockquote>
2007-03-30T19:35:35-04:00
RDF Browsers & RDF Data Middleware
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-28#1172
2007-03-28T23:17:00Z
<p> <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog">Frederick Giasson</a> penned an interesting post earlier today that highlighted the RDF Middleware services offered by <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/03/28/making-the-bridge-between-the-web-and-the-semantic-web/#comments">Triplr and the Virtuoso Sponger</a> </p> <p>Some Definitions (as per usual):</p> <p>RDF Middleware (as defined in this context) is about producing RDF from non RDF Data Sources. This implies that you can use non RDF Data Sources (e.g. (X)HTML Web Pages, (X)HTML Web Pages hosting Microformats, and even Web Services such as those from Google, Del.icio.us, Flickr etc..) as Semantic Web Data Source URIs (pointers to RDF Data).</p> <p>In this post I would like to provide a similar perspective on this ability to treat non RDF as RDF from RDF Browser perspective.</p> <p>First off, what's an RDF Browser?</p> <p>An RDF Browser is a piece of technology that enables you to Browse <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData">RDF Data Sources</a> by way of Data Link Traversal. The key difference between this approach and traditional browsing is that Data Links are typed (they possess inherent meaning and context) whereas traditional links are untyped (although universally we have been trained to type them as links to Blurb in the form of (X)HTML pages or what is popularly called "Web Content".).</p> <p>There are a number of RDF Browsers that I am aware off (note: pop me a message directly of by way of a comment to this post if you have a browser that I am unaware of), and they include (in order of creation and availability):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/ajar/tab">Tabulator</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/disco/">DISCO - Hyperdata Browser</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit's RDF Browser</a> (a component of the <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">OAT Javascript Toolkit</a>)</li> </ol> <p>Each of the browsers above can consume the services of Triplr or the Virtuoso Sponger en route to unveiling a RDF Data that is traversable via <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-webarch-20041215/#dereference-uri">URI dereferencing</a> (HTTP GETing the data exposed by the Data Pointer). Thus you can cut&paste the following into each of the aforementioned RDF Browsers:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://triplr.org/rdf/http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/">Triplr's RDF Data (Triples) extractions from Dan Connolly's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/proxy?url=http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/&force=rdf">The Virtuoso Sponger's RDF Data (Triples) extractions from Dan Connolly's Home Page</a> </li> </ol> <p>Since we are all time challenged (naturally!) you can also just click on these permalinks for the OAT RDF Browser demos:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri[]=http%3A%2F%2Ftriplr.org%2Frdf%2Fhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople%2FConnolly%2F&"">Permalink for Triplr's RDF Data (Triples) extractions from Dan Connolly's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2FPeople%2FConnolly%2F%23me">Permalink for the Virtuoso Sponger's RDF Data (Triples) extractions from Dan Connolly's Home Page</a> </li> </ol>
2007-04-29T14:59:05-04:00
Semantic Web: State of Affairs Presentation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-26#1167
2007-03-26T17:09:02Z
<p> <a href="http://www.ivan-herman.net">Ivan Herman</a> has published another great Semantic Web presentation titled: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0223-Bangalore-IH/Slides.html#(1)">State of the Semantic Web</a>. I have placed links to some key points below; primarily for those who are new to the Semantic Web vision or somewhat confused about it thus far:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0223-Bangalore-IH/Slides.html#(47)">Messaging Issues</a> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0223-Bangalore-IH/Slides.html#(49)">misconceptions</a> and <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0223-Bangalore-IH/Slides.html#(51)">misrepresentations</a> (e.g <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0223-Bangalore-IH/Slides.html#(48)">intermingling or RDF the Data Model and RDF/XML one of several serialization formats</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0223-Bangalore-IH/Slides.html#(5)">RDF Data Availability</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0223-Bangalore-IH/Slides.html#(25)">Generating RDF from non RDF Data</a> ("RDF Tax" eradication)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/0223-Bangalore-IH/Slides.html#(11)">Querying RDF Data Sources</a> </li> </ol>
2007-03-26T13:02:53-04:00
Triplr - stuff in, triples out
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-26#1166
2007-03-26T01:10:08Z
<p> <a href="http://journal.dajobe.org/journal/posts/2007/03/25/triplr-stuff-in-triples-out/">Triplr - stuff in, triples out</a>: "</p> <p>I’ve made a new thing: <a href="http://triplr.org/">Triplr</a> for <code>GET</code>ting semwebby data. Go check it out. </p> <p>It’s unrelated to the other older new thing not previously mentioned in a blog post: <a href="http://librdf.org/flickcurl/">Flickcurl</a> which is the C library I made for the <a href="http://www.flickr.com/services/api/">Flickr API</a> (about 25% complete) although I did steal the cute name from the utility which turns a Flickr photo’s description into triples, with the help of the new machine tags support. My conversion could be improved, I had to invent some namespaces.</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://journal.dajobe.org/journal">Dave Beckett - Journalblog</a>.)</p>
2007-03-25T21:03:40.000002-04:00
Data Web, Googlebase, and Yahoo!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-22#1165
2007-03-22T23:04:21Z
<p>A defining characteristic of the Data Web (Context Oriented Web 3.0) is that it facilitates Meshups rather than Mashups.</p> <p>Quick Definitions:</p> <ul> Mashups - Brute force joining of disparate Web Data</ul> <ul> Meshups - Natural joining of disparate Web Data </ul> <p> Reasons for the distinction:</p> <ul>Mashups are Data Model oblivious.</ul> <ul>Meshups are Data Model driven.</ul> <p>Examples:</p> <ul> Mashups are based on RSS 2.0 most of the time (RSS 2.0 is at best a Tree Structure that contains untyped or meaning challenged links.</ul> <ul> Meshups are RDF based and the data is self describing since the links are typed (posses inherent meaning thereby providing context).</ul> <p>So what? You may be thinking.</p> <p>For starters, I can quite easily Mesh data from Googlebase (which emits RSS 2.0 or Atom) and other data sources with the Mapping Services from Yahoo!</p> <p>I can achieve this in minutes without writing a single line of code. I can do it because of the Data Model prowess of RDF (self-describing instance-data), the data interchange and transformation power of XML and XSLT respectively, the inherent power of XML based Web Services (REST or SOAP), and of course, having a Hybrid Server product like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso</a> at my disposal that delivers a cross platform solution for exploiting all of these standards coherently.</p> <p>I can share the self-describing describing data source that serves my Meshup. Try reusing the data presented by a Mashup via the same URL that you used to locate Mashup to get my drift.</p> <p>Demo Links:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/rdfbrowser/index.html#http%3A%2F%2Fdemo.openlinksw.com%2FDAV%2Fhome%2Fdemo%2FPublic%2FQueries%2FDataWeb%2Fgoogle_base_jobs_dataspace.isparql">Googlebase Query URL as an RDF Data Source</a> </li> <li>Perform a simple Data Mesh by adding (via link copy and paste) this <a href="http://upcoming.org/search/?q=ajax&scope=allmetros&type=Events">Upcoming.org Query Services URL for Ajax Events</a> to the RDF Browsers list of Data Sources (paste into the Data Source URI input field).</li> </ol> <p>What does this all mean?</p> <p>"Context" is the catalyst of the burgeoning Data Web (Semantic Web Layer - 1). It's the <a href="http://sramanamitra.com/blog/729">emerging appreciation of "Context"</a> that is driving the growing desire to increment Web versions from 2.0 to 3.0. It also the the very same "Context" that has been a preoccupation of <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Activity">Semantic Web vision</a> since its inception.</p> <p>The journey towards a more Semantic Web is all inclusive (all "ANDs" and no "ORs" re. participation).</p> <p>The Semantic Web is <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=887">self-annotating</a>. Web 2.0 has provided a huge contribution to the self annotation effort: on the Web we now have Data Spaces for Bookmarks (e.g del.icio.us), Image Galleries ( e.g Flickr), Discussion Forums (remember those comments associated with blog posts? ditto the pingbacks and trackbacks?), People Profiles (FOAF, XFN, del.icio.us, and those crumbling walled-gardens around many Social Networks), and more..</p> <p>A Web without granular access to Data is simply not a Web worth having (think about the menace of click-fraud and spam).</p>
2007-03-22T19:14:55-04:00
Web 3.0 & Marketwatch
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-22#1164
2007-03-22T18:42:31Z
<p>(Via <a href="http://sramanamitra.com">Sramana Mitra on Strategy</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://sramanamitra.com/blog/729#comments">Web 3.0 & Marketwatch</a>. Excerpted below: </p> <blockquote> <cite>In Web 3.0, I predict, we are going to start seeing roll-ups. We will see a trunk that emerges from the Context, be it film (Netflix), music (iTunes), cooking / food, working women, single parents, … and assembles the Web 3.0 formula that addresses the whole set of needs of a consumer in that Context. Imagine: <ul>-I am a petite woman, dark skinned, dark haired, brown eyed. I have a distinct personal style, and only certain designers resonate with it (Context).</ul> <ul>-I want my personal SAKS Fifth Avenue which carries clothes by those designers, in my size (Commerce).</ul> <ul>-I want my personal Vogue, which covers articles about that Style, those Designers, and other emerging ones like them (Content).</ul> <ul>I want to exchange notes with others of my size-shape-style-psychographic and discover what else looks good. I also want the recommendation system tell me what they’re buying (Community)</ul> <ul>There’s also some basic principles of what looks good based on skin tone, body shape, hair color, eye color … I want the search engine to be able to filter and match based on an algorithm that builds in this knowledge base (Personalization, Vertical Search).</ul> <ul> Now, imagine the same for a short, fat man, who doesn’t really have a sense of what to wear. And he doesn’t have a wife or a girl-friend. Before Web 3.0, he could go to the personal shopper at Nordstrom.</ul> <p>With Web 3.0, the internet will be his Personal Shopper.</p> </cite> </blockquote>
2007-03-22T14:33:01-04:00
Web 3.0: When Web Sites Become Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-19#1161
2007-03-20T01:44:00Z
<blockquote> <cite><p>(Via <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/">Read/Write Web</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/102869973/web_30_when_web_sites_become_web_services.php">Web 3.0: When Web Sites Become Web Services</a>: "</p> ..... <h2>Conclusion</h2> <p>As more and more of the Web is becoming remixable, the entire system is turning into both a platform and the database. Yet, such transformations are never smooth. For one, scalability is a big issue. And of course legal aspects are never simple.'</p> <p>But it is not a question of <i>if</i> web sites become web services, but <i>when</i> and <i>how</i>. APIs are a more controlled, cleaner and altogether preferred way of becoming a web service. However, when APIs are not avaliable or sufficient, scraping is bound to continue and expand. As always, time will be best judge; but in the meanwhile we turn to you for feedback and stories about how <i>your</i> businesses are preparing for 'web 3.0'.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <p> We are hitting a little problem re. Web 3.0 and Web 2.0, naturally :-) Web 2.0 is one of several (present and future) <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1037">Dimensions of Web Interaction</a> that turns Web Sites into Web Services Endpoints; <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web+dimensions">a point I've made repeatedly</a> [<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/points_of_prese.php">1</a>] [<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?date=2005-10-04">2</a>] [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=11544998">3</a>] [<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Web_2.0&oldid=11679210">4</a>] across the blogosphere, in addition to my early futile attempts to make the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2">Wikipedia's Web 2.0 article</a> meaningful (circa 2005), as per the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Web_2.0/Archive_1">Wikipedia Web 2.0 Talk Page </a>excerpt below:</p> <blockquote> <cite><p>Web 2.0 is a web of executable endpoints and well formed content. The executable endpoints and well formed content are accessible via URIs. Put differently, Web 2.0 is a web defined by URIs for invoking Web Services and/or consuming or syndicating well formed content.</p> <p>Hopefully, someone with more time on their hands will expand on this ( I am kinda busy)</p>. <p>BTW - Web 2.0 being a platform doesn't distinguish it in anyway from Web 1.0. They are both platforms, the difference comes down to platform focus and mode of experience.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3.0">Web 3.0</a> is about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1030">Data Spaces</a>: Points of Semantic Web Presence that provide granular access to Data, Information, and Knowledge via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_schema">Conceptual Data Model</a> oriented Query Languages and/or APIs.</p> <p>The common denominator across all the current and future Web Interaction Dimensions is HTTP. While their differences are as follows:</p> <ul> Web 1.0 - Browser (HTTP + (X)HTML) </ul> <ul> Web 2.0 - Presence (Web Service Endpoints for REST or SOAP over HTTP) </ul> <ul>Web 3.0 - Presence (Query Languages, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Database_model">Data Models</a>, and HTTP based Query Oriented Web Service Endpoints) </ul> <p>Examples of Web 3.0 Infrastructure:</p> <ol> <li>Query Languages: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/base/query-lang-spec.html">Googlebase Query Language</a>, <a href="http://developers.facebook.com/documentation.php?v=1.0&doc=fql">Facebook Query Language</a> (FQL), and many others to come</li> <li>Query Language aligned Web Services (Query Services): <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a>, <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/overview.html#About">GData</a>, or REST style Web services such as<a href="http://developers.facebook.com/documentation.php?v=1.0&method=fql.query"> Facebook's service for FQ</a>L.</li> <li>Data Models: Concrete Conceptual Data Model (which RDF happens to deliver for Web Data)</li> </ol> <p>Web 3.0 is not purely about Web Sites becoming Web Services endpoints. It is about the "M" (Data Model) taking it's place in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model-view-controller">MVC pattern</a> as applied to the Web Platform.</p> <p>I will repeat myself yet again: </p> <blockquote> <cite>The Devil is in the Details of the Data Model. Data Models make or break everything. You ignore data at your own peril. No amount of money in the bank will protect you from Data Ignorance! A bad Data Model will bring down any venture or enterprise, the only variable is time (where time is directly related to your increasing need to obtain, analyze, and then act on data, over repetitive operational cycles, that have ever decreasing intervals). </cite> </blockquote> <p>This applies to the Real-time enterprise of Information and/or knowledge workers and Real-time Web Users alike.</p> <p>BTW -<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/xHWTLA8WecI"> Data Makes Shifts Happen</a> (spotter: <a href="http://www.vecosys.com">Sam Sethi</a>). </p>
2007-03-20T08:27:37-04:00
Exhibit & SPARQL
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-15#1158
2007-03-16T01:37:00Z
<p>Here are some examples of using <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/exhibit/" id="link-id0xa014fae8">Exhibit</a> against <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework" id="link-id0xa257aae0">RDF</a> via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SPARQL" id="link-id0xa0ab8fc8">SPARQL</a> on the fly:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/VAD/ajax-tools/exhibit-sparql/flickr_semweb_tags.html" id="link-id0xa2ad8550">Flickr photos tagged under rdf and semanticweb</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/VAD/ajax-tools/exhibit-sparql/del_icio_us_tags.html" id="link-id0x9e814cf8">Del.icio.us tags for semanticweb</a> </li> </ol> <p>The examples above combine <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com" id="link-id0x9ee07e88">OAT</a> and Exhibit. OAT handles the binding to SPARQL.</p> <p>Here is a pure OAT variation of the prior examples that includes an enhanced anchor (hyperlink) feature that enables a variety of traversal behaviors and actions against the same RDF Data:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/flickr_semanticweb_rdf_dataspace.isparql.xml" id="link-id0x9ee87f70">Dynamic Data Web Page for Flickr photos tagged under rdf and semanticweb</a> (click on a URI associated with a jpeg to see metadata for a given picture)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/delicious_semantic_dataspace.isparql.xml" id="link-id0xa014e408">Del.icio.us tags for semanticweb</a>.</li> </ol> <p>Note: Use the "dereference option" (retrieve/get data associated with URI) for maximum effect. The "explore" is useful after you've dereferenced a few URIs. Also note that columns are resizable, like those in a spreadsheet, which also implies dynamic sorting capability.</p>
2008-03-20T00:14:10-04:00
SPARQL and Full Text Indexing implementations are growing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-09#1157
2007-03-09T23:50:29Z
<p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso</a> joins <a href="http://wingerz.com/blog/2007/02/06/text-indexing-and-query-in-boca/">Boca</a> and <a href="http://seaborne.blogspot.com/2006/11/larq-lucene-arq.html">ARC 2.0</a> as RDF Quad or Triple Stores with Full Text Index extensions to SPARQL. Here is our example applied to <a href="http://dbpedia.org">DBpedia</a>:</p> <pre><font size="2">PREFIX dbpedia: <http://dbpedia.org/> PREFIX foaf: <http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/> PREFIX xsd: <http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#> SELECT ?name ?birth ?death FROM <http://dbpedia.org> WHERE { ?person dbpedia:birthplace <http://dbpedia.org/resource/Berlin> . ?person dbpedia:birth ?birth . ?person foaf:name ?name . ?person dbpedia:death ?death FILTER (?birth < "1900-01-01"^^xsd:date and bif:contains (?name, 'otto')) . } ORDER BY ?name </font></pre> <p> You can test further using our <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/sparql/">SPARQL Endpoint for DBpedia</a> or via the <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/isparql/">DBPedia bound Interactive SPARQL Query Builder</a> or just click *<a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/sparql/?default-graph-uri=&query=PREFIX+dbpedia%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fdbpedia.org%2F%3E%0D%0APREFIX+foaf%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fxmlns.com%2Ffoaf%2F0.1%2F%3E%0D%0APREFIX+xsd%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2001%2FXMLSchema%23%3E%0D%0ASELECT+%3Fname+%3Fbirth+%3Fdeath%0D%0AFROM+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fdbpedia.org%3E%0D%0AWHERE+%7B%0D%0A++++%3Fperson+dbpedia%3Abirthplace+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fdbpedia.org%2Fresource%2FBerlin%3E+.%0D%0A++++%3Fperson+dbpedia%3Abirth+%3Fbirth+.%0D%0A++++%3Fperson+foaf%3Aname+%3Fname+.%0D%0A++++%3Fperson+dbpedia%3Adeath+%3Fdeath%0D%0A++++FILTER+%28%3Fbirth+%3C+%221900-01-01%22%5E%5Exsd%3Adate+and+bif%3Acontains+%28%3Fname%2C+%27otto%27%29%29+.%0D%0A%7D%0D%0AORDER+BY+%3Fname&format=text%2Fhtml">Here</a>* for results courtesy of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a> (REST based Web Service). </p> <p>Note: This is in-built functionality as Virtuoso has possessed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_text_index">Full Text Indexing</a> since 1998-99. This capability applies to physical and virtual graphs managed by Virtuoso.</p> <p>A per usual, there is more to come as we now have a nice intersection point for SPARQL and XQuery/XPath since Triple Objects (the Literal variety) can take the form of XML Schema based Complex Types :-) A point I alluded too in my <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html">podcast interview with Jon Udell </a>last year (*note: mechanical turk based transcript is bad*). The point I made went something like this: "...you use SPARQL to traverse the typed links and then use XPath/XQuery for further granular access to the data if well-formed..."</p> <p>Anyway, the podcast interview lead to this InfoWorld article titled: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/03/77873_19OPstrategic_1.html">Unified Data Theory</a>.<br /> </p>
2007-03-13T06:09:43-04:00
Web Databases on the rise
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-09#1152
2007-03-09T18:07:43Z
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/">Henry Story</a>'s post: <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/metaweb_a_semantic_wiki">O'Reilly groks the Semantic Web</a>.</p> <p> Web 2.0 commentators such as <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/03/09/this-is-cool-unless-it-achieves-consciousness-and-kills-us-all">Mike Arrington</a>, and as mentioned above,<a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/03/freebase_will_p_1.html">Tim O'Reilly</a>, both blogged about the imminent release of <a href="http://www.freebase.com">Freebase</a> earlier today. Although I haven't looked at this database yet, it is crystal clear to me that it is one of many Web Databases to come. Others that I am personally familiar with, and involved in, include: <a href="http://dbpedia.org">DBpedia</a> (Wikipedia as a true Database) and Zitgist (soon to be unveiled).</p> <p>All of these databases mark the crystallization of the "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20web'&type=text&output=html">Data Web</a>" and the imminence of what is increasingly referred to as Web 3.0.</p> <p>I certainly hope that all web 3.0 Database Providers keep the data Open, adhere to <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData">Web Best Practice recipes for sharing and publishing data</a>, and generally make the process of data, information, and knowledge discovery via the Web much easier.</p>
2007-03-09T12:56:01-05:00
Data Web and Major League Baseball
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-02#1149
2007-03-02T00:20:25Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://wingerz.com/blog/2007/03/01/using-solvent-to-extract-data-from-structured-pages/#comments">Using Solvent to extract data from structured pages</a>: "</p> <div class="caption left"> <a href="http://wingerz.com/blog/projects/data/solvent-tutorial/"><img id="image346" src="http://wingerz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/solvent_logo.thumbnail.png" alt="solvent_logo.png" /> </a> </div> <p>I’ve put together a <a href="http://wingerz.com/blog/projects/data/solvent-tutorial/">short tutorial</a> on <a href="http://simile.mit.edu">Solvent</a>, a very nice web page parsing utility. It is still a little rough around the edges, but I wanted to throw it out there and continue working on it since there isn’t a whole lot of existing documentation. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://wingerz.com/blog">Wing Yung</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>After reading the interesting post above I quickly (and quite easily) knocked together a <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/Major_League_Baseball_DataSpace.isparql.xml">"Dynamic Data Web Page for Major League Baseball</a>" using data from the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso</a> hosted edition of <a href="http://dbpedia.org">dbpedia</a>. Just click on the "Explore" option whenever you click on a URI of interest. Enjoy!</p>
2007-03-01T19:13:27-05:00
Personal URIs & Data Spaces
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-03-01#1148
2007-03-01T19:42:41Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2007/03/01/linking-personal-posted-content-across-communities/#comments">Linking personal posted content across communities</a>: "</p> <p>With the help of Kingsley, Uldis and I have been looking at how <a href="http://sioc-project.org/">SIOC</a> can be used to link the content that a single person posts to a number of community sites. The picture below shows an example of stuff that I’ve created on Flickr, YouTube, etc. through my various user identities on those sites (these match some <a href="http://wiki.sioc-project.org/index.php/TypesModule">SIOC types</a> that we want to add to a separate module). We can also say that each Web 2.0 content item is a user-contributed post, with some attached or embedded content (e.g. a file or maybe just some metadata). This is part of a new discussion on the <a href="http://groups.google.com/group/sioc-dev">sioc-dev</a> mailing list, and we’d value your contributions.</p> <p> <img id="image1178" src="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/20070228a.png" alt="20070228a.png" /> </p> <p>Edit: The inner layer is a person (semantically described in FOAF), the next layer is their user accounts (described in FOAF, SIOC) and the outer layer is the posted content - text, files, associated metadata - on community sites (again described using SIOC). </p> No Tags" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog">John Breslin - Cloudlands</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>The point that John is making about the Data Web and Interlinked <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20spaces'&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a> exposed via <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Resource_Identifier">URI</a>s (e.g Personal URIs), crystallizes a number of very important issues about the Data Web that may remain unclear. I am hoping that by digesting the post excerpt above, in conjunction with the items below, aids the pursuit of clarity and comprehension about the all important Data Web (Semantic Web - Layer 1):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://kidehen.idehen.net/dataspace/kidehen">Your OpenID can be Your Personal URI</a> (as noted by <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/">Henry Story</a>'s post about: <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/openid_for_blogs_sun_com">The Many Uses of OpenID</a>). That that's what I have courtesy of OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS)</li> <li>The above only works unobtrusively (i.e. OpenID and Personal sharing a URI) if Content Negotiation is exploited on the Client and Server sides.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/card.rdf">TimBL</a>'s call out to <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html">Share Your Data and Link to Other Data</a> via URIs via post titled: <a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/71">Give Yourself a URI</a>.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-vocab-pub/">W3C's Best Practice Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/REC-webarch-20041215/#dereference-uri">W3C's Architecture of the World Wide Web - Vol 1</a> which covers URI Dereferencing (HTTP GET-ing the data that a URI points to)</li> <li> <a href="http://www4.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/is-group/page/persons/Person6">Richard Cyganiak</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://dowhatimean.net/2007/02/debugging-semantic-web-sites-with-curl">Debugging Semantic Web Sites with Curl</a>.</li> </ol> <p>Examples of some of these principles in practice:</p> <ol> <li>Chris Bizer, Tobias Gaub, and Richard's Javascript based<a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/semwebclient/"> Semantic Web Client Library</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/disco/">DISCO RDF Browser</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://oat.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>'s (OAT) <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/tests/rdfbrowser/index.html">RDF Browser</a> </li> <li>OpenLink <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql">Interactive SPARQL Query by Example</a> (iSPARQL QBE)</li> <li>Dynamic Data Web Pages from my prior posts [<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1144">1</a>][<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1145">2</a>][<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1146">3</a>]</li> <li> <a href="http://dbpedia.org/docs/">dbpedia</a> (Wikipedia as a Data Web oriented Data Source)</li> <li>And of course this blog post's permalink is a bona fide dereferencable URI.</li> </ol> <p>And of course there is more to come such as Grandma's Semantic Web Browser which is coming from <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/02/18/zitgist_a_semantic_web_search_engine">Zitgist LLC</a> (pronounced: Zeitgeist) a joint venture of OpenLink Software and <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/">Frederick Giasson</a>.</p>
2007-03-02T09:14:02.000004-05:00
Using The Data Web to Research Oscar Winners
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-26#1146
2007-02-26T17:36:40Z
<p>Situation Analysis: Pre or Post Oscars, you want to research Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, or Jennifer Hudson. What do you do? Go on a screen scrapping and keyword regular expression odyssey? Or you simply lookup a Data Web oriented Data Source like <a href="http://dbpedia.org">dbpedia</a>.</p> <p>Here is what I was I was able to knock together using my <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/isparql">SPARQL QBE</a> (without writing the SPARQL by hand):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/Forest_Whitaker_DataSpace.isparql.xml">Forest Whitaker Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/Helen_Mirren_DataSpace.isparql.xml">Helen Mirren Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo3.openlinksw.com:8890/DAV/home/demo/Jennifer_Hudson_DataSpace.isparql.xml">Jennifer Hudson Data</a>. </li> </ol> <p>Note: Just select the "Explore" option when the link-lookup window appears in response to you clicking on any of the links. That said, if you are using the <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/190/">Firefox Linkification</a> extension the page will not work properly (as per this <a href="http://www.beggarchooser.com/forum/index.php?topic=37.0">discussion about disabling Linkification</a>) :-(</p> <p>BTW - I have a comments page, so don't be shy about showing me how you could produce this kind of data driven web page much quicker than I have :-)</p> <p>Warning: IE6 and Safari (use <a href="http://webkit.org/">Webkit</a> instead) cannot process these pages due to the use of Ajax.</p>
2007-02-27T00:29:02-05:00
Rich Clients, Conceptual Models, and Self-Describing Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-25#1145
2007-02-25T18:45:00Z
<p> <a href="http://www.base4.net">Alex James</a> has just written an interesting piece titled: <a href="http://www.base4.net/Blog.aspx?ID=329">Who Controls Your Model</a>, that sets the stage for introducing the concept of "Self Describing Data". To cut a long story short, RDF is one example of a mechanism that facilitates the assembly/construction of self-describing databases (built around a Concrete Conceptual Model) that allows instance data to be serialized using open serialization formats such as: XML, N3, Turtle, TriX.</p> <p>Rich Internet Applications ultimately enable intelligent processing of self-describing databases originating from data servers as demonstrated by these examples:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/kidehen_dataspace.isparql.xml">My Dynamic Data Web Start Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/bizer_dataspace.isparql.xml">Chris Bizer Data Space</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/tests/rdfbrowser/index.html">Our RDF Browser</a> (just enter a Web URI e.g http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/foaf.rdf or http://www.openlinksw.com and then drill down; not Grandma's unobtrusive Data Web Navigator, but headed in that direction..)</li> </ol>
2007-02-26T18:27:47.000009-05:00
Hello Data Web (Take 3 - Feel The "RDF" Force)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-24#1144
2007-02-24T21:43:39Z
<p>As I have stated, and implied, in various posts about the Data Web and burgeoning Semantic Web in general; the value of RDF is felt rather than seen (driven by presence as opposed to web sites). That said, it is always possible to use the visual Interactive-Web dimension (Web 1.0) as a conduit to the Data-Web dimension.</p> <p>In this third take on my introduction to the Data Web I would like to share a link with you (a Dynamic Start Page in Web 2.0 parlance) with a Data Web twist: You do not have to preset the Start Page Data Sources (this is a small-big thing, if you get my drift, hopefully!).</p> <p>Here are some Data Web based Dynamic Start Pages that I have built for some key play ers from the Semantic Web realm (in random order):</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/danbri_dataspace.isparql.xml">Dan Brickley</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/timbl_dataspace.isparql.xml">Tim Berners-Lee</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/danc_dataspace.isparql.xml">Dan Connolly</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/danja_dataspace.isparql.xml">Danny Ayers</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/planet_rdf_dataspace.isparql.xml">Planet RDF</a> </li> </ol> <p>"These are RDF prepped Data Sources....", you might be thinking, right? Well here is the reminder: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1122">The Data Web is a Global Data Generation and Integration Effort</a>. Participation may be active (Semantic Web & Microformats Community), or passive (web sites, weblogs, wikis, shared bookmarks, feed subscription, discussion forums, mailing lists etc..). Irrespective of participation mode, RDF instance can be generated from close to anything (I say this because I plan to add binary files holding metadata to this mix shortly). Here are examples of Dynamic Start Pages for non RDF Data Sources:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/delicious_web20_events_dataspace.isparql.xml">del.icio.us Web 2.0 Events Bookmarks</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/vecosys_dataspace.isparql.xml">Vecosys</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/techcrunch_dataspace.isparql.xml">Techcrunch</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/jonudell_dataspace.isparql.xml">Jon Udell's Blog</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/davewiner_dataspace.isparql.xml">Dave Winer's Scripting News</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/scobelizer_dataspace.isparql.xml">Robert Scoble's Blog</a> </li> </ol> <p>what about Microformats you may be wondering? Here goes:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/microformats_dataspace.isparql.xml">Microformats Wiki</a> (click on the Brian Suda link for instance) </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/planet_microformats_dataspace.isparql.xml">Microformats Planet</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/delicious_microformats_dataspace.isparql.xml">Del.icio.us Microformats Bookmarks</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/ben_adida_dataspace.isparql.xml">Ben Adida's home page</a> (RDFa)</li> </ol> <p>Let's carry on.</p> <p>How about some traditional Web Sites? Here goes:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/openlink_dataspace.isparql.xml">OpenLink Software's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/oracle_dataspace.isparql.xml">Oracle's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/apple_dataspace.isparql.xml">Apple's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/microsoft_dataspace.isparql.xml">Microsoft's Home Page</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/ibm_dataspace.isparql.xml">IBM's Home Page</a> </li> </ol> <p>And before I forget, here is <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/home/demo/Public/Queries/kidehen_dataspace.isparql.xml">My Data Web Start Page </a>.</p> <p>Due to the use of Ajax in the Data Web Start Pages, IE6 and Safari will not work. For Mac OS X users, Webkit works fine. Ditto re. IE7 on Windows.</p>
2007-02-24T17:01:28-05:00
Our Basic Human Instincts
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-24#1143
2007-02-24T01:03:38Z
<p>I just overheard the following dialog between my six year old son and his play date:</p> <blockquote> <pre> Play Date: What is that thing on the Wall? My Son: Security Alarm Play Date: How does it work My Son: If you click on that top button and then open the door, I will have to enter a code when we come back in or the alarm will go off Play Date: What is the code? My Son: I can't tell you that! Play Date: Why not? My Son: You might come and steal something from our house! Play Date: No I won't! My Son: Well, you might tell someone that might come and steal something from our house! or that person could tell someone who could tell someone that would steal from our house</pre></blockquote> <p>LOL!! of course! At the same time wondering, how come a majority of adults don't quite see the need for granular access to Web Data in a manner that enables computers and humans to collectively arrive at similar decisions? </p> <p>Putting Data in context en route to producing actionable knowledge is a transient endeavor that engages a myriad of human senses. We demonstrate comprehension of this fact in our daily existence as social creatures (at a very early age as depicted above). That said, we seem to forget this fact when engaging the Web: If we can't see it then it can't be valuable.</p> <blockquote> <p>BTW - I just received a ping about the "<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/route79/399029535/">Sensory Web</a>" (which is just another way of describing a Data Driven Web experience from my vantage point.)</p> </blockquote> <p>In the popular M-V-C pattern you don't see the "M", but the "M" will kill you if you get it wrong (it is the FORCE)! Coming to think about it, the pattern could have been coined: V-C-M or C-M-V, but isn't for obvious reasons :-)</p> <p>RDF is the vehicle that enables us tap into the Data aspect of the Web. We started off with pages of blurb linked via hypertext (Web 1.0) and then looked to "Keywords" for some kind of data access; we then isolated some "Verbs" and discovered another dimension of Web Interaction (Web 2.0) but looked to these "Verbs" for data access which left us with Mashups; and now we are starting to extract "Nouns" and "Adjectives" from sentences (Subject, Predicate, Object - Triples) associated with resources on the Web (Data Web / Web 3.0 / Semantic Web Layer 1) which provides a natural data access substrate for <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=meshups&type=text&output=html">Meshups</a> (natural joining of disparate data from a plethora of data sources) while providing the foundation layer for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a>.</p> <p>For those who need use-cases that demonstrate tangible value re. the Semantic Web, here are some projects to note courtesy of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/">Semantic Web Education and Outreach</a> (SWEO) interest group: </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/FOAFWhitelisting">FOAF based White-lists</a> - Attacking SPAM </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/LinkingOpenData">Open Data Access and Linking for the Data Web</a> - Data Integration and Generation effort that creates a cluster of RDF instance data from a myriad of data sources relating to every day things such as: People, Places, Events, Projects, Discussions, Music, Books, and other things </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects/PowderExtension">Content Labeling</a> - Protecting our kids on the Web amongst other matters relating to knowledge about data sources </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SweoIG/TaskForces/CommunityProjects">Others..</a> </li> </ol> Related posts: <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=rdf%20data%20integration&type=text&output=html">Data Web and Global Data Integration & Generation Effort</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q='data%20web'&type=text&output=html">Previous Data Web posts</a>.</li> </ol>
2007-02-23T19:55:49-05:00
Meme vs Beme
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-19#1141
2007-02-19T19:09:07Z
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger">Tim Finn</a> I've stumbled upon <a href="http://tombomb.typepad.com/tombomb/2007/02/bemes_are_defin.html">Tom Hayes' definition of a beme</a> which I don't have much issue with bar the following:</p> <blockquote>"A meme is old media, a beme is new media".</blockquote> <p> A meme is a meme irrespective of propagation medium. </p> <p>A beme is a type of meme that is propagated primarily via the Blogosphere.</p>
2007-02-19T14:08:32-05:00
XMP and microformats revisited
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-17#1140
2007-02-17T17:43:05Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net/2007/02/15/xmp-and-microformats-revisited/#comments">XMP and microformats revisited</a>: "</p> <div class="snap_preview"> <p> Yesterday I exercised poetic license when I suggested that Adobe’s <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/overview.html">Extensible metadata platform (XMP)</a> was not only the spiritual cousin of microformats like <a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/hcalendar">hCalendar</a> but also, perhaps, more likely to see widespread use in the near term. My poetic license was revoked, though, in a couple of comments: </p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://gondwanaland.com/mlog/2007/02/14/xmp-microformat/">Mike Linksvayer</a>: How someone as massively clued-in as Jon Udell could be so misled as to describe XMP as a microformat is beyond me. </p> </blockquote> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/2007/02/15/microsoft-vista-slipup">Danny Ayers</a>: Like Mike I don’t really understand Jon’s references to microformats - I first assumed he meant XMP could be replaced with a uF. </p> </blockquote> <p> Actually, I’m serious about this. If I step back and ask myself what are the essential qualities of a microformat, it’s a short list: </p> <ol> <li>A small chunk of machine-readable metadata,</li> <li>embedded in a document.</li> </ol> <p> Mike notes: </p> <blockquote> <p> XMP is embedded in a binary file, completely opaque to nearly all users; microformats put a premium on (practically require) colocation of metadata with human-visible HTML. </p> </blockquote> <p> Yes, I understand. And as someone who is composing this blog entry as XHTML, in emacs, using a semantic CSS tag that will enable me to search for quotes by Mike Linksvayer and find the above fragment, I’m obviously all about metadata coexisting with human-readable HTML. And I’ve been applying this technique since <a href="http://webservices.xml.com/lpt/a/1223">long before</a> I ever heard the term microformats — my own term was originally microcontent. </p> <p>(Via <a href="http://blog.jonudell.net">Jon Udell</a>.)</p> <p>I believe Jon is acknowledging the fact that the propagation of metadata in "Binary based" Web data sources is no different to the microformats based propagation that is currently underway in full swing across the "Text based" Web data sources realm. He is reiterating the fact that the Web is self-annotating (exponentially) by way of Metadata Embedding. And yes, what he describes is a similar to Microformats in substance and propagation style :-)</p> <p>Here is what I believe Jon is hoping to see:</p> <ol> <li> Binary files become valid data sources for Metadata oriented query processing. Technically I mean a binary file becomes a valid data source from which RDF Instance could be generated on the fly. </li> <li>Enhanement or unveiling of the Data Web by way of meshups that combine metadata from an array or data sources (not just the XML, (X)HTML, or RDF variety)</li> <li>The ability to use an array of query languages and techniques to construct these meshups</li> </ol> <p>My little "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1137">Hello Data Web!</a>" meme was about demonstrating a view that Danny has sought for a while: unobtrusive <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/grddl-scenarios/">meshing of microformats and RDF via GRDDL and SPARQL</a> binding that simply eliminates the often perceived "RDF Tax". Danny, Jon, myself, and many others have always understood that making the Data Web (Web of RDF Instance Data) more of a Force (Star Wars style) is the key to unravelling the power of the "Web as a Database". Of course, we also tend the describe our nirvana in different ways that sometimes obscures the fundamental commonality of vision that we all share.</p> <p> Personally, I believe everyone should simply "feel the force" or observe "the bright and dark sides of the force" that is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Description_Framework">RDF</a>. When this occurs en masse there will be a global epiphany (similar to what happened around the time of the initial unveiling of the Web of Hypertext). Jon's meme brings the often overlooked realm of binary based metadata sources into the general discourse.</p> <p>JBinary Files as bona fide Data Web URIs (i.e. Metadata Sources) is much closer than you think :-) I should have my "Hello Data Web of Binary Data Sources" unveiled very soon!</p> </div> </blockquote>
2007-02-17T12:43:05.000001-05:00
Hello Data Web (Take 2 - with Screenshots)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-09#1137
2007-02-09T01:46:50Z
<p>While I continue to wrestle with screencast production etc.. Here is are some screenshots that guide you through the process of providing Data Web URIs to the SPARQL Query Builder (first cut of an MS Query or MS ACCESS type tool for the Data Web).</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/briefcase/Public/Screenshots/sparql_qbe1.png">Step 1 - Enter a Data Source URI</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/briefcase/Public/Screenshots/sparql_qbe2.png">Step 2 - Click on the Run Control (">" video control icon)</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/briefcase/Public/Screenshots/sparql_qbe3.png">Step 3 - Interact with Custom Grid hosted results (comprised of Resource Identifiers (S), Properties (P), and Property Values (O).</a> </li> </ol> <p>Once you grasp the concept of entering values into the "Default Data Source URI field", take a look at: http://programmableweb.com and other URIs (hint: scroll through the results grid to the QEDWiki demo item)</p>
2007-02-18T10:23:42-05:00
Hello Data Web!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-02-08#1134
2007-02-08T19:13:48Z
<p>The simple demo use our Ajax based Visual Query Builder for the SPARQL Query Language (this isn't Grandma's Data Web UI, but not to worry, that is on it's way also). Here goes:</p> <ol> <li> go to http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql </li> <li> Enter any of the following values into the "Default Data URI"; field: </li> <ul>- http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=336</ul> <ul>- http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/02/pipes_and_filte.html</ul> <ul>- http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/008513.html</ul> <ul>- Other URIs </ul> </ol> <p> What I am demonstrating is how existing Web Content hooks transperently into the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data%20web&type=text&output=html">"Data Web"</a>. Zero RDF Tax :-) Everything is good!</p> <p>Note: Please look to the bottom of the screen for the "Run Query" Button. Remember, it not quite Grandma's UI but should do for Infonauts etc.. A screencast will follow.</p>
2008-02-04T23:22:04.000001-05:00
OAT: OpenAjax Alliance Compliant Toolkit (Live Links Version)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-29#1129
2007-01-29T16:16:14Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://ajaxian.com/archives/oat-openajax-alliance-compliant-toolkit">OAT: OpenAjax Alliance Compliant Toolkit</a>: "</p> <p>Ondrej Zara and his team at Openlink Software have created a Openlink Software JS Toolkit, known as OAT. It is a full-blown JS framework, suitable for developing<br /> rich applications with special focus to data access.</p> <p>OAT works standalone, offers vast number of widgets and has some rarely seen features, such as on-demand library loading (which reduces the total amount of downloaded JS code).</p> <p>OAT is one of the first JS toolkits which show full OpenAjax Alliance conformance: see the appropriate <a href="http://www.openajax.org/member/wiki/InteropFest_2007_March)">wiki page</a> and <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/openajax/HubTest-OATConformance.html">conformance test page</a>.</p> <p>There is a lot to see with this toolkit:</p> <p>You can see some of the widgets in a <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">Kitchen sink application</a> </p> <p>Sample data access applications:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/qbe/index.html">SQL Query By Example</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/formdesigner/index.html">Forms designer</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/designer/index.html">DB Designer</a> </li> </ul> <p>OAT is Open Source and GPL’ed over at <a href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=168143">sourceforge</a> and the team has recently managed to incorporate our OAT data access layer as a<br /> module to <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/dojo-oatstore-demo/test_OATStore_in_FilteringTable.html">dojo datastore</a>.</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://ajaxian.com">Ajaxian Blog</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>This is a corrected version of the initial post. Unfortunately, the initial post was inadvertently littered with invalid links :-( Also, since the original post we have released <a href="http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?thread_id=31568932&forum_id=49207">OAT 1.2</a> that includes integration of our iSPARQL QBE into the OAT Form Designer application.</p> <p>Re. Data Access, It is important to note that OAT's Ajax Database Connectivity layers supports data binding to the following data source types:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF</a> - via <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?dav">SPARQL</a> (Query Language, Protocol, and Resultset Serialization formats: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDBC">RDF/XML</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Notation3">RDF/N3</a>, <a href="http://www.dajobe.org/2004/01/turtle/">RDF/Turtle</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML">XML</a>, and <a href="http://www.json.org/">JSON</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL">SQL</a> - via <a href="http://www.xmla.org/faq.asp">XMLA</a> (somewhat forgotten <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP">SOAP</a> protocol for SQL Data Access that can sit atop <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Database_Connectivity">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET">ADO.NET</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLE_DB">OLE-DB</a>, and even <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDBC">JDBC</a>)</li> <li>XML - via SOAP or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer">REST</a> style Web Services</li> </ol> In all cases, OAT also provides Data Aware controls for the above that include: <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?grid">Tabular Grids</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?pivot">Pivot Tables</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?timeline">TimeLines</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?anchor">Extended Anchor Tags</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?mashups">Map Service Controls</a> (Google, Yahoo!, OpenLayers, Microsoft Visual Earth)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html?rdf">SVG based RDF Graph Control</a> (Opera 9.x provides best viewing experience at the current time)</li> </ol> <p>OAT also includes a number of prototype applications that are completely developed using OAT Controls and Libraries:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlnksw.com/isparql/">Visual SPARQL Query Builder</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/qbe/index.html">Visual SQL Query Builder</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/formdesigner/index.html">Web Forms Designer</a> (includes Drag-Drop usage of Data Aware Controls etc.)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/designer/index.html">Visual DB Designer</a> </li> </ol> <p>Note: Pick "Local DSN" from page initialization dialog's drop-down list control when prompted</p>
2007-02-02T10:29:55-05:00
TED Touch Technology Demo by Jeff Han
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-27#1128
2007-01-27T21:03:57Z
<p>Thanks to <a href="http://www.youtube.com">YouTube</a> and <a href="http://danbri.org/foaf.rdf">Dan Brickley</a> (#swig spotter) here is <a href="http://cs.nyu.edu/~jhan/">Jeff Han</a>'s Touch Technology <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKh1Rv0PlOQ">Demo</a> </p>
2007-02-18T15:29:31.000004-05:00
Microsoft & Wikipedia Imbroglio
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-25#1124
2007-01-26T00:10:00Z
<p>I tried to post a comment to <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog">Dare Obasanjo</a>'s blog post: <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=0c22a95a-2d81-4f40-bbce-c763d8447468">How Do We Get Rid of Lies on Wikipedia</a>, without success (due to my attempts to add links to the post etc..). Hence a Blog style response instead.</p> <p>Dare:</p> <p>I have been through the Wikipedia fires a few times. If you recall that I actually triggered the early<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0"> Web 2.0 Wikipedia article</a>. along the following lines: </p> <ol> <li> Asked one of my staff to start a post with the sole intention of defining Web 2.0 properly </li> <li> I then attempted to edit the initial post </li> <li> I left a typo re. REST </li> <li> Got set on Fire etc... (see very beginning of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Web_2.0&action=history">Wikipedia Web 2.0 history page</a>) </li> </ol> <p>As annoying as the experience above was, I didn't find this inconsistent with the spirit of Wikipedia (i.e. open contribution and discourse). I felt, at the time, that a lot of historical data was being left in place for future reference etc.. In addition, the ultimate aim of creating an evolving Web 2.0 document did commence albeit some distance from "modern man" re. accuracy and meaningfulness as of my last read (today).</p> <p>Even closer to home, I repeated the process above re. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso Universal Server</a>. This basically ended up being a live case study on how you handle the Wikipedia NPOV conundurum. Just look at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Virtuoso Universal Server Talk Pages</a> to see how the process evolved (the key was Virtuoso's lineage and it's proximity to the very DBMS platform upon which Wikipedia runs i.e <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MySQL">MySQL</a>).</p> <p>Bearing in mind the size and magnitude of Microsoft, there should be no reason why Microsoft's "Microsoft Digital Caucus" ( legions of Staff, MSDN members, Integrators, and other partners) can't simply go into Wikipedia and participate in the edit and discourse process.</p> <p> Truth cannot be surpressed! At best, it can only be temporarily delayed :-) Even more so on the Web!</p>
2007-01-25T18:47:47.000001-05:00
Semantic Web Data Generation Activity: FOAF Crawling
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-22#1123
2007-01-22T15:57:31Z
<p> <a href="http://fgiasson.com">Frederick Giasson</a> provides compelling data that supports the view that the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1122">Semantic Web bootstrap is a global Data Integration & Data Generation effort</a> that inevitably involves a variety of Data Sources such as: social networks, blogs, wikis etc.</p> <p> The Data in Fred's post is based on <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php/2007/01/21/reaching_at_least_600_000_people_with_19">FOAF Ontology instance data generated from a myriad of Data Sources</a>.</p>
2007-01-22T14:25:48-05:00
Semantic Web & Data Integration
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-18#1122
2007-01-18T00:36:25Z
<p> <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/">Stefano Mazzocchi</a>, via his blog: <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/">Stefano's Linotype</a>, delivers <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/99/">insightful contribution</a> to the ongoing effort to recapture the essence of the original <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web </a>vision.</p> <p>The Semantic Web is about granular exposure of the underlying web-of-data that fuels the World Wide Web. It models "<a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/04/WebData">Web Data</a>" using a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graph_(mathematics)">Directed Graph</a> Data Model (back-to-the-future: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_model">Network Model Database</a>) called <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF</a>.</p> <p>In line with contemporary database technology thinking, the Semantic Web also seeks to expose Web Data to architects, developers, and users via a concrete <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conceptual_schema">Conceptual Layer</a> that is defined using <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-schema/">RDF Schema</a>.</p> <p>The abstract nature of Conceptual Models implies that actual instance data (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entity-relationship_diagrams">Entities, Attributes, and Relationships/Associations</a>) occurs by way of "Logical to Conceptual" schema mapping and data generation that can involve a myriad of logical data sources (SQL, XML, Object databases, traditional web content, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rss_%28file_format%29">RSS</a>/<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28standard%29">Atom</a> feeds etc.). Thus, by implication, it is safe assume that the Semantic Web's construction is basically a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_integration">Data Integration</a> and exposure effort. The point that Stefano alludes to in the blog post excerpts that follow: </p> <blockquote> <p>The semantic web is really just data integration at a global scale. Some of this data might end up being consistent, detailed and small enough to perform symbolic reasoning on, but even if this is the case, that would be such a small, expensive and fragile island of knowledge that it would have the same impact on the world as calculus had on deciding to invade Iraq.</p> <p>The biggest problem we face right now is a way to 'link' information that comes from different sources that can scale to hundreds of millions of statements (and hundreds of thousands of equivalences). Equivalences and subclasses are the only things that we have ever needed of <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-features/">OWL</a> and RDFS, we want to 'connect' dots that otherwise would be unconnected. We want to suggest people to use whatever ontology pleases them and then think of just mapping it against existing ones later. This is easier to bootstrap than to force them to agree on a conceptualization before they even know how to start!</p> </blockquote> <p>Additional insightful material from Stefano:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/57/">A No-Nonsense Guide to Semantic Web Specs for XML People [Part I]</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/news/78/">A No-nonsense Guide to Semantic Web Specs for XML People [Part II]</a> </li> </ol> <p> <a href="http://bnode.org/blog/sw_en">Benjamin Nowack</a> also chimes into this conversation via his <a href="http://rdfer.com/swk/data-information-knowledge">simple guide to understanding Data, Information, and Knowledge</a> in relation so the Semantic Web.</p>
2007-01-18T09:25:51.000006-05:00
Network Effects Exploitation the Key to Success!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-11#1119
2007-01-11T21:57:33Z
<p> <a href="http://www.innovationcreators.com">Rob Boothby</a> aptly describes the <a href="http://www.innovationcreators.com/2007/01/you_must_reach_out_to_win_in_a.html">recipe for success in a networked world</a>.</p> <p>Our loosely coupled webs of hypertext, services, and data present an intriguing realm of perpetually expanding and contracting clusters (aka conversations as exemplified by <a href="http://labs.digg.com/swarm/">digg swarms</a>). The only issue we have today is that you cannot perceive the aforementioned realm through the lenses of the Hypertext- or Interactive-Web or the API oriented Services-Web. Which is why we need a new frontier in the web innovation continuum. A frontier that unveils, with clarity, the somewhat unperceived realm of "People and Data Networks" en route to simplifying "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_effect">Network Effects</a>" exploitation: spotting, connecting to, and constructing conversation clusters.</p> <p>Once again, this is what the Semantic Web facilitates by delivering a Data Model that exposes these "People & Data Networks". When you write a blog post, comment on a blog post, share bookmarks, tag resources, share and tag photos etc. You are contributing links and nodes to this network :-)</p>
2007-01-11T18:01:02-05:00
Apple Completes Strategic Transition
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-10#1114
2007-01-10T00:14:53Z
<p> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/OmMalik/~3/73086659/">Om Malik succinctly articulates</a> how <a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/keynote/"> Apple and Steve Jobs have effectively orchestrated a major strategic transition</a>. </p> <p>Here is an interesting sequence of events that crystalized today:</p> <ol> <li> Steve Jobs leaves Apple to found NeXT (<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j02b8Fuz73A">collaboration and conceptual data model exploitation</a> were very strong here from the get-go; remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Objects_Framework">NeXTSTEP's EOF</a>?) </li> <li> Apple pursues the Apple Newton </li> <li> Apple attempts an OS revamp (Copeland) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJs6MB077Bw&mode=related&search=">Steve Jobs returns to Apple</a> </li> <li> Apple gains NeXTStep essence (a technical and visionary DNA boost of sorts) </li> <li> Apple starts transition process from Apple Computers to Apple, Inc (using innovation as its chosen market transition and leadership discipline) </li> <li> Apple doesn't build a PDA (a 'la Newton, Palm and others) </li> <li> Apple doesn't build a Tablet PC </li> <li> <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e84SER_IkP4&mode=related&search=">Apple delivers the iPod </a>(salvo #1) </li> <li> Apple head fakes the competition (consumer electronics, PC manufacturers, and Phone Manufacturers; leaving them to focus on the iPod) via a technique akin to a "cloaking mechanism" (similar to Stealth mode, but at a latter stage in the product management cycle) </li> <li> Apple skillfully manages the complex transition from PowerPC to Intel processors (critical element of its consumer electronics transition) </li> <li> <a href="http://www.apple.com/iphone/internet/">Apple delivers a collection of "form factor sound" and function specific devices</a> that are representative of the new era of Internet enabled connectivity where Phone, PDA, and what used to be PC confined Desktop Productivity functionality converge coherently. </li> </ol> <p>Apple has delivered on its part with aplomb!</p> <p>Next stop: utilization of these new devices to effectively exploit the wealth of Data, Information, and Knowledge on the Internet in a whole new way! And by this I don't mean context-challenged keyword searching or brute force data-mashing :-)</p>
2007-01-13T12:57:39.000001-05:00
Microsoft Data Access API Backgrounder: ODBC
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2007-01-03#1106
2007-01-03T18:20:45Z
<p>Mike Pizzo has commenced a much needed<a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/data/archive/2006/12/05/data-access-api-of-the-day-part-i.aspx"> 4-part article series covering the history of Microsoft's various Data Access</a> related APIs. Naturally, Part 1 covers: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Database_Connectivity">Open Database Connectivity</a> (ODBC) which is the first of a series of purpose specific Data Access APIs.</p> <p>Here is a very important excerpt:</p> <blockquote> <cite> ... <p>And then something happened. Visual Basic became popular as a scriptable "automation language". ODBC, being a C-style interface, was not directly consumable from VB. However, some of you clever folks figured out that Microsoft Access supported executing queries against ODBC Datasources, and that Access did support scriptable automation through its Data Access Object (DAO) API. Voila! Now you could write applications against ODBC sources using VB.</p> <p>However, DAO went through <b>Access's internal "Jet" (Joint Engine Technology)</b> database engine, which defaulted to building local keysets for each result in order to do advanced query processing and cursoring against the remote data. This was fine if you needed that functionality, but significant performance overhead and additional round trips when you didn't. </p> <p>Enter the Visual Basic team who, responding to customer demand for better performance against ODBC sources, came up with something called Remote Data Objects (RDO). RDO implemented the same DAO programming patterns directly against ODBC, rather than going through Jet. RDO was extremely popular among VB developers, but the fact that we had two different sets of automation objects for accessing ODBC sources caused confusion.</p> <p> But apparently not enough confusion, because our solution was to introduce "ODBCDirect". Despite its name, ODBCDirect was not a new API; it was just a mode we added to DAO that set defaults in such a way as to avoid the overhead of building keysets and such</p> ... </cite> </blockquote> <p>To this very day (unfortunately!) ODBC has been maligned by the perpetuated misunderstanding of JET's DAO layer that sits atop ODBC providing advanced query processing (i.e. Virtual DBMS functionality) alongside a client-side keyset cursor model implementation.</p>
2007-01-03T13:35:51.000001-05:00
The Music Ontology
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-12-22#1104
2006-12-22T18:28:04Z
<p> <a href="http://apassant.net/blog/post/2006/12/22/The-Music-Ontology">The Music Ontology</a>: "</p> <p>A new and exciting project in the Semantic Web area: <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/ontology/mo/" hreflang="en">The Music Ontology</a>, by <a href="http://fgiasson.com" hreflang="en">Frederic Giasson</a> (PTSW, TalkDigger).</p> <p>Its goal is to provide a vocabulary to describe Artists, Releases, Songs and so on in RDF. It is mainly based on the <a href="http://www.ldodds.com/projects/musicbrainz/schema/mb.html" hreflang="en">MusicBrainz Metadata Vocabulary</a>, but with new improvements as defining relationships between artists and links to external services. And, most important thing, a lot of triples from the current <a href="http://musicbrainz.com" hreflang="en">MusicBrainz</a> database should be available in a few weeks. A <a href="http://www.fuzzlogic.com/flex/" hreflang="en">mailing-list</a> has been launched for discussions and improvements.</p> <p>I was waiting for this kind of vocabulary (and data) for some time (as I never took time to look as <a href="http://musicbrainz.org/doc/Database" hreflang="en">MBz database export</a>) especially to easilly find all covers of a given song. From another point of view, I'll be happy to use it to represent - and query - various releases of a given record (using the <code>mo:other_release_of property</code>), especially for vynil <a href="http://www.fuzzlogic.com/flex/g/2155.php" hreflang="en">records with reissues</a> (so what about a <code>mo:reissue</code> property ?) with different colors, inner sleeve ...</p> <p>Well, finally what about converting the <a href="http://www.fuzzlogic.com/flex/" hreflang="en">FLEX book</a> in RDF to query this huge punk and hardcore database (and use its URIs for want-lists) ?</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://apassant.net/blog/">Alexandre Passant - Terraces</a>.)</p>
2006-12-26T11:18:28.000005-05:00
SPARQL, Ajax, Tagging, Folksonomies, Share Ontologies and Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-12-07#1095
2006-12-07T17:35:29Z
<p>A quick dump that demonstrates how I integrate tags and links from del.icio.us with links from my local bookmark database via one of my public Data Spaces (this demo uses the <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/dataspace/kidehen">kidehen Data Space</a>).</p> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> (query language for the Semantic Web) basically enables me to query a collection of typed links (predicates/properties/attributes) in my Data Space (<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">ODS</a> based of course) without breaking my existing local bookmarks database or the one I maintain at del.icio.us.</p> <p>I am also demonstrating how <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0</a> concepts such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tags">Tagging</a> mesh nicely with the more formal concepts of Topics in the Semantic Web realm. The key to all of this is the ability to generate <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF Data Model</a> Instance Data based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper_ontology_(computer_science)">Shared Ontologies</a> such as <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC</a> (from <a href="http://www.semanticweb.org/">DERI</a>'s <a href="http://sioc-project.org/">SIOC Project</a>) and <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/">SKOS</a> (again showing that <a href="http://tomgruber.org/writing/ontology-of-folksonomy.htm">Ontologies and Folksonomies</a> are complimentary).</p> <p>This demo also shows that Ajax also works well in the Semantic Web realm (or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1037">web dimension of interaction 3.0</a>) especially when you have a toolkit with Data Aware controls (for SQL, RDF, and XML) such as OAT (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/demo/index.html">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>). For instance, we've successfully used this to build a <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/isparl/">Visual Query Building Tool for SPARQL</a> (alpha) that really takes a lot of the pain out of constructing SPARQL Queries (there is much more to come on this front re. handling of DISTINCT, FILTER, ORDER BY etc..). </p> <p>For now, take a look at the SPARQL Query dump generated by this <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/DAV/home/kidehen/gallery/my_photos/sparql_qbe_sioc_skos_shot1.png">SIOC & SKOS SPARQL QBE Canvas Screenshot</a>. </p> <p>You can cut and paste the queries that follow into the Query Builder or use the screenshot to build your variation of this query sample. Alternatively, you can simply click on *<a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/sparql?default-graph-uri=http%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace&query=PREFIX+rdf%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2F02%2F22-rdf-syntax-ns%23%3E%0D%0APREFIX+sioc%3A+++%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Frdfs.org%2Fsioc%2Fns%23%3E%0D%0APREFIX+dct%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fpurl.org%2Fdc%2Felements%2F1.1%2F%3E%0D%0APREFIX+skos%3A+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2004%2F02%2Fskos%2Fcore%23%3E%0D%0A%0D%0ASELECT+distinct+%3Fforum_name%2C+%3Fowner%2C+%3Fpost%2C+%3Ftitle%2C+%3Flink%2C+%3Furl+%3Ftag%0D%0AFROM+%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fmyopenlink.net%2Fdataspace%3E%0D%0AWHERE+%7B%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+a+sioc%3AForum.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Atype+%22bookmark%22.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Aid+%3Fforum_name.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Ahas_member+%3Fowner.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fowner+sioc%3Aid+%22kidehen%22.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fforum+sioc%3Acontainer_of+%3Fpost+.%0D%0A++++++++%3Fpost++dct%3Atitle+%3Ftitle+.%0D%0A++++++++optional+%7B+%3Fpost+sioc%3Atopic+%3Ftopic.%0D%0A+++++++++++++++++++%3Ftopic+a+skos%3AConcept%3B%0D%0A+++++++++++++++++++++++++skos%3AprefLabel+%3Ftag.+%7D%0D%0A++++++++optional%7B+%3Fpost+sioc%3Alink+%3Flink++%7D+.%0D%0A++++++++optional%7B+%3Fpost+sioc%3Alinks_to+%3Furl+%7D%0D%0A++++++%7D%0D%0AORDER+BY+%3Ftitle&format=text%2Fhtml">This</a>* <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-protocol/">SPARQL Protocol</a> URL to see the query results in a basic HTML Table. And one last thing, you can grab the <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/DAV/home/kidehen/SPARQL/tagging_sioc_skos_delicios_my_bookmarks.rq">SPARQL Query File</a> saved into my <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsBriefcase">ODS-Briefcase</a> (the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV">WebDAV</a> repository aspect of my Data Space). </p> <p> <b>Note the following SPARQL Protocol Endpoints:</b> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/sparql/">MyOpenLink Data Space</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/isparql/">Experimental Data Space SPARQL Query Builder</a> (you need to register at http://myopenlink.net:8890/ods to use this version)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql/">Live Demo Sever</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql/">Demo Server SPARQL Query Builder</a> (use: demo for both username and pwd when prompted)</li> </ol> <p>My beautified Version of the SPARQL Generated by QBE (you can cut and paste into "Advanced Query" section of QBE) is presented below:</p> <pre> PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> PREFIX sioc: <http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#> PREFIX dct: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> PREFIX skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> <br /> SELECT distinct ?forum_name, ?owner, ?post, ?title, ?link, ?url, ?tag FROM <http://myopenlink.net/dataspace> WHERE { ?forum a sioc:Forum; sioc:type "bookmark"; sioc:id ?forum_name; sioc:has_member ?owner. ?owner sioc:id "kidehen". ?forum sioc:container_of ?post . ?post dct:title ?title . optional { ?post sioc:link ?link } optional { ?post sioc:links_to ?url } optional { ?post sioc:topic ?topic. ?topic a skos:Concept; skos:prefLabel ?tag}. } </pre> <p>Unmodified dump from the QBE (this will be beautified automatically in due course by the QBE):</p> <pre> PREFIX rdf: <http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#> PREFIX sioc: <http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#> PREFIX dct: <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> PREFIX skos: <http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#> <br /> SELECT ?var8 ?var9 ?var13 ?var14 ?var24 ?var27 ?var29 ?var54 ?var56 WHERE { graph ?graph { ?var8 rdf:type sioc:Forum . ?var8 sioc:container_of ?var9 . ?var8 sioc:type "bookmark" . ?var8 sioc:id ?var54 . ?var8 sioc:has_member ?var56 . ?var9 rdf:type sioc:Post . OPTIONAL {?var9 dc:title ?var13} . OPTIONAL {?var9 sioc:links_to ?var14} . OPTIONAL {?var9 sioc:link ?var29} . ?var9 sioc:has_creator ?var37 . OPTIONAL {?var9 sioc:topic ?var24} . ?var24 rdf:type skos:Concept . OPTIONAL {?var24 skos:prefLabel ?var27} . ?var56 rdf:type sioc:User . ?var56 sioc:id "kidehen" . } } </pre> <p> Current missing items re. Visual QBE for SPARQL are:</p> <ol> <li> Ability to Save properly to WebDAV so that I can then expose various saved SPARQL Queries (.rq file) from my Data Space via URIs </li> <li> Handling of DISTINCT, FILTERS (note: OPTIONAL is handled via dotted predicate-links) </li> <li>General tidying up re. click event handling etc. </li> </ol> Note: You can even open up your own account (using our <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/ods">Live Demo</a> or <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/ods">Live Experiment Data</a> Space servers) which enables you to repeat this demo by doing the following (post registration/sign-up): <ol> <li>Export some bookmarks from your local browser to the usual HTML bookmarks dump file</li> <li>Create an ODS-Bookmarks Instance using your new ODS account</li> <li>Use the ODS-Bookmark Instance to import your local bookmarks from the HTML dump file</li> <li>Repeat the same import sequence using the ODS-Bookmark Instance, but this time pick the del.icio.us option</li> <li>Build your query (change 'kidehen' to your ODS-user-name)</li> <li>That's it you now have Semantic Web presence in the form of a Data Space for your local and del.icio.us hosted bookmarks with tags integrated</li> </ol> <p>Quick Query Builder Tip: You will need to import the following (using the Import Button in the Ontologies & Schemas side-bar); </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#">http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#</a> (<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#">http://rdfs.org/sioc/ns#</a> (<a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/</a> (<a href="http://dublincore.org/">Dublin Core</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#">http://www.w3.org/2004/02/skos/core#</a> (<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/WD-swbp-skos-core-guide-20050510/">SKOS</a>)</li> </ol> <p>Browser Support: The SPARQL QBE is SVG based and currently works fine with the following browsers; Firefox 1.5/2.0, Camino (Cocoa variant of Firefox for Mac OS X), Webkit (Safari pre-release / advanced sibling), Opera 9.x. We are evaluating the use of the Adobe SVG plugin re. IE 6/7 support.</p> <p>Of course this should be a screencast, but I am the middle of a plethora of things right now :-) </p>
2006-12-13T15:09:50-05:00
Contd: Web 3.0 Commentary etc..
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-24#1090
2006-11-24T15:55:21Z
<p>This post is part contribution to the general Web 3.0 / Data-Web / Semantic Web discourse, and part experiment / demonstration of the Data Web.</p> <p>I came across a pretty deep comments trail about the aforementioned items on <a href="http://avc.blogs.com">Fred Wilson's blog</a> (aptly titled: A VC) under the subject heading: <a href="http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2006/11/web_30_is_the_s.html">Web 3.0 Is The Semantic Web.</a> </p> <p>Contributions to the general Semantic Web discourse by way of responses to valuable questions and commentary contributed by a Semantic Web skeptic (Ed Addison who may be this <a href="http://www.csee.umbc.edu/cikm/1998/addison-abstract.html">Ed Addison according to Google</a>):</p> <p></p> <blockquote>Ed, Responses to your points re. Semantic Web Matrialization: <ul> << 1) ontologies can be created and maintained by text extractors and crawlers" >> <p>Ontologies will be developed by Humans. This process has already commenced and far more landscape has been covered that you may be aware of. For instance, there is an Ontology for Online Communities with Semantics factored in. More importantly, most Blogs, Wikis, and other "points of presence" on the Web are already capable of generating Instance Data for this Ontology by way of the underlying platforms that drive these things. The Ontology is called: SIOC (<a href="http://sioc-project.org">Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities</a>).</p> </ul> <ul> << 2) the entire web can be marked up, semantically indexed, and maintained by spiders without human assistance >> <p>Most of it can, and already is :-) Human assistance should, and would, be on an "exception basis" a preferred use of human time (IMHO). We do not need to annotate the Web manually when this labor intensive process can be automated (see my earlier comments).</p> </ul> <ul> << 3) inference over the semantic web does not require an extremely deep heuristic search down multiple, redundant, cyclical pathways with many islands that are disconnected >> <p>When you have a foundation layer of RDF Data (generated in the manner I've discussed above), you then have a substrate that's far more palatable to Intelligent Reasoning. Note, the Semantic Web is made of many layers. The critical layer at this juncture is the Data-Web (Web of RDF Data). Note, when I refer to RDF I am not referring to RDF/XML the serialization format, I am referring to the Data Model (a Graph).</p> </ul> <ul> << 4) the web becomes smart enough to eliminate websites or data elements that are incorrect, misleading, false, or just plain lousy >> <p>The Semantic Web vision is not about eliminating Web Sites (The Hypertext-Document-Web). It is simply about adding another dimension of interaction to the Web. This is just like the Services-Web dimension as delivered by Web 2.0.</p> We are simply evolving within an innovation continuum. There is no mutual exclusivity about any of the Web Dimensions since they collectively provide us with a more powerful infrastructure for building and exploiting "collective wisdom". </ul> </blockquote> <p>As for the Data-Web experiment part of this post, I would expect to see this post exposed as another contribution to the Data-Web via the <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com">PingTheSemanticWeb</a> notification service :-) Implying, that all the relevant parts of this conversation are in a format (Instance Data for the <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC Ontology</a>) that is available for further use in a myriad of forms.</p>
2006-11-24T13:30:08.000001-05:00
Working Towards Standardized Triple Store Benchmarks
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-21#1088
2006-11-21T18:12:35Z
<p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling</a> opens up discussion re. <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1084">standardized benchmarking for RDF Triple Stores</a> </p>.
2006-11-21T16:26:42.000006-05:00
Web Me2.0 -- Exploding the Myth of Web 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-15#1081
2006-11-15T23:17:36Z
<p> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/">Nova Spivack</a> provides poignant insights into the recent Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0 brouhaha which I've excerpted below: </p> <blockquote> <a href="http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2006/11/web_me20_explod.html">Web Me2.0 -- Exploding the Myth of Web 2.0</a>: <p>"Many people have told me this week that they think 'Web 2.0' has not been very impressive so far and that they really hope for a next-generation of the Web with some more significant innovation under the hood -- regardless of what it's called. A lot of people found the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco to be underwhelming -- there was a lot of self-congratulation by the top few brands and the companies they have recently bought, but not much else happening. Where was all the innovation? Where was the focus on what's next? It seemed to be a conference mainly about what happened in the last year, not about what will happen in the coming year. But what happened last year is already so 'last year.' And frankly Web 2.0 still leaves a lot to be desired. The reason Tim Berners-Lee proposed the Semantic Web in the first place is that it will finally deliver on the real potential and vision of the Web. Not that today's Web 2.0 sucks completely -- it only sort of sucks. It's definitely useful and there are some nice bells and whistles we didn't have before. But it could still suck so much less!"</p> </blockquote> <p>Web 2.0 is a (not was) a piece of the overall Web puzzle. The Data Web (so called Web 3.0) is another critical piece of this puzzle, especially as it provides the foundation layer (Layer 1) of the Semantic Web.</p> <p>Web 2.0 was never about "Open Data Access", "Flexible Data Models", or "Open World" meshing of disparate data sources built atop disparate data schemas (see: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=1032">Web 2.0's Open Data Access Conundrum</a>). It was simply about "Execution and APIs". I already written about "Web Interaction Dimensions", but you call also look at the relationship of the currently perceived dimensions through the M-V-C programming pattern: </p> <ol> <li>Viewer (V) - Web 1.0 (Interaction, Dimension 1 - Interactive-Web)</li> <li>Controller (C) - Web 2.0 (Services, Dimension 2 - Services-Web which is about Execution & Application Logic; SOA outside/in-front-of the Firewall for Enterprise 2.0 crowd)</li> <li>Model (M) - Web 3.0 (Data, Dimension 3 - Data-Web which is about data model dexterity and open data access)</li> </ol> <p>Another point to note, Social Networking is hot, but nearly every social network that I know (and I know and use most of them) suffers from an impedance mismatch between the service(s) they provide (social networks) and their underlying data models (in many cases Relational as opposed to Graph). Networks are about Relationships (N-ary) and your cannot effectively exploit the deep potential of: "Network Effects" (Wisdom of Crowds, Viral Marketing etc..) without a complimentary data model, you simply can't.</p> <p>Finally, the Data Web is already here, I promised a long time ago (Internet Time) that the manifestation of the Semantic Web would occur unobtrusively, meaning, we will wake up one day and realize we are using critical portions of the Semantic Web (i.e. Data-Web) without even knowing it. Guess what? It's already happening. Simple case in point, you may have started to notice the emergence of <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">SIOC</a> gems in the same way you may have observed those RSS 2.0 gems at the dawn of Web 2.0. What I am implying here is that the real question we should be asking is: Where is the Semantic Web Data? And how easy or difficult will it be to generate? And where are the tools? My answers are presented below:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/">Pingthesemanticweb.com</a> - Semantic Web Data Source Lookup & Tracking Service</li> <li> <a href="http://swoogle.umbc.edu/">Swoogle </a>- Semantic Web Ontology Location Service</li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/RdfAndSql">Semantic Web Solutions for Generating RDF Data from SQL Data</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SemanticWebTools">Semantic Web Solutions Directory</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://sioc-project.org/">SIOC Project</a> - Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities Ontology, a grassroots effort that provides a critical bridge between Web 2.0 and the Data-Web. For instance, existing Web 2.0 application profiles such as; Blogs, Wikis, Feed Aggregators, Content Managers, Discussion Forums etc.. are much closer to the Data-Web than you may think :-) </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/">Virtuoso</a> - our <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuoso_Universal_Server">Universal Server</a> for the Data-Web</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">OpenLink Data Spaces</a> (ODS) - our SIOC based platform for transparent incorporation of the Data-Web into Web 1.0 and Web 2.0</li> </ol> <p>Next stop, less writing, more demos, these are long overdue! At least from my side of the fence :-) I need to produce a little step-by-guide oriented screencasts that demonstrates how Web 2.0 meshes nicely with the Data-Web.</p> <p>Here are some (not so end-user friendly) examples of how you can use <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> (Data-Web's Query Language) to query Web 2.0 Instance Data projected through the SIOC Ontology:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Weblog%20Data%20Space">Weblog Data Query</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Wiki%20Data%20Space">Wiki Data Query</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Feeds%20/%20Subscriptions%20Data%20Space%20(Feed%20Aggregation)">Aggregated Feeds Data Query</a> - (RSS 1.0, RSS 2.0, Atom etc)</li> <li a="a" href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Bookmarks%20Data%20Space">Shared Bookmarks Data Space</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Briefcase%20Applications%20Data%20Space">Web Filesystem Data Query</a> - (Briefcase - Virtual Spotlight of sorts)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Photo%20Gallery%20Data%20Space">Photo Gallery Data Query</a> (this could be data from Flickr etc..)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Discussion%20/%20Conversation%20Data%20Space">Discussion Data Query</a> (e.g. Blog posts comments)</li> <li> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef#Generic%20Data%20Space%20Queries">Data Queries across different Data Spaces</a> - combining data from Wikis, Blogs, Feeds, Photos, Bookmarks, Discussions etc..</li> </ol> <p>Note: You can use the online SPARQL Query Interface at: http://demo.openlinksw.com/isparql.</p> <p> </p> <p> Other Data-Web Technology usage demos include:</p> <p> </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/ajar/tab">TimBL's Tabulator</a> - A Data-Web Browser</li> <li> <a href="http://sites.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/ng4j/semwebclient/#examples">Semantic Web Client Library</a> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/">RDF</a> Data Drill Down Demos using SPARQL</li> <li> <a href="http://sioc-project.org/firefox">Semantic Radar</a> - A Firefox plug-in for auto-discovering SIOC Instance Data</li> <li> <a href="http://www.talkdigger.com/">Talk Digger</a> - SIOC based Web Conversation Tracker</li> </ol>
2006-11-16T16:11:46-05:00
Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0 Brouhaha!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-14#1080
2006-11-14T00:35:12Z
<p>It's kind of ironic to see what has emerged after <a href="http://iswc2006.semanticweb.org/" id="link-id12171fc0">ISWC 2006</a> and the <a href="http://web2con.com/" id="link-id10fff940">Web 2.0 Summit</a>. From my vantage point, it appears as though the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/World_Wide_Web">Web</a> 2.0 event inadvertently (albeit beneficially) left its attendees looking for the next big thing re. the Web Innovation Continuum as exemplified by the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/12/business/12web.html?ei=5094&en=a34a6306f48166fb&hp=&ex=1163394000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=all" id="link-id145eb180">"Web 3.0" meme from the New York Times (NYT)</a> which triggered the current "Web 2.0 vs Web 3.0 Brouhaha".</p> <p>Amongst the numerous comments about this subject, I felt most compelled to respond to the commentary from Tim O'Reilly (based on his proximity to Web 2.0 etc..) in relation to his view that the NYT's Web 3.0 = Collective Intelligence Harnessing aspect of his <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html" id="link-id10b00010">Web 2.0 meme</a>. </p> <p>My response is dumped semi-verbatim below:</p> <blockquote> <p>Tim,</p> <p>A few things:</p> <ol> <li> We are in an innovation continuum </li> <li> The Web as a medium of innovation will evolve forever </li> <li> Different commentators have different views about monikers associated with these innovations</li> <li> To say Web 3.0 (aka the <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Data">Data</a> Web or <a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web" id="link-id0xb1aeb88">Semantic Web</a> - Layer 1) is what Web 2.0's collective intelligence is all about is a little inaccurate (IMHO); Web 2.0 doesn't provide "Open Data Access" </li> <li> Web 2.0 is a "Web of Services" primarily, a dimension of "Web Interaction" defined by interaction with Services </li> <li> Web 3.0 ("Data Web" or "Web of Databases" or "<a href="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Semantic_Web">Semantic Web</a> - Layer 1") is a Web dimension that provides "Open Data Access" that will be exemplified by the transition from "Mash-ups" (brute force data joining) to "Mesh-ups" (natural data joining) </li> </ol> <p> The original "Web of Hypertext" or "Interactive Web", the current "Web of Services", and the emerging "Data Web" or "Web of Databases" collectively provide dimensions of interaction in the innovation continuum called the Web. </p> <p> There are many more dimensions to come. Monikers come and go, but the retrospective "Long Shadow" of Innovation is ultimately timeless.</p> <p> "Mutual Inclusivity" is a critical requirement for truly perceiving these "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%20dimensions&type=text&output=html" id="link-id10de2178">Web Interaction Dimensions</a>" ("Participation" if I recall). "Mutual Exclusivity" on the other hand, simpy leads to obscuring reality with Versionitis as exemplified by the ongoing: Web 1.0 vs 2.0 vs 3.0 debates.</p> </blockquote> <p>BTW - I enjoyed reading <a href="http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2006/11/welcome_web_30.php" id="link-id1855a380">Nick Carr's take on the Web 3.0 meme</a>, especially his "tongue in cheek" power-grab for the rights to all "Web 3.0" Conferences etc. :-) </p>
2008-09-04T23:00:54-04:00
ISWC 2006 - Technical Links
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-11#1079
2006-11-11T19:35:16Z
<p>It's really nice to see DAWG-Fooding in effect at ISWC 2006 as demonstrated by this <a href="http://iswc2006.semanticweb.org/program/tech_links.htm#core">ISWC 2006 Technical Links Page</a> :-)</p> <p>Likewise, It would be nice if there were some Mash-ups, Service Endpoints, or Syndication Feeds that exposed relevant Data from the <a href="http://www.web2con.com/">Web 2.0 Summit</a> (beyond the usual selective, best-of, type <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/readwriteweb/~3/47754442/web_20_summit_wrap-up.php">Blog Commentary</a> and traditional <a href="http://www.web2con.com/pub/w/49/speakers.html">Speakers List</a>).</p>
2006-11-11T16:59:50-05:00
Web 2.0 and Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-08#1077
2006-11-08T22:25:28Z
<p>We currently have the<a href="http://www.web2con.com/"> Web 2.0 Summit</a> and the <a href="http://iswc2006.semanticweb.org/">International Semantic Web Conference 2006</a> running concurrently.</p> <p>From the ISWC event (<a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/">#swig</a>) I just located a presentation by TimBL titled:<a href="http://www.w3.org/2006/Talks/1108-swui-tbl/"> Semantic Web & Web 2.0</a> </p> <p>Key Excerpt: Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web work "Well Apart" and "Great Together".</p>
2006-11-09T08:34:34-05:00
More RDF scalability tests
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-11-06#1076
2006-11-06T22:09:50Z
<p>(Posted verbatim from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling's Blog</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1074">More RDF scalability tests</a>: "</p> <p>We have lately been busy with RDF scalability. We work with the 8000 university LUBM data set, a little over a billion triples. We can load it in 23h 46m on a box with 8G RAM. With 16G we probably could get it in 16h.</p> <p>The resulting database is 75G, 74 bytes per triple which is not bad. It will shrink a little more if explicitly compacted by merging adjacent partly filled pages. See Advances in Virtuoso Triple Storage for an in-depth treatment of the subject.</p> <p>The real question of RDF scalability is finding a way of having more than one CPU on the same index tree without them hitting the prohibitive penalty of waiting for a mutex. The sure solution is partitioning, would probably have to be by range of the whole key. but before we go to so much trouble, well look at dropping a couple of critical sections from index random access. Also some kernel parameters may be adjustable, like a spin count before calling the scheduler when trying to get an occupied mutex. Still we should not waste too much time on platform specifics. Well see.</p> <p>We just updated the Virtuoso Open Source cut. The latest RDF refinements are not in, so maybe the cut will have to be refreshed shortly.</p> <p>We are also now applying the relational to RDF mapping discussed in <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSSQLRDF">Declarative SQL Schema to RDF Ontology Mapping</a> to the ODS applications.</p> <p>There is a form of the mapping in the VOS cut on the net but it is not quite ready yet. We must first finish testing it through mapping all the relational schemas of the ODS apps before we can really recommend it. This is another reason for a VOS update in the near future.</p> <p>We will be looking at the query side of LUBM after the ISWC 2006 conference. So far, we find queries compile OK for many SIOC use cases with the cost model that there is now. A more systematic review of the cost model for SPARQL will come when we get to the queries.</p> <p>We put some ideas about inferencing in the Advances in Triple Storage paper. The question is whether we should forward chain such things as class subsumption and subproperties. If we build these into the SQL engine used for running SPARQL, we probably can do these as unions at run time with good performance and better working set due to not storing trivial entailed triples. Some more thought and experimentation needs to go into this.</p> <p> </p>
2006-11-06T17:09:54.000001-05:00
Contd: Web Dimensionality
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-10-24#1072
2006-10-24T20:41:00Z
<a href="http://fgiasson.com"> Frederick Giasson</a> continues <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php?title=the_first_three_dimensions_of_the_web_in&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1">the conversation about the Web Experience Dimensions</a> in a new post --the first of several-- that chronicles the evolution of Pingthesemanticweb.com and Talk Digger, from Interactive-Web (Web 1.0) sites to Data-Web oriented Data Spaces:<br /> <br />On a related front, I also came across an e-Government Data Reference Model presentation (<a href="http://web-services.gov/scopedrmit210172005.ppt">PPT</a>) by <a href="http://www.project10x.com/pages/team.html">Mills Davis</a> from the <a href="http://colab.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?DRMImplementationThroughIterationandTestingPilotProjects">Colab Wiki</a> that illustrates the aforementioned Web Dimensions (even though his presentation didn't have dimensionality of the Web in mind) in one of its graphics (which I've yanked and placed into this post so that it has a URI courtesy of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">ODS</a> <img alt="Image" src="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/images/smileys/01.gif" />):<br /> <br /> <img alt="Image" src="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/briefcase/Public/graphics/drm-smart-search.png" /> <br /> <br /> Notes:<br />=====<br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Conceptual</span> - Data-Web (*we are starting to comprehend and use this dimension* aka Semantic Web Layer 1)<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Logical Theory </span>- To follow when we let loose the intelligent agents that enrichen the Data Web experience<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Philosophy</span> - by way of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axiology">Axiology </a>(sometime in the future, but note, we are talking Internet time :-) )<br /> <br />I also stumbled across another graphic that actually provides visual delineation of the value propositions of XML (Structure) and RDF (Context):<br /> <img alt="Image" src="http://colab.cim3.net/file/work/SICoP/EPADRM2.0/ombdrm2.gif" /> <br />Notes:<br />=====<br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Description</span> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xml-infoset/#intro">XML</a> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Context</span> - <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-concepts/">RDF</a> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-weight: bold;">Sharing</span> - Access Points (e.g <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://www.xmla.org/faq.asp">XMLA,</a> <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/">GData</a> Generic Query oriented Web Service Endpoints)<br />
2006-10-25T18:19:40.000001-04:00
Geonames marches foward with ontology v1.2
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-10-23#1067
2006-10-23T12:26:00Z
<p> <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/2006/10/22/geonames-marches-foward-with-ontology-v12#comments">Geonames marches foward with ontology v1.2</a>: "</p> <p> <a title="geonames" href="http://geonames.org">Geonames</a> announced the release of its <a title="http://www.geonames.org/ontology/ontology_v1.2.rdf" target="_blank" href="http://www.geonames.org/ontology/ontology_v1.2.rdf">Geonames ontology v1.2</a>. The new ontology has few enhancements. It introduced the notion of <em>linked data</em> and made clear distinction between URI that intended for linking documents and for linking ontology concepts.</p> <p> <a id="more-156"></a>Different types of geospatial data are of different spatial granularity. Data of different spatial granularity may relate to each other by the containment relation. For example, countries contain states, states contains cities and so on. Some geospatial data are of the similar spatial granularity (e.g., two cities that are nearby each other, or two countries that are neighboring each other). To support the knowledge representation of these relationships, the ontology introduced three new properties: <em>childreanFeatures</em>, <em>nearbyFeatures</em> and <em>neighbouringFeatures</em>.</p> <p>In the Semantic Web, both ontology concepts and physical web documents are linked by URI. Sometimes in applications, it’s useful to make clear whether the use of a URI is intended for linking documents or for linking ontology concepts. The new Geonames ontology introduced a URI convention for identifying the intended usage of a URI. This convention also simplifies the discovering of geospatial data using Geonames web services.</p> <p>Here is an example:</p> <ul> <li>URI for linking to the concept city Berlin: <a target="_blank" title="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/" href="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/">http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/</a> </li> <li>URI for linking to the descriptions about the city Berlin: <a target="_blank" title="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/about.rdf" href="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/about.rdf">http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/about.rdf</a> </li> <li>URI for linking to the descriptions of places that are nearby Berlin: <a target="_blank" title="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/nearby.rdf" href="http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/nearby.rdf">http://sws.geonames.org/2950159/nearby.rdf</a> </li> </ul> <p>Other interesting ontology properties include <em>wikipediaArticle</em> and <em>locationMap</em>. The former links a <em>Feature </em>instance to a Web article on <a target="_blank" title="wikipedia" href="http://www.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a>, and the latter links a <em>Feature </em>instance to a digital map Web page.</p> <p>For additional information about Geonames ontology v1.2, see <a target="_blank" title="Semantic Web : Concept vs Document" href="http://geonames.wordpress.com/2006/10/21/semantic-web-concept-vs-document/">Marc’s post</a> at the Geonames blog. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com">Geospatial Semantic Web Blog</a>.)</p>
2006-10-23T09:02:33-04:00
Birds of a Feather Flock Together - Mac OS X & Rails
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-10-20#1065
2006-10-20T23:55:40Z
<p>A very cool v<a href="http://www.apple.com/education/whymac/compsci/video.html">ideo promo for Ruby on Rails and Mac OS X</a>, or should I say: 37 Signals & Apple :-) Either way, very cool!</p> <p>BTW - We have just released a collection of <a href="http://rubyforge.org/projects/odbc-rails/">High-Performance Data Providers for ActiveRecord</a>. Our providers deliver </p> <blockquote>Consistent Functionality</blockquote> to RoR developers across <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso</a>, Oracle, SQL Server, Sybase, DB2, Ingres, Informix, and others without compromising performance or cross platform portability.
2006-10-22T19:21:17.000001-04:00
Virtuoso's SQL Schema to RDF Ontology Mapping Language (1.0)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-10-18#1064
2006-10-18T22:18:00Z
<p>A new technical white paper about our declarative language for SQL Schema to RDF Ontology Mapping has just been published.</p> <h2>What is this?</h2> <p>A declarative language adapted from SPARQL's graph pattern language (N3/Turtle) for mapping SQL Data to RDF Ontologies. We currently refer to this as a Graph Pattern based RDF VIEW Definition Language.</p> <h2>Why is it important?</h2> <p>It provides an effective mechanism for exposing existing SQL Data as virtual RDF Data Sets (Graphs) negating the data duplication associated with generating physical RDF Graphs from SQL Data en route to persistence in a dedicated Triple Store. </p> <p>Enterprise applications (traditional and web based) and most Web Applications (Web 1.0 and Web 2.0) sit atop relational databases, implying that SQL/RDF model and data integration is an essential element of the burgeoning "Data Web" (Semantic Web - Layer 1) comprehension and adoption process.</p> <p>In a nutshell, this is a quick route for non disruptive exposure of existing SQL Data to SPARQL supporting RDF Tools and Development Environments.</p> <h2>How does it work?</h2> <h3>RDF Side</h3> <ol> <li>locate one or more Ontologies (e.g FOAF, SIOC, AtomOWL, SKOS etc.) that effectively defines the Concepts (Classes) and Terms (Predicates) to be exposed via your RDF Graph</li> <li>Using the Virtuoso's RDF View Definition Language declare a International Resource Identifier (or URI) for your Graph. Example:<pre>CREATE GRAPH IRI("http://myopenlink.net/dataspace")</pre> </li> <li>Then create Classes (Concepts), Class Properties/Predicates (Memb), and Class Instances (Inst) for the new Graph. Example: <pre>CREATE IRI CLASS odsWeblog:feed_iri "http://myopenlink.net/dataspace/kidehen/weblog/MyFeeds" ( in memb varchar not null, in inst varchar not null)</pre> </li> </ol> <h3>SQL Side</h3> <ol> <li>If Virtuoso isn't your SQL Data Store, Identify the ODBC or JDBC SQL data source(s) containing the SQL data to be mapped to RDF and then link the relevant tables into Virtuoso's Virtual DBMS Layer</li> <li>Then use the RDF View Definition Language's graph pattern feature to generate SQL to RDF Mapping Template for your Graph. As shown in this <a href="http://www.usnet.private:8889/wiki/main/Main/VOSSQLRDF#MappingOdsBlogToAtomOwlExample">ODS Weblog -> AtomOWL Mapping example</a>.</li> </ol>
2006-11-17T18:24:25-05:00
SIOC-o-sphere & Blogosphere 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-29#1061
2006-09-29T22:24:34Z
<p>In a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1038">previous blog post</a> I suggested that the emerging <a href="http://captsolo.net/info/blog_a.php/2006/09/29/sioc_o_sphere">SIOC-o-sphere</a> should be described as "Blogosphere 2.0". Well, as I think about this a little deeper, I have come to the realization that this cannot really be correct (even though it may be more buzz worthy etc..). The fact of the matter is that, SIOC is about Semantically-Interlined Online Communities (Data Spaces) comprised of Blogs, Wikis, Discussion Forums etc.. Thus, "Blogosphere 2.0" is simply a part of the SIOC-o-sphere :-) Ditto the Wikisphere and so on...</p> <p> What is Blogosphere 2.0 anyway?</p> <p>Blog clusters that incorporate the "Open Data Access" dimension to their usage pattern via content exported as RDF Data Sets or Virtual RDF Data Sets (as demonstrated by the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef">OpenLink Data Spaces SIOC Reference</a>). In either scenario, the RDF rendition of blog content is accessible for to ad-hoc querying via SPARQL (btw - checkout this cool <a href="http://thefigtrees.net/lee/sw/sparql-faq">SPARQL FAQ</a>). </p> <p>The really fascinating thing about the "Blgosophere 2.0" is that the transition from "Blogosphere 1.0" is going to be transparent! The "Open Data Access" will actually do the talking etc..</p>
2006-09-29T19:05:27-04:00
RDF Bulk Loading Revisited
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-29#1060
2006-09-29T21:44:12Z
<p>(Posted verbatim from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling's Weblog</a>):</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1058">RDF Bulk Loading Revisited</a>: "</p> <p>We have made new benchmarks with loading the 47 million triples of the Wikipedia links data set. So far, our best result is 40 minutes with a dual core Xeon with 8G memory. This comes to about 18000 triples per second with between 1.2 and 2 CPU cores busy, slightly depending on configuration parameters. Our previous best result was with a dual 1.6GHz SPARC with 7700 triples per second on loading the 2M triple Wordnet data set.</p> <p>These are memory based speeds. We have implemented an automatic background compaction for database tables and have tried the Wikipedia load with and without. The CPU cost of the compaction was about 10% with a slight gain in real time due to less IO.</p> <p>But the real deal remains IO. With the compaction on, we got 91 bytes per triple, all included, i.e. two indices on the triples table, dictionaries from IRI IDs to URIs etc. The compaction is rather simple, it just detects adjacent dirty pages about to be written to disk and sees if the set of contiguous dirty pages would fit on fewer pages than they now take. If so, it rewrites the pages and frees the ones left over. It does not touch clean pages. With some more logic it could also compact clean pages, provided the result did not have more dirty pages than the initial situation. With more aggressive compaction we will get about 75 bytes per triple. We will try this.</p> <p>But the real gains will come from index compression with bitmaps. For the Wikipedia data set, this will cut one of the indices to about a third of its current size. This is also the index with the more random access, so the benefit is compounded in terms of working set. At that point we will be looking at about 50 bytes per triple. We will see next week how this works with the LUBM RDF benchmark.</p> </blockquote>
2006-09-29T17:44:14.000003-04:00
Recent Virtuoso Developments
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-26#1050
2006-09-26T19:46:55Z
<p>(Cut & Pasted verbatim from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling's Weblog</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1043">Recent Virtuoso Developments</a>: "</p> <p>We have been extensively working on virtual database refinements. There aremany SQL cost model adjustments to better model distributed queries and wenow support direct access to Oracle and Informix statistics system tables.Thus, when you attach a table from one or the other, you automatically getup to date statistics. This helps <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso</a> optimize distributed queries.Also the documentation is updated as concerns these, with a new section ondistributed query optimization.</p> <p>On the applications side, we have been keeping up with the SIOC RDF ontologydevelopments. All ODS applications now make their data available as SIOCgraphs for download and SPARQL query access.</p> <p>What is most exciting however is our advance in mapping relational data intoRDF. We now have a mapping language that makes arbitrary legacy data in <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso</a> or elsewhere in the relational world RDF queriable. We will putout a white paper on this in a few days.</p> <p>Also we have some innovations in mind for optimizing the physical storage ofRDF triples. We keep experimenting, now with our sights set to the highend of triple storage, towards billion triple data sets. We areexperimenting with a new more space efficient index structure for betterworking set behavior. Next week will yield the first results.</p>
2006-09-26T15:46:55.000001-04:00
Click Fraud
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-26#1053
2006-09-26T19:38:39Z
<p> <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_40/b4003001.htm?campaign_id=rss_magzn">Click Fraud: "The dark side of online advertising</a> </p> <p>For the time-challenged just watch the <a href="http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/09/clickfraud/slideshow.htm">click fraud slide show</a> instead.</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/">BusinessWeek Online -- Magazine</a>.)</p>
2006-09-26T17:03:39.000003-04:00
Virtuoso TPCC and Multiprocessor Linux and Mac
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-26#1051
2006-09-26T19:16:13Z
<p>(Cut & Pasted verbatim from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling's Weblog</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1046">Virtuoso TPCC and Multiprocessor Linux and Mac</a>: "</p> <p>We have updated our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSScale" rel="sql">article on Virtuoso scalability</a> with two new platforms: A 2 x dual core Intel Xeon and a Mac Mini with an Intel Core Duo.</p> <p>We have more than quadrupled the best result so far.</p> <p>The best score so far is 83K transactions per minute with a 40 warehouse (about 4G) database. This is attributable to the process running in mostly memory, with 3 out of 4 cores busy on the database server. But even when doubling the database size and number of 3 clients, we stay at 49K transactions per minute, now with a little under 2 cores busy and am average of 20 disk reads pending at all times, split over 4 SATA disks. The measurement is the count of completed transactions during a 1h run. With the 80 warehouse database, it took about 18 minutes for the system to reach steady state, with a warm working set, hence the actual steady rate is somewhat higher than 49K, as the warm up period was included in the measurement.</p> <p>The metric on the Mac Mini was 2.7K with 2G RAM and one disk. The CPU usage was about one third of one core. Since we have had rates of over 10K with 2G RAM, we attribute the low result to running on a single disk which is not very fast at that.</p> <p>We have run tests in 64 and 32 bit modes but have found little difference as long as actual memory does not exceed 4g. If anything, 32 bit binaries should have an advantage in cache hit rate since most data structures take less space there. After the process size exceeds the 32 bit limit, there is a notable difference in favor of 64 bit. Having more than 4G of database buffers produces a marked advantage over letting the OS use the space for file system cache. So, 64 bit is worthwhile but only if there is enough memory. As for X86 having more registers in 64 bit mode, we have not specifically measured what effect that might have.</p> <p>We also note that Linux has improved a great deal with respect to multiprocessor configurations. We use a very simple test with a number of threads acquiring and then immediately freeing the same mutex. On single CPU systems, the real time has pretty much increased linearly with the number of threads. On multiprocessor systems, we used to get very non-linear behavior, with 2 threads competing for the same mutex taking tens of times the real time as opposed to one thread. At last measurement, with a 64 bit FC 5, we saw 2 threads take 7x the real time when competing for the same mutex. This is in the same ballpark as Solaris 10 on a similar system. Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on a 2x dual core Xeon Mac Pro did the worst so far, with two threads taking over 70x the time of one. With a Mac Mini with a single Core Duo, the factor between one thread and two was 73.</p> <p>Also the proportion of system CPU on Tiger was consistently higher than on Solaris or Linux when running the same benchmarks. Of course for most applications this test is not significant but it is relevant for database servers, as there are many very short critical sections involved in multithreaded processing of indices and the like.</p>
2006-09-26T15:53:35.000014-04:00
OpenID meets Data Spaces etc..
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-20#1048
2006-09-20T14:47:17Z
<p>I have written extensively about "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=presence%0D%0A&type=text&output=html">Presence</a>", "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%27data%20spaces%27&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a>", and "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=open%20data%20access&type=text&output=html">Open Access to Data</a>". What I haven't emphasized is how "Identity" brings this together, primarily becuase I didn't have something to demonstrate, or point to, coherently etc..</p> <p>Anyway, we now have <a href="http://openid.net/">OpenID</a> support in OpenLink Data Spaces (ODS) which coincides nicely with the <a href="http://www.openidenabled.com/software">growing support of OpenID</a> across the web. </p> <p>The beauty of OpenID support in ODS is that I now have a URL that meshes with my identity (at least in line with what I have chosed to share with the public via the Web). For instance, http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com is my OpenID as well as my personal URI (you look closer at this link and you have a map of my Data Space).</p> <p>To really understand what I am getting at here you should open up <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinkswl.com">My OpenID URL</a> using one of the following:</p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://sioc-project.org/firefox">Semantic Radar</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">PiggyBank</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SIOC/Implementations">SIOC Enabled Wiki</a> </li> </ol> <p> To be continued.... </p> <p> </p>
2006-09-26T01:42:04.000001-04:00
The MIT Lecture Browser
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-15#1042
2006-09-15T21:05:52Z
<p>Spotted via <a href="http://www.betaversion.org/~stefano/linotype/">Stefano's Linotype</a>.</p> <p>Enjoy <a href="http://web.sls.csail.mit.edu/lectures/">MIT's Lecture Browser</a> - a combination of Video Search and Speech Processing.</p>
2006-09-15T18:07:04-04:00
Blogosphere 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-11#1038
2006-09-11T22:52:47Z
Ha! It just dawned on me that the <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2006/09/11/latest-developments-in-the-sioc-o-sphere/">burgeoning SIOC-o-sphere</a> (online communities exporting and exposing content via SIOC Ontology) is actually: Blogosphere 2.0 :-) Ironically, this is far more a "2.0" (a 'la enhancement over base technology) than Web 2.0 (which is simply a usage pattern relative to Web 1.0).
2006-09-11T20:27:47.000002-04:00
Dimensions of the Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-08#1037
2006-09-08T22:11:00Z
<p>I have just watched a pretty nifty presentation (courtesy of <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/the_10_dimensions_of_reality">Babelfish</a>) about <a href="http://www.tenthdimension.com/flash2.php">the 10 dimensions of our existence</a> (a 'la <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory">String Theory</a>) when it dawned on me that similar thinking can be applied to the Web :-)</p> <il> </il> <ol> Dimension 1 = Interactive Web (Visual Web of HTML based Sites aka Web 1.0) </ol> <ol> Dimension 2 = Services Web (Presence based Web of Services; a usage pattern commonly referred to as Web 2.0) </ol> <ol> Dimension 3 = Data Web (Presence and Open Data Access based Web of Databases aka Semantic Web layer 1) </ol> <ol> Dimension 4 = Ontology Web (Intelligent Agent palatable Web aka Semantic Web layer 2)</ol> <ol> .... </ol> <p>Hopefully, I can expand further :-)</p>
2006-11-12T18:55:54.000001-05:00
Creating connections between discussion clouds with SIOC
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-07#1036
2006-09-08T00:56:00Z
<p>Another example of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%27data%20spaces%27&type=text&output=html">Data Spaces</a> in action by <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog">John Breslin</a>.. In this case John visualizes the connections that are exploitable by creating SIOC (<a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/">Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities</a>) instance data from existing Distributed Collaborative Application profiles (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%202.0&type=text&output=html">Web 2.0</a> in current parlance). Of course, SIOC is an Ontology for RDF data since it describes the Concepts and Terms for a a network mesh of online communities. Which by implication provides another insight into the realization that the Web we know has always been a "Web of Databases" (federation of Graph Model Databases encapsulated in Data Spaces). The emergence of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=sparql%0D%0A&type=text&output=html">SPARQ</a>L as the standard <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">Query Language for querying RDF Data Sets</a>, alongside the SPARQL Protocol for transmitting SPARQL Queries over HTTP, and the SPARQL Query Results Serialization formats (XML or JSON) Results Serialization Format), basically set the stage truly open and flexible data access across Web Data Space clusters such as: the Blogosphere, Wikispehere, Usenetverse, Linkspaces, Boardscapes, and others.</p> <p> For additional clarity re. my comments above, you can also look at the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/ODSSIOCRef">SPARQL & SIOC Usecase samples document</a> for our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">OpenLink Data Spaces platform</a>. Bottom line, the Semantic Web and SPARQL aren't <a href="http://morenews.blogspot.com/2006/09/myth-of-web-20.html"> BORING.</a> In fact, quite the contrary, since they are essential ingredients of a more powerful Web than the one we work with today!</p> <p>Enjoy the rest of John's post:</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2006/09/07/creating-connections-between-discussion-clouds-with-sioc/#comments">Creating connections between discussion clouds with SIOC</a>: </p> <p>(Extract from our forthcoming <a href="http://blogtalk.net/Main/Program"> BlogTalk</a> paper about browsers for SIOC.)</p> <p> <a class="imagelink" title="20060907b.png" href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/20060907a.png"><img id="image515" alt="20060907b.png" src="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/20060907b.png" /> </a> </p> <p>SIOC provides a unified vocabulary for content and interaction description: a semantic layer that can co-exist with existing discussion platforms. Using SIOC, various linkages are created between the aforementioned concepts, which allow new methods of accessing this linked data, including:</p> <ul> <li> <strong>Virtual Forums</strong>. These may be a gathering of posts or threads which are distributed across discussion platforms, for example, where a user has found posts from a number of blogs that can be associated with a particular category of interest, or an agent identifies relevant posts across a certain timeframe.</li> <li> <strong>Distributed Conversations</strong>. Trackbacks are commonly used to link blog posts to previous posts on a related topic. By creating links in both directions, not only across blogs but across all types of internet discussions, conversations can be followed regardless of what point or URI fragment a browser enters at.</li> <li> <strong>Unified Communities</strong>. Apart from creating a web page with a number of relevant links to the blogs or forums or people involved in a particular community, there is no standard way to define what makes up an online community (apart from grouping the people who are members of that community using FOAF or OPML). SIOC allows one to simply define what objects are constituent parts of a community, or to say to what community an object belongs (using sioc:has_part / part_of): users, groups, forums, blogs, etc.</li> <li> <strong>Shared Topics</strong>. Technorati (a search engine for blogs) and BoardTracker (for bulletin boards) have been leveraging the free-text tags that people associate with their posts for some time now. SIOC allows the definition of such tags (using the subject property), but also enables hierarchial or non-hierarchial topic definition of posts using sioc:topic when a topic is ambiguous or more information on a topic is required. Combining with other Semantic Web vocabularies, tags and topics can be further described using the SKOS organisation system.</li> <li> <strong>One Person, Many User Accounts</strong>. SIOC also aims to help the issue of multiple identities by allowing users to define that they hold other accounts or that their accounts belong to a particular personal identity (via foaf:holdsOnlineAccount or sioc:account_of). Therefore, all the posts or comments made by a particular person using their various associated user accounts across platforms could be identified.</li> </ul> </blockquote>
2008-02-04T23:22:26.000001-05:00
Web 2.0's Open Data Access Conundrum (Update)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-05#1034
2006-09-05T21:02:00Z
<p> Open Data Access and Web 2.0 have a very strange relationship that continues to blur the lines of demarcation between where Web 2.0 ends and where Web.Next (i.e Web 3.0, Semantic/Data Web, Web of Databases etc.) starts. But before I proceed, let me attempt to define Web 2.0 one more time: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A phase in the evolution web usage patterns that emphasizes Web Services based interaction between “Web Users” and “Points of Web Presence” over traditional “Web Users” and “Web Sites” based interaction. Basically, a transition from visual site interaction to presence based interaction.</em> </p> <p> BTW - Dare Obasanjo also commented about Web usage patterns in his post titled: <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=929a7fd6-1dfc-43f4-a549-d2c9fa873655">The Two Webs</a>. Where he concluded that we had a dichotomy along the lines of: HTTP-for-APIs (2.0) and HTTP-for-Browsers (1.0). Which <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell">Jon Udell</a> evolved into: HTTP-Services-Web and HTTP-Intereactive-Web during our recent <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3">podcast conversation</a>. </p> <p> With definitions in place, I will resume my quest to unveil the aforementioned Web 2.0 Data Access Conundrum: </p> <ul> <li>Emphasis on XML's prowess in the realms of Data and Protocol Modeling alongside Data Representation. Especially as SOAP or REST styles of Web Services and various XML formats (RSS 0.92/1.0/1.1/2.0, Atom, OPML, OCS etc.) collectively define the Web 2.0 infrastructure landscape</li> <li>Where a modicum of Data Access appreciation and comprehension does exist it is inherently compromised by business models that mandate some form of “Walled Gardens” and “Data Silos”</li> <li>Mash-ups are a response to said “Walled Gardens” and “Data Silos” . Mash-ups by definition imply combining things that were not built for recombination.</li> </ul> <p> As you can see from the above, Open Data access isn't genuinely compatible with Web 2.0. </p> <p> We can also look at the same issue by way of the popular M-V-C (Model View Controller) pattern. Web 2.0 is all about the “V” and “C” with a modicum of “M” at best (data access, open data access, and flexible open data access are completely separate things). The “C” items represent application logic exposed by SOAP or REST style web services etc. I'll return to this later in this post. </p> <p> What about Social Networking you must be thinking? Isn't this a Web 2.0 manifestation? Not at all (IMHO). The Web was developed / invented by Tim Berners-Lee to leverage the “Network Effects” potential of the Internet for connecting <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/Image1.gif">People and Data</a>. Social Networking on the other hand, is simply one of several ways by which construct network connections. I am sure we all accept the fact that connections are built for many other reasons beyond social interaction. That said, we also know that through social interactions we actually develop some of our most valuable relationships (we are social creatures after-all). </p> <p> The Web 2.0 Open Data Access impedance reality is ultimately going to be the greatest piece of tutorial and usecase material for the Semantic Web. I take this position because it is human nature to seek Freedom (in unadulterated form) which implies the following: </p> <ul> <li>Access Data from a myriad of data sources (irrespective of structural differences at the database level)</li> <li>Mesh (not Mash) data in new and interesting ways</li> <li>Share the meshed data with as many relevant people as possible for social, professional, political, religious, and other reasons</li> <li>Construct valuable networks based on data oriented connections</li> </ul> <p> Web 2.0 by definition and use case scenarios is inherently incompatible with the above due to the lack of Flexible and Open Data Access. </p> <p> If we take the definition of Web 2.0 (above) and rework it with an appreciation Flexible and Open Data Access you would arrive at something like this: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A phase in the evolution of the web that emphasizes interaction between “Web Users” and “Web Data” facilitated by Web Services based APIs and an Open & Flexible Data Access Model “. </em> </p> <p> <em> <br /> </em>In more succinct form: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A pervasive network of people connected by data or data connected by people.</em> </p> <p> <em> <br /> </em>Returning to M-V-C and looking at the definition above, you now have a complete of ”M“ which is enigmatic in Web 2.0 and the essence of the Semantic Web (Data and Context). </p> <p> To make all of this possible a palatable Data Model is required. The model of choice is the Graph based RDF Data Model - not to be mistaken for the RDF/XML serialization which is just that, a data serialization that conforms to the aforementioned RDF data model. </p> <p> <strong>The Enterprise Challenge</strong> </p> <p> Web 2.0 cannot and will not make valuable inroads into the the enterprise because enterprises live and die by their ability to exploit data. Weblogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarking Systems, and other Web 2.0 distributed collaborative applications profiles are only valuable if the data is available to the enterprise for meshing (not mashing). </p> <p> A good example of how enterprises will exploit data by leveraging networks of people and data (social networks in this case) is shown in this nice presentation by Accenture's Institute for High Performance Business titled: <a href="http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/AccentureSNA.swf">Visualizing Organizational Change</a>. </p> <p> Web 2.0 commentators (for the most part) continue to ponder the use of Web 2.0 within the enterprise while forgetting the congruency between enterprise agility and exploitation of people & data networks (The very issue emphasized in this original <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html">Web vision document by Tim Berners-Lee</a>). Even worse, they remain challenged or spooked by the Semantic Web vision because they do not understand that Web 2.0 is fundamentally a Semantic Web precursor due to Open Data Access challenges. Web 2.0 is one of the greatest demonstrations of why we need the Semantic Web at the current time. </p> <p> Finally, juxtapose the items below and you may even get a clearer view of what I am an attempting to convey about the virtues of Open Data Access and the inflective role it plays as we move beyond Web 2.0: </p> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html">Information Management Proposal </a>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/AccentureSNA.swf">Visualizing Organizational Change</a> - <a href="http://www.accenture.com/Global/High_Performance_Business/default.htm">Accenture Institute of High Performance Business</a> </p>
2006-11-16T16:11:45-05:00
Data Spaces and Semantic Web Animation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-05#1035
2006-09-05T20:14:00Z
<p>I just spotted a nice <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/wp-content/20051015a.gif">Semantic Desktop animation</a> Courtesy of <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/">John Breslin</a>.</p> <p>This is fundamentally an animation demonstrating Semantic Web exploitation in the classic: picture speaks a thousand words manner. It also illustrates (yet again) the important <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%27data%20spaces%27&type=text&output=html">Data Space(s)</a> aspect of creating Semantic Web presence.</p> <p>Finally, the Web 2.0 usage pattern tries to espouse what's demonstrated in this animation via data-context-challenged interactions (due to its <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=connundrum&type=text&output=html">"Walled Garden" and "Data Silo" approach to Data Access</a> etc..). The <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=%27semantic%20web%27&type=text&output=html">Semantic Web</a> (as per numerous posts on the subject) on the other hand achieves this via data-context-aware interactions (as will be exemplified via meshups).</p>
2006-09-05T16:00:17.000001-04:00
Data Spaces, Internet Reinvention, and Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-04#1033
2006-09-04T21:06:00Z
<p> In the last week I've dispatch some thoughts about a number of issues (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1030">Data Spaces</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1032">Web 2.0's Open Data Access Paradox</a>) that basically equate to the identification of the Web 2.0 to Semantic Web (Data Web, Web of Databases, Web.next etc..) inflection. </p> <p> One of the great things about the moderate “open data access” that we have today (courtesy of the blogosphere) is the fact that you can observe the crystallization of new thinking, and/or new appreciation of emerging ideas, in near real-time. Of course, when we really hit the tracks with the Semantic Web this will be in “conditional real-time” (i.e. you choose and control your scope and sensitivity to data changes etc..). </p> <p> For instance, by way of feed subscriptions, I stumbled upon a series of posts by <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/">Jason Kolb</a> that basically articulate what I (and others who believe in the Semantic Web vision) have been attempting to convey in a myriad of ways via posts and commentary etc.. </p> <p> Here are the links to the 4 part series by Jason: </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the.html">Reinventing the Internet part 1</a> (appreciating “Presence” over traditional “Web Sites”)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the_1.html">Reinventing the Internet part 2</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the_2.html">Reinventing the Internet part 3</a> (appreciating and comprehending URIs)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/08/reinventing_the_3.html">Reinventing the Internet part 4</a> (nice visualization of what “<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1030">Data Spaces</a>”)</li> <li> <a href="http://www.jasonkolb.com/weblog/2006/09/reinventing_the.html">Reinventing the Internet part 5</a> (everyone will have a Data Space in due course becuase the Internet is really a Federation of Data Spaces)<br /> </li> </ol>
2007-01-25T16:50:40.000001-05:00
Web 2.0's Open Data Access Conundrum
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-09-02#1032
2006-09-02T16:47:52Z
<p> Open Data Access and Web 2.0 have a very strange relationship that continues to blur the lines of demarcation between where Web 2.0 ends and where Web.Next (i.e Web 3.0, Semantic/Data Web, Web of Databases etc.) starts. But before I proceed, let me attempt to define Web 2.0 one more time: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A phase in the evolution web usage patterns that emphasizes Web Services based interaction between “Web Users” and “Points of Web Presence” over traditional “Web Users” and “Web Sites” based interaction. Basically, a transition from visual site interaction to presence based interaction.</em> </p> <p> BTW - Dare Obasanjo also commented about Web usage patterns in his post titled: <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=929a7fd6-1dfc-43f4-a549-d2c9fa873655">The Two Webs</a>. Where he concluded that we had a dichotomy along the lines of: HTTP-for-APIs (2.0) and HTTP-for-Browsers (1.0). Which <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell">Jon Udell</a> evolved into: HTTP-Services-Web and HTTP-Intereactive-Web during our recent <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3">podcast conversation</a>. </p> <p> With definitions in place, I will resume my quest to unveil the aforementioned Web 2.0 Data Access Conundrum: </p> <ul> <li>Emphasis on XML's prowess in the realms of Data and Protocol Modeling alongside Data Representation. Especially as SOAP or REST styles of Web Services and various XML formats (RSS 0.92/1.0/1.1/2.0, Atom, OPML, OCS etc.) collectively define the Web 2.0 infrastructure landscape</li> <li>Where a modicum of Data Access appreciation and comprehension does exist it is inherently compromised by business models that mandate some form of “Walled Gardens” and “Data Silos”</li> <li>Mash-ups are a response to said “Walled Gardens” and “Data Silos” . Mash-ups by definition imply combining things that were not built for recombination.</li> </ul> <p> As you can see from the above, Open Data access isn't genuinely compatible with Web 2.0. </p> <p> We can also look at the same issue by way of the popular M-V-C (Model View Controller) pattern. Web 2.0 is all about the “V” and “C” with a modicum of “M” at best (data access, open data access, and flexible open data access are completely separate things). The “C” items represent application logic exposed by SOAP or REST style web services etc. I'll return to this later in this post. </p> <p> What about Social Networking you must be thinking? Isn't this a Web 2.0 manifestation? Not at all (IMHO). The Web was developed / invented by Tim Berners-Lee to leverage the “Network Effects” potential of the Internet for connecting <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/Image1.gif">People and Data</a>. Social Networking on the other hand, is simply one of several ways by which construct network connections. I am sure we all accept the fact that connections are built for many other reasons beyond social interaction. That said, we also know that through social interactions we actually develop some of our most valuable relationships (we are social creatures after-all). </p> <p> The Web 2.0 Open Data Access impedance reality is ultimately going to be the greatest piece of tutorial and usecase material for the Semantic Web. I take this position because it is human nature to seek Freedom (in unadulterated form) which implies the following: </p> <ul> <li>Access Data from a myriad of data sources (irrespective of structural differences at the database level)</li> <li>Mesh (not Mash) data in new and interesting ways</li> <li>Share the meshed data with as many relevant people as possible for social, professional, political, religious, and other reasons</li> <li>Construct valuable networks based on data oriented connections</li> </ul> <p> Web 2.0 by definition and use case scenarios is inherently incompatible with the above due to the lack of Flexible and Open Data Access. </p> <p> If we take the definition of Web 2.0 (above) and rework it with an appreciation Flexible and Open Data Access you would arrive at something like this: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A phase in the evolution of the web that emphasizes interaction between “Web Users” and “Web Data” facilitated by Web Services based APIs and an Open & Flexible Data Access Model “. </em> </p> <p> <em> <br /> </em>In more succinct form: </p> <p style="text-align: center;"> <em>A pervasive network of people connected by data or data connected by people.</em> </p> <p> <em> <br /> </em>Returning to M-V-C and looking at the definition above, you now have a complete of ”M“ which is enigmatic in Web 2.0 and the essence of the Semantic Web (Data and Context). </p> <p> To make all of this possible a palatable Data Model is required. The model of choice is the Graph based RDF Data Model - not to be mistaken for the RDF/XML serialization which is just that, a data serialization that conforms to the aforementioned RDF data model. </p> <p> <strong>The Enterprise Challenge</strong> </p> <p> Web 2.0 cannot and will not make valuable inroads into the the enterprise because enterprises live and die by their ability to exploit data. Weblogs, Wikis, Shared Bookmarking Systems, and other Web 2.0 distributed collaborative applications profiles are only valuable if the data is available to the enterprise for meshing (not mashing). </p> <p> A good example of how enterprises will exploit data by leveraging networks of people and data (social networks in this case) is shown in this nice presentation by Accenture's Institute for High Performance Business titled: <a href="http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/AccentureSNA.swf">Visualizing Organizational Change</a>. </p> <p> Web 2.0 commentators (for the most part) continue to ponder the use of Web 2.0 within the enterprise while forgetting the congruency between enterprise agility and exploitation of people & data networks (The very issue emphasized in this original <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html">Web vision document by Tim Berners-Lee</a>). Even worse, they remain challenged or spooked by the Semantic Web vision because they do not understand that Web 2.0 is fundamentally a Semantic Web precursor due to Open Data Access challenges. Web 2.0 is one of the greatest demonstrations of why we need the Semantic Web at the current time. </p> <p> Finally, juxtapose the items below and you may even get a clearer view of what I am an attempting to convey about the virtues of Open Data Access and the inflective role it plays as we move beyond Web 2.0: </p> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html">Information Management Proposal </a>- <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.accenture.com/xdoc/en/AccentureSNA.swf">Visualizing Organizational Change</a> - <a href="http://www.accenture.com/Global/High_Performance_Business/default.htm">Accenture Institute of High Performance Business</a> </p>
2006-11-16T15:51:43-05:00
Data Spaces and Web of Databases
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-28#1030
2006-08-28T19:38:00Z
<p>Note: An updated version of a previously unpublished blog post:</p> <p> Continuing from <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html">our recent Podcast conversation</a>, Jon Udell sheds further insight into the essence of our conversation via a “Strategic Developer” column article titled: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/redirect?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/03/77873_19OPstrategic_1.html">Accessing the web of databases</a>. </p> <p> Below, I present an initial dump of a DataSpace FAQ below that hopefully sheds light on the DataSpace vision espoused during my podcast conversation with Jon. </p> <p> What is a DataSpace? <br /> </p> <p>A moniker for Web-accessible atomic containers that manage and expose Data, Information, Services, Processes, and Knowledge. </p> <p> What would you typically find in a Data Space? Examples include: </p> <ul> <li>Raw Data - SQL, HTML, XML (raw), XHTML, RDF etc.<br /> <br /> </li> <li>Information (Data In Context) - XHTML (various microformats), Blog Posts (in RSS, Atom, RSS-RDF formats), Subscription Lists (OPML, OCS, etc), Social Networks (FOAF, XFN etc.), and many other forms of applied XML.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Web Services (Application/Service Logic) - REST or SOAP based invocation of application logic for context sensitive and controlled data access and manipulation.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Persisted Knowledge - Information in actionable context that is also available in transient or persistent forms expressed using a Graph Data Model. A modern knowledgebase would more than likely have RDF as its Data Language, RDFS as its Schema Language, and OWL as its Domain Definition (Ontology) Language. Actual Domain, Schema, and Instance Data would be serialized using formats such as RDF-XML, N3, Turtle etc).</li> </ul> <p> How do Data Spaces and Databases differ? <br />Data Spaces are fundamentally problem-domain-specific database applications. They offer functionality that you would instinctively expect of a database (e.g. AICD data management) with the additonal benefit of being data model and query language agnostic. Data Spaces are for the most part DBMS Engine and Data Access Middleware hybrids in the sense that ownership and control of data is inherently loosely-coupled. </p> <p>How do Data Spaces and Content Management Systems differ?<br />Data Spaces are inherently more flexible, they support multiple data models and data representation formats. Content management systems do not possess the same degree of data model and data representation dexterity. </p> <p>How do Data Spaces and Knowledgebases differ?<br />A Data Space cannot dictate the perception of its content. For instance, what I may consider as knowledge relative to my Data Space may not be the case to a remote client that interacts with it from a distance, Thus, defining my Data Space as Knowledgebase, purely, introduces constraints that reduce its broader effectiveness to third party clients (applications, services, users etc..). A Knowledgebase is based on a Graph Data Model resulting in significant impedance for clients that are built around alternative models. To reiterate, Data Spaces support multiple data models. </p> <p> What Architectural Components make up a Data Space? </p> <ul> <li>ORDBMS Engine - for Data Modeling agility (via complex purpose specific data types and data access methods), Data Atomicity, Data Concurrency, Transaction Isolation, and Durability (aka ACID).<br /> <br /> </li> <li>Virtual Database Engine - for creating a single view of, and access point to, heterogeneous SQL, XML, Free Text, and other data. This is all about Virtualization at the Data Access Level.</li> </ul> <ul> <li>Web Services Platform - enabling controlled access and manipulation (via application, service, or protocol logic) of Virtualized or Disparate Data. This layer handles the decoupling of functionality from monolithic wholes for function specific invocation via Web Services using either the SOAP or REST approach.</li> </ul> <br />Where do Data Spaces fit into the Web's rapid evolution?<br />They are an essential part of the burgeoning Data Web / Semantic Web. In short, they will take us from data “Mash-ups” (combining web accessible data that exists without integration and repurposing in mind) to “Mesh-ups” (combining web accessible data that exists with integration and repurposing in mind).<p> Where can I see a DataSpace along the lines described, in action? </p> <p> Just look at my blog, and take the journey as follows: </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/">Front Door</a> (Web 1.0)</li> <li>Lounge (Web 2.0) via <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/GData/127">GData</a> or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&type=text&kwds=%27semantic+web%27&OpenSearch">OpenSearch</a> </li> <li>Floor Plan via <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/about.rdf">FOAF</a> or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com/sioc.rdf">SIOC</a> RDF Data Sets (Graphs)</li> <li>Rest of the house (beyond Web 2.0) sending <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSODSSparqlSamples">SPARQL Queries</a> to a <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/sparql/">SPARQL Endpoint</a>.<br /> </li> </ul> <p> What about other Data Spaces? </p> <p> There are several and I will attempt to categorize along the lines of query method available: <br />Type 1 (Free Text Search over HTTP): <br />Google, MSN, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, and most Web 2.0 plays . </p> <p> Type 2 (Free Text Search and XQuery/XPath over HTTP) <br />A few blogs and Wikis (Jon Udell's and a few others)</p>Type 3 (RDF Data Sets and SPARQL Queryable):<br /> <ul> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/SIOC/EnabledSites">SIOC enabled sites</a> (aka points of semantic web presence)<br /> </li> <li> <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/">PingTheSemantic</a> <br /> </li> </ul>Type 4 (Generic Free Text Search, OpenSearch, GData, XQuery/XPath, and SPARQL):<br />Points of Semantic Web presence such as the Data Spaces at: <br /> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com">My Blog Data Space</a> (as stated earlier in this post)<br /> </li> <li> <a href="http://myopenlink.net:8890/dataspace/kidehen@openlinksw.com">My General Data Space</a> - (ditto; note that this is currently experimental)<br /> </li> </ul> <p>What About Data Space aware tools?<br /> <br /> </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/DAV/JS/oat/index.html/">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit </a>- provides Javascript Control level binding to Query Services such as XMLA for SQL, GData for Free Text, OpenSearch for Free Text, SPARQL for RDF, in addition to service specific Web Services (Web 2.0 hosted solutions that expose service specific APIs)</li> <li> <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/firefox">Semantic Radar </a>- a Firefox Extension</li> <li> <a href="http://pingthesemanticweb.com/">PingTheSemantic</a> - the Semantic Webs equivalent of Web 2.0's weblogs.com</li> <li> <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">PiggyBank</a> - a Firefox Extension</li> </ul> <p> </p>
2006-09-04T18:58:56.000001-04:00
The WWW Proposal and RDF: Then and Now (circa 1999)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-28#1029
2006-08-28T10:20:00Z
<p>I've just re-read an article penned by Dan Brickley in 1999 titled: <a href="http://www.w3.org/1999/11/11-WWWProposal/thenandnow">The WWW Proposal and RDF: Then and Now</a>, that retains its prescience to this very day. Ironically I stumbled across this timeless piece while revisiting the <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/09/06/history_of_the_rss_fork">RSS name imbroglio</a> that gave us a simple syndication format (RSS 2.0) that will ultimately implode (IMHO) since "Simple" is ultimately short lived when dealing with attention challenged end-users that are always assumed to be dumb when in fact they are simply ambivalent.</p> <p>I was compelled to go back to the RSS 2.0 imbroglio when I came across <a href="http://www.scripting.com/dwiner/">Dave Winer</a>'s comments re. "the SEC attempting to reinvent RSS 2.0..." response to <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/08/16.html">Jon Udell's recent XBRL article</a>. </p> <p>Although I don't believe in complex entry points into complex technology realms, I do subscribe to the approach where developers deal with the complexity associated with a problem domain while hiding said complexity from ambivalent end-users via coherent interfaces -- which does not always imply User Interface.</p> <p> <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/xbrl.html">XBRL</a> is a great piece of work that addresses the complex problem domain of Financial Reporting. The only thing it's missing right now is an Ontology that facilitates <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-primer/">RDF Data Model</a> based XBRL Schema and Instance Data which ultimately makes XBRL data available to RDF query languages such as <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>. This line of thought implies, for instance, an XML Schema to <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-guide/">OWL Ontology Mapping</a> for Schema Data (as explained in a <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fvsis-www.informatik.uni-hamburg.de%2FgetDoc.php%2Fpublications%2F204%2Ffzt-lxs-04.pdf&ei=4lXzRPLaO8SmaJmgsLgC&sig2=INc-OyDoxj16TW8tb0pNXA#search=%22xml%20schema%20owl%20mapping%22">white paper by the VSIS Group at the university of Hamburg</a>) leaving the Instance Data to be generated in a myriad of ways that includes XML to RDF and/or XML->SQL->RDF.</p> <p>As I stated in an earlier post: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=1018">we should not mistake ambivalence to lack of intelligence</a>. Assuming "Simple" is always right at all times is another way of subscribing to this profound misconception. You know, assuming the world was flat (as opposed to geoid) was quite palatable at some point in the history of mankind, I wonder what would have happened if we held on to this point of view to this day because of its "Simplicity"?</p>
2006-09-30T16:27:36-04:00
Paul Graham was Surprised by Google Calendar?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-19#1028
2006-08-19T20:17:31Z
<p>Dare's insightful take below, sheds light on the problems associated with building Web 2.0 business offerings around a single Collaborative Application feature as opposed to a coherently integrated platform.</p> <p> BTW - I am just as perplexed as Dare about Paul Graham being blind-sided by the integration of Calendaring and Email by Google.</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/CommentView.aspx?guid=a0e893a1-95a1-4277-b635-2b4abb240b69">Paul Graham was Surprised by Google Calendar?</a>: "</p> <p> I was just reading Paul Graham's post entitled <a href="http://paulgraham.infogami.com/blog/kiko">The Kiko Affair</a> which talks about <a href="http://jkanstyle.com/2006/08/17/actual-lessons-from-kiko/">the recent failure of Kiko</a>, an AJAX web-calendaring application. I was quite surprised to see the following sentence in Paul Graham's post </p> <blockquote> <i>The killer, unforseen by the Kikos and by us, was Google Calendar's integration with Gmail. The Kikos can't very well write their own Gmail to compete.</i> </blockquote> <p> Integrating a calendaring application with an email application seems pretty obvious to me especially since the most popular usage of calendaring applications is using Outlook/Exchange to schedule meetings in corporate environments. What's surprising to me is how surprised people are that <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1023-219412.html?legacy=cnet">an idea that failed in 1990s</a> will turn out any differently now because you sprinkle the AJAX magic pixie dust on it. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.kiko.com/">Kiko</a> was a feature, not a full-fledged online destination let alone a viable business. There'll be a lot more entrants into the <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/tag/deadpool">TechCrunch deadpool</a> that are features masquerading as companies before the 'Web 2.0' hype cycle runs its course. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
2006-08-19T23:39:03-04:00
OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT) 1.0 Released
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-08-08#1023
2006-08-08T22:11:45Z
<p> We have finally released the 1.0 edition of OAT. </p> <p> OAT offers a broad Javascript-based, browser-independent widget set <br />for building data source independent rich internet applications that are usable across a broad range of Ajax-capable web browsers. </p> <p> OAT's support binding to the following data sources via its Ajax Database Connectivity Layer: </p> <p> SQL Data via XML for Analysis (XMLA) <br />Web Data via SPARQL, GData, and OpenSearch Query Services <br />Web Services specific Data via service specific binding to SOAP and REST style web services </p> <p> The toolkit includes a collection of powerful rich internet application prototypes include: SQL Query By Example, Visual Database Modeling, and Data bound Web Form Designer. </p> <p> Project homepage on sourceforge.net: </p> <p> <span style="color:#0000ff;text-decoration:underline;">http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat</span> </p> <p> Source Code: </p> <p> <span style="color:#0000ff;text-decoration:underline;">http://sourceforge.net/projects/oat/files</span> </p> <p> Live demonstration: </p> <p> <span style="color:#0000ff;text-decoration:underline;">http://www.openlinksw.com/oat/</span> </p>
2006-08-09T05:12:48-04:00
Value vs Source
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-29#1020
2006-07-29T22:19:22Z
<p>(Via <a href="http://davidwarlick.com/2cents">David Warlick</a>.)</p>: <p> <a href="http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/2006/07/29/value-vs-source/#comments">Value vs Source</a>: "</p> <p>I think we’re all sorta jumping around the same bush. It’s been a good dance because I’ve learned some things. First of all, nothing’s simple and it isn’t getting any simpler. There are no rules any more and as much as I’d like to come up with some kind of all encompassing unified field theory of ethical research method, I know that smarter people than me have already done a better job, and none of it is perfect.</p> <p>Please allow me to do something kinda strange. I want to look backward for some clues. When I was young, my Dad loved to build things. He was the preeminent do-it-yourselfer. Every weekend, he had a building project, and every Saturday morning he loaded us boys into the station wagon and off we went to the Lowes Hardware Store in Shelby, where he bought the tools and materials he would need for the project. </p> <p>He did not have a list of criterial for selecting his materials, because every project was different — the goal was different. If he had selected everything based on the same criteria, then everything he built would have been made with pine shelving, two-penny finishing nails, and all the work would have been done with a Craftsman common nail hammer. Instead, he selected his building materials and tools based on the goal of the project. To do otherwise would have resulted in a product that did not last long, and that would have been unethical.</p> <p> <img src="http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/bill_edwards.jpg" height="309" width="169" border="1" align="right" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Bill Edwards" />Years later, I studied under the best teacher I ever had, Mr. Bill Edwards — my industrial arts teacher. His technique was to help us learn industrial arts skills by helping us to build something of value. I built a kayak. Other students built book shelves, stools, and chess boards. Two friends of mine built a life-size replica of a Gemini Space Capsule. Mr. Edwards taught us to set goals and to make decisions based on those goals.</p> <p>This was the perfect way to teach industrial arts skills, since we were in the industrial age. If Edwards had taught us in the same way that my information arts teachers were teaching, he would have put a stack of lumber on our desks and asked us to practice driving nails. But he taught us by putting us in the industry. We should be teaching today by putting students in the industry of information. We need to stop teaching science and start teaching students to be scientists. Stop teaching history, but rather teach to be historians. Stop teaching students to be researchers, and instead, teach them to solve problems and accomplish goals using information.</p> <p>I am certain that there were brands of wood and nails that my father wouldn’t buy, because he couldn’t depend on them. He swore by Craftsman tools. To build with materials that were unreliable would have been unethical. But his conscious work in finding and selecting materials was based on the goal at hand. All else pointed to that criteria.</p> <p>It is critical to know and understand the source of the information. But what is it about the source that helps you accomplish your goal. It’s important to understand when the information was generated and published. But what is it about ‘when’ that helps you accomplish your goal. It’s important to understand what the information is made of, and what it is about its format and how you can use it that helps you accomplish your goal. It’s important to understand the information’s cultural, economic, environmental, and emotional context, and what it is about the context that helps you accomplish your goal. All aspects remain critical, but its problem solving and goal achieving that children need to be doing, not just hoop-jumping in their schools. The need to look for the information’s value as a tool for <span style="text-decoration:underline;">ethically</span> accomplishing their goals.</p> <p> <br /> </p> <p style="text-align:right;font-size:10px;">Technorati Tags: <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/librarians" rel="tag">librarians</a>, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/warlick" rel="tag">warlick</a> </p> <p></p> <hr size="1" /> <br /> Portions of this post come from Raw Materials for the Mind ISBN #1-4116-2795-4<br /> <a href="http://www.lulu.com/content/116469"><br /> <img src="http://www.lulu.com/services/buy_now_buttons/images/book_maroon.gif" border="0" alt="Support independent publishing: buy this book on Lulu." /> <br /> </a> "
2006-07-29T18:55:52.000002-04:00
Semantic Knight vs Web Hacker
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-23#1017
2006-07-23T23:37:00Z
<p> <a href="http://vzach.blogspot.com/2006/07/semantic-knight.html">Semantic Knight</a>: " </p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:blockquote> SEMANTIC KNIGHT:<xhtml:br /> None shall pass without formally defining the ontological meta-semantic thingies of their domain something-or-others! <xhtml:br /> HACKER:<xhtml:br /> What?<xhtml:br /> SEMANTIC KNIGHT:<xhtml:br /> None shall pass without using all sorts of semantic meta-meta-meta-stuff that we will invent Real Soon Now!<xhtml:br /> HACKER:<xhtml:br /> I have no quarrel with you, good Sir Knight, but I must get my work done on the Web. Stand aside!<xhtml:br /> </xhtml:blockquote> More from: <xhtml:a href="http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/200504/msg00260.html">Semantic Knight vs. Web Hacker Duel</xhtml:a>. Nice antidote to lots of self-rightous talk in the aftermath of the <xhtml:a href="http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/soa/Google_exec_challenges_Berners_Lee/0,2000061733,39263931,00.htm">TBL-Norvig encounter</xhtml:a>. Thanks <xhtml:a href="http://www.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/WBS/ysu/">York</xhtml:a>.</xhtml:div> " <p>(Via <a href="http://vzach.blogspot.com">Valentin Zacharias</a>.)</p>
2006-07-24T15:09:46.000002-04:00
Virtuoso RDF Triple Store White Paper
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-22#1016
2006-07-22T00:08:13Z
<p>We have just released a new technical white paper covering the usage of Virtuoso's SQL-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-relational_database">ORDBMS</a> Engine to implement a <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> compliant <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a> Triple Store. The paper is titled: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSRDFWP">Implementing a SPARQL Compliant RDF Triple Store using a SQL-ORDBMS</a> </p>
2006-07-21T21:26:26.000003-04:00
Google vs Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-20#1018
2006-07-20T19:19:16Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://morenews.blogspot.com/2006/07/goggle-vs-semantic-web.html">Goggle vs Semantic Web</a>: "<a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1025_3-6095705.html?part=rss&tag=6095705&subj=news">Google exec challenges Berners-Lee</a> 'At the end of the keynote, however, things took a different turn. Google Director of Search and AAAI Fellow Peter Norvig was the first to the microphone during the Q&A session, and he took the opportunity to raise a few points.<br /> <br />'What I get a lot is: 'Why are you against the Semantic Web?' I am not against the Semantic Web. But from Google's point of view, there are a few things you need to overcome, incompetence being the first,' Norvig said. Norvig clarified that it was not Berners-Lee or his group that he was referring to as incompetent, but the general user.'<br /> <br />Related: <a href="http://blogmatrix.semantic.blogmatrix.com/:entry:blogmatrix-2006-07-17-0005/">Google Base -- summing up</a>."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://morenews.blogspot.com">More News</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>When will we drop the ill conceived notion that end-users are incompetent?</p> <p> Has it every occurred to software developers and technology vendors that incompetent, dumb, and other contemptuous end-user adjectives simply reflect the inability of most technology products to surmount end-user "Interest Activation Thresholds"?</p> <p>Interest Activation Threshold (IAT)? What's That?</p> <p>I have a fundamental personal belief that all human beings are intelligent. Our ability to demonstrate intelligence, or be perceived as intelligent, is directly proportional to our interest level in a given context. In short, we have "Ambivalence Quotients" (AQs) just as we have "Intelligence Quotients" (IQs).</p> <p>An interested human being is an inherently intelligent entity. The abstract nature of human intelligence also makes locating the IQ and AQ on/off buttons a mercurial quest at the best of times.</p> <p>Technology end-users exhibit high AQs, most of the time due to the inability of most technology products to truly engage, and ultimately stimulate genuine interest, by surmounting IAT and reducing AQ.</p> <p>Ironically, when a technology vendor is lagging behind its competitors in the "features arms race" it is common place to use the familiar excuse: "our end-users aren't asking for this feature". </p> <p> <b>Note To Google:</b> </p> <p>Ambivalence isn't incompetence. If end-users were genuinely incompetent, how is that they run rings around your page rank algorithms by producing google-friendly content at the expense of valuable context? What about the <a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2006/07/25/revealed-how-google-manages-click-fraud/">deteriorating value of Adsense due to click fraud</a>? Likewise, the continued erosion of the value of your once exemplary "keyword based search" service? As we all know, necessity is the mother of invention, so when users develop high AQs because there is nothing better, we end up with a forced breech of "IAT"; which is why the issues that I mention remain long term challenges for you. Ironically, the so called "incompetents" are already outsmarting you, and you don't seem to comprehend this reality or its inevitable consequences.</p> <p>Finally, how you are going to improve value without integrating the Semantic Web vision into your R&D roadmap? I can tell you categorically that you have little or no wiggle room re. this matter, especially if you want to remain true to your: "don't be evil" mantra. My guess is that you will incorporate Semantic Web technologies sooner rather than later (Google Co-op is a big clue). I would even go as far as predicting a Google hosted SPARQL Query Endpoint alongside your GData endpints during the next 6-12 months (if even that long). I believe that your GData protocol (like the rest of Web 2.0) will ultimately accelerate your appreciation of the data model dexterity that RDF brings to loosely coupled knowledge networks espoused by the Semantic Web vision.</p> <p> <b>Google & Semantic Web Paradox</b> </p> <p> The Semantic Web vision has the RDF graph data model at its core (and for good reason), but even more confusing for me, as I process Google sentiments about the Semantic Web, is the fact that RDF's actual creator (Ramanathan Guha aka. Guha) currently works at Google. There's a strange disconnect here IMHO.</p> <p>If I recall correctly, Google wants to organize the worlds data and information, leaving the knowledge organization to someone else which is absolutely fine. What is increasingly irksome, is the current tendency to use corporate stature to generate Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt when the subject matter is the "Semantic Web".</p> <p> BTW - I've just read <a href="http://fgiasson.com/blog/index.php?title=norvig_and_berners_lee_on_the_semantic_w_06&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1">Frederick Giasson's perspective on the Google Semantic Web paradox</a> which ultimately leads to the same conclusions regarding Google's FUD stance when dealing with matters relating to the Semantic Web. </p> <p>I wonder if anyone is tracking the google hits for "<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=google+fud+semantic+web&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official">fud google semantic web</a>"?</p>
2006-07-29T19:55:57-04:00
Origins of the Term: Middleware
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-19#1015
2006-07-19T04:41:47Z
<p>A nice link to a 2005 post Nick Gall about the <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0126951/2005/07/30.html#a194">Origins of the term: Middleware</a> </p>
2006-07-19T03:36:50-04:00
New Toolkit for Rich Web Applications
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-19#1014
2006-07-19T00:26:36Z
<p> <a href="http://tirania.org/blog/archive/2006/Jun-28-1.html">New Toolkit for Rich Web Applications</a>: "</p> <p>The other day I ran into <a href="http://www.jitsu.org/jitsu/">Jitsu</a>, a new toolkit for creating Ajax-y applications. </p> <p>Jitsu takes an interesting <a href="http://www.jitsu.org/jitsu/guide/approach.html">approach</a> in the Ajaxy space."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://tirania.org/blog/index.html">Miguel de Icaza</a>.)</p>
2006-07-18T21:39:38.000002-04:00
Intermediate RDF Bulk Loading (Wikipedia & Wordnet) Experiment Results
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-18#1013
2006-07-18T15:21:28Z
<p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri</a> shares his findings from internal experimentation re. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso</a> and bulk loading RDF content such as <a href="http://labs.systemone.at/wikipedia3">Wikpedia3</a> and <a href="http://wordnet.princeton.edu/~agraves/index_archivos/Page381.htm">Wordnet</a> Data Sets:</p> <p>Here is a dump of the post titled: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1010">Intermediate RDF Loading Results</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p>Following from the post about a new <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/oerling/index.vspx?page=&id=1000">Multithreaded RDF Loader</a>, here are some intermediate results and action plans based on my findings.</p> <p>The experiments were made on a dual 1.6GHz Sun SPARC with 4G RAM and 2 SCSI disks. The data sets were the 48M triple Wikipedia data set and the 1.9M triple Wordnet data set. 100% CPU means one CPU constantly active. 100% disk means one thread blocked on the read system call at all times.</p> <p>Starting with an empty database, loading the Wikipedia set took 315 minutes, amounting to about 2500 triples per second. After this, loading the Wordnet data set with cold cache and 48M triples already in the table took 4 minutes 12 seconds, amounting to 6838 triples per second. Loading the Wikipedia data had CPU usage up to 180% but over the whole run CPU usage was around 50% with disk I/O around 170%. Loading the larger data set was significantly I/O bound while loading the smaller set was more CPU bound, yet was not at full 200% CPU.</p> <p>The RDF quad table was indexed on GSPO and PGOS. As one would expect, the bulk of I/O was on the PGOS index. We note that the pages of this index were on the average only 60% full. Thus the most relevant optimization seems to be to fill the pages closer to 90%. This will directly cut about a third of all I/O plus will have an additional windfall benefit in the form of better disk cache hit rates resulting from a smaller database.</p> <p>The most practical way of having full index pages in the case of unpredictable random insert order will be to take sets of adjacent index leaf pages and compact the rows so that the last page of the set goes empty. Since this is basically an I/O optimization, this should be done when preparing to write the pages to disk, hence concerning mostly old dirty pages. Insert and update times will not be affected since these operations will not concern themselves with compaction. Thus the CPU cost of background compaction will be negligible in comparison with writing the pages to disk. Naturally this will benefit any relational application as well as free text indexing. RDF and free text will be the largest beneficiaries due to the large numbers of short rows inserted in random order.</p> <p>Looking at the CPU usage of the tests, locating the place in the index where to insert, which by rights should be the bulk of the time cost, was not very significant, only about 15%. Thus there are many unused possibilities for optimization,for example writing some parts of the loader current done as stored procedures in C. Also the thread usage of the loader, with one thread parsing and mapping IRI strings to IRI IDs and 6 threads sharing the inserting could be refined for better balance, as we have noted that the parser thread sometimes forms a bottleneck. Doing the updating of the IRI name to IRI id mapping on the insert thread pool would produce some benefit.</p> <p>Anyway, since the most important test was I/O bound, we will first implement some background index compaction and then revisit the experiment. We expect to be able to double the throughput of the Wikipedia data set loading.</p> </blockquote>
2006-07-18T14:28:58.000004-04:00
More Thoughts on ORDBMS Clients, ADO.NET vNext, and RDF
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-18#1012
2006-07-18T13:29:13Z
<p>Additional commentary from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling</a>. re. ORDBMS, ADO.NET vNext, and RDF (in relation to Semantic Web Objects):</p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1007">More Thoughts on ORDBMS Clients, .NET and RDF</a>:</p> <blockquote>Continuing on from the previous post... If Microsoft opens the right interfaces for independent developers, we see many exciting possibilities for using ADO .NET 3 with <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso</a>. <p>Microsoft quite explicitly states that their thrust is to decouple the client side representation of data as .NET objects from the relational schema on the database. This is a worthy goal.</p> <p>But we can also see other possible applications of the technology when we move away from strictly relational back ends. This can go in two directions: Towards object oriented database and towards making applications for the semantic web.</p> <p>In the OODBMS direction, we could equate Virtuoso table hierarchies with .NET classes and create a tighter coupling between client and database, going as it were in the other direction from Microsofts intended decoupling. For example, we could do typical OODBMS tricks such as prefetch of objects based on storage clustering. The simplest case of this is like virtual memory, where the request for one byte brings in the whole page or group of pages. The basic idea is that what is created together probably gets used together and if all objects are modeled as subclasses of (subtables) of a common superclass, then, regardless of instance type, what is created together (has consecutive ids) will indeed tend to cluster on the same page. These tricks can deliver good results in very navigational applications like GIS or CAD. But these are rather specialized things and we do not see OODBMS making any great comeback.</p> <p>But what is more interesting and more topical in the present times is making clients for the RDF world. There, the<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-ref/"> OWL Ontology Language</a> could be used to make the .NET classes and the DBMS could, when returning URIs serving as subjects of triple include specified predicates on these subjects, enough to allow instantiating .NET instances as 'proxies' of these RDF objects. Of course, only predicates for which the client has a representation are relevant, thus some client-server handshake is needed at the start. What data could be prefetched is like the intersection of a concise bounded description and what the client has classes for. The rest of the mapping would be very simple, with IRIs becoming pointers, multi-valued predicates lists and so on. IRIs for which the RDF type were not known or inferable could be left out or represented as a special class with name-value pairs for its attributes, same with blank nodes.</p> <p>In this way,.NETs considerable UI capabilities could directly be exploited for visualizing RDF data, only given that the data complied reasonably well with a known ontology.</p> <p>If an <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a> query returned a resultset, IRI type columns would be returned as .NET instances and the server would prefetch enough data for filling them in. For a SPARQL CONSTRUCT, a collection object could be returned with the objects materialized inside. If the interfaces allow passing an Entity SQL string, these could possibly be specialized to allow for a SPARQL string instead. LINQ might have to be extended to allow for SPARQL type queries, though.</p> <p>Many of these questions will be better answerable as we get more details on Microsofts forthcoming ADO .NET release. We hope that sufficient latitude exists for exploring all these interesting avenues of development. </p> </blockquote>
2006-07-18T14:28:58.000001-04:00
Web 2.0 Self-Experiment aids Web 3.0 comprehension
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-17#1009
2006-07-17T21:46:42Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://vzach.blogspot.com/2006/07/web-20-self-experiment.html">Web 2.0 Self-Experiment</a>: "</p> <blockquote>I shopped for everything except food on eBay. When working with foreign-language documents, I used translations from Babel Fish. (This worked only so well. After a Babel Fish round-trip through Italian, the preceding sentence reads, 'That one has only worked therefore well.') Why use up space storing files on my own hard drive when, thanks to certain free utilities, I can store them on Gmail's servers? I saved, sorted, and browsed photos I uploaded to Flickr. I used Skype for my phone calls, decided on books using Amazon's recommendations rather than 'expert' reviews, killed time with videos at YouTube, and listened to music through customizable sites like Pandora and Musicmatch. I kept my schedule on Google Calendar, my to-do list on Voo2do, and my outlines on iOutliner. I voyeured my neighborhood's home values via Zillow. I even used an online service for each stage of the production of this article, culminating in my typing right now in Writely rather than Word. (Being only so confident that Writely wouldn't somehow lose my work -- or as Babel Fish might put it, 'only confident therefore' -- I backed it up into Gmail files.</blockquote> <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17061&ch=infotech">Interesting article</a>, Tim O'Reilly's response is <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/07/levels_of_the_game.html">here</a>" <p>(Via <a href="http://vzach.blogspot.com">Valentin Zacharias (Student)</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Tim O'Reilly's response provides the following hierarchy for Web 2.0 based on The what he calls: "Web 2.0-ness":</p> <blockquote> <p>level 3: The application could ONLY exist on the net, and draws its essential power from the network and the connections it makes possible between people or applications. These are applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them. EBay, craigslist, Wikipedia, del.icio.us, Skype, (and yes, Dodgeball) meet this test. They are fundamentally driven by shared online activity. The web itself has this character, which Google and other search engines have then leveraged. (You can search on the desktop, but without link activity, many of the techniques that make web search work so well are not available to you.) Web crawling is one of the fundamental Web 2.0 activities, and search applications like Adsense for Content also clearly have Web 2.0 at their heart. I had a conversation with Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Google, the other day, and he summed up his philosophy and strategy as "Don't fight the internet." In the hierarchy of web 2.0 applications, the highest level is to embrace the network, to understand what creates network effects, and then to harness them in everything you do.</p> <p> Level 2: The application could exist offline, but it is uniquely advantaged by being online. Flickr is a great example. You can have a local photo management application (like iPhoto) but the application gains remarkable power by leveraging an online community. In fact, the shared photo database, the online community, and the artifacts it creates (like the tag database) is central to what distinguishes Flickr from its offline counterparts. And its fuller embrace of the internet (for example, that the default state of uploaded photos is "public") is what distinguishes it from its online predecessors.</p> <p> Level 1: The application can and does exist successfully offline, but it gains additional features by being online. Writely is a great example. If you want to do collaborative editing, its online component is terrific, but if you want to write alone, as Fallows did, it gives you little benefit (other than availability from computers other than your own.) </p> <p> Level 0: The application has primarily taken hold online, but it would work just as well offline if you had all the data in a local cache. MapQuest, Yahoo! Local, and Google Maps are all in this category (but mashups like housingmaps.com are at Level 3.) To the extent that online mapping applications harness user contributions, they jump to Level 2.</p> </blockquote> <p>So, in a sense we have near conclusive confirmation that Web 2.0 is simply about APIs (typically service specific Data Silos or Walled-gardens) with little concern, understanding, or interest in truly open data access across the burgeoning "<a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/06/05/03/77873_19OPstrategic_1.html">Web of Databases</a>". Or the<a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/0623-sb-IEEEStorConf/"> Web of "Databases and Programs"</a> that I prefer to describe as "<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/DataSpaceFAQ">Data Spaces</a>"</p> <p>Thus, we can truly begin to conclude that Web 3.0 (Data Web) is the addition of Flexible and Open Data Access to Web 2.0; where the Open Data Access is achieved by leveraging Semantic Web deliverables such as the RDF Data Model and the SPARQL Query Language :-)</p>
2006-07-18T01:17:43-04:00
GeoRSS & Geonames for Philanthropy re. Kiva Microfinance
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-15#1006
2006-07-15T14:11:47Z
<p>(Via <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com">Geospatial Semantic Web Blog</a>.)</p> <p> <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/2006/07/14/georss-geonames-for-philanthropy#comments">GeoRSS & Geonames for Philanthropy</a>: "</p> <p>I heard about <a title="kiva.org" href="http://www.kiva.org">Kiva.ORG</a> in a BusinessWeek podcast. After visiting its website, I think there are few places where GeoRSS (in the RDF/A syntax) and Geonames can be used to enhance the site’s functionality.</p> <h5>Kiva.ORG Background</h5> <h5> <img align="left" title="kiva.org" id="image92" alt="kiva.org" src="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/kiva-bannersmall.png" /> </h5> <p>It’s a microfinance website for people in the developing countries. Its business model is in the intersection between peer-to-peer financing and philanthropy. The goal is to help developing country businesses to borrow small loans from a large group of Web users, so that they can avoid paying high interests to the banks.</p> <p>For example, a person in Uganda can <a target="_blank" title="Kiva Loan Request" href="http://kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=564">request</a> a $500 loan and use it for buying and selling more poultry. One or more lenders (anyone on the Web) may decide to grant loans to that person in increments as tiny as $25. After few years, that person will pay back the loans to the lenders.</p> <h5>How GeoRSS and Geonames Can Help</h5> <p>I went to the website and discovered the site has a relative weak search and browsing interface. In particular, there is no way to group loan requests based on geographical locations (e.g., countries, cities and regions).<br /> <a id="more-90"></a> <br /> Took a look at individual loan pages. Each page actually has standard ways to describe location information — e.g., <strong>Location:</strong> Mbale, Uganda.</p> <p>It should be relative easy to add <a title="GeoRSS" target="_blank" href="http://www.georss.org/">GeoRSS</a> points (in <a title="Mixing GeoRSS with RDF/A" target="_blank" href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/2006/06/08/mixing-rdfa-with-georss">the RDF/A syntax</a>) to describe these location information (an alternative maybe using <a title="geocode with microformat" target="_blank" href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/2006/01/03/how-to-geocode-your-blog">Microformat Geo</a> or <a title="w3c geo" target="_blank" href="http://www.w3.org/2003/01/geo/">W3C Geo</a>). Once the location information is annotated, one can imagine building a map mashup to display loan requests in a geospatial perspective. One can also build search engines to support spatial queries such as ‘find me all loans with from Mbale’.</p> <p>Since Kiva.ORG webmasters may not be GIS experts, it will be nice if we can find ways to automatically geocode location information and describe that using GeoRSS. This automatic geocoding procedure can be developed using <a title="geonames webservices" target="_blank" href="http://www.geonames.org/export/geonames-search.html">Geonames’s webservices</a>. Take a string ‘Mbale’ or ‘Uganda’, and send to Geonames’s search service. The procedure will get back <a target="_blank" title="geonames json saerch" href="http://ws.geonames.org/searchJSON?q=Mbale&maxRows=10">JSON</a> or <a target="_blank" title="geonames xml search" href="http://ws.geonames.org/search?q=Mbale&maxRows=10">XML</a> description of the location, which include latitude and longitude. This will then be used to annotate the location information in a Kiva loan page.</p> <p>Can you think of other ways to help Kiva.ORG to become more ‘geospatially intelligent’?<br /> You can learn more about <a title="kiva.org" target="_blank" href="http://www.kiva.org">Kiva.ORG</a> at its website and listen to <a title="An eBay for Microfinance" target="_blank" href="http://www.businessweek.com/mediacenter/podcasts/innovation/innovation_07_11_06.htm">this podcast</a>. </p>"
2006-07-15T10:48:36.000002-04:00
Object Relational Rediscovered?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-13#1005
2006-07-14T01:59:15Z
<p>Microsoft's recent unveiling of the next <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/ADONETEnFrmOvw.asp">generation of ADO.NET</a> has pretty much crystalized a long running hunch that the era of standardized client/user level interfaces for "Object-Relational" technology is neigh. Finally, this application / problem domain is attracting the attention of industry behemoths such as Microsoft.</p> <p> </p> <p>In an initial response to these developments<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/">Orri Erling</a>, Virtuoso's Program Manager, shares <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/oerling/?id=1002">valuable insights from past re. Object-Relational technology developments and deliverables challenges</a>. As Orri notes, the Virtuoso team suspended ORM and ORDBMS work at the onset of the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory">Kubl-Virtuoso transition</a> due to the lack of standardized client-side functionality exposure points.</p> <p>My hope is that Microsoft's efforts trigger community wide activity that result in a collection of interfaces that make scenarios such as generating .NET based Semantic Web Objects (where the S in an S-P->O RDF-Triple becomes a bona fide .NET class instance generated from OWL).</p> <p>To be continued since the interface specifics re. ADO.NET 3.0 remain in flux...</p>
2006-07-13T21:59:16.000002-04:00
RDF's History
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-13#1004
2006-07-13T21:42:57Z
<p>We are getting very close to a Semantic Web watershed moment (IMHO). Thus, for the purpose of historic record, I would like to create a public bookmark to Tim Bray's 2003 post titled: <a href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/21/RDFNet">RDF.net</a> Challenge that also contains a nice section about the <a href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2003/05/21/RDFNet">History of RDF</a>.</p> <p>Note to Tim:</p> <p> Is the RDF.net domain deal still on? I know it's past 1st Jan 2006, but do bear in mind that the critical issue of a broadly supported RDF Query Language only took significant shape approximately 13 months ago (in the form of SPARQL), and this is all so critical to the challenge you posed in 2003.</p> <p> <a href="http://rdf.net">RDF.net</a> could become a point of semantic-web-presence through which the benefits of SPARQL compliant Triple|Quad Stores, Shared Ontologies, and SPARQL Protocol are unveiled in their well intended glory :-).</p>
2006-07-13T19:04:36-04:00
Phalanger - PHP5 Compiler for .NET and Mono
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-06#996
2006-07-06T19:27:19Z
<a href="http://www.php-compiler.net/">Phalanger</a> provides PHP5 bindings to Microsoft .NET/Mono such that PHP5 code can now be compiled into .NET assemblies.
2006-07-06T16:07:37-04:00
Standards as social contracts
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-07-04#995
2006-07-04T17:25:51Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.tnl.net/blog/2006/06/07/standards-as-social-contracts/#comments">Standards as social contracts</a>: "Looking at Dave Winer's efforts in evangelizing OPML, I try to draw some rough lines into what makes a de-facto standard. De Facto standards are made and seldom happen on their own. In this entry, I look back at the history of HTML, RSS, the open source movement and try to draw some lines as to what makes a standard. </p> <p> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~a/TNLnet?a=nXIQUu"><img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~a/TNLnet?i=nXIQUu" border="0" /> </a> </p> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?a=dklI2jYY"><img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?i=dklI2jYY" border="0" /> </a> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?a=HoauA2Ma"><img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?i=HoauA2Ma" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?a=DxOLN3Br"><img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?i=DxOLN3Br" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?a=zU2uLdOm"><img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.tristanlouis.com/~f/TNLnet?i=zU2uLdOm" border="0" /></a> </div>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.tnl.net/blog">Tristan Louis</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>I posted a comment to the Tristan Louis' post along the following lines:</p> <p>Analysis is spot on re. the link between de facto standardization and bootstrapping. Likewise, the clear linkage between boostrapping and connected communities (a variation of the social networking paradigm). </p> <p>Dave built a community around a XML content syndication and subscription usecase demo that we know today as the blogosphere. Superficially, one may conclude that Semantic Web vision has suffered to date from a lack a similar bootstrap effort. Whereas in reality, we are dealing with "time and context" issues that are critical to the base understanding upon which a "Dave Winer" style bootstrap for the Semantic Web would occur.</p> <p>Personally, I see the emergence of Web 2.0 (esp. the mashups phenomenon) as the "time and context" seeds from which the Semantic Web bootstrap will sprout. I see shared ontologies such as <a href="http://oplussol5.usnet.private:8893/foaf">FOAF</a> and <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/">SIOC</a> leading the way (they are the RSS 2.0's of the Semantic Web IMHO).</p>
2006-07-04T14:53:48.000001-04:00
Hiding Ontology from the Semantic Web Users
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-30#994
2006-06-30T12:33:46Z
<p>A great piece from Harry Chen via his <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com">Geospatial Semantic Web Blog</a>. I have nothing to add to this bar: Amen! Enjoy the rest of his post below: </p> <p> <a href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/2006/06/05/hiding-ontology-from-the-semantic-web-users#comments">Hiding Ontology from the Semantic Web Users</a>: "</p> <p>Ontology is a key foundation of the Semantic Web. Without ontology, it will be difficult for applications to share knowledge and reason over information that is published on the Web. However, it is a serious mistake to think that the Semantic Web is simply a collection of ontologies.</p> <p>Last week I was invited to be on a panel discussion at <a target="_blank" title="the Humans and the Semantic Web Workshop" href="http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/soh/index.shtml">the Humans and the Semantic Web Workshop</a>. I <a title="Geospatial Semantic Web for the Everyday People" target="_blank" href="http://www.geospatialsemanticweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/HCIL-SemWeb.pdf">talked</a> a bit about the Geospatial Semantic Web and its associated research issues. Overall the workshop went very well. You can read about the notes from the workshop <a title="Notes from the Humans and the Semantic Web Workshop" target="_blank" href="http://robfay.com/2006/06/02/hcil-symposium-day-2/">here</a>.</p> <p> <a id="more-76"></a> </p> <h5>New Thinkings</h5> <p>Some of my new thinkings after the workshop are as the follows.</p> <ul> <li>People, especially those who are new to the Semantic Web, have put too much emphasis on developing ontologies and not enough emphasis on developing application functions.</li> <li>While ontology languages such RDF and OWL are important part of the current Semantic Web development, it’s a mistake to build Semantic Web applications that assume that average users are fluent in those languages.</li> <li>Many people seem to have forgotten that building Semantic Web applications don’t have start with ontology development. It’s a good idea to start with ontology reuse — i.e. reuse ontologies that have already been developed even if they don’t meet every single requirements of the application.</li> <li>There is no excuse to build ‘crappy’ UI just because developing Semantic Web applications are challenging.</li> </ul> <h5>Hide Low-Level Details from the Semantic Web Users</h5> <p>I was asked the question, ‘<em>What’re user-related issues that Semantic Web developers must pay attention to?</em>’ I think building Semantic Web applications are similar to building database applications. Few things we can learn from our past experience in building database applications.</p> <p>When building database-driven applications, we store information in SQL databases, and we use SQL to access, manipulate, and manage this information. When building Semantic Web applications, we express ontologies and information in RDF, and use RDF query languages (e.g. <a target="_blank" title="SPARQL" href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-sparql-query/">SPARQL</a>) to access and manipulate this information.</p> <p>When building database-driven applications, we hide complexity from the end-users. For example, we almost never expose raw SQL statements to the end users, or ask users to process the raw result sets returned from an SQL engine. We always provide intuitive interfaces for accessing and representing information.</p> <p>When building Semantic Web applications, we should also hide complexity from the end-users. Users shouldn’t need to see or edit RDF statements. Users shouldn’t need to be fluent in SPARQL queries or able parse graphs that are returned by a SPARQL engine.</p> <h5>Concluding Remarks</h5> <p>Semantic Web developers should spend more time on building functional capabilities that solve real world problems and improve people’s productivity. It’s important to remember that ‘<strong>the Semantic Web != ontologies</strong>‘. </p>"
2006-06-30T09:32:56.000001-04:00
Syndication Format Family Tree
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-28#992
2006-06-28T16:29:10Z
<p>Important bookmark reference to note as the Web 2.0->[Data Web|Semantic Web] fusion's inflection takes shape: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndication_format_family_tree">Syndication Format Family Tree.</a> </p> <p>This particular inflection and, ultimately, transistion is going to occur at Warp Speed!</p>
2006-06-28T13:02:39.000001-04:00
DBMS Hosted Filesystems & WinFS
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-26#990
2006-06-26T21:41:33Z
<p> The return of WinFS back into SQL Server has re-ignited interest in the somewhat forgotten “DBMS Engine hosted Unified Storage System” vision. The WinFS project struggles have more to do with the futility of “Windows Platform Monoculture” than the actual vision itself. In today's reality you simply cannot seek to deliver a “Unified Storage” solution that's inherently operating system specific, and even worse, ignores existing complimentary industry standards and the loosely coupled nature of the emerging Web Operating System. </p> <p> A quick FYI: <br />Virtuoso has offered a DBMS hosted Filesystem via WebDAV for a number of years, but the implications of this functionality have remained unclear for just as long. Thus, we developed (a few years ago) and released (recently) an application layer above <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSDAV">Virtuoso's WebDAV storage</a> realm called: “<a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsBriefcase">The OpenLink Briefcase</a>” (nee. oDrive). This application allows you to view items uploaded by content type and/or kind (People, Business Cards, Calendars, Business Reports, Office Documents, Photos, Blog Posts, Feed Channels/Subscriptions, Bookmarks etc..). it also includes automatic metadata extraction (where feasible) and indexing. Naturally, as an integral part of our “OpenLink Data Spaces” (ODS) product offering, it supports GData, URIQA, SPARQL (note: WebDAV metadata is sync'ed with <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSRDF">Virtuoso's RDF Triplestore</a>), SQL, and WebDAV itself. </p> <p> You can explore the power of this product via the following routes: </p> <ol> <li>Download the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso Open Source Edition</a> and the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/OdsIndex">ODS add-ons </a>or</li> <li>Visit <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com">our live demo server</a> (note: this is strictly a demo server with full functionality available) and simply register and then create a “Briefcase” application instance</li> <li>Digest this <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/~kidehen/blog/public/graphics/briefcase_home_page.png">Briefcase Home Page Screenshot</a> </li> </ol>
2006-06-26T21:28:44-04:00
Structured Data vs. Unstructured Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-23#991
2006-06-23T18:35:09Z
There is an interesting article at regdeveloper.com titled: <a href="http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2006/06/23/unstructured_data/">Structured data is boring and useless</a>.. This article provides insight into a serious point of confusion about what exactly is structured vs. unstructured data. Here is a key excerpt: <blockquote> <cite>"We all know that structured data is boring and useless; while unstructured data is sexy and chock full of value. Well, only up to a point, Lord Copper. Genuinely unstructured data can be a real nuisance - imagine extracting the return address from an unstructured letter, without letterhead and any of the formatting usually applied to letters. A letter may be thought of as unstructured data, but most business letters are, in fact, highly-structured." .... </cite> </blockquote> Duncan Pauly, founder and chief technology officer of Coppereye add's eloquent insight to the conversation: <blockquote> <cite>"The labels "structured data" and "unstructured data" are often used ambiguously by different interest groups; and often used lazily to cover multiple distinct aspects of the issue. In reality, there are at least three orthogonal aspects to structure: <il></il></cite> <ol> * The structure of the data itself.</ol> <ol>* The structure of the container that hosts the data.</ol> <ol>* The structure of the access method used to access the data.</ol> These three dimensions are largely independent and one does not need to imply another. For example, it is absolutely feasible and reasonable to store unstructured data in a structured database container and access it by unstructured search mechanisms." </blockquote> <p> Data understanding and appreciation is dwindling at a time when the reverse should be happening. We are supposed to be in the throws of the "Information Age", but for some reason this appears to have no correlation with data and "data access" in the minds of many -- as reflected in the broad contradictory positions taken re. unstructured data vs structured data, structured is boring and useless while unstructured is useful and sexy....</p> <p> The difference between "Structured Containers" and "Structured Data" are clearly misunderstood by most (an unfortunate fact).</p> <p> For instance all DBMS products are "Structured Containers" aligned to one or more data models (typically one). These products have been limited by proprietary data access APIs and underlying data model specificity when used in the "Open-world" model that is at the core of the World Wide Web. This confusion also carries over to the misconception that Web 2.0 and the Semantic/Data Web are mutually exclusive. </p> <p> But things are changing fast, and the concept of multi-model DBMS products is beginning to crystalize. On our part, we have finally released the long promised "OpenLink Data Spaces" application layer that has been developed using our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso Universal Server</a>. We have structured unified storage containment exposed to the data web cloud via endpoints for querying or accessing data using a variety of mechanisms that include; GData, OpenSearch, SPARQL, XQuery/XPath, SQL etc.. </p> <p> To be continued.... </p>
2006-06-27T01:39:09-04:00
Apple patent application for cascade feature for creating records in a database
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-22#989
2006-06-22T17:03:09Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/apple_patent_application_for_cascade_feature_for_creating_records_in_a_data/">Apple patent application for cascade feature for creating records in a database</a>: </p> <p> " On June 22, the US Patent & Trademark Office revealed Apple’s patent application titled ‘Cascade feature for creating records in a database,’ originally filed in December 2004. The present invention relates to databases and, more particularly, to providing a cascade feature for a database program which can serve as an... [ <a href="http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/13824/"> read more</a> ]"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/main/index/">Macsimum News</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Its one thing to not know, or have any demonstrable interest in, the enterprise corporate market (the land of database technology utilization etc..), and a completely different matter when lack of technology advances in this realm amount to advertising one's ignorance about database matters so publicly.</p> <p>I would like to assume that this patent is dead on arrival since there should be an army of DBMS vendors Triggered by this attempt to CASCADE DELETE years of existing prior art LOL!!</p> <p>The attempt to use Model Independence as the patentable variation of "DBMS Cascade Functionality" prior art doesn't wash. CASCADE functionality is old news in the real DBMS world! What next? Patent application for mixing SQL and SPARQL in 2009?</p> <p>There is a gradual sense that we are now making the Conceptual View of Data Real, across the board, and obviously there would be a clear need to apply CASCADE technology in this context. But the fact that you realize this now (Apple!) simply doesn't make it novel in any shape or form.</p>
2006-06-22T17:50:30-04:00
Contd: Ajax Database Connectivity Demos
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-06-01#988
2006-06-02T02:48:00Z
<p> Last week I put out a series of screencast style demos that sought to demonstrate the core elements of our soon to be released Javascript Toolkit called OAT (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/oat/">OpenLink Ajax Toolkit</a>) and its Ajax Database Connectivity layer. </p> <p> The screencasts covered the following functionality realms: </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=982">SQL Query By Example (basic)</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=983">SQL Query By Example (advanced - pivot table construction)</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=981">Web Form Design (basic database driven map based mashup)</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=985">Web Form Design (advanced database driven map based mashup)</a> </li> </ol> <p> To bring additional clarity to the screencasts demos and OAT in general, I have saved a number of documents that are the by products of activities in the screenvcasts: </p> <ol> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/public_demos/queries/customer_qry1.xml">Live XML Document produced using SQL Query By Example (basic)</a> (you can use drag and drop columns across the grid to reorder and sort presentation)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/public_demos/reports/Pivots/employee_sales_by_ship_country_pivot.xml">Live XML Document produced using QBE and Pivot Functionality</a> (you can drag and drop the aggregate columns and rows to create your own views etc..)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/public_demos/reports/MapMashups/country_flags_google_frm2.xml">Basic database driven map based mashup</a> (works with FireFox, Webkit, Camino; click on pins to see national flag)</li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/public_demos/reports/MapMashups/employee_sales_by_ship_country_pivot_google.xml">Advanced database driven map based mashup</a> (works with FireFox, Webkit, Camino; records, 36, 87, and 257 will unveil pivots via lookup pin)</li> </ol> <p> Notes: </p> <ul> <li>“Advanced”, as used above, simply means that I am embedding images (employee photos and national flags) and a database driven pivot into the map pins that serve as details lookups in classic SQL master/details type scenarios.</li> <li>The “Ajax Call In Progress..” dialog is there to show live interaction with a remote database (in this case <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso</a> but this could be any ODBC, JDBC, OLEDB, ADO.NET, or XMLA accessible data source)</li> <li>The data access magic source (if you want to call it that) is XMLA - a standard that has been in place for years but completely misunderstood and as a result under utilized</li> </ul> <p> You can see a full collection of saved documents at the following locations: </p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/public_demos/reports/MapMashups/">My Mashups demo directory</a> (Google and Yahoo! demo variants but note these do not work with Safari or IE at the current time. IE7 issues will be resolved in the next day or so) </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/public_demos/reports/Pivots/">My Pivots demo directory</a> (other Pivots will be added as I build and save them) </li> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/public_demos/queries/">My Saved Queries</a> (a collection of saved QBE generated queries)</li> </ul>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Great Product: Parallels Desktop Release Candidate 2 released
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-31#987
2006-05-31T21:15:21Z
<p>I am thoroughly impressed with this product. I have been using Solaris (in its many incarnations since the mid 80's SunOS days), Windows (since Windows 2.0), Linux (since inception), FreeBSD (since inception), and Mac OS X (since its NexT days).</p> <p>With the above in mind (years of getting into trouble during OS installation and usage etc.. I expected the very worst when attempting to get Solaris 10, Linux (Debian), FreeBSD 6.x, and Windows XP installed on a Mac Mini such that I could have all of these operating systems at my disposal without quad-booting. To my utter disbelief (I am still trying to recover from the immense euphoria..) Parallels delivered to me the absolute simplest installation and usage experience across all said operating systems that I have ever experienced.</p> <p>I now have a MacIntel Mac Mini (one of several that I will be stocking up on while I wait the Microsoft Universal Binary port of Office) that delivers me the long sought nirvana of having Solaris, FreeBSD, Linux, Windows XP, and Mac OS X on a single desktop!</p> <p>If you want to enjoy one of the genuine innovations of our time, simply make parallels an integral part of your Mac OS X experience (whether you are an end-user, developer, administrator, or systems integrator).</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2006/05/31/parallels-desktop-release-candidate-2-uh-released/#comments">Parallels Desktop Release Candidate 2, uh, released</a>: "</p> <p>Filed under: <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/os/" rel="tag">OS</a>, <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/category/software/" rel="tag">Software</a> </p> <div id="pc623643"> <img vspace="5" hspace="5" border="1" alt="" src="http://www.tuaw.com/media/2006/04/parrellsvirtualization.jpg" /> <br />Get your mice clicking ladies and gentlemen, as Parallels has offered up the final test version of Parallels Desktop for Mac, their virtualization software that allows you to run almost any OS right within Mac OS X. With this version, however, Parallels has increased the app's final price to $79.99, as they have incorporated their Compressor Server tool (due to user feedback) into the software package for streamlining and optimizing your virtual machines and the amount of disk space they occupy. The beta testing pre-order price of $39.99 is still in place, and probably more appetizing than ever. Other new features and improvements in the Release Candidate 2 include:<br /> <ul> <li>Significantly improved performance</li> <li>Improved USB performance and broader device support</li> <li>Improved Host-guest networking</li> <li>Automatic network adapters now switch on-the-fly</li> <li>Guest OS no longer steals host IP address in some DHCP servers</li> <li>Fullscreen mode is now customizable</li> <li>Integration with Virtue is now bug-free</li> <li>Customizable Ctrl + Click mapping</li> <li>Guest 32bit color is supported when Parallels Tools is installed</li> <li>Improved Shared folders performance</li> <li>Resolved shared folders/MS Office incompatibility issues</li> <li>Windows 98 no longer consumes 99% host CPU even when idle (in VT-x mode)</li> </ul> Also note that if you <a href="http://www.parallels.com/en/download/desktop/">download this newest release</a>, you must re-install the Parallels Tools for guest Windows installations (NT/2000/XP/2003). As with previous beta releases, this download is free before the software package goes official.</div> <h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6> <a href="http://www.parallels.com/en/download/desktop/">Read</a>'|'<a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2006/05/31/parallels-desktop-release-candidate-2-uh-released/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>'|'<a href="http://www.tuaw.com/forward/623643/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>'|'<a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&fc=1&url=http://www.tuaw.com/2006/05/31/parallels-desktop-release-candidate-2-uh-released/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking'Blogs</a>'|'<a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2006/05/31/parallels-desktop-release-candidate-2-uh-released/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a> <br /> <br /> <img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.tuaw.com/weblogsinc/tuaw?g=317" />" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.tuaw.com">The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Screencast: Yahoo! Maps variation of Ajax Database Connectivity Maps Mash-up
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-26#986
2006-05-26T22:49:00Z
This is a Yahoo! maps variation of the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=985">Google Maps based Forms Designer mash-up screencast</a>.<br /> <br /> <br />
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Screencast: Building Database Centric Web 2.0 Mash-ups using Ajax Database Connectivity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-26#985
2006-05-26T22:38:00Z
This screencast covers the actual codeless process of building a database centric Web 2.0 mash-up using OAT's database-aware Forms Designer. This is basically the simplicity of Paradox or Microsoft ACCESS form building delivered via Ajax without any database or operating system lock-in. This demo uses the Google Mapping Service (note: there is a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/%7Ekidehen/blog/public/Screencasts/oat-formdesigner-mashup-yahoo-maps-demo1.mov">Yahoo! Mapping Service screencast demo</a> that follows this post). Also note that fact that in this demonstration I actually incorporate the Pivot building functionality from an earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=983">Ajax based Pivot Building screencast</a>.<br /> <br />
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Screencast: Using a Live Report (mash-up) that exploits AJAX Database Connectivity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-26#984
2006-05-26T22:27:00Z
Another demo. This time around you are looking at a quick and dirty mashup assembled using the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=981">OAT FormDesigner</a>. There is a follow-on demo that shows how this was assembled (no coding whatsoever!).<br />
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Building Pivot Tables using Ajax Database Connectivity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-26#983
2006-05-26T22:08:00Z
This screencast demo (enclosure attached) is a continuation from my earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=982">Ajax and QBE screencast</a> demo. This time the focus is on building Excel like Pivot tables using data exposed via Ajax Database Connectivity.<br />
2008-02-04T20:43:35.000004-05:00
Screencast: Ajax Database Connectivity and SQL Query By Example
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-26#982
2006-05-26T21:59:00Z
AJAX Database Connectivity is the Data Access Component of OAT (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/oat/">OpenLink AJAX Toolkit</a>). It's basically an <a href="http://www.xmla.org/">XML for Analysis</a> (XMLA) client that enables the development and deployment of database independent Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). Thus, you can now develop database centric AJAX applications without lock-in at the Operating System, Database Connectivity mechanism (ODBC, JDBC, OLEDB, ADO.NET), or back-end Database levels. <br /> <br />XMLA has been around for a long time. Its fundamental goal was to provide Web Applications with Tabular and Multi-dimensional data access before it fell off the radar (a story too long to tell in this post).<br /> <br />AJAX Database connectivity only requires your target DBMS to be XMLA (direct), ODBC, JDBC, OLEDB, or ADO.NET accessible. <br /> <br />I have attached a Query By Example (QBE) screencast movie enclosure to this post (should you be reading this post Web 1.0 style). The demo shows how Paradox-, Quattro Pro-, Access-, and MS Query-like user friendly querying is achieved using AJAX Database Connect Connectivity<br /> <br />
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Web 2.0 Style Mash-up using the OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-25#981
2006-05-25T20:47:00Z
We are now on the verge of finally releasing one of the many items discussed in my recent <a href="http://www.usnet.private:8889/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=&id=965&sid=e295397b4a9d07fa9c12baf31569aa97&realm=wa">chat with Jon Udell</a>. The item in question is the OpenLink Ajax Toolkit (OAT) that enables the rapid development of Database Independent Rich Internet Applications. My very first public screencast is deliberately silent (since its a live work in progress etc.). <br /> <br />The screencast style demo covers the production of a map based mashup that simply unveils the national flag of each country underneath its map marker (a lookup associated with geocoded map pin).<br /> <br />This post is also a deliberate test of the automatic production of IPod and Yahoo RSS sytle syndication gems based on the content of my blog post. Naturally, this is a demonstration of the soon to be unveiled OpenLink Data Spaces technology (the one that supports GData and SPARQL Query Services).<br /> <br />BTW - The the Data Space that is this blog has been <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/dataspace/%7Ekidehen/GData">GData</a> aware for a few weeks now (I digress, just watch the movie!):<br /> <br />Note: If you are reading this post Web 1.0 style (i.e. via traditional non aggregating browser UI) then click on the "enclosure" link to grab the quicktime movie file. If on the other hand your are reading via a Web 2.0 aggregator, note that the Podcast Gem should alert you to the existence of the movie enclosure.<br />
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Patent Office To Review Legitimacy Of Amazon's One-Click Shopping Patent
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-22#980
2006-05-22T14:22:09Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r537369319">Patent Office To Review Legitimacy Of Amazon's One-Click Shopping Patent</a>: "Information Week May 22 2006 8:00AM GMT"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/rss">Moreover - E-commerce news</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Looks like the U.S. Patent Office is awakening from its sleep-beauty-like snooze!</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Simplicity, Incentives, Semantic Web and Web 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-17#979
2006-05-17T03:35:12Z
<p> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=210">Simplicity, Incentives, Semantic Web and Web 2.0</a>: "</p> <p>Despite page ranking and other techniques, the scale of the Internet is straining available commercial search engines to deliver truly relevant content.' This observation is not new, but its relevance is growing.' Similarly, the integration and interoperabillity challenges facing enterprises have never been greater.' One approach to address these needs, among others, is to adopt semantic Web standards and technologies.</p> <p>The image is compelling:' targeted and unambiguous information from all relevant sources, served in usable bit-sized chunks.' It sounds great; why isn’t it happening? </p> <p>There are clues — actually, reasons — why semantic Web technology is not being embraced on a broad-scale way.' I have <a title="Starting Small via the Semantic Organization" href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=145">spoken elsewhere</a> as to why enterprises or specific organizations will be the initial adopters and promoters of these technologies.' I still believe that to be the case.' The complexity and lack of a network effect ensure that semantic Web stuff will not initially arise from the public Internet.</p> <p> <strong>Parellels with Knowledge Management</strong> </p> <p> Paul Warren, in' '<a href="http://dsonline.computer.org/portal/site/dsonline/menuitem.9ed3d9924aeb0dcd82ccc6716bbe36ec/index.jsp?&pName=dso_level1&path=dsonline/2006/02&file=x1war.xml&xsl=article.xsl&" title=" distributed="distributed" systems="systems" technology.guardian.co.uk="technology.guardian.co.uk" weekly="weekly" story="story" html="html" edgeperspectives.typepad.com="edgeperspectives.typepad.com" edge_perspectives="edge_perspectives" soa_versus_web_.html="soa_versus_web_.html" blogs.zdnet.com="blogs.zdnet.com" hinchcliffe="hinchcliffe" enterprise="enterprise" web="web" web2.wsj2.com="web2.wsj2.com" web_20_for_the_enterprise_where_the_action_is.htm="web_20_for_the_enterprise_where_the_action_is.htm" for="for" the="the" center="center" directions="directions" hinchcliffe.org="hinchcliffe.org" img="img" web2entdirections.jpg="web2entdirections.jpg" _blank="_blank" www.sekt-project.com="www.sekt-project.com" p="p"> </a> </p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com">AI3 - Adaptive Information:::</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Search Engine Challenges Posed by the Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-17#978
2006-05-17T03:34:17Z
<p> <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com/?p=216">Search Engine Challenges Posed by the Semantic Web</a>: "</p> <p> A pre-print from Tim Finin and Li Deng entitled, <a title="Search Engines for Semantic Web Knowledge" href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/paper/html/id/304/Search-Engines-for-Semantic-Web-Knowledge">Search Engines for Semantic Web Knowledge</a>,<sup>1</sup> presents a thoughtful and experienced overview of the challenges posed to conventional search by semantic Web constructs.' The authors’ base much of their observations on their experience with the <a href="http://swoogle.umbc.edu/" title="Swoogle">Swoogle</a> semantic Web search engine over the past two years.' They also used Swoogle, whose index contains information on over 1.3M RDF documents, to generate statistics on the semantic Web size and growth in the paper.</p> <p>Among other points, the authors note these key differences and challenges from conventional search engines:</p> <ul> <li> <em>Harvesting</em> — the need to discriminantly discover semantic Web documents and to accurately index their semi-structured components</li> <li> <em>Search </em>- the need for search to cover a broader range than documents in a repository, going from the universal to the atomic granularity of a triple.' Path tracing and provenance of the information may also be important</li> <li> <em>Rank</em> — results ranking needs to account for the contribution of the semi-structured data, and <br /> </li> <li> <em>Archive</em> — more versioning and tracking is needed since undelrying ontologies will surely grow and evolve.</li> </ul> <p>The authors particularly note the challenge of i<em>ndexing</em> as repositories grow to actual Internet scales.</p> <p>Though not noted, I would add to this list the challenge of user interfaces. Only a small percentage of users, for example, use Google’s more complicated advanced search form.' In its full-blown implementation, semantic Web search variations could make the advanced Google form look like child’s play.</p> <p>'</p> <hr width="33%" size="2" align="left" /> <p> <sup>1</sup>Tim Finin and Li Ding, 'Search Engines for Semantic Web Knowledge,' a pre-print to be published in the <em>Proceedings of XTech 2006: Building Web 2.0</em>, May 16, 2006, 19 pp.' A <a title="PDF: Search Engines for Semantic Web Knowledge" href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/get/a/publication/268.pdf">PDF of the paper is available for download</a>.</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.mkbergman.com">AI3 - Adaptive Information:::</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Two graphs that explain most IT dysfunction (Part I)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-15#974
2006-05-15T16:06:05Z
<p>Dumped verbatim below, is a timeless post by <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog">Louche Cannon</a>. It is especially poignant in light of the many <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/xml/blog/2006/05/wheres_the_semantic_web_excite.html">misguided perceptions about the mutual exclusivity of Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web</a>. Enjoy!</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/?p=42#comments">Two graphs that explain most IT dysfunction (Part I)</a>: "</p> <p>Inspired by reading about other people’s <a href="http://edu-blogger.blogspot.com/2005/05/my-blogging-weakness.html">blogging weaknesses</a>, I’ve decided to finally get this one off the back burner and post it. I’m pretty sure that this isn’t original, but I started thinking about this way back in 1996 (pre-social-bookmarking) and I’ve lost my pointer to whatever influenced it. Anybody who can set me straight- I’d appreciate it.</p> <p>So here goes.</p> <p>There are two graphs which, when seen together, explain a hell of a lot about various forms of dysfunction that you see in the technology world.</p> <p>In this first graph, <strong>X</strong> represents relative ‘technical expertise’ and <strong>Y</strong> represents the ‘perceived benefit’ in the introduction of a new technology:</p> <p> <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit.png"><img src="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit-tm.jpg" height="100" width="112" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Benefit" /> </a> </p> <p>The summary is that technical neophytes (A) tend to see high potential benefit in new technologies, while people who have a bit of technology experience (B) grow increasingly cynical about technology claims and can rattle-off the names of technologies that they have seen over-hyped and that have under-delivered. The interesting thing though, is that, as people become really expert in technology (C), their view of the potential benefits in new technology starts to increase again. At the far right of this scale I’m talking about the real experts- the alpha-geeks of the world.</p> <p>In the second graph, <strong>X</strong> again represents technical expertise, but <strong>Y</strong> represents ‘perceived risk’ associated with the introduction of a new technology:</p> <p> <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/risk.png"><img src="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/risk-tm.jpg" height="100" width="112" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Risk" /> </a> </p> <p>Here the curve is inverted, but the basic pattern is the same. The neophytes (A) are blissfully unaware of the things that can go wrong with the introduction of a new technology. The tech-savvy (B) are battle-scarred and have seen (and possibly caused) countless disasters. The alpha-geeks (C) have also seen their share of problems, but they have also learned from their mistakes and know how to avoid them in the future. The alpha-geeks understand how to manage the risk.</p> <p>Now things get interesting when you map these two dynamics against each other:</p> <p> <a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit_risk.png"><img src="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/wp-content/benefit_risk-tm.jpg" height="100" width="112" border="1" hspace="4" vspace="4" alt="Benefit Risk" /> </a> </p> <p>You see that neophytes in group A have essentially the same world view as the alpha-geeks in group C, but for completely different reasons. The trouble starts when you realize that most of senior executives, venture capitalists and members of the popular press are in group A. At the other extreme, most R&D groups, architecture groups, independent consultancies, technology pundits, etc. are in group C . There are a few problems with this:</p> <ul> <li>People in group A will often talk to and solicit advice from people in group C</li> <li>There are relatively few people in group C</li> <li>Most of the people who actually have to implement new technologies are in group B.</li> </ul> <p>So you can start to see the problem.</p> <p>In <strong><a href="http://www.breakawayrepublic.com/blog/?p=44">Part II</a></strong> I’l talk some more about group B and I’ll discuss some of the classic patterns that emerge when A, B and C try to work with each other. </p>" </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
SPARQL Parameterized Queries (Virtuoso using SPARQL in SQL)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-11#973
2006-05-11T18:54:47Z
<h2>SPARQL with SQL (Inline) </h2> <p>Virtuoso extends its SQL3 implementation with syntax for integrating SPARQL into queries and subqueries.Thus, as part of a SQL SELECT query or subquery, one can write the SPARQL keyword and a SPARQL query as part of query text processed by Virtuoso's SQL Query Processor.</p> <h4>Example 1 (basic) : </h4> <p>Using Virtuoso's Command line or the Web Based ISQL utility type in the following (note: "SQL>" is the command line prompt for the native ISQL utility): </p> <pre>SQL> sparql select distinct ?p where { graph ?g { ?s ?p ?o } };</pre> <p>Which will return the following: </p> <blockquote> <pre> p varchar ---------- http://example.org/ns#b http://example.org/ns#d http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/name http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/mbox ... </pre> </blockquote> <h4>Example 2 (a subquery variation):</h4> <pre>SQL> select distinct subseq (p, strchr (p, '#')) as fragment from (sparql select distinct ?p where { graph ?g { ?s ?p ?o } } ) as all_predicates where p like '%#%' ;</pre> <blockquote> <pre> fragment varchar ---------- #query #data #name #comment ...</pre> </blockquote> <h3>Parameterized Queries:</h3> <p>You can pass parameters to a SPARQL query using a Virtuoso-specific syntax extension. '??' or '$?' indicates a positional parameter similar to '?' in standard SQL. '??' can be used in graph patterns or anywhere else where a SPARQL variable is accepted. The value of a parameter should be passed in SQL form, i.e. this should be a number or an untyped string. An IRI ID can not be passed, but an absolute IRI can. Using this notation, a dynamic SQL capable client (ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLEDB, XMLA, or others) can execute parametrized SPARQL queries using parameter binding concepts that are common place in dynamic SQL. Which implies that existing SQL applications and development environments (PHP, Ruby, Python, Perl, VB, C#, Java, etc.) are capable of issuing SPARQL queries via their existing SQL bound data access channels against RDF Data stored in Virtuoso. </p> <p>Note: This is the Virtuoso equivalent of a <a href="http://seaborne.blogspot.com/2006/05/parameterized-queries_07.html">recently published example using Jena </a>(a Java based RDF Triple Store).</p> <h3>Example:</h3> <p>Create a Virtuoso Function by execting the following: </p> <pre>SQL> create function param_passing_demo (); { declare stat, msg varchar; declare mdata, rset any; exec ('sparql select ?s where { graph ?g { ?s ?? ?? }}', stat, msg, vector ('http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/DataAccess/tests/data/Sorting/sort-0#int1', 4 ), -- Vector of two parameters 10, -- Max. result-set rows mdata, -- Variable for handling result-set metadata rset -- Variable for handling query result-set ); return rset[0][0]; } </pre> Test new "param_passing_demo" function by executing the following: <br /> <pre>SQL> select param_passing_demo (); </pre> <p>Which returns: </p> <blockquote> <pre> callret VARCHAR _______________________________________________________________________________</pre> <pre>http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/DataAccess/tests/data/Sorting/sort-0#four</pre> <pre>1 Rows. -- 00000 msec.</pre> </blockquote> <h3> </h3> <h3>Using SPARQL in SQL Predicates:</h3> <p>A SPARQL ASK query can be used as an argument of the SQL EXISTS predicate.</p> <pre>create function sparql_ask_demo () returns varchar { if (exists (sparql ask where { graph ?g { ?s ?p 4}})) return 'YES'; else return 'NO'; }; </pre> <p> <br /> Test by executing: </p> <pre>SQL> select sparql_ask_demo (); </pre> <p>Which returns:</p> <pre>_________________________ YES</pre>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
SPARQL Parameterized Queries (In Jena via Java)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-09#971
2006-05-09T16:42:40Z
<p> <a href="http://seaborne.blogspot.com/2006/05/parameterized-queries_07.html">Parameterized Queries</a>: " </p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:p>Sometimes, an application will be making a SPARQL query, using the results from a previous query or using some RDF term found through the other Jena APIs.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>SQL has prepared statements - they allow an SQL statement to take a number of parameters. The application fills in the parameters and executes the statement.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>One way is to resort to doing this in SPARQL by building a complete, new query string, parsing it and executing it. But it takes a little care to handle all cases like quoting special characters; you can at least use some of the many utilities in ARQ for producing strings such as <xhtml:code>FmtUtils.stringForResource</xhtml:code> (it's not in the application API but in the <xhtml:code>util</xhtml:code> package currently).</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>Queries in ARQ can be <xhtml:a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/ARQ/programmatic.html">built programmatically</xhtml:a> but it is tedious, especially when the documentation hasn't been written yet.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>Another way is to use query variables and bind them to initial values that apply to all query solutions. Consider the query:</xhtml:p> <xhtml:pre class="box">PREFIX dc <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/> SELECT ?doc { ?doc dc:title ?title }</xhtml:pre> <xhtml:p>It gets documents and their titles.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>Executing a query in program <xhtml:a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/ARQ/app_api.html">might look like</xhtml:a>:</xhtml:p> <xhtml:pre class="box">import com.hp.hpl.jena.query.* ; Model model = ... ;</xhtml:pre> <xhtml:pre class="box">String queryString = StringUtils.join('\n', new String[]{ 'PREFIX dc <http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/>', 'SELECT ?doc { ?doc dc:title ?title }' }) ; Query query = QueryFactory.create(queryString) ; QueryExecution qexec = QueryExecutionFactory.create(query, model) ; try { ResultSet results = qexec.execSelect() ; for ( ; results.hasNext() ; ) { QuerySolution soln = results.nextSolution() ; Literal l = soln.getLiteral('doc') ; } } finally { qexec.close() ; }</xhtml:pre> <xhtml:p>Suppose the application knows the title it's interesting in - can it use this to get the document?</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>The value of <xhtml:code>?title</xhtml:code> made a parameter to the query and fixed by an initial binding. All query solutions will be restricted to patterns matches where <xhtml:code>?title</xhtml:code> is that RDF term.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:pre class="box">QuerySolutionMap initialSettings = new QuerySolutionMap() ; initialSettings.add('title', node) ;</xhtml:pre> <xhtml:p>and this is passed to the factory that creates QueryExecution's:</xhtml:p> <xhtml:pre class="box">QueryExecution qexec = QueryExecutionFactory.create(query, model, <xhtml:b>initialSettings</xhtml:b>) ;</xhtml:pre> <xhtml:p>It doesn't matter if the node is a literal, a resource with URI or a blank node. It becomes a fixed value in the query, even a blank node, because it's not part of the SPARQL syntax, it's a fixed part of every solution.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>This gives named parameters to queries enabling something like SQL prepared statements except with named parameters not positional ones.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>This can make a complex application easier to structure and clearer to read. It's better than bashing strings together, which is error prone, inflexible, and does not lead to clear code.</xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> " <p>(Via <a href="http://seaborne.blogspot.com">ARQtick</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Slightly enigmatic OPML Directory Service
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-08#969
2006-05-08T15:56:30Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://share.opml.org/">Share Your OPML is an instant...</a>: "<a href="http://share.opml.org/">Share Your OPML</a> is an instant hit. I can't believe how much traffic the server is taking, lots of new users, lists, feeds."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Am I missing something here? Why doesn't this Data Space offer an OPML feed that aggregates the RSS links culled from the OPML content contributions of its membership? </p> <p>I was expecting to be able to search this Data Space / Service (at least using Free Text) over HTTP, but I am restricted to a set of canned searches offered by the system. Even so, why isn't there a subscription gem beside each of these canned queries? There could be one OPML for each query.</p> <p>Why doesn't this system have the ability to consume OPML feed URLs? At the current time you are limited to file uploads.</p> <p>I hope to receive some clarification re. my observations in due course. This Directory style Data Space could be a little more useful if it offered a tad more flexibility :-)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
"Free" Databases: Express vs. Open-Source RDBMSs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-05#968
2006-05-05T16:02:17Z
<p>Very detailed and insightful peek into the state of affairs re. database engines (Open & Closed Source).</p> <p>I added the missing piece regarding the "Virtuoso Conductor" (the Web based Admin UI for Virtuoso) to the original post below. I also added a link to our live SPARQL Demo so that anyone interested can start playing around with SPARQL and SPARQL integrated into SQL right away.</p> <p>Another good thing about this post is the vast amount of valuable links that it contains. To really appreciate this point simply visit my Linkblog (excuse the current layout :-) - a Tab if you come in via the front door of this <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/opinions/index.html">Data Space</a> (what I used to call <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/">My Weblog Home Page</a>).</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/free-databases-express-vs-open-source.html">"Free" Databases: Express vs. Open-Source RDBMSs</a>: "<span style="font-family: verdana;">Open-source relational database management systems (RDBMSs) are gaining IT mindshare at a rapid pace. As an example, <em>BusinessWeek</em>'s February 6, 2006 '</span> <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2006/tc20060206_918648.htm"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Taking On the Database Giants</span> </a><span style="font-family: verdana;">' article asks 'Can open-source upstarts compete with Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft?' and then provides the answer: 'It's an uphill battle, but customers are starting to look at the alternatives.'</span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">There's no shortage of open-source alternatives to look at. The <em>BusinessWeek</em> article concentrates on <a href="http://www.mysql.com/">MySQL</a>, which <em>BW</em> says 'is trying to be the Ikea of the database world: cheap, needs some assembly, but has a sleek, modern design and does the job.' The article also discusses <a href="http://www.postgresql.org/">Postgre[SQL]</a> and <a href="http://www.ingres.com/products/Prod_Ingres_2006.html">Ingres</a>, as well as <a href="http://www.enterprisedb.com/">EnterpriseDB</a>, an Oracle clone created from PostgreSQL code*. Sun includes <a href="http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/postgres.jsp">PostgreSQL with Solaris 10</a> and, as of April 6, 2006, with <a href="http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/819-2183/6n4g726uc?a=view">Solaris Express</a>.**</span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">*Frank Batten, Jr., the investor who originally funded Red Hat, invested a reported </span> <a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28201"><span style="font-size: 85%;">$16 million into Great Bridge</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;"> with the hope of making a business out of providing paid support to PostgreSQL users. </span> <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-272715.html"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Great Bridge stayed in business only 18 months</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;">, having </span> <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-268915.html"><span style="font-size: 85%;">missed an opportunity to sell the business to Red Hat</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;"> and finding that selling </span> <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1001-269729.html"><span style="font-size: 85%;">$50,000-per-year support packages</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;"> for an open-source database wasn't easy. As Batten concluded, 'We could not get customers to pay us big dollars for support contracts.' Perhaps EnterpriseDB will be more successful with a choice of </span> <a href="http://www.enterprisedb.com/shop.do?cID=10000&pID=10001"><span style="font-size: 85%;">$5,000, $3,000, or $1,000 annual support subscriptions</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;">.</span> </span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 85%;">**Interestingly, <a href="http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/2005-11/sunflash.20051115.4.xml">Oracle announced in November 2005</a> that Solaris 10 is 'its preferred development and deployment platform for most x64 architectures, including x64 (x86, 64-bit) AMD Opteron and Intel Xeon processor-based systems and Sun's UltraSPARC(R)-based systems.'</span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">There is a surfeit of reviews of current MySQL, PostgreSQL and—to a lesser extent—Ingres implementations. These three open-source RDBMSs come with their own or third-party management tools. These systems compete against free versions of commercial (proprietary) databases: <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/sql/">SQL Server 2005 Express Edition</a> (and its MSDE 2000 and 1.0 predecessors), <a href="http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/database/xe/index.html" target="_blank">Oracle Database 10g Express Edition</a>, <a href="http://www-306.ibm.com/software/data/db2/udb/db2express/download.html" target="_blank">IBM DB2 Express-C</a>, and <a href="http://www.sybase.com/linux_promo" target="_blank">Sybase ASE Express Edition for Linux</a> where database size and processor count limitations aren't important. Click <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/rjennings-overview/table4.aspx">here</a> for a summary of recent <em>InfoWorld</em> reviews of the full versions of these four databases plus MySQL, which should be valid for Express editions also. The <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/">FTPOnline Special Report</a> article, 'Microsoft SQL Server Turns 17,' that contains the preceding table is <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/rjennings-overview/">here</a> (requires registration.)</span> <br /> <br /> </p> <p> <strong><span style="font-family: verdana;">SQL Server 2005 Express Edition SP-1 Advanced Features</span> </strong> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4C6BA9FD-319A-4887-BC75-3B02B5E48A40&displaylang=en">SQL Server 2005 Express Edition with Advanced Features</a> enhances SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (SQL Express or SSX) dramatically, so it deserves special treatment here. SQL Express gains full text indexing and now supports SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) on the local SSX instance. The SP-1 with Advanced Features setup package, which Microsoft released on April 18, 2006, installs the release version of SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE) and the full version of Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) for designing and editing SSRS reports. My '<a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/rjennings-sp1/">Install SP-1 for SQL Server 2005 and Express</a>' article for FTPOnline's <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/">SQL Server Special Report</a> provides detailed, illustrated installation instructions for and related information about the release version of SP-1. SP-1 makes SSX the most capable of all currently available Express editions of commercial RDBMSs for Windows.</span> </p> <p> <strong><span style="font-family: verdana;">OpenLink Software's Virtuoso Open-Source Edition</span> </strong> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="http://openlinksw.com/">OpenLink Software</a> announced an <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/">open-source version</a> of it's <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso Universal Server</a> commercial DBMS on April 11, 2006. On the initial date of this post, May 2, 2006, Virtuoso Open-Source Edition (VOS) was virtually under the radar as an open-source product. According to <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/VOSPressRelease.htm">this press release</a>, the new edition includes:</span> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> </p> <blockquote> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> </blockquote> <blockquote></blockquote> <blockquote></blockquote> <ul> <li> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo/">SPARQL compliant RDF Triple Store</a> </li> <li>SQL-200n Object-Relational Database Engine (SQL, XML, and Free Text) </li> <li>Integrated BPEL Server and Enterprise Service Bus</li> <li>WebDAV and Native File Server </li> <li>Web Application Server that supports PHP, Perl, Python, ASP.NET, JSP, etc. </li> <li>Runtime Hosting for Microsoft .NET, Mono, and Java </li> </ul>VOS only lacks the virtual server and replication features that are offered by the commercial edition. VOS includes a Web-based administration tool called the "Virtuoso Conductor" According to <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=951&sid=&realm=">Kingsley Idehen's Weblog</a>, 'The Virtuoso build scripts have been successfully tested on Mac OS X (Universal Binary Target), Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris (AIX, HP-UX, and True64 UNIX will follow soon). A Windows Visual Studio project file is also in the works (ETA some time this week).'<br /> <br /> <em>InfoWorld</em>'s Jon Udell has tracked Virtuoso's progress since <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/02/04/12/020415plvirtuoso_1.html">2002</a>, with an <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/21/12virtuoso_1.html">additional article in 2003</a> and a <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html#a1437">one-hour podcast with Kingsley Idehen</a> on April 26, 2006. A major talking point for Virtuoso is its support for Atom 0.3 syndication and publication, Atom 1.0 syndication and (forthcoming) publication, and future support for Google's <a href="http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/overview.html">GData protocol</a>, as mentioned in <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=965">this Idehen post</a>. Yahoo!'s <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006687.html">Jeremy Zawodny</a> points out that the 'fingerprints' of <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/adam-bosworth-learning-from-web-and.html">Adam Bosworth</a>, Google's VP of Engineering and the primary force behind the development of Microsoft Access, 'are all over GData.' Click <a href="http://search.blogger.com/?as_q=bosworth&ie=UTF-8&ui=blg&bl_url=oakleafblog.blogspot.com&x=50&y=10">here</a> to display a list of all OakLeaf posts that mention Adam Bosworth.<br /> <br />One application for the GData protocol is querying and updating the Google Base database independently of the Google Web client, as mentioned by Jeremy: 'It's not about building an easier onramp to Google Base. ... Well, it is. But, again, that's the small stuff.' Click <a href="http://search.blogger.com/?as_q=%22google+base%22&ie=UTF-8&x=50&y=9&q=%22google+base%22+blogurl:oakleafblog.blogspot.com&filter=0&ui=blg&sa=N&start=0">here</a> for a list of posts about my experiences with Google Base. Watch for a future OakLeaf post on the subject as the GData APIs gain ground.<br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><strong>Open-Source and Free Embedded Database Contenders</strong> </span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Open-source and free embedded SQL databases are gaining importance as the number and types of mobile devices and OSs proliferate. Embedded databases usually consist of Java classes or Windows DLLs that are designed to minimize file size and memory consumption. Embedded databases avoid the installation hassles, heavy resource usage and maintenance cost associated with client/server RDBMSs that run as an operating system service.</span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Andrew Hudson's December 2005 '<a href="http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28201">Open Source databases rounded up and rodeoed</a>' review for The Enquirer provides brief descriptions of one commercial and eight open source database purveyors/products: Sleepycat, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Ingres, InnoBase, Firebird, IBM Cloudscape (a.k.a, Derby), Genezzo, and Oracle. Oracle <a href="http://www.sleepycat.com/">Sleepycat</a>* isn't an SQL Database, Oracle <a href="http://www.innodb.com/index.php">InnoDB</a>* is an OEM database engine that's used by MySQL, and <a href="http://www.genezzo.com/">Genezzo</a> is a multi-user, multi-server distributed database engine written in Perl. These special-purpose databases are beyond the scope of this post.</span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">* Oracle <a href="http://www.oracle.com/sleepycat/index.html">purchased Sleepycat Software, Inc. in February 2006</a> and </span> <a href="http://www.oracle.com/innodb/index.html"><span style="font-size: 85%;">purchased Innobase OY in October 2005</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;">. The press release states: 'Oracle intends to continue developing the InnoDB technology and expand our commitment to open source software.' </span> </span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 85%;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <a href="http://db.apache.org/derby/"><strong>Derby</strong> </a> is an open-source release by the <a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache Software Foundation</a> of the <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/08/03/HNcloudscape_1.html">Cloudscape Java-based database that IBM acquired</a> when it bought Informix in 2001. IBM offers a commercial release of Derby as <a href="http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0408cline/">IBM Cloudscape 10.1</a>. Derby is a Java class library that has a relatively light footprint (2 MB), which make it suitable for <a href="http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0503stumpf/">client/server synchronization</a> with the IBM DB2 Everyplace Sync Server in <a href="http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wi-cloud/">mobile applications</a>. The IBM DB2 Everyplace Express Edition isn't open source or free*, so it doesn't qualify for this post. The same is true for the corresponding Sybase SQL Anywhere components.**</span> <br /> <br /> <br /> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 85%;">* IBM DB2 Everyplace Express Edition with synchronization costs $379 per server (up to two processors) and $79 per user. DB2 Everyplace Database Edition (without DB2 synchronization) is $49 per user. (Prices are based on those when </span> <a href="http://news.earthweb.com/wireless/article.php/3107101"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 85%;">IBM announced version 8</span> </a><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 85%;"> in November 2003.)</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 85%;">** Sybase's iAnywhere subsidiary calls SQL Anywhere 'the industry's leading mobile database.' A Sybase SQL Anywhere Personal DB seat license with synchronization to SQL Anywhere Server is $119; the cost without synchronization wasn't available from the Sybase Web site. Sybase SQL Anywhere and IBM DB2 Everyplace perform similar replication functions.</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Sun's <a href="http://developers.sun.com/prodtech/javadb/"><strong>Java DB</strong></a>, another commercial version of Derby, comes with the <a href="http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/">Solaris Enterprise Edition</a>, which bundles Solaris 10, the Java Enterprise System, developer tools, desktop infrastructure and N1 management software. A recent Between the Lines blog entry by ZDNet's David Berlind waxes enthusiastic over the use of <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2298">Java DB embedded in a browser</a> to provide offline persistence. RedMonk analyst <a href="http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/archives/001151.html">James Governor</a> and <em>eWeek</em>'s <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1902407,00.asp">Lisa Vaas</a> wrote about the use of Java DB as a local data store when <a href="http://www.sauria.com/blog/2005/12/13#1440">Tim Bray announced Sun's Derby derivative</a> and <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/FrancoisOrsini?entry=derby_apachecon_demo">Francois Orsini</a> demonstrated Java DB embedded in the Firefox browser at the ApacheCon 2005 conference.</span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <a href="http://www.firebirdsql.org/"><strong>Firebird</strong> </a> is derived from Borland's InterBase 6.0 code, the first commercial relational database management system (RDBMS) to be released as open source. Firebird has excellent support for SQL-92 and comes in three versions: Classic, SuperServer and Embedded for Windows, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, FreeBSD and MacOS X. The embedded version has a 1.4-MB footprint. Release Candidate 1 for Firebird 2.0 became available on March 30, 2006 and is a major improvement over earlier versions. <a href="http://www.borland.com/us/products/interbase/index.html">Borland continues to promote InterBase</a>, now at version 7.5, as a small-footprint, embedded database with commercial Server and Client licenses.</span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;"> <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/index.html"><strong>SQLite</strong> </a> is a featherweight C library for an embedded database that implements most SQL-92 entry- and transitional-level requirements (some through the JDBC driver) and supports transactions within a tiny 250-KB code footprint. <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/wiki?p=SqliteWrappers">Wrappers</a> support a multitude of languages and operating systems, including Windows CE, SmartPhone, Windows Mobile, and Win32. SQLite's primary <a href="http://www.sqlite.org/omitted.html">SQL-92 limitations</a> are lack of nested transactions, inability to alter a table design once committed (other than with RENAME TABLE and ADD COLUMN operations), and foreign-key constraints. SQLite provides read-only views, triggers, and 256-bit encryption of database files. A downside is the the entire database file is <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/04/12/442615.aspx">locked when while a transaction is in progress</a>. SQLite uses file access permissions in lieu of GRANT and REVOKE commands. Using SQLite involves no license; its code is entirely in the public domain.</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 85%;">The Mozilla Foundation's <a href="http://wiki.mozilla.org/Mozilla2:Unified_Storage">Unified Storage wiki</a> says this about SQLite: 'SQLite will be the back end for the unified store [for Firefox]. Because it implements a SQL engine, we get querying 'for free', without having to invent our own query language or query execution system. Its code-size footprint is moderate (250k), but it will hopefully simplify much existing code so that the net code-size change should be smaller. It has exceptional performance, and supports concurrent access to the database. Finally, it is released into the public domain, meaning that we will have no licensing issues.'</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana;">Vieka Technology, Inc.'s <a href="http://vieka.com/esql.htm"><strong>eSQL 2.11</strong></a> is a port of SQLite to Windows Mobile (Pocket PC and Smartphone) and Win32, and includes development tools for Windows devices and PCs, as well as a .NET native data provider. A conventional ODBC driver also is available. eSQL for Windows (Win32) is free for personal and commercial use; eSQL for Windows Mobile requires a license for commercial (for-profit or business) use.</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana;"> <a href="http://hsqldb.org/"><strong>HSQLDB</strong> </a> isn't on most reviewers' radar, which is surprising because it's the default database for <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/">OpenOffice.org</a> (OOo) 2.0's <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/product/base.html">Base</a> suite member. HSQLDB 1.8.0.1 is an open-source (BSD license) Java dembedded database engine based on Thomas Mueller's original Hypersonic SQL Project. Using OOo's Base feature requires installing the Java 2.0 Runtime Engine (which is not open-source) or the presence of an alternative open-source engine, such as Kaffe. My prior posts about OOo Base and HSQLDB are <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/openoffice-base-20-vs-microsoft-access.html">here</a>, <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/openoffice-base-20-vs-microsoft-access_22.html">here</a> and <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com/2005/10/openoffice-20-base-matches-microsoft.html">here</a>.</span> </p> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana;">The <a href="http://hsqldb.sourceforge.net/web/hsqlDocsFrame.html">HSQLDB 1.8.0 documentation</a> on SourceForge states the following regarding SQL-92 and later conformance:</span> </p> <span style="font-family: verdana;"> <blockquote> <p> <span style="font-family: verdana;">HSQLDB 1.8.0 supports the dialect of SQL defined by SQL standards 92, 99 and 2003. This means where a feature of the standard is supported, e.g. left outer join, the syntax is that specified by the standard text. Many features of SQL92 and 99 up to Advanced Level are supported and here is support for most of SQL 2003 Foundation and several optional features of this standard. However, certain features of the Standards are not supported so no claim is made for full support of any level of the standards. </span> </p> </blockquote> <span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Other less well-known embedded databases designed for or suited to mobile deployment are </span> <a href="http://www.mimer.com/leftright.asp?secId=172"><span style="font-size: 85%;">Mimer SQL Mobile</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;"> and </span> <a href="http://www.vistadb.net/"><span style="font-size: 85%;">VistaDB 2.1</span> </a><span style="font-size: 85%;">. Neither product is open-source and require paid licensing; VistaDB requires a small up-front payment by developers but offers royalty-free distribution.</span> </span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: Verdana;">Java DB, Firebird embedded, SQLite and eSQL 2.11 are contenders for lightweight PC and mobile device database projects that aren't Windows-only.</span> <br /> <br /> <strong> <span style="font-family: verdana;">SQL Server 2005 Everywhere<br /> </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span> </strong> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;">If you're a Windows developer, SQL Server Mobile is the logical embedded database choice for mobile applications for Pocket PCs and Smartphones. Microsoft's April 19, 2006 press release delivered the news that SQL Server 2005 Mobile Editon (SQL Mobile or SSM) would gain a big brother—SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition. </span> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;"></span> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;">Currently, the SSM client is licensed (at no charge) to run in production on devices with Windows CE 5.0, Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC or Windows Mobile 5.0, or on PCs with Windows XP Tablet Edition only. SSM also is licensed for development purposes on PCs running Visual Studio 2005.</span> <span style="font-family: verdana;"> Smart Device replication with SQL Server 2000 SP3 and later databases has been the most common application so far for SSM.<br /> <br /> </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">By the end of 2006, Microsoft will license SSE for use on <em>all</em> PCs running any Win32 version or the preceding device OSs. A version of SQL Server Management Studio Express (SSMSE)—updated to support SSE—is expected to release by the end of the year. These features will qualify SSE as <em>the universal embedded database</em> for Windows client and smart-device applications. </span> <br /> <br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;">For more details on SSE, read <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/jgalloway/archive/2006/04/11/442451.aspx">John Galloway's April 11, 2006 blog post</a> and my '<a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/rjennings-mobile/">SQL Server 2005 Mobile Goes Everywhere</a>' article for the <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/sqlserver/">FTPOnline Special Report on SQL Server</a>.</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span>" <p>(Via <a href="http://oakleafblog.blogspot.com">OakLeaf Systems</a>.)</p> </span> </blockquote>
2006-07-21T07:21:57.000006-04:00
Google Objects To MSFT’s Default To MSN Search For New IE
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-01#967
2006-05-01T19:40:00Z
<p>Really! Why shouldn't Microsoft set their own Search Engine as the default for their own Browser? I don't understand Google reaction here.</p> <blockquote> <cite><p> <a href="http://www.paidcontent.org/google-objects-to-msfts-default-to-msn-search-for-new-ie#comments">Google Objects To MSFT’s Default To MSN Search For New IE</a>: </p> <p>"The search wars are only going to escalate … Now Google is using its newly enhanced lobbying team to express concerns with Justice Department and the European Commission about Microsoft’s decision to use its own MSN search as the default in Internet Explorer 7, the new browser in beta. The default search engine can be changed or removed in IE 7. Also, users can click on a link for more providers and choose from alphabetical listings of web or topic search engines and, as far as I can tell, nothing prevents the addition of toolbars for MSN Search competitors. That’s not enough for Google, which says its test shows only 30 percent of users could manage changing the default.</p> <p> Marissa Mayer, VP-search products, told the NYT: ‘The market favors open choice for search, and companies should compete for users based on the quality of their search services. … We don’t think it’s right for Microsoft to just set the default to MSN. We believe users should choose.’ Mayer said those concerns were expressed to Microsoft last year; Yahoo also has raised reservations. IE GM Dean Hachamovitch’s response: ‘Whatever behavior happened in the past, the guiding principle we had is that the user is in control.’</p> <p> Google is the default on Firefox and Opera but says it would agree to a user decision at install if IE would do the same. Meanwhile, computer makers now control their own default destiny, creating another battle realm. For instance, the default IE homepage on my HP is a co-branded Netscape-HP site. In fact, Google already has a bundling deal with Dell." </p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.paidcontent.org">PaidContent.org</a>.)</p> </cite> <blockquote></blockquote> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Samba creator echoes common Microsoft ISV gripe
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-05-01#966
2006-05-01T13:14:44Z
<p>Excerpted from:<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r518324049">"InfoWorld piece covering"</a> last week's EU testimony by <a href="http://samba.org/~tridge/">Andrew Tridgell</a>.</p> <blockquote> <cite><p>The engineers bring computers and the software programs they are working on and literally plug them together to see how their programs interoperate. “We work around the clock for a week. We torture our machines in the pursuit of interoperability,” he told a rapt courtroom.</p> <p>“Can you do this test with Microsoft?” Judge Cooke asked.</p> <p>“Yes, but they don’t turn up,” Tridgell said.</p> <p>In an interview after the court had adjourned for the day, Tridgell explained that for the past six years Microsoft has boycotted the event.</p> <p>“They used to come. It used to be held in Seattle, close to Microsoft’s headquarters,” he said.</p> <p>But the software giant turned its back on the rest of the software community in the late 1990s once it had developed a server operating system it believed it could corner the market with. This marked a turning point for the software industry, Tridgell said. He spoke nostalgically about the days before Microsoft went its separate way. “It’s not like it used to be. I’d like it to get back to that,” he said.</p> <p>The market for workgroup server operating systems lies at the heart of the European Commission’s antitrust decision against Microsoft. Sun Microsystems Inc., a player in this market, complained to the European competition regulator in 1998 that Microsoft was competing unfairly. That complaint sparked the five year-long antitrust investigation.</p> <p>To remedy the situation, the Commission ordered Microsoft to divulge interoperability protocols within its own Windows workgroup server operating system. With this information, rival server systems should be able to communicate as fluently with Windows on PCs as Microsoft’s own server system.</p> <p>Two years on from the historic antitrust ruling, the Commission contends that Microsoft still hasn’t provided the necessary information, and the Commission is poised to issue a new antitrust ruling against the company for failing to comply with its 2004 decision.</p> <p>Even if Microsoft does comply, it isn’t certain that Tridgell and others from the free and open source sides of the software community will be granted access to the information.</p> <p>At the time of the antitrust ruling, Microsoft said the remedy proposed by the then competition commissioner, Mario Monti, would result in its valuable intellectual property being given away if it fell into the hands of open source developers.</p> </cite> </blockquote> <p>Andrew's testimony reflects an experience familiar to many ISV's that worked closely with Microsoft in the "early to mid 90's". In our case, the technology was ODBC (Open Database Connectivity). The cost of achieving ODBC compliance and interoperability grew exponentially as Microsoft veered towards a platform and database specific monoculture.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
My podcast conversation with Jon Udell
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-28#965
2006-04-28T14:43:12Z
<p>Jon and I had a recent chat yesterday that is now available in <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html#a1437">Podcast</a> form.</p> <blockquote> <cite><p>"In my <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3">fourth Friday podcast</a> we hear from Kingsley Idehen, CEO of <a href="http://openlinksw.com/">OpenLink Software</a>. I wrote about OpenLink's universal database and app server, Virtuoso, back in <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/02/04/12/020415plvirtuoso_1.html">2002</a> and <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/21/12virtuoso_1.html">2003</a>. Earlier this month Virtuoso became the first mature SQL/XML hybrid to make the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/?id=951">transition to open source</a>. The latest incarnation of the product also adds SPARQL (a semantic web query language) to its repertoire. <b>...</b>"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>.)</p> </cite> </blockquote> I would like to make an important clarification re. the GData Protocol and what is popularly dubbed as "<a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006687.html">Adam Bosworth's fingerprints.</a>" I do not believe in a one solution (a simple one for the sake of simplicity) to a deceptively complex problem. Virtuoso supports Atom 1.0 (syndication only at the current time) and Atom 0.3 (syndication and publication which have been in place for years). <blockquote>BTW - the GData Protocol and Atom 1.0 publishing support will be delivered in both the Open Source and Commercial Edition updates to Virtuoso next week (very little work due to what's already in place).</blockquote> <p>I make the clarification above to eliminate the possibility of assuming mutual exclusivity of my perspective/vison and Adam's (Jon also makes this important point when he speaks about our opinions being on either side of a spectrum/continuum). I simply want to broaden the scope of this discussion. I am a profound believer in the Semantic Web / Data Web vision, and I predict that we will be querying the Googlebase via SPARQL in the not to distant future (this doesn't mean that netizens will be forced to master SPARQL, absolutely not! But there will be conduit technologies that deal with matter).</p> <p>Side note: I actually last spoke with Adam at the NY Hilton in 2000 (the day I unveiled Virtuoso to the public for the first time, in person). We bumped into each other and I told him about Virtuoso (at the time the big emphasis was SQL to XML and the vocabulary we had chosen re. SQL extension...), and he told me about his departure from Microsoft and the commencement of his new venture (CrossGain prior to his stint at BEA), what struck me even more was his interest in Linux and Open Source (bearing in mind this was about 3 or so week after he departed Microsoft.)</p> <p>If you are encountering Virtuoso for the first time via this post or Jon's, please make time to read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory/">product history</a> article on the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/">Virtuoso Wiki</a> (which is one of many Virtuoso based applications that make up our soon to be released OpenLink DataSpace offering).</p> <p>That said, I better go listen to the podcast :-)</p>
2006-07-21T07:22:41.000001-04:00
My podcast conversation with Jon Udell
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-28#993
2006-04-28T14:43:12Z
<p>Jon and I had a recent chat yesterday that is now available in <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2006/04/28.html#a1437">Podcast</a> form.</p> <blockquote> <cite></cite> <p>"In my <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/ju_idehen.mp3">fourth Friday podcast</a> we hear from Kingsley Idehen, CEO of <a href="http://openlinksw.com/">OpenLink Software</a>. I wrote about OpenLink's universal database and app server, Virtuoso, back in <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/02/04/12/020415plvirtuoso_1.html">2002</a> and <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/21/12virtuoso_1.html">2003</a>. Earlier this month Virtuoso became the first mature SQL/XML hybrid to make the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/?id=951">transition to open source</a>. The latest incarnation of the product also adds SPARQL (a semantic web query language) to its repertoire. <b>...</b>"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>.)</p> </blockquote> I would like to make an important clarification re. the GData Protocol and what is popularly dubbed as "<a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/006687.html">Adam Bosworth's fingerprints.</a>" I do not believe in a one solution (a simple one for the sake of simplicity) to a deceptively complex problem. Virtuoso supports Atom 1.0 (syndication only at the current time) and Atom 0.3 (syndication and publication which have been in place for years). <blockquote>BTW - the GData Protocol and Atom 1.0 publishing support will be delivered in both the Open Source and Commercial Edition updates to Virtuoso next week (very little work due to what's already in place).</blockquote> <p>I make the clarification above to eliminate the possibility of assuming mutual exclusivity of my perspective/vison and Adam's (Jon also makes this important point when he speaks about our opinions being on either side of a spectrum/continuum). I simply want to broaden the scope of this discussion. I am a profound believer in the Semantic Web / Data Web vision, and I predict that we will be querying the Googlebase via SPARQL in the not to distant future (this doesn't mean that netizens will be forced to master SPARQL, absolutely not! But there will be conduit technologies that deal with matter).</p> <p>Side note: I actually last spoke with Adam at the NY Hilton in 2000 (the day I unveiled Virtuoso to the public for the first time, in person). We bumped into each other and I told him about Virtuoso (at the time the big emphasis was SQL to XML and the vocabulary we had chosen re. SQL extension...), and he told me about his departure from Microsoft and the commencement of his new venture (CrossGain prior to his stint at BEA), what struck me even more was his interest in Linux and Open Source (bearing in mind this was about 3 or so week after he departed Microsoft.)</p> <p>If you are encountering Virtuoso for the first time via this post or Jon's, please make time to read the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory">product history</a> article on the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">Virtuoso Wiki</a> (which is one of many Virtuoso based applications that make up our soon to be released OpenLink DataSpace offering).</p> <p>That said, I better go listen to the podcast :-)</p>
2006-06-29T10:14:44.000001-04:00
Prerelational DBMS vendors — a quick overview
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-13#957
2006-04-13T19:04:34Z
<p> <a href="http://www.softwarememories.com/2006/02/09/prerelational-dbms-vendors-a-quick-overview/">Prerelational DBMS vendors — a quick overview</a>: "</p> <p> <strong>IBM. </strong> With BOMP and D-BOMP, IBM was probably the first company to commercialize precursors to DBMS. (BOMP stood for Bill Of Materials Planning, foreshadowing the hierarchical architecture of IMS.) Out of those grew DL/1 and IMS, IBM’s flagship hierarchical DBMS, and the world’s first dominant DBMS product(s). Of course, IBM also innovated relational DBMS, via the research of E. F. ‘Ted’ Codd, then some prototype products, and eventual the mainframe version of DB2. To this day DB2 on the mainframe remains one of the world’s major DBMS, as does the separate but related product of DB2 for ‘open systems.’</p> <p> <strong>Cincom. </strong> In the 1970s, Cincom was probably the most successful independent software product company. Its flagship product was Total, a shallow-network DBMS that was a little more general than the strictly hierarchical IMS. What’s more, Total ran on almost any brand of computer hardware. Cincom remains independent and privately held to this day.</p> <p> <strong>Cullinane/Cullinet.</strong> Charlie Bachman innovated a true network DBMS at Honeywell, but it didn’t turn into a serious product at that time. B. F. Goodrich, however, ran a version. This is what John Cullinane’s company bought and turned into IDMS, which at least on the mainframe supplanted Total as the technical, mind share, and probably revenue market leader. Cullinet (as it was then called) ran into technical difficulties, however, losing ground to the more flexible index-based DBMS. It was eventually sold to Computer Associates. </p> <p>A lot of software industry leaders cut their teeth at Cullinet, notably Andrew ‘Flip’ Filipowski, later the colorful founder of Platinum. Other alumni include Renato ‘Ron’ Zambonini, Dave Litwack, Dave Ireland, and the original PowerBuilder development team. John Landry and Bob Weiler ran the firm for a while toward the end, but they don’t really count; rather, they’re the most prominent alumni of applications pioneer McCormack & Dodge.</p> <p> <strong>Note:</strong> <em>Index-based</em> is a term I used in and probably coined for my first report in 1982, comprising both inverted-list and relational RDBMS, as opposed to the link(ed)-list hierarchical and network products such as IMS, Total, and IDBMS. The companies that beat Cullinet were long-time rival Software AG, and then especially Applied Data Research; then all three of those independents were blown out by IBM’s DB2. And then the whole mainframe DBMS business was in turn obsoleted by the rise of UNIX … but I’m getting ahead of my story.</p> <p> <strong>Software AG.</strong> Like Cincom, Germany-based Software AG is a 1970s DBMS pioneer that has always remained independent and privately held. Sort of. Twice, Software AG of North America was spun off as a separate, eventually public company. Software AG’s flagship DBMS was the inverted list product ADABAS. SAP’s MaxDB was also owned by Software AG for a while (and seemingly by every other significant German computer company as well – or more precisely, by Nixdorf where it was developed, and by Siemens after it bought Nixdorf).</p> <p>I actually visited Software AG in Darmstadt once. Founder Peter Schnell and key techie Peter Page were both gracious hosts. Schnell was proud of their new building, and especially of the hexagon-based wooden dual desks he’d personally designed. General analytic rule – when the CEO is focused on the décor, this is not a good sign for the company’s near-term prospects. (I call this having an ‘edifice complex.’)</p> <p> <strong>Applied Data Research (ADR). </strong> ADR is often credited as being the first independent software company, having introduced products in the late 1960s and prevailed in antitrust struggles against IBM to allow the business to survive. Basically, it sold programmer productivity tools. This led it to acquire Datacom/DB, an inverted-list DBMS developed in the Dallas area. In the early 1980s, Datacom/DB began to boom, and was on a track to surpass both IDMS and ADABAS in market share until DB2 showed up and blew them all away. ADR was particularly aided by its fourth-generation language (4GL) IDEAL, which was an excellent product notwithstanding the famous State of New Jersey fiasco. (As John Landry said to me about that one, ‘4GLs are powerful tools. In particular, they allow you to write bad programs really quickly.’)</p> <p>ADR was an underappreciated powerhouse, boasting all of the Fortune 100 as customers way back in the early 1980s (yes, even archrival IBM). When the DBMS business stalled, however, ADR was quickly sold — first to Ameritech (the Illinois-based Baby Bell company), and soon thereafter to Computer Associates.</p> <p> <strong>Computer Corporation of America (CCA). </strong> CCA’s DBMS Model 204 may have been the best of the prerelational products, boasting an inverted-list architecture akin to that of ADABAS and Datacom/DB. The company was also interesting in that it was first and foremost a government contract research shop, and hence did all sorts of interesting prototype work that sadly never got commercialized. In about 1983 it became that the company wasn’t going anywhere, and it put itself up for sale. </p> <p>I was personally instrumental in that decision. Our investment banker pretended he was considering taking CCA public. CCA President Jim Rothnie showed us revenue projections. I asked how he had gotten them. He replied that he had taken the market size projection 5 years out, assumed 10%, and drawn a ‘plausible curve.’ However, I quickly got Socratic with him. ‘How many salesmen do you have?’ ‘How much revenue does the average experienced salesman produce?’ ‘How many experienced salesmen do you expect to have next year?’ ‘How high do you think their average productivity can grow?’ ‘Let us multiply.’ (Yes, I really said that. I can be a jerk. And anyway Jim was the sort of analytic guy one can say that to without giving serious offense.)</p> <p>CCA was sold to a Canadian insurance company whose name I’ve now forgotten. Eventually, it was spun back out (perhaps after some intermediate changes of ownership), and resurfaced as primarily a data integration company, called Praxis.</p> <p>In the real old days (mid 1970s, perhaps), Model 204 was resold by Informatics (later Informatics General, later the hostile takeover that became the guts of Sterling Software, which like so many other companies was eventually absorbed into Computer Associates). I know this because Richard Currier used to sell the product when he worked at Informatics. That probably makes Richard and me about the only two people who still remember the fact.</p> <p>Hmm. I forgot to mention <strong>Intel’s System 2000. </strong> Well, truth be told it was a dying product even back when I first became an analyst in 1981, and I recall nothing about it, except Gene Lowenthal’s observation that Intel had had trouble selling chips and DBMS through the same salesforce. I think Al Sisto, who I probably met when he was head of sales at RTI (Relational Technology, Inc. — later called Ingres), came out of that business, but I’m not 100% sure. I remember Pete Tierney from that RTI management team more clearly anyway, although that’s mainly because we stayed in touch at subsequent companies over the years.</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.softwarememories.com">Software Memories</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Virtuoso & SPARQL Demo
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-12#953
2006-04-12T19:56:01Z
<p>The W3C RDF Data Access Workgroup's (DAWG) SPARQL query language is one of the many interesting aspects of the recent Virtuoso Open-Source release. </p> <p>To assist with the general understanding of <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/sparql_demo/">Virtuoso's SPARQL Implementation</a>, we have released an online version of the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-dawg-uc/">RDF DAWG SPARQL Test Suite</a> (hosted by a live <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/tutorial/">Virtuoso Demo & Tutorial Instance</a>).</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Working Draft for XML Processing Model
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-12#952
2006-04-12T17:14:10Z
<p> <a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r507380822">Working Draft for XML Processing Model</a>: "W3C Apr 12 2006 6:52AM GMT"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/rss">Moreover - XML and metadata news</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Virtuoso is Officially Open Source!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-11#951
2006-04-11T18:01:44Z
<p>I am pleased to unveil (officially) the fact that <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-11-2006/0004338324&EDATE=">Virtuoso is now available in Open Source form</a>.</p> <p></p> <h4>What Is Virtuoso?</h4> <p>A powerful next generation server product that implements otherwise distinct server functionality within a single server product. Think of Virtuoso as the server software analog of a dual core processor where each core represents a traditional server functionality realm.</p> <p></p> <h4>Where did it come from?</h4> <p>The <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/Main/VOSHistory">Virtuoso History page</a> tells the whole story.</p> <p></p> <h4>What Functionality Does It Provide?</h4> The following: <ul> 1. Object-Relational DBMS Engine (ORDBMS like PostgreSQL and DBMS engine like MySQL) </ul> <ul> 2. XML Data Management (with support for XQuery, XPath, XSLT, and XML Schema) </ul> <ul> 3. RDF Triple Store (or Database) that supports SPARQL (Query Language, Transport Protocol, and XML Results Serialization format) </ul> <ul> 4. Service Oriented Architecture (it combines a BPEL Engine with an ESB) </ul> <ul> 5. Web Application Server (supports HTTP/WebDAV) </ul> <ul> 6. NNTP compliant Discussion Server </ul> And more. (see: <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso Web Site</a>) <p> 90% of the aforementioned functionality has been available in Virtuoso since 2000 with the RDF Triple Store being the only 2006 item.</p> <p></p> <h4>What Platforms are Supported</h4> <p> The Virtuoso build scripts have been successfully tested on Mac OS X (Universal Binary Target), Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris (AIX, HP-UX, and True64 UNIX will follow soon). A Windows Visual Studio project file is also in the works (ETA some time this week).</p> <p></p> <h4>Why Open Source?</h4> <p>Simple, there is no value in a product of this magnitude remaining the "best kept secret". That status works well for our competitors, but absolutely works against the legions of new generation developers, systems integrators, and knowledge workers that need to be aware of what is actually achievable today with the right server architecture.</p> <p></p> <h4>What Open Source License is it under?</h4> <p>GPL version 2.</p> <p></p> <h4>What's the business model?</h4> <p>Dual licensing.</p> <p>The Open Source version of Virtuoso includes all of the functionality listed above. While the Virtual Database (distributed heterogeneous join engine) and Replication Engine (across heterogeneous data sources) functionality will only be available in the commercial version. </p> <p></p> <h4>Where is the Project Hosted?</h4> <p>On <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtuoso">SourceForge.</a> </p> <p></p> <h4>Is there a product Blog?</h4> <p>Of course! </p> <p>Up until this point, the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/blog/">Virtuoso Product Blog</a> has been a covert live demonstration of some aspects of Virtuoso (Content Management). My Personal Blog and the Virtuoso Product Blog are actual Virtuoso instances, and have been so since I started blogging in 2003.</p> <p>Is There a product Wiki?</p> <p>Sure! <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/wiki/main/">The Virtuoso Product Wiki</a> is also an instance of Virtuoso demonstrating another aspect of the Content Management prowess of Virtuoso.</p> <p></p> <h4>What About Online Documentation?</h4> <p>Yep! <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/">Virtuoso Online Documentation</a> is hosted via yet another Virtuoso instance. This particular instance also attempts to demonstrate Free Text search combined with the ability to repurpose well formed content in a myriad of forms (Atom, RSS, RDF, OPML, and OCS).</p> <p></p> <h4>What about Tutorials and Demos?</h4> <p>The <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/tutorial/">Virtuoso Online Tutorial</a> Site has operated as a live demonstration and tutorial portal for a numbers of years. During the same timeframe (circa. 2001) we also assembled a few Screencast style demos (their look feel certainly show their age; updates are in the works).</p> <p>BTW - We have also updated the <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/FAQ/">Virtuoso FAQ</a> and also released a number of missing <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/Whitepapers/">Virtuoso White Papers</a> (amongst many long overdue action items).</p>
2006-07-21T07:22:20.000001-04:00
Do Company Founders Make Better CEOs?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-10#948
2006-04-10T21:06:20Z
<p>Fortune magazine has a interesting article titled: <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2006/04/05/magazines/fortune/founders_f500_fortune_041706/index.htm">Do Company Founders Make Better CEOs</a>? My personal take on this (as a founding CEO myself) is that it really depends on the business development landscape. For instance, today, the answer to the aforementioned question is a resounding "YES!". Simply because the Internet is now the predominant medium of value exchange -- rapidly reducing the size and composition of the "buffer zone" between company and customer. </p> <p>Buffer Zone? You may be wondering :-) Well, prior to the Internet delivering an inherently cost-effective medium of value exchange, a founding CEO would have to navigate a complex (and inherently inefficient) terrain comprised of VCs, channel partners, traditional media, PR agencies, industry analysts, recruitment agencies etc.. en route to assembling an entity capable of maximizing the market opportunities at hand (exchanging value with target customers). Very few, if any, founding CEOs had the attention span, or in some cases, the skills set to handle this terrain. </p> <p>Fortune magazine (IMHO) wouldn't have even considered today's postulation style article poignant enough for publication a few years ago, but times are changing and Founding CEOs are becoming fashionable again (the "New Black" in a sense:-) ). </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Swoogle knows how Semantic Web ontologies are used
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-05#947
2006-04-05T20:00:36Z
<p> <a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/blogger/2006/04/04/swoogle-knows-how-semantic-web-ontologies-are-used/">Swoogle knows how Semantic Web ontologies are used</a>: "</p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:div> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:img src="http://swoogle.umbc.edu/images/logo_mini.png" align="right" alt="" /> </xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>The <xhtml:a href="http://dublincore.org/">Dublin Core Metadata Initiative</xhtml:a> is updating the RDF expression of DC and might add range restrictions to some properties. Mikael Nilsson wondered if we would use the <xhtml:a href="http://swoogle.umbc.edu/">Swoogle Semantic Web search engine</xhtml:a> to see what types of values are being used with DC properties.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>This kind of query is just the ticket for Swoogle. Well, almost. The current web-based interface supports a limited number of query types. Many more can be asked if you use SQL directly to query Swoogle’s underlying databases. We don’t want to provide a direct SQL query service over the main Swoogle database because it’s easy to ask a query that will take a looooooong time to answer and some could even crash the database server. We are planning to put up a second server with a copy of the database and we give <xhtml:em>Swoogle Power Users</xhtml:em> (SPUs) access to it.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>We ran a simple SQL query to generate some initial data for Mikael showing fall of the DC properties. For each one, we list all of the ranges that values were drawn from and the number of separate documents and triples for each combination. For example</xhtml:p> <xhtml:table border="1" align="center" cellpadding="6" bgcolor="#E9E9E9"> <xhtml:tr bgcolor="#333300"> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="center"> <xhtml:font color="#FFFFFF"><xhtml:strong>Property</xhtml:strong> </xhtml:font> </xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="center"> <xhtml:font color="#FFFFFF"><xhtml:strong>Range</xhtml:strong> </xhtml:font> </xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="center"> <xhtml:font color="#FFFFFF"><xhtml:strong>Documents</xhtml:strong> </xhtml:font> </xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="center"> <xhtml:font color="#FFFFFF"><xhtml:strong>Triples</xhtml:strong> </xhtml:font> </xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td>dc:creater</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>rdfs:Literal</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">32</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">648</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td>dc:creator</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>rdfs:Literal</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">234655</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">2477665</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td>dc:creator</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>wn:Person</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">2714</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">1138250</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td>dc:creator</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>cc:Agent</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">4090</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">6359</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td>dc:creator</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>foaf:Person</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">2281</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">5969</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td>dc:creator</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>foaf:Agent</xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">1723</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td> <xhtml:div align="right">3234</xhtml:div> </xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> </xhtml:table> <xhtml:p>Notice that the first property in this partial table is an obvious typo. You can see the complete table as <xhtml:a href="http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~finin/noindex/dc/dcPropertiesRanges.pdf"> pdf</xhtml:a> file or as an excel <xhtml:a href="http://www.csee.umbc.edu/~finin/noindex/dc/dcPropertiesRanges.xls"> spreadsheet</xhtml:a>.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>[Tim Finin, UMBC ebiquity lab]</xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> </xhtml:div>" <p>(Via <a href="http://planetrdf.com/">Planet RDF</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Wikicities gets $4 mill in VC funds, changes name to Wikia
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-05#946
2006-04-05T19:59:29Z
<p> <a href="http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/30/wikicities-gets-4-mill-in-vc-funds-changes-name-to-wikia/">Wikicities gets $4 mill in VC funds, changes name to Wikia</a>: "</p> <p>Filed under: <a href="http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/category/vcs/" rel="tag">VCs</a>, <a href="http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/category/wikis/" rel="tag">wikis</a> </p> <div id="pc604327"> <img align="right" src="http://www.marshallk.com/wikia.jpg" alt="" />This is a couple of days old, so maybe it's onlynews to me - but <a href="http://www.wikia.com/wiki/Press_releases/March_2006">Jimmy Wales' private wiki initiative hasreceived $4 million in venture capital </a>from a very hip crowd of investors. Many people love the MediaWikisystem that Wikipedia runs on. I think others find it too complicated. <br /> <br /> Wikis are interesting,but I can't believe they are going to be exciting enough to be funded by advertising. I like Wikis alot, so I hope all these hip investors will be proven correct. I'm not sure I can see truly mass audiencesediting pages and reading edited pages on very specific topics. I hope I'm wrong, though!<br /> <em>Found via <ahref>alarm:clock</ahref> </em> </div> <h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6> <a href="http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/30/wikicities-gets-4-mill-in-vc-funds-changes-name-to-wikia/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a> | <a href="http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/forward/604327/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a> | <a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&fc=1&url=http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/30/wikicities-gets-4-mill-in-vc-funds-changes-name-to-wikia/" title="Linking Blogs">Linking Blogs</a> | <a href="http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/2006/03/30/wikicities-gets-4-mill-in-vc-funds-changes-name-to-wikia/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a> <br /> <p> <font size="1"></font> </p> <hr />Sponsored by: <a href="http://www.userplane.com/traffic/ss/1_0/redirect.cfm?GUID=82036209-a3de-4ee9-b4f7-09934929923a">Userplane Apps: Live communication applications powering the world's leading online communities.</a>" <p>(Via <a href="http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com">The Social Software Weblog</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Apple's Boot Camp lets Mactels run Windows XP
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-04-05#945
2006-04-05T13:10:52Z
<p> <a href="http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/apples_boot_camp_lets_mactels_run_windows_xp/">Apple's Boot Camp lets Mactels run Windows XP</a>: "</p> <p> <img src="http://www.macsimumnews.com/images/uploads/Boot_Camp.gif" border="0" alt="image" name="image" align="right" width="310" height="231" />Apple has today introduced Boot Camp, public beta software that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP. It will be a part of Mac OS X 10.5 (‘Leopard’) whenever the next major update of Mac OS X arrives (probably in early 2007). Leopard will be previewed this August at the... [ <a href="http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/11933/"> read more</a> ]</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/main/index/">Macsimum News</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Future Of The Internet
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-03-29#943
2006-03-29T18:26:07Z
<p> <a href="http://123suds.blogspot.com/2006/03/future-of-internet.html">The Future Of The Internet</a>: "</p> <p align="justify">While the <a href="http://123suds.blogspot.com/2005/11/wsis-agrees-on-evolutionary-framework.html" target="_blank">framework of governance</a> continues to evolve there is a widespread belief that along with the growth of the internet, more and more problems such as spam, viruses and 'denial of service' attacks that can cripple large websites shall begin to be felt. It seems reasonable to assume that the number of devices on the network will continue to multiply in new and unforeseen ways. <strong>So researchers are starting from the assumption that communications chips and sensors will eventually be embedded in almost everything, from furniture to cereal boxes - 'hundreds of billions of such devices'. While today's internet traffic is generally initiated by humans- as they send e-mails, click on web links, or download music tracks- in future, the vast majority of traffic may be 'machine to machine' communications: things flirting with other things – all ready to be connected wirelessly, and will move around</strong>.<br /> <br />The Economist has a related article titled <a href="http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=5571596" target="_blank">Reinventing the Internet</a>. Asking the question if a can a ‘clean slate’ redesign of the internet can ever be implemented. <br />Few solutions float around:<br />- <strong>One is ‘trust-modulated transparency’. The network's traffic-routing infrastructure shall judge the trustworthiness of packets of data as they pass by and deliver only those deemed trustworthy & dubious packets might be shunted aside for screening</strong>. The whole system would be based on a ‘web of trust’, in which traffic flows freely between devices that trust each other, but is closely scrutinized between those that do not.<br />- <strong>Another idea is a new approach to addressing, called ‘internet indirection infrastructure’ - It would overlay an additional addressing system on top of the internet-protocol numbers now used to identify devices on the internet</strong>. This would make it easier to support mobile devices, and would also allow for ‘multicasting’ of data to many devices at once, enabling the efficient distribution of audio, video and software. <strong>With Activenets or metanets, devices at the edge of the network could then dynamically reprogram all the routers along the network path between them to use whatever new protocol they wanted. <br />While the research is still on there some hopes of making some progress on the technical front – but It may well transpire that the greatest impediment to upgrading the internet will turn out to be political disagreements like <a href="http://123suds.blogspot.com/2005/10/breaking-us-grip-on-net-or-its.html" target="_blank">this</a> , <a href="http://123suds.blogspot.com/2005/10/breaking-us-grip-on-net-or-its.html" target="_blank">this</a>, over how it should work, rather than the technical difficulty of bringing it about.</strong>The OECD hosted a workshop titled <a href="http://www.oecd.org/document/5/0,2340,en_2649_201185_36169989_1_1_1_1,00.htm" target="_blank">The Future of the Internet</a> in Paris on 8 March 2006. Some of the <a href="http://www.oecd.org/document/5/0,2340,en_2649_201185_36169989_1_1_1_1,00.htm" target="-blank">presentations</a> look good and a few of them make a compelling reading. </p> <br /> <br />Category :<a href="http://yahoo.com/tag/internet" rel="tag">Internet</a>, <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/emerging + technologies" rel="tag">Emerging Technologies</a>, <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/emerging + trends" rel="tag">Emerging Trends</a>" <p>(Via <a href="http://123suds.blogspot.com">Sadagopan's weblog on Emerging Technologies,Thoughts, Ideas,Trends and Cyberworld</a>.)</p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=Internet" rel="tag" style="display:none;">Internet</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=Emerging Technologies" rel="tag" style="display:none;">Emerging Technologies</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=Emerging Trends" rel="tag" style="display:none;">Emerging Trends</a>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Wikipedia: Vendor Lock-in
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-03-27#942
2006-03-27T12:50:34Z
<p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vendor_lock-in">Wikipedia's Vendor Lock-in article</a> provides great insight into a very important reality that is partially understood (at best) by most technology consumers.</p> <p>The article also includes a nice segue to the issue of: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace%2C_extend_and_extinguish">Embrace, Extend, and Extinguish (EEE)</a>.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Getting Closer (Booting solved): WinXP and OSX dual boot in MacBook Pro
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-03-19#941
2006-03-19T22:40:55Z
<p>(Directly From <a href="http://nirlog.com">Nirlog.com</a>:)</p> <p> <a href="http://nirlog.com/2006/03/18/winxp-and-osx-dual-boot-in-macbook-pro/#comments">WinXP and OSX dual boot in MacBook Pro</a>: "</p> <p> <img height="332" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-start2.gif" /> </p> <p>Finally I’ve succeeded in installing Windows XP in MacBook Pro. Now it can dual boot between Windows XP and MacOS X. There’re few issues with windows xp but being able to boot smoothly between these 2 OSes are really amazing. I’ve followed this <a href="http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/HOWTO">HOWTO</a> where more and more information is being added every few hours. I think most of the minor problems will be solved soon. If you want to install it for your self or want more information <a href="http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Main_Page">this wiki</a> is the best place to go. Here I’m posting the photos of major installation sequence and some problems I encountered.</p> <p> <a id="more-96"></a> </p> <p> <strong>Installation</strong> </p> <p> 1. Downloaded <a href="http://download.onmac.net/Winxponmac_0.1.zip">winxponmac0.1.zip</a> </p> <p>Windows XP Pro CD that came with my Samsung Notebook is SP1 but the patch works only with SP2. So this is what I did:</p> <p> 2. Downloaded <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en">WinXP SP2</a> separately.</p> <p> 3. Used the free tool <a href="http://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html">nLite</a> to integrate the WinXP SP2 with the XP Pro CD (SP1) and created the WinXP SP2 CD source.</p> <p> 4. Then followed <a href="http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/HOWTO#Step-by-step_Instructions">Step-by-step-instruction</a> </p> <ul> <li> Burned the customized WinXP CD.</li> <li> Partitioned the disk using OSX CD.</li> <li> Installed OSX.</li> </ul> <p> <img height="282" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-burn-cd.gif" /> </p> <p> 5. Started Windows XP installation.</p> <p> <img height="356" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-xpinstall.gif" /> </p> <p> 6. I encountered a problem with the partition listing. I was presented with following options.</p> <ul> <li> C: Partition 1 (EFI) [FAT32]</li> <li> unpartitioned space</li> <li> E: Partition 2 [unknown]</li> <li> unpartitioned space</li> </ul> <p> <img height="341" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-partition-problem.gif" /> </p> <p>According to the guide the correct option should be as following:</p> <ul> <li>E: Partition1 (EFI) [FAT32]</li> <li>C: Partition2 [Unknown]</li> <li>F: Partition3 [Unknown]</li> </ul> <p>If you choose the Partition2 then you’ll get follwing error:</p> <p> <img height="344" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-partition-problem1.gif" /> </p> <p> 7. To solve the above problem I selected the first 'unpartitioned space,' then pressed 'C' to create a new partition. As described in <a href="http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20060317100333451">this solution</a>. After this things went smoothly.</p> <p> <img height="360" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-partition-ok.gif" /> </p> <p> 8. Finally it’s installed</p> <p> <img height="332" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-start1.gif" /> </p> <p>9. System Properties</p> <p> <img height="531" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-sys-prop.gif" /> </p> <p>10. Device Manager with unrecognized devices.</p> <p> <img height="399" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-device.gif" /> </p> <p>11. Downloaded the drivers from <a href="http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Drivers">here</a>. Ethernet works fine. Wireless doesn’t work. If I press restart it will shutdown.</p> <p>12. Browsing my blog.</p> <p> <img height="363" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-firefox.gif" /> </p> <p>13. Boot Choice: Mac OSX</p> <p> <img height="360" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-apple.gif" /> </p> <p>14. Boot Choice: Windows XP</p> <p> <img height="360" width="484" style="margin:5px;" alt="" src="http://nirlog.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/03/xponmac-12.gif" /> </p> <p>Now there’re few driver issues I’m quite sure they’ll be solved soon.</p>"
2006-07-21T07:23:10.000001-04:00
History of Programming Languages
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-03-15#940
2006-03-15T04:12:00Z
<a href="http://www.oreilly.com/news/graphics/prog_lang_poster.pdf">History of Programming Languages Poster</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
New XTech web site, and why we don't sell presentation space
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-03-14#939
2006-03-14T21:24:26Z
<p> <a href="http://times.usefulinc.com/2006/03/14-xtech">New XTech web site, and why we don't sell presentation space</a>: "</p> <p>My too-long absence from writing much here can be ascribed to two, differently pleasant, activities. First, a fantastic vacation in Cuba, and second, the redesign and launch of the <a href="http://xtech06.usefulinc.com/">XTech web site</a>.</p> <p>Of the first, come to my place for dinner and I'll bore you at length about how amazing it was. Of the second, I'd like to bore you right now!</p> <p>Thanks to Ruby on Rails and a few late nights, the XTech site now has these new features:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://xtech06.usefulinc.com/schedule">Full conference schedule</a> (apart from 6 Mozilla talks I'm still nailing down)</li> <li> <a href="http://xtech06.usefulinc.com/">A blog</a>. With go-faster Atom 1.0 stripes and everything!</li> <li>Details on the newly-added <a href="http://xtech06.usefulinc.com/content/ajax">Ajax Developers' Day</a>.</li> </ul> <p>A few more details on the Ajax Developers' Day. As I mentioned before, when putting together the schedule we felt there was a lot of excellent content still missed out (I'm still feeling guilty at having rejected proposals from many good friends and excellent speakers). So, we put together an extra day at the beginning of the conference where we could go further into detail on Ajax technologies.</p> <p>This day, featuring speakers such as Simon Willison from Yahoo!, XML expert Kurt Cagle and OpenLaszlo's Max Carlson, will allow those working on Ajax projects--either deployment or toolkits--to meet, discuss best practice and move forward on new ideas. Although it's a day-long event, we didn't want to make the price tag as high as a full-day tutorial, so you can <a href="http://xtech06.usefulinc.com/content/registration">register</a> for the cost of a half-day tutorial.</p> <h4>A few implementation details</h4> <p>If that all sounded a little like advertising, here are some technical details worth sharing. The site's CMS is built on Ruby on Rails. Development was done on Linux, with the help of WINE to check out the view from Internet Explorer. The <a href="http://xtech06.usefulinc.com/public/newsletter">newsletter</a> is managed by the absurdly wonderful <a href="http://www.campaignmonitor.com/">CampaignMonitor</a>.</p> <h4>This conference not for sale</h4> <p>Before I went on vacation, there was some debate in various quarters about paid-for plenary and keynote slots in conferences. Though I hope it is obvious, I wanted to state where I, and thus the XTech conference, stand on this issue.</p> <p>It has always been my policy to maintain a strict separation between the commercial and editorial aspects of XTech. Although each year there's always a company who thinks they can buy a speaking slot, I never let this happen. The content of the conference is formed by editorial selection by the programme committee, who take the scores from the peer review panel as their primary guide.</p> <p>Aside from what I hope shows in the excellent quality of the talks and generally interesting keynotes (yes, we get it wrong occasionally!), there are two effects on the conference.</p> <ul> <li>Sponsors are that much more respected. When a sponsor respects the delegates' time and intelligence, but still attends, you know they're serious about engagement with attendees.<br /> </li> <li>A higher portion of the conference cost is in the registration fees than for some other conferences. We're still trying to keep the costs as low as we can, but we're not prepared to compromise the quality of the schedule by letting vendors buy talk time. </li> </ul>I hope this explains a little of my position. As a stance, it often creates more issues for me than it solves, but I believe it preserves XTech's reputation as a conference where you can hear some of the best no-fluff presentations on web technology.<br />" <p>(Via <a href="http://times.usefulinc.com/">Edd Dumbill's Weblog: Behind the Times</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
ETech 2006 Trip Report: eBay Web Services: A Marketplace Platform for Fun and Profit
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-03-11#938
2006-03-11T03:04:00Z
<p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=d39467a3-7662-4fc4-a782-9c068d47e1b4">ETech 2006 Trip Report: eBay Web Services: A Marketplace Platform for Fun and Profit</a>: "</p> <p> These are my notes from the session <a class="url" href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2006/view/e_sess/8513">eBay Web Services: A Marketplace Platform for Fun and Profit</a> by <a href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/et2006/view/e_spkr/1518">Adam Trachtenberg</a>. </p> <p> This session was about the <a href="http://developer.ebay.com/">eBay developer program</a>. The talk started by going over the business models for 'Web 2.0' startups. Adam Trachtenberg surmised that so far only two viable models have shown up (i) get bought by <a href="http://www.yahoo.com">Yahoo!</a> and (ii) put a lot of <a href="https://www.google.com/adsense/">Google AdSense</a> ads on your site. The purpose of the talk was to introduce a third option, making money by integrating with eBay's APIs. </p> <p> Adam Trachtenberg went on to talk about the differences between providing information and providing services. Information is read-only while services are read/write. Services have value because they encourage an 'architecture of participation'. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a> is a global, online marketplace that facilitates the exchange of goods. The site started off as being a place to purchase used collectibles but now has grown to encompass old and new items, auctions and fixed price sales (fixed price sales are now a third of their sales) and even sales of used cars. There are currently 78 million items being listed at any given time on <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a>. </p> <p> As <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a> has grown more popular they have come to realize that one size doesn't fit all when it comes to the website. It has to be customized to support different languages and markets as well as running on devices other the PC. Additionally, they discovered that some companies had started screen scraping their site to give an optimized user experience for some power users. Given how fragile screen scraping is the <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a> team decided to provide a SOAP API that would be more stable and performant for them than having people screen scrape the website. </p> <p> The API has grown to over 100 methods and about 43% of the items on the website are added via the SOAP API. The API enables one to build user experiences for <a href="http://www.ebay.com">eBay</a> outside the web browser such as integration with cell phones, Microsoft Office, gadgets & widgets, etc. The API has an affiliate program so developers can make money for purchases that happen through the API. An example of the kind of mashup one can build to make money from the eBay API is <a href="https://www.dudewheresmyusedcar.com/">https://www.dudewheresmyusedcar.com</a>. Another example of a mashup that can be used to make money using the eBay API is <a href="http://www.ctxbay.com/">http://www.ctxbay.com</a> which provides contextual eBay ads for web publishers. </p> <p> The aforementioned sites are just a few examples of the kinds of mashups that can be built with the eBay API. Since the API enables buying and listing of items for sale as well as obtaining inventory data from the service, one can build a very diverse set of applications. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Apple Patent Application: News Feed Viewer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-03-08#937
2006-03-08T20:40:30Z
Abstract (verbatim from actual <a href="http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PG01&p=1&S1=20050289147.PGNR.&OS=DN/20050289147&RS=DN/20050289147">patent filing</a>): <blockquote> <cite>Techniques for presenting and managing syndication XML (feeds) are disclosed. In one embodiment, a user can modify how a feed is displayed, such as which content (and how much) is displayed, in what order, and how it is formatted. In another embodiment, a modification regarding how a feed is displayed is stored so that it can be used again at a later time. In yet another embodiment, a user can create a custom feed through aggregation and/or filtering of existing feeds. Aggregation includes, for example, merging the articles of multiple feeds to form a new feed. Filtering includes, for example, selecting a subset of articles of a feed based on whether they satisfy a search query. In yet another embodiment, a user can find articles by entering a search query into a search engine that searches feeds, which will identify one or more articles that satisfy the query.</cite> </blockquote> <p>Clearly Apple don't seem to understand the world of XML, so let me give them a quick recap:</p> <ul> 1. XML enables separation of Data and Formating </ul> <ul> 2. It facilitates Data Representation, Transformation (XSLT), Exchange (syndication and subscription), and Modeling (languages, protocols, data models, amongst other things) </ul> <ul> 3. It is inherently open </ul> <ul> 4. You can't patent its essence through the back door! </ul> <p>The Blogosphere is a Galaxy within Cyberspace comprised of Solar systems of Blogs that revolve around X-list bloggers, Topics, or more recently Tags; through the gravitational pull of links to RSS (today), Atom (in due course), and RDF (the future). </p> <p>Unfortunately, Apple (a major late-comer to RSS) doesn't seem to understand that "RSS content search, aggregation and transformation" is practically the same thing as "XML search, aggregation and transformation". Subject matter covered extensively by XML based languages such as XSLT, XPath, XPointer, and XQuery.</p> <p>Without XML there would be no RSS (as we know it today), and without RSS there would be no Blogosphere. </p> <p>Repurposing Blogosphere content isn't a novel invention at all. Therefore, filing a patent along such lines is simply uncool by Apple's standards (like the inextricable binding of iWeb to .mac that was touted as innovative and open).</p> <p>Final note: this blog is driven by a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">database engine</a> that has understood XML for a long time. This blog has been my live demo of this fact since its inception. Here are a few things that it has done for a very long time (talking prior art here):</p> <ul> - Repurpose content on the fly from SQL and XML data sources to produce all the syndication and subscription gems you see on the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/">Blog Home Page</a> </ul> <ul> - Offer a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127">search feature</a> that enables visitors to query blog archives using Free Text, XQuery, XPath (all transformation technologies alongside XSLT). </ul> <ul> - <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=apple&type=text&output=html">Produce Query Results that are "Open"</a> for reuse outside the domain of this blog using standard syndication formats. </ul>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Contd: Windows/Linux/OSX Co-existence on MacIntels
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-02-22#936
2006-02-22T19:50:05Z
More notes and findings from the <a href="http://www.osxbook.com/book/bonus/misc/linux/">Mac OS X Internals Book site</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Ted Nelson's Perspective on Technology Lock-in
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-02-15#935
2006-02-15T19:50:41Z
<p> <a href="http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/ted-bar-it/top-level.html">Ted Nelson expresses technology lock-in dislike</a>. This applies to Operating System, Programming Language, Database, or any other forms. </p> Amen! <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=zigzag" rel="tag" style="display:none;">zigzag</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=xanadu" rel="tag" style="display:none;">xanadu</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=semantic_web" rel="tag" style="display:none;">semantic_web</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=semweb" rel="tag" style="display:none;">semweb</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=visionary" rel="tag" style="display:none;">visionary</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=history" rel="tag" style="display:none;">history</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=hypertext" rel="tag" style="display:none;">hypertext</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=hyperlink" rel="tag" style="display:none;">hyperlink</a>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Video: Tribute to Innovation (featuring: Doug Engelbart)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-02-15#934
2006-02-15T19:08:55Z
A really nice <a href="http://www.invisiblerevolution.net/index-video-web.html">video tribute to Doug Engelbart</a> and the fundamental challenges of seeing way ahead of your time (aka. Prescience) :-) <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=semantic_web" rel="tag" style="display:none;">semantic_web</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=semweb" rel="tag" style="display:none;">semweb</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=visionary" rel="tag" style="display:none;">visionary</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=history" rel="tag" style="display:none;">history</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=hypertext" rel="tag" style="display:none;">hypertext</a><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com:8889/index.vspx?tag=hyperlink" rel="tag" style="display:none;">hyperlink</a>
2006-07-21T07:22:48.000001-04:00
WINE Arrives for Intel Macs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-02-09#932
2006-02-09T14:29:16Z
<p> <a href="http://www.osx86project.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112&Itemid=2">WINE Arrives for Intel Macs</a>: " Though the precious dream of dual-booting our Intel Macs has not descended, a convenient alternative has arrived. Although fully functional on developers releases of OS X for Intel, the WINE compatibility layer, which allows Windows programs to run on *nix systems including OS X, was not available for the public release of 10.4.4. However, thanks to the hard work of the folks at Darwine (http://darwine.opendarwin.org/) and their contributors, it appears this barrier has been broken! Find out how to compile WINE and view screenshots in our forum (http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=8699). "</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.osx86project.org">The OSx86 Project</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web & XML Glossary
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-02-06#931
2006-02-06T23:14:41Z
Nice <a href="http://dret.net/glossary/">XML and Web Glossary</a> by <a href="http://dret.net/netdret/foaf.rdf">Dr. Eric Wilde</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
It's a different world today
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-02-03#930
2006-02-03T13:26:36Z
<p>Here is an accurate articulation of why "Size Doesn't Matter" anymore when it comes to market influence and fundamental business bootstrapping and development.</p> <blockquote> <cite></cite> <p>It's possible, even likely that Microsoft's RSS technology will be the most-installed, and their influence on the future of the format will be considerable, and it concerns me that at some point they may throw their weight around like Apple is (I think it's pretty likely they will, if not this year, then next year, or the year after that). </p> <p>But none of that means that I can't find enough users for my aggregator, and you for yours, to be able to continue development and influence the market, because we don't have to convince the editors of PC Mag and PC Week that our products matter. When the big dinosaurs, Microsoft, Lotus and Ashton-Tate, and later Borland, wanted our market, the publications had little choice but to give it to them. Now I am a publication myself. I can communicate directly with users. That changes <i>everything.</i> </p> <p>But even back then, if their product wasn't up to the job, their attempts to take the market often failed. I remember when the CEO of a very large software company came to me as a friend (hah) and said I should get out of his way because he was going to take my market. His product was inadequate, and it didn't work. He tried again, and again it didn't work. And again, and again. And my product was still standing. So even in the 80s, size wasn't enough to get you a market. </p> <p>Microsoft took spreadsheets by being much better than Lotus on the Mac. Word emerged from the flock of word processors by being the first to make it to Windows in a usable fashion. Adam, I don't have to tell you how dBASE fell to Fox. I don't think they would have overcome any of their competitors back in the 80s, if their product had been as weak as their aggregator product is today. Same thing is true, by the way, in their competition with Netscape. Microsoft's browser probably would have won on its merits, they didn't need to use anti-competitive tactics, their product was better enough, and their development methodology strong, they would would have won anyway, imho. (And so I argued, even pleaded, at the time.)</p> <p>On the other hand, the aggregator developers could sure use some competition! In the last four years there really hasn't been very much improvement, in fact I think in many ways we've <i>lost</i> capabilities that we once had. Maybe a little pressure from a BigCo will separate the winners from the losers in this space, and we can start thinking about a market that is, instead of a market that will be."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>The points made by Dave extend across all industries. The Internet and resultant "network effects" (exemplified by the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogosphere">Blogosphere</a> amongst others) collectively close the door on size as the key determinant of commercial success. "Size" is an artifact of the "Industrial Age". We are now well in the throws of the "Information Age". </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Art of Bootstrapping
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-01-30#929
2006-01-30T23:16:02Z
<p>Great tips for <a href="http://www.inc.com/magazine/19961201/1893.html">real entrepreneurs</a> from <a href="http://blog.guykawasaki.com/">Guy Kawasaki</a>. Note that Guy refers to the kind entrepreneur described by <a href="http://www.calacanis.com">Jason Calcanis</a> in his "<a href="http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2005/02/10/real-entrepreneurs-dont-raise-venture-capital/">Real Entrepreneurs Don't Raise Venture Capital</a>" post.</p> <blockquote> <cite></cite> <p> <a href="http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_art_of_boot.html">The Art of Bootstrapping</a>: " </p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:a href="http://guykawasaki.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/istock_000000421328medium.jpg"><xhtml:img alt="Istock_000000421328medium" src="http://blog.guykawasaki.com/images/istock_000000421328medium.jpg" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" title="Istock_000000421328medium" border="0" height="75" width="100" /> </xhtml:a> <xhtml:br />Someone once told me that the probability of an entrepreneur getting venture capital is the same as getting struck by lightning while standing at the bottom of a swimming pool on a sunny day. This may be too optimistic. </xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> Let's say that you can't raise money for whatever reason: You're not a ‘proven’ team with ‘proven’ technology in a ‘proven’ market. Or, your company may simply not be a ‘VC deal’--that is, something that will go public or be acquired for a zillion dollars. Finally, your organization may be a not-for-product with a cause like the ministry or the environment. Does this mean you should give up? Not at all. </xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> I could build a case that too much money is worse too little for most organizations--not that I wouldn't like to run a Super Bowl commercial someday. Until that day comes, the key to success is bootstrapping. The term comes from the <xhtml:a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrapping" target="new">German legend of Baron Münchhausen</xhtml:a> pulling himself out of the sea by pulling on his own bootstraps. Here is the art of bootstrapping. </xhtml:p> <xhtml:ol> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Focus on cash flow, not profitability</xhtml:strong>. The theory is that profits are the key to survival. If you could pay the bills with theories, this would be fine. The reality is that you pay bills with cash, so focus on cash flow. If you know you are going to bootstrap, you should start a business with a small up-front capital requirement, short sales cycles, short payment terms, and recurring revenue. It means passing up the big sale that take twelve months to close, deliver, and collect. Cash is not only king, it's queen and prince too for a bootstrapper.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Forecast from the bottom up</xhtml:strong>. Most entrepreneurs do a top-down forecast: ‘There are 150 million cars in America. It sure seems reasonable that we can get a mere 1% of car owners to use install our satellite radio systems. That's 1.5 million systems in the first year.’ The bottom-up forecast goes like this: ‘We can open up ten installation facilities in the first year. On an average day, they can install ten systems. So our first year sales will be 10 facilities x 10 systems x 240 days = 24,000 satellite radio systems. 24,000 is a long way from the conservative 1.5 million systems in the top-down approach. Guess which number is more likely to happen.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Ship, then test</xhtml:strong>. I can feel the comments coming in already: How can you recommend shipping stuff that isn't perfect? Blah blah blah. ’Perfect‘ is the enemy of ’good enough.‘ When your product or service is ’good enough,‘ get it out because cash flows when you start shipping. Besides perfection doesn't necessarily come with time--more unwanted features do. By shipping, you'll also learn what your customers truly want you to fix. It's definitely a tradeoff: your reputation versus cash flow, so you can't ship pure crap. But you can't wait for perfection either. (Nota bene: life science companies, please ignore this recommendation.)<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Forget the ’proven‘ team</xhtml:strong>. Proven teams are over-rated--especially when most people define proven teams as people who worked for a billion dollar company for the past ten years. These folks are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and it's not the bootstrapping lifestyle. Hire young, cheap, and hungry people. People with fast chips, but not necessarily a fully functional instruction set. Once you achieve significant cash flow, you can hire adult supervision. Until then, hire what you can afford and make them into great employees.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Start as a service business.</xhtml:strong> Let's say that you ultimately want to be a software company: people download your software or you send them CDs, and they pay you. That's a nice, clean business with a proven business model. However, until you finish the software, you could provide consulting and services based on your work-in-process software. This has two advantages: immediate revenue and true customer testing of your software. Once the software is field-tested and battle-hardened, flip the switch and become a product company.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Focus on function, not form</xhtml:strong>. <xhtml:em>Mea culpa</xhtml:em>: I love good ’form.‘ <xhtml:a href="http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/" target="new">MacBooks</xhtml:a>. <xhtml:a href="http://www.audiusa.com/" target="new">Audis</xhtml:a>. <xhtml:a href="http://www.grafcanada.com/" target="new">Graf</xhtml:a> skates. <xhtml:a href="http://www.bauer.com/" target="new">Bauer</xhtml:a> sticks. <xhtml:a href="http://www.breitling.com/en/" target="new">Breitling</xhtml:a> watches. You name it. But bootstrappers focus on function, not form, when they are buying things. The function is computing, getting from point A to point B, skating, shooting, and knowing the time of day. These functions do not require the more expensive form that I like. All the chair has to do is hold your butt. It doesn't have to look like it belongs in the Museum of Modern Art. Design great stuff, but buy cheap stuff.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Pick your battles</xhtml:strong>. Bootstrappers pick their battles. They don't fight on all fronts because they cannot afford to fight on all fronts. If you were starting a new church, do you really need the $100,000 multimedia audio visual system? Or just a great message from the pulpit? If you're creating a content web site based on the advertising model, do you have to write your own customer ad-serving software? I don't think so.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Understaff</xhtml:strong>. Many entrepreneurs staff up for what could happen, best case. ’Our conservative (albeit top-down) forecast for first year satellite radio sales is 1.5 million units. We'd better create a 24 x 7 customer support center to handle this. Guess what? You sell no where near 1.5 million units, but you do have 200 people hired, trained, and sitting in a 50,000 square foot telemarketing center. Bootstrappers understaff knowing that all hell might break loose. But this would be, as we say in Silicon Valley, a ‘high quality problem.’ Trust me, every venture capitalist fantasizes about an entrepreneur calling up and asking for additional capital because sales are exploding. Also trust me when I tell you that fantasies are fantasies because they seldom happen.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Go direct. </xhtml:strong>The optimal number of mouths (or hands) between a bootstrapper and her customer is zero. Sure, stores provide great customer reach, and wholesalers provide distribution. But God invented ecommerce so that you could sell direct and reap greater margins. And God was doubly smart because She knew that by going direct, you'd also learn more about your customer's needs. Stores and wholesalers <xhtml:em>fill</xhtml:em> demand, they don't create it. If you create enough demand, you can always get other organizations to fill it later. If you don't create demand, all the distribution in the world will get you <xhtml:em>bupkis</xhtml:em>.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Position against the leader</xhtml:strong>. Don't have the money to explain your story starting from scratch? Then don't try. Instead position against the leader. Toyota introduced Lexus as good as a Mercedes but at half the price--Toyota didn't have to explain what ‘good as a Mercedes’ meant. How much do you think that saved them? ‘Cheap iPod’ and ‘poor man's Bose noise-cancelling headphones,’ would work too.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li> <xhtml:strong>Take the ‘red pill.’</xhtml:strong>This refers to the choice that Neo made in <xhtml:em>The Matrix</xhtml:em>. The red pill led to learning the whole truth. The blue pill meant waking up wondering if you had a bad dream. Bootstrappers don't have the luxury to take the blue pill. They take the red pill--everyday--to find out how deep the rabbit hole really is. And the deepest rabbit hole for a bootstrapper is a simple calculation: Amount of cash divided by cash burn per month because this will tell you how much longer you can live. And as my friend Craig Johnson likes to say, ‘The leading cause of failure of startups is death, and death happens when you run out of money.’ As long as you have money, you're still in the game.</xhtml:li> </xhtml:ol> <xhtml:p> Written at: Atherton, California. </xhtml:p> </xhtml:div>" <p>(Via <a href="http://blog.guykawasaki.com/">Guy Kawasaki</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Booting Windows on MacIntel Step-By Guide
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-01-30#928
2006-01-30T19:04:00Z
Here is yet another "<a href="http://neosmart.net/blog/dual-booting-windows-xp-on-a-macbook/">Booting Windows on MacIntel</a>" Guide (courtesy of the <a href="http://neosmart.net/blog/">"Ramblings of a Computer Guru" blog</a>).
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Design Pattern: Read/Write Div
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-01-26#927
2006-01-26T13:06:36Z
<p> <a href="http://ajaxian.com/archives/design-pattern-readwrite-div">Design Pattern: Read/Write Div</a>: "</p> <p>Jonathan Boutelle has written about, what he calls, the <a href="http://www.jonathanboutelle.com/mt/archives/2006/01/ajax_design_pat.html">Read/Write Div pattern</a>.</p> <blockquote> <b>What is the Read/Write Div pattern?</b> <p>A new AJAX convention cropping up in a few places, one that is easy to implement and has real benefit to end users. I haven’t found a description of it anywhere, so I thought I’d write it up here.</p> <p>The basic idea is that user controls (typically for editing the displayed data) should be hidden from the user until needed. At ‘rest’, an area of the screen displays information in read-only fashion. </p> <b>Why the Read/Write Div Works</b> <p>Fewer controls means that the user has to make fewer choices before taking an action, and therefore it takes less time for the user to choose which item to click on. The technical term for this effect is ‘Hicks Law’.</p> <p>Also, the ‘read-only’ view of the data takes up much less space than the ‘read-write’ view does, so much more information can be packed into a given page, which means that the user doesn’t have to scroll down to read content. Avoiding the scrolling saves the user a measureable amount of time while browsing (3.05 seconds, according to my back-of-the-envelope GOMS keystroke analysis). </p> <p> <a href="http://www.usernomics.com/news/2006/01/ajax-design-pattern-readwrite-div.html"><img src="http://ajaxian.com/wp-content/images/readwritedivpattern.jpg" alt="ReadWrite Div Pattern" border="0" height="361" width="235" /> </a> </p> </blockquote> <div class="feedflare"> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Ef/ajaxian?a=a4ssZyRX"><img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Ef/ajaxian?i=a4ssZyRX" border="0" /> </a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Ef/ajaxian?a=h0P2MErn"><img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Ef/ajaxian?i=h0P2MErn" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Ef/ajaxian?a=4pdOaWls"><img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Ef/ajaxian?i=4pdOaWls" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Ef/ajaxian?a=D3dLrHwC"><img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/%7Ef/ajaxian?i=D3dLrHwC" border="0" /></a> </div>" <p>(Via <a href="http://ajaxian.com">Ajaxian Blog</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Windows/Linux on MacIntel Race is on!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-01-18#924
2006-01-18T22:54:57Z
As indicated in an <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/%7Ekidehen/index.vspx?page=&id=922">earlier post</a>, the real sweet spot for the recently announced MacIntels is going to be delivery of Mac OS X (which covers BSD), Linux, Solaris, and Windows running "side by side" nirvana (no dual booting). <a href="http://www.openosx.com/wintel/index.html">OpenOSX</a> is first off the mark (at least publicly) from the emulator camp, but there many others to come! Anyway, I need to go test this for myself before I comment any further (I hate speculating without hands on experience).
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
As We Get Closer to Mac/Linux/Windows/Solaris MacIntels :-)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2006-01-11#922
2006-01-11T22:37:35Z
<p>Quick note to self and others interested in this inevitable nirvana: The new <a href="http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/">MacBook Pro</a>'s from <a href="http://www.apple.com">Apple</a> include support for <a href="http://www.intel.com">Intel</a>'s <a href="http://www.intel.com/technology/efi/">EFI Bios</a>.</p> <p>(Spotter: <a href="http://digg.com/apple">Digg</a>) .</p> <p>Related Commentary: The emerging view is that EFI is a subtle mechanism for locking out Windows (since it doesn't support EFI in its x86 versions. And when it does, it only applies to the IA64 variants). Well, Linux handles EFI, and I assume that VMWare and others more than likely grok this already. Thus, we can hope that OS Virtualization players are getting revved up to provide even clearer justification for their existence by opening the gates to this Nirvana!</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Semantic Web Tutorial
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-12-16#920
2005-12-16T20:13:49Z
A great <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1214-Trento-IH/"> Semantic Web Tutorial</a> by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Ivan/">Ivan Herman</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
RSS Feeds from PR Newswire
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-12-07#918
2005-12-07T15:11:56Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://sapventures.typepad.com/main/2005/12/rss_feeds_from_.html">RSS Feeds from PR Newswire</a>: "</p> <p>This strikes me as an obvious move on the part of PR Newswire, adding RSS feeds. I'm surprised more companies have not done this with their own websites, like what <a href="http://www.simplefeed.com/">Simplefeed</a> is doing.</p> <p>Link: <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/rss/main.shtml" title="RSS Feeds from PR Newswire">RSS Feeds from PR Newswire</a>.</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://sapventures.typepad.com/main/">Venture Chronicles by Jeff Nolan</a>.)</p> </blockquote> BTW - There's a <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/rss/prnewswire.opml">PR Newswire OPML Feed</a> that aggregates all of their RSS feeds.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
JavaScript Image Magnifier
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-12-06#917
2005-12-06T04:43:56Z
<p> <a href="http://ajaxian.com/archives/2005/12/javascript_imag.html">JavaScript Image Magnifier</a>: "</p> <p>This is a fun one. A small <a href="http://valid.tjp.hu/zoom/index_en.html">JavaScript image magnifier has been released</a>.</p> <p>With a big of JavaScript, you can add magnification to any images on your page.</p> <p>You can add: </p> <blockquote> <pre><script type='text/javascript' src='http://valid.tjp.hu/zoom/tjpzoom.js'> </script> </pre> </blockquote> and: <blockquote> <pre><div style='float:left' onmouseover='zoom_on(event,300,239,'image.jpg');' onmousemove='zoom_move(event);' onmouseout='zoom_off();'> <img src='image.jpg'/> </div> </pre></blockquote> <p>You can also have a high-res image for the zoom piece, and use a low-res as the main image on the site.</p> <p>Could be useful for some Where's Waldo? Product Zoom? and adult sites? ;)</p> <p> <a href="http://valid.tjp.hu/zoom/index_en.html"><img alt="image-magnifier.jpg" src="http://ajaxian.com/archives/image-magnifier.jpg" width="319" height="267" border="0" /> </a> </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://ajaxian.com/">Ajaxian Blog</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Why Do Pros Use Macs?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-30#914
2005-11-30T15:10:22Z
I am still planning to write a log about my transition from Windows to Mac OS X as my main working machine. In the meantime enjoy this post titled: <a href="http://www.kenrockwell.com/apple/why-pros-use-mac.htm">Why Do Pros Use Macs?</a> It is very much in line with my personal experience.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Cool Collection of Mac OS X Usage Screencasts
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-30#913
2005-11-30T14:37:48Z
A nice collection of <a href="http://www.atomiclearning.com/osx_tiger_orientation">Mac OS X utilization and familiarization screencasts</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Collection of Public Services based Operating System Crashes
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-28#912
2005-11-28T15:51:36Z
An interesting collection of <a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/66835733@N00/pool/">Public Services based Operating System Crashes</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Why Software Is Bad and What We Can Do to Fix It
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-23#911
2005-11-23T00:09:48Z
<p>Courtesy of <a href="http://digg.com/programming/">Digg's Programming Feed</a> I stumbled across an interesting and informative article titled: <a href="http://www.rebelscience.org/Cosas/Reliability.htm">Why Software Is Bad and What We Can Do to Fix It</a> </p> <p>Certainly a nice read.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
what is web 2.0?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-18#909
2005-11-18T21:49:15Z
<p> <a href="http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/2005/11/there_has_been_.html">what is web 2.0?</a>: " </p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:a href="http://blog.del.icio.us/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/graph1.png"><xhtml:img height="77" border="0" alt="Graph1" width="100" src="http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/images/graph1.png" style="float: left; margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;" title="Graph1" /> </xhtml:a>There has been lot of discussion about what Web 2.0 really is, so we thought we’d use the power of Web 2.0 itself to come up with the answer, and here it is:</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>42.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>Just kidding. What we actually did was take a look at all the tag data going back to February 2004 (the month of the first use of Web 2.0 as a tag on del.icio.us), and analyzed all the bookmarks and tags related to the term. We can report that as of October 31, 2005 there have been over 230,000 separate bookmarks and over 7,000 unique tags associated with the term ‘Web 2.0’ by del.icio.us users. So for this exercise, we lopped off the really long tail and normalized some similar terms (e.g. combining blog, blogs, and blogging), and came up with this snapshot of what Web 2.0 REALLY is – at least according to del.icio.us users' most popular tags through the end of October 2005:</xhtml:p> <xhtml:table> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/ajax">ajax</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>9.9%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/blog">blog</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>6.1%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/social">social</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>4.2%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/tools">tools</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>4.1%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/software">software</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>3.3%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/tagging">tagging</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>3.3%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/javascript">javascript</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>2.8%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/internet">internet</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>2.6%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/programming">programming</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>2.5%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> <xhtml:tr> <xhtml:td><xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/rss">rss</xhtml:a> </xhtml:td> <xhtml:td>2.5%</xhtml:td> </xhtml:tr> </xhtml:table> <xhtml:p>Other notable tags included <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/rubyonrails">rubyonrails</xhtml:a> (1.8%), <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/del.icio.us">del.icio.us</xhtml:a> (1.6%), <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/folksonomy">folksonomy</xhtml:a> (1.4%), <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/community">community</xhtml:a> (1.1%), <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/wiki">wiki</xhtml:a> (.9%), <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/flickr">flickr</xhtml:a> (.8%), <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/free">free</xhtml:a> (.7%), <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/trends">trends</xhtml:a> (.6%), <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/flock">flock</xhtml:a> (.4%) and <xhtml:a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/googlemaps">googlemaps</xhtml:a> (.3%).</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>So there you have it - interesting, but it still seems to fall short of a definitive answer. Maybe the blinding flash of the obvious is that Web 2.0 is best defined as arguing about what Web 2.0 is really about.</xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> " <p>(Via <a href="http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/">del.icio.us</a>.)</p> <a href="index.vspx?tag=webservices" rel="tag" style="display:none;">webservices</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=web2.0" rel="tag" style="display:none;">web2.0</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=web20" rel="tag" style="display:none;">web20</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=ajax" rel="tag" style="display:none;">ajax</a>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Podcast: Vinod Khosla at Web 2.0 2005
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-18#908
2005-11-18T12:52:51Z
<p>Listen and Learn from a genuinely wise man. Note the commentary about Excite and Google (this situation plays out over and over again in our industry).</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ITConversations-EverythingMP3?m=492">Vinod Khosla: Web 2.0 2005</a>: "Web 2.0 enriches online user experience by facilitating collaboration, participation, and communication. This is exciting investors once more and new Web 2.0 startups are finding it easy to get funding from venture capitalists. Although Vinod Khosla is a venture capitalist himself, he warns startups to learn the lessons of the failures of Web 1.0 companies and to use the money they raise judiciously and to remain creative rather than become comfortable with a business plan. [Web 2.0 audio from IT Conversations]<img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/ITConversations-EverythingMP3?g=492" />"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.itconversations.com/index.html">IT Conversations</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Woz Describes the Apple-II
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-17#907
2005-11-17T21:12:56Z
From Byte Magazine (From BYTE, May 1977, Vol. 2, No. 5): <a href="http://members.cox.net/oldcomputerads/byteappleII.html">Woz Describes The Apple-II</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Tag Cloud for APIs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-16#906
2005-11-16T21:45:25Z
<p> <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/cloud">Tag Cloud for Web 2.0 APIs</a> </p> <p>(Via <a href="http://blog.programmableweb.com">ProgrammableWeb.com</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Ajax-S: Ajaxian slideshow software
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-16#905
2005-11-16T20:50:32Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.ajaxian.com/archives/2005/11/ajaxs_ajaxian_s.html">Ajax-S: Ajaxian slideshow software</a>: "The idea came to me because I wanted a lightweight slideshow based on HTML, CSS and JavaScript, but I also wanted to separate the data of each page from the actual code that presents it. Therefore, I decided to move the data into an XML file and then use AJAX to retrieve it. The name AJAX-S is short for AJAX-Slides (or Asynchronous JavaScript and XML Slides, if you want to)."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.ajaxian.com/">Ajaxian Blog</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>AJAX is clearly illuminating one of my pet issues: Separation of Application/Service Logic and Data. Even better, the concept of XML instance data is gradually getting much clearer. AJAX has created context for validating the concept of browser hosted Rich Internet Applications (RIA).</p> <p>AJAX has become a widely accepted framework for the InternetOS that facilitates Rich Internet Application development using Web 2.0 (and beyond) APIs.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Saving the Net from the pipeholders
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-16#904
2005-11-16T18:23:13Z
<p>An interesting post that I have place verbatim for the following reasons: </p> <ul>1. Its Importance (generally speaking)</ul> <ul>2. Lot's of Link Love (A-List Blogger Style see: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">LinkBlog</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=summary">Summary</a> to see what <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen">My Blog</a> does with these links)</ul> <ul>3. Time-to-show on <a href="http://memeorandum.com">Memeorandum</a> (how, when, and if at all, are results that are of personal interest)</ul> <p>Anyway, read the post from <a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/">Doc Searls</a> titled: <a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/2005/11/16#savingTheNetFromThePipeholders">Saving the Net from the pipeholders</a> </p> <p>"I've spent much of the last two weeks writing an essay that just went up at <a href="http://linuxjournal.com">Linux Journal</a>: <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8673">Saving the Net: How to Keep the Carriers from Flushing the Net Down the Tubes</a>. It's probably the longest post I've ever put up on the Web. It's certainly the most important. And not just to me.</p> <p>I started writing it after a recent surprise visit by <a href="http://www.isen.com/blog/">David Isenberg</a> to Santa Barbara. He's the one who got me — and, I hope, us — going.</p> <p>I finished writing it yesterday after <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/">David Berlind</a> published <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2160">three</a><a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2161">excellent</a><a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2157">pieces</a>, which I highly recommend reading, and acting upon.</p> <p>For guidance during the rest of this thing (whether they knew it or not), I also want to thank <a href="http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/">David Weinberger</a>, <a href="http://scripting.com/">Dave Winer</a>, <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gillmor/">Steve Gillmor</a>, <a href="http://werblog.com/">Kevin Werbach</a>, <a href="http://craphound.com/">Cory Doctorow</a>, <a href="http://zgp.org/~dmarti/">Don Marti</a>, <a href="http://www.stallman.org/">Richard M. Stallman</a>, <a href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/">Eric S. Raymond</a>, <a href="http://scrawford.blogware.com/blog">Susan Crawford</a>, <a href="http://lessig.org/blog/">Larry Lessig</a>, <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/palfrey/">John Palfrey</a>, <a href="http://www.spot-on.com/nolan/">Chris Nolan</a>, <a href="http://www.buzzmachine.com/">Jeff Jarvis</a>, <a href="http://www.craigburton.com/">Craig Burton</a>,<a href="http://www.andrewsullivan.com/"> Andrew Sullivan</a>, <a href="http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20011210-2489.html">Paul Kunz</a>, <a href="http://blog.deanland.com/">Dean Landsman</a>, <a href="http://www.mattwelch.com/warblog.html">Matt Welch</a>, <a href="http://www.projo.com/shenews">Sheila Lennon</a>, <a href="http://www.georgelakoff.com/">George Lakoff</a>, <a href="http://gigaom.com/">Om Malik</a>, <a href="http://www.ssc.com/xstatic/corporate/staff/phil.html">Phil Hughes</a>, <a href="http://www.newmediamusings.com/">J.D. Lasica</a>, <a href="http://www.dynamist.com/weblog/">Virginia Postrel</a>, <a href="http://longtail.typepad.com/the_long_tail/">Chris Anderson</a>, <a href="http://www.release1-0.com/esther/">Esther Dyson</a>, <a href="http://www.smallworks.com/">Jim Thompson</a>, <a href="http://micah.sifry.com/">Micah Sifry</a>, <a href="http://blog.barlowfriendz.net/">John Perry Barlow</a>, <a href="http://www.eff.org/">The EFF</a>, <a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu">the Berkman Center</a>, the <a href="http://www.personaldemocracy.com/">Personal Democracy Forum</a> and others I'm overlooking but will fill in later when I have the time.</p> <p>Although it's kinda huge, <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8673">Saving the Net</a> wasn't written as a Finished Work, but rather as a conversation starter — a way to change a rock we're pushing uphill to a <a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/2005/03/28#betOnTheSnowball">snowball</a> we're rolling downhill.</p> <p> <a href="http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/">Larry Lessig started rolling</a> it at OSCON in 2002, and in various other ways before that, and the whole thing has been too damn <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisyphus">sisyphean</a> for too damn long. Time to change that.</p> <p>There's a thesis involved: that the Net is in danger of becoming what <a href="http://werblog.com/">Kevin Werbach</a><a href="http://werbach.com/blog/archives/2005/11/not_the_interne.html">calls</a>'a private toiled garden for the phone companies', but that the real enemy is in how we understand the Net itself. We have choices there, and those choices may mean life or death for the Net as most of us have known it — and taken it for granted — for the last decade or more.</p> <p>A couple days ago I spoke to a group of about thirty local citizens here in Santa Barbara County, gathered in the County supervisors' conference room to discuss forming a broadband task force. Early on, I asked people what the Net was. The answers were varied, but had one thing in common: it was a <i>place</i>, and not just fiber and copper." </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Semantic Web is only the beginning...
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-15#903
2005-11-15T14:44:31Z
<p>While perusing<a href="http://www.stefandecker.org/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/"> Stephan Decker's home page</a> (following the discovery of this post titled: <a href="http://www.stefandecker.org/blog/archives/10-The-Database-Community-and-the-Semantic-Web.html">Database Community and the Semantic Web</a> ) I came across a nice and ultimately semantically loaded statement containing a lot of important connectors:</p> <blockquote> <cite>The Semantic Web is only the beginning and an enabling technology for realizing the dreams of<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vannevar_Bush"> Vannevar Bush</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Engelbart">Doug Engelbart</a> and<a href="Tim%20Berners-Lee:"> Tim Berners-Lee</a>: My current and future objective is the creation and wide dissemination of the next generation collaboration and augmentation infrastructure - the <a href="http://www.deri.ie/publications/techpapers/documents/DERI-TR-2004-05-02.pdf">Social Semantic Desktop</a>. </cite> </blockquote> <p>To ensure the loop is closed I have deliberately added the following references to this post: Vannevar Bush wrote the seminal article; "<a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194507/bush">As We May Think</a>" in which he describes a theoretical analog computer called: "The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memex">Memex</a>" - a World Wide Web precursor. This document was also a source of inspiration for <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson">Ted Nelson</a> (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/?id=885">discussed briefly in an earlier post re. compatibility of his his vision and those of Tim Berners-Lee).</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
This Week’s Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-14#902
2005-11-14T19:44:03Z
<p>(Via <a href="http://dannyayers.com">Danny Ayers</a>.):</p> <p> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/11/13/this-weeks-semantic-web/">This Week’s Semantic Web</a>: </p> <p>"Ok, my first attempt at a round-up (in response to Phil’s observation of <a href="http://weblog.philringnalda.com/?p=1008">Planetary damage</a>). Thanks to the conference there’s loads more here than there’s likely to be subsequent weeks, although it’s still only a fairly random sample and some of the links here are to heaps of other resources…<br /> <em>Incidentally, if anyone’s got a list/links for SemWeb-related blogs that aren’t on <a href="http://planetrdf.com">Planet RDF</a>, I’d be grateful for a pointer. PS. Ok, I forget… are there any blogs that aren’t on Dave’s <a href="http://journal.dajobe.org/journal/2003/07/semblogs/">list</a> yet..?</em> </p> <p>Quote of the week:</p> <blockquote> <p> In the Semantic Web, it is not the Semantic which is new, it is the Web which is new. </p> </blockquote> <p>- <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/people/w/welty/">Chris Welty</a>, IBM (lifted from TimBL’s <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/">slides</a>)</p> <h4>Events</h4> <ul> <li> <a href="http://iswc2005.semanticweb.org/">4th International Semantic Web Conference</a> - happened this week, see : <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/conference/iswc2005/">ISWC2005 Semantic Bank</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.gnowsis.org/Events/HackBerlin2005">Semantic Desktop Workshop</a>, 9-13 December 2005, Berlin</li> <li> <a href="http://trinity.dit.unitn.it/vikef/swap2005/">Semantic Web Applications and Perspectives/Workshop</a> (SWAP2005), 14-16 December, 2005</li> <li> <a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com/juc2006"> Jena User Conference</a> - May 10-11 2006, Bristol UK</li> </ul> <h4>Docs etc</h4> <ul> <li> Conference highlights on the #swig chump: <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-06.html">2005-11-06</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-07.html">-07</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-08.html">-08</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-09.html">-09</a>, <a href="http://swig.xmlhack.com/2005/11/06/2005-11-10.html">-10</a>; Ian’s <a href="http://internetalchemy.org/tag/iswc2005">notes</a>; John’s <a href="http://www.johnbreslin.com/blog/2005/11/06/iswc-2005/">resources</a>; Leo’s <a href="http://leobard.twoday.net/topics/SemWeb">stories</a>; Uldis’ <a href="http://captsolo.net/info/blog_a.php/2005/11/12/iswc_2005_do_the_right_thing">call to action</a>; <a href="http://del.icio.us/tag/iswc2005">del.icio.us/iswc2005</a>; <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/iswc2005/">flickr/iswc2005</a>; <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/2004/media/date/2005/11/">foaf-moblog</a>. </li> <li>Slides from Sir TimBL’s conference keynotes: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1107-iswc-tbl/">Semantic Web for the Industry</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/">Putting the Web back in Semantic Web</a> </li> <li>Daniel Weitzner’s keynote: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-p4-semweb-iswc/">Privacy, Provenance, Property and Personhood</a> </li> <li>Long-time SW researcher <a href="http://www.stefandecker.org">Stefan Decker</a> now has a blog, inspirationally entitled <a href="http://www.stefandecker.org/blog/">Stefan Decker on the Semantic Web</a>. (Stefan’s one of the head honchos at <a href="http://www.deri.ie/">DERI</a>). Sample snippet:<br /> <blockquote> <p> I just noticed the article from Dan Zambonini ‘<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8013?CMP=OTC-TY3388567169">Is Web 2.0 killing the Semantic Web?</a>‘. From my perspective the article shows a misconception that people seems to have around the Semantic Web: the Semantic Web effort itself is not provide applications (like the <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html">Web 2.0 meme</a> indicates) - it rather provides standards to interlink applications. </p> </blockquote> </li> <li>Leigh Dodds has two pieces demonstrating neat facilities offered by <a href="http://jena.sourceforge.net/ARQ">ARQ</a> the SPARQL query API for Java: <a href="http://www.ldodds.com/blog/archives/000251.html">parameterised queries</a> and <a href="http://www.ldodds.com/blog/archives/000252.html">extension functions</a>. </li> <li>A new W3C Working Group has been chartered: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/rules/wg/charter">Rule Interchange Format WG</a> - <em>’ to produce a core rule language plus extensions which together allow rules to be translated between rule languages and thus transferred between rule systems.’</em>. As noted by <a href="http://journal.dajobe.org/journal/">dajobe</a>, phase 1 includes making a new XML syntax for RDF…</li> <li> <a href="http://ebiquity.umbc.edu/resource/html/id/94/">UMBC Semantic Web Reference Card</a> <em>- if you only print one thing this year…or did you already do the <a href="http://www.dajobe.org/2005/04-sparql/">SPARQL Reference card</a>..?</em> </li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/WebDescription">WebDescription</a> - root wiki page for collecting notes on web description languages (ESW Wiki, <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-web-http-desc/2005Nov/0000.html">announcement</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://esw.w3.org/topic/Bot">Bot</a> - IRC/Jabber chat bots that are either in use by Semantic Web developers or use Semantic Web technologies (ESW Wiki)</li> <li> <a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/faqs-for-rdf">microformat FAQs for RDF fans</a> (ESW Wiki)</li> <li> W3C working draft : <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl20-rdf/">WSDL 2.0 - RDF Mapping</a> </li> <li>SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organisation System) updated drafts: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-spec">SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/swbp-skos-core-guide">SKOS Core Guide</a> </li> <li>working draft: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/sprot11/">SPARQL Protocol for RDF Using WSDL 1.1</a> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2005/HPL-2005-170.html">A relational algebra for SPARQL</a>, <a href="http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/2005/HPL-2005-171.html">Note on database layouts for SPARQL datastores</a> (PDFs, Richard Cyganiak, HP)</li> <li> <a href="http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11042/">Amateur Fiction Online</a> - The Web of Community Trust A Case Study in Community Focused Design for the SemanticWeb (<a href="http://eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11042/01/case_study.pdf">PDF</a>)</li> <li> <a href="http://dsonline.computer.org/portal/site/dsonline/menuitem.9ed3d9924aeb0dcd82ccc6716bbe36ec/index.jsp?&pName=dso_level1&path=dsonline/0511&file=x5sem.xml&xsl=article.xsl">Building a Semantic Wiki</a> - IEEE article. See also: <a href="http://m3pe.org/semperwiki/">SemperWiki - Semantic Personal Wiki</a>, <a href="http://wiki.navigable.info/"> WikSAR - Towards a Semantic Wiki Experience</a> <br /> </li> </ul> <h4>Software and stuff</h4> <ul> <li> <a href="http://challenge.semanticweb.org/">Semantic Web Challenge</a> applications (winner: <a href="http://www.confoto.org/">CONFOTO</a> - congrats bengee!)</li> <li> <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">Piggy Bank 2.1.1</a> released.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.openiris.org/">IRIS</a> is a semantic desktop application framework that enables users to create a ‘personal map’ across their office-related information objects. IRIS includes a machine-learning platform to help automate this process. It provides ‘dashboard’ views, contextual navigation, and relationship-based structure across an extensible suite of office applications, including a calendar, web and file browser, e-mail client, and instant messaging client.<br /> <em>(open source release due Jan 2006)</em> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.mksearch.mkdoc.org/">MKSearch</a> - <em>‘A new kind of search engine’</em> - RDF-backed (Sesame) with Web crawler, extracts and indexes metadata.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.foafrealm.org">FOAFRealm</a> - Our goal is to design and implement D-FOAF, a distributed authentication and trust infrastructure without a centralised authority. D-FOAF will be a backbone for trust applications based on social relationships and will establish identity of users similar to the way we establish identify and trust in real life.</li> <li>Perl <a href="http://search.cpan.org/dist/Net-Flickr-RDF-1.1/">Net::Flickr::RDF</a> </li> <li>WordPress <a href="http://rdfs.org">SIOC</a> (Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities) plugin updated (just copy <a href="http://sw.deri.org/svn/sw/2005/08/sioc/wordpress/wp-sioc.php">wp-sioc.php</a> into the root of your WP install and it <em>just works</em>)</li> <li> <a href="http://ontomedia.ecs.soton.ac.uk/">OntoMedia</a> is intended for the representation of heterogenous media through description of the semantic content of that media. The representation may be limited to the description of some or all of the elements contained within the source or may include information regarding the narrative relationship that these elements have both to the media and to each other.</li> <li> <a href="http://mspace.fm/">mSpace</a> is an interaction model to help explore relationships in information - <em>‘Imagine Google on iTunes’</em> </li> </ul> <p>Blog post title of the week: </p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/2005-11-12/Don_t_give">Don’t give me that monkey-ass Web 1.0, either</a> </p> </blockquote> <p>- <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/">Uche Ogbuji</a> </p> <p>Also…a new threat to Semantic Web developers has been discovered: <a href="http://planb.nicecupoftea.org/archives/001309.html">typhoid</a>!, and the key to the Web’s full potential is…<a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/2004/media/2005/11/07/3448">Tetris</a>." </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Why iPodder & Podcasting were bad name picks!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-14#901
2005-11-14T01:59:06Z
From the first time I came across "iPodder" and "Podcasting" I sensed that the champions of both initiatives got a little too excited with the concept of audio content syndication via XML without thinking about the long term implications. When naming goes wrong here is what happens: <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/podcasters/message/12603">iPodder Lemon changes its name to...</a>: "<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/podcasters/message/12603">iPodder Lemon changes</a> its name to Juice Receiver. 'Apple went after us...'"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>.)</p> </blockquote> Syndicating Audio had nothing to do with the iPod, but poor naming created the illusion that it was, albeit unintended. I think there is a lesson here: Don't christen innovations without taking a deep breadth first! Naming is extremely important. Is Apple an evil company for defending its brand - albeit somewhat exploitatively so? I don't think so, but shouldn't the "<a href="http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20050519/1883/">Podcast Wars</a>" combatants have seen this coming in the first place?
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Why iPodder & Podcasting where bad name picks!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-14#1062
2005-11-14T00:59:06Z
From the first time I came across "iPodder" and "Podcasting" I sensed that the champions of both initiatives got a little too excited with the concept of audio content syndication via XML without thinking about the long term implications. When naming goes wrong here is what happens: <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/podcasters/message/12603">iPodder Lemon changes its name to...</a>: "<a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/podcasters/message/12603">iPodder Lemon changes</a> its name to Juice Receiver. 'Apple went after us...'"</p> <p>(Poster: <a href="http://www.scripting.com/dwiner/">Dave Winer</a> Via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>.)</p> </blockquote> Syndicating Audio had nothing to do with the iPod, but poor naming created the illusion that it was, albeit unintended. I think there is a lesson here: Don't christen innovations without taking a deep breadth first! Naming is extremely important. Is Apple an evil company for defending its brand - albeit somewhat exploitatively so? I don't think so, but shouldn't the "<a href="http://www.makeyougohmm.com/20050519/1883/">Podcast Wars</a>" combatants have seen this coming in the first place?
2006-09-30T16:27:38.000001-04:00
Solutions to allow XMLHttpRequest to talk to external services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-11#900
2005-11-11T21:01:15Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.ajaxian.com/archives/2005/11/solutions_to_al.html">Solutions to allow XMLHttpRequest to talk to external services</a>: "</p> <p>Over on XML.com they published <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/11/09/fixing-ajax-xmlhttprequest-considered-harmful.html">Fixing AJAX: XmlHttpRequest Considered Harmful</a>.</p> <p>This article discusses a few ways to get around the security constraints that we have to live with in the browsers theses days, in particular, only being able to talk to your domain via XHR.</p> <p>The article walks you through three potential solutions:</p> <ol> <li> <strong>Application proxies</strong>. Write an application in your favorite programming language that sits on your server, responds to <code>XMLHttpRequest</code>s from users, makes the web service call, and sends the data back to users.</li> <li> <strong>Apache proxy</strong>. Adjust your Apache web server configuration so that <code>XMLHttpRequest</code>s can be invisibly re-routed from your server to the target web service domain.</li> <li> <strong>Script tag hack with application proxy</strong> (doesn't use <code>XMLHttpRequest</code> at all). Use the HTML <code>script</code> tag to make a request to an application proxy (see #1 above) that returns your data wrapped in JavaScript. This approach is also known as <a href="http://ajaxpatterns.org/On-Demand_Javascript">On-Demand JavaScript</a>.</li> </ol> <p>I can't wait for <em>Trusted Relationships</em> within the browser - server infrastructure. </p> <p>With respect to Apache proxies, these things are priceless. I recently talked about them in relation to <a href="http://www.almaer.com/blog/archives/001099.html">Migrating data centers with zero downtime</a>.</p> <p>What do you guys think about this general issue? Have you come up with any interesting solutions? Any ideas on how we can keep security, yet give us the freedom that we want?</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.ajaxian.com/">Ajaxian Blog</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Well here is what I think (actually know): </p> <p>Our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso Universal Server</a> has been sitting waiting to deliver this for years (for the record see the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/v2releas.htm">Virtuoso 2000 Press Release</a>). Virtuoso can proxy for disparate data sources and expose disparate data as Well-Formed XML using an array of vocabularies (you experience this SQL-XML integration on the fly every time you interact with various elements of my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/">public blog</a>).</p> <p>Virtuoso has always been able to expose Application Logic as SOAP and/or RESTful/RESTian style XML Web Services. <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127">This blog's search page</a> is a simple demo of this capability.</p> <p>Virtuoso is basically a Junction Box / Aggregator / Proxy for disparate Data, Applications, Services, and BPEL compliant business processes. AJAX clients talk to this single multi-purpose server which basically acts as a conduit to content/data, services, and processes (which are composite services).</p> <p>BTW - there is a lot more, but for now, thou shall have to seek in order to find :-) </p>
2006-07-21T07:23:03.000001-04:00
Tim Berners-Lee Presentation at ISWC
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-11#899
2005-11-11T04:47:50Z
<p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-iswc-tbl/">Putting The Web Back in "Semantic Web" by Tim Berners-Lee</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Semantic Web Challenge Winners
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-10#898
2005-11-10T18:51:31Z
<p> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/11/10/semantic-web-challenge-winners/">Semantic Web Challenge Winners</a>: "</p> <p>Hot from the Galway <a href="http://chatlogs.planetrdf.com/swig/2005-11-10.html">sportsdesk</a>:</p> <blockquote> <p> 1. Prize: <a href="http://www.confoto.org/">CONFOTO</a>, appmosphere web applications, Germany<br /> 2. Prize: <a href="http://www.cs.concordia.ca/FungalWeb/">FungalWeb</a>, Concordia University, Canada<br /> 3. Prize: <a href="http://www.personal-reader.de/semwebchallenge/sw-challenge.html">Personal Publication Reader</a>, Universität Hannover, Germany </p> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://challenge.semanticweb.org/">challenge.semanticweb.org</a> </p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.confoto.org/">CONFOTO</a> is a browsing and annotation service for conference photos. It combines recent Web trends (tag-based categorization, interactive user interfaces, syndication) with the advantages of Semantic Web platforms (machine-understandable information, an extensible data model, the possibility to mix arbitrary RDF vocabularies). </p> </blockquote> <p>Congrats <a href="http://www.bnode.org/en-semweblog">bengee</a>!!</p> <p>(Benjamin had a string of bad luck just prior to the conference, there may still be glitches in the app - <em>‘my sparql store exploded last week’</em>) </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://dannyayers.com">Raw</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
File Format Compendium
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-10#897
2005-11-10T04:29:25Z
<a href="http://whatis.techtarget.com/fileFormatA/0,289933,sid9,00.html">File Format Compendium</a> covering file extensions/suffixes, usage, and brief descriptions.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Will Web 2.0 kill Windows?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-10#896
2005-11-10T02:54:56Z
<p>Michael Gartenberg poses the question: <a href="http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/archives/011791.html">Will Web 2.0 kill Windows?</a>: " </p> <p>Answer: NO.</p> <p>Comparing Web 2.0 to Windows is like comparing Apples and Oranges!</p> <p>The Internet displaced Windows (long time ago!). The effect of this reality is simply working its way through Geoffrey Moore's Bell Curve - in "left to right" fashion. By the way, there isn't a single thing Microsoft can do about this beyond accepting this reality and gearing itself up to compete as best it can in this new reality.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=&id=885">The Internet is the Operating System for the New Computer</a> - aptly coined: "The Network" by Sun years ago (unfortunately a blind preoccupation with Java has completely obscured Sun's fundamental vision regarding this matter).</p> <p>Web 2.0 provides the Windows API equivalent for the InternetOS.</p> The real message in today's well publicized memos from Bill and Ray is a realization on the part of Microsoft that they can no longer bet the house on Windows; Integrated Innovation will no longer imply: covert ways of locking unsuspecting customers and partners into Windows. In short, Microsoft is wrestling with its <a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2005/11/understanding_l.html">Local Max</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-08#895
2005-11-08T23:48:48Z
<p>Another great post that I have deliberately captured in full due to the semantic value of its links as part of my ongoing contribution to the broader self-annotating effort taking place across the web. See the<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">Linkblog</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=summary">Summary</a>, and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=archive">Archive</a> (new addition) aspects of this "point of presence" :-)</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/11/the_zen_estheti.html">Gates, Jobs, & the Zen aesthetic</a>: " </p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:img border="0" alt="Jobs_question2_2" title="Jobs_question2_2" src="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/jobs_question2_2.jpg" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" />As a follow up to yesterday's post on Bill Gates' presentation style, I thought it would be useful to examine briefly the two contrasting visual approaches employed by Gates and Jobs in their presentations while keeping key aesthetic concepts found in Zen in mind. I believe we can use many of the concepts in Zen and Zen aesthetics to help us compare their presentation visuals as well as help us improve our own visuals. My point in comparing Jobs and Gates is not to poke fun but to learn. </xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:strong>Simplicity</xhtml:strong> <xhtml:br />A key tenet of the Zen aesthetic is <xhtml:em>kanso</xhtml:em> or simplicity. In the <xhtml:em>kanso</xhtml:em> concept beauty, grace, and visual elegance are achieved by elimination and omission. Says artist, designer and architect, <xhtml:a href="http://www.lacity.org/SAN/japanesegarden/noflash/kkawana.htm">Dr. Koichi Kawana</xhtml:a>, 'Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means.' When you examine your visuals, then, can you say that you are getting the maximum impact with a minimum of graphic elements, for example? When you take a look at Jobs' slides and Gates' slides, how do they compare for <xhtml:em>kanso?</xhtml:em> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:p> <xhtml:blockquote> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:strong><xhtml:span style="color: #ff9900;">'Simplicity means the achievement of maximum effect with minimum means.' </xhtml:span> </xhtml:strong> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:strong><xhtml:span style="color: #ff9900;"> </xhtml:span> </xhtml:strong><xhtml:span style="color: #ff9900;"> — Dr. Koichi Kawana</xhtml:span> </xhtml:p> </xhtml:blockquote> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:strong>Naturalness</xhtml:strong> <xhtml:br />The aesthetic concept of naturalness or <xhtml:em>shizen</xhtml:em> 'prohibits the use of elaborate designs and over refinement' according to Kawana. Restraint, then, is a beautiful thing. Talented jazz musicians, for example, know never to overplay but instead to be forever mindful of the other musicians and find their own space within the music and within the moment they are sharing. Graphic designers show restraint by including only what is necessary to communicate the particular message for the particular audience. Restraint is hard. Complication and elaboration are easy...and are common.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p></xhtml:p> <xhtml:p></xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>The suggestive mode of expression is a key Zen aesthetic. Dr. Kawana, commenting on the design of traditional Japanese gardens says: </xhtml:p> <xhtml:blockquote> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:span style="color: #ff9900;"><xhtml:strong> 'The designer must adhere to the concept of <xhtml:em>miegakure</xhtml:em> since Japanese believe that in expressing the whole the interest of the viewer is lost.'</xhtml:strong> </xhtml:span> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:span style="color: #ff9900;"> — Dr. Koichi Kawana</xhtml:span> </xhtml:p> </xhtml:blockquote> <xhtml:p></xhtml:p> <xhtml:p></xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>In the world of PowerPoint presentations, then, you do not always need to visually spell everything out. You do not need to (nor can you) pound every detail into the head of each member of your audience either visually or verbally. Instead, the combination of your words, along with the visual images you project, should motivate the viewer and arouse his imagination helping him to empathize with your idea and visualize your idea far beyond what is visible in the ephemeral PowerPoint slide before him. The Zen aesthetic values include (but are not limited to): </xhtml:p> <xhtml:ul> <xhtml:li>Simplicity</xhtml:li> <xhtml:li>Subtlety</xhtml:li> <xhtml:li>Elegance</xhtml:li> <xhtml:li>Suggestive rather than the descriptive or obvious</xhtml:li> <xhtml:li>Naturalness (i.e., nothing artificial or forced), </xhtml:li> <xhtml:li>Empty space (or negative space)</xhtml:li> <xhtml:li>Stillness, Tranquility</xhtml:li> <xhtml:li>Eliminating the non-essential</xhtml:li> </xhtml:ul> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:strong>Gates and Jobs: lessons in contrasts</xhtml:strong> <xhtml:br />Take a look at some of the typical visuals used by Steve Jobs and those used by Bill Gates. As you look at them and compare them, try doing so while being mindful of the key concepts behind the traditional Zen aesthetic.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:a href="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/zen_master.jpg"><xhtml:img width="400" height="250" border="0" src="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/images/zen_master.jpg" title="Zen_master" alt="Zen_master" /></xhtml:a> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:strong>Above.</xhtml:strong> Does it get more 'Zen' than this? 'Visual-Zen Master,' Steve Jobs, allows the screen to fade completely empty at appropriate, short moments while he tells his story. In a great jazz performance much of the real power of the music comes from the spaces in between the notes. The silence gives more substance and meaning to the notes. A blank screen from time to time also makes images stronger when they do appear.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />Also, it takes a confident person to design for the placement of empty slides. This is truly <xhtml:a href="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2005/10/make_your_next_.html">'going naked'</xhtml:a> visually. For most presenters a crowded slide is a crutch, or at least a security blanket. The thought of allowing the screen to become completely empty is scaring. Now all eyes are on you.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:a href="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/complicated_bill2.jpg"><xhtml:img width="400" height="263" border="0" alt="Complicated_bill2" title="Complicated_bill2" src="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/images/complicated_bill2.jpg" /></xhtml:a> </xhtml:p> <xhtml:p></xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:strong>Above.</xhtml:strong> Gates here explaining the Live strategy. A lot of images and a lot of text. Usually Mr. Gates' slides have titles rather than more effective short declarative statements (this slide has neither). Good graphic design guides the viewer and has a clear hierarchy or order so that she knows where to look first, second, and so on. What is the communication priority of this visual? It must be the circle of clip art, but that does not help me much.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>Dr. Kawana says that 'to reach the essence of things, all non-essential elements must be eliminated.' So what is the essence of the point being made with the help of this visual? Are any elements in this slide non-essential? At its core, what is the real point? These are always good questions to ask ourselves, too, when critiquing our own slides.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p></xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:a href="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/jobs_intel_1.jpg"><xhtml:img width="400" height="250" border="0" alt="Jobs_intel_1" title="Jobs_intel_1" src="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/images/jobs_intel_1.jpg" /></xhtml:a> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:strong>Above. </xhtml:strong>Here Jobs is talking to developers at the WWDC'05 about the transition from the Power PC RISC chips to Intel. Sounds daunting, but as he said (and shows above) Apple has made daunting major shifts successfully before. (He also said sheepishly earlier in the the presentation, that every version of OSX secretly had an Intel version too...so this is not a new thing. The crowd laughed.). </xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:strong>A note on having an 'open style'</xhtml:strong> <xhtml:br />One thing that would help Mr. Gates is an executive presentations coach and a video camera. One unfortunate habit he has is constantly bringing his finger tips together high across his chest while speaking. Often this leads to his hands being locked together somewhere across his chest. This gesture makes him seem uncomfortable and is a gesture reminiscent of The Simpsons' Mr. Burns. By contrast, Steve Jobs has a more open style and at least<xhtml:em> seems</xhtml:em> comfortable and natural with his gestures. </xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:a href="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/gates_bullets.jpg"><xhtml:img width="400" height="266" border="0" alt="Gates_bullets" title="Gates_bullets" src="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/images/gates_bullets.jpg" /></xhtml:a> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:strong>Above.</xhtml:strong> Mr. Gates needs to read Cliff Atkinson's <xhtml:a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0735620520/garrreynoldsc-20/002-3582192-9819255">Beyond Bullet Points</xhtml:a>, ironically published by Microsoft Press. Atkinson says that '...bullet points create obstacles between presenters and audiences.' He correctly claims that bullets tend to make our presentations formal and stiff, serve to 'dumb down' our points, and lead to audiences being confused...and bored. Rather than running through points on a slide, Atkinson recommends presenters embrace the art of storytelling, and that visuals (slides) be used smoothly and simply to enhance the speaker's points as he tells his story. This can be done even in technical presentations, and it can certainly be done in high-tech business presentations.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:strong>The 'Microsoft Method' of presentation?</xhtml:strong> <xhtml:br />The approach we've seen in Microsoft's last public presentation we can label the 'Microsoft Method.' This method is not different than the norm, in fact it is a perfect example of what <xhtml:a href="http://sethgodin.typepad.com/">Seth Godin</xhtml:a> and others call '<xhtml:a href="http://www.sethgodin.com/freeprize/reallybad.html">Really Bad PowerPoint</xhtml:a>.' Here's the rub: A great many professionals see the absurdity of this approach, even a great many professionals on the campus of Microsoft in Redmond. But change will continue to be slow, especially when the executives of the company which produces the most popular slideware program in the world use the program in the most uninspiring, albeit typical way.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:a href="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/bullet_by_ozzie_2.jpg"><xhtml:img width="200" height="136" border="0" src="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/images/bullet_by_ozzie_2.jpg" title="Bullet_by_ozzie_2" alt="Bullet_by_ozzie_2" /></xhtml:a> <xhtml:a href="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/pocket_ozzie.jpg"><xhtml:img width="200" height="136" border="0" src="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/images/pocket_ozzie.jpg" title="Pocket_ozzie" alt="Pocket_ozzie" /></xhtml:a> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:strong>Above.</xhtml:strong> Chief technology Officer, Ray Ozzie follows the 'Microsoft Method' too. (Left) Bullet No.3: '...interfaces through...interfaces'? (Right) Fundamental presentation rule: Do not stick your hands in your pockets. Informality is fine, but this is inappropriate even in the USA (and especially in cultures outside the U.S.). </xhtml:p> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:strong>Refrain: It all matters!</xhtml:strong> <xhtml:br />We've talked about many presentation methods here at Presentation Zen, methods that are different than the 'normal' or the 'expected' but also simple, clear, and effective. Who wants to be 'average,' 'typical,' or 'normal'? <xhtml:a href="http://www.funkybusiness.com/holder.asp?load=sida.asp%3Frubrik%3D27">Ridderstrale & Nordstorm</xhtml:a> say it best in <xhtml:a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0273659073/ref=ase_garrreynoldsc-20/002-3582192-9819255?v=glance&s=books">Funky Business</xhtml:a>: 'Normality is the route to nowhere.' I'm not suggesting you 'present different' for the sake of being different. I am saying that if you move far beyond what is typical and normal in the context of presentation design, you will be more effective <xhtml:em>and</xhtml:em> different and memorable. Maybe Microsoft can afford lousy PowerPoint presentations, but you and I can't. For 'the rest of us,' it all matters.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:strong></xhtml:strong> </xhtml:p> <xhtml:p></xhtml:p>Can we learn from a Japanese garden?<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:img border="0" alt="Garden" title="Garden" src="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/garden.jpg" style="margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right;" />Looking for inspiration in different places? Find a book on Japanese gardens (<xhtml:a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1880656949/ref=ase_garrreynoldsc-20/002-3582192-9819255?v=glance&s=books">like this one</xhtml:a> from my friend, designer Markuz Wernli Saito) or visit one in your area (if you are lucky enough to have one). You can learn a bit here about the Zen aesthetic and Japanese gardens in <xhtml:a href="http://www.thejapanesegarden.com/Garden/Pages/ethetics.html">this article</xhtml:a> by Dr. Kawana. Living here in Japan I have many chances to experience the Zen aesthetic, either while visiting a garden, practicing <xhtml:em>zazen</xhtml:em> in a Kyoto temple, or even while having a traditional Japanese meal out with friends. I am convinced that a visual approach which embraces the aesthetic concepts of simplicity and the removal of the nonessential can have practical applications in our professional lives and can lead ultimately to more enlightened design.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:p></xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> " <p>(Via <a href="http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/">Presentation Zen</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Cool Semantic Web Demo from MIT's SIMILE project
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-08#894
2005-11-08T21:20:32Z
<p>Very <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/conference/iswc2005/">cool Semantic Web use case Demo </a> via <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">Piggy Bank</a>'s sever component called "<a href="http://simile.mit.edu/semantic-bank/">Semantic Bank</a>". These complimentary projects are part of the <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/">MIT SMILE project</a>. </p> <p>As you can see Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web are mutually inclusive paradigms as reemphasized via this additional "<a href="http://simile.mit.edu/bank/bank?command=browse&resultsViewParam=http%3A%2F%2Fsimile.mit.edu%2F2005%2F05%2Fontologies%2Flocation%23coordinates%3B&resultsView=map&-=%40lwq.project.PropertyProjector%3Bhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F1999%2F02%2F22-rdf-syntax-ns%23type%3B%40lwq.bucket.DistinctValueBucketer%3Brhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.alexshapiro.com%2Fontologies%2Fhunger%23Shelter%2Crhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.alexshapiro.com%2Fontologies%2Fhunger%23Meal_Site%2Crhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.alexshapiro.com%2Fontologies%2Fhunger%23pantry%2Crhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.alexshapiro.com%2Fontologies%2Fhunger%23DHS&">mashup</a>" (I don't really like the word "mashup", especially as it isn't different from/than "repurposing"?)</p>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Sketch of Database History
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-04#893
2005-11-04T21:14:55Z
I just stumbled across a 2003 article titled: <a href="http://math.hws.edu/vaughn/cpsc/343/2003/history.html">A Sketch of Database History</a>. A pretty good read for those interested in this very important technology.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Clone the Google APIs: Kill That Noise
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-03#892
2005-11-03T22:44:04Z
<p>I am kinda scratching my head a little re. the "Clone Google APIs" call; especially as Amazon's <a href="http://opensearch.a9.com/">A9</a> already provides <a href="http://opensearch.a9.com/docs/howto.jsp">infrastructure for generic search</a>. A9 is open at both ends; you can consume search services via a RESTian API or plug your search engine into A9 (playing the role of A9 search service provider). </p> <p>Quick Example using my blog: </p> <ul>1. <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127">My Blog's Search Page</a> (note it support Full Text and XPath/XQuery)</ul> <ul>2. <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=#39web%202.0#39&type=text&output=html">Search on pattern 'Web 2.0'</a> via my Blog's Search Engine</ul> <ul>3. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacktivism" xmlns:n0="http" n0:="http:" a9.com="a9.com" search="search" morecolumns.jsp="morecolumns.jsp" a="a">Hactivism</a>" regarding this matter. Certainly worth a full-post-scrape for my ongoing content annotation efforts (see <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">Linkblog</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=summary">BlogSummary</a>). <p>Digest the rest of Dare's post:</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=3faf48bb-cf43-4fad-9145-cd749bd0288e">Clone the Google APIs: Kill That Noise</a>: "</p> <p> Yesterday Dave Winer wrote in a post about <a href="http://www.scripting.com/2005/11/02.html#When:2:31:38PM">cloning the Google API</a> Dave Winer wrote </p> <blockquote> <i>Let's make the <a href="http://www.clonethegoogleapi.com/">Google API an open standard</a>. Back in 2002, Google took a bold first step to enable open architecture search engines, by creating an API that allowed developers to build applications on top of their search engine. However, there were severe limits on the capacity of these applications. So we got a good demo of what might be, now three years later, it's time for the real thing.<br /> <br /> </i> </blockquote>and earlier that <br /> <blockquote> <i>If you didn't get a chance to hear <a href="http://www.scripting.com/2005/11/01.html#When:12:26:58AM">yesterday's podcast</a>, it recommends that Microsoft clone the <a href="http://davenet.scripting.com/2002/04/13/whatsNextAfterTheGoogleApi">Google API</a> for search, without the keys, and without the limits. When a developer's application generates a lot of traffic, buy him a plane ticket and dinner, and ask how you both can make some money off their excellent booming application of search. This is something Google can't do, because search is their cash cow. That's why Microsoft should do it. And so should Yahoo. Also, there's no doubt Google will be competing with Apple soon, so they should be also thinking about ways to devalue Google's advantage.</i> </blockquote> <blockquote></blockquote> <p> This doesn't seem like a great idea to me for a wide variety of reasons but first, let's start with a history lesson before I tackle this specific issue </p> <p> <b>A Trip Down Memory Lane</b> <br /> This history lesson <strike>used to be in</strike> is in a post entitled <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20041011135623/http://www.evhead.com/archives/2003_05_10_archive_default.asp">The Tragedy of the API</a> by <a href="http://www.evhead.com/">Evan Williams</a> <strike>but seems to be gone now</strike>. Anyway, back in the early days of blogging the folks at Pyra [which eventually got bought by Google] created the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/developers/api/1_docs/">Blogger API</a> for their service. Since Blogspot/Blogger was a popular service, a the number of applications that used the API quickly grew. At this point Dave Winer decided that since the Blogger API was so popular he should implement it in his weblogging tools but then he decided that he didn't like some aspects of it such as application keys (sound familiar?) and did without them in his version of the API. Dave Winer's version of the Blogger API became the <a href="http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi">MetaWeblog API</a>. These APIs became de facto standards and a number of other weblogging applications implemented them. </p> <p> After a while, the folks at Pyra decided that their API needed to evolve due to various flaws in its design. As Diego Doval put it in his post <a href="http://www.dynamicobjects.com/d2r/archives/001921.html">a review of blogging APIs</a>, <i>The Blogger API is a joke, and a bad one at that</i>. This lead to the creation of the <a href="http://www.blogger.com/developers/api/documentation20.html">Blogger API 2.0</a>. At this point a heated debate erupted online where Dave Winer berated the Blogger folks for deviating from an industry standard. The irony of flaming a company for coming up with a v2 of their own API seemed to be lost on many of the people who participated in the debate. Eventually the Blogger API 2.0 went nowhere. </p> <p> Today the blogging API world is a few de facto standards based on a hacky API created by a startup a few years ago, a number of site specific APIs (<a href="http://www.livejournal.com/doc/server/ljp.csp.xml-rpc.protocol.html">LiveJournal API</a>, <a href="http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/docs/mtmanual_programmatic.html">MovableType API</a>, etc) and a number of inconsistently implemented versions of the <a href="http://bitworking.org/projects/atom/">Atom API</a>.<br /> </p> <p> <b>On Cloning the Google Search API</b> <br /> To me the most salient point in the hijacking of the Blogger API from Pyra is that it didn't change the popularity of their service or even make Radio Userland (Dave Winer's product) catch up to them in popularity. This is important to note since this is Dave Winer's key argument for Microsoft cloning the Google API. </p> <p> Off the top of my head, here are my top three technical reasons for Microsoft to ignore the calls to clone the Google Search APIs<br /> </p> <ol> <li> <p> <u>Difference in Feature Set:</u> The features exposed by the API do not run the entire gamut of features that other search engines may want to expose. Thus even if you implement something that looks a lot like the Google API, you'd have to extend it to add the functionality that it doesn't provide. For example, compare the <a href="http://www.google.com/apis/reference.html">features provided by the Google API</a> to the <a href="http://developer.yahoo.net/search/">features provided by the Yahoo! search API</a>. I can count about half a dozen features in the Yahoo! API that aren't in the Google API. </p> </li> <li> <p> <u>Difference in Technology Choice:</u> The Google API uses SOAP. This to me is a phenomenally bad technical decision because it raises the bar to performing a basic operation (data retrieval) by using a complex technology. I much prefer Yahoo!'s approach of providing a RESTful API and <strike>MSN</strike> Windows Live Search's approach of providing RSS search feeds and a SOAP API for the folks who need such overkill. <br /> </p> </li> <li> <u>Unreasonable Demands:</u> A number of Dave Winer's demands seem contradictory. He asks companies to not require application keys but then advises them to contact application developers who've built high traffic applications about revenue sharing. Exactly how are these applications to be identified without some sort of application ID? As for removing the limits on the services? I guess Dave is ignoring the fact that providing services costs money, which I seem to remember is why <a href="http://www.kottke.org/05/10/weblogscom-sold-to-verisign">he sold weblogs.com to Verisign for a few million dollars</a>. I do agree that some of the limits on existing search APIs aren't terribly useful. The Google API limit of 1000 queries a day seems to guarantee that you won't be able to power a popular application with the service. <br /> </li> <li> <p> <u>Lack of Innovation:</u> Copying Google sucks. <br /> </p> </li> </ol> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p> </blockquote> </ul>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
2 New Geocoding APIs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-02#891
2005-11-02T22:27:41Z
<p> <a href="http://blog.programmableweb.com/?p=103">2 New Geocoding APIs</a>: "</p> <p> <a href="http://www.ontok.com"><img src="http://blog.programmableweb.com/wp-content/ontok.png" alt="Ontok" class="imgRight" /> </a>Two mapping/geocoding APIs have been recently added to the database:</p> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/api/Ontok">Ontok</a>: Provides a mechanism for geocoding the latitude and longitude of any US address. The data is based on the <a href="http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/tiger2004se/tgr2004se.html">US Census 2004 Second Edition TIGER/Line® Files</a>. Here’s an example of the <a href="http://www.ontok.com/geocode/index.php?addr=1600+Pennsylvania+Ave+Washington+DC">White House</a>. The service is accessible via REST, SOAP and JavaScript APIs. See also the nice <a href="http://www.ontok.com/geocode/">mashup UI</a> with Google Maps where you can click on the lower left Input Addresses to navigate.</li> <li> <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/api/ZeeMaps">ZeeMaps</a>: If you need to geocode addresses outside of the US, ZeeMaps can help. Given an international city, state (optional), and country combination, the service will return a set of latitude, longitudes (along with corrected city, state, country information). They offer REST, XML-RPC and SOAP interfaces.</li> </ul>" <p>(Via <a href="http://blog.programmableweb.com">ProgrammableWeb.com</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Differences Between Bangalore And Silicon Valley
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-11-01#890
2005-11-01T13:18:18Z
<p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20051031/1512215_F.shtml">The Differences Between Bangalore And Silicon Valley</a>: "For years it's been common for various places to claim that they're the next Silicon Valley -- often with their own variation on the name (Silicon Prairie, Silicon Mountain, Silicon Alley, etc.). However, recently, with the focus on Thomas Friedman's book <i>The World is Flat</i>, the idea that anywhere can be its own Silicon Valley has gotten an awful lot of attention -- and plenty of that attention is focused on places like Bangalore, India. Apparently, though, not everyone in Bangalore agrees. A fascinating opinion piece from an Indian news site notes some of the growing clashes between the tech industry and others in Bangalore and gives plenty of reasons <a target="_top" href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/10/31/stories/2005103100030800.htm">why Bangalore is no Silicon Valley</a> -- noting that Silicon Valley companies were actively involved in helping to build up the local community beyond just building businesses. It's that entire local infrastructure that helped make Silicon Valley what it is (though, some may argue recent developments are hurting that infrastructure). Yet, we still see companies recognizing that they <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/entries/2005/10/25/videoegg_westward_ho_and_a_deal_with_six_apart.html">need to move to Silicon Valley</a> in order to compete. So, yes, it's true that the barriers to innovation and development are dropping, but it still takes more than a few tech businesses to become an innovation hub. This isn't to say that Silicon Valley is perfect or won't eventually be topped by some other place (or no place at all), but there's this notion that recreating Silicon Valley is easy -- and that hasn't actually been shown to be true yet."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Rise of Relational Databases
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-29#889
2005-10-29T20:33:43Z
I suspect the subject of this post triggers the following questions: <ul>1. Don't you mean the fall/death of Relational Databases?</ul> <ul>2. Does anyone use these anymore?</ul> <ul>3. What are these?</ul> Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) are alive and kicking as expressed eloquently in this excerpt from a book titled "Funding A Revolution": <blockquote> <cite></cite> <p> Large-scale computer applications require rapid access to large amounts of data. A computerized checkout system in a supermarket must track the entire product line of the market. Airline reservation systems are used at many locations simultaneously to place passengers on numerous flights on different dates. Library computers store millions of entries and access citations from hundreds of publications. Transaction processing systems in banks and brokerage houses keep the accounts that generate international flows of capital. World Wide Web search engines scan thousands of Web pages to produce quantitative responses to queries almost instantly. Thousands of small businesses and organizations use databases to track everything from inventory and personnel to DNA sequences and pottery shards from archaeological digs.</p> <p>Thus, databases not only represent significant infrastructure for computer applications, but they also process the transactions and exchanges that drive the U.S. economy. </p> </blockquote> <p>My only addition to the excerpt above is that the impact of databases extends beyond the U.S. economy. We are talking about the global economy. And this will be so for all of time!</p> <p>I came across this page while enriching the links in one of my earlier "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=history&type=text&output=html">history</a>" related posts about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=&id=266">Relational Database Technology pioneers</a>. During this effort I also stumbled across another historic document titled: "<a href="http://www.mcjones.org/System_R/SQL_Reunion_95/sqlr95.html">1995 SQL Reunion</a>".</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Self Annotation of Semantic Web (BBC Demo)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-28#887
2005-10-28T22:54:44Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog/2005/10/stop_whatever_y.html">Stop whatever you are doing ...</a>: " </p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:p>.. and go and read <xhtml:a href="http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2005/10/on_the_bbc_annotatable_audio_project.shtml">Tom Coates' explanation</xhtml:a> of his last project with the BBC. After 21 years working in broadcasting Ireckon this is one of the coolest things to happen for a very, very long time.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>The ramifications of this will go very deep indeed."</xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> <p>(Spotted Via <a href="http://theobvious.typepad.com/blog/">The Obvious?</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p> Yes, the ramifications are deep! <a href="http://www.plasticbag.org/">Tom Coates'</a> screencast demonstrates an internal variation of an activity that is taking place on many fronts (concurrently) across the NET. I tend to refer to this effort as "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=&id=849">Self Annotation</a>"; the very process that will ultimately take us straight to "<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=#39semantic%20web#39%20&type=text&output=html">Semantic Web</a>". It is going to happen much quicker than anticipated because technology is taking the pain out of metadata annotation (e.g. what you do when you tag everything that is ultimately URI accessible). Technology is basically delivering what <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell">Jon Udell</a> calls: <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/11/08.html">"reducing the activation threshold"</a>.</p> <p>Using my comments above for context placement, I suggest you take a look at, or re-read <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/10/27.html#a1330">Jon Udell's post titled: Many Meanings of Metadata</a>. </p> <p>Once again, the Web 2.0 brouhaha (in every sense of the word) is a reaction to a critical inflection that ultimately transitions the "Semantic Web" from "Mirage" to "Nirvana". Put differently (with humor in mind solely!), Web 2.0 is what I tend to call a "John the Baptist" paradigm, and we all know what happened to him :-)</p> <p>Web 2.0 is a conduit to a far more important destination. The tendency to treat Web 2.0 as a destination rather than a conduit has contributed to the recent spate of <a href="http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?SetTheBozoBit">Bozo bit</a> flipping posts all over the blogosphere (is this an attempt to behead John, metaphorically speaking?). Humor aside, a really important thing about the Web 2.0 situation is that when we make the quantum <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/link/evolution.html">evolutionary leap (internet time, mind you) to the "Semantic Web"</a> (or whatever groovy name we dig up for it in due course) we will certainly have a plethora of reference points (I mean <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=#39web%202.0#39&type=text&output=html">Web 2.0 URIs</a>) ensuring that we do not revisit the "Missing Link" evolutionary paradox :-)</p> <p> BTW - You can see some example of my contribution to the ongoing annotation process by looking at: </p> <ul> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=summary">My Blog Summary Page</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/index.vspx?page=linkblog">My Linkblog</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127">My Blog Search</a> </ul> <ul> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/BlogAPI/services.vsmx">My Blog Query Service</a> (click on the enhanced view if you're a SOAP geek; also note blogid=127)</ul>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
SIOC Vocabulary
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-28#886
2005-10-28T21:37:19Z
<p> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/10/28/sioc-vocabulary/">SIOC Vocabulary</a>: "</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/">SIOC</a> <br /> (Semantically Interlinked Online Communities) is an attempt to link online community sites and to use Semantic Web technologies to describe the information community sites have about their structure and contents and to find related information and new connections between posts. </p> </blockquote> <p>From the <a href="http://rdfs.org/sioc/spec/">spec</a>, main terms:</p> <p> <img src="http://dannyayers.com/2005/10/sioc_terms.png" alt="SIOC terms" /> </p> <p>I think I probably linked to this before, but it’s come on apace. They’ve now got plugins for Drupal and WordPress, and from the look of it, a fair load more…</p> <p>There’s obviously some intersection here with the <a href="http://atomowl.org/">Atom/OWL</a> stuff, and for that matter a <a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/hatom">hAtom</a>. Heh, gonna be fun figuring out the equivalences.</p> <p>(via <a href="http://captsolo.net/info/ ">Uldis</a>)</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://dannyayers.com">Raw</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
You want disruptive? Here's disruptive...
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-27#885
2005-10-27T23:34:25Z
<blockquote> <p>"...Also today I came across the latest project of a man who wants to tear down <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a>'s World Wide Web and replace it with his own vision. It used to be known as Xanadu, but has since morphed into <a href="http://transliterature.org/">Transliterature, A Humanist Design</a>. I am of course referring to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Nelson">Ted Nelson</a>, who invented the term 'hypertext' in 1965 and is generally regarded as a computing pioneer.</p> <p>Ted Nelson recently <a href="http://hyperland.com/trollout.txt">wrote an essay</a> about 'Indirect Documents', which got <a href="http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/24/1054214&tid=230&tid=218">Slashdotted</a> today. In the essay Nelson outlines why (in his opinion) the Xanadu project failed and he explains his new vision for Transliterature. He takes a number of potshots at Tim Berners-Lee's WWW on the way, e.g.:</p> <blockquote> <p>'Why don't I like the web? I hate its flapping and screeching and emphasis on appearance; its paper-simulation rectangles of Valuable Real Estate, artifically created by the NCSA browser, now hired out to advertisers; its hierarchies exposed and imposed; its untyped one-way links only from inside the document. (The one-way links hidden under text were a regrettable simplification of hypertext which I assented to in '68 on the HES project. But that's another story.) Only trivial links are possible; there is nothing to support careful annotation and study; and, of course, there is no transclusion.'</p> </blockquote> <p>Ted Nelson is certainly an original and I'm glad he's still around to throw spanners in the works. <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/001721.php">I've written about him before</a> and I'm sure I will again, Web 2.0 or not.</p> <img alt="Image" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/readwriteweb?g=272" />" <p>(Excerpted From: <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/">Read/Write Web</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>My thoughts on the commentary above:</p> <p>There is nothing fundamentally incompatible between Ted Nelson's pursuits and future incarnation's of the Web. None whatsoever -- we are simply working our way through an process. The process in question is what I call "standards driven ubiquity" (becoming de facto at Internet Speed). Remember Sun's "The Network is the Computer" vision? Well, without a "Computer" in mind-space you can't think in terms of "Operating Systems". Thats all changing, because today we are gradually beginning to accept the imminent reality that "The Internet is the Operating System" and not Windows/UNIX/Mac OS X/Others. Ahem! And after the Operating System what comes next? I think a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and I think we know what that is (in all of its <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">controversial glory</a>), the very thing we refer to as <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=#39web%202.0#39&type=text&output=html">Web 2.0</a> (the APIs for the Internet Operating System).</p> <p> Note: In addition to the Computer, Operating System, and Application Programming Interfaces, we also have those frequently misunderstood and under-appreciated workhorses called "Databases" in place (but we still call them Web Sites for now). And by the way, "Internet Filesystem" has been there forever, but for some reason we can't see <a href="http://www.webdav.org/">WebDAV</a> in all its current and future glory (that will change very soon also!).</p> <p>Ted and TBL are cool with each (whether they know it or not)! I see no mutual exclusivity in their collective visions (IMHO) :-) </p>
2010-05-16T15:04:54-04:00
Nice Collection of Nigerian Photos
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-27#884
2005-10-27T20:39:46Z
<blockquote> <a href="http://www.pbase.com/emieljegen">Emeil Jegen's Photo Gallery covering parts of Nigeria</a>.</blockquote> Well another addition to my "Seriously Homesick Collection"!
2006-07-21T07:23:22.000003-04:00
Breaking the Web Wide Open!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-26#882
2005-10-26T19:28:47Z
<p> <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/">Marc Canter</a>'s <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2005/10/breaking_the_we.html">Breaking the Web Wide Open! </a> article is something I found pretty late (by my normal discovery standards). This was partly due to the pre- and post- Web 2.0 event noise levels that have dumped the description of an important industry inflection into the "Bozo Bin" of many. Personally, I think we shouldn't confuse the Web 2.0 traditional-pitch-fest conference with an attempt to identify an important industry inflection).</p> <p> Anyway, Marc's article is a very refreshing read because it provides a really good insight into the general landscape of a rapidly evolving Web alongside genuine appreciation of our broader timeless pursuit of "Openness". </p> <p>To really help this document provide additional value have scrapped the content of the original post and dumped it below so that we can appreciate the value of the links embedded within the article (note: thanks to Virtuoso I only had to paste the content into my blog, the extraction to my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">Linkblog</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=summary">Blog Summary</a> Pages are simply features of my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuos">Virtuoso </a>based Blog Engine):</p> <blockquote> <h3 class="hed2" style="padding-bottom: 10px">Breaking the Web Wide Open! (complete story)</h3> <p>Even the web giants like AOL, Google, MSN, and Yahoo need to observe these open standards, or they'll risk becoming the "walled gardens" of the new web and be coolio no more.</p> <p class="byline"> <b><a href="http://community.alwayson-network.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AlwaysOn.woa/wa/display?id=9254:Person">Marc Canter</a> </b> [<a href="http://community.alwayson-network.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AlwaysOn.woa/wa/display?id=9254:Person"><b>Broadband Mechanics, Inc.</b></a>] | POSTED: 09.26.05 @12:00</p> <table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td valign="TOP" class="copy1"><img src="http://community.alwayson-network.com/ao/images/thumb/19433429363e7cd6b1ecfb7.jpg" align="LEFT" border="0" width="80" style="margin: 0px 10px 5px 0px" alt="" /><i><b>Editorial Note:</b> Several months ago, AlwaysOn got a personal invitation from Yahoo founder Jerry Yang "to see and give us feedback on our new social media product, y!360." We were happy to oblige and dutifully showed up, joining a conference room full of hard-core bloggers and new, new media types. The geeks gave Yahoo 360 an overwhelming thumbs down, with comments like, "So the only services I can use within this new network are Yahoo services? What if I don't use Yahoo IM?" In essence, the Yahoo team was booed for being "closed web," and we heartily agreed. With Yahoo 360, Yahoo continues building its own "walled garden" to control its 135 million customersan accusation also hurled at AOL in the early 1990s, before AOL migrated its private network service onto the web. As the</i> <a href="http://bernardmoon.blogspot.com/2005/08/yahoos-personality-crisis.html" target="_blank">Economist<i> recently noted</i></a>, "Yahoo, in short, has old media plans for the new-media era."<br /> <br />The irony to our view here is, of course, that today's AO Network is also a "closed web." In the end, Mr. Yang's thoughtful invitation and our ensuing disappointment in his new service led to the assignment of this article. It also confirmed our existing plan to completely revamp the AO Network around open standards. To tie it all together, we recruited the chief architect of our new site, <a href="http://www.corante.com/amateur/articles/20030211-3564.html" target="_blank">the notorious Marc Canter</a>, to pen this piece. We look forward to our reader feedback.<br /> <br /> <b>Breaking the Web Wide Open!</b> <br />By Marc Canter<br /> <br />For decades, "walled gardens" of proprietary standards and content have been the strategy of dominant players in mainframe computer software, wireless telecommunications services, and the World Wide Webit was their successful lock-in strategy of keeping their customers theirs. But like it or not, those walls are tumbling down. Open web standards are being adopted so widely, with such value and impact, that the web giantsAmazon, AOL, eBay, Google, Microsoft, and Yahooare facing the difficult decision of opening up to what they don't control.<br /> <br />The online world is evolving into a new open web (sometimes called the Web 2.0), which is all about being personalized and customized for each user. Not only open source software, but <i>open standards</i> are becoming an essential component. <br /> <br />Many of the web giants have been using open source software for years. Most of them use at least parts of the <a href="http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2001/01/25/lamp.html" target="_blank">LAMP</a> (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/Python/PHP) stack, even if they aren't well-known for giving back to the open source community. For these incumbents that grew big on proprietary web services, the methods, practices, and applications of open source software development are difficult to fully adopt. And the next open source movementswhich will be as much about open standards as about codewill be a lot harder for the incumbents to exploit.<br /> <br />While the incumbents use cheap open source software to run their back-ends systems, their business models largely depend on proprietary software and algorithms. But our view a new slew of open software, open protocols, and open standards will confront the incumbents with the classic <i><a href="http://www.businessweek.com/chapter/christensen.htm" target="_blank">Innovator's Dilemma</a></i>. Should they adopt these tools and standards, painfully cannibalizing their existing revenue for a new unproven concept, or should they stick with their currently lucrative model with the risk that eventually a bunch of upstarts eat their lunch? <br /> <br />Credit should go to several of the web giants who have been making efforts to "open up." Google, Yahoo, eBay, and Amazon all have Open APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) built into their data and systems. Any software developer can access and use them for whatever creative purposes they wish. This means that the API provider becomes an open platform for everyone to use and build on top of. This notion has expanded like wildfire throughout the blogosphere, so nowadays, Open APIs are pretty much required.<br /> <br />Other incumbents also have open strategies. AOL has got the RSS religion, <a href="http://www.siliconbeat.com/entries/2005/07/27/aol_gets_rss_religion_with_my_aoland_feedsters_help.html" target="_blank">providing a feedreader and RSS search</a> in order to escape the "walled garden of content" stigma. <a href="http://www.apple.com/podcasting/" target="_blank">Apple now incorporates podcasts</a>, the "personal radio shows" that are latest rage in audio narrowcasting, into iTunes. Even Microsoft is supporting open standards, for example <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/plan/rtcprot.mspx#EKAA" target="_blank">by endorsing SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) for internet telephony and conferencing</a> over Skype's proprietary format or one of its own devising.<br /> <br />But new open standards and protocols are in use, under construction, or being proposed every day, pushing the envelope of where we are right now. Many of these standards are coming from startup companies and small groups of developers, not from the giants. Together with the Open APIs, those new standards will contribute to a new, open infrastructure. Tens of thousands of developers will use and improve this open infrastructure to create new kinds of web-based applications and services, to offer web users a highly personalized online experience.<br /> <br /> <b>A Brief History of Openness</b> <br /> <br />At this point, I have to admit that I am not just a passive observer, full-time journalist or "just some blogger"but an active evangelist and developer of these standards. It's the vision of "open infrastructure" that's driving <a href="http://www.broadbandmechanics.com/bbm2005.htm" target="_blank">my company </a> and the reason why I'm writing this article. This article will give you some of the background behind on these standards, and what the evolution of the next generation of open standards will look like.<br /> <br />Starting back in the 1980s, establishing a software standard was a key strategy for any software company. My former company, MacroMind (which became Macromedia), achieved this goal early on with Director. As <a href="http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/99/27/index3a_page6.html?tw=multimedia" target="_blank">Director evolved into Flash</a>, the world saw that other companies besides Microsoft, Adobe, and Apple could establish true cross-platform, independent media standards.<br /> <br />Then <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/" target="_blank">Tim Berners-Lee</a> and <a href="http://www.ibiblio.org/pioneers/andreesen.html" target="_blank">Marc Andreessen</a> came along, and changed the rules of the software business and of entrepreneurialism. No matter how entrenched and "standardized" software was, the rug could still get pulled out from under it. <a href="http://geekphilosopher.com/MainPage/WebBrowserWars.htm?q=Stocks" target="_blank">Netscape did it to Microsoft, and then Microsoft did it <i>back</i> to Netscape</a>. The web evolved, and lots of standards evolved with it. The leading open source standards (such as the LAMP stack) became widely used alternatives to proprietary closed-source offerings. <br /> <br />Open standards are more than just technology. Open standards mean sharing, empowering, and community support. Someone floats a new idea (or <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme" target="_blank">meme</a>) and the community runs with it – with each person making their own contributions to the standard – evolving it without a moment's hesitation about "giving away their intellectual property."<br /> <br />One good example of this was <a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/" target="_blank">Dave Sifry</a>, who built the Technorati blog-tracking technology inspired by the <a href="http://www.myelin.co.nz/ecosystem/" target="_blank">Blogging Ecosystem</a>, a weekend project by young hacker <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2005/07/phil_pearson_jo.html" target="_blank">Phil Pearson</a>. Dave liked what he saw and he ran with itturning Technorati into what it is today.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Winer" target="_blank">Dave Winer</a> has contributed enormously to this area of open standards. He defined and personally created several open standards and protocolssuch as RSS, OPML, and XML-RPC. Dave has also <a href="http://newhome.weblogs.com/historyOfWeblogs" target="_blank">helped build</a> the blogosphere through his enthusiasm and passion.<br /> <br />By 2003, hundreds of programmers were working on creating and establishing new standards for almost everything. The best of these new standards have evolved into compelling web services platforms – such as <a href="http://del.icio.us/" target="_blank">del.icio.us</a>, <a href="http://webjay.org/about" target="_blank">Webjay</a>, or <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ao2005/" target="_blank">Flickr</a>. Some have even spun off formal standards – like XSPF (a standard for playlists) or instant messaging standard XMPP (also known as Jabber).<br /> <br />Today's Open APIs are complemented by standardized Schemasthe structure of the data itself and its associated meta-data. Take for example a <a href="http://www.ipodder.org/whatIsPodcasting" target="_blank">podcasting feed</a>. It consists of: a) the radio show itself, b) information on who is on the show, what the show is about and how long the show is (the meta-data) and also c) API calls to retrieve a show (a single feed item) and play it from a specified server. <br /> <br />The combination of Open APIs, standardized schemas for handling meta-data, and an industry which agrees on these standards are breaking the web wide open right now. So what new open standards should the web incumbentsand yoube watching? Keep an eye on the following developments:<br /> <br /> <b>Identity<br />Attention<br />Open Media<br />Microcontent Publishing<br />Open Social Networks<br />Tags<br />Pinging <br />Routing<br />Open Communications<br />Device Management and Control</b> <br /> <br /> <br /> <b>1. Identity</b> <br /> <br />Right now, you don't really control your own online identity. At the core of just about every online piece of software is a membership system. Some systems allow you to browse a site anonymouslybut unless you register with the site you can't do things like search for an article, post a comment, buy something, or review it. The problem is that each and every site has its own membership system. So you constantly have to register with new systems, which cannot share dataeven you'd want them to. By establishing a <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/0,1848,68329-2,00.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1" target="_blank">"single sign-on" standard</a>, disparate sites can allow users to freely move from site to site, and let them control the movement of their personal profile data, as well as any other data they've created. <br /> <br />With <a href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/01/03/stories/2005010301440200.htm" target="_blank">Passport, Microsoft unsuccessfully attempted</a> to force its proprietary standard on the industry. Instead, a world is evolving where most people assume that users want to control their own data, whether that data is their profile, their blog posts and photos, or some collection of their past interactions, purchases, and recommendations. As long as users can control their digital identity, any kind of service or interaction can be layered on top of it.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.identity20.com/media/OSCON2005/" target="_blank">Identity 2.0</a> is all about users controlling their own profile data and becoming their own agents. This way the users themselves, rather than other intermediaries, will profit from their ID info. Once developers start offering single sign-on to their users, and users have trusted places to store their datawhich respect the limits and provide access controls over that data, users will be able to access personalized services which will understand and use their personal data.<br /> <br />Identity 2.0 may seem like some geeky, visionary future standard that isn't defined yet, but by putting each user's digital identity at the core of all their online experiences, Identity 2.0 is becoming the cornerstone of the new open web. <br /> <br /> <b>The Initiatives:</b> <br />Right now, Identity 2.0 is under construction through various efforts from Microsoft (the <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/webservices/webservices/understanding/advancedwebservices/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnwebsrv/html/identitymetasystem.asp" target="_blank">"InfoCard" component built into the Vista operating system</a> and its "<a href="http://garage.docsearls.com/node/605" target="_blank">Identity Metasystem</a>"), <a href="http://sxip.com" target="_blank">Sxip Identity</a>, <a href="http://www.identtycommons.net" target="_blank">Identity Commons</a>, <a href="http://www.projectliberty.org/" target="_blank">Liberty Alliance</a>, <a href="http://lid.netmesh.org/" target="_blank">LID</a> (NetMesh's Lightweight ID), and SixApart's <a href="http://openid.net/" target="_blank">OpenID</a>.<br /> <br /> <b>More Movers and Shakers:</b> <br />Identity Commons and <a href="http://www.identitywoman.net" target="_blank">Kaliya Hamlin</a>, Sxip Identity and <a href="http://blame.ca/dick/" target="_blank">Dick Hardt</a>, the <a href="http://www.identitygang.org/" target="_blank"> Identity Gang</a> and <a href="http://www.searls.com/dochome.html#Bio" target="_blank">Doc Searls</a>, Microsoft's <a href="http://www.identityblog.com/" target="_blank">Kim Cameron</a>, <a href="http://www.craigburton.com/" target="_blank">Craig Burton</a>, <a href="http://phil.windley.org/" target="_blank">Phil Windley</a>, and <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/05/2020221&from=rss" target="_blank">Brad Fitzpatrick</a>, to name a few.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b>2. Attention</b> <br /> <br />How many readers know what their online attention is worth? If you don't, Google and Yahoo dothey make their living off our attention. They know what we're searching for, happily turn it into a keyword, and sell that keyword to advertisers. They make money off our attention. We don't. <br /> <br />Technorati and friends proposed <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gillmor/index.php?p=74" target="_blank">an attention standard, Attention.xml</a>, designed to "help you keep track of what you've read, what you're spending time on, and what you should be paying attention to." <a href="http://attentiontrust.org/" target="_blank">AttentionTrust</a> is an effort by <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gillmor/?p=132" target="_blank">Steve Gillmor</a> and <a href="http://majestic.typepad.com/seth/2005/07/attentiontrusto.html" target="_blank">Seth Goldstein </a>to standardize on how captured end-user performance, browsing, and interest data are used. <br /> <br />Blogger <a href="http://worcester.typepad.com/pc4media/2005/07/attentiontrusto_1.html" target="_blank">Peter Caputa gives a good summary</a> of AttentionTrust: <blockquote>"As we use the web, we reveal lots of information about ourselves by what we pay attention to. Imagine if all of that information could be stored in a nice neat little xml file. And when we travel around the web, we can optionally share it with websites or other people. We can make them pay for it, lease it ... we get to decide who has access to it, how long they have access to it, and what we want in return. And they have to tell us what they are going to do with our Attention data."</blockquote> <br />So when you give your attention to sites that adhere to the AttentionTrust, your attention rights (<i>you own your attention, you can move your attention, you can pay attention and be paid for it</i>, and <i>you can see how your attention is used</i>) are guaranteed. Attention data is crucial to the future of the open web, and Steve and Seth are making sure that no one entity or oligopoly controls it. <br /> <br /> <b>Movers and Shakers:</b> <br /> <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Gillmor/" target="_blank">Steve Gillmor</a>, <a href="http://majestic.typepad.com/about.html" target="_blank">Seth Goldstein</a>, <a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/" target="_blank">Dave Sifry</a> and the <a href="http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/attentionxml" target="_blank">other Attention.xml folks</a>. <br /> <br /> <br /> <b>3. Open Media</b> <br /> <br />Proprietary media standardsFlash, Windows Media, and QuickTime, to name a few helped liven up the web. But they are proprietary standards that try to keep us locked in, and they weren't created from scratch to handle today's online content. That's why, for many of us, an Open Media standard has been a holy grail. Yahoo's new Media RSS standard brings us one step closer to achieving open media, as do <a href="http://www.vorbis.com/faq/#what" target="_blank">Ogg Vorbis</a> audio codecs, <a href="http://webjay.org/" target="_blank">XSPF playlists</a>, or <a href="http://musicbrainz.org/" target="_blank">MusicBrainz</a>. And several sites offer digital creators not only a place to store their content, but also to sell it. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/mrss" target="_blank">Media RSS </a>(being developed by Yahoo with help from the community) extends RSS and combines it with "RSS enclosures" adds metadata to any media itemto create a comprehensive solution for media "narrowcasters." To gain acceptance for Media RSS, Yahoo knows it has to work with the community. As an active member of this community, I can tell you that we'll create Media RSS equivalents for <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2001/01/24/rdf.html" target="_blank">rdf</a> (an alternative subscription format) and <a href="http://www.atomenabled.org/" target="_blank">Atom</a> (yet <i>another</i> subscription format), so no one will be able to complain that Yahoo is picking sides in format wars.<br /> <br />When Yahoo announced the purchase of Flickr, Yahoo founder Jerry Yang insinuated that Yahoo is acquiring "open DNA" to turn Yahoo into <a href="http://www.flickr.com/services/api/" target="_blank">an open standards player</a>. Yahoo is showing what happens when you take a multi-billion dollar company and make openness one of its core valuesso Google, beware, even if Google does have more research fellows and Ph.D.s. <br /> <br />The open media landscape is far and wide, reaching from game machine hacks and mobile phone downloads to PC-driven bookmarklets, players, and editors, and it includes many other standardization efforts. <a href="http://www.xspf.org/" target="_blank">XSPF</a> is an open standard for playlists, and MusicBrainz is an alternative to the proprietary (and originally effectively stolen) database that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gracenote" target="_blank">Gracenote</a> licenses. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.ourmedia.org/" target="_blank">Ourmedia.org</a> is a community front-end to Brewster Kahle's <a href="http://www.archive.org" target="_blank">Internet Archive</a>. Brewster has promised free bandwidth and free storage forever to any content creators who choose to share their content via the Internet Archive. Ourmedia.org is providing an easy-to-use interface and community to get content in and out of the Internet Archive, giving ourmedia.org users the ability to share their media anywhere they wish, without being locked into a particular service or tool. Ourmedia plans to offer open APIs and an open media registry that interconnects other open media repositories into a DNS-like registry (just like the www domain system), so folks can browse and discover open content across many open media services. Systems like <a href="http://www.brightcove.com/" target="_blank">Brightcove</a> and <a href="http://www.evhead.com/2005/02/how-odeo-happened.asp" target="_blank">Odeo</a> support the concept of an open registry, and hope to work with digital creators to sell their work to fulfill the financial aspect of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tail" target="_blank">the "Long Tail."</a> <br /> <br /> <b>More Movers and Shakers:</b> <br /> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/about/people" target="_blank">Creative Commons</a>, the <a href="http://www.omn.org/" target="_blank">Open Media Network</a>, <a href="http://www.momentshowing.net/about.html" target="_blank">Jay Dedman</a>, <a href="http://ryanedit.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ryanne Hodson</a>, <a href="http://michaelverdi.com/index.php" target="_blank">Michael Verdi</a>, <a href="http://www.chapmanlogic.com/blog/aboutEli.html" target="_blank">Eli Chapman</a>, <a href="http://www.unmediated.org/" target="_blank">Kenyatta Cheese</a>, <a href="http://www.itconversations.com/about.html" target="_blank">Doug Kaye</a>, <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.09/yahoo.html" target="_blank">Brad Horowitz</a>, <a href="http://webjay.org/about#colophon" target="_blank">Lucas Gonze</a>, <a href="http://musicbrainz.org/wd/MusicBrainzBio" target="_blank">Robert Kaye</a>, <a href="http://www.lifewithalacrity.com/" target="_blank">Christopher Allen</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewster_Kahle" target="_blank">Brewster Kahle</a>, <a href="http://www.newmediamusings.com/" target="_blank">JD Lasica</a>, and indeed, <a href="http://www.corante.com/amateur/articles/20030211-3564.html" target="_blank">Marc Canter</a>, among others.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b>4. Microcontent Publishing</b> <br /> <br />Unstructured content is cheap to create, but hard to search through. Structured content is expensive to create, but easy to search. <a href="http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/MicroFormats" target="_blank">Microformats</a> resolve the dilemma with simple structures that are cheap to use and easy to search.<br /> <br />The first kind of widely adopted microcontent is blogging. Every post is an encapsulated idea, addressable via a URL called a permalink. You can syndicate or subscribe to this microcontent using RSS or an RSS equivalent, and news or blog aggregators can then display these feeds in a convenient readable fashion. But a blog post is just a block of unstructured text—not a bad thing, but just a first step for microcontent. When it comes to<i>structured</i> data, such as personal identity profiles, product reviews, or calendar-type event data, RSS was not designed to maintain the integrity of the structures. <br /> <br />Right now, blogging doesn't have the underlying structure necessary for full-fledged microcontent publishing. But that will change. Think of local information services (such as movie listings, event guides, or restaurant reviews) that any college kid can access and use in her weekend programming project to create new services and tools.<br /> <br />Today's blogging tools will evolve into microcontent publishing systems, and will help spread the notion of structured data across the blogosphere. New ways to store, represent and produce microcontent will create new standards, such as <a href="http://structuredblogging.org/" target="_blank">Structured Blogging</a> and <a href="http://microformats.org/" target="_blank">Microformats</a>. Microformats differ from RSS feeds in that you can't subscribe to them. Instead, Microformats are embedded into webpages and discovered by search engines like Google or Technorati. Microformats are creating common definitions for "What is a review or event? What are the specific fields in the data structure?" They can also specify what we can do with all this information.<a href="http://www.opml.org/spec" target="_blank">OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language)</a> is a hierarchical file format for storing microcontent and structured data. It was developed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Winer" target="_blank">Dave Winer</a> of RSS and podcast fame.<br /> <br />Events are one popular type of microcontent. <a href="http://www.openevents.com" target="_blank">OpenEvents</a> is already working to create shared databases of standardized events, which would get used by a new generation of event portals—such as <a href="http://eventful.com/gotevents/" target="_blank">Eventful/EVDB</a>, <a href="http://upcoming.org/" target="_blank">Upcoming.org</a>, and <a href="http://www.whizspark.com/" target="_blank">WhizSpark</a>. The idea of OpenEvents is that event-oriented systems and services can work together to establish shared events databases (and associated APIs) that any developer could then use to create and offer their own new service or application. <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2005/04/rvw_redux_openr.html" target="_blank">OpenReviews</a> is still in the conceptual stage, but it would make it possible to provide open alternatives to closed systems like Epinions, and establish a shared database of local and global reviews. Its shared open servers would be filled with all sorts of reviews for anyone to access. <br /> <br />Why is this important? Because I predict that in the future, 10 times more people will be writing reviews than maintaining their own blog. The list of possible microcontent standards goes on: OpenJobpostings, OpenRecipes, and even OpenLists. Microsoft <a href="http://www.reallysimplesyndication.com/2005/06/22" target="_blank">recently revealed</a> that it has been working on an important new kind of microcontent: Lists—so OpenLists will attempt to establish standards for the <i>kind</i> of lists we all use, such as lists of Links, lists of To Do Items, lists of People, Wish Lists, etc.<br /> <br /> <b>Movers and Shakers:</b> <br /> <a href="http://tantek.com/log/2005/09.html" target="_blank">Tantek Çelik</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Marks" target="_blank">Kevin Marks</a> of <a href="http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/MicroFormats" target="_blank">Technorati</a>, <a href="http://dannyayers.com/" target="_blank">Danny Ayers</a>, <a href="http://www.meyerweb.com/" target="_blank">Eric Meyer</a>, <a href="http://photomatt.net/" target="_blank">Matt Mullenweg</a>, <a href="http://zlab.commerce.net/" target="_blank">Rohit Khare</a>, <a href="http://ifindkarma.typepad.com/relax/" target="_blank">Adam Rifkin</a>, <a href="http://www.sivas.com/aleene/" target="_blank">Arnaud Leene</a>, <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0110772/" target="_blank">Seb Paquet</a>, <a href="http://hublog.hubmed.org/" target="_blank">Alf Eaton</a>, <a href="http://www.myelin.co.nz/post/" target="_blank">Phil Pearson</a>, <a href="http://www.joereger.com/" target="_blank">Joe Reger</a>, <a href="http://bobwyman.pubsub.com/" target="_blank">Bob Wyman</a> among others.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b>5. Open Social Networks</b> <br /> <br />I'll never forget the first time I met <a href="http://www.jabrams.com/" target="_blank">Jonathan Abrams</a>, the founder of Friendster. He was arrogant and brash and he claimed he "<i>owned</i>" all his users, and that he was going to monetize them and make a fortune off them. This attitude robbed Friendster of its momentum, letting MySpace, Facebook, and other social networks take Friendster's place.<br /> <br />Jonathan's notion of social networks as a way to control users is typical of the Web 1.0 business model and its attitude towards users in general. Social networks have become one of the battlegrounds between old and new ways of thinking. Open standards for Social Networking will define those sides very clearly. Since meeting Jonathan, I have been working towards finding and establishing open standards for social networks. Instead of closed, centralized social networks with 10 million people in them, the goal is making it possible to have 10 million social networks that each have 10 people in them.<br /> <br />FOAF (which stands for Friend Of A Friend, and describes people and relationships in a way that computers can parse) is a schema to represent not only your personal profile's meta-data, but your social network as well. Thousands of researchers use the <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/" target="_blank">FOAF schema</a> in their "Semantic Web" projects to connect people in all sorts of new ways. <a href="http://gmpg.org/xfn/" target="_blank">XFN</a> is a microformat standard for representing your social network, while <a href="http://www.imc.org/pdi/" target="_blank">vCard</a> (long familiar to users of contact manager programs like Outlook) is a microformat that contains your profile information. Microformats are baked into any xHTML webpage, which means that<i>any</i> blog, social network page, or any webpage in general can "contain" your social network in itand be used by<i>any</i> compatible tool, service or application. <br /> <br />PeopleAggregator is an earlier project now being integrated into <a href="http://drupal.org/" target="_blank">open content management framework Drupal</a>. The <a href="http://www.broadbandmechanics.com/PeopleAggregator/" target="_blank">PeopleAggregator APIs</a> will make it possible to establish relationships, send messages, create or join groups, and post between different social networks. (Sneak preview: this technology will be available in the upcoming GoingOn Network.) <br /> <br />All of these open social networking standards mean that inter-connected social networks will form a mesh that will parallel the blogosphere. This vibrant, distributed, decentralized world will be driven by open standards: personalized online experiences are what the new open web will be all aboutand what could be more personalized than people's networks?<br /> <br /> <b>Movers and Shakers:</b> <br /> <a href="http://esigler.2nw.net/" target="_blank">Eric Sigler</a>, <a href="http://lucifer.intercosmos.net/index.php?view=about" target="_blank">Joel De Gan</a>, <a href="http://crschmidt.net/" target="_blank">Chris Schmidt</a>, <a href="http://voidstar.com/" target="_blank">Julian Bond</a>, <a href="http://people.tribe.net/paul?_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Person%5Bf2232c95-e123-43a3-b48d-24a5f11f09dc%5D&r=10535" target="_blank">Paul Martino</a>, <a href="http://napsterization.org/stories/archives/000513.html" target="_blank">Mary Hodder</a>, <a href="http://public.2idi.com/=Drummond.Reed" target="_blank">Drummond Reed</a>, <a href="http://danbri.org/" target="_blank">Dan Brickley</a>, <a href="http://360.yahoo.com/profile-9lciejI3aafX1stHPoIRNmkmv4EowQ--" target="_blank">Randy Farmer</a>, and <a href="http://www.kaliyasblogs.net/Iwoman/" target="_blank">Kaliya Hamlin</a>, to name a few.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b>6. Tags</b> <br /> <br />Nowadays, no self-respecting tool or service can ship without <a href="http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/02/08/tagging/index_np.html" target="_blank">tags</a>. Tags are keywords or phrases attached to photos, blog posts, URLs, or even video clips. These user- and creator-generated tags are an open alternative to what used to be the domain of librarians and information scientists: categorizing information and content using taxonomies. Tags are instead creating <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.04/view.html?pg=4" target="_blank">"folksonomies."</a> <br /> <br />The recently proposed OpenTags concept would be an open, community-owned version of the popular <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/" target="_blank">Technorati Tags service</a>. It would aggregate the usage of tags across a wide range of services, sites, and content tools. In addition to Technorati's current tag features, OpenTags would let groups of people share their tags in "<a href="http://www.zeldman.com/daily/0405d.shtml/" target="_blank">TagClouds</a>." Open tagging is likely to include some of the open identity features discussed above, to create a tag system that is resilient to spam, and yet trustable across sites all over the web.<br /> <br />OpenTags owes a debt to earlier versions of shared tagging systems, which include <a href="http://www.topicexchange.com/" target="_blank">Topic Exchange</a> and something called the <a href="http://www.evectors.com/itkcollector/" target="_blank">k-collector</a>a knowledge management tag aggregatorfrom Italian company eVectors. <br /> <br /> <b>Movers & Shakers:</b> <br /> <a href="http://www.myelin.co.nz/notes/" target="_blank">Phil Pearson</a>, <a href="http://matt.blogs.it/" target="_blank">Matt Mower </a>, <a href="http://paolo.evectors.it/" target="_blank">Paolo Valdemarin</a>, and <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/archives/2005/03/opentopics.html" target="_blank">Mary Hodder</a> and <a href="http://www.equalsdrummond.name/index.php?p=39" target="_blank"> Drummond Reed</a> again, among others.<br /> <br /> <br /> <b>7. Pinging</b> <br /> <br />Websites used to be mostly static. Search engines that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler" target="_blank">crawled</a> (or "spidered") them every so often did a good enough job to show reasonably current versions of your cousin's homepage or even <i>Time</i> magazine's weekly headlines. But when blogging took off, it became hard for search engines to keep up. (Google has only <a href="http://searchenginewatch.com/searchday/article.php/3548411" target="_blank">just managed</a> to offer <a href="http://www.google.com/help/about_blogsearch.html" target="_blank">blog-search functionality</a>, despite <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=325_0_2_0_C" target="_blank">buying Blogger</a> back in early 2003.)<br /> <br />To know what was new in the blogosphere, users couldn't depend on services that spidered webpages once in a while. The solution: a way for blogs themselves to automatically notify blog-tracking sites that they'd been updated. <a href="http://weblogs.com/" target="_blank">Weblogs.com</a> was the first blog "ping service": it displayed the name of a blog whenever that blog was updated. Pinging sites helped the blogosphere grow, and <a href="http://blo.gs/" target="_blank">more tools</a>, services, and portals started using pinging in new and different ways. Dozens of pinging services and sitesmost of which can't talk to each othersprang up. <br /> <br />Matt Mullenweg (the creator of open source blogging software WordPress) decided that a one-stop service for pinging was needed. He created <a href="http://pingomatic.com/" target="_blank">Ping-o-Matic</a>which aggregates ping services and simplifies the pinging process for bloggers and tool developers. With Ping-o-Matic, any developer can alert all of the industry's blogging tools and tracking sites at once. This new kind of open standard, with shared infrastructure, is a critical to the scalability of Web 2.0 services.<br /> <br />As <a href="http://pingomatic.com/about/" target="_blank">Matt said</a>:<br /> <blockquote>There are a number of services designed specifically for tracking and connecting blogs. However it would be expensive for all the services to crawl all the blogs in the world all the time. By sending a small ping to each service you let them know you've updated so they can come check you out. They get the freshest data possible, you don't get a thousand robots spidering your site all the time. Everybody wins.</blockquote> <br /> <b>Movers and Shakers:</b> <br /> <a href="http://photomatt.net/about/" target="_blank">Matt Mullenweg</a>, <a href="http://trainedmonkey.com/entry/2251" target="_blank">Jim Winstead</a>, <a href="http://newhome.weblogs.com/faq" target="_blank">Dave Winer</a> <br /> <br /> <br /> <b>8. Routing</b> <br /> <br />Bloggers used to have to manually enter the links and content snippets of blog posts or news items they wanted to blog. Today, some RSS aggregators can send a specified post directly into an associated blogging tool: as bloggers browse through the feeds they subscribe to, they can easily specify and send any post they wish to "<a href="http://www.microsoftmonitor.com/archives/010209.html" target="_blank">reblog</a>" from their news aggregator or feed reader into their blogging tool. (This is usually referred to as "<a href="http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=152&topic=17" target="_blank">BlogThis</a>.") As structured blogging comes into its own (see the section on Microcontent Publishing), it will be increasingly important to maintain the structural integrity of these pieces of microcontent when reblogging them. <br /> <br />Promising standard <a href="http://redirectthis.com/" target="_blank">RedirectThis</a> will combine a "BlogThis"-like capability while maintaining the integrity of the microcontent. RedirectThis will let bloggers and content developers attach a simple "PostThis" button to their posts. Clicking on that button will send that post to the reader/blogger's favorite <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/archives/000990.php" target="_blank">blogging tool</a>. This favorite tool is specified at the RedirectThis web service, where users register their blogging tool of choice. RedirectThis also helps maintain the integrity and structure of microcontentthen it's just up to the user to prefer a blogging tool that also attains that lofty goal of microcontent integrity. <br /> <br />OutputThis is another nascent web services standard, to let bloggers specify what "destinations" they'd like to have as options in their blogging tool. As new destinations are added to the service, more checkboxes would get added to their blogging toolallowing them to route their published microcontent to additional destinations.<br /> <br /> <b>Movers and Shakers:</b> <br /> <a href="http://reblog.org/" target="_blank">Michael Migurski</a>, <a href="http://www.gonze.com/about" target="_blank">Lucas Gonze</a> <br /> <br /> <br /> <b>9. Open Communications</b> <br /> <br />Likely, you've experienced the joys of finding friends on AIM or Yahoo Messenger, or the convenience of Skyping with someone overseas. Not that you're about to throw away your mobile phone or BlackBerry, but for many, also having access to Instant Messaging (IM) and Voice over IP (VoIP) is crucial. <br /> <br />IM and VoIP are mainstream technologies that already enjoy the benefits of open standards. Entire industries are bornright this secondbased around these open standards. <a href="http://www.jabber.org/" target="_blank">Jabber</a> has been an open IM technology for yearsin fact, <a href="http://www.xmpp.org/history.html" target="_blank">as XMPP</a>, it was officially dubbed a standard by <a href="http://www.ietf.org/overview.html" target="_blank">the IETF</a>. Although becoming an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IETF" target="_blank">official IETF standard</a> is usually the kiss of death, Jabber looks like it'll be around for a while, as entire generations of collaborative, work-group applications and services have been built on top of its messaging protocol. For VoIP, <a href="http://skype.com/helloagain.html" target="_blank">Skype</a> is clearly the leading standard todaythough one could <a href="http://socialsoftware.weblogsinc.com/entry/1234000923058521/" target="_blank">argue just how "open" it is</a> (and defenders of the IETF's <a href="http://www.cs.columbia.edu/sip/" target="_blank">SIP standard</a> often do). But it is free and user-friendly, so there won't be much argument from <i>users</i> about it being insufficiently open. Yet there may be a cloud on Skype's horizon: web behemoth Google recently released a beta of <a href="http://www.google.com/talk/developer.html" target="_blank">Google Talk, an IM client committed to open standards</a>. It currently <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2005/08/google_talk_rel.html" target="_blank">supports XMPP, and will support SIP</a> for VoIP calls.<br /> <br /> <b>Movers and Shakers:</b> <br /> <a href="http://www.jabber.org/people/jer.shtml" target="_blank">Jeremie Miller</a>, <a href="http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~hgs/" target="_blank">Henning Schulzrinne</a>, <a href="http://www.von.com/schedule_eos11114704148.html" target="_blank">Jon Peterson</a>, <a href="http://www.pulver.com/jeff/" target="_blank">Jeff Pulver</a> <br /> <br /> <br /> <b>10. Device Management and Control</b> <br /> <br />To access online content, we're using more and more devices. BlackBerrys, iPods, Treos, you name it. As the web evolves, more and more different devices will have to communicate with each other to give us the content we want when and where we want it. No-one wants to be dependent on one vendor anymorelike, <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P9409_0_6_0_C" target="_blank">say, Sony</a>for their laptop, phone, MP3 player, PDA, and digital camera, so that it all works together. We need fully interoperable devices, and the standards to make that work. And to fully make use of how content is moving online content and innovative web services, those standards need to be open.<br /> <br /> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midi" target="_blank">MIDI (musical instrument digital interface)</a>, one of the very first open standards in music, connected disparate vendors' instruments, post-production equipment, and recording devices. But MIDI is limited, and <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/8015" target="_blank">MIDI II has been very slow to arrive</a>. Now a new standard for controlling musical devices has emerged: <a href="http://www.cnmat.berkeley.edu/OpenSoundControl/" target="_blank">OSC (Open SoundControl)</a>. This protocol is optimized for modern networking technology and inter-connects music, video and controller devices with "other multimedia devices." OSC is used by a wide range of developers, and is being taken up in the mainstream MIDI marketplace.<br /> <br />Another open-standards-based device management technology is <a href="http://www.zigbee.org" target="_blank">ZigBee</a>, for building wireless intelligence and network monitoring into all kinds of devices. ZigBee is supported by many networking, consumer electronics, and mobile device companies.<br /> <br /> <br /> · · · · · · <br /> <br /> <b>The Change to Openness</b> <br /> <br />The rise of open source software and its "<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/articles/architecture_of_participation.html" target="_blank">architecture of participation</a>" are completely shaking up the old proprietary-web-services-and-standards approach. Sun Microsystemswhose proprietary Java standard helped define the Web 1.0is opening its Solaris OS and has even announced the apparent paradox of an <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=418" target="_blank">open-source Digital Rights Management</a> system.<br /> <br />Today's incumbents will have to adapt to the new openness of the Web 2.0. If they stick to their <a href="http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=131038" target="_blank">proprietary standards</a>, code, and content, they'll become the new walled gardensplaces users visit briefly to retrieve data and content from enclosed data silos, but not where users "live." The incumbents' revenue models will have to change. Instead of "owning" their users, users will know they own themselves, and will expect a return on their valuable identity and attention. Instead of being locked into incompatible media formats, users will expect easy access to digital content across many platforms. <br /> <br />Yesterday's web giants and tomorrow's users will need to find a mutually beneficial new balancebetween open and proprietary, developer and user, hierarchical and horizontal, owned and shared, and compatible and closed. <br /> <br /> <br /> <i>Marc Canter is an active evangelist and developer of open standards. Early in his career, Marc founded MacroMind, which became Macromedia. These days, he is CEO of Broadband Mechanics, a founding member of the Identity Gang and of ourmedia.org. Broadband Mechanics is currently developing the <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=11262_0_1_0_C" target="_blank">GoingOn Network</a> (with the AlwaysOn Network), as well as an open platform for social networking called the PeopleAggregator.</i> <br /> <br />A version of the above post appears in the Fall 2005 issue of AlwaysOn's quarterly print blogozine, and ran as <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=12063_0_1_0_C" target="_blank">a four-part series</a> on the AlwaysOn Network website.</td> </tr> </table> <br /> <p>(Via <a href="http://marc.blogs.it/">Marc's Voice</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Yet Another RSS History
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-25#880
2005-10-25T22:23:48Z
<p> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/10/24/yet-another-rss-history/">Yet Another RSS History</a>: "</p> <p> <em>[You don’t expect me to work out the CSS right after making it semantic, do you?] </em> </p> <p>Shift to another universe. It’s sometime in the late 1990’s. <a href="http://www.guha.com/cv.html">Ramanathan Guha</a>, <a href="http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/">Tim Bray</a>, <a href="http://scripting.com">Dave Winer</a>, <a href="http://tantek.com">Tantek Çelik</a>, <a href="http://dan.libby.com/">Dan Libby</a> and <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/">Dan Connolly</a> are sharing a jacuzzi*. As they sip Marghueritas, their conversation goes like this: </p> <ul> <li> <cite>DanL</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>So, we’ve got this idea for publishing content that’s a bit like <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/NOTE-CDFsubmit.html">CDF</a>, but we’ve made the system more of a service than just a desktop thing.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Guha</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Sounds cool. Might be a good fit with this RDF thing I’ve been working on.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Dave</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Hmm, Dan’s stuff does sound cool, but with all due respect dude, RDF does seem a bit complicated. I really don’t think the folks out in userland would get it. And they majored in graphs.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Tim</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Maybe we could make it a bit more straightforward, you know, like put pointy brackets around it?</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Dave</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Straightforward’s good. Better still, simple. They like simple.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Tantek</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>But what about the rest of the Web, you know, like HTML?</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>DanL</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Hmm, but how do we do the timestamping kind of thing, and wrap it up in a ‘microposty’ way, the things that makes this distribution mode work?</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Guha</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Yeah, metadata is cool. Keep the metadata.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Tim</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Not cheap though. The Web must be cheap. Did Andreesen show you his pictures..?</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Dave</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>…’Microposty’? you mean like my newsletter thing, but on the Web?</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>DanL</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Yep, like Cool Diary Entry of the Day</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Tim</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>But do we really need 1000 pages of spec for that?</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Tantek</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>…Incidentally, did you see my <a href="http://tantek.com/CSS/Examples/boxmodelhack.html">Box Model Hack?</a> </p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Guha</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Yup.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>DanL</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Yup.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Tim</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Yup.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>Dave</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Yup. I explained that on DaveNet last year.</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>MarcC</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Hey! I’ve got it: ‘MyDigitalCocktail’..?</p> </blockquote> </li> <li> <cite>DanC</cite> <br /> <blockquote> <p>Hang on, that gives me <a href="http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-interest/2000Mar/0103">an idea</a>…</p> </blockquote> </li> </ul> <p> <em>There was a tangible outcome to this conversation: a document format which supports content and unambiguous, explicit, data and metadata, timestamping and much, much more. It’s viewable in a regular browser. Can be syndicated; can be aggregated. Unlike forgetful RSS, archives are almost always retrievable using regular HTTP methods. In this universe there was no RSS. No syndication wars. No talking-at-cross-purposes conflict between docheads and dataheads, syntax fans and model fans. No-one had to publish simple data in Byzantine RDF/XML. No-one had to deal with doubly-escaped content and silent data loss. There was no need for any new format for business cards, calendars, blogs, link lists, reviews, pet profiles. XHTML with CSS was more than enough. DanL got the MyNetscape he wanted. Tim got the simple, tight format he wanted. Guha got the AI. Tantek got to do presentations in a cool black raincoat. DanC finally got his schedule on his Palm Pilot. Dave got the credit. MarcC got the parasols and a grass skirt none of the others would admit to having brought. </em> </p> <p>Shift back to this universe. Check out <a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/hatom">hAtom</a>. It’s not finished yet, but <a href="http://blogmatrix.com">David</a>’s been methodically working through the (utterly sound) <a href="http://microformats.org/wiki/process">microformats process</a>. Looks good to me. </p> <p> <em>* apologies for the imagery, but how else do think Silicon Valley might seem to someone raised in the cowpat-coated hills of Derbyshire?</em> </p> <p>PS. Apologies to everyone mentioned. And before you suggest it, blogging *is* therapy.</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://dannyayers.com">Raw</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Africa and the net effects of Global Warming (long-term)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-22#879
2005-10-22T14:41:48Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/planet/0,2782,69296,00.html?tw=rss.TEK">Grim Outlook for Africa's Future</a>: "Africa accounts for only a tiny percentage of the fossil fuel emissions that contribute to global warming, but the continent's poverty leaves it hard-pressed to deal with the coming catastrophic effects of that warming."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.wired.com/">Wired News: Technology</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>As a Nigerian and African (obviously!) this article strikes very close to home; especially the reality expressed below: </p> <blockquote> <cite>But even if countries stop polluting today, researchers argue the effects will be felt for decades to come, posing what the African Development Bank has singled out as possibly the greatest long-term threat to poverty eradication efforts on the continent. Some 770 million Africans — 63 percent — live in rural areas, and about 40 percent survive on less than a dollar a day. Most are small-scale farmers. Wood is their major source of fuel, and medicinal plants their main defense against disease. Many are already subject to recurring droughts, floods and soil degradation that can wipe out their livelihoods. Any long term changes in temperatures and rainfall could fundamentally alter the landscape in which they live and the production potential on which they depend.</cite> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Wired News: Pumping Indies on MTV
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-22#878
2005-10-22T13:37:21Z
<p> <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,69253,00.html?tw=rss.BIZ">Wired News: Pumping Indies on MTV</a>: "Search: Pumping Indies on MTV Page 1 of 1 By Ryan Singel | Also by this reporter 02:00 AM Oct. 21, 2005 PT Norbury and Finch are a folk duo based on Vancouver Island. They aren't signed to a music label, but fans of the Ozzy Osbourne reality show and HBO's Real Sex have heard their music, thanks to an innovative music-licensing company that has placed thousands of songs by little-known artists on big-name television shows. Pump Audio is a Hudson Valley, New York-based company that helps independent musicians and artists who are on small labels, or no label, get paid for their art. The company provides hard drives full of music to harried production teams at networks such as MTV and the Food Network. See also Bands Embrace Social Networking You, Too, Could Be in Advertising Bands to Labels: Play With Us DAT's Entertainment, So Enjoy Today's Top 5 Stories Creating the Global Hot Spot Hear, Hear for Audio Erotica Pumping Indies on MTV Cliff Notes From the Blog Wor"</p> <p>(Via <a href=""></a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The future of the Web is Semantic
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-20#877
2005-10-20T20:48:18Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/10/20/the-future-of-the-web-is-semantic/">The future of the Web is Semantic</a>: "</p> <p>A nice quick overview (if you don’t mind the RDF/XML approach) at IBM developerWorks: <a href="http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/wa-semweb/">The future of the Web is Semantic</a> </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://dannyayers.com">Raw</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
TechCrunch Top Web 2.0 VCs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-20#876
2005-10-20T03:50:55Z
<p> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:10pt;"> By way of the upcoming <a href="http://wiki.techcrunch.com/third_meetup">TechCrunch “un-conference” style demo-brainstorm-fest Wiki</a> I came across a blog post by <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/">Michael Arrington</a> titled: <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/10/19/top-five-web-20-venture-capitalists/">Top 5 Web 2.0 VCs</a>. Here is the entire list (Top 5, Notables, and Up and Coming) extracted from the post (see <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">my linkblog page</a> to get some insight into the motivation behind this post): </span> </p> <blockquote> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.bvp.com/about/bio.asp?id=7" id="7">David Cowan</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a partner at </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.bvp.com/">Bessemer Venture Partners</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> and writes a blog called </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://whohastimeforthis.blogspot.com/">Who Has Time For This</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">. He’s on this list partially because he incubated the hottest and most anticipated company on the web right now, Flock. <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.dfj.com/team/tim_bio.shtml">Tim Draper</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> invested in Skype. Done. He also sits on the board of SocialText, and his fund was in Baidu. <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.augustcap.com/team/dh.shtml">David Hornik</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is is a General Partner at August Capital and writes a </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/">blog</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> that has over 10,000 RSS readers. <br />Josh Kopelman, through </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.firstroundcapital.com/">FirstRoundCapital</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">, is quietly filtering through just about every young web 2.0 company, and investing in many of them. <br /> <br />Fred Wilson is a founding partner of </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.unionsquareventures.com/">Union Square Ventures</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> and writes the extremely popular </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/">A VC</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">. If you are new to web 2.0, start with his </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2005/02/blogging_10.html">Blogging 1.0</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> post. <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://softtechvc.blogs.com">Jeff Clavier</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://softtechvc.blogs.com/about.html">Jeff</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a former VC and still makes the odd angel investment (Feedster, Truveo, and a few others). His </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.softtechvc.com/">new venture</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> allows him to work with pre-funding companies and get them ready for prime time. <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.feld.com/blog/">Brad Feld</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - Brad is a managing director at </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.mobiusvc.com/index.php">Mobius Venture Capital</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> and writes a must-read web 2.0 blog called Feld Thoughts. Read his </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.feld.com/blog/archives/term_sheet/index.html">posts on Term Sheets</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> if you are in the process of raising capital. <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.oatv.com/">O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures</a> </span><span style="font-size:9pt;"></span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - This is the only non-person on here. </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.oatv.com/">OATV</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> just closed a $50 million fund to invest in young companies. Given the incredible access Tim O’Reilly has to these companies, OATV could quickly become an important fund in the web 2.0 space. <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://pierre.typepad.com/">Pierre Omidyar</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://pierre.typepad.com/">Pierre</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> founded ebay and is the Co-founder of </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.omidyar.net/index.html">Omidyar Network</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">, where he’s invested in a number of interesting companies including EVDB, SocialText and Feedster, and others. <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://earlystagevc.typepad.com/">Peter Rip</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - Peter is a founding partner of </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.leapfrogventures.com/">Leapfrog Ventures</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">, a $100 million fund. Peter also writes </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://earlystagevc.typepad.com/">Early Stage VC</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">, another must-read blog. His investments include ojos, an incredible new photo-metadata service that is going to be extremely disruptive (and useful). <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.thefoundersfund.com/index.html">Peter Thiel</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - Peter, the former CEO of paypal, has invested in LinkedIn, Friendster, LinkedIn and other web 2.0 companies. He’s just created the </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.thefoundersfund.com/index.html">Founders Fund</a> </span> <span style="font-size:9pt;">. <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;color:#51796f;font-size:9pt;"><br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.austinventures.com/team/teammember.asp?id=81" id="81">Thomas Ball</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.austinventures.com/team/teammember.asp?id=81" id="81">Tom</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a Venture Partner at Austin Ventures, a fund with $3 billion under management. He’s their consumer and web 2.0 guy and seems to be spending a lot of time in Silicon Valley and at web 2.0 event. <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.venrock.com/bio_deg.html">Dan Grossman</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.venrock.com/bio_deg.html">Dan</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a principal at Venrock Associates and has recently started a great blog called </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.aventureforth.com/">A Venture Forth</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> (where he wrote a much bookmarked post on </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.aventureforth.com/2005/09/06/top-10-ajax-applications/">Ajax</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;">). <br /> <br /> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.shastaventures.com/pressman.htm">Jason Pressman</a> </span><span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> - </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"><a href="http://www.shastaventures.com/pressman.htm">Jason</a> </span> <span style="font-family:Verdana;font-size:9pt;"> is a principal at Shasta Ventures, a young $200 million fund that has a deep commitment to and expertise in consumer-focused businesses. <br /> </span> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Another Reminder About Database Independence
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-10#875
2005-10-10T21:36:58Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20051010/000252_F.shtml">MySQL's essential core has been acquired by Oracle</a>. This is yet another warning salvo to the legions of developers out there (especially the Open Source tribe) that write database specific applications. I have been <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/?id=446">warning about database specific application development</a> myopia for a very long time! <p>There is a countdown that is pretty much in motion as a result of the latest move by Oracle. If Open Source developers want to alleviate the inevitable despair, they will need to revisit the issue of decoupling those MySQL specific applications via a re-binding effort to database independent call level interfaces such as ODBC (using <a href="http://www.iodbc.org">iODBC</a> or <a href="http://www.unixodbc.org"> unixODBC</a>).</p> <p>For those MySQL users that think binding to ODBC is too hard, simply take a look at the two year old <a href="http://www.iodbc.org/index.php?page=mysql2odbc/index">MySQL2ODBC SDK</a>. It will not stop you from using MySQL, it simply separates your intellectual capital (the application logic) from the data storage (DBMS engine). You can still use ODBC to talk to MySQL, but you won't be locked into an inheritance tree that is susceptible to the inevitable strategic assaults on MySQL.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web 2.0: Conversation with Vinod Khosla
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-08#874
2005-10-08T16:19:44Z
<p>Courtesy of the <a href="http://blog.softtechvc.com/">Software Only</a> blog, here is an interesting <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/?id=645">interview with Vinod Khosla</a>, an industry veteran who always makes sense (since he fundamentally understands the big picture, IMHO):</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://blog.softtechvc.com/2005/10/web_20_conversa.html">Web 2.0: Conversation with Vinod Khosla</a>: </p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:img height="158" alt="Vinod Khosla" hspace="2" src="http://blog.softtechvc.com/VinodKhosla_small.jpg" width="160" align="right" vspace="2" border="0" />Vinod started by explaining that, contrary to the rumor, he is not starting a fund, he is just investing his own capital - hiring a few people to help with this. He was a General Partner in all Kleiner funds he was involved in, but decided to forego his GP position in KPCB XI (which means that he is less involved in the fund, and the firm).</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>He sees opportunities in peer-to-peer infrastructure: communication, media distribution and mangling (as in being on the computer and im’ing whilst watching TV - something I do all the time), etc. He also states that personalization has not yet started to deliver on its promises on the web.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>Vinod states that there is still too much capital in the coffins of the VCs, even if a lot of the overhang (‘leftovers’ from the capital raised by the bubble funds) has been largely used up. This makes raising money ‘too easy’, and cautions startups being funded nowadays that they should not take this as a sign of future success (neither on their capacity to execute nor raise further funds), and that management teams should spend frugally by trying things at small scale and get market response.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>On the subject of search, he recalls Excite’s rebuttal of Vinod’s suggestion of buying Google’s technology for $1M (very very early on) because Excite guys thought they could do so much better. Lesson: be open to other’s capabilities to disrupt your turf - even when you are successful (actually, especially when you are successful because you might become complacent).</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>The discussion moves to the topic of trust in the blogosphere, put in the perspective of MSM and reporting on disasters, like Katrina and London bombings. Vinod argues that he will trust more aggregated reports from hundreds of bloggers rather than CNN, even if there is no blog trust/reputation infrastructure (I would argue that linking behavior is an OK proxy for now - Scoble would say that this is what we get with <xhtml:a href="http://tech.memeorandum.com/">Memeorandum</xhtml:a>).</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>I don't think so re. Memeorandum (as I stated earlier, his is a genuine big picture thinker and thought leader, Memeorandum is a step in the right direction, but in no way the final destination envisaged).</xhtml:p> <xhtml:blockquote> <xhtml:p>On the mobile revolution, he sees an increased usage, way beyond ringtones and wallpapers, into communication and new types of interactions. An example he gives is using cell phones to help people improve their english (a real challenge for Chinese, Indian… and French people :-). Just in Shanghai, there are over 5M customers/users of such a product.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>Moving to education, Vinod states that kids now need to learn about sifting through thousands and thousands of search engine results on any topic they might research, and critically assessing which source to trust or not. He would use new communcation mechanisms to offer remote tutoring, and would open source textbooks in a wikipedia model - which would save billions of dollars every year in California that could be reinvested into more critical projects.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>Staying with open source, he gives the example of patented seeds that could benefit greatly to developing country and their ability to engineer seeds matching their particular requirements and environment. This is not feasilble today because of patent protection.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>On improving on Google’s relevance (question from Michael Yang from Become.com), Vinod sees value in collaborative filtering, and diverse applications of information retrieval and extraction.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>(Via <xhtml:a href="http://blog.softtechvc.com/">Software Only</xhtml:a>.)</xhtml:p> </xhtml:blockquote> </xhtml:div> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web 2.0 Conference Notes: Mary Meeker
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-06#873
2005-10-06T21:33:17Z
<a href="http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/meeker_internet_trends100605.pdf">Mary Meeker's Web 2.0 Presentation</a>. <blockquote> <p>Key data points: </p> <ul> <li>Market cap of big 5: $2B (2000 pre-IPO), $178B (2000 peak), $32B (2002 trough) $261B (2005)</li> <li>27% of US Internet users read blogs</li> <li>54MM registered Skype users (9/05) - fastest product ramp ever?</li> <li>China - More Internet users < age of 30 than anywhere</li> <li>S. Korea Broadband penetration of 70%+ - No. 1 in world</li> <li>Mobile is most important direction now</li> </ul> <p>Conclusion: first ten years (1995-2005) of commercial Internet were a warm up act for what is about to happen</p> " <p>(Via <a href="http://silkworm.talis.com/blog/">Silkworm Blog</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Post-Processed Web 2.0 Report
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-06#872
2005-10-06T20:21:50Z
<p>If you've read Dare's recent post titled: "Mash-ups 2.0 - Where's the Business Model?", you will notice that it's filled with juicy Web 2.0 currency (URIs). Thus, rapid extraction of the embedded URIs becomes essential (I want see those mash-ups ASAP..) </p> <p> Here is what my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> based blog system enables me to do with ease:</p> <ul> 1. Grep all the URIs from Dare's "Mash-ups 2.0 - Where's the Business Model?" post via its <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=linkblog">linkblog</a>. </ul> <ul> 2. Use Dare's Trip report to track broader Web 2.0 conversation across the blogosphere via its <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?page=summary">Summary Page</a>.</ul> In all cases relating to items 1&2, ensure that the content is syndicated in a range of formats (including the often forgotten XBEL which is a short-cut for building up your bookmarks database).
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web 2.0 Conference Trip Report: Mash-ups 2.0 - Where#39s the Business Model?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-06#871
2005-10-06T18:43:31Z
<p>Great report from Dare as usual :-) Beyond the obvious value of the post (information wise), I am also using the post placement here as a simple demonstration of what Blogs can offer (if driven or built atop a Web 2.0+ platform like<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso"> Virtuoso</a>). See the post that follows...</p> <blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=fe52dada-78e0-4508-80c2-8764d9668651">Web 2.0 Conference Trip Report: Mash-ups 2.0 - Where's the Business Model?</a>: "</p> <p> I attended the panel on business models for mash-ups hosted by <a href="http://www.web2con.com/cs/web2005/view/e_spkr/2453">Dave McClure</a>,<br /> <a href="http://www.web2con.com/cs/web2005/view/e_spkr/1637">Jeffrey McManus</a>, <a href="http://www.web2con.com/cs/web2005/view/e_spkr/2277">Paul Rademacher</a>, and <a href="http://www.web2con.com/cs/web2005/view/e_spkr/1518">Adam Trachtenberg</a>. </p> <p> A mash up used to mean remixing two songs into something new and cool but now the term has been hijacked by geeks to means mixing two or more web-based data sources and/or services. </p> <p> Paul Rademacher is the author of the <a href="http://www.housingmaps.com/">Housing Maps mash-up</a> which he used as a way to find a house using Craig'sList + Google Maps. The data obtained from Craig's List is fetched via screen scraping. Although Craig's List has RSS feeds, they didn't meet his needs. Paul also talked about some of the issues he had with building the site such as the fact that since most browsers block cross-site scripting using XMLHttpRequest then a server needs to be set up to aggregate the data instead of all the code running in the browser. The site has been very popular and has garnered over 900,000 unique visitors based solely on word-of-mouth. </p> <p> The question was asked as to why he didn't make this a business but instead took a job at Google. He listed a number of very good reasons </p> <ol> <li> He did not own the data that was powering the application.</li> <li> The barrier to entry for such an application was low since there was no unique intellectual property or user interface design to his application </li> </ol> <p> I asked whether he'd gotten any angry letters from the legal department at Craig's List and he said they seem to be tolerating him because he drives traffic to their site and caches a bunch of data on his servers so as not to hit their servers with a lot of traffic. </p> <p> A related mash-up site which scrapes real estate websites called <a href="http://www.trulia.com/">Trulia</a> was then demoed. A member of the audience asked whether Paul thought the complexity of mash-ups using more than two data sources and/or services increased in a linear or exponential fashion. Paul said he felt it increased in a linear fashion. This segued into a demo of <a href="http://www.simplyhired.com/">SimplyHired</a> with integrates with a number of sites including <a href="http://www.payscale.com/">PayScale</a>, <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/">LinkedIn</a>, Job databases, etc. </p> <p> At this point I asked whether they would have service providers giving their perspective on making money from mash-ups since they are the gating factor because they own the data and/or services mash-ups are built on. The reply was that the eBay & Yahoo folks would give their perspective later. </p> <p> Then we get a demo of a <a href="http://www.trachtenberg.com/emgm/">Google Maps & eBay Motors mash-up</a>. Unlike the <a href="http://www.housingmaps.com/">Housing Maps mash-up</a>, all the data is queried live instead of cached on the server. eBay has dozens of APis that encourage people to build against their platform and they have an affiliates program so people can make money from building on their API. We also got showed <a href="http://www.unwiredbuyer.com/">Unwired Buyer</a> which is a site that enables you to bid on eBay using your cell phone and even calls you just before an auction is about to close. Adam Trachtenberg pointed out that since there is a <a href="http://share.skype.com/sdp">Skype API</a> perhaps some enterprising soul could mash-up eBay & Skype. </p> <p> Jeffrey McManus of Yahoo! pointed out that you don't even need coding skills to build a Yahoo! Maps mash-up since all it takes is specifying your RSS feed with longitude and latitude elements on each item to have it embedded in the map. I asked why unlike Google Maps and MSN Virtual Earth, Yahoo! Maps doesn't allow users to host the maps on their page nor does there seem to be an avenue for revenue sharing with mash-up authors via syndicated advertising. The response I got was that they polled various developers and there wasn't significant interest in embedding the maps on developer's sites especially when this would require paying for hosting. </p> <p> We then got showed a number mapping mashups including a mashup of the <a href="http://geepster.com/london.php">London bombings which used Google Maps, Flickr & RSS feeds of news</a> (the presenter had the poor taste to point out opportunities to place ads on the site), a mashup from alkemis which <a href="http://www.alkemis.com/default.php?pID=laboratory&pID2=googleMapA">mashes Google Maps, A9.com street level photos and traffic cams</a>, and a mash-up from Analygis which <a href="http://www.analygis.com/products/google_api.htm">integrates census data with Google Maps data</a>. </p> <p> The following items were then listed as the critical components of mash-ups<br /> - AJAX (Jeffrey McManus said it isn't key but a few of the guys on the panel felt that at least dynamic UIs are better) <br /> - APIs<br /> - Advertising<br /> - Payment<br /> - Identity/Acct mgmt<br /> - Mapping Services<br /> - Content Hosting<br /> - Other? </p> <p> On the topic of identity and account management, the problem of how mash-ups handle user passwords came up as a problem. If a website is password protected then user's often have to enter their usernames and passwords into third party sites. An example of this was the fact that PayPal used to store lots of username/password information of eBay users which caused the company some consternation since eBay went through a lot of trouble to protect their sensitive data only to have a lot of it being stored on Paypal servers. </p> <p> eBay's current solution is similar to that used by <a href="http://www.passport.net">Microsoft Passport</a> in that applications are expected to have user's login via the eBay website then the user is redirected to the originating website with a ticket indicating they have been authenticated. I pointed out that although this works fine for websites, it offers no solution for people trying to build desktop applications that are not browser based. The response I got indicated that eBay hasn't solved this problem. </p> <p> My main comment about this panel is that it didn't meet expectations. I'd expected to hear a discussion about turning mashups [and maybe the web platforms they are built on] into money making businesses. What I got was a show-and-tell of various mapping mashups. Disappointing. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Web 2.0 Litmus Test
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-10-04#870
2005-10-04T19:52:58Z
I have just read <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=e481327e-5e8b-4b93-982e-db206222a2cf">Dare Obasanjo's recent contribution to the Web 2.0 clarification effort</a>. His post-processing of the <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html?page=1">Web 2.0 treatise by Tim O'Reilly</a> certainly got me thinking about the thorny issue of attempting to define Web 2.0. As most already know, the subject of Web 2.0 definition has been contentious from the onset (unfortunately for the wrong reasons: hype over substance): <cite><blockquote>just take a look at the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Web_2.0">oxymoronic Wikipedia 2.0 imbroglio</a> to get my drift. In retrospect, I should have called on <a href="http://news.com.com/Esquire+wikis+article+on+Wikipedia/2100-1038_3-5885171.html">Esquire magazine</a> to get the Web 2.0 article going :-) ).</blockquote> </cite> Anyway, back to Dare's analysis of Tim's 7 Web 2.0 litmus test items listed below: <blockquote> <cite> <ul> <li> Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability </li> <li> Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them </li> <li> Trusting users as co-developers </li> <li> Harnessing collective intelligence </li> <li> Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service </li> <li> Software above the level of a single device </li> <li> Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models </li> </ul> </cite> </blockquote> And trimmed down to 3 by Dare: <blockquote> <cite> <ul dir="ltr"> <li> <div>Exposes Web services that can be accessed on any device or platform by any developer or user. RSS feeds, RESTful APIs and SOAP APIs are all examples of Web services. </div> </li> <li> <div>Harnesses the collective knowledge of its user base to benefit users </div> </li> <li> <div>Leverages the long tail through customer self-service </div> </li> </ul> </cite> </blockquote> Well, I would like to summarize this a little further using a few excerpts from my numerous contributions to the Web 2.0 talk page on Wikipedia (albeit mildly revised; see strikeouts etc.): <blockquote> <cite>Web 2.0 is a web of <strike>executable</strike> service invocation endpoints (those Web Services URIs) and well-formed content (all of that RSS, Atom, RDF, XHTML, etc. based Web Content out on the NET). The <strike>executable</strike> service invocation endpoints and well-formed content are accessible via URIs. <p>Put in even simpler terms, Web 2.0 is an incarnation of the web defined by URIs for invoking Web Services and/or consuming or syndicating well-formed content.</p> </cite> <p>Looks like I've self edited my own definition in the process. :-)</p> </blockquote> <p>If you don't grok this definition then consider using it as a trigger for taking a closer look at the dynamics that genuinely differentiate Web 1.0 and Web 2.0.</p> In another Wikipedia "talk page" contribution (regarding "Web 2.0 Business Impact") I attempt to answer the question posed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Web_2.0#Business_Impact">here</a>, which should also shed light on the premise of my definition above: <blockquote> <cite><p>Web 1.0 was about web sites geared towards an interaction with human beings as opposed to computers. In a sense this mirrors the difference between HTML and XML.</p> <p>A simple example (purchasing a book):</p> <p>amazon.com provides value to you by enabling you to search and purchase the desired book online via the site http://www.amazon.com.</p> <p>In the Web 1.0 era the process of searching for your desired book, and then eventually purchasing the book in question, required visible interaction with the site http://www.amazon.com. In today's Web 2.0 based Web the process of discovering a catalog of books, searching for your particular book of interest, and eventually purchasing the book, occurs via Web Services which amazon has chosen to expose via an executable endpoint (<i>the Web point of presence for exposing its Web Services</i>).</p> <p>Direct interaction via http://www.amazon.com is no longer required. A weblog can quite easily associate keywords, tags, and post categories with items in amazon.com's catalogs. In addition, weblogs can also act as entry points for consuming the amazon.com value proposition (making books available for purchase online), by enabling you to purchase a book directly from the weblog (assuming the blog owner is an amazon associate etc..). Now compare the impact of this kind of value discovery and consumption cycle driven by software to the same process driven by humans interaction with a static or dynamic HTML page (Web 1.0 site). </p> </cite> </blockquote> <p>To surmise, Web 2.0 is a reflection of the potential of XML expressed through the collective impact of Web Services (XML based distributed computing) and Well-formed Content (Blogosphere, Wikisphere, XHTML micro content etc.). The potential simply comes down to the ability to ultimately connect events, triggers, impulses (chatter, conversation, etc.), and data in general via URIs.</p> <p>Let's never forget that XML is the reason why we have a blogosphere (RSS/Atom/RDF are applications of XML). Likewise, XML is also the reason why we have Web Services (doesn't matter what format).</p> <p>As I have stated in the past, we must go by Web 2.0 en route what is popularly referred to as the Semantic Web (it will be known by another name by the time we get there; 3.0 or 4.0, who knows or cares?). At the current time, the prerequisite activity of self annotation is in full swing on the current Web, thanks to the inflective effects of Web 2.0.</p> <p>BTW - Would this <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=semantic%20web&type=text&output=html">URI</a> to <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=semantic%20web&type=text&output=html">all Semantic Web related posts on my blog</a> pass the Web 2.0 litmus test? Likewise, this <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%202.0&type=text&output=html">URI</a> to all <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/public/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web%202.0&type=text&output=html">Web 2.0 related posts</a>? I wonder :-)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web 2.0 Meme Map
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-09-23#869
2005-09-23T04:01:26Z
<p> <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002834.php">Web 2.0 Meme Map</a>: "</p> <p>Tim O'Reilly has posted <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/36521959321@N01/44349798">a meme map of Web 2.0</a>, from the 'What is Web 2.0?' brainstorming session at FOO Camp 2005. Hat-tip <a href="http://www.bokardo.com/">Josh</a> for the link. It's kind of a business model map:</p> <p> <img src="http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/web20mememap.jpg" alt="Web 2.0 Meme Map" width="450" height="338" /> <br /> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/36521959321@N01/44349798">Click here for full image</a> </p> <p>The orange box in the middle and brown ovals at the bottom cover some the themes I'll be writing about in the next chapter of Josh and I's book. The chapter is tentatively titled 'Building a Web 2.0 Business' and will explore the principles of Web 2.0 business. e.g. 'Services, not packaged app'.</p> <p>I've just finished my first chapter, which was a general introduction to the 'Web as Platform' concept. So this will be an interesting follow-on from that.</p> <p>Alex Barnett has done a nice <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/alexbarn/archive/2005/09/21/472405.aspx">'Microsoft mash-up'</a>, inserting links.</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/">Read/Write Web</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft Gadgets, Start.com and Innovation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-09-16#868
2005-09-16T17:54:52Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=88270766-b9e1-407b-937f-ab41edce97de">Microsoft Gadgets, Start.com and Innovation</a>: "</p> <p> A lot of <a href="http://microsoftgadgets.com/blogs/gadgetnews/archive/2005/09/13/3.aspx#comments">the comments in the initial post on the Microsoft Gadgets blog</a> are complaints that the Microsoft is copying ideas from <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/dashboard/">Apple's dashboard</a>. First of all, people should give credit where it is due and acknowledge that <a href="http://www.konfabulator.com/">Konfabulator</a> is the real pioneer when it comes to desktop widgets. More importantly, the core ideas in Microsoft Gadgets were pioneered by Microsoft not Apple or Konfabulator. </p> <p> From the post <a href="http://microsoftgadgets.com/blogs/gadgetnews/archive/2005/09/15/181.aspx">A Brief History of Windows Sidebar</a> by Sean Alexander </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><span>Microsoft 'Sideshow*' Research Project (2000-2001)</span> </b> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span>While work started prior, in September 2001, a team of Microsoft researchers <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/research/pubs/view.aspx?tr_id=488">published a paper</a> entitled, 'Sideshow: Providing peripheral awareness of important information' including findings of their project. </span> <br /> ...<br /> <span>The research paper provides screenshots that bear a striking resemblance to the Windows Sidebar. The paper is a good read for anyone thinking about Gadget development. For folks who have visited Microsoft campuses, you may recall the posters in elevator hallways and Sidebar running on many employees desktops. Technically one of the first teams to implement this concept </span> </p> <span><p class="MsoNormal"> <i><span>*Internal code-name, not directly related to the official, âWindows SideShowâ¢â auxiliary display feature in Windows Vista.</span> </i>></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <b><span>Microsoft âLonghornâ Alpha Release (2003) </span> </b> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> </span> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span>In 2003, Microsoft unveiled a new feature called, 'Sidebar' at the Microsoft Professional Developerâs Conference. This feature took the best concepts from Microsoft Research and applied them to a new platform code-named, 'Avalon', now formally known as Windows Presentation Foundation... </span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span></span> </p> <p xmlns="o"> </p> <b> <span>Microsoft Windows Vista PDC Release (2005)<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </b> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span>While removed from public eye during the Longhorn plan change in 2004, a small team was formed to continue to incubate Windows Sidebar as a concept, dating back to its roots in 2000/2001 as a research exercise. Now Windows Sidebar will be a feature of Windows Vista. Feedback from customers and hardware industry dynamics are being taken into account, particularly adding support for DHTML-based Gadgets to support a broader range of developer and designer, enhanced security infrastructure, and better support for Widescreen (16:10, 16:9) displays. Additionally a new feature in Windows Sidebar is support for hosting of Web Gadgets which can be hosted on sites such as Start.com or run locally. Gadgets that run on the Windows desktop will also be available for Windows XP customers â more details to be shared here in the future.</span> </p> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr"> <span>So the desktop version of 'Microsoft Gadgets' is the shipping version of Microsoft Research's 'Sideshow' project. Since the research paper was published a number of parties have shipped products inspired by that research including <a href="http://www.activewin.com/reviews/software/apps/msn/msn8/interface.shtml">MSN Dashboard</a>, <a href="http://desktop.google.com/features.html#sidebar">Google Desktop</a> and <a href="http://www.desktopsidebar.com/">Desktop Sidebar</a> but this doesn't change the fact that the Microsoft is the pioneer in this space. </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr"> <span>From the post <a href="http://microsoftgadgets.com/blogs/gadgetnews/archive/2005/09/15/177.aspx">Gadgets and Start.com</a> by Sanaz Ahari </span> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <span><p> <a href="http://start.com/">Start.com </a>was initially released on February 2005, on <a href="http://start.com/1">start.com/1</a> â since then weâve been innovating regularly (<a href="http://start.com/2">start.com/2</a>, <a href="http://start.com/3">start.com/3</a>, <a href="http://start.com/">start.com </a>and <a href="http://start.com/pdc">start.com/pdc</a>) working towards accomplishing our goals: </p> <ul> <li> To bring the webâs content to users through: <ul> <li> Rich DHTML components (Gadgets) </li> <li> RSS and behaviors associated with RSS </li> <li> High customizability and personalization</li> </ul> </li> <li> To enable developers to extend their start experience by building their own Gadgets</li> </ul> <p> Yesterday marked a humble yet significant milestone for us â we opened our 'Atlas' framework enabling developers to extend their start.com experience. You can read more it here: <a href="http://start.com/developer">http://start.com/developer</a>. The key differentiators about our Gadgets are: </p> <ul> <li> Most web applications were designed as closed systems rather than as a web platform. For example, most customizable 'aggregator' web-sites consume feeds and provide a fair amount of layout customization. However, the systems were not extensible by developers. With start.com, the experience is now an integrated and extensible application platform. </li> <li> We will be enriching the gadgets experience even further, enabling these gadgets to seamlessly work on Windows Sidebar</li> </ul> </span> </blockquote> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr"> <span>The Start.com stuff is really cool. Currently with traditional portal sites like <a href="http://my.msn.com/">MyMSN</a> or <a href="http://my.yahoo.com/">MyYahoo</a>, I can customize my data sources by subscribing to RSS feeds but not how they look. Instead all my RSS feeds always look like a list of headlines. These portal sites usually use different widgets for display richer data like stock quotes or weather reports but there is no way for me to subscribe to a stock quote or weather report feed and have it look the same as the one provided by the site. <a href="http://www.start.com/developer">Start.com</a> fundamentally changes this model by turning it on its head. I can create a custom RSS feed and specify how it should render in <a href="http://www.start.com/">Start.com</a> using JavaScript which basically makes it a <a href="http://www.start.com/">Start.com</a> gadget, no different from the default ones provided by the site. </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr"> <span>From my perspective, we're shipping really innovative stuff but because of branding that has attempted to cash in on the 'widgets' hype, we end up looking like followers and copycats. </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" dir="ltr"> <span>Marketing sucks. </span> </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p> </blockquote> Posted for historic annotation purposes (re. Widgets as Microsoft didn't copy Apple here at all; Apple just packaged this better at the expense of Konfabulator as already noted above). And yes, Marketing sucks big time!!
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Webpage is Not An API or a Platform (The Populicio.us Remix)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-09-16#867
2005-09-16T17:47:38Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=9e1811b8-f4f9-4407-aff7-92b3cd170f73">A Webpage is Not An API or a Platform (The Populicio.us Remix)</a>: "</p> <p> A few months ago in my post <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=87ad1fa6-08a9-491f-90c3-c77b22002c0c">GMail Domain Change Exposes Bad Design and Poor Code</a>, I wrote <em>Repeat after me, a web page is not an API or a platform</em>. It seems some people are still learning this lesson the hard way. In the post <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002829.php">The danger of running a remix service</a> Richard MacManus writes </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://populicio.us/">Populicio.us</a> was a service that used data from social bookmarking site <a href="http://del.icio.us/">del.icio.us</a>, to create a site with enhanced statistics and a better variety of 'popular' links. However the Populicio.us service has just been taken off air, because its developer can no longer get the required information from del.icio.us. <a href="http://populicio.us/">The developer of Populicio.us wrote</a>: </p> <p> 'Del.icio.us doesn't serve its homepage as it did and I'm not able to get all needed data to continue Populicio.us. Right now Del.icio.us doesn't show all the bookmarked links in the homepage so there is no way I can generate real statistics.' </p> <p> This plainly illustrates the danger for remix or mash-up service providers who rely on third party sites for their data. del.icio.us can not only giveth, it can taketh away. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> It seems Richard Macmanus has missed the point. The issue isn't depending on a third party site for data. The problem is depending on screen scraping their HTML webpage. An API is a service contract which is unlikely to be broken without warning. A web page can change depending on the whims of the web master or graphic designer behind the site. </p> <p dir="ltr"> Versioning APIs is hard enough, let alone trying to figure out how to version an HTML website so screen scrapers are not broken. Web 2.0 isn't about screenscraping. Turning the Web into an online platform isn't about legitimizing bad practices from the early days of the Web. Screen scraping needs to die a horrible death. Web APIs and Web feeds are the way of the future. </p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>.)</p> </blockquote> Amen!
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Macintosh Spirit
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-09-16#866
2005-09-16T14:07:30Z
<p> <a href="http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=The_Macintosh_Spirit.txt">The Macintosh Spirit</a>: "The attitudes and values of the team forged the spirit of the Macintosh"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.folklore.org/">Folklore.org: Stories about the Original Macintosh</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web 2.0 API Reference
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-09-14#865
2005-09-14T16:59:04Z
<p>The <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com">Web 2.0 API reference site</a> is a great collection of <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/apis">Web 2.0 "Points of Presence" / endpoints and their published APIs</a>. I see this site evolving very quickly, especially as its starts to receive URIs for <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/examples">samples</a> and <a href="http://www.programmableweb.com/mashups">mash-ups</a>. </p> <p>This site could provide a great exposure point for some very old Web 2.0 (nee "Web Services") demos from our <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/tutorial/services/index.vsp">Virtuoso tutorials / demos site</a>.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
NerdTV interviews first Macintosh programmer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-09-09#864
2005-09-09T21:49:28Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/09/09.html#a11066">NerdTV has first Macintosh programmer</a>: "</p> <p> <a href="http://www.pbs.org/cringely/nerdtv/">NerdTV has Andy Hertzfield</a>, the first Macintosh programmer.... </p> <p>(Via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.pbs.org/hplink/redir/http://distribution.nerdtv.net/video/NTV001/ntvjuicy001.mp4">Here</a> is the juicy excerpt that covers the issue of "Bill Gates, Microsoft and Taste.." :-) Very funny!</p>
2006-07-21T07:23:28.000001-04:00
Evil or Cool Use of Technology Prowess Re. Google trying to recruit Susan Dumais?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-08-30#863
2005-08-30T13:25:08Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2005/08/29.html#a10997">Google trying to recruit Susan Dumais?</a>: "</p> <p>Is Google trying to recruit Susan Dumais or just have some fun with her?</p> <p>If you don't know who Susan is, she's one of our brightest researchers and works on MSN Search, among other things. Do <a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLG,GGLG:2005-31,GGLG:en&q=Susan+Dumais">a Google Search for her name</a>. Now look over at the ads. I think someone at Google is saying 'hey, Susan, come work for us.'</p> <p>I did several other searches on Microsoft employee names, and Susan is the only one I could find that is being targetted this way.</p>" <p>(Via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger</a>.)</p> </blockquote> <p>Personally I think this is cool use of technology by Google :-)</p> <p>The intersection of Technology and karma is a wonderful thing to see!</p>
2006-07-21T07:24:08.000001-04:00
Regurgitating an old rant (Encoding, XForms, and SOAP/XML-RPC)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-08-24#862
2005-08-24T07:56:52Z
<p> <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/2005/08/19#BinaryEncodingAndXMLRPCs">Regurgitating an old rant (Encoding, XForms, and SOAP/XML-RPC)</a>: " </p> <p></p> <p>I ran into two work-related problems today that left me feeling like there are some aspects of two very recent (Web 2.0-esque if we wish to join the buzzword orgy of late) architectures (REST/Services and XForms) that are problematic:</p> <h3>Demonstrating an Achilles Heel Of XML Messaging</h3> <p>XML as a medium for remote communication (evangelized more with WSDL-related architectures than in <a href="http://www.xfront.com/REST.html">REST</a>) has over-stated its usefullness in at least one concrete regard, in my estimation. I've had a hard time taking most of the architectural arguments on the pros/cons of SOAP/XML-RPC versus REST seriously because it seems to be nothing more than buzzword <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/dareobasanjo/archive/2005/03/22/400372.aspx">warfare</a>. However, I recently came across a concrete, real world example of the pitfalls of implementing certain remote service needs on XML-based communication mediums (such as SOAP/XML-RPC).</p> <p>If the objects/resources you wish to manipulate at the service endpoints are run of the mill (consider the standard cliche purchase order example(s)) then the benefits of communicating in XML is obvious: portability, machine readability, extensibility, etc.. However consider the scenario (which I face) in which the objects/resources you wish to manipulate are XML documents themselves! This scenario seems to work to the disadvantage of the communication architecture.</p> <p>Lets say you have a repository at one end (which I do) that has XML documents you wish to manipulate remotely. How do you update the documents? I've discussed this <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/2005-05-02/xdashboard">before</a> (see: <em>Base64 encoded XML content from an XForm</em>) so I'll spare the details of the problem. However, I will mention that in retrospect this particular problem further emphasizes the advantage of a MinimalistRemoteProcedureCall (MRPC) approach - MRPC is my alternative acronym for REST :).</p> <p>Consider the setContent message:</p> <pre><code>[SOAP:Envelope] [SOAP:Body] [foo:setContent] [path] .. path to document [/path] [src]... new document as a fragment ...[/src] [/foo:setContent] [/SOAP:Body] [/SOAP:Envelope] </code></pre> <p>Notice that the location of the resource we wish to update is embedded within the message transmitted (via SOAP), which is transported on top of another communication medium (HTTP) that already has the neccessary semantics for saying the same thing:</p> <blockquote> <p>Set the content of the resource identified by a path</p> </blockquote> <p>In the SOAP scenario, the above message is delivered to a single service endpoint (which serves as an external gateway for <em>all</em> SOAP messages) which has to then parse the <em>entire</em> XML message in order to determine the method invoked (setContent in this case) and the parameters passed to it (both of which are only header information on a document that consists mostly of the new document).</p> <p>However, in the MRPC scenario this service would be invoked simply as an HTTP PUT <a href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/Request.html">request</a> sent <em>directly</em> to the XML document we wish to update:</p> <pre><code>Method: PUT Protocol: HTTP/1.0 URI: http://remoteHost:port/< .. path to XML document ..> CONTENT: ... new document in it's entirety .. </code></pre> <p>Here, there is no need for a service middleman to interpret the service requested (and no need to parse a large XML document that contains another document embedded as a fragment). The HTTP request by itself specifies everything we need and does it using HTTP alone as the communication medium. This is even more advantageous when the endpoint is a repository that has a very well defined URI scheme or general addressing mechanism for it's resources (which 4Suite <a href="http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/akara/nodes/2003-10-03/ftss">does</a>, the repository in my case).</p> <h3>The Headaches of Base 64 Encoding in XForms</h3> <p>Since i didn't have the option of a REST-based service architecture (the preferred solution) I was relegated to having to base64 encode the new XML content and embed it within the XML message submitted to the service endpoint, like so:</p> <pre><code>[SOAP:Envelope] [SOAP:Body] [foo:setContent] [path] .. path to document [/path] [src]... base64 encoding of new document's serialization ...[/src] [/foo:setContent] [/SOAP:Body] [/SOAP:Envelope] </code></pre> <p>Base 64 seemed like the obvious encoding mechanism mostly because it would seem from an interpretation of the XForms <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xforms/slice8.html#ui-upload">specification</a> that due to the data binding restrictions of the Upload Control when bound to instances of type xsd:base64Binary a conforming XForms processor is responsible for having the capability to encode to Base 64 <em>on the fly</em>. Now, this is fine and dandy if the XML content you wish to submit is retrieved from a file on the local file system of the client communicating remotely with the server. However, what if you wish to use an instance (a live DOM) as the source for the update? This seems like a very reasonable requirement given that one of the primary motivation of XForms is to encourage the use of XML instances as the user interface data model (providing a complete solution to the 'M' in the MVC architecture.)</p> <p>However:</p> <ul> <li>There is no mechanism within XForms for serialising live instances (there needs to be such a standard so implementations don't create their own proprietary mechanisms)</li> <li>There is no mechanism within XForms for explicitely encoding text in some portable binary format (which is incredibly useful IMHO - as shown above)</li> </ul> " <p>(Via <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/">Uche Ogbuji</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
End of Line for Microsoft?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-07-26#856
2005-07-26T22:15:51Z
<p> <a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1840479,00.asp">John C. Dvorak pens an interesting piece about the "deafening silence" accorded Windows Vista</a> thus far. <br /> </p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/127/?id=793">In the past I have expressed views that echo the essence</a> of John's piece. It has been pretty darn clear to me that Microsoft is struggling as a result of its inability to handle challenges associated with the metaphoric "computing vase" which it sought to own solely as a result of its proclivity for crushing and/or alienating erstwhile technology partners as part of this quest (a process that commenced a long time ago culminating the <a href="http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_No_IE7_for_Windows_2000/1117464807">contradiction and ultimate paradox called IE7</a>; remember not too long ago it was impossible to separate IE from Windows! It could only exist as an OS extension etc.).</p> <p>Windows in its current incarnation fails to provide a productive working environment, you either have a plethora of viruses and spyware contending for you computing resources, or you have all the software in place to protect against these assaults rendering the computing resources equally busy. The computing power lag is simply too much when using windows, and this is its achilles heel! </p> <p> I have been using Windows since version 2.0, and although I have always found the Mac OS variations to be superior on the UI front, I never found any of the historic versions viable alternatives. In my case, this is all about providing a productive work environment across the following usage modes, in descending order of priority:</p> <blockquote>1. Power User (OutLook, Excel, WORD, and other desktop productivity tools)<br /> 2. Product Testing and QA<br /> 3. Programmer Buddy (a Microsoft term)<br /> 4. Programming (for the most part prototyping)<br /> </blockquote> <p>The release of Mac OS X Tiger lead me down an evaluation path that I have repeated many times in the past: test the viability of moving wholesale from Windows to Mac OS X and remain functional (if really lucky, exceed existing productivity levels). This time around I found that I could actually migrate over 6 years worth of emails, contacts, presentations, documents, spreadsheets from Windows to Mac OS X. I also discovered that success extended all the way to my data linked documents that are transparently bound to back-end databases (in my case the norm rather the exception via ODBC). </p> <p>I now use Mac OS X as my prime working platform (I still have to use Windows as the platform remains strategic for all our product offerings), and I am absolutely loving it! The joint feelings of euphoria and confusion that I experienced post migration were similar to how I felt after making the transition from "stick shift" to "automatic" geared cars (as I transitioned my residence from the UK to the U.S). At the time I couldn't understand why anyone (other than a grand prix driver) would ever drive a "stick shift" by choice. </p> <p>Today, I can't understand why I stuck with Windows for so long at the expense of my daily working productivity. The biggest bonus from this transition is that Mac OS X has made it easier for me to engage less technical individuals (family & friends) in the sheer joy and potential of Information Technology across a variety of realms as opposed to being confined to the "business computing" realm solely. I can demonstrate the power and potential of the Internet, Web, Web Services, Blogosphere, Wikispehere, with much more sanity and coherence now that my machine responds in a timely fashion during these demos amongst other benefits. </p> <p>Some may deem this windows bashing, but if they take the time to look a little deeper, this is simply about "straight shooting" from a real computer user (I like my computers to do deliver on their hugh potential promised; I don't compromise this basic expectation; my computer and associate software should save me time and ramp up my productivity!) . If Microsoft is the company that it once was, then it would simply use this kind of commentary to rally its troops and get its act together! That's what I would do if a customer felt so badly about our technology (<a href="http://uda.openlinksw.com">UDA </a>or <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso</a>).</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Federated folksonomy
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-07-23#855
2005-07-23T14:52:09Z
<p> <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/07/22.html#a1274">Federated folksonomy</a>: "Back in December I heard from <a href="http://www.dlib.org/dlib/december04/authors/12authors.html#HAMMOND">Tony Hammond</a>, who's in the new technology department at the <a href="http://npg.nature.com">Nature Publishing Group</a>, the publisher of <a href="http://www.nature.com">Nature</a> and many journals. Tony pointed me to <a href="http://www.connotea.org">Connotea</a>, a del.icio.us-like service for the scientific community. <b>...</b>"</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Wiki Introduction from CNET
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-06-16#854
2005-06-16T15:58:05Z
<div> News.com's Experience Edge has three short videos on <a href="http://news.com.com/1200-2-5741150.html">Evolving Collaboration</a>. </div> <div> <p> </p> <blockquote> <a href="http://news.com.com/1200-2-5741150.html"><img alt="Image" height="72" border="0" hspace="5" width="97" src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/ne/bb/2005/06/0609wiki1.gif" align="left" /></a><a href="http://news.com.com/1200-2-5741150.html" class="storyhead">Wiki while you work </a>James Hilliard looks at the corporate wiki, an editable Web site designed for quick and easy group project management. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://news.com.com/1200-2-5741153.html"><img alt="Image" border="0" height="72" hspace="5" width="97" src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/ne/bb/2005/06/0609wiki2.gif" align="left" /> </a><a href="http://news.com.com/1200-2-5741153.html" class="storyhead">Getting 'wiki' with the team </a>Wiki users and experts offer insight on implementing a wiki at work, as well as on preparation for the learning and acceptance curve for both staff and management. <br /> <br /> <a href="http://news.com.com/1200-2-5741156.html"><img alt="Image" border="0" height="72" hspace="5" width="97" src="http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/ne/bb/2005/06/0609wiki3split.gif" align="left" /> </a><a href="http://news.com.com/1200-2-5741156.html" class="storyhead">Is business waking up to wiki? </a>John Seely Brown co-author of the recently released The Only Sustainable Edge and Socialtext CEO Ross Mayfield discuss the emerging role of the wiki in the evolution of corporate collaboration. </blockquote> <div> The interviews provide explain wikis, their challenges and potential in a simple way. <p> </p> <div> “ </div> <div> (Via <a href="http://ross.typepad.com/blog/">Ross Mayfield's Weblog</a>.) </div> </div> </div>
2006-07-21T07:24:56.000001-04:00
Patent On Selling Information Revoked In The UK
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-06-09#852
2005-06-09T18:54:16Z
<p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20050609/0711243_F.shtml">Patent On Selling Information Revoked In The UK</a>: "We've written about <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/search.pl?query=e-data">E-Data's patent claims</a> in the past. They're the patent hoarding company that claims to have a patent (from 1985) on 'selling downloadable media' that is transferred to a 'material object.' That, as you might imagine, is pretty broad, and has let them go after such companies as <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040804/1743223_F.shtml">Amazon.com, the NY Times, American Greetings and Hallmark</a> for daring to 'sell downloadable media,' when you'd be hard pressed to prove that any of these companies got the idea for selling downloadable media from this particular patent. They also went on to <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20031013/1957232_F.shtml">sue Microsoft for its music download service</a>. While Microsoft actually <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040120/1855251_F.shtml">paid up</a>, E-Data also went after Bill Gates' <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040504/1518211_F.shtml">Corbis</a> digital imaging company for violating their patents in Europe. After all of this, a UK judge has now pointed out that the patent is ridiculous, <a href="http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3511351">throwing out the case <i>and the patent</i></a> in Europe. The judge had a patent expert review this particular patent, and the guy noted that it's not at all clear what was being patented, since the patent: 'is lengthy, repetitive and somewhat confusing' while using 'invented pseudo-technical terminology.' In fact, when you break down what the patent actually says: '[it] comes close to being a patent for selling information.' It only took 20 years, countless lawsuits and a ton of wasted money on legal fees to figure that out."</p> <p>(Via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>.)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
How Could Apple moving to Intel be viable
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-06-06#851
2005-06-06T16:47:24Z
<p> This post is part of an experiment to determine the conversational quality of Technorati vs Good old Usenet. We are approximately 30 minutes away from an announcement that will have profound impact on the computer industry (no matter how you look at it; even if nothing happens). </p> <p> At the time of this post I decided to test the speculative conversational capabilities of Technorati vs Good old Usenet. My search keywords where: Apple Intel Transitive. </p> <p> Here is what I got from Usenet via <a href="http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=transitive+apple+intel&start=0&scoring=d&hl=en&lr=&">google</a> . </p> <p> Here is what I got from <a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?rank=&url=transitive+apple+intel">Technorati</a>. </p> <p> The beauty of the URIs above is that can use them to track speculative conversation about: Apple, Intel, and Transitive pre and post the 10.00 PST presentation by Steve Jobs. </p> <p> Technorati (and similar services) overlap rather than integrate with the Usenet, and this experiment should at the very least test the value of services like Technorati for “Buzz Tracking” and “Buzz Research”. </p> <p> BTW - This is why <a href="http://www.transitive.com/products.htm">Transitive</a> is so interesting today. </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
FireFox Semantic Web Extension: Piggy Bank 2.0 Beta
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-24#850
2005-05-24T18:37:20Z
<div align="left">I just found this interesting Semantic Web effort via '<a href="http://dannyayers.com/">Danny Ayers</a>' blog. Here is the synopsis from his post:</div> <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <p> <a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/2005/05/24/piggy-bank-20-beta/">Piggy Bank 2.0 Beta</a> </p> <p>New release of <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/">Piggy Bank</a>, the Semantic Web extension for Firefox. It harvests data as you browse (when you click a status bar indicator), which can later be searched and viewed in a facetted browser. </p> <p>The docs have come along some too -</p> <blockquote> <p>Piggy Bank can collect pure information in the following cases:</p> <p>1. The web page has invisible link(s) to RDF data (encoded in RDF/XML or N3 formats).<br />2. The web page exports an RSS feeds.<br />3. The address of the web page is a file:/ URL pointing to a directory.<br />4. Piggy Bank has a "screen scraper" <em>[XSLT or Javascript]</em> that can re-structure the web page HTML code into RDF data. </p> </blockquote> <p>There's a <a href="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/screen-scrapers-howto.html">tutorial</a> on writing Javascript screenscrapers on the site, nice touch.</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr" align="left">I have also added an architecture diagram to accelerate comprehension (a picture speaks a thousand words...):</p> <p dir="ltr" align="left"> <img alt="" src="http://simile.mit.edu/piggy-bank/images/architecture.png" align="bottom" border="0" hspace="0" /> </p> <div align="left">The infrastructure for tier-3 is an aspect of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso's</a> functionality pool; combining Database & Web Application Server functionality amongst other things, as a single product offering.<br /> </div>
2006-07-21T07:25:03.000001-04:00
World Wide Web of Junk
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-20#849
2005-05-20T23:07:38Z
<div align="left">After digesting <a href="http://obliqueangle.blogspot.com/">Oblique Angle</a>'s post titled: <a href="http://obliqueangle.blogspot.com/2005/05/world-wide-web-of-junk.html">World Wide Web of Junk</a>, it was nice to be reassured that I am not part of a shrinking minority of increasingly peturbed Web users. The post excerpt below is what compelled me to contribute some of my thoughts about the current state of the Web and a future "Semantic Web".</div> <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <div align="left">The value of the Internet as a repository of useful information is very low. <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/">Carl Shapiro </a>in <a href="http://www.inforules.com/">“Information Rules”</a> suggests that the amount of actually useful information on the Internet would fit within roughly 15,000 books, which is about half the size of an average mall bookstore. To put this in perspective: there are over 5 billion unique, static & publicly accessible web pages on the www. Apparently Only 6% of web sites have educational content (Maureen Henninger, <a href="http://www.mja.com.au/public/bookroom/1999/mullins/mullins.html">“Don’t just surf the net: Effective research strategies”. </a>UNSW Press). Even of the educational content only a fraction is of significant informational value.</div> </blockquote> <div dir="ltr" align="left">Noise is taking over the Web at an alarming rate (to be expected in a sense ), and even though <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/">Tim Berners-Lee</a> (TBL) had the foresight to create the Web, many see nothing but futility in his vision for a "Semantic Web" (I don't!). A recent example of such commentary comes from Eric Nee's CIO article, titled: <span class="print_article_title"><a href="http://www.cioinsight.com/print_article2/0,2533,a=151806,00.asp">Web Future is Not Semantic, Or Overly Orderly</a>. I take issue with this article because, like most (who have been bitten at least once), I don't like mono culture</span><span class="print_article_title">. </span>This article inadvertently promotes "Google Mono Culture". I have excerpted the more frustrating parts of this article below:</div> <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <div dir="ltr" align="left"> <p> <em>..As Stanford students, Larry Page and Sergey Brin looked at the same problem—how to impart meaning to all the content on the Web—and decided to take a different approach. The two developed sophisticated software that relied on other clues to discover the meaning of content, such as which Web sites the information was linked to. And in 1998 they launched Google..</em> </p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">You mean noise ranking. Now, I don't think Larry and Sergey set out to do this, but Google page ranks are ultimately based on the concept of "Google Juice" (aka links). The value quotient of this algorithm is accelerating at internet speed (ironically, but naturally). Human beings are smarter than computers, we just process data (not information!) much slower that's all. Thus, we can conjure up numerous ways to bubble up the google link ranking algorithms in no time (as is the case today). </p> <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr" align="left"> <em>..What most differentiates Google's approach from Berners-Lee's is that Google doesn't require people to change the way they post content..</em> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr" align="left">The Semantic Web doesn't require anyone to change how they post content either! It just provides a roadmap for intelligent content managment and consumption through innovative products. </p> <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr" align="left"> <em>..As Sergey Brin told Infoworld's 2002 CTO Forum, "I'd rather make progress by having computers under-stand what humans write, than by forcing -humans to write in ways that computers can understand." In fact, Google has not participated at all in the W3C's formulation of Semantic Web standards, says Eric Miller.. </em> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr" align="left">Semantic Content generated by next generation content managers will make more progress, and they certainly won't require humans to write any differently. If anything, humans will find the process quite refreshing as and when participation is required e.g. clicking bookmarklets associated with tagging services such as '<a href="http://del.icio.us">del.icio.us</a>', <a href="http://de.lirio.us">'de.lirio.us</a>', or <a href="http://www.unalog.com">Unalog</a> and others. But this is only the beginning, if I can click on a bookmarklet to post this blog post to a tagging service, then why wouldn't I be able to incorporate the "tag service post" into the same process that saves my blog post (the post is content that ends up in a <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">content management system</a> aka blog server)? </p> <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr" align="left"> <em>Yet Google's impact on the Web is so dramatic that it probably makes more sense to call the next generation of the Web the "Google Web" rather than the "Semantic Web."</em> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr" align="left">Ah! so you think we really want the noisy "Google Web" as opposed to a federation of distributed Information- and Knowledgbases ala the "Semantic Web"? I don't think so somehow!</p> <p dir="ltr" align="left">Today we are generally excited about "tagging" but fail to see its correlation with the "Semantic Web", somehow? I have said this before, and I will say it again, the "Semantic Web" is going to be self-annotated by humans with the aid of intelligent and unobtrusive annotation technology solutions. These solutions will provide context and purpose by using our our social essence as currency. The annotation effort will be subliminal, there won't be a "Semantic Web Day" parade or anything of the like. It will appear before us all, in all its glory, without any fanfare. Funnily enough, we might not even call it "The Semantic Web", who cares? But it will have the distinct attributes of being very "Quiet" and highly "Valuable"; with no burden on "how we write", but constructive burden on "why we write" as part of the content contribution process (less Google/Yahoo/etc juice chasing for more knowledge assembly and exchange). </p> <p dir="ltr" align="left">We are social creatures at our core. The Internet and Web have collectively reduced the connectivity hurdles that once made social network oriented solutions implausible. The eradication of these hurdles ultimately feeds the very impulses that trigger the critical self-annotation that is the basis of my fundamental belief in the realization of TBL's Semantic Web vision. </p> <p dir="ltr" align="left"> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
When did Blogrolls Become Evil?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-16#846
2005-05-16T18:34:33Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>While I'm still trying to figure this out, you should read Shelley's original post, <a href="http://weblog.burningbird.net/archives/2005/03/15/steve-levy-dave-sifrey-and-nz-bear-you-are-hurting-us/">Steve Levy, Dave Sifry, and NZ Bear: You are Hurting Us</a> and see whether you think the arguments against blogrolls are as wrong as I think they are. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Shelley's <a href="http://weblog.burningbird.net/archives/2005/03/15/steve-levy-dave-sifrey-and-nz-bear-you-are-hurting-us/">post</a> does bring attention to important issues relating to the blogosphere. It touches on how a simple matter can get complex very quickly. All of a sudden what was so simple, becomes pretty complex.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Blogrolls are completely ambiguous. We use them in a variety of ways, but the inherent ambiguity leads to misinterpretation, and in some cases it breeds dysfunctionality of the kind Shelley alludes to in this excerpt:</div> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div align="left"> <p> <em>"..The Technorati Top 100 is too much like Google in that ânoiseâ becomes equated with âauthorityâ. Rather than provide a method to expose new voices, your list becomes nothing more than a way for those on top to further cement their positions. More, it can be easily manipulated with just the release of a piece of software.."</em> </p> </div> </blockquote> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">When blogrolls started to appear on blog home pages there was no blogosphere as we know it today (most viewing was browser as opposed to aggregator based). Blogrolls where a great way of bootstrapping a burgeoning blogosphere (a kind of "look who's blogging now" symbol). The issue of Blogrolls being dynamic, static, or genuinely meaningful was unimportant, unfortunately. In a sense they were simple, static, and in today's parlance: fashionably sloppy.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Today, we have a very extensive and lively blogosphere, it is now mainstream, and has basically become a data source in its own right; introducing challenges exemplified by our inability to clearly state the meaning and purpose of a blogroll.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">The question of "blogroll meaning" may result in alternative use of "<a href="http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/attentionxml">attention.xml</a>" which has the prime goal of addressing challenges associated with tracking and reading posts from a large blog subscription pool. Why not use this as the basis for generating less ambiguous blogrolls?</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">The blogosphere has been an important catalyst for understanding the current Web 2.0 inflection as demonstrated by the transition from the Web Browsers to Feed Aggregators & Readers for reading and tracking blogs (blog home pages are secondary aspects of the interaction with any given blog these days). Unfortunately, there is a general perception that Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web are mutually exclusive, primarily due to the perceived lofty goals of the latter (what's wrong with being challenged?). From my vantage point, I continue to see Web 2.0 as a necessary infrastructure component for the Semantic Web that will ultimately provide context for understanding why it's so important. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">The Semantic Web will certainly aid in our ability to infer or deduce the meaning of a blog owner's published blogroll since it provides a vehicle for conveying such meaning in human and machine consumable forms. Until then, I remain stumped. I see where Shelley is coming from, but I don't know what to do with my blogroll right this moment :-) On the other hand I certainly know what I am planning to do with my real blogroll (not the snapshot you see today) in the not too distant future.</div> <div align="left"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Planning the Software Industrial Revolution
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-13#841
2005-05-13T17:33:19Z
<p> <a href="http://virtualschool.edu/cox/pub/PSIR/">Here</a> is another timeless article by Brad Cox titled: Planning The Software Industrial Revolution.</p> <p>Enjoy!</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Social Construction of Reality
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-13#840
2005-05-13T11:31:42Z
<p>An interesting <a href="http://www.virtualschool.edu/mon/SocialConstruction/index.html">article</a> by <a href="http://www.virtualschool.edu/cox/">Brad Cox</a>. (inventor of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objective-C">Objective-C</a>) that's provides great foundation for a understanding number of issues that are relevant to social networking systems.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Bill Gates: Cell Phones Will Overtake MP3 Players, Calls iPod 'Unsustainable'
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-13#837
2005-05-13T03:53:20Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.macobserver.com/article/2005/05/12.12.shtml">Bill Gates: Cell Phones Will Overtake MP3 Players, Calls iPod 'Unsustainable'</a> Microsoft's chairman draws on computing history to make his proclamation that the iPod phenomenon won't... </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.macobserver.com/">The Mac Observer</a>]</div> <div align="left">Hmm..!</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">I think this one speaks for itself! Kind of reminds me of the ominous round during the <a href="http://www.eastsideboxing.com/news.php?p=2100&more=1">rumble in the jungle</a> when Ali asked Foreman: "Is that all you got George!".</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Again, Mac OS X vs Windows is a rendition of Ali vs Foreman (circa 1974) as stated in an earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/index.vspx?id=793">post</a>; very much in line with the essence of the post fight analysis expressed below:</div> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div align="left">"Why did Foreman lose to Ali? The fact is Ali beat Foreman because he was tougher and stronger than he's ever given credit for. Ali didn't box Foreman! He went to the ropes and allowed Foreman to hit on him, is that boxing? What if Foreman had knocked him out while he was stationary against the ropes. It would've been said for the rest of time, why did Ali remain stationary letting Foreman get off on him? How come he didn't use the ring and box? Which is exactly what those watching the fight were thinking and saying during rounds two through eight. That's not boxing, that's being forced to fight because your opponent will not allow you to box."</div> <div align="left"> </div> </blockquote> <div align="left" dir="ltr">The point I am trying to make here is simple: Bill's comments are more about hope than facts. The iPod does not define Apple, the company's future isn't inextricably linked to the iPod. The company's future (as I see it) isn't solely about Desktop Computing (the battle Microsoft won many years ago) or the use of the iPod to ramp up its future growth in this realm. Apple is clearly focused on "Digital Life Style", a broader incarnation of what Bill <a href="http://alia.org.au/advocacy/alw/1998/gates.response.html">described</a> as "Web Life Style" in the late 90's.</div> <div align="left" dir="ltr"> </div> <div align="left" dir="ltr">Apple clearly understands that the Internet is the new Operating System (OS). It also understands that this OS isn't solely about personal Desktop Computing. Most important of all, it understands that it cannot own this OS (so it won't repeat the fatal mistake of not licensing it to potential partners :-) ). In a sense, the new OS protects Apple from itself (I see certainly understand Bill's <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=apple+ipod%0D%0A%0D%0A&type=text&output=html">point</a> if Apple was just about the iPod).</div> <div align="left" dir="ltr"> </div> <div align="left" dir="ltr">Apple is using its significant prowess in technology, aesthetics and user experience innovation to provide great solutions (hardware and software) that empower users of this new OS. Tiger (nee. <a href="http://binarybonsai.com/archives/2005/01/29/jobs-nextstep-os/">OpenStep / NeXTSTEP OS</a>; the platform on which the first Web Browser was <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/WorldWideWeb.html">created</a>) is a great example, what a <a href="http://mlagazine.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=142">journey</a>! </div> <div align="left" dir="ltr"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Standards Contempt Revisited
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-12#834
2005-05-12T15:11:14Z
<p>My entire time in the IT industry has been spent primarily trying to develop, architect, test, mentor, evangelize, and educate about one simple subject: Standards Appreciation!</p> <p>The trouble with "Standards Appreciation" is that vendors see standards from the following perspectives primarily:</p> <ol> <li>Yet another opportunity to lock-in the customer <br /> </li> <li>If point 1. fails then undermine the standard vociferously (an activity that takes many covert forms; attack performance, security, and maturity)<br /> </li> <li>Developers don't like standards (the real reason for this is to-do lists and timeframes in most cases)</li> </ol> <p> <a href="http://koranteng.blogspot.com">Korateng Ofusu-Amaah</a> provides insightful perspective on the issues above, in a recent "must read" <a href="http://koranteng.blogspot.com/2005/05/unloved-html-button-and-other.html">blog post</a> about how this dysfunctionality plays out today in the realm of HTML Buttons and Forms. Here are some notebable excerpts:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <em>"Instead my discourse devolved into a case of I told you so, a kind of Old Testament view of things instead of the softer New Age stylings that are in vogue these days. Sure there was a little concern for the users that had been hurt by lost data, but there was almost no empathy for the developers who had to lose their weekends furiously reworking their applications to </em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00004XQMV/korantenstoli-20"></a><em>do the right thing especially because it appeared that they would rather persist in trying to do the wrong thing. <br /> <br />The sentiment behind that mini tempest-in-a-teapot however was a recognition of the fact that <span style="FONT-WEIGHT: bold">those who have been quietly evangelizing the web style were talking about the wrong thing and to the wrong people."</span> <br /> <br />...</em> </p> <p> <em>"..As application developers we should ask for better forms, we should be demanding of browser makers things like XForms or Web Forms 2.0 to make sure that we can go beyond the kind of stilted usability that we currently have. Our users would appreciate our efforts in that vein but for now, they know what to expect. Until then application developers should push back when we are told to "do the wrong thing".</em> </p> </blockquote> <p>There is an unfortunate mindset trend at the current time that espouses: "Sloppiness" is good, and "Simple" justifies inadequacy at all times. Today, the real focus of most development endeavours is popularity first and coherance (backward compatibility, standards compliance, security, scalability etc.) a distant second, if you can simply make things popular then that justifies the sloppiness (acquisition, VC money, Blogosphere Juice etc.). Especially as someone else will ultimately have to deal with the predictable ramifications of the sloppiness. </p> <p>Standards are critical to the success of IT investment within any enterprise, but standards are difficult to design, write, implement, and then comprehend; due to the inherent requirement for abstraction - it's a top down, as opposed to bottom up, process.</p> <p>Vendors will never genuinely embrace standards, until IT decision makers demand standards compliance of them, by demonstrating a penchant for smelling out "<a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/LeakyAbstractions.html">leaky abstractions</a>" embedded within product implementations. Naturally, this requires a fundamental change of mindset for most decision makers. It means moving away from the "this analyst said...", "I heard that company X is going to deliver....", "I read that .....", "I saw that demo..." approach to product evaluation, to a more knowledgeable evaluation process that seeks out the What, Why, and How of any prospective IT solution. </p> <p>Knowledge empowers all of the time. It's a gift that stands the test of time once you invest some time in its acquisition (unfortunately this gift isn't free!). Ignorance with all its superficial seduction (free and widely available!), is temporary bliss at best, and nothing but heartache over time. </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Collection of PHP and ODBC How-To Links
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-01#831
2005-05-01T15:46:45Z
<p>In 2005 I am somewhat surprised at the steady level of emails and commentary expressing confusion about the use of PHP and ODBC.</p> <p>Here are a few links that resolve any confusion about this matter:</p> <ol> <li>OpenLink's PHP and iODBC HOWTO doc: <a href="http://www.iodbc.org/index.php?page=languages/php/odbc-phpHOWTO">http://www.iodbc.org/index.php?page=languages/php/odbc-phpHOWTO</a> <br /> </li> <li>PHP Everywhere's guide: <a href="http://phplens.com/phpeverywhere/node/view/9">http://phplens.com/phpeverywhere/node/view/9</a> <br /> </li> <li>Zili Zhang's piece from 1999 (time flies!): <a href="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/MSSQL6-Openlink-PHP-ODBC.html">http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/MSSQL6-Openlink-PHP-ODBC.html</a> <br /> </li> <li>Zend's ODBC Tutorial: <a href="http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/odbc.php">http://www.zend.com/zend/tut/odbc.php</a> </li> </ol> <p>Or simple google on PHP and ODBC or PHP and iODBC ...</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Point, Counterpoint: Mac OS X Is Great for Fortysomething Unix Hackers
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-05-01#828
2005-05-01T14:31:01Z
There has been a lot of well deserved attention going the way of "Mac OS X Tiger". A the current time, a lot of this attention tends to focus on the consumer constituency comprised of Aunt Milly et al, designers, and new media aficionados. The <a href="http://daringfireball.net/">Daring Fireball</a> posts an article titled: <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2005/04/point_counterpoint">Point, Counterpoint: Mac OS X Is Great for Fortysomething Unix Hackers</a> . This particular post applies to OpenLink Software in general across a myriad of fronts, especially the essence of this excerpt: <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>On the surface, Grahamâs piece seems like a nice pat on the back to the Mac platform. But thereâs an implication in his piece that the worldâs most prodigiously talented programmers are only now switching (or switching back) to the Mac, when in fact some of them have been here all along. GUI programming is hard, and for GUI programmers, the Mac has always been, <a href="http://www.shapeofdays.com/2005/01/interview_with_.html">in Brent Simmonsâs words</a>, âThe Showâ.</p> <p>I.e. the idea that by the mid-â90s the Mac user base had been whittled down to âgraphic designers and grandmasâ is demonstrably false â someone must have been writing the software the designers and grandmas were using, no? â but I donât think itâs worth pressing the point, because I suspect it wasnât really what Graham meant to imply. And the main thrust of his point is true: there is a certain class of hackers â your prototypical Unix nerds â who not only werenât using Macs a decade ago, but whose antipathy toward Macs was downright hostile. And it is remarkable that these hackers are now among Mac OS Xâs strongest adherents.</p> <p>Itâs another sign of Mac OS Xâs dual nature: from the perspective of your typical user (and particularly long-time Mac users), it is the Mac OS with a modern Unix architecture encapsulated under the hood; from the perspective of the hackers Graham writes of, it is Unix with a vastly superior GUI.</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2005/04/point_counterpoint">Read on....</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Ajax, Hard Facts, Brass Tacks ... and Bad Slacks
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-29#825
2005-04-29T20:11:22Z
<p>By <a href="http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/">Mark Bierbeck</a>:</p> <p> <a href="http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/2005/04/ajax-hard-facts-brass-tacks-and-bad.html">Ajax, Hard Facts, Brass Tacks ... and Bad Slacks</a> </p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">A number of people have contacted me recently about Ajax [<xhtml:a href="about:blank#20050426-1">1</xhtml:a>] -- a catchy name -- coined to provide an umbrella term for a particular group of technologies used to build web applications. The use of the word comes from Jesse James Garrett in a recent blog [<xhtml:a href="about:blank#20050426-2">2</xhtml:a>], and describes a class of internet applications written using JavaScript in a browser. By using JavaScript these apps have full access to the DOM, and as a consequence are able to make all sorts of changes to the page that the user is interacting with, without having to go back to the server.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />When the application <xhtml:em>does</xhtml:em> need to go back to the server -- to deliver some data and get a response -- the idea is to keep the DOM intact so that the user has a smooth experience. This means that all communication with the server needs to take place outside of the normal HTML form mechanism, since this would obviously replace the current page.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />Ajax addressed this, with what it calls 'asynchronous-JavaScript' -- retrieve only the data you need, and then directly manipulate the DOM to get the effect you want. 'Asynchronous-JavaScript' accounts for the first few letters of the name, with the remainder being the obligatory 'X' for XML (although XML is not really key to this technology, and many of the applications that are often cited as Ajax-apps don't use XML as the data medium).<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:h2>Buzzing</xhtml:h2>The response to Ajax has been pretty positive. In fact the only negatives have been either to suggest a change of name or to moan a little that "I've been doing this for years, why hasn't anyone noticed me?" (I won't put any links to those sort of articles, since they are a little embarassing -- after all, <xhtml:em>everyone</xhtml:em> has been doing this for years!)<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />Anyway, despite a couple of sour-pusses, the software community is almost universally excited, and the blog wires have glowed over the last few months with descriptions of Google Maps, GMail, and so on.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />Just about everyone who has asked me about Ajax has expected me to be disappointed. Surely, they say, this makes the case for XForms weaker? But my answer is the exact opposite -- XForms and standards-based web applications are in every way superior to the techniques described as Ajax, since the whole <xhtml:em>raison d'être</xhtml:em> of XForms and XHTML 2 is to address the very problems that Ajax-like techniques suffer from.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />That may come across as a little bold...so perhaps I should explain.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:h2>From Workaround to Feature</xhtml:h2>We've all been using HTML mark-up for years now, and the language hasn't changed much in that time. As a consequence, the increasing demand for more complex web-pages has meant that the balance in our documents has shifted increasingly from vanilla mark-up to 'the workaround'. <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />Whether it's providing tooltips, dynamic/repeating data sections, or small portions of our page that change without having to request a new document, we've generally had to dive into script. But the shift from mark-up to script has meant that the mark-up language itself has been relegated to a mere carrier for programs.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />Unfortunately this means that no-one gains -- it's annoying for the programmer to have to produce ever more convoluted spaghetti JavaScript to meet the demands of their audience, but it's also annoying for the non-programmer, who probably only wants a tooltip. And its particularly annoying for those who want to use documents on the web for more ambitious applications to find that most of the important stuff in a document is hidden away in script.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />All is not lost, however, since this collection of 'workarounds' provides a rich source of real-life patterns that appear for authors and programmers, time and again. They may be workarounds, but they are much-needed ones.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />The aim of the new generation of languages like XForms and XHTML 2 is to take these 'common patterns' and turn them into mark-up. Just like the HTML elements <xhtml:code><a></xhtml:code> and <xhtml:code><form></xhtml:code> pack an enormous amount of functionality into deceptively simple tags, so too can new declarative mark-up capture patterns that have emerged 'in the wild'.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />(Note that this is the opposite of so-called folksonomies, where popular practice that occurs in the wild is left it the wild, and codification is regarded as a dirty word.)<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:h2>The XML HTTP Request Object</xhtml:h2>Let's take the much talked about XML HTTP Request Object (XMLHttpRequest). If you are not familiar with it, it was originally part of Microsoft's XML parser, and allows you to send and receive data outside of the normal HTML form processing. Since it's a handy feature to have in a client, other browsers have followed suit and it's now becoming the 'standard' way to communicate with servers without messing up your page. It's a corner-stone of Ajax. (A good summary with examples is on Jim Ley's jibbering.com site [<xhtml:a href="about:blank#20050426-3">3</xhtml:a>].)<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />But...we need to be clear that we're using XMLHttpRequest to get round a weakness in HTML forms. The problem we have is that even if you know that a server is about to give you some data, and the <xhtml:em>server</xhtml:em> knows it's about to give you some data, there's no way to tell your <xhtml:em>form</xhtml:em> that -- instead your page will be wiped out and replaced with whatever the server sends back.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />Of course, constant round-tripping doesn't make it completely impossible to produce applications, and a lot of books and airline tickets are bought every day without the facility to get 'just the data'. But we all know it would reduce network traffic and create a smoother user experience if we could just send a list of books or seats, rather than a whole new page.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />Over the years applications such as Microsoft's <xhtml:em>Outlook Web Access</xhtml:em> (OWA), have had to step around the HTML form to get just the data they need. But, whilst OWA considerably predates GMail, until the advent of XMLHttpRequest, the techniques used were quite difficult to manage. (Google Suggest is often cited as a good example of an Ajax-app, but interestingly merges old and new techniques; XMLHttpRequest is used to obtain a piece of JavaScript from a server, and this script contains a call to a client-side function, but using server-provided parameters. It's one of the techniques you might have used in the past with a hidden frame.)<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />So as many have said on their blogs, XMLHttpRequest is not a newly devised technique, but rather a generally accepted replacement for a very old technique. But ultimately that technique is a workaround since the <xhtml:em>real</xhtml:em> problem is that HTML forms will always replace the current page.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:h2>Beyond HTML Forms</xhtml:h2>Whilst XMLHttpRequest gives us a way to get data to and from the server without losing our document, we've unfortunately thrown the baby out with the bath-water; whatever the weaknesses of HTML forms, you have to acknowledge that they are pretty simple to use. Here's an abbreviated version of Google's search form (note that the mark-up is HTML, not XML):<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:code><xhtml:pre><xhtml:br /><form action=/search name=f><xhtml:br /> <input type=hidden name=hl value=en><xhtml:br /> <input maxLength=256 size=55 name=q value=""><xhtml:br /> <input type=submit value="Google Search" name=btnG><xhtml:br /></form><xhtml:br /> </xhtml:pre> </xhtml:code> <xhtml:br />As you can see, the simple problem with HTML forms is that we don't say anything about where the data should go when we've received it from the server. The assumption in HTML of old is that we are just doing a kind of 'super-navigation', and no matter what we send to the server, it will only ever give us back a new web-page. (To put it a different way, you could say that <xhtml:code><a></xhtml:code> and <xhtml:code><form></xhtml:code> are pretty much the same thing.)<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />To see how this problem is resolved, let's code the same Google search in XForms:<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:code><xhtml:pre><xhtml:br /><xf:submission id="sub-search"<xhtml:br /> action="http://www.google.com/complete/search?hl=en"<xhtml:br /> method="get" separator="&"<xhtml:br /> replace="all"<xhtml:br />/><xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /><xf:input ref="q"><xhtml:br /> <xf:label>Query:</xf:label><xhtml:br /></xf:input><xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /><xf:submit submission="sub-search"><xhtml:br /> <xf:label>Google Search</xf:label><xhtml:br /></xf:submit><xhtml:br /> </xhtml:pre> </xhtml:code> <xhtml:br />Although it will do exactly the same -- right down to replacing the current page -- it's a little different to the HTML mark-up. But the changes in structure have given us some major benefits, from accessible labels on our form controls, to the possibility of many different submissions for the same data.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />But what it has also given us is the possibility of solving our data update problem. The <xhtml:code>replace</xhtml:code> attribute is actually optional in XForms, but I showed it in the previous mark-up so that you can compare it to this:<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:code><xhtml:pre><xhtml:br /><xf:submission id="sub-search"<xhtml:br /> action="http://www.google.com/complete/search?hl=en"<xhtml:br /> method="get" separator="&"<xhtml:br /> replace="<xhtml:span style="COLOR: red">instance</xhtml:span>"<xhtml:br />/><xhtml:br /> </xhtml:pre> </xhtml:code> <xhtml:br />In this example the data returned from the server will just replace the instance that was sent, and our page will remain completely intact. (The <xhtml:code>replace</xhtml:code> attribute can take the values <xhtml:code>all</xhtml:code>, <xhtml:code>instance</xhtml:code>, or <xhtml:code>none</xhtml:code>.)<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />I won't show the full equivalent using XMLHttpRequest since it's pretty large, but I'll give a flavour of it. (Jim Ley's page -- referenced earlier -- shows how to search Google with XMLHttpRequest.)<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:h3>The Script Version</xhtml:h3>First we need to create an XMLHttpRequest object, but we need to do it in such a way that it will work on both Mozilla and IE:<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:code><xhtml:pre><xhtml:br />var req;<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />function loadXMLDoc(url) {<xhtml:br /> // native XMLHttpRequest object<xhtml:br /> if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {<xhtml:br /> req = new XMLHttpRequest();<xhtml:br /> req.onreadystatechange = readyStateChange;<xhtml:br /> req.open("GET", url, true);<xhtml:br /> req.send(null);<xhtml:br /> // IE/Windows ActiveX version<xhtml:br /> } else if (window.ActiveXObject) {<xhtml:br /> req = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");<xhtml:br /> if (req) {<xhtml:br /> req.onreadystatechange = readyStateChange;<xhtml:br /> req.open("GET", url, true);<xhtml:br /> req.send();<xhtml:br /> }<xhtml:br /> }<xhtml:br />}<xhtml:br /> </xhtml:pre> </xhtml:code> <xhtml:br />When a document is loaded via this function, the <xhtml:code>readyStateChange()</xhtml:code> method is invoked:<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:code><xhtml:pre><xhtml:br />function readyStateChange() {<xhtml:br /> // '4' means document "loaded"<xhtml:br /> if (req.readyState == 4) {<xhtml:br /> // 200 means "OK"<xhtml:br /> if (req.status == 200) {<xhtml:br /> // do something here<xhtml:br /> } else {<xhtml:br /> // error processing here<xhtml:br /> }<xhtml:br /> }<xhtml:br />}<xhtml:br /> </xhtml:pre> </xhtml:code> <xhtml:br />From a <xhtml:em>programming</xhtml:em> point of view, I guess you could say that there isn't a lot wrong with this, but then from a programming point of view there wasn't a lot wrong with Z80 or 6502 assembly languages -- I just wouldn't want to go back to them!<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />But the most important issue is that we have lost the very thing that was responsible for HTML's success -- the use of simple, clear, declarative mark-up, in which we simply state our intent, without having to write a program to do it for us. After all, the web took off because authors only had to master <xhtml:code><a></xhtml:code> in order to enter the exciting new world of 'hypertext' -- but XMLHttpRequest raises the bar again, and takes us right back into the heart of geek-world.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:h2>Beyond XMLHttpRequest</xhtml:h2>But in keeping with the principle that I outlined above -- that XForms and XHTML 2 try to provide mark-up for commonly existing design patterns -- let's see if there are any other patterns that XMLHttpRequest has thrown up.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />You will have noticed in the earlier script that we had tests for success and failure:<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:code><xhtml:pre><xhtml:br />if (req.status == 200) {<xhtml:br /> // do something here<xhtml:br />} else {<xhtml:br /> // error processing here<xhtml:br />}<xhtml:br /> </xhtml:pre> </xhtml:code> <xhtml:br />XForms provides the same functionality through the use of events -- on success do this, on failure do that. This is far more powerful, since it hides the protocol-specific aspects of this code ("200" may be 'success' for HTTP, but it isn't 'success' when saving data to the hard-drive or sending an email).<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />XForms uses declarative mark-up to express those events, which again dramatically reduces coding:<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:code><xhtml:pre><xhtml:br /><xf:action ev:observer="sub-search" ev:event="xforms-submit-error"><xhtml:br /> <xf:message level="modal"><xhtml:br /> Submission failed<xhtml:br /> </xf:message><xhtml:br /></xf:action><xhtml:br /> </xhtml:pre> </xhtml:code> <xhtml:br />But there's lots, lots more in the <xhtml:code>submission</xhtml:code> part of XForms:<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:ul> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:li>it can provide full XML Schema validation before submitting the data;</xhtml:li> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:li>there is built in support for numerous types of serialisation, such as <xhtml:code>multipart/related</xhtml:code>;</xhtml:li> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:li>abstract methods are used so the code is independent of protocol. For example, since <xhtml:code>put</xhtml:code> means the same thing whether the target URL begins <xhtml:code>http:</xhtml:code> or <xhtml:code>file:</xhtml:code>, a form with relative paths will run unchanged on a local machine or a web server;</xhtml:li> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:li>it's extensible -- in formsPlayer 2.0 we have used the <xhtml:code>submission</xhtml:code> element to read and write from an ADO database, allowing programmers to convert forms from using the web to using a local database by doing nothing more than changing a single target URL. (Try doing that with XMLHttpRequest!)</xhtml:li> <xhtml:br /> </xhtml:ul> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />The <xhtml:code>submission</xhtml:code> part of XForms is in fact so powerful that it will eventually form a separate specification, for use in other languages.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:h2>From Patterns to Mark-up</xhtml:h2>And there are plenty more patterns out there that were crying out to be turned into mark-up, and which are now incorporated into XForms and XHTML 2. Do you remember the days when if we wanted a tooltip that contained mark-up -- perhaps an image, or bold text -- we had to use a carefully placed <xhtml:code><div></xhtml:code>, a CSS <xhtml:code>display: none;</xhtml:code>, a <xhtml:code>mouseover</xhtml:code> event handler and a timer? Nowadays the programmer with better things to do than work with spaghetti-JavaScript just uses the XForms <xhtml:code><hint></xhtml:code> element, and for free they get platform independence (and therefore accessibility), as well as the ability to insert any mark-up.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />And what about the days when we had to write code to open up a text-to-speech engine, and then invoke the various methods on the object to get it to speak its mind? Nowadays who wouldn't just use a CSS property on their XForms' <xhtml:code>message</xhtml:code>s?<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:h3>Bad Slacks</xhtml:h3>And do you remember...I'm sorry, this one always makes me laugh...do you remember how we used to write lots of JavaScript to recalculate the shopping-cart when a new item was added? I know it's hard to believe -- it's like looking at old photos of us all wearing flares. Anyway, thank God for straight trousers and the XForms dependency-engine.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:img alt="Image" border="1" src="http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2004/sep/fashion_week/satfever_nano140.jpg" /> <xhtml:br />But enough of the good old days, the days of assembly language, C and JavaScript...let's stick with the new.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:h2>Do Try This at Home</xhtml:h2> <xhtml:br />To round all of this off, we'll take a look at Google Suggest, and we'll use XForms to implement it. I'll walk through the demo in a separate blog [<xhtml:a href="about:blank#20050426-4">4</xhtml:a>] so that this one doesn't get too cluttered -- and hopefully by disecting this simple but useful application, we can show how declarative mark-up scores over scripting.<xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:a name="20050426-1">[1] Will AJAX help Google clean up?, c|net, <xhtml:a href="http://news.com.com/Will+AJAX+help+Google+clean+up/2100-1032_3-5621010.html">http://news.com.com/Will+AJAX+help+Google+clean+up/2100-1032_3-5621010.html</xhtml:a> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:a name="20050426-2">[2] Ajax: A New Approach to Web Applications, Jesse James Garrett, Adaptive Path blog, <xhtml:a href="http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php">http://www.adaptivepath.com/publications/essays/archives/000385.php</xhtml:a> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:a name="20050426-3">[3] Using the XML HTTP Request object, <xhtml:a href="http://jibbering.com/2002/4/httprequest.html">http://jibbering.com/2002/4/httprequest.html</xhtml:a> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:a name="20050426-4">[4] "Google Suggest" Using XForms, <xhtml:a href="http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/2005/04/google-suggest-using-xforms.html">http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/2005/04/google-suggest-using-xforms.html</xhtml:a> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />Tags: <xhtml:a href="http://technorati.com/tag/xforms" rel="tag">xforms</xhtml:a> | <xhtml:a href="http://technorati.com/tag/xbl" rel="tag">xbl</xhtml:a> | <xhtml:a href="http://technorati.com/tag/webapps" rel="tag">webapps</xhtml:a> | <xhtml:a href="http://technorati.com/tag/ajax" rel="tag">ajax</xhtml:a> | <xhtml:a href="http://technorati.com/tag/javascript" rel="tag">javascript</xhtml:a> </xhtml:a> </xhtml:a> </xhtml:a> </xhtml:a> </xhtml:div> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/">Internet Applications</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft: Longhorn Is Great, XP Is Lame
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-29#822
2005-04-29T16:11:01Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20050428/1051254_F.shtml">Microsoft: Longhorn Is Great, XP Is Lame</a> Software vendors walk a fine line when pushing upgrades -- tout the new version without slamming the old one. Microsoft threw that strategy aside in pumping Longhorn to the WinHEC faithful, as execs >belittled Windows XP in the process. One VP said that XP hadn't been thought through and at times "failed to deliver." The surprising part is not that XP has major shortcomings -- early on its enhancements were recognized as little more than href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20010824/0856205_F.shtml">improved stability and href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20011008/0111217_F.shtml">a bunch of bug fixes. Rather, the interesting part is Microsoft actually admitting to drawbacks at all, even several years late. But Longhorn, now there's a >real operating system! align="right">[via href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt]
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
SAP, IBM Make Play for Oracle Database Customers With New DB2 Version
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-28#819
2005-04-28T21:52:55Z
<font size="2"> <p> <a href="http://ct.enews.eweek.com/rd/cts?d=186-1965-11-96-81585-221904-0-0-0-1">CNET reports</a>:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>There are a whopping <u>44,000 SAP customers</u> running on Oracle databases, and IBM wants them. To get them, for the first time ever, it's optimized its enterprise database for a specific vendor's applications. The new version of DB, 8.2.2, will include a slew of SAP-optimized features, including self-tuning, self-configuration, silent install, dynamic storage allocation and more. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Wouldn't SAP be better served by simply making their application database independent via <a href="http://uda.openlinksw.com/odbc/">ODBC</a>? This process really could have commenced years ago and prevented today's dilema: Your Partner has become Your most aggressive Competitor! </p> <p dir="ltr">SAP tuned for specifically for DB2 or SAP tuned likewise for Microsoft SQL simply reeks of: "Same Sh*t different Pile". Microsoft and IBM will emulate Oracle in due course regarding their assault on SAP's market if DBMS specificity remains the SAP data access API strategy (this is a simple fact).</p> <p dir="ltr">SAP should be using its quest for DBMS independence to stimulate or contribute ODBC enhancements (should ODBC be lacking in areas critical to its application needs; it is available in <a href="http://www.iodbc.org">Open Source form</a> and across all major platforms). Should the ODBC API not be the problem, then it can push ODBC Driver vendors (DBMS vendors such as IBM included) to get their Drivers in shape (should they be lacking, I know <a href="http://uda.openlinksw.com/odbc ">our ODBC Drivers</a> are absolutely fine for this kind of task).</p> <p dir="ltr">Database specificity gets application vendors nowhere. You can only control your business development destiny by being database independent. When applications are database independent the intellectual capital that drives your applications is preserved. This is akin to building physical and logical firewalls around the ecosystem created by your products. This is much better that being a pseudo DBMS engine reseller for a future competitor.</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Advertising In RSS
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-28#816
2005-04-28T19:56:05Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.reallysimplesyndication.com/2005/04/28#a487">Advertising in RSS</a> is just starting now, for all practical purposes. If we wanted to, as an industry, reject the idea, we could. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">When XSL stylesheet integration becomes a standard feature across a majority of RSS readers the issue becomes moot. There is no need for industry wide rejection as this will ultimately come down to choice: "To Filter" or "Not To Filter".</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Adsense based RSS Advertising as currently implemented (bearing in mind the fundamental intent to perpetuate obtrusive advertising in a popular new realm) is hillarious when you really come to think about it. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">XML and Obtrusiveness are mutually exclusive. This attempt to inject advertising into RSS may go down as one of the greatest pieces of XML tutorial material of all time. It could also serve as yet another example of how Web 2.0 is fundamentally different from Web 1.0.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Will we ever truly comprehend the unadulterated meaning of: "Free Will" ?</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A History Of Communications
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-27#813
2005-04-27T21:17:55Z
<a href="http://www.nixlog.com/archives/2005/03/20_a_history_of_communications.php">A History Of Communications</a> <a href="http://www.nathan.com/projects/current/comtimeline.html">A History of Communications Timeline</a> (via <a href="http://www.xplane.com/xblog/">xBlog</a>) <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.nixlog.com/">nixlog</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
WebDAV, SQLX, and my Weblog
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-26#810
2005-04-26T03:54:43Z
<p>Uche Ogbuji <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog/2005/04/24#Posting_to">comments</a> in his <a href="http://copia.ogbuji.net/blog">blog</a> about the use of WebDAV and <a href="http://www.tbradford.org/2005/02/xml-with-virtuoso-and-sqlx_02.html">SQLX </a>in my blog as part of his commentary about <a href="http://egaumer.pagecache.org/PyBlosxom/pyblosxom-webdav.html">Pyblosxom & WebDAV</a>. To provide some clarity about Virtuoso and Blogging I have decided to put out this quick step by guide to the workings of my blog (there is a long overdue technical white paper nearing completion that address this subject in more detail).</p> <p>Here goes:</p> <p> <u><strong>Blog Editing</strong> </u> </p> <p>I can use any editor that supports the following Blog Post APIs:</p> <p>- Moveable Type</p> <p>- Meta Weblog</p> <p>- Blogger</p> <p>Typically I use Virtuoso (which has an unreleased WYSIWYG blog post editor), <a href="http://www.newzcrawler.com/">Newzcrawler</a>, <a href="http://ecto.kung-foo.tv/">ecto</a>, <a href="http://zempt.com/">Zempt</a>, or <a href="http://www.wbloggar.com/">w.bloggar</a> for my posts. If a post is of interest to me, or relevant to our company or customers I tend to perform one of the following tasks:</p> <p>- Generate a post using the "Blog This" feature of my blog editor</p> <p>- Write a new post that was triggered by a previously read post etc.</p> <p>Either way, the posts end up in our company wide blog server that is Virtuoso based (more about this below). The internal blog server automatically categorizes my blog posts, and automagically determines which posts to upstream to other public blogs that I author (e.g <a href="http://kidehen.typepad.com/">http://kidehen.typepad.com</a> ) or co-author (e.g <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/uda">http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/uda</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/virtuoso">http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/virtuoso</a> ). I write once and my posts are dispatched conditionally to multiple outlets.</p> <p> <strong><u>RSS/Atom/RDF Aggregation & Reading</u> </strong> </p> <p>I discover, subscribe to, and view blog feeds using <a href="http://www.newzcrawler.com/">Newzcrawler</a> (primarily), and from time to time for experimentation and evaluation purposes I use <a href="http://www.rssbandit.org/">RSS Bandit</a>, <a href="http://www.bradsoft.com/feeddemon/">FeedDemon</a>, and <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/">Bloglines</a>. I am in the process of moving this activity over to Virtuoso completely due to the large number of feeds that I consume on a daily basis (scalability is a bit of a problem with current aggregators).</p> <p> <u><strong>Blog Publishing</strong> </u> </p> <p>When you visit my blog you are experiencing the soon to be released Virtuoso Blog Publishing engine first hand, which is how WebDAV, SQLX, XQuery/XPath, and Free Text etc. come into the mix.</p> <p>Each time I create a post internally, or subscribe to an external feed, the data ends up in Virtuoso's SQL Engine (this is how we handle some of the obvious scalability challenges associated with large subscription counts). This engine is SQL2000N based, which implies that it can transform SQL to XML on the fly using recent extensions to SQL in the form of SQLX (prior to the emergence of this standard we used the FOR XML SQL syntax extensions for the same result). It also has its own in-built XSLT processor (DB Engine resident), and validating XML parser (with support for XML Schema). Thus, my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/gems/">RSS/RDF/Atom archives, FOAF, BlogRoll, OPML, and OCS</a> blog syndication gems are all live examples of SQLX documents that leverage Virtuoso's WebDAV engine for exposure to Blog Clients.</p> <p> <strong><u>Blog Search</u> </strong> </p> <p>When you search for blog posts using the basic or <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127">advanced search</a> features of my blog, you end up interacting with one of the following methods of querying data hosted in Virtuoso: Free Text Search, XPath, or XQuery. The <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=virtuoso&type=text&output=html">result sets</a> produced by the search feature uses SQLX to produce subscription gems (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=virtuoso&type=text&output=xml">RSS</a>/<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=virtuoso&type=text&output=atom">Atom</a>/<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=virtuoso&type=text&output=rdf">RDF</a>/<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&type=text&kwds=virtuoso&OpenSearch">OpenSearch</a>) and <a href=" xmlns:n0="http" n0:="http:" www.openlinksw.com="www.openlinksw.com" blog="blog" search.vspx="search.vspx" blogid="127&q=virtuoso&type=text&output=html" kidehen="kidehen" a="a"> blog home page exists as a result of Virtuoso's Virtual Domain / Multi-Homing Web Server functionality. The entire site resides in an Object Relational DBMS, and I can take my DB file across Windows, Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, and SCO UnixWare without missing a single beat! All I have to do is instantiate my Virtuoso server and my weblog is live.</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Oracle To Support .NET Runtime Hosting
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-25#807
2005-04-25T22:54:03Z
<p>Better late than never! Oracle has <a href="http://www.oracle.com/technology/oramag/oracle/05-may/o35briefs.html">announced</a> the commencement of a journey that we <a href="http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2002/ximian_archive/pr112502.html">completed in 2002 </a>(across Microsoft .NET and Mono). Hopefully, their support of CRL Runtime Hosting will bring added clarity to the intrinsic value of the multi-language bindings via the ECMA-CLI that facilitate the development and deployment of DBMS Stored Procedures using a plethora of languages (ditto creation of User Defined Types, Function, Table Value Functions).</p> <p>I also hope that Oracle will support Mono -off the bat- rather than taking the typical "we will port to Mono sometime in the future..." type message which will not be acceptable, especially as we pulled this off first time around in 2002 (as atop Mono then). Thus, I am sure they can do it in 2005 :-)</p> <p>Hopefully we should be able to add Oracle 10g Release 2 and <a href="http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/db2/library/techarticle/dm-0406evans/index.html">DB2</a> to our SQL CLR hosting features <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/index.vspx?id=138">comparison document</a> that currently only covers SQL Server 2005 and <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso</a>.</p> <p> </p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Cynical View of PR and Blogging
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-23#804
2005-04-23T13:36:24Z
<a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=6558cbaa-d7d6-41b1-8e1d-68fd61a44cfd">A Cynical View of PR and Blogging</a> <p align="left"> <strong>Exhibit A:</strong> From <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html">The Submarine</a> by Paul Graham </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p align="left">PR people fear bloggers for the same reason readers like them. And that means there may be a struggle ahead. As this new kind of writing draws readers away from traditional media, we should be prepared for whatever PR mutates into to compensate. When I think how hard PR firms work to score press hits in the traditional media, I can't imagine they'll work any less hard to feed stories to bloggers, if they can figure out how. </p> </blockquote> <p align="left" dir="ltr"> <strong>Exhibit B:</strong> From <a href="http://thomashawk.com/2005/04/my-dinner-with-microsofts-jim-allchin.html">My Dinner With Microsoft's Jim Allchin</a> in Thomas Hawk's weblog </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p align="left" dir="ltr">Last night I had a unique opportunity to sit down with Jim Allchin, Microsoftâs Group Vice President for Platforms, for dinner along with a group of other bloggers and technologists and discuss the future development of Longhorn as well as see an early demo of the Longhorn technology firsthand. </p> </blockquote> <p align="left" dir="ltr"> <strong>Exhibit C:</strong> From <a href="http://it.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=146241&threshold=-1&commentsort=1&tid=109&mode=nested&cid=12260661">A comment on Slashdot</a> by Thomas Hawk about the dinner </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p align="left" dir="ltr">I do feel that there is room in the world of journalism for hard news, op/ed and yes, openly biased writing where the blogger places him or her self as a participant in the news itself. <br /> <br />Was I thrilled to be having dinner with Allchin? Of course. I'm a huge Microsoft enthusiast. I have been an advocate of the digital home for many years and I think that Microsoft may represent our best chance possible of making the digital home of the future a reality. <br /> <br />Was I really enthused about Longhorn? Absolutely. From what I saw it was really was amazing. I spend hundreds of hours every year organizing digital media in front of all five of my Windows PCs. The technology that I saw will save me hundreds of hours of work going forward. This is really exciting to me at a personal level. <br /> <br /> </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Blogs Will Change Your Business
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-22#801
2005-04-22T13:37:47Z
<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_18/b3931001_mz001.htm?campaign_id=rss_magzn">Blogs Will Change Your Business</a> Look past the yakkers, hobbyists, and political mobs. Your customers and rivals are figuring blogs out. Our advice: Catch up...or catch you later <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/">BusinessWeek Online -- Magazine</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft's New Mantra: 'It Just Works'
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-21#794
2005-04-21T21:44:04Z
<p>So doesn't Windows work right now? Not quite so (until next year sometime) according to <a href="http://www.fortune.com/fortune/fastforward/0,15704,1052600,00.htm">this</a> <a href="http://www.fortune.com/">Fortune Magazine</a> article. Ironically, Apple have always assumed "It should just work", and when it comes to their technology (software or hardware) at the very least they assume "it does work". </p> <p>I think this marketing message for the next release of Windows is broken, especially for someone whose been using what appears to be a not "just working" operating systems since Windows 2.0 :-(</p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Mac OS X and its potential impact on Windows
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-21#793
2005-04-21T20:25:16Z
<p dir="ltr">We are at an interesting crossroads in the computer industry (IMHO) . Apple is about to unleash <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/">Tiger</a> (ETA: one week from now), and this operating system release could end up being the crucial round of the titanic battle between Apple and Microsoft. The battle which starts at the Operating System level reminds me of the "<a href="http://home.sandiego.edu/~murphy2/jungle.html">Rumble In The Jungle</a>" (circa. 1974, <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=Kinshasa&method=2&gwp=13">Kinshasa</a>, <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/congo-country-zaire&method=6">Zaire</a>); Apple in the role of <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/muhammad-ali-boxer&method=6">Ali</a> (aka "The Greatest" who was the overwhelming underdog at time) and Microsoft in the role of <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/george-foreman&method=6">George Foreman</a> (who at the time was logically invincible). </p> <p dir="ltr">The shakesperian tale of Macbeth also comes to mind as depicted in the excerpt below:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr">".... Macbeth goes to visit the witches in their cavern. There, they show him a sequence of demons and spirits who present him with further prophecies: he must beware of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who opposed Macbeth's accession to the throne; he is incapable of being harmed by any man born of woman; and he will be safe until Birnam Wood comes to Dunsinane Castle. "</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Having used all the major operating systems on a serious basis for a number of years in a variety of modes; user, developer, and administrator. I have always felt that a RISC based UNIX operating system (of BSD genealogical branch extraction), if somehow combined with a user interface that is superior to Windows, would ultimately unravel the Windows Desktop Monopoly. That operating system exists today in the form of Mac OS X (its lastest Tiger release simply <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/newfeatures/">kicks the differential up a notch</a>). </p> <p dir="ltr">Back to the Macbeth correlation:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"> <u>"Birnam Woods coming to Dunsinane"</u> is the metaphoric equivalent of desktop users and first time computer users being forced (by the scourge of virus and spyware) to revaluate Windows as the only choice for productive desktop computing. What would you recommend to "Aunt Milly" when she tells you she wants to get on the Internet? Especially if "Aunt Milly" isn't living with you?</p> <p dir="ltr">"<u>Man not born of a woman"</u> is no different to saying: UNIX with a superior user interface to Windows!</p> <p dir="ltr">I don't think you need me to tell who play the characters of Macbeth and Macduff in this drama :-)</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The Windows security vulnerabilities quagmire (<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=Windows+security+vulnerabilities+quagmire&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official">google juice</a> on this phrase is currently 6,620 pages) has basically created an inflection of monumental proportions adversely affecting Windows and creating great visibility and evaluation building opportunities for Mac OS X ("once users experience a Mac they don't come back to Windows!").</p> <p dir="ltr">Paul Murphy of <a href="http://www.cio-today.com/">cio-today.com</a> has also written a great article sheds light on the often overlooked hardware aspect to the security problem for Windows Here is a poignant excerpt:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"><b>Software and Hardware Vulnerabilities</b> </font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"></font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1">At present, attacks on Microsoft's Windows products are generally drawn from a different population of possible attacks than those on <span class="keyword"><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/nf/bs_nf/33272/14945921/*http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22Unix%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw">Unix</a></span> variants such as BSD, Linux and Solaris. From a practical perspective, the key difference is that attacks on Wintel tend to have two parts: A software vulnerability is exploited to give a remote attacker access to the x86 hardware and that access is then used to gain control of the machine. </font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"></font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1">In contrast, attacks on Unix generally require some form of initial legal access to the machine and focus on finding software ways to upgrade priveleges illegally. </font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"></font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1">Consider, for example, CAN-2004-1134 in the NIST vulnerabilities database: </font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"></font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1">Summary: Buffer overflow in the Microsoft W3Who ISAPI (w3who.dll) allows remote attackers to cause a denial of service and possibly execute arbitrary code via a long query string. </font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"></font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1">Published Before: 1/10/2005 </font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"></font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1">Severity: High </font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"></font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1">The vulnerability exists in Microsoft's code, but the exploit depends on the rigid stack-order execution and limited page protection inherent in the x86 architecture. If Windows ran on Risc, that vulnerability would still exist, but it would be a non-issue because the exploit opportunity would be more theoretical than practical. </font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"></font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1">Linux and open-source applications are thought to have far fewer software vulnerabilities than Microsoft's products, but Linux on Intel (<a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/finance/nf/bs_nf/storytext/33272/14945921/*http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=intc&d=t">Nasdaq: INTC</a> - <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/biz/nf/bs_nf/storytext/33272/14945921/*http://biz.yahoo.com/n/i/intc.html">news</a>) is susceptible to the same kind of attacks as those now predominantly affecting Wintel users. For real long-term security improvements, therefore, the right answer is to look at Linux, or any other Unix, on non x86 hardware. </font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1"></font> </p> <p> <font face="arial" size="-1">One such option is provided by Apple's (<a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/finance/nf/bs_nf/storytext/33272/14945921/*http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=aapl&d=t">Nasdaq: AAPL</a> - <a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/biz/nf/bs_nf/storytext/33272/14945921/*http://biz.yahoo.com/n/a/aapl.html">news</a>) BSD-based products on the PowerPC-derived G4 and G5 CPUs. <span class="keyword"><a href="http://us.rd.yahoo.com/DailyNews/manual/nf/bs_nf/33272/14945921/*http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news?fr=news-storylinks&p=%22Linus%20Torvalds%22&c=&n=20&yn=c&c=news&cs=nw">Linus Torvalds</a></span>, for example, apparently now runs Linux on a Mac G5 and there are several Linux distributions for this hardware -- all of which are immune to the typical x86-oriented exploit. </font> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">This may even been the nullifier of that age old argument about porting Mac OS X to the x86 in order to broaden its adoption potential?</p> <p dir="ltr">Mac OS X is certainly a breath of fresh air for anyone who needs to simply get stuff done with their desktops and notebooks. </p>
2006-07-21T07:24:28.000001-04:00
Why Is Every Information Leak Worse Than Originally Thought?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-19#792
2005-04-19T22:54:06Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20050419/0917204_F.shtml">Why Is Every Information Leak Worse Than Originally Thought?</a> While there have been an incredible number of stories about data leaks over the past couple of months, one interesting thing is that in so many cases, the companies involved later come out and admit that the problem was much worse than they first admitted. That happened with <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050218/1534206_F.shtml">ChoicePoint</a> and <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050412/0318251_F.shtml">LexisNexis</a>, who both had to come out a second time and admit that the original data breach they discussed wasn't as limited as they had believed. The latest is that the DSW Shoe Warehouse database that was stolen included <a href="http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DSW_CREDIT_CARDS?SITE=APWEB&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT">information (including credit cards) on many, many more people than originally stated</a>. So rather than 100,000 credit cards out there, we're talking 1.4 million. What's unclear, however, is why this is happening. Is it that these companies are so clueless and unable to manage their own data that they don't realize how badly they've leaked data until they do further investigations? Or is that the companies are still trying to hide the nature of the losses until later (maybe spreading them out a bit)? Either way, you'll notice that no one ever seems to correct the damages in the other direction... </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">It would be interesting to see the make up of the IS infrastructure behind these companies. If such information was possible I would have much better context for a broader understanding of my suspicions (outlined in <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=security&type=text&output=html">previous comments</a>).</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Data is everything! I just wish there was a better appreciation and comprehension of the subject of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=data+access&type=text&output=html">Data Access</a> .</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
AutoLink Hoopla Perspective: Guys Don't Link
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-15#780
2005-04-15T02:46:11Z
<p>I came across Shelley Power's <a href="http://weblog.burningbird.net/">blog</a> via a recent <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=03c6e5d6-34af-4907-acb4-7b05f0364766">post</a> by <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo</a> that shed light on the issue of "Minority Bloggers". After reading his post I visited every blog URI referenced, and in the process I bumped into a gem of an article titled: <a href="http://weblog.burningbird.net/archives/2005/03/07/wherearethewomenofweblogging/">Guy's Don't Link</a>.</p> <p>BTW - I took the time to update my public <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/gems/opml.xml?:c=1">blog-he-roll</a> and new <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/gems/opml.xml?:c=23">blog-her-roll</a>; both being tiny snapshots of my actual blog subscription collection, which by the way, is actually so large and diverse that it's part of an internal project covering distributed XQuery and scalability :-) </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Condemned To Repeat The Past?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-13#779
2005-04-13T16:05:11Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20050413/0054217_F.shtml">Condemned To Repeat The Past?</a> Last week, I mentioned one of the <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/books/20050407/022236_F.shtml">lessons learned</a> from Andy Kessler's newest book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060840978/techdirtcom/"><i>How We Got Here: A Slightly Irreverent History of Technology and Markets</i></a>. I've just finished reading it, and just in time, as well, since you can now check it out for free. While the hard copy version doesn't come out until June, Kessler is releasing the book for <a href="http://andykessler.com/hwgh.html">free download</a> off his site in e-book form. If you read his previous book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0060740647/techdirtcom/"><i>Running Money</i></a>, you might even recognize a few short passages in the new book. In <i>Running Money</i>, Kessler goes through his own experience figuring out the mental model that guided his investment philosophy in technology -- and part of that included a brief history lesson in the start of the industrial revolution. HWGH is basically an extended version of that history lesson, written in the same light tone -- designed to be the basic, quick history manual that anyone in the tech world (in just about any capacity, from engineer to business to investing) should read. Indeed, we're already seeing startups and companies making business decisions that seem like they're following the same bad footsteps companies took only five years ago. Is it any surprise that some are repeating the mistakes of 200 years ago as well? One of the worst things in the tech and business world these days is that many people can't view trends out past a quarter (or they simply extract one single trend, without recognizing how others impact them). Any intelligent business person needs to recognize how trends play out in the long term, and how they interact with each other. HWGH gives you plenty of trends from the past few <i>centuries</i> to help guide you into that longer term thinking. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Invisibility of Knowledge Work
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-07#776
2005-04-07T20:16:46Z
<p> <a href="http://www.esj.com/news/article.aspx?EditorialsID=1327">Here</a> is an interesting from Enterprise Systems Journal by Jim McGee titled: The Invisibility of Knowledge Work. </p> <p>Here is a an interesting and insightful quote from the article that resonates with me: </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Invisibility is an accidental and little-recognized characteristic of digital knowledge work. Seeing the problem is the first step to a solution. While better technology tools will play an important role, the next steps are changes in attitude and behavior at the individual and work group level. For example, organizing your own digital files into project-related directories can help, but not if you continue to name files "FinalPresentationNN.doc" where NN is some number between 1 and 15 representing a crude effort at version control. Embed more information in the file name where you know it will be visible even as you e-mail it around the organization. Use more informative subject lines on your email. Those file names and subject lines should provide the best clues possible as to what will be found inside. </p> </blockquote> <p>The quote above strikes a chord with me because I have spent a majority of my professional career working on technology that is aimed at Information and Knowledge workers. It also has uncanny timing as it sheds light on a major aspect of the next major release of <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso</a> that aims to continue the process of unveiling the intrinsic value of Unified Storage (SQL, XML, and Multimedia content) for Knowledge workers.</p> <p dir="ltr">We are already experiencing a rapid build up of XML content and binary data with XML based metadata annotations as a result of the network effects of the Blogosphere and Wikisphere. This content explosion ultimately provides context for understanding the value of URIs association with collections of physically (e.g hierarchical directory structure) or logically (Tagging or Dynamic Filtering) partitioned content. </p> <p dir="ltr">To be continued..</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Skype Economy
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-07#775
2005-04-07T20:14:53Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20050401/1849237_F.shtml">The Skype Economy</a> Do you have a product or a platform? More and more companies are recognizing that the real route to success is not to offer a product, but a platform on which other products are offered. With that in mind, we're seeing more and more products that are building up strong and active development communities that make their initial offering more useful and valuable to buyers. Recently there have been articles about the ecosystem of companies who provide enhancements for the iPod, and now some are <a href="http://news.com.com/Skype%20dreams%20for%20developers/2100-7352_3-5650946.html?tag=techdirt">recognizing that Skype is moving into similar territory</a>. Of course, the risk for companies or developers who build on these newer platforms is that they're totally beholden to the provider -- and that puts them at risk. They have no control over the environment they're working in. Skype could decide to build the same functionality themselves. Or, other products could become more popular than Skype. Sometimes it works... but many companies don't realize the danger of putting all their eggs in one basket. If they pick the right platform, it can be lucrative for a while, but it's not always easy to know who's going to win. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</p> </blockquote> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">If the underlying platform is standards based then there is some protection (you can switch platform wholesale or a segment within the platform), otherwise, it's a count down to the inevitable. Any platform provider that isn't standards based (where standards exist in their realm), will always attack ersthwhile partners as part of its growth needs. This is a consistent and time-proven industry pattern.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The mother of all BBC Feeds
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-07#778
2005-04-07T15:55:21Z
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/rss/feeds.opml">The mother of all BBC Feeds</a> Well, if you like your BBC News RSS feeds ( I know I do), then I think you'll rather like this lovely long <a href="http://www.opml.org/">Opml</a> file listing all of the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm">BBC RSS feeds</a>.<br /> <br />Here you go: <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/rss/feeds.opml">http://news.bbc.co.uk/rss/feeds.opml</a> <br /> <br />Nice.<br /> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://blugg.opml.org/">news</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Skype Economy
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-04-04#777
2005-04-04T15:38:21Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20050401/1849237_F.shtml">The Skype Economy</a> Do you have a product or a platform? More and more companies are recognizing that the real route to success is not to offer a product, but a platform on which other products are offered. With that in mind, we're seeing more and more products that are building up strong and active development communities that make their initial offering more useful and valuable to buyers. Recently there have been articles about the ecosystem of companies who provide enhancements for the iPod, and now some are <a href="http://news.com.com/Skype%20dreams%20for%20developers/2100-7352_3-5650946.html?tag=techdirt">recognizing that Skype is moving into similar territory</a>. Of course, the risk for companies or developers who build on these newer platforms is that they're totally beholden to the provider -- and that puts them at risk. They have no control over the environment they're working in. Skype could decide to build the same functionality themselves. Or, other products could become more popular than Skype. Sometimes it works... but many companies don't realize the danger of putting all their eggs in one basket. If they pick the right platform, it can be lucrative for a while, but it's not always easy to know who's going to win. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</p> </blockquote> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">If the underlying platform is standards based then there is some protection (you can switch platform wholesale or a segment within the platform), otherwise, it's a count down to the inevitable. Any platform provider that isn't standards based (where standards exist in their realm), will always attack ersthwhile partners as part of its growth needs. This is a consistent and time-proven industry pattern.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
IDMS and its role in general DBMS History
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-28#772
2005-03-28T16:34:21Z
<p>A great piece of DBMS history conveyed through the <a href="http://users.senet.com.au/~cherlet/idmshist.html">story of IDMS</a>.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Gary Kildall
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-27#769
2005-03-27T03:26:38Z
<p> <a href="http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=computerchronicles&collectionid=1814">Here</a> is a profile of <a href="http://www.cadigital.com/kildall.htm">Gary Kildall</a> from the Internet Archive's <a href="http://www.archive.org/movies">movie library</a> .</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Back To The Future: Hypermedia
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-26#766
2005-03-26T20:24:30Z
<p>If a picture speaks a thousand words, I sometimes wonder how many words we attribute to a multimedia clip? Especially one that is now openly accessible to many who don't quite understand the high degree of: "Back To The Future" quotient of most of what we see today.</p> <p>The Internet Archive initiative is building up an amazing collection of content that includes this <a href="http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=computerchronicles&collectionid=CC501_hypercard">"must watch" movie</a> about the somewhat forgotten <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypercard">hypercard</a> development environment.</p> <p>As I watched the hypercard movie I obtained clear reassurance that my vision of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0</a> as critical infrastructure for a future Semantic Web isn't unfounded. The solution building methodology espoused by hypercard is exactly how Semantic Web applications will be built, and this will be done by orchestrating the componentary of Web 2.0.</p> <p>When watching this clip make the following mental adjustments:</p> <ol> <li>Swap hypercard stacks for discrete and/or composite services that have published endpoints exposed by Web 2.0 points of presence<br /> <br /> </li> <li>Think of information taking the form of XML based content e.g. RSS, Atom, RDF, FOAF, XFN, and other future XML based data contextualization formats; all accessible via URIs<br /> <br /> </li> <li>When the Apple Mac operating system is mentioned (or infered) think of the Internet (you don't need Windows, Mac OS, Linux, UNIX etc. to realize the vision, the network provided by the Internet is the Operating System)<br /> <br /> </li> <li>When the Apple computer is mentioned simply think about a plethora of function specific devices (computers, mobile phones, PDAs etc.) that overtly or covertly provide conduits to the new operating environment (the Internet)<br /> <br /> </li> <li>As you hear term "whole new body of people that are non programmers contributing there ideas" think about yourself and the increasing ease of participation that's beginning to take shape in this emerging frontier!<br /> <br /> </li> <li>As for "<a href="http://www.wholeearthmag.com/about.html">Whole Earth Catalog", </a>think <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org">Wikipedia</a> or more recent efforts such as <a href="http://www.answers.com">Answers.com</a>.</li> </ol> <p>Web 2.0 is a reflection of the web taking its first major step out of the technology stone age (certainly the case relative to the hypercard movie and "pre web" application development in general). </p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
SOA, AJAX and REST: The Software Industry Devolves into the Fashion Industry
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-24#763
2005-03-24T15:20:36Z
<p>Dare Obasanjo ponders about: <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/dareobasanjo/archive/2005/03/22/400372.aspx">SOA, AJAX and REST: The Software Industry Devolves into the Fashion Industry</a> .</p> <p>I absolutely understand the frustration expressed in Dare's post. An additional comment from my perspective is that this devolution has been in motion for a while and it is an integral part of the Misinformation and Disinformation based marketing strategies of many companies.</p> <p>Misinformation and Disinformation only work when the target audience is apathetic (unfortunately the sad reality to date!). The bad news for marketing strategies that assume perpetuation of the aforementioned apathy is that the Internet is fundamentally reducing the cost of knowledge acquisition; by implication today's naive customer is tomorrow's knowledgeable decision maker. Vendors have a choice: build valuable products, and then market these products by disseminating knowledge. If a competitor's product is better than yours, get back to the labs (developers are actually stimulated and motivated by constructive challenges; especially as any developer worth his or her salt intrinsically believes they are the best at their craft deep down; and so they should!). </p> <p>In the imminent future (Internet time) I expect to see the Wikisphere, Blogosphere, and other Web 2.0 (and beyond) realms bring clarity to the futility of Misinformation and Disinformation based marketing and PR (see my post about the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=746">Wikipedia induced inflection on Marketing and PR</a> ).</p> <p>BTW -- Does anyone know what's the difference between an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Service_Bus">ESB</a> and a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Service_Bus">Universal Server</a>? Likewise, the difference between a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_database">Virtual Database</a> and an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EII">EII</a> solution?</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Lost 1984 Mac Video
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-22#760
2005-03-22T20:20:47Z
<p>A great piece that reminds us of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer">Apple Computer's</a> contributions to <a href="http://www.industrial-technology-and-witchcraft.de/1984.html">desktop computing</a> history. </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What You'll Wish You'd Known
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-20#757
2005-03-20T21:04:48Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html">What You'll Wish You'd Known</a> Paul's advice to high school students. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/">Paul Graham</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">This is an essay of global relevance to all students (and I suppose parents of students!).</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
OpenSearch & Potential Patent Abuse?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-17#754
2005-03-17T22:47:49Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>It finally dawned on me what <a href="http://www.reallysimplesyndication.com/2005/03/15#a379">OpenSearch</a> does. Basically you tell it about different search engines by showing it how to query something in each, and get back an RSS return. Then when you search for some term, say foo+bar, it performs the search in all the engines you have configured it for. So it's a way to group a bunch of search engines together and command them all to look for the same thing. It is clever. It is something that hasn't been done before, to my knowledge. That's the good news. The bad news is that Amazon is a leading patent abuser. So as good as this idea is, it's bad for all the rest of us, unless they tell us that they're granting us some kind of license to use the idea. [via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</p> </blockquote> <div align="right"> </div> <div align="left">I am no fan of Amazon's moves in the patent arena. At the same time I am very confident that OpenSearch isn't headed down this part. Virtualization isn't new or unique (irrespective of context), and the prior art defense should be pretty trivial. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">For now, I like what OpenSearch offers, and would continue do so as long as there is no patent abuse associated with this (I certainly understand Dave Winer's concern; their track record isn't great re. this matter). </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">I should have an OpenSearch variant of this dynamic <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon+patent%0D%0A&type=text&output=html">collection</a> of Amazon and patents related blog posts in the coming days (you will see a new OpenSearch gem alongside RSS/Atom/RDF).</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">BTW - <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon%0D%0A&type=text&output=html">Here</a> is the dynamic collection of all my Amazon.com posts to date.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Google Tweaked
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-15#751
2005-03-15T18:25:59Z
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/JohnBattellesSearchblog?m=349">Google Tweaked</a> <p>Over at BB, Cory <a href="http://www.boingboing.net/2005/03/14/butler_rewrites_goog.html">posts</a> on Mark Pilgrim's hack "<a href="http://diveintomark.org/projects/butler/">Butler</a>" which strips out most Google ads, removes copying restrictions in Google Print, adds alternative search results to nearly every Google service, and generally does things which I can only imagine will keep give big G fits. It is still in geek stage - it requires "<a href="http://greasemonkey.mozdev.org/">Greasemonkey</a>" and Firefox - but man, it sure sounds like fun. </p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://battellemedia.com/">John Battelle's Searchblog</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
An Interesting Marketing & PR Inflection In Progress
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-08#746
2005-03-08T19:50:00Z
<p>Wikis, Blogs, and Search Engines are collectively fuelling a huge inflection across the interrelated realms of Technology Marketing and PR.</p> <p>When putting together a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=736">post yesterday about "Virtualization"</a>, I instinctively looked to <a href="http://www.gurunet.com/">Gurunet</a>'s "<a href="http://answers.com/">answers.com</a>" service for information on the subject: Enterprise Information Integration (EII). Woe and behold! Here is what I found at the tail end of the answers.com <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=eii&method=2&gwp=13">article</a> on this subject: </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div class="boilerplate metadata" id="cleanup" style="BORDER-RIGHT: rgb(119,153,187) 1px solid; PADDING-RIGHT: 1em; BORDER-TOP: rgb(119,153,187) 1px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 1em; BACKGROUND: rgb(247,251,255) 0% 50%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 0pt; MARGIN: 0.5em 2.5%; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(119,153,187) 1px solid; PADDING-TOP: 0pt; BORDER-BOTTOM: rgb(119,153,187) 1px solid; TEXT-ALIGN: justify; moz-background-clip: initial; moz-background-origin: initial; moz-background-inline-policy: initial"> <p> <b>This article needs <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cleanup" target="wpext" title="Wikipedia:Cleanup">cleanup</a> </b>.<br />This article needs to be edited to conform to a <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Style_and_How-to_Directory" target="wpext" title="Wikipedia:Style and How-to Directory">higher standard</a> of article quality. After the article has been cleaned up, you may remove this message. For help, see <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page" target="wpext" title="Wikipedia:How to edit a page">How to Edit a Page</a> and the <a class="extiw" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Style_and_How-to_Directory" target="wpext" title="Wikipedia:Style and How-to Directory">style and How-to Directory</a> <span class="nslink">.</span> </p> </div> </blockquote> <p>Now, I knew this was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a> content repurposed by "answers.com", and I proceeded to clean up the article. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EII">wikified article</a> took a while to complete, because true to the "Wikipedia" ethos, I had to contribute knowledge as opposed to the original weenie marketing gunk. Its naturally easier to cut and paste marketing fluff for a misguided quick win attempt than it is to embed links, add knowledge, and discern Wiki Markup (but "Wiki" <a href="http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-893/In_Living_Color/">don't play that</a>!).</p> <p>This little exercise has broader implications for marketing as a whole, especially for the IT sector. The end of days for "Misinformation based Marketing" are nigh! Wikis, Blogs, Search Engines, Web Services, and Social Networking are rapidly destroying the historically prohibitive costs associated with customer pursuit of facts.</p> <p>I am very confident that product quality will soon overshadow market share as the key determinant for both product selection on the part of customers (this is no longer a pipe dream!). I also have increased hope that IT product development and associated product marketing by technology vendors will veer in the same direction. </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Longhorn: Fixing Your Own Mess?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-08#745
2005-03-08T17:42:00Z
<p>Via the <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/">always-on</a> network I stumbled across a great <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=9035_0_11_0_C">article</a> by Pip Coburn that posed the following question: "should Microsoft benefit from the mess it helped create?".</p> <p>The article discusses most of the key issues, but it should also have included and discussed he following question: "should Microsoft benefit from the mess that we let them create?". By "we" I mean the extensive pool of Microsoft product consumers, developers, and partners etc.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <em>I have worked with Microsoft products (as a developer and user) for more years than I would like to remember; I have personally experienced the journey from Windows 2.0 to Windows XP (and played around with Longhorn).</em> </p> </blockquote> <p>I added my question to this dialog as without it's resultant perspective, history will simply repeat itself. If IT technology decision makers don't change their product selection and acquisition habits, then why should Microsoft or any other vendor change their ways? Especially when a perpetual promise-under deliver-repromise cycle works absolutely fine. This isn't rocket science, it basic common sense (but we know that common sense ain't that common).</p> <p>Microsoft like most software companies seek significant portions of their revenue growth from product upgrades. In a sense, it inherently implies that these products will always be millions of miles away from the "silver bullet" promises espoused in the pre product release marketing and PR hype. Sadly, there was a time when Marketing and PR hype used to be about new features; a time when there was a clear line between a new feature and a fundamental product bug. </p> <p>Buying products from any company simply because they have the largest market share is dumb! All it does is encourage other vendors to focus on product market share rather than product quality, which ultimately results in the following:</p> <ol> <li>You basically end up paying (rather than at least being credited) for opportunity costs arising from all the time lost now your PC now works slower than you do. <br /> </li> <li>You pay for bug fixes and architectural flaws instead of new features</li> </ol> <p>Microsoft isn't a unique source of this problem, but hey! They are the largest Software Company (the one with the vital market share), and their software products are on some 80-90% of desktops on this planet, and the planet isn't at its most productive at the current time, and no matter how you look at it, this loss of productivity has something to do with the increased nuisance of desktop computing. </p> <p>If Microsoft could just focus on its core competence (BTW - I can't quite pint point this anymore since they are in every software market that exists today), it would have at least have an iota of a chance in hell of cleaning up this mess.</p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Speaking of the Mac
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-08#740
2005-03-08T13:14:13Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.booch.com/architecture/blog.jsp">Speaking of the Mac</a> A <a href="http://www.wickedlysmart.com/skyler/SkylerSwticherQT2.mov">little humor</a> for the day, from one of my <a href="http://www.screenhead.com/">fav sites</a>.<br /> </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.booch.com/architecture/">Handbook of Software Architecture</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Windows is a character buidling operating system for our youth :-) </div> <div align="right"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Information Machine
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-08#739
2005-03-08T13:10:09Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.booch.com/architecture/blog.jsp">The Information Machine</a> Check out this <a href="http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=InformationM">charming movie</a> from the late 50's, developed for the IBM Pavilion at the 1958 World Fair in Brussels.<br /> <br />It's been a while since I've seen punched cards (which reminds me, I still have the first program I'd ever written, on punched cards written for the <a href="http://ibm1130.org/">IBM 1130</a>).<br /> </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.booch.com/architecture/">Handbook of Software Architecture</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Enjoy <a href="http://www.archive.org/movies/details-db.php?collection=prelinger&collectionid=InformationM">this timeless masterpiece</a>!</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Google Pollutes Links Stream With Evil Precedent For Market Censorship
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-07#733
2005-03-07T22:45:48Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.betterbadnews.com/22">Google Pollutes Links Stream With Evil Precedent For Market Censorship</a> </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.betterbadnews.com/">BetterBadNews</a>]</div> <div align="left">Enjoy!</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Virtualization: AMD set to detail multi-OS plan
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-07#736
2005-03-07T16:51:41Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://news.com.com/AMD+set+to+detail+multi-OS+plan/2100-1012_3-5600552.html?part=rss&tag=5600533&subj=news">AMD set to detail multi-OS plan</a> Will its "Pacifica" virtualization technology be compatible with Intel's? If not, that's a potential headache for some software makers. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://news.com.com/">CNET News.com</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Virtualization is clearly in the air! We are seeing it at the file storage, operating system, and processor layers. I can only assume the Virtualization at database layer is imiment. Of course we know it has been around in the database realm for a while (see the original <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/whitepapers/vdb/html/virt10/">Virtuoso 1.0 white paper</a>). Today, most <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EII">EII</a> products pitch the essence of "Virtual Databases" as their value proposition while strategically staying away from the use the dreaded "V" word. </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Udell to event promoters on leveraging folksonomy: 'Pick a tag'
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-04#728
2005-03-04T15:57:28Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind/index.php?p=31&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdblog">Udell to event promoters on leveraging folksonomy: 'Pick a tag'</a> I'm now trying to figure out why InfoWorld's Jon Udell is a journalist and not a millionaire technologist (or maybe he is). Udell keeps coming up with one brilliant idea after another. The first of these -- which I thought was just plain obvious -- was Udell's idea for vendors ... </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/Berlind&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=zdblog">Berlind's Midnight Oil</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left" dir="ltr">I prefer to describe <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon Udell</a> as a Technologist Type 3 (according to <a href="http://www.tbradford.org">Tom Bradford</a>'s <a href="http://www.tbradford.org/2005/03/web-20-its-all-about-content-and-users.html">Technology Types</a> nomenclature) who is also a journalist. His insights, thought stimulation/leadership, and power of articulation defy monetization. </div> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div align="left">I do know Jon (albeit primarily via emails and phone interviews), he even put me forward for an <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/23/21FEinnovidehen_1.html?s=feature">innovators award</a> in 2003 re. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso </a>etc.</div> </blockquote> <div align="left" dir="ltr">Full disclosure aside, you only need to trace back in time to see that he has been a Type 3 Technologist for a very long time. When I read one of Jon's articles I always sense that they are the end product of the following steps:</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">1. Hypothesis Development</div> <div align="left">2. Hands on Experimentation </div> <div align="left">3. Experiment Obersvation</div> <div align="left">3. Conclusion Attainment</div> <div align="left">4. Report / Article generation </div> <div align="left">5. Share findings with interested parties </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">On the subject of "sharing his findings", the blogosphere has become a very effective dispatch outlet. He starts conversations about <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/02/23.html#a1184">Google Maps</a>, <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/02/22.html#a1183">Querying Web Data</a> via XQuery/XPath for instance, that stimulate further discussion (in the form of related blog posts of varying relationship density which might discern from these posts by <a href="http://www.tbradford.org/2005/03/web-20-its-all-about-content-and-users.html">Tom</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?date=2005-03-02">myself</a> for instance ). </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Blog conversation replaces the need for a "Jon here is our take on this..." or "Jon here is our implementation of what you demonstrated" phone call or email (you know he sees the discussion threads coalescing around his origninal post exprimentation conversation; most of the time setting up the next batch of experiments). </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">To conclude, Jon is more than likely a tech <a href="http://www.morethanmoney.org/articles/mtm33_thrill.htm">Thrillionaire </a> :-) </div> <div align="left"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
OpenSolaris: Great Business Strategy or Dumb Luck?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-03#725
2005-03-03T18:46:13Z
<blockquote> <p> <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jimgris/20050302#great_business_strategy_or_dumb">Great Business Strategy or Dumb Luck</a> Interesting read here today at ZDNet -- <a href="http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9590_22-5596710.html">Open Solaris and strategic consequences</a>. Here's a bit of the conclusion:<br /> <br /> </p> <div style="MARGIN-LEFT: 40px"> <span style="COLOR: rgb(153,0,0)">Open Solaris may go down in history as one the finest examples of business strategy ever -- unless, of course, it's just dumb luck.</span> <br /> </div> <br />So, we are so brilliant -- <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">to the extreme</span> -- that when <a href="http://www.opensolaris.org/">OpenSolaris</a> succeeds it will be characterized as "one of the finest examples of business strategy <span style="TEXT-DECORATION: underline">ever</span>." Ever? That would be quite an achievement. But even if we are successful -- <span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">shifting to the extreme polar opposite now</span> -- we could just as easily be considered "dumb" and that our achievement was "just lucky." What? Why the extremes? Sorry. I just can't factory that. I realize I'm a pretty simple guy, but this makes no sense to me. Why do people look at issues this way? I think this is why some conversations are so confusing. People argue to the extremes. Why can't Sun's <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/OpenSolaris">open sourcing</a> of <a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/Solaris">Solaris</a> be seen as simply the natural evolution of a company, a development team, a product, and a market? Or the genuine attempt of the <a href="http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/">Solaris</a> <a href="http://www.samag.com/documents/s=9427/sam0414a/0414a.htm">kernel engineers</a> to engage with external developers in a community co-development model to improve the system for everyone involved? Why can't it be that simple? What am I missing here?</blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jimgris">Jim Grisanzio</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Jim makes a great point!</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Also note that Open Source Solaris is a huge contribution to the Open Source community from a company (that IMHO) has actually been one of the largest Open Source contributors in history period. We just don't track history very well these days thanks to the kind of zealotry written about <a href="http://caustictech.typepad.com/caustictech/2004/06/the_open_source.html">here</a> (*strong language*), and <a href="http://neopoleon.com/blog/posts/4343.aspx">here</a> (in this case by <a href="http://neopoleon.com/blog/">Rory Blythe</a>).</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">BTW - <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=open+source%0D%0A&type=text&output=html">Here</a> are some of my previous posts on the subject of Open Source.</div> <div align="left"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Friendster befriends blogs--and fees
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-03#720
2005-03-03T14:58:28Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://news.com.com/Friendster+befriends+blogs--and+fees/2100-1038_3-5597073.html?part=rss&tag=5596640&subj=news">Friendster befriends blogs--and fees</a> Two Web trends converge as the social networking site prepares to launch blogs through partnership with Six Apart. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://news.com.com/">CNET News.com</a>]</div> <div align="right"> </div> <div align="left">We are finally beginning to understand that Social Networking (YASN - Yet Another Social Network), Blogs, Wikis, and more.. go hand in hand. There are profound implications here for vendors in the Blog and Wiki hosting business, the same applies to end users who increasingly own a myriad of disparately hosted Blogs/Wikis/Social Networking Zones etc.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Does this look at all familiar? By this I mean the imminent integration challenges and issues relating to vendor lock-in etc.. Our <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso</a> technology evangelist <a href="http://www.tbradford.org/">Tom Bradford</a> wrote an <a href="http://www.tbradford.org/2005/02/content-content-and-more-content.html">insightful post</a> about these issues a few weeks ago. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">I also know that we have been working on resolving these issues since 2003 (as part of the Virtuoso Blog/Wiki/YASN Platform effort), and like our initial Virtual Database work (making disparate SQL/XML databases appear as one), expect to see single solution that brings Blogs/Wikis/YASNs together also.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The coming crackdown on blogging
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-03#719
2005-03-03T14:35:22Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://news.com.com/The+coming+crackdown+on+blogging/2008-1028_3-5597079.html?part=rss&tag=5596640&subj=news">The coming crackdown on blogging</a> Federal Election Commissioner Bradley Smith says that the freewheeling days of political expression on the Internet may be about to end. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://news.com.com/">CNET News.com</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Note, this post is strictly under my Humour category!</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Yahoo! Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-02#718
2005-03-02T03:35:05Z
<font size="2"> <p dir="ltr">Today is one of those days where one topic appears to be on the mind of many across cyberspace. You guessed right! Its that Web 2.0 thing again. </p> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/1200">Paul Bausch</a> brings Yahoo!'s most recent Web 2.0 contribution to our broader attention in this excerpt from his <font size="2"><a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/network/2005/02/28/yahoo.html">O'Reilly Network article</a></font>:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>I browse news, check stock prices, and get movie times with Yahoo! Even though I interact with Yahoo! technology on a regular basis, I've never thought of Yahoo! as a technology company. Now that Yahoo! has released a <a href="http://developer.yahoo.net/faq/">Web Services interface</a>, my perception of them is changing. Suddenly having programmatic access to a good portion of their data has me seeing Yahoo! through the eyes of a developer rather than a user.</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The great thing about this move by Yahoo! is two fold (<a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=imho&method=2&gwp=13">IMHO</a>):</p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div>It certainly makes Yahoo! a little more interesting of late. And it will certainly helps to distinguish Yahoo! from Google. Of course these companies overlap somewhat, but they are also pretty different in focus. I see Yahoo! increasingly as a portal platform play providing content access via syndication, publishing, and web services.<br /> <br /> </div> </li> <li> <div>It will impact their bottom line pretty rapidly, and I hope they realize the impact of Web 2.0 when trying to explain the growth increments whenever they next report to their investors :-) In a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/index.vspx?id=637">previous post</a> I expressed my sense of some confusion on the part of Jeff Bezos regarding the total contribution of AWS to Amazon's growth (<a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=btw&method=2&gwp=13">BTW</a> - my articles to date re. Amazon and Web 2.0 are available from <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon+web+2.0&type=text&output=html">here</a> in a variety of XML syndication formats: <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon+web+2.0&type=text&output=atom">Atom</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon+web+2.0&type=text&output=atom">RSS 2.0</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=amazon+web+2.0&type=text&output=rdf">RDF</a>).<br /> </div> </li> </ol> <p>The great thing about the Platform oriented Web 2.0 is the ability to syndicate your value proposition (aka products and services) instead of pursuing fallable email campaigns. It enables the auto-discovery of products and services by user agents (the content aspect). Web 2.0 also provides an infrastructure for user agents to enter into a consumptive interactions with discrete or composite Web Services via published endpoints exposed by a platform (the execution aspect). </p> <p>A scenario example: </p> <p>You can obtain RSS feeds (electronic product catalogs) from Amazon today, although you have to explicitly locate these catalog-feeds since Amazon doesn't exploit <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000967.html">feed auto-discovery</a> within their domain. </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <em>If you use Firefox or another auto-discovery supporting RSS/Atom/RDF user agent; visit </em> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/"><em>this URL</em> </a><em>; Firefox users should simply click on the little orange icon bottom right of the browser's window to its RSS feed auto-discovery in action. </em> </p> <p> <em>Anyway, once you have the feeds the next step is execution endpoints discovery within the Amazon domain (the conduits to Amazon's order processing system in this example). At the current time there isn't broad standardization of Web Services auto-discovery but it's certainly coming; </em> <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/wsil.html"><em>WSIL</em> </a><em> is a potential front runner for small scale discovery while UDDI provides a heavier duty equivalent for larger scale tasks that includes discovery and other related functionality realms.</em> </p> </blockquote> <p>Back to the example trail, by having the RSS/Atom/RDF feed data within the confines of a user agent (an <a href="http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/2004/08/internet-application-manifesto.html">Internet Application</a> to be precise) nothing stops the extraction of key purchasing data from these feeds, plus your consumer data en route to assembling an execution message (as prescribed by the schema of the service in question)for Amazon's order processing/ shopping cart service. All of this happens without ever seeing/eye-balling the Amazon site (a prerequisite of Web 1.0 hence the dated term: Web Site).</p> <p>To summarize: Web 2.0 enables you to syndicate your value proposition and then have it consumed via Web Services, leveraging computer, as opposed to human interaction cycles. This is how I believe Web 2.0 will ultimately impact the growth rates (in most cases exponentially) of those companies that comprehend its potential. </p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Payroll hole exposes dozens of companies
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-01#715
2005-03-01T23:24:24Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://news.com.com/Payroll+hole+exposes+dozens+of+companies/2100-1029_3-5591029.html?part=rss&tag=5587315&subj=news">Payroll hole exposes dozens of companies</a> Flaw in PayMaxx Web site exposed the financial information of customers' workers, the payroll-services firm acknowledges. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://news.com.com/">CNET News.com</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Unfortunately we have more of this come! The combinaton of backend Database Engine and Application Layer Data Access technology choices play a major role in these kinds of security vulnerabilities . Databases used to confined to access from dumb terminals and PCs within the enterprise. Today, these same databases are exposed to the Internet in a myriad of ways, and a physical firewall and password protection alone one cut it, not in an increasingly social oriented cyberspace. Social Engineering is a major aspect of hacking!</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Hosted applications are currently the rage; there are many benefits, but there are also some serious security vulnerabilties that will "dope slap" those organizations that carelessly head down this route. You have to take a look at the underlying architecture driving the systems in question. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Anyway, you can track past and future commentary relating to databases, data access, and security using <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=security&type=text&output=html">this dynamic blog query</a>. Naturally, I expect content exposed from the query URI to grow, and to ultimately integrate content from other sources around the blogosphere.</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Future of Search: Perspectives
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-01#710
2005-03-01T21:08:00Z
<p dir="ltr">I have yanked out a key segment from the <a href="http://www.emergic.org/archives/2005/03/01/index.html#tech_talk_the_future_of_search_perspectives">TECH TALK: The Future of Search: Perspectives</a> post that I find really poignant regarding the changing shape and form of the Web:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p></p> <p dir="ltr">It is clear that in comparison to the Web of the last century, the nature of data on the Web later in this decade will be very different in the following aspects:</p> <ul> <li dir="ltr">Volume of data is growing by orders of magnitudes every year<br />Multimedia and sensor data are becoming more and more common.<br /> <br /> </li> <li dir="ltr">Spatio-temporal attributes of data are important.<br /> <br /> </li> <li dir="ltr">Different data sources provide information to form the holistic picture.<br /> <br /> </li> <li dir="ltr">Users are not concerned with the location of data source, as long as its quality and credibility is assured. They want to know the result of the data assimilation (the big picture of the event).<br /> <br /> </li> <li dir="ltr">Real-time data processing is the only way to extract meaningful information<br />Exploration, not querying, is the predominant mode of interaction, which makes context and state critical.<br /> <br /> </li> <li dir="ltr">The user is interested in experience and information, independent of the medium and the source.<br /> </li> </ul> <p>Effectively, the nature of the knowledge on the Web is changing very fast. It used to be mostly static text documents; now it will be a combination of live and static multimedia, including text, data and documents with spatio-temporal attributes. Considering these changes, can the search engines developed for static text documents be able to deal with the needs of the Web? [via <a href="http://www.emergic.org/">E M E R G I C . o r g</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">No, but this doesn't render them useless since we wouldn't be at this point without the likes of Google, Yahoo! et al. But building upon the data substrate that web data oriented search engines provide is where the next batch of Information access and Knowledge discovery solutions will carve out their space. The symbiotic relationship between <a href="http://google.com/">Google </a>(data) and Gurunet's <a href="http://answers.com/">Answers.com</a> (Information and Knowledge) is one interesting example.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">The Web is a distributed collection of databases that implement variety of data storage models but are commonly accessible via protocols that rely on HTTP for transport (in-bound and out-bound messages) services. These databases increasingly using well-formed XML for query result (data contextualization) persistence and URIs for permenant reference. 'What Database?" you might ask, "What you once called your Web Site, Blog, Wiki, etc.." my time-less reply.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">When you have the database that I describe above, and a collection of entry points from which discrete or composite Web Services can be invoked available from one or more internet domains, you end up with what I prefer to call "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0</a>" presence, or what <a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/002645.php">Richard McManus</a> describes as: "The Web as a Platform".</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Here is a collection of posts I have made in the past relating to Web 2.0, note that this list is dynamic since this blog is Virtuoso based (predictably):</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Free Text Search with XHTML results page (with Virtuoso generated URIs for RSS, Atom, and RDF): <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web+2.0&type=text&output=html">http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=web+2.0&type=text&output=html</a> </p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">It's also no secret that I believe that <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso</a> is a bleeding edge Web 2.0 technology platform (and more..). The URIs that I am exposing provide the foundation layer for other complimentary Web initiatives such as the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=semantic+web&type=text&output=html">Semantic Web </a>(Web 2.0 provides infrastructure for the Semantic Web as time will show). They are also completely usable outside the realm of this blog.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">BTW - <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon Udell</a> is writing, experimenting with, and demonstrating <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/03/01.html#a1187">similar concepts</a> across feeds within his Web 2.0 domain.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">These are indeed fun times!</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Analysis Paralysis
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-03-01#707
2005-03-01T20:11:56Z
<a href="http://www.emergic.org/archives/2005/03/01/index.html#analysis_paralysis">Analysis Paralysis</a> <p> <a href="http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2005/02/analysis_paraly.html">Fred Wilson</a> writes:<br /> </p> <blockquote> <br />I was talking to an entrepreneur today and advised him not to surrender to "analysis paralysis". <p></p> <p>It's tempting to want to analyze every option and figure out exactly the best approach before jumping in.</p> <p>But it's the wrong way to go in most cases.</p> <p>As a contrast, I attended a board meeting today where the CEO presented the board with a post-mortem on some decisions he made that turned out to be suboptimal. That was a stand up thing to do and the board appreciated it. But I am not sure that the CEO in question did the wrong thing.</p> <p>Because I believe that Teddy Roosevelt (one of my favorite Presidents) had it right when he said: "In any moment of decision the best thing you can do is the right thing, the next best thing is the wrong thing, and the worst thing you can do is nothing."</p> <p>I think action and risk taking is what separates great entrepreneurs from the pack. I am not advocating blind risk taking, but I am advocating making a decision based on less than perfect information and going for it. More often than not, you will be rewarded for doing that.<br /> </p> </blockquote> <p></p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.emergic.org/">E M E R G I C . o r g</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Have RSS feeds killed the email star?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-28#704
2005-02-28T20:36:19Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://networks.silicon.com/webwatch/0,39024667,39128215,00.htm">Have RSS feeds killed the email star? </a>silicon.com Feb 28 2005 12:58PM GMT </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/rss">Moreover - XML and metadata news</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"> <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/rss-protocol">RSS</a> and other <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=xml&method=2&gwp=13">XML</a> based syndication formats (<a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?method=4&dsid=2222&dekey=Resource+Description+Framework&gwp=8&curtab=2222_1">RDF</a>, <a href="http://www.answers.com/topic/atom-standard?hl=atom&hl=syndication">Atom</a>, etc.) allow organizations to syndicate their value propositions via feeds. Thus, instead of, depending solely on sending out HTML based advertorial emails (which end up in Spam Folders 75% of the time anyhow) to targets such as; suspects, leads, and customers. You can rely on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0">Web 2.0 </a>fabric for <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/06/02/important_change_to_the_link_tag">auto-discovery</a> of syndicated feeds covering marketing collateral such as; <a href="http://rss.openlinksw.com/uda.xml">features & benefits data</a>, product documentation (ODBC/JDBC <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/mt/mtdocs.opml">Multi-Tier</a>, ODBC/JDBC <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/st/litedocs.opml">Single-Tier</a>, and <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/virtdocs.opml">Virtuoso</a> ), <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com/tutorial/rss.vsp">product functionality tutorials</a>, and screencasts (<a href="http://support.openlinksw.com/viewlets/uda_viewlets_rss.vsp">UDA </a>, <a href="http://support.openlinksw.com/viewlets/virtuoso_viewlets_rss.vsp">Virtuoso</a>, and <a href="http://support.openlinksw.com/viewlets/utilities_viewlets_rss.vsp">ODBC Benchmark & Troubleshooting Utilities</a>) etc. </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Creator of first Apple Mac dies
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-28#701
2005-02-28T17:50:03Z
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/technology/4303961.stm">Creator of first Apple Mac dies</a> Jef Raskin, who led the design team that created the Macintosh has died, aged 61. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/0.91/public/-/1/hi/technology/default.stm">BBC News | Technology | UK Edition</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Cost of Database Specificity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-28#698
2005-02-28T15:57:24Z
<p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">The cost of writing database specific applications (Open or Closed Source) adversely affects application developers/vendors and end user alike. <a href="http://www.nwc.com/showitem.jhtml?docid=1603buzz3">This</a> article in <a href="http://www.nwc.com">Network Computing</a> (regarding Oracle and PeopleSoft's DB2's user base) provides great insight into the time-tested problem of writing or acquiring database driven applications that are database specific. <span class="grey12"></span> </p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">DB2 users of PeopleSoft and IBM (the DB2 developer and vendor) suspect that Oracle will obviously try to use its ownership of PeopleSoft to covertly coerce DB2 users into becoming Oracle DBMS users. This strategy would take the form of new features and fixes discrimination as somewhat echoed in these excerpts:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <span class="grey12">"..In the crescendo surrounding the Oracle-PeopleSoft merger, one question has been repeatedly drowned out: What happens to users of PeopleSoft's DB2 database? Oracle chief Larry Ellison has repeatedly assured DB2 users--and IBM--that Oracle will continue to support DB2 and PeopleSoft's interfaces to IBM's WebSphere platform. But IBM isn't taking any chances, announcing an initiative to alter DB2 to work with products from Oracle rival SAP." </span> </p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <span class="grey12">"..IBM has good reason to be concerned. Oracle vies with SAP as the leading vendor for enterprise applications, but it's under pressure to show concrete benefits from the merger by combining assets and pumping up revenue. One obvious tactic will be to use the PeopleSoft applications to steer enterprise customers toward the Oracle database by optimizing performance and features toward the Oracle back end."</span> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">If PeopleSoft's application core was ODBC based, the vulnerability to this predictable competitive tactic would at the very least be significantly alleviated. DB2 end-users and IBM the product vendor would have a much stronger basis for countering Oracle by taking them to task about their claimed inability to implement new application functionality enhancements against DB2 etc. especially as this would have morphed into a generic database issue as opposed to a DB2 specific issue -- by virtue of the application and data access layer seperation provided by <a href="http://uda.openlinksw.com/odbc/">ODBC's architecture</a>. </p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Cognitive Dissonance
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-25#695
2005-02-25T00:58:21Z
<p> <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=definition+cognitive+dissonance&method=2&gwp=13">Cognitive dissonance</a> is how <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/dareobasanjo/archive/2005/02/17/375367.aspx">Dare Obasanjo</a> aptly describes the emergence of some of the <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=smart+tags&method=2&gwp=13">Smart Tags </a>concepts previously introduced by Microsoft and now emulated by the new google toolbar's autolink feature (<a href="http://glinden.blogspot.com/">Greg Linden</a> explains the problem with <a href="http://glinden.blogspot.com/2005/02/autolink-in-google-toolbar.html">clarity</a>).</p> <p>Anyway, back to cognitive dissonance. Could this be the reason for the following?</p> <ol> <li>Open Source products are increasingly database specific even though they could be database independent via Open Source ODBC SDK efforts such as <a href="http://www.iodbc.org">iODBC</a> and <a href="http://www.unixodbc.org">unixODBC</a>. We increasingly narrowing our choices down to database specific "Closed Source" or database specific "Open Source" solutions and somehow deem this to be progress<br /> </li> <li>The prevalent use of free standards compliant data access drivers (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ODBC">ODBC</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JDBC">JDBC</a>, and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ADO.NET">ADO.NET</a>) or their native counterparts that remain vulnerable to simple password hacks (there are databases behind those dynamic web sites!!) as none of these have any notion of "rules based" authentication and data access policy<br /> </li> <li>The time-tested fallacy that: "select * from table" defines a viable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RDBMS">RDBMS</a> engine since Transaction Atomicity, Concurrency, Isolation, and Durability (ACID) mean zip! Ditto scrollable cursors, stored procedures, and other presumably useless aspects of any marginably decent RDBMS engine<br /> </li> <li>Failing to comprehend that a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblog">Weblog</a> is your property (if you have a personal blog) not the property of the vendor hosting your service (that important issue of separating data ownership and data storage again). You may have heard about, or experienced, total loss of weblog and/or weblog archives arising from weblog engine or blog service provider changeovers<br /> </li> <li>Failing to see the synergy between personal/group/corporate information stores (aka <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=infoBase&type=text&output=html">infobase</a>) such as Wikis, Weblogs, and the burgeoning semantic web. <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/02/22.html#a1183">Jon Udell</a> for instance, is trying to get the point across via his tireless collection of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML_query_language">XQuery</a>/<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XPath">XPath</a> based queries aimed at the blogosphere section of the burgeoning semantic web. Here are some of mine (scoped to this weblog):<br /> </li> <ul> <li>Security related posts to date (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=//p[contains%28.%2C%27security%27%29]&type=xpath&output=html">XPath</a> query)<br /> </li> <li>Infobase related posts to date (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=infoBase&type=text&output=html">Free Text</a> search)<br /> </li> </ul> </ol> <p>And more...</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Proof That (Almost) No One Reads End User License Agreements
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-24#692
2005-02-24T19:49:10Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20050223/1745244_F.shtml">Proof That (Almost) No One Reads End User License Agreements</a> <b>John</b> sent this in -- though, there's no date on it, so it's not clear how recent this is (also, it's on the site of the company in question, and it doesn't appear to be published anywhere else as of yet, despite being written by well known columnist Larry Magid). Apparently in an attempt to prove that no one reads end user license agreements (EULAs), anti-spyware firm PC Pitstop buried a note in its own EULA, saying they would give $1,000 to the first person who emailed them at a certain address. It only took <a href="http://www.pcpitstop.com/spycheck/eula.asp">four months and over 3,000 downloads</a> before someone noticed it and sent an email (and got the $1,000). While this is an amusing story, it should also serve to show that EULAs shouldn't be valid at all. They're designed specifically to scare people off from reading them. It's hard to see how they can be binding, when they're designed in a way that almost no one will ever read. It's hard to show that users were willing participants in the agreement. So far, when EULAs show up that are <a href="http://www.laboratorium.net/archives/BestClickwrapEvar.html">simple to read</a>, they actually get attention. Meanwhile, isn't it great to know that the company that has written one of the <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20041201/1616206.shtml">more misleading and impossible to follow EULAs</a> is now <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20050223/1714202_F.shtml">advising the government</a> on privacy issues? <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Novell's Response to NT4 support discontinuation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-23#691
2005-02-23T15:08:31Z
Pretty funny <a href="http://www.novell.com/linux/windowstolinux/publicservice/">piece</a> from Novell.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
On Calculators, Mozilla, SVG and XBL
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-23#690
2005-02-23T00:33:27Z
<a href="http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/2005/02/on-calculators-mozilla-svg-and-xbl.html">On Calculators, Mozilla, SVG and XBL</a> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I have a good feeling about 2005 for both Internet Applications and XForms. Sure, my wife will tell you that at about this time last year I said that I had a good feeling about 2004 -- it was going to be the big year for XForms ... Internet Applications would catch on ... we'd have a holiday. But there are a few very good reasons why I think this year will be different -- in fact, I have a</xhtml:div> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://internet-apps.blogspot.com/">Internet Applications</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Database & Data Access Vulnerability: T-Mobile responds to Paris Hilton Sidekick hacking
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-23#689
2005-02-23T00:13:40Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://sapventures.typepad.com/main/2005/02/tmobile_respond.html">T-Mobile responds to Paris Hilton Sidekick hacking</a> </p> <p>[via <a href="http://sapventures.typepad.com/main/">Venture Chronicles by Jeff Nolan</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p align="left" dir="ltr">This incident is an interesting one to follow as there is a little more to it than the purported T-Mobile stance: "..Paris may have given out her password.." .</p> <p align="left" dir="ltr">I have written about database and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/search.vspx?blogid=127&q=//p[contains%28.%2C%27security%27%29]&type=xpath&output=html">data access security matters</a> on numerous occasions, and my underlying message has always been that there are many dimensions to security vulnerability that aren't catered for when the distinct functional domains of data access and data storage intersect (I am almost certain that the infrastructure at the bottom of this controversy will comprise at least one or more of the following: data access drivers (free and closed- or open source), relational database engine (closed- or open source), and a web application scripting language (closed- or open source).</p> <p align="left" dir="ltr">Here is a hypothetical situation relating to this matter. Lets assume that Paris did inadvertently give away her password, would it be too much for her to assume that T-mobile's data access infrastructure should be capable of controlling access to her data using any combination of her password and the following:</p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div align="left">Data Access Device </div> </li> <li> <div align="left">Data Access Device host operating system</div> </li> <li> <div align="left">Network IP or Mac Address </div> </li> <li> <div align="left">Data Access Application</div> </li> </ol> <p align="left">If a very simple combination of the elements above formed part of the T-mobile authentication and data access security matrix, we would be looking at a much clearer picture of the vulnerability scenarios for this hack that would be confined to the following:</p> <ol> <li> <div align="left">She inadvertently gives out her password and also hands over her sidekick device to the hacker </div> </li> <li> <div align="left">She inadvertently gives out her password and then the hacker successfully logs on to her sidekick (it does have a <a href="http://www.t-mobile.com/products/overview.asp?phoneid=229040&class=pda">web browser</a> and email implying a tcp/ip stack etc..). But I would expect Paris to be within her rights to assume some basic firewalling would be in place by default</div> </li> </ol> <p align="left">T-mobile should have a data access security infrastructure that would have a rule that restricted sidekick accounts (by default) from direct access from remote locations to address book data for instance. Account owners should be allowed to enable this feature after receiving clear notification about security implications.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Jon Stewart on Blogs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-22#688
2005-02-22T23:01:49Z
<a href="http://avc.blogs.com/a_vc/2005/02/jon_stewart_on_.html">Jon Stewart on Blogs</a> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:p> </xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> <div align="right"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
TECH TALK: Multi-Model Minds: Correcting Education
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-14#687
2005-02-14T14:56:27Z
<a href="http://www.emergic.org/archives/2005/02/11/index.html#tech_talk_multimodel_minds_correcting_education">TECH TALK: Multi-Model Minds: Correcting Education</a> <p>While each of us can alter and build our own multiple models, it is an uphill struggle once we are past the initial years in educational institutions. We stand at the crossroads in India. We have the advantage of demographics on our side. We need to address the twin challenges of educating India's youth and doing it right. Education done right can be IndiaÂs biggest change agent. Conversely, putting people with limited and incomplete mental models in decision-making positions can worsen the situation dramatically. </p> <p>So, what does it take for us to fix the problem at the source? <a href="http://www.deeshaa.org/archives/2005/01/10/index.html#006395">Atanu Dey</a> wrote about how to re-invent the education system recently on his blog: <br /> </p> <blockquote> <br />I think that at a minimum, an educational system must teach people how to think. How to fast and how to wait would be good but perhaps it is too much to ask for right now. Does such a system exist anywhere in the world? I don't know for sure but I doubt it very sincerely. I realize of course that there are people who have gone through the current educational systems and they are also able to think. But I would be wary of ascribing that result to the present setup. It is more likely that despite the present system, those people have learnt how to think. <p></p> <p>I believe that learning how to think may be something alike to learning a language. It appears that we have a language learning sub-system in our brains which shuts down sometime around age 12 or so. Before reaching that age, you can very easily learn languages; after that, learning languages is extremely hard. So also, I believe that if you catch a kid early enough, you can teach him or her to think. It is as if the brain circuits are just a lot of firmware in early childhood and then as one grows up, the firmware hardens and become hardware that cannot be re-programmed. </p> <p>Here is my prescription for a good education. Focus primarily on teaching how to think and on teaching people how to learn. Teaching how to think is like giving kids a very high powered CPU. Teaching them how to learn gives them control of a very broadband channel through which they can have access to content that the CPU can process. Alternative analogy: good thinking skills is like have a good operating system. And good learning skills is like having a great set of applications. <br /> </p> </blockquote> <br />A multi-model mind can be our greatest asset as we seek to build both our careers and the new India around us. But for that to happen, we will have to shed some of the baggage from the past and that is not going to be easy. We need to make a start with the world inside us, and then the outside. We have the benefit of technological revolutions that are happening around us giving us the ability to compress time -- we don't have a generation to effect this change. <p></p> <p> <b>Recommended Reading:</b> </p> <p> </p> <li>My earlier Tech Talk series: <a href="http://www.emergic.org/collections/tech_talk_my_mental_model.html">My Mental Model</a> <br /> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.deeshaa.org/">Atanu Dey's Blog</a> <br /> </li> <li>Robert Hagstrom, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1587991381/emergicorg-20">Investing: The Last Liberal Art</a> <p></p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.emergic.org/">E M E R G I C . o r g</a>]</div> </li>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web Services Impact on Business Model Scalability
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-12#686
2005-02-12T22:16:22Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2005/tc2005028_8000_tc203.htm">Business Week</a> has a special report on <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=web+services&method=2&gwp=13">Web services</a>... <br />.......</p> <p>That's a big difference. It means their business model can scale, and the bigger they get, the more profitable they become because they're building on that initial research and development investment." [via <a href="http://www.emergic.org/">E M E R G I C . o r g</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">On the issue of scale I would like to add (to the excerpt above) that fact that we will ultimately come to realize that Web Services facilitate computer cycle based value proposition consumption. This is exponentially greater that human interaction based value proposition consumption -- the fundamental difference between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 IMHO.</p> <p dir="ltr">It would be interesting to track the growth of companies in line with their adoption of Web Services based initiatives. I expect that when such a graph is produced in the future it will validate my point.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Exploring Network Economics
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-12#685
2005-02-12T22:00:57Z
<a href="http://www.emergic.org/archives/2004/11/29/index.html#exploring_network_economics">Exploring Network Economics</a> <p>[via Abhay Bhagat] <a href="http://www.leggmason.com/funds/ourfunds/whats_new/MaubExplNtwkEcon_1104_Final.pdf">Michael Mauboussin</a> writes:<br /> </p> <blockquote> <br />Economists have successfully described the economics of both information and networks. These economic principles appear durable. It is the combination of information and network properties that creates opportunities for businesses and investors. Most investors have not internalized these ideas. <p></p> <p>We believe the importance of information-based networks is increasing in todayÂs global economy for four reasons:</p> <p>1. Physical capital needs are lower than they were in the past. Information-based networks require less capital as they grow than physical networks do.</p> <p>2. Networks demonstrate increasing returns. Most industries benefit from supply-side increasing returns to scale: higher volume leads to lower unit costs, up to a point. In contrast, successful networks generate increasing returns from the demand-side as users beget users.</p> <p>3. Networks can form faster and more frequently than in the past. Because of plummeting communication and computing costs, the barriers to creating a network are declining. But even though the barriers to entry are low, the barriers to success remain high.</p> <p>4. Networks can spread globally. Because many networks have high upfront costs and low incremental costs, they can expand rapidly within countries and across borders.</p> <p>This report focuses on how to categorize networks, how they affect economic value, and how they form.<br /> </p> </blockquote> <p></p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.emergic.org/">E M E R G I C . o r g</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Avoid Reinventing Wheels: Look Up for XML Schemata and Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-11#684
2005-02-11T22:00:04Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Uche Ogbuji, IBM developerWorks</p> <p>The world of XML and Web services is huge, and growing. developerWorks does much to map it out for you, but when you're looking for a schema or a public Web service to meet some pressing need, it's useful to have handy several key resources. This tip shows you how to comb through the enormous variety of Internet resources to find schemata and Web services using common search criteria. The best known source for finding public SOAP Web services is XMethods. It has a comprehensive list of SOAP services that you can sort by several criteria. It also provides a demo client so you can try out the services right from the index site. You can also keep track of the listings on XMethods programmatically using UDDI, RSS, and other means.sites that provide directories of Web services include RemoteMethods.com and Web Service List. A chronicle of interesting Web services is Web service of the Day.</p> <p>One resource that straddles the Web services/Semantic Web is WSindex.org, a directory of Web services, XML, SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, and Semantic Web resources. This site is a hierarchical and searchable directory. </p> <p> <a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tiplkws.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-tiplkws.html</font> </u> </a> </p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Patriots Super Bowl Rap Parodies (Cool!)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-11#681
2005-02-11T16:32:25Z
<p>As a major Pats. fan I simply have to share these cool rap parodies.</p> <p>The pre-game <a href="http://www.jamn945.com/timages/page/media/patriotsparody.asf">inferno</a> and post-game celebration: <a href="http://www.jamn945.com/timages/page/media/Final_WIth_Bed.asf">how they did it</a> .</p> <p>Enjoy!</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Email As A Platform
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-10#680
2005-02-10T17:01:57Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20050209/1329235_F.shtml">Email As A Platform</a> It looks like more people are starting to realize that email is more than it seems. Especially given the drastic increase in storage size of web-based email applications, more people are realizing that <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4167633.stm">email is basically a personal database</a>. People simply store information in their email, from contact information that was emailed to them to schedule information to purchase tracking from emailed receipts. Lots of people email messages to themselves, realizing that email is basically the best "permanent" filing system they have. That's part of the reason why good email search is so important. Of course, what the article doesn't discuss is the next stage of this evolution. If you have a database of important information, the next step is to build useful applications on top of it. In other words, people are starting to realize that email, itself, is a <i>platform</i> for personal information management. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Yep! And this is where the Unified Storage vision comes into play. Many years ago the same issues emerged in the business application realm, and at the time the issue at hand was: separating the DBMS engine from the Application logic. This is what the SQL Access Group (SAG) addressed via the CLI that laid the foundation for ODBC, JDBC, and recent derivatives; OLE DB and ADO.NET. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Most of us live inside our email applications and the need to integrate the content of emails, address books, notes, calendars with other data sources (Web Portal, Blogs, Wikis, CRM, ERP, and more) as part of our application interaction cycles and domain specific workflow is finally becoming obvious. There is a need for separation of the application/service layer from the storage engine across each one of these functionality realms. XML, RDF, and Triple Stores (RDF / Semantic Data Stores) collectively provide a standards based framework for achieving this goal. On the other hand so does WinFS albeit total proprietary (by this I mean none standards compliant) at the current time.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">As you can already see there are numerous applications (conventional or hosted) that address email, address books, bookmarking, notes, calendars, blogs, wikis, crm etc. specifically, but next to none that address the obvious need for transparent integration across each functionality realm - the ultimate goal.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Yes, you know what I am about to say! <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Virtuoso</a> is the platform for developing and/or implementing these next generation solutions. We have also decided to go one step further by developing a number of applications that demonstrate the vision (and ultimate reality); and each of these applications (and the inherent integration tapestry) will be the subject of a future Virtuoso Application specific post.</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Fired For Blogging? Not Exactly...
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-10#679
2005-02-10T16:30:48Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20050209/1345226_F.shtml">Fired For Blogging? Not Exactly...</a> There's been a ton of talk lately about the idea that people are getting <a href="http://comment.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020505,39187238,00.htm">"fired for blogging."</a> It's almost become something of a meme, where those who were fired end up with extra credibility... just for getting fired (it's becoming a Donald Trump kind of world where "you're fired" is a badge of credibility). Of course, the whole idea of "fired for blogging" isn't exactly true. No one is getting fired for blogging; they're getting fired for what they say on their blog. It's like people who, for example, say something inappropriate at a conference about the company they work for. They're not getting fired for "speaking" or for "conferencing," but what they said. Now, of course, you can argue that what they said should not have been a firable offense, and that companies need to recognize that employees now have much louder virtual megaphones to use in bitching about their employment situation, but people aren't getting "fired for blogging." They're getting fired for what it is they say. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Bill Gates Memo: Building Software That Is Interoperable By Design
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-04#678
2005-02-04T23:58:28Z
<font size="2"> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>By Bill Gates, Microsoft Executive Mail</p> <p>Microsoft's product interoperability strategy: "First, we continue to support customers' needs for software that works well with what they have today. Second, we are working with the industry to define a new generation of software and Web services based on eXtensible Markup Language (XML), which enables software to efficiently share information and opens the door to a greater degree of 'interoperability by design' across many different kinds of software. Our goal is to harness all the power inherent in modern (and not so modern) business software, and enable them to work together so that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. We want to further eliminate friction among heterogeneous architectures and applications without compromising their distinctive underlying capabilities... The XML-based architecture for Web services, known as WS-* ('WS-Star'), is being developed in close collaboration with dozens of other companies in the industry including IBM, Sun, Oracle and BEA. This standard set of protocols significantly reduces the cost and complexity of connecting disparate systems, and it enables interoperability not just within the four walls of an organization, but also across the globe."</p> <p> <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2005/02-03interoperability.asp"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/execmail/2005/02-03interoperability.asp</font> </u> </a> </p> </blockquote> <p align="left" dir="ltr">Amen Bill! As long as this doesn't covertly imply "Windows Specificity" by way of "Interoperability" becoming a "Windows Unique Selling Point"! </p> <p align="left" dir="ltr">As per usual, the devil will be in the implementation details of your company's products. </p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Traffic Analysis: Google vs Answers.com vs Ask.com
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-04#677
2005-02-04T23:31:47Z
<p>The net effect of <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=web+services&gwp=8">Web Services</a> and Web Data (soon to be Semantic Content) is the ability obtain and analyze <a href="http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?&range=6m&size=large&y=t&url=answers.com#top">this kind of data</a> .</p> <p> <a href="http://answers.com/">Answers.com</a> was launched a month ago, and its stock is practically on fire! Does this graph tell you anything about subject searches vs keyword searches? </p> <p> <img align="baseline" alt="" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://traffic.alexa.com/graph?w=640&h=480&r=6m&y=t&u=answers.com/&u=ask.com&u=google.com" /> </p> <p>The burgeoning <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=semantic+web">Semantic Web</a> will disrupt the search market in a big way (and for the better <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=imho">IMHO</a>).</p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Casualties mount in Apple vs customers war
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-02-03#676
2005-02-03T03:22:23Z
<a href="http://go.theregister.com/feed/2005/01/13/apple_drm_analysis/">Casualties mount in Apple vs customers war</a> <h4>Underground medicine</h4> <p> <strong>Analysis</strong> It's hard to think of anything that makes Apple's music store more attractive to the general public than the guarantee that the music you've bought will play wherever you want it in your home. However, Apple frowns on such good citizenship, and as we reported earlier today, is using every trick it can to make sure the music stops playing.â¦</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register - Personal: Mac Channel</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Scrabble Story
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-31#675
2005-01-31T20:57:29Z
Simply titled "<a href="http://www.transom.org/video/shows/2004/vidlit/craziest2.swf">Craziest</a>". If you are a scrabble player you will enjoy this.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What Is Disruptive Technology?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-30#674
2005-01-30T15:38:48Z
<p>The term "<a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=disruptive+technology&method=2&gwp=13">Disruptive Technology</a>" is increasingly used in this era of multiple technology driven market inflections. Most of the time it is tiresome (albeit necessary) to define terms used in written communication. Thus, it is great to have services such as <a href="http://answers.com">answers.com </a>and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a> that simply take the tedium out of this process. For instance, answers.com has a great starting point in the form of a <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=disruptive+technology&method=2&gwp=13">definiton</a> for "Disruptive Technology". Even better, if I feel its definition is lacking I can simply jump ahead to one of its encyclopedic sources (such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>) and then extend the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disruptive_technology">subject</a> in question with my input. If my contribution is lacking the <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2005/01/22.html#a1156">system will ultimately wash it out</a>, on the other hand if it is deemed tangible then the contribution will stay in place and provide a base for additional contributions). Great!</p> <p> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=650">Information and knowledge </a> accessibility are gradually setting the foundation for monumental inflections across all industries (nautrally, IT will provide ample propulsion).</p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Google Ups Web 2.0 Ante with Web Services edition of AdWords
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-28#673
2005-01-28T23:36:17Z
<p>Google has just unveiled a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=373">Web 2.0</a> initiative in the form of a <a href="http://www.google.com/apis/adwords/">Web Services interface for its AdWords service</a>. You can now programmatically interact with Google's keyword based advertising service using <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?dym=0&cid=984588381&method=6">SOAP</a> calls (with service <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?dym=2&cid=396232605&method=6">signature</a> described using <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=wsdl">WSDL</a>).</p> <p>An immediate implication is that you can generate Google AdWords based adds using any development environment (<a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/sqlprocedures.html">Virtuoso's SQL Stored Procedure Language</a>, any .NET bound language, Java, C/C++, PHP, Ruby, Perl, Python, TCL etc.) that supports SOAP, WSDL, and I would presume <a href="http://answers.com/main/ntquery?s=ws-security">WS-Security</a>.</p> <p>An even more interesting offshoot of this initiative from Google, is the fact that it could bring a degree of clarity to the issue of multi-protocol and multi-purpose servers (what I call <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_server">Universal Servers</a> e.g. <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Virtuoso</a>). For instance, you could manage AdWords campaigns across product portfolios using Triggers (the SQL database kind) or Notification Services.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Using Role-Based Security with Web Services Enhancements 2.0
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-27#672
2005-01-27T14:52:19Z
<font size="2"> </font> <p> <font size="2">By Ingo Rammer, Microsoft MSDN Library.</font> </p> <font size="2"> </font> <p> <font size="2">In this article the author shows how you can create and use a custom security token manager with the Web Services Enhancements 2.0 for Microsoft .NET to check for X.509 certificates, map them to roles and populate context information with custom principal and identity objects.</font> </p> <font size="2"> </font> <p> <font size="2">He shows how easy it is to use WS-Policy from within Visual Studio .NET to add declarative checking of role membership to your applications. The advantage of this approach based on WS-Security when compared to classic HTTP based security is that it doesn't rely on transport-level integrity or security but instead works solely with the SOAP message. This provides you with end-to-end security capabilities over multiple hops and protocols.</font> </p> <font size="2"> </font> <p> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnwse/html/wserolebasedsec.asp"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/dnwse/html/wserolebasedsec.asp</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> </font> <p> <font size="2">See also WS-Security references: </font> <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/ws-security.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/ws-security.html</font> </u> </a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
W3C Recommends Quicker XML Transmission
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-27#671
2005-01-27T14:51:22Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com</p> <p>The World Wide Web consortium, the standards body in charge of developing XML, said Tuesday that it has issued three recommendations designed to make handling XML-formatted data more efficient. The specifications have the backing of large industry software providers, including IBM, Microsoft and BEA Systems, which provide the software infrastructure to build and run XML data and Web services applications.</p> <p>The W3C and vendors are looking at a variety of methods of speeding up the performance of XML, which can be slow for certain applications. </p> <p> <a href="http://news.com.com/2110-1013_3-5551788.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://news.com.com/2110-1013_3-5551788.html</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also the news story: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2005-01-25-a.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2005-01-25-a.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
An Introduction to the Semantic Web. Considerations for Building Multilingual Semantic Web Sites and Applications.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-27#670
2005-01-27T14:50:26Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Jeremy J. Carroll, MultiLingual Computing and Technology</p> <p>The author gives a brief introduction to the Semantic Web and describes difficulties -- and occasionally solutions -- related to building multilingual Semantic Web sites and applications. The initial drivers for the Semantic Web came from metadata about web pages. Who wrote it?</p> <p>When? Who owns the copyright? And so on. Conveying such metadata requires agreement about the key terms such as author and date. This agreement has been reached by the Dublin Core community. For example, they have an agreed definition for the term creator, generalizing author for use in metadata records. The Semantic Web does not, however, draw a sharp distinction between metadata about the page and data contained within the page. In both cases, the idea is to provide sufficient structure around the data to turn it into information and to connect the concepts used to express such information with concepts used by others so that this information can become knowledge that can be acted upon.</p> <p> <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3o2zm"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://tinyurl.com/3o2zm</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also W3C Semantic Web: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/</font> </u></a> </p> <font size="2"></font> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
W3C, IETF Stick with 'Web Glue' Standards
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-27#669
2005-01-27T14:46:58Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Clint Boulton, InternetNews.com</p> <p>The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Internet Engineering Task Force</p> <p>(IETF) have created a new standard and specification to improve the efficiency with which users leverage resources on the Web. The standards address Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI) and Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRI), which take users to such resources as documents and Web sites from all over the world, with a few clicks.</p> <p>The W3C describes URIs as the "glue that holds the Web together." As a replacement to the URI specification released in 1998, RFC 3986, STD 66 Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax is an IETF standard that describes the design, syntax and resolution of URIs. It also addresses security considerations and determines if two URIs are equivalent. While the natural scripts of the world's languages use characters other than A-Z, the new IRI standard expands characters from a subset of US-ASCII to the Universal Character Set (Unicode/ISO 10646).</p> <p>This will allow content developers and users to identify resources in their own languages.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3464501"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3464501</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also Markup and Multilingualism: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/multilingual.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/multilingual.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Hacking Open Office
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-27#668
2005-01-27T14:46:02Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Peter Sefton, XML.org</p> <p>The author explores some of the ways that OpenOffice.org's Writer application is open to customization and configuration. He coveres a few techniques that will be of interest to template maintainers working with OpenOffice.org writer: how to crack open the file format, how to maintain large sets of styles, and how to customize menus and macros, all without using anything except standard tools, zip, an XSLT processor, and a text editor. All this can, of course, be further automated with a programming language of some kind, even a batch file.</p> <p>There are some changes coming in version 2 of OpenOffice.org, but all these techniques will be forwards compatible, although some things like the location and name of the menu-bar files look like they will change. If you are also trying to store and manipulate content in XML but want to use a word processing environment for authoring, then well-crafted templates are even more important.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/01/26/hacking-ooo.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2005/01/26/hacking-ooo.html</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also the OpenDocument 1.0 CD: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2005-01-04-a.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2005-01-04-a.html</font> </u></a> </p> <font size="2"></font> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Microsoft Memo
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-26#667
2005-01-26T22:16:27Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.wired.com/news/wiredmag/1,2167,66388,00.html?tw=rss.TOP">The Microsoft Memo</a> Bill Gates hires open-source icon Linus Torvalds? That was just the beginning of Redmond's hybrid strategy to face the free software age. Fanciful prognostication by Gary Wolf from Wired magazine. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.wired.com/">Wired News: Top Stories</a>]</div> <div align="left">Funny and insightful. Could WinX represent a journey for Windows that emulates the one taken from Mac OS Classic to Mac OS X? </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
VC firm finds Joy
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-18#666
2005-01-18T21:51:56Z
<a href="http://news.com.com/VC+firm+finds+Joy/2100-7341_3-5539942.html?part=rss&tag=5539942&subj=news.7341.20">VC firm finds Joy</a> Tech industry evangelist and Sun co-founder Bill Joy becomes a partner in Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://news.com.com/">CNET News.com</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
XQuery: Almost Here? Should You Care?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-11#664
2005-01-11T23:49:20Z
<p align="left" dir="ltr">When industry standards emerge one of the very first things I do (instinctively) is commence a quest to understand the essence of the standard's value proposition and then unravel implementation challenges as they affect existing IT infrastructure. The quest comprises the following steps:</p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div align="left">What is this standard <br /> </div> </li> <li> <div align="left">Why is it important<br /> </div> </li> <li> <div align="left">What are the implementation challenges</div> </li> </ol> <p align="left">When XQuery first came across my radar (late 90s even before "XQuery" became the moniker for an XML Query Language) I arrived at the following conclusions using the steps listed above:</p> <ol> <li> <div align="left">What is XQuery about? Its about querying XML Documents (at the time real or virtual) in a repository. Basically, its the SQL equivalent for the XML based Infobase;<br /> </div> </li> <li> <div align="left">Why is it important? Because we will need to access, repurpose, and disseminate the contents of the Infobase for a myriad of reasons which ultimately culminate in knowledge creation;<br /> </div> </li> <li> <div align="left">What are the implementation challenges? Where do I start? Anway, here are a few:<br /> </div> </li> <ul> <li> <div align="left">Content Creation - we need to create the Infobase; for an XML based Infobase</div> </li> </ul> </ol>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Let a Million Videos Bloom Online
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-11#663
2005-01-11T19:32:26Z
<p>I have always believed that the Internet (and its web sub section) would ultimately empower individuals to the point where we have individual multimedia outlets (ala <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting">podcasting</a> for audio)that leverage the power of <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/09/27.html#a1083">network effects</a> - way beyond our wildest imagination.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.businessweek.com">BusinessWeek's</a> article titled: <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/dec2004/nf20041229_0845_db016.htm">Let a Million Videos Bloon Online</a>, sheds light on the burgeoning video blogging section of the blogosphere. </p> <p>Imagine how this will change entertainment, mass communications, and our behaviour in general! </p> <p>What would that old addage: "15 minutes of fame", imply, in 12-24 months time? Today, we know it implies mass media coverage (conventional TV or Radio, and to some degree weblogs of the text variety).</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
It's on: iTuner sues Apple for not supporting MP3 players
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-06#662
2005-01-06T18:56:05Z
<a href="http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000660026274/">It's on: iTuner sues Apple for not supporting MP3 players</a> <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4151009.stm"><img align="right" alt="Apple logo" border="0" height="136" hspace="4" src="http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/images/4462582046079014.jpg?0.8925965464463821" vspace="4" width="110" /></a> <p>We admit, it is kind of lame that iTunes only supports the iPod (and, likewise, that the iPod only supports iTunes), but litigating over it? Well, an end user by the name of Thomas Slattery believes tying iTunes exclusively to the iPod has lasted a little too long now that Appleâs selling nearly 90% of digital audio players in America. At least Microsoft attempted to âopenâ up their DRM/online music system to all manners of player (that paid to use the PlaysForSure logo, anyhow), so in that regard Appleâs not got a leg to stand on. But weâre definitely going to call it early that iTunes and the iPod together: not-monopolistic, well, not until <a href="http://www.engadget.com/search/?q=apple+real&submit=Go">RealNetworks</a> got in the game. Then, a little more monopolistic than weâd like to say.</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.engadget.com/">Engadget</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
IBM Flexes XML Muscle
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-04#657
2005-01-04T17:18:36Z
<p>Here is another article titled "<a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1747224,00.asp?kc=ewnws010305dtx1k0000599">IBM Flexes XML Muscle</a>" that covers the same general theme: IBM's appreciation of Unified Storage.</p> <p>As indicated in an earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=648">post</a>: IBM is clearly validating what we have done with Virtuoso (as was the case initially with their Virtual / Federated DBMS initiative ala DB2 Integrator). Here is an excerpt from today's <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1747224,00.asp?kc=ewnws010305dtx1k0000599">eWeek article</a> supporting this position:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>To achieve maximum XML performance, bolstered indexing attributes in the technology will enable advanced search functions and a higher degree of filtering. IBM is also adding support for XPath and XQuery data models. This will allow users to create views that involve SQL and XQuery by sending the protocol through DB2's query optimizer for a unified query plan. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1747224,00.asp?kc=ewnws010305dtx1k0000599">Read on..</a> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso</a> has been doing this since 2000; unfortunately a lot of</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
GuruNet --- kicking search up a notch (What is SQL?)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2005-01-03#661
2005-01-03T23:03:36Z
<p>Playing around with GuruNet's "<a href="http://www.answers.com/">answers.com</a>" service earlier today reminded me of past positive experiences with similar internet bootstraps (Yahoo!, Altavista, Google et al).</p> <p>I have always believed that self-annotation will ultimately drive the realization of the semantic <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=semantic+web">web</a> vision. GuruNet is an interesting effort that should lead down this path.</p> <p>Here is GuruNet's <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=what+is+sql">answer </a>to the question: <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=what+is+sql">What Is SQL</a>?</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=web+services">Web Services</a>, <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=xml">XML</a>, and <a href="http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=rdf">RDF</a> angles should be pretty obvious (I hope!).</p> <p>BTW - GuruNet does have a sync latency issue re. Wikipedia that it will need to address sooner rather than later.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Christmas Tragedy
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-12-28#655
2004-12-28T14:04:08Z
<a href="http://softtechvc.blogs.com/software_only/2004/12/christmas_trage.html">Christmas Tragedy</a> <p> <span class="430101702-28122004"> <a href="http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/041228/photos_wl/asia_quake_update_map"><img alt="Rescuers scoured the sea for missing tourists and fishermen in Asia on December 27, 2004 and fears of disease grew as emergency services struggled with rotting bodies from a devastating tsunami that killed more than 22,700 people. (Reuters Graphic via Yahoo)" border="0" height="100" src="http://softtechvc.blogs.com/software_only/images/asia_quake_update_map.gif" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 5px 5px" title="Reuters: Asian Quake Map" width="100" /> </a>This is not my usual topic, but it is not a usual event: our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and wounded of the South East Asian earthquake and tsunami that claimed at least 27,000 lives. This stunning disaster is of such a magnitude that each of us may know of someone who was there or might have been there. One of my best friends, who is leaving in Thailand, was in a Thai resort with his wife and two daughters, but they were far enough not to be endangered.</span> </p> <p> <span class="430101702-28122004">Wikipedia provides a quasi realtime <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake">account</a> of the developments in disaster areas, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Damage_and_casualties">losses</a>, as well as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Quake_characteristics">background information</a> about this 9.0-strong earthquake (on the Richter scale, the strongest in the last 40 years). <a href="http://www.loiclemeur.com/english/2004/12/a_blog_to_help_.html">Loic</a> also points to <a href="http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/">this blog</a> that has been setup to provide information related to disaster-relief operations, and ways of supporting them (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake#Sites_accepting_on-line_donations_for_relief_efforts.3D">so does</a> Wikipedia actually).</span> </p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://softtechvc.blogs.com/software_only/">Software Only</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Heterogeneous Joins
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-12-24#653
2004-12-24T03:15:10Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.theopensourcery.com/wordp1/index.php?p=182">Heterogeneous Joins</a> Heterogeneous joins sound complicated if not obscene. And the latter is what representatives of a major software development shop thought when asked about their development tools ability to support heterogeneous joins. "Huh .. who in the heck would want to do that?" was implied if not explicitly stated. Well, now that EAI-Enterprise Application Integration and M&A-Mergers and Acquisitions are all the rage again, my bet is that more developers have the need ... </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.theopensourcery.com/wordp1/index.php">Keep an Open Eye</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A "Silver Plated Bullet" Hits the Music World
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-12-22#652
2004-12-22T17:58:55Z
<p> <a href="http://community.alwayson-network.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/AlwaysOn.woa/wa/display?id=23802:Person">Micheal Stroud</a> shares some great insights into the gathering of the long anticipated disruptive network effects of the Internet on the music industry (as it relates to independent artists). </p> <p>Here is are some</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
How Blogs Can Supercharge Your Business
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-12-20#651
2004-12-20T21:13:11Z
<a href="http://blogforfunandprofit.blogware.com/blog/_archives/2004/12/11/202992.html">How Blogs Can Supercharge Your Business</a> How Blogs Can Supercharge Your Business <br /> <br />Blogs in business is a new idea and a strategy that is evolving very quickly. There many new products and services emerging to service everyone interesting in blogs and blogging. While there are new opportunities being created because of blogs, small and large businesses as well as solo entrepreneurs are deeply interested how blogs can help their bottom line as well. Blogs were once thought to be the domain of computer geeks and teens interested in publishing their personal ideas, poetry, commentary and the like. Blogs are no longer "personal" publishing tools anymore. <br /> <br />Blogs are now business publishing tools and powerful ones at that. You learned in Lesson One that blogs allow you publish quickly, easily, efficiently and instantly. This has transformed business communications online. Now all companies large and small can create a very low cost content communication and publishing strategy online. <br /> <br />You see, blogs don't have the same overhead as a large scale information site or e-commerce site. Blogs are not complex content management systems that require a paid staff of webmasters and programmers to support. <br /> <br />Blogs are low as $14.95 a month to use, require only one person the manage easily and yet the content of blog will outperform the content of a more established site both in speed of distribution and in search engine rankings. <br /> <br />Businesses and entrepreneurs benefit in 3 BIG ways from a blog. <br /> <br />Information. <br /> <br />Blogs allow you to distributed information instantly and frequently. Speed of communications is critical in this day and age. You need to communicate information about your products and services quickly. Blogs allow you to educate your markets and engage in real-time two-way conversations with customers and prospects around topics that relate to you and them. <br /> <br />As an information tool for businesses and entrepreneurs, blogs allow you to build recurring relationships with prospects and customers by establishing rapport. As you publish content that your customers and prospect come to know and trust the will return to you as their expert and vote with wallets. <br /> <br />Reputation. <br /> <br />Blogs build reputation. Blogs are considered honest communication tools. Blogs are two-way communications tools and people have come to expect blogs to provide high value, useful content and honest. transparent communications. <br /> <br />Your level of integrity will weigh heavily on how you build authority and credibility regarding your blogs subject matter. What you publish will serve as the basis for others to formulate an opinion about your expertise, knowledge and character in general. <br /> <br />Communication. <br /> <br />Blogs allow you to communicate at the speed of business. You can literally communicate relevant information to partners, personnel and prospects in real-time and as events occur in your business. Literally. How powerful is that?! <br /> <br />What greater way to maintain and competitive advantage than to alert those your customers to new and useful information about your business. This keeps customers engaged in conversations with you and less susceptible to the influences of competitor marketing messages. <br /> <br /> <br />Information, reputation and communication are the three things every business must build in order to success online. <br /> <br />A business blog allows you build a bigger information depot that can draw a continuous flow of visitors looking for your content. <br /> <br />A business blog allows you build reputation by publishing high value information about and around your industry, your products and services. As you frequently demonstrate your expertise, experience and know-how you can gain recognition in your market niches. <br /> <br />If you aren't using a blog in your business and marketing endeavors you are surely being left behind. I can almost guarantee you that one or more of your competitors is using a blog to communicate and distribution information on products and services that compete with yours. <br /> <br />If you aren't using a blog but you are using a regular web site, you competition is going to whoop you in the search engine rankings game. For any online business, getting your content indexed and found by your target is a bottom line activity. Blogs have changed the game of search engine optimization in an upcoming article I will talk about the SEO benefits of blogs <br /> <br />To recap, a blog is great business accelerator. A acceleration in communications can translation into an acceleration in business and entrepreneurial processes that impact your bottom line. Blogs allow businesses and entrepreneurs to share information instantly and frequently. Blogs allows business to build reputation and by demonstrating subject matter expertise and finally, blogs allow businesses to communication in real-time as their business happens. <br /> <br /> <br /> <center> <font face="Arial" size="2"><b>"If You Want To Learn How To Blog For Fun and Profits...</b> </font> <br /> <font face="Arial" size="2">Then <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffff00"><a href="http://www.how2blog.com/at/go.php?c=h2b&s=BFFPBG" target="_blank">CLICK HERE NOW</a></span> and I'll <u>Show You Step-By-Step</u>!"!</font> </center> <br /> <br />----------------------------------------------- <br />
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Difference Between Information and Knowledge
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-12-17#650
2004-12-17T23:01:29Z
<p>Earlier this week, Jon Udell (view <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/12/17.html#a1136">here</a>) and Dare Obasanjo (view <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=a50a2839-0bd6-4c6f-af57-21dc99eeb756">here</a>) both contributed great articles covering the effect of networks. As I read these posts it got me thinking (once again) about the issue of differentiating data, information, and knowledge. I also realized during my musings that this would actually bring some clarity to technology areas that are oftenly completely misunderstood as a result of value proposition misconceptions or misunderstandings.</p> <p>A quick head to blog dispatch of these thoughts (while they remain fresh):</p> <p>Data is an expression of feedback; a statement (rightly or wrongly so) about an observation. If you think about it, didn't we used to capture observed data on paper in tabular form (row and columns which are analogous to Relational Database Tables and Columns)?</p> <p>Information is data in context, or as I would prefer to say: contextualized data. Thus, information provides an understanding of data (provides insight about statements of observation). I also recall a myriad of context oriented hierarchical presentation forms: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy">taxonomies</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology_%28computer_science%29">ontologies</a> or conceptual schemas (nowadays expressed in an hierarchical tree form called XML and persisted for future reference in an XML aware database). </p> <p>Knowledge isn't contextualized information, and it is certainly distinct from information (contrary to many dictionary definitions as highlighted in this <a href="http://blog.contentious.com/archives/2004/07/29/what-do-we-know-the-great-info-knowledge-debate">post</a> by <a href="http://blog.contentious.com">Amy Gahran</a>). I prefer to define knowledge as the basis of what you can, will, would, should, or might do with information. And all cases we express our levels knowledge by the way we act on the information (or lack there of) at our disposal. Think about brainstorming for a moment; you are trying to determine a path of action based on information at your disposal, a typical action would be to draw conceptual or topic relationship maps (graphing, with direction driven by the information processing action) on a whiteboard or piece of paper. Expressing, sharing, processing, and persisting these concepts and topics graphs are what the 'Graph Model' based semantic/knowledge database is all about.</p> <p>Our industry has derived appropriate technology solution realms for Data, Information, and Knowledge Management (although we mix them up more often than not). Thus, there is room for Network, Hierarchical, SQL, XML (Semi-Structured Model), Object, Object-Relational, and Associative Model (graph based modeling of: source, verb, target; analogous to subject, predicate, object as per RDF).</p> <p>We are spawning data, databases, infobases, knowledgebases, networks, and eventually agents, that will reflect the timeless relationships that exist across; data, information, and knowledge. </p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
IBM Moves Database Goal Posts
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-12-09#648
2004-12-09T13:20:52Z
<p>Taking the Butler Research consultant quote in this <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/09/ibm_database_goalposts/">piece</a> from "<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk">The Register</a>" at face value, one can only assume that IBM is basically throwing in the towel re. DB2 and its ability to handle XML :-) The excerpt below certainly implies this:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>..So, using relational storage is inadequate for one reason or another, and IBM has concluded that another approach is necessary. The company’s next generation database will therefore have two storage engines: one relational store and one native XML store. And let me be quite clear about this: these engines will be completely separate, with separate tablespaces, separate indexes (Btrees and so forth on the one hand, and hierarchical on the other), and so on...</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Hold on here! IBM only</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What is OpenLink Virtuoso?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-12-09#646
2004-12-09T05:01:06Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.tbradford.org/2004/12/what-is-openlink-virtuoso.html">What is OpenLink Virtuoso?</a> </p> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I think one of the main difficulties when trying to extrapolate the value of Openlink Software's Virtuoso Universal Server product is determining what exactly Virtuoso is to begin with. The web site says it's quite a few things, and in the noise, you might neglect to notice that, at it's core, it's an incredibly fast, standards-compliant, and versatile SQL database. But there's more to the story..</xhtml:div> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.tbradford.org/">tbradford.org: Tom Bradford</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Real-Time Enterprise White Paper by Vinod Khosla
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-11-29#645
2004-11-29T17:55:15Z
<p> <a href="http://www.kpcb.com/files/bios/RTEWHITEPAPER.pdf">Here</a> is an great Real-Time Enterprise (RTE) strategic white paper by <a href="http://www.kpcb.com/team/bio_detail.php?frm_id=9">Vinod Khosla</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
End of the road for ESB
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-11-24#644
2004-11-24T19:21:18Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/blog/lc00aa00073.html">End of the road for ESB</a> Enterprise service bus, the buzzword that's enjoying the peak of its hype cycle just now, is about to become obsolete. ... </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/blog/">Loosely Coupled weblog</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Betting on virtualization
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-11-24#643
2004-11-24T04:54:36Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/2004/111504backspin.html">Betting on virtualization</a> Virtualization changes everything. Not immediately or even necessarily quickly, but over the next few years virtualization will redefine how we run enterprise infrastructure and give us a richer range of choices with which to create solutions. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/gibbs.html">The Mark Gibbs Feed</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
MacSOS Releases SyBrowser 6.2
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-11-19#642
2004-11-19T17:40:38Z
<a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/rbgarage?m=93">MacSOS Releases SyBrowser 6.2</a> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Dr. Gerard Hammond of MacSOS announced the release of SyBrowser 6.2, a Macintosh application that can query Sybase, FrontBase, PostgreSQL, Oracle, ODBC and MS SQL databases hosted on OSX, UNIX, Linux, and Windows servers. <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />SyBrowser v6.2 features include: <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />- Added FrontBase database support. <xhtml:br />- Added "Bachman" style ERD features (Tridents for 'Many' arms of a relationship, open circles for optional entities) <xhtml:br />- The arms of a relationship now track their entities correctly in all directions. <xhtml:br />- The arm of the selected relationship can be moved using the mouse or the keyboard <xhtml:br />- Fixed bug with SQL auto-completion popup with multiple monitors. <xhtml:br />- Enhanced the "Edit Relationships Info..." dialog. This dialog allows the properties of the selected relationship to be edited. <xhtml:br />- The mouse cursor changes to reflect the draggable direction when resizing ERD tables, or dragging the various arms of a relationship. The selected arm of the selected relationship now has a circle for a handle. <xhtml:br />- Documentation added. <xhtml:br />- Printing the ERD panel has been improved. <xhtml:br />- The Find dialog allows searching the returned datasets on the SQL panel and Results windows as well as the code in Sybase stored procedures. <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />SyBrowser Overview <xhtml:br />SyBrowser is a table browser and alternative "isql" client for Sybase databases. It facilitates SQL generation thorough a point and click interface. SyBrowser also provides an overview of the tables in ODBC, MySQL, Oracle, FrontBase, PostgreSQL and MS SQL databases. Complex queries can be saved to disk for reuse. An ERD module allows the creation of visual representations of data models. <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br />$89 Shareware from MacSOS, Australia <xhtml:br />$49 upgrade from any previous version <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:br /> <xhtml:a href="http://www.macsos.com.au/">http://www.macsos.com.au</xhtml:a> </xhtml:div> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://rbgarage.blogspot.com/">RB Garage News Feed</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Gates vs. Jobs: The Rematch
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-11-16#641
2004-11-16T22:18:00Z
<p> <a href="http://news.com">NEWS.COM</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What is Jyve?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-11-13#640
2004-11-13T19:10:23Z
<a href="http://www.voidstar.com//node.php?id=2055">What is Jyve?</a> A <a href="http://www.jyve.com/">YASN intimately linked to Skype</a>.<br /> <br />They seem to have an online presence indicator for embedding in a web page. Among other things. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.voidstar.com/module.php?mod=blog">Voidstar: blog</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Amazon's Invisible Innovations
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-11-12#637
2004-11-12T18:23:50Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r228937647">Amazon's Invisible Innovations </a>Fortune Nov 11 2004 9:42PM GMT </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - E-commerce news</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
..Open Data and Evolution in Action.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-11-09#636
2004-11-09T21:32:48Z
<p>I just read</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Industry Analysts and Portals
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-11-05#635
2004-11-05T12:35:21Z
<a href="http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/eai/leadership/archives/002029.asp">Industry Analysts and Portals</a> I have posted on numerous occasions the lack of desire for industry analysts to cover open source software and its growing marketshare. Several people have taken the problem of figuring out which portal is most widely used into their own... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/eai/leadership/">Thinking Out Loud: Thought Leadership from an Enterprise Architect</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
How to Explain SOA to Your CIO
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-21#634
2004-10-21T21:06:08Z
<p>An interesting <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/special/soa-ms/cio/">article</a> from Enterprise Architect by Linda Briggs that deals with an all too common scenario as depicted in her opening paragraph below:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <span class="DropCap">Y</span>ou know how it works with the latest buzzword. The day is coming when you'll run into someone from top management in the elevator, or in the hallway after a meeting, and he or she will casually ask, "So what are we doing these days about SOAs?" That's when you want to be ready with just the right amount of information to help a top-level business executive understand why a service-oriented architecture (SOA) is beneficial and something you're well-positioned for even though it won't solve every IT problem. To help you explain that and more, here's a primer on the strategic ideas and business benefits behind SOA.</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">A memorable quote from the article:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"></p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Oct 2004 State of the Blogosphere: Corporate Bloggers
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-19#633
2004-10-19T12:19:00Z
<a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000390.html">Oct 2004 State of the Blogosphere: Corporate Bloggers</a> <p>This is part 4 of a series on the g<span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana">rowth of the Blogosphere, its impact on individuals, corporations, media, politics, and technology, </span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000387.html">Part 1</a> </span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> covered the overall growth of the blogosphere, </span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000388.html">part 2</a> </span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> covered the volume of postings, and </span> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"><a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000389.html">part 3</a> </span><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Verdana"> covered the growing influence that bloggers are having, and compared them to the online presences of traditional mainstream media.</span> </p> <p>Today I'll discuss a small but influential segment of bloggers - Corporate Bloggers. These are people who blog in an official or semi-official capacity at a company, or are so affiliated with the company where they work that even though they are not officially spokespeople for the company, they are clearly affiliated. For example, the folks in SAP's developers program get blogs if they want them, and are available to anyone who joins the (free) SAP developers network. This group also includes folks at Sun Microsystems and at Microsoft, where employees are actively encouraged to blog. </p> <p style="TEXT-ALIGN: center"> <a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/images/Slide7.png"><img alt="Slide7" border="1" height="400" hspace="4" src="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/images/Slide7-tm.jpg" title="Slide7" vspace="4" width="533" /> </a> </p> <p>The chart above (click on it to see a larger version) shows some of the organizations that are at the forefront of the corporate blogging wave. In addition to the big corporate names and the bloggers at companies involved in the blogging space, there are a large number of individual consultants, small business owners, and individual CxO bloggers - about 3,000 that we have identified as of October 2004 - which fill the "other" category. These are folks who are blogging about what is going on at their businesses, but either because of the small number of people at the business, or the small number of bloggers at the individual business, we aggregated them into a single category. </p> <p>Even though some of the largest technology companies are represented in this graph, to me this shows that we are still at the relative start of accepted use of blogging as a part of corporate policy - and that there is still a tremendous opportunity for forward-thinking companies and management to have a significant positive impact on their public perception by encouraging an enlightened blogging policy, encouraging openness both within and outside of the organization. </p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/">Sifry's Alerts</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Insightful SOA and Enterprise Architecture Article - Unifying Data, Documents, and Processes
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-18#631
2004-10-18T23:05:07Z
<p> <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/ea/magazine/summer2004/features/blublinsky/">Here</a> is a great (albeit belatedly discovered on my part) article on</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Making Web 2.0 Business Opportunities a Reality
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-15#629
2004-10-16T02:03:00Z
<p> <a href="http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:XKanbAVpZ0YJ:www.computer-user.com/articles/daily/8,10,1,1011,04.html+kingsley+web+2.0+computeruser.com&hl=en">Here</a> is an article (by me) about a cost-effect route for expoiting Web 2.0 business opportunities. As was the case in an earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=624">post</a>, this articles shed light on the shape and form of underlying server technology that's essential to making the promise of Web 2.0 a reality.</p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Wanted: Wiki + WebDAV = WikiFolders
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-15#630
2004-10-15T21:43:05Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://justin.chapweske.com/archives/000014.html">Wanted: Wiki + WebDAV = WikiFolders</a> In my opinion the two greatest advancements in web technologies in recent years have been WikiWikiWeb and WebDAV. Firstly, two predictions: Within the next 3 years more documents worldwide will be transferred and accessed via WebDAV than FTP, NFS, and...... </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.lazyweb.org/">Lazyweb</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
XML Lets Loose the Data Stream
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-07#627
2004-10-07T19:47:03Z
<p>I just read a</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Virtuoso gets Second Place for Enterprise Information Integration
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-07#626
2004-10-07T19:16:27Z
<p>Hmm... I just found out that <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com">Virtuoso</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What is the platform?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-05#624
2004-10-05T16:31:14Z
<p>I came across an interesting piece by Adam Bosworth titled "<a href="http://www.adambosworth.net/archives/000026.html">What is the platform?</a>"</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Mouth Wide Shut: Underpromise and Overdeliver
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-10-01#623
2004-10-01T19:39:25Z
<p dir="ltr">Another great piece from Dare. I really have nothing to add to this, it speaks volumes and covers a myriad of frontiers (hopefully you will spot them all).</p> <p dir="ltr">Enjoy!</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>In a post entitled <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/09/23.html#a8295">When will Scoble earn his Longhorn pay?</a> </p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Continued: What is an ESB?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-09-22#622
2004-09-22T15:24:11Z
<p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial"> Buzzword decibels are rising on the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), and as per usual in our industry there is a shortage of concise and unadulterated descriptions of ESB the product moniker and its value proposition.</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: 10.0pt; font-family: Arial"></span> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Loosely-coupled systems in action
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-09-19#619
2004-09-19T21:43:21Z
<a href="http://socialarchitect.typepad.com/musings/2004/09/looselycoupled_.html">Loosely-coupled systems in action</a> <xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3665382.stm">The BBC reports on a new service that lets people track down the nearest hotspot using a mobile phone.</xhtml:a> Users find a local wi-fi hotspot by sending a text message to a short code. Sounds simple and useful. I love services that leverage loosely-coupled systems to create a better experience. </xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://socialarchitect.typepad.com/musings/">musings of a social architect</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Cool PC-PC ConnectionTechnology
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-09-17#618
2004-09-17T15:26:21Z
<p> <a href="http://www.glance.net/site/whatis/whatis.asp">Glance</a> is a cool service and technology for sharing your desktop (demos, support, etc.) with others via the Internet.</p> <p>From their web site:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>At Glance Networks, we believe people need a simple way to work together at a distance. <br /> <br />Each day, people send billions of emails and faxes to each other. They talk together on phone for billions of minutes. While there is always a need for improved communication tools, traditional web and video conferencing solutions are often too complex, too over-featured and too expensive. Customers want a solution they can master in under a minute. It must connect instantly and reliably to anyone from anywhere on the Internet. <br /> <br />To that end, we built a simple, affordable service for showing live PC screens over the Internet. </p> <p>Phone any friend or business associate and click Glance to show them your live PC screen. Demonstrate your software. Go over a spreadsheet. Give a presentation. Show a design. Review a document. Provide technical help. Close a sale. Every mouse movement and screen update you see, they see. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Cool! Imagine a fusion of this technolgy with <a href="http://www.skype.com/">Skype</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Virtualization A La Shyam
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-09-02#617
2004-09-02T05:53:52Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.patrickweb.com/weblog/archives/2004_08.html">Virtualization A La Shyam</a> Recently I wrote a short story about "<a href="http://patrickweb.com/weblog/categories/ebusiness/ve.html">virtualization</a>". Feedback was that it made a really complicated subject a bit simpler to understand. One reader, Shyam Verma, a software specialist from South Carolina, offered a reflection about the subject.</p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.patrickweb.com/weblog/">patrickWeb</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Is the Cost of Free Software Hurting Linux?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-09-01#616
2004-09-02T00:01:33Z
<p>The misuse and misunderstanding of the term *Free* as a marketing lever by many open source vendors appears to be</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Apple Repeating Past Mistakes?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-09-01#615
2004-09-01T21:27:58Z
<p>I came across an interesting <a href="http://www.technewsworld.com/story/35795.html">piece</a> today (albeit somewhat belated in blog-time)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
CEO Bloggers' Club launched
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-09-01#614
2004-09-01T20:28:49Z
<a href="http://nevon.typepad.com/nevon/2004/08/ceo_bloggers_cl.html">CEO Bloggers' Club launched</a> <p>Guillaume du Gardier has started a blog for CEOs.</p> <p>Launched from France, Guillaume says this initiative is expected to give CEOs around the globe a blog to share their experiences in blogging and off lines conferences, with the first to take place in Paris in early October.</p> <p>Two conditions to join the Club are required: being an entrepreneur, CEO, Founder, Owner AND being the regular author of a weblog.</p> <p> <a href="http://prplanet.typepad.com/grg/2004/08/launch_of_the_c.html">Guillaume du Gardier | Launch of the CEO Bloggers' Club</a> </p> <p> <a href="http://prplanet.typepad.com/ceobloggers/" title="CEO Bloggers' Club">CEO Bloggers' Club</a> </p> <p>See also: <a href="http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Resources/CEOBlogsList">The New PR Wiki | CEO Blogs List</a> </p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://nevon.typepad.com/nevon/">NevOn</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Transporting Atom Notifications over the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-08-26#612
2004-08-26T22:30:18Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Peter Saint-Andre, IETF Internet Draft</p> <p>On the Internet today, publication of periodically-updated resources is handled by means of standard technologies such as HTTP, and it is not envisioned that this will change since "The Atom Publishing Protocol"</p> <p>specifies the use of HTTP for publication. However, existing methods for learning that a resource has been updated are currently limited to "polling" for changes via HTTP, which is inherently inefficient. What is needed is a technology that can be relied on to "push" information only when a resource undergoes a state change, and only to those who are interested in learning about such state changes. This memo describes a method for notifying interested parties about changes in syndicated information encapsulated in the Atom feed format, where such notifications are delivered via an extension to the Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) for publish-subscribe functionality.</p> <p> <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/draft-saintandre-atompub-notify-00.txt"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/draft-saintandre-atompub-notify-00.txt</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also Atom Publishing Format and Protocol: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/atom.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/atom.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Is Google Web 2.0's Netscape?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-08-26#611
2004-08-26T21:52:30Z
<p>I put this piece together in response to another <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/CommentView.aspx?guid=5ab1ca87-b0df-4dd0-99b6-7730955620ab">stimulating post</a> by Dare Obasanjo titled "Is Google the Next Microsoft or the Next Netscape?". I changed the title of this post to project the fact that Web 2.0 provides the appropriate context (IMHO) for Dare's point re. "Web Site Stickiness". </p> <p>Stickiness is a defining characteristic of Web 1.0 . It's all about eyeballs (site visitors) which implied ultimately that all early Web business models ended up down the advertising route. </p> <p>I always felt that Web 1.0 was akin to having a crowd of people at your reception area seeking a look at your corporate brochures, and then someone realizes that you could start selling AD space in these brochures in response to the growing crowd size and frequency of congregation. The long-term folly of this approach is now obvious, as many organizations forgot their core value propositions (expressed via product offerings) in the process and wandered blindly down the AD model cul-de-sac, and we all know what happened down there.. </p> <p>Web 2.0 is taking shape (the inflection is in its latter stages), and the defining characteristics of Web 2.0 are: </p> <ol> <li>Fabric of Executable Endpoints <br /> </li> <li>Semantic Content (the RSS/RDF/Atom/FOAF semantic crumbs emerging from the Blogosphere are great examples of things to come re. XQuery queries over HTTP for instance) Migration from the Web Site (defined by static or dynamic HTML page generation) concept, to that of a "Web Point of Presence" (I don't know if this term will catch on, but the conceptual essence here is factual) that enables an organization to achieve the following: <br /> </li> <ul> <li>Package/catalog value proposition (product and services) using RSS/RDF/Atom <br /> </li> <li>Provide SOAP compliant Executable Endpoints (Web Services) for consuming value proposition (as opposed to being distracted by the AD model) <br /> </li> <li>Provide Web Services for consummating contracts associated with core value proposition Identification of internal efficiencies, new products/services that leverage Semantic Content and Web Services, and tangibly exploit: <br /> </li> <ul> <li>Composite Web Services construction from legacy monolithic application pools <br /> </li> <li>Standards based (e.g. BPEL) orchestration and integration of disparate composite services (across the Fabric referred to above) </li> </ul> </ul> </ol> <p>When you factor in all of the above, the real question is whether Google and others are equipped to exploit Web 2.0? To some degree, is the best answer at the current time as they have commenced the transition from "content only" web site to web platform (via the many Web Services initiatives that expose SOAP and REST interfaces to various services), but there is much more to this journey, and that's the devil in the "competitive landscape details". </p> <p>From my obviously biased perspective, I think <a href="http://virtuoso.openlinksw.com/">Virtuoso</a> and <a href="http://www.midrangeserver.com/two/two042804-story02.html">Yukon+WinFS</a> provide the server models for driving Web 2.0 points of presence (single server instances that implement multiple protocols). Thus, if Google, Yahoo! et al. aren't exploiting these or similar products, then they will be vulnerable over the long term to the competitve challenges that a Web 2.0 landscape will present. </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The MSDN Camp vs. The Raymond Chen Camp
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-08-26#610
2004-08-26T17:01:51Z
<p dir="ltr">Some soul searching commentary from one of Microsoft's better assets (IMHO). Read on..</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=264ebd72-2c31-42f6-93fd-41c273571646">The MSDN Camp vs. The Raymond Chen Camp</a> </p> <p>A few months ago in Joel Spolsky's</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Novell and IBM to Implement XForms in Mozilla
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-08-11#609
2004-08-11T16:10:53Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=5160">Novell and IBM to Implement XForms in Mozilla</a> </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/">mozillaZine</a>]</div> <div align="left">About time! Very good news.</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Interesting Intersection of Technology and Politics
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-08-05#607
2004-08-05T18:09:14Z
<p>The <a href="http://www.electoral-vote.com/index.html">Electoral Vote Predictor</a> is a great example of a site aligning the bottom-line political issue of the moment: the U.S. presidential elections, with the bottom line data representation technology of the moment: XML.</p> <p>The site has an <a href="http://www.electoral-vote.com/index.rss">RSS</a> Feed (but not RSS auto-discovery), its data is <a href="http://www.electoral-vote.com/aug/aug05.xls">available</a> in Excel format (why not XML? This is really a "Save As" issue these days from Excel). </p> <p>Great site! But it could even be better if XML was used as the data format as opposed to Excel. It would then become a major data source for a myriad of innovative XML data consumption and repurposing demos etc.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Cool User Agent Switch Utility for FireFox/Mozilla
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-08-02#606
2004-08-02T18:52:15Z
<p>I was trying to obtain some information relating to the latest developments in the world of <a href="http://www.xbrl.org">XBRL</a> (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) a week ago, and to my shock and horror I discovered that the XBRL's consortiums web is now IE specific (I don't even want to go into how ironic this is!). </p> <p>Well, for anyone else encountering these IE specific pages (unfortunately there are numerous), <a href="http://www.chrispederick.myacen.com/work/firefox/useragentswitcher/">here</a> is a utility that will unshackle your Web Browsing experience. It does the obvious, which is provide IE user agent credentials to</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
RealNetworks not so hot at hacking?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-08-02#605
2004-08-02T16:36:30Z
<a href="http://www.engadget.com/entry/8266386741773617/">RealNetworks not so hot at hacking?</a> <a href="http://yourtech.typepad.com/main/2004/07/real_ipod_hairp.html"><img align="right" alt="4G iPod" border="0" height="170" hspace="4" src="http://www.weblogsinc.com/common/images/1523176874342620.jpg?0.3609912717025775" vspace="12" width="100" /></a> <p>Apple may not have to bother suing RealNetworks after all, since it sounds like RealNetwork’s efforts to “hack” the iPod so it’ll play songs downloaded from their online music store might not have been as successful as they’d hoped. Yeah, we saw RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser on CNN the other day showing it off, so we’re sure they’ve gotten to work just fine for them, but out in the real world Julio Ojeda-Zapata actually tried this out and found that while Real’s software detected both his new 4G iPod and his iPod mini just fine, he couldn’t get any of the songs he bought from RealNetworks’ store to work on either player. Anyone else take the plunge and been successful?</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.engadget.com/">Engadget</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Why Software Patents Exist: Legal Fees
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-08-02#604
2004-08-02T14:50:05Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20040802/0051217.shtml">Why Software Patents Exist: Legal Fees</a> <b>John</b> has submitted this somewhat disturbing, if not at all surprising, "anonymous insider's account" of a software company that is <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/07/30/1091080437270.html?oneclick=true">ramping up their patent efforts</a>, after another company beat them in a lawsuit over patents, and the company began to realize just how valuable patents were in that sense -- if not actually for the purpose of innovation. The clear point is that patents do little to help innovation, often do quite a bit to harm innovation, but <i>do</i> keep the lawyers quite happy. Software engineers are told to come up with just about anything that might possibly be patentable, and the engineer in question does so -- coming up with nearly 20 patents in a matter of days. The engineer admits that all would be pretty obvious to any "competent worker in our field," but all were gleefully accepted by the lawyers. The engineer points out that these patents alone likely created over a $1 million worth of legal expenses -- money that is not being spent on actual research and development any more. Despite the fact that the "any competent worker" point should make these patents completely invalid the lawyers <i>actively</i> point out that the patent examiners aren't smart enough to know any better: "Look, if the examiners were any good they'd be in industry, so you don't have too much to worry about." Meanwhile, the engineer notes that all of the innovation in the industry seems to be coming from areas where there are no patents. It is just an anecdotal story, but, it's one that seems to be getting repeated an awful lot in the software industry. If the entire point of the patent system is to promote innovation, and time and time against the opposite has been shown to be true, why isn't anyone reforming the patent system (and, even worse, why are other countries making their patent systems more like ours)? <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web luminaries hand $60 million to Tulane
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-30#603
2004-07-30T23:35:16Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://news.com.com/Web+luminaries+hand+%2460+million+to+Tulane/2100-1023_3-5290723.html?part=rss&tag=5290723&subj=news.1023.20">Web luminaries hand $60 million to Tulane</a> Netscape co-founder Jim Clark and Yahoo co-founder David Filo dig deep for their alma mater. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://news.com.com/">CNET News.com</a>]</div> <div align="left">Great Stuff! </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Open Source and Databases
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-30#602
2004-07-30T23:30:18Z
<p>I just stumbled across this <a href="http://news.com.com/IBM+to+make+Java+database+open+source/2100-7344-5291025.html?part=dht&tag=ntop">piece</a> from news.com. The following</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
'Stunned' Apple rails against Real's iPod move
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-29#601
2004-07-29T20:30:11Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://news.com.com/%27Stunned%27+Apple+rails+against+Real%27s+iPod+move/2100-1041_3-5288378.html?part=rss&tag=5288378&subj=news.1041.20">'Stunned' Apple rails against Real's iPod move</a> Threatens to silence attempts to play music on the iPod using RealNetworks' Harmony software. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://news.com.com/">CNET News.com</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Bloglines
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-26#600
2004-07-26T19:02:19Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/07/25.html#a1047">Bloglines</a> <p>Since last fall, I've been recommending <a href="http://www.blogines.com/">Bloglines</a> to first-timers as the fastest and easiest introduction to the subscription side of the blogosphere. Remarkably, this same application also meets the needs of some of the most <a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1716.html">advanced</a> <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001829.html">users</a>. I've now added myself to that list. Hats off to <a href="http://www.wingedpig.com/">Mark Fletcher</a> for putting all the pieces together in such a masterful way. </p> <p>What goes around comes around. Five years ago, centralized feed aggregators -- my.netscape.com and my.userland.com -- were the only game in town. Fat-client feedreaders only arrived on the scene later. Because of the well-known rich-versus-reach tradeoffs, I never really settled in with one of those. Most of the time I've used the Radio UserLand reader. It is browser-based, and it normally points to localhost, but I've been parking Radio UserLand on a secure server so that I can read the feeds it aggregates for me from anywhere. </p> <p>Bloglines takes that idea and runs with it. Like the Radio UserLand reader, it supports the all-important (to me) consolidated view of new items. But its two-pane interface also shows me the list of feeds, highlighting those with new entries, so you can switch between a linear of scan of all new items and random access to particular feeds. Once you've read an item it vanishes, but you can recall already-read items like so: </p> <p align="center"> </p> <p>If a month's worth of some blog's entries produces too much stuff to easily scan, you can switch that blog to a titles-only view. The titles expand to reveal all the content transmitted in the feed for that item. </p> <p>I haven't gotten around to organizing my feeds into folders, the way <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/public/yoz">other</a> <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/public/marccanter">users</a> of Bloglines do, but I've poked around enough to see that Bloglines, like Zope, handles foldering about as well as you can in a Web UI -- which is to say, well enough. With an intelligent local cache it could be really good; more on that later. </p> <p>Bloglines does two kinds of data mining that are especially noteworthy. First, it counts and reports the number of Bloglines users subscribed to each blog. In the case of <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/preview?siteid=297235">Jonathan Schwartz's weblog</a>, for example, there are (as of this moment) <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/userdir?siteid=297235">253 subscribers</a>. </p> <p>Second, Bloglines is currently managing references to items more effectively than the competition. I was curious, for example, to gauge the reaction to the latest salvo in Schwartz's ongoing campaign to turn up the heat on Red Hat. Bloglines reports <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/citations?siteid=297235&itemid=14" target="_blank" title="References To This Item From Other Blogs">10 References</a>. In this case, the comparable query on Feedster yields a <a href="http://feedster.net//links.php?url=http%3A//blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan/20040721%23competing_against_a_social_movement">comparable result</a>, but on the whole I'm finding Bloglines' assembly of conversations to be more reliable than Feedster's (which, however, is still marked as 'beta'). Meanwhile Technorati, though it casts a much wider net than either, is <a href="http://www.technorati.com/cosmos/search.html?url=http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/jonathan/20040721#competing_against_a_social_movement">currently struggling</a> with conversation assembly. </p> <p>I love how Bloglines weaves everything together to create a dense web of information. For example, the list of <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/userdir?siteid=297235">subscribers to the Schwartz blog</a> includes: <i><a href="http://www.bloglines.com/public/judell">judell</a> - subscribed since July 23, 2004</i>. Click that link and you'll see my Bloglines subscriptions. Which you can <a href="http://www.bloglines.com/export?id=judell">export</a> and then -- if you'd like to see the world through my filter -- turn around and import. </p> <p>Moving my 265 subscriptions into Bloglines wasn't a complete no-brainer. I imported my <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/mySubscriptions.opml">Radio UserLand-generated OPML file</a> without any trouble, but catching up on unread items -- that is, marking all of each feed's sometimes lengthy history of items as having been read -- was painful. In theory you can do that by clicking once on the top-level folder containing all the feeds, which generates the consolidated view of unread items. In practice, that kept timing out. I finally had to touch a number of the larger feeds, one after another, in order to get everything caught up. A <b>Catch Up All Feeds</b> feature would solve this problem. </p> <p>Another feature I'd love to see is <b>Move To Next Unread Item</b> -- wired to a link in the HTML UI, or to a keystroke, or ideally both. </p> <p>Finally, I'd love it if Bloglines cached everything in a local database, not only for offline reading but also to make the UI more responsive and to accelerate queries that reach back into the archive. </p> <p>Like Gmail, Bloglines is the kind of Web application that surprises you with what it can do, and makes you crave more. Some argue that to satisfy that craving, you'll need to abandon the browser and switch to RIA (rich Internet application) technology -- Flash, Java, Avalon (someday), whatever. Others are concluding that perhaps the 80/20 solution that the browser is today can become a 90/10 or 95/5 solution tomorrow with some incremental changes. </p> <p>Dare Obasanjo wondered, over the weekend, "What is Google building?" He wrote: </p> <blockquote class="personQuote DareObasanjo">In the past couple of months Google has hired four people who used to work on Internet Explorer in various capacities [especially its XML support] who then moved to BEA; <a href="http://davidbau.com/about/david_bau.html">David Bau</a>, <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/1303">Rod Chavez</a>, <a href="http://gary.burd.info/">Gary Burd</a> and most recently <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1627319,00.asp">Adam Bosworth</a>. A number of my coworkers used to work with these guys since our team, the Microsoft XML team, was once part of the Internet Explorer team. It's been interesting chatting in the hallways with folks contemplating what Google would want to build that requires folks with a background in building XML data access technologies both on the client side, Internet Explorer and on the server, BEA's WebLogic. [<a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=1524b97e-f8b1-4e42-ac07-455337f299b4">Dare Obasanjo</a>] </blockquote>It seems pretty clear to me. Web applications such as Gmail and Bloglines are already hard to beat. With a touch of <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/06/15.html#a1023">alchemy</a> they just might become unstoppable. <p></p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Software that lasts 200 years
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-22#597
2004-07-22T19:12:27Z
<a href="http://danbricklin.com/log/2004_06_29.htm#200years">Software that lasts 200 years</a> I just posted a new essay that grew out of my exposure to the state of Massachusetts' work on open source and open standards, as well as from my thinking about open source and software development business models in general.<br /> <br />It looks like the structure and culture of a typical prepackaged software company is not attuned to the long-term needs of society for software that is part of its infrastructure. This essay discusses the ecosystem needed for development that better meets those needs.<br /> <br />Read "<a href="http://www.bricklin.com/200yearsoftware.htm">Software That Lasts 200 Years</a>". <div align="right">[via <a href="http://danbricklin.com/log">Dan Bricklin's Log</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
James Gosling, Java, and Java Open Source Interview
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-14#596
2004-07-14T21:53:13Z
<font size="2"> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr">InfoWorld Editor at Large Paul Krill spoke with James Gosling at the 2004 JavaOne Conference last week about Java, including the current open source controversy. Gosling: "Part of me feels like we already have open sourced [Java]. If you go to the java.sun.com Web site, you can download all of the sources and you can build your own copy of J2SE and you can edit it and play with it and do all kinds of stuff. There's a catch, though, which is that if you want to redistribute it, you have to pass the test suites, and the test suites are all about compatibility.</p> <p>And so many people in the open source community believe that the compatibility test requirements mean it's not open source right there. We feel like we're sort of surrounded by many conflicting interests, and trying to make all these different parties happy is just nutty. There are researchers at universities that just want to play. There are platform vendors that want to be able to do whatever they want. There are platform vendors who sort of maliciously believe that interoperability is a bad thing. There are developers who really value having a stable, reliable system. There are all these constituencies and you try to figure out how many there [are] in these populations. The size and importance of the community that values stability and compatibility and interoperability seems to be the largest. The population that is the sort of open source zealots tend to be the loudest.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/08/HNgosling_1.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/08/HNgosling_1.html</font> </u> </a> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The long and short of this interview is another perspective on the inextricable, and increasingly</p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The truth about blogging [Julian "Geek" Guppy]
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-10#593
2004-07-10T21:46:22Z
<a href="http://www.ecademy.com/node.php?id=26933">The truth about blogging [Julian "Geek" Guppy]</a> <img alt="Image" src="http://www.hki-systems.co.uk/edit/images/uf006832.gif" /> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=blog">Ecademy: user blogs</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Windows 911: Michael Moore takes a closer look at Microsoft
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-09#590
2004-07-10T01:54:45Z
<p>Here's one for the humour bucket! </p> <p>The other day I was <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=577">wondering</a> if a Michael Moore type documentary on the state of our industry (past, present, and future) was required to wake up an increasingly herd like IT populace. Well, guess what? Here it is courtesy of the <a href="http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/">Joy of Tech</a>.</p> <p> <img align="baseline" alt="" border="0" hspace="0" src="http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyimages/574.png" /> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Contd: IE and Browser Level Security Problems
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-09#660
2004-07-09T17:50:04Z
eWeek provides a <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1621578,00.asp?kc=ewnws070904dtx1k0200599">summary</a> the recent <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/WindowsXP/expertzone/chats/default.mspx">online discussion </a>about IE hosted by Microsoft. The piece also highlights <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1621438,00.asp">security vulnerabilities</a> recently found in the Windows version of Mozilla (and here is a <a href="http://update.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=154">link</a> to the fix; now that's agility!).
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Channel 9 stuff - VB 2005 catches up with ACCESS 2000
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-08#588
2004-07-09T03:41:26Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/07/07.html#a7953">Channel 9 stuff</a> </p> <p>Speaking of Channel 9, today we put up a video of Robert Green, of the Visual Basic team. <a href="http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=12676">He demos the new data features in the next version</a>. Cool stuff. I've been noticing a trend that our viewers seem to like demos and tours. So, I'll try to get more of those up.</p> <p>That reminds me, would it be interesting for the five guys on the Channel 9 team to give you a walking tour of Microsoft's main campus?</p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Architecture of the World Wide Web, First Edition W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG), Working Draft
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-07#587
2004-07-07T21:52:08Z
<font size="2"> <p>From my daily <a href="http://www.oasis-open.org">Oasis</a> News Feed:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Addressing a selection of Last Call issues, the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) has released a updated Working Draft of the Architecture of the World Wide Web, First Edition. The document is written for Web developers, implementers, content authors and publishers.</p> <p>It describes the properties that are desired of the Web and the design choices that have been made to achieve them. Web architecture includes the definition of the information space in terms of identification and representation of its contents, and of the protocols that support the interaction of agents in an information system making use of the space.</p> <p>Web architecture is influenced by social requirements and software engineering principles. These lead to design choices and constraints on the behavior of systems that use the Web in order to achieve desired properties of the shared information space: efficiency, scalability, and the potential for indefinite growth across languages, cultures, and media. Good practice by agents in the system is also important to the success of the system.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-webarch-20040705/"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-webarch-20040705/</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also the TAG Home Page: <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </blockquote> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
History leading up to today's IE Security and Backwardness Debacle
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-07#584
2004-07-07T19:30:28Z
<p>Another <a href="http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5142439-1.html">insightful piece</a> on the same painful subject of IE and the costs of vendor monoculture. The IE debacle is an important forebearer of what's to come for those who hope this is simply a storm in a tea cup. It isn't inconceivable that a Longhorn upgrade wouldn't be pitched as the way out of this deepening dysfunctional-web quagmire. Unfortunately many will bite if history and current mindset is a barometer :-(</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Patch and Pray: Microsoft's Patchwork Mess
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-05#583
2004-07-05T23:05:25Z
<font size="2"> <p>By David Berlind, CNET News.com</p> <p>In this article ZDNet's David Berlind explains the flaws in Microsoft's patch process. After the Download.Ject attack, Microsoft on Friday released a "configuration change" it wants people to apply to installations of the Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 operating systems. The software behemoth announced the move in a bid to shut down any additional exploitation of a vulnerability that affects Windows-based desktop and notebook PCs. Microsoft says that users who have beta versions of its forthcoming Service Pack 2 for Windows XP installed are already protected. But the latest episode also points at the time constraints of dealing with malicious code. Crucial days -- if not hours -- can elapse between the moment vulnerabilities surface on the Internet and the time vendors get around to releasing patches and configuration changes.</p> <p> <a href="http://news.com.com/2010-1009-5256301.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://news.com.com/2010-1009-5256301.html</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also the MS partial patch: <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5256297.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://news.com.com/2100-1002_3-5256297.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Note to MSDN: make friends with the Lazy Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-02#582
2004-07-02T22:46:30Z
<p>Here is yet another angle (on my earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=576">post</a>) on what can be unravelled when one digs closer into what is happening with IE, the Web, and Microsoft's perpetual (it seems), struggles with</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Experts Debate Security Through Diversity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-02#581
2004-07-02T22:33:26Z
<font size="2"> <p dir="ltr">Interesting <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/01/HNsecuritydebate_1.html">piece</a> by Tom Krazit of InfoWorld. This sheds another perspective on the concerns in my earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=576">post.</a> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>The sheer number of worms and viruses directed at Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browser have many in the computer industry wondering whether we would all be more secure if more users relied on alternatives to Microsoft's products. Most experts in attendance at the Usenix 2004 conference commented that they would prefer a diverse group of operating system and Web browser software. A monoculture, whether it be in biological terms or in computing terms, has been shown to be inherently dangerous to members of that group, said Dan Geer, currently the chief scientist at Verdasys Inc. Geer was formerly chief technical officer at security company @stake Inc. until he was fired last year for authoring a report critical of Microsoft's dominance of the computing industry and the insecurity of its products that stems from that position; Microsoft is an @stake client. Geer called the vulnerabilities in Microsoft's products "a national-security issue," claiming the issue is far too important to the health of the Internet to leave up to the software vendors themselves.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/01/HNsecuritydebate_1.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/01/HNsecuritydebate_1.html</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also CERT: <a href="http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22103407"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22103407</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </blockquote> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Experts Debate Security Through Diversity
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-02#580
2004-07-02T22:24:51Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Tom Krazit, InfoWorld</p> <p>The sheer number of worms and viruses directed at Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system and Internet Explorer browser have many in the computer industry wondering whether we would all be more secure if more users relied on alternatives to Microsoft's products. Most experts in attendance at the Usenix 2004 conference commented that they would prefer a diverse group of operating system and Web browser software. A monoculture, whether it be in biological terms or in computing terms, has been shown to be inherently dangerous to members of that group, said Dan Geer, currently the chief scientist at Verdasys Inc. Geer was formerly chief technical officer at security company @stake Inc. until he was fired last year for authoring a report critical of Microsoft's dominance of the computing industry and the insecurity of its products that stems from that position; Microsoft is an @stake client. Geer called the vulnerabilities in Microsoft's products "a national-security issue," claiming the issue is far too important to the health of the Internet to leave up to the software vendors themselves.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/01/HNsecuritydebate_1.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/07/01/HNsecuritydebate_1.html</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also CERT: <a href="http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22103407"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.internetweek.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22103407</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
ListGarden 1.0 released
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-02#579
2004-07-02T22:06:02Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://danbricklin.com/log/2004_06_29.htm#listgarden1">ListGarden 1.0 released</a> I've just posted the 1.0 version of my ListGarden™ RSS Generator Program. The source code has been released under the GNU GPL license, and it is available for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, generic Perl, and server-CGI use. A new feature has been added since the beta release: In addition to creating the XML RSS file, it can also produce an HTML file with the same information as the XML. I discuss RSS feeds in general in this weblog post, as well as the issue of private RSS feeds. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://danbricklin.com/log">Dan Bricklin's Log</a>]</div> <div align="left">Here's how it works:</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Lazy Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-02#578
2004-07-02T21:08:00Z
<p>From the <a href="http://iawiki.net/LazyWeb">lazyweb</a> home page:</p> <p>Do you have an idea that you think others might be able to solve?<br />Make a <a href="http://iawiki.net/LazyWeb">LazyWeb</a> request by writing it on your own blog, and then sending a Trackback ping to the new url: <em>http://www.lazyweb.org/lazywebtb.cgi</em> </p> <p>Just linking to this page usually works. The LazyWeb links back to you, so make sure you have somewhere for people to leave comments. </p> <p>Cool!</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft Unveils New MSN Search -- Really?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-02#577
2004-07-02T17:00:45Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/archives/20040701_microsoft_unveils_new_msn_search.phtml">Microsoft Unveils New MSN Search</a> “This morning, Microsoft unveiled its new MSN Search portal, a Web site that looks suspiciously similar to that of market leader Google. Microsoft’s search engine plans had been widely reported, but few had expected the new MSN Search to so closely resemble Google.com, especially after the Microsoft unit’s last major product, the MSN toolbar for Internet Explorer (IE), had so closely resembled Google’s toolbar. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but does site this go a bit too far?” </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/">Lockergnome's Tech News Watch</a>]</div> <div align="left"> <p dir="ltr">What I don't understand is why Google writes its toolbars for IE first??? What about the others? This ain't rocket science! What does it take? Do we need Micheal Moore to actually put together a documentary on the software industry before users, decision makers, and technology leaders get it!</p> <p dir="ltr">I have no problem with any technology from any vendor if the so goal is to genuinely innovate with value creation in mind, and the reward being market place ubiquity etc.. The trouble is that this simply isn't the norm today, and we don't seem to understand this (how ever many times we see the same movie that has been playing since the early nineties).</p> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Internet Explorer Frame Injection Vulnerability
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-02#576
2004-07-02T16:54:24Z
<p dir="ltr">All I want to know is why we have to get this far in order to understand the incoherence of technology vendor monoculture? I still don't even understand why any productivity seeking web user would have IE as their desktop browser (at all, bar the littany of ill served IE only sites, Yuck!).</p> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://www.mozilla.org">Mozilla,</a> <a href="http://www.mozilla.org">FireFox</a>, <a href="http://www.opera.com">Opera</a> et al. are all viable alternatives. Even better, get with the Web 2.0 program using the emerging pool of <a href="http://www.lights.com/weblogs/rss.html">RSS Readers / Web Browser hybrids </a>(note: unfortunately many sill use IE for browsing by default).</p> <p dir="ltr">What really gets to me is that the fact that once the ill perceived destruction of Netscape was achieved, Microsoft went into predictable mode mode with IE (nothing to kill so why innovate, I mean we only innovate to kill products that potentially re-route users away from the Windows Lock-in / technology cul-de-sac etc..).</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/archives/20040702_internet_explorer_frame_injection_vulnerability.phtml">Internet Explorer Frame Injection Vulnerability</a> âMark Laurence has discovered a 6 year old vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer, allowing malicious people to spoof the content of websites. The problem is that Internet Explorer doesnât check if a target frame belongs to a website containing a malicious link, which therefore doesnât prevent one browser window from loading content in a named frame in another window. Successful exploitation allows a malicious website to load arbitrary content in an arbitrary frame in another browser window owned by e.g. a trusted site. Secunia has constructed a test, which can be used to check if your browser is affected by this issue. This vulnerability is similar to an old vulnerability fixed by MS98-020 in Internet Explorer version 3 and 4. The vulnerability has been confirmed in a fully patched Internet Explorer 6 running on Microsoft Windows XP. Other versions of Internet Explorer may also be affected. Solution: Disable the following security setting: âNavigate sub-frames across different domainsâ. [Tools/Internet Options/Security tab in an Internet Explorer windows or Internet Options/Security tab from Control Panel.] Do not visit or follow links from untrusted websites.â </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/">Lockergnome's Tech News Watch</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web E-Mail: The New Hard Disk
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-01#574
2004-07-01T22:38:19Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/002116.html">Web E-Mail: The New Hard Disk</a> </p> <p>..</p> <p>If this "<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/1262">Internet Operating System</a>" and <a href="http://www.web2con.com/">Web 2.0</a> stuff is really happening, I think I've just found the filesystem we'll all be using--in one form or another.</p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/">Jeremy Zawodny's blog</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
10 Commandments For Building A Real-Time Enterprise
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-07-01#571
2004-07-01T16:43:12Z
<p>I have just read a great <a href="http://www.businessintegrationjournal.com/Article.asp?ArticleID=954&DepartmentID=6">article</a> by <a href="http://www.datamirror.com/corporation/management.aspx#nigel">Nigel Stokes </a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Dashboard, Konfabulator differences becoming clearer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-30#570
2004-06-30T20:52:44Z
<a href="http://www.macminute.com/2004/06/30/gruber">Dashboard, Konfabulator differences becoming clearer</a> Mac pundit John Gruber has written an excellent overview of the current snafu concerning Apple's new Dashboard and Arlo Rose's Konfabulator... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.macminute.com/">MacMinute</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Are You a Google Away from Being Amazoned?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-30#1031
2004-06-30T19:59:39Z
<font size="2"> </font> <p dir="ltr"> <font size="2">This <a href="http://sdtimes.com/opinions/guestview_104.htm">piece</a> from SD Times that I simply do not agree with! Lead me to the question: Are you a "google" away from being "amazoned".</font> </p> <font size="2"> </font> <p dir="ltr"> <font size="2">Here is the excerpt in SD times that irked me so much:</font> </p> <font size="2"> </font> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"> <font size="2"> </font> <p> <font size="2">Eric Newcomer, CTO of Iona Technologies PLC, argues that <u>avoiding vendor lock-in is not the most important role played by standards</u>. "We hear a lot about the importance of standards. And the standards argument usually centers on guarding against vendor lock-in, since lock-in can be an expensive prospect. You will even find that most vendors readily acknowledge this benefit. While I do not dispute that avoiding vendor lock-in is of some importance, I do argue that of far more significance is the role industry standards play in reducing the overall cost of developing software and increasing developer productivity, especially for enterprise applications. What's needed is a common way of programming to any language or operating system, and a common way of communicating between any two or more programs. Heterogeneous hardware, operating- system and software environments are the main problems that businesses have, and will continue to have into the foreseeable future.</font> </p> </blockquote> <font size="2"> </font> <p></p> <font size="2"> </font> <p dir="ltr"> <font size="2">The benefit of standards is to prevent Lock-in, this might be vendor or technology lock-in. There is a lot of hype around Real-Time Enterprise vision, and most technology vendors (OpenLink included) have realization of this vision as part of their value proposition. Any enterprise that is locked into a technology or vendor is simply abdicating a timeless responsibility to attain the enterprise agility levels espoused by the Real-Time Enterprise vision. </font> </p> <font size="2"> </font> <p dir="ltr"> <font size="2">The real cost of engaging any technology or vendor is all about the long term impact on the customers ability; the ability to respond to market inflections via existing and future IT infrastructure. </font> </p> <font size="2"> </font> <p dir="ltr"> <font size="2">A standards based IT infrastructure enables a company to dispose of those components that impede its ability to sustain desired agilitiy levels. Put differently, standards enable companies to assemble IT infrastructure from an increasingly heterogeneous pool of vendors. Thus, a company should be able to mix and match "best of class" IT infrastructure components in line with Enterprise Agility goals -something that is only attainable via a commitment to standards based infrastructure components in the first place.</font> </p> <font size="2"> </font> <p dir="ltr"> <font size="2">An enterprise cannot be locked into a database, operating system, programming language, or technolgy religion, and expect to be agile. Failure to engage standards ultimately implies that you are a "google" away from being "amazoned" in your chosen market place. Be forewarned!<br /> </font> </p>
2006-09-01T17:06:14-04:00
Are You a Google Away from Being Amazoned?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-30#569
2004-06-30T19:59:39Z
<font size="2"> <p dir="ltr">This <a href="http://sdtimes.com/opinions/guestview_104.htm">piece</a> from SD Times that I simply do not agree with! Lead me to the question: Are you a "google" away from being "amazoned".</p> <p dir="ltr">Here is the excerpt in SD times that irked me so much:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Eric Newcomer, CTO of Iona Technologies PLC, argues that <u>avoiding vendor lock-in is not the most important role played by standards</u>. "We hear a lot about the importance of standards. And the standards argument usually centers on guarding against vendor lock-in, since lock-in can be an expensive prospect. You will even find that most vendors readily acknowledge this benefit. While I do not dispute that avoiding vendor lock-in is of some importance, I do argue that of far more significance is the role industry standards play in reducing the overall cost of developing software and increasing developer productivity, especially for enterprise applications. What's needed is a common way of programming to any language or operating system, and a common way of communicating between any two or more programs. Heterogeneous hardware, operating- system and software environments are the main problems that businesses have, and will continue to have into the foreseeable future.</p> </blockquote> <p></p> <p dir="ltr">The benefit of standards is to prevent Lock-in, this might be vendor or technology lock-in. There is a lot of hype around Real-Time Enterprise vision, and most technology vendors (OpenLink included) have realization of this vision as part of their value proposition. Any enterprise that is locked into a technology or vendor is simply abdicating a timeless responsibility to attain the enterprise agility levels espoused by the Real-Time Enterprise vision. </p> <p dir="ltr">The real cost of engaging any technology or vendor is all about the long term impact on the customers ability; the ability to respond to market inflections via existing and future IT infrastructure. </p> <p dir="ltr">A standards based IT infrastructure enables a company to dispose of those components that impede its ability to sustain desired agilitiy levels. Put differently, standards enable companies to assemble IT infrastructure from an increasingly heterogeneous pool of vendors. Thus, a company should be able to mix and match "best of class" IT infrastructure components in line with Enterprise Agility goals -something that is only attainable via a commitment to standards based infrastructure components in the first place.</p> <p dir="ltr">An enterprise cannot be locked into an database, operating system, programming language, or technolgy religion and expect to be agile. Failure to engage standards ultimately implies that you are a "google" away from being "amazoned" in your chosen market place.</p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Mac OS X Tiger is a copycat, claims developer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-29#568
2004-06-30T00:19:11Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.macminute.com/2004/06/28/copycat">Mac OS X Tiger is a copycat, claims developer</a> While Apple is expecting Microsoft to mimic Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, one developer says the new Mac operating system is the one doing the copying... [via <a href="http://www.macminute.com/">MacMinute</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">A more important aspect of this post is the changing face of the Web Client/ OS. What I mean by this is the gradual decomposition of the user agent monlith (browser for instance) into <a href="http://www.konfabulator.com/">composite services </a>that will increasing communicate with services over the net. </p> <p dir="ltr"></p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
As Blogging Icons Mend Fences, GPLed Blog Tools Reap Buzz
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-24#567
2004-06-25T02:57:57Z
<a href="http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/06/21/as_blogging_icons_mend_fences_gpled_blog_tools_reap_buzz.html">As Blogging Icons Mend Fences, GPLed Blog Tools Reap Buzz</a> Blogging icons Dave Winer and Six Apart took steps late last week to defuse separate controversies illustrating how bloggers hooked on freebies can become a management challenge. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://news.netcraft.com/">Netcraft</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
People Search on Mobile Phones?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-24#564
2004-06-25T00:53:58Z
<xhtml:div xmlns:xhtml="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <xhtml:p> <xhtml:a href="http://www.hardwarezone.com/news/view.php?cid=9&id=15844">MOBILE USERS IN SINGAPORE MAKE NEW FRIENDS WITH BEDD</xhtml:a> </xhtml:p> <xhtml:blockquote>BEDD, a new communities application that is phone-to-phone not using any server and utilizing wireless Bluetooth technology, is literally bringing people together. “It’s very thrilling to see user’s reactions just after they receive the software and start filling out their own profiles, and having so many potential matches start pouring into their phones. Even more exciting is the rush of contacting the other person for the first time,” says Carlton. <xhtml:p>“The BEDD software is fun for the end user because it’s carrying the most demanded content in the world - people content. Content about who you are and about what you want… content about you!” The fact that this is a revolutionary concept was further endorsed this week when Nokia’s Series 60 Platform named BEDD “Application of the Week.”</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>BEDD, as result of creating a new mobile social medium, also gives service providers and handset manufacturers something to look forward to: user’s fee revenue, network traffic revenue, increased handset sales revenue and ultimately the carrying, distribution and propagation of third party content - both mobile-to-mobile and fixed-point to mobile.</xhtml:p> <xhtml:p>“The possibilities of finding, communicating and interacting with other people, and finding products, have now moved from the traditional medium of newspapers and the Internet to the mobile phone,” says CTO Olle Bliding. </xhtml:p> </xhtml:blockquote> <xhtml:p></xhtml:p> </xhtml:div> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://socialarchitect.typepad.com/musings/">musings of a social architect</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Google PC & BlogTelepathy
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-22#563
2004-06-22T20:09:20Z
<p dir="ltr">I was on a conference call with the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> product manager about the opportunities WinFS and RDF Storage provide regarding yet another attempt to get</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Mozilla and Opera Renew the Browser Battle
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-17#562
2004-06-17T22:04:41Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Kendall Grant Clark, <a href="http://www.xml.com">XML.com</a> </p> <p>I now find myself with a wealth of choices, not only on OS X -- where I use a freewheeling mixture of Mozilla, Safari, and Firefox daily -- but also on Linux. Windows users who continue to use Internet Explorer fall into one of several camps: they either don't know or don't care about web standards and compliance thereto; or they can't tell the difference between a bloated piece of software and a quality piece of software; or they can tell, but that difference is of no importance to them. If they don't know or care about IE's many defects, why should I? Because there are so many of them! In the ideal world technology standards would unify, rationalize, and perhaps create new markets. While this kind of positive benefit is sometimes achieved by bodies like ISO, W3C, and OASIS, in the real world, given Microsoft's total domination of desktop computing, that its browser does not excel ends up being not only a pain for users but also a pain for developers and publishers.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/06/16/deviant.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/06/16/deviant.html</font> </u> </a> </p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Will .Net Developers Get Mono?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-11#561
2004-06-11T19:29:42Z
<p>Some clarifications re. my comments in the recent interview with <a href="http://www.linuxinsider.com/">LinuxInsider</a>:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.linuxinsider.com/story/34338.html">Will .Net Developers Get Mono?</a> Novell has released a new version of Mono -- an open-source implementation of Microsoft's .Net framework -- and some early adopters are already singing its praises. "Mono makes Novell extremely relevant now," said Kingsley Idehen, president and CEO of OpenLink, which has just released Virtuoso 3.5, a database-oriented middleware product that was built using Mono. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">I meant making</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Dare Obsanjo's advice re. responding to Jon Udell's WinFS piece.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-10#560
2004-06-10T21:56:04Z
<p dir="ltr">A refreshing response from Dare, to an insightful post.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr">Jon Udell has</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Questions about Longhorn, part 3: Avalon's enterprise mission
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-09#559
2004-06-09T21:48:25Z
<p>A Blog post for the ages, from <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell">Jon Udell</a>. I expect to refer back to this post a number of times in the future, as I have the same concerns across related realms; for instance data access API usage and evolution.</p> <p>Enjoy!</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/06/09.html#a1019">Questions about Longhorn, part 3: Avalon's enterprise mission</a> </p> <p> <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/WinformsVsAvalon.jpg"><img alt="Image" align="right" hspace="6" src="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/WinformsVsAvalon_s.jpg" vspace="6" /> </a> The slide shown at the right comes from a presentation entitled <a href="http://www.ineta.org/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=2&tabid=41&FileID=125">Windows client roadmap</a>, given last month to the International .NET Association (<a href="http://www.ineta.org/DesktopDefault.aspx">INETA</a>). When I see slides like this, I always want to change the word "How" to "Why" -- so, in this case, the question would become "Why do I have to pick between Windows Forms and Avalon?" Similarly, MSDN's Channel 9 ran a video clip of Joe Beda, from the Avalon team, entitled <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/winme/0404/22606/Joe_Beda_prepare_300k.asx">How should developers prepare for Longhorn/Avalon?</a> that, at least for me, begs the question "Why should developers prepare for Longhorn/Avalon?" </p> <p>I've been looking at decision trees like the one shown in this slide for more than a decade. It's always the same yellow-on-blue PowerPoint template, and always the same message: here's how to manage your investment in current Windows technologies while preparing to assimilate the new stuff. For platform junkies, the internal logic can be compelling. The INETA presentation shows, for example, how it'll be possible to use XAML to write WinForms apps that host combinations of WinForms and Avalon components, or to write Avalon apps that host either or both style of component. Cool! But...huh? Listen to how Joe Beda frames the "rich vs. reach" debate: </p> <blockquote class="personQuote JoeBeda">Avalon will be supplanting WinForms, but WinForms is more reach than it is rich. It's the reach versus rich thing, and in some ways there's a spectrum. If you write an ASP.NET thing and deploy via the browser, that's really reach. If you write a WinForms app, you can go down to Win98, I believe. Avalon's going to be Longhorn only. </blockquote> <p>So developers are invited to classify degrees of reach -- not only with respect to the Web, but even within Windows -- and to code accordingly. What's more, they're invited to consider WinForms, the post-MFC (Microsoft Foundation Classes) GUI framework in the .NET Framework, as "reachier" than Avalon. That's true by definition since Avalon's not here yet, but bizarre given that mainstream Windows developers can't yet regard .NET as a ubiquitous foundation, even though many would like to. </p> <p>Beda recommends that developers isolate business logic and data-intensive stuff from the visual stuff -- which is always smart, of course -- and goes on to sketch an incremental plan for retrofitting Avalon goodness into existing apps. He concludes: </p> <blockquote class="personQuote JoeBeda">Avalon, and Longhorn in general, is Microsoft's stake in the ground, saying that we believe power on your desktop, locally sitting there doing cool stuff, is here to stay. We're investing on the desktop, we think it's a good place to be, and we hope we're going to start a wave of excitement leveraging all these new technologies that we're building. </blockquote> <p></p> <p>It's not every decade that the Windows presentation subsystem gets a complete overhaul. As a matter of fact, it's never happened before. Avalon will retire the hodge-podge of DLLs that began with 16-bit Windows, and were carried forward (with accretion) to XP and Server 2003. It will replace this whole edifice with a new one that aims to unify three formerly distinct modes: the document, the user interface, and audio-visual media. This is a great idea, and it's a big deal. If you're a developer writing a Windows application that needs to deliver maximum consumer appeal three or four years from now, this is a wave you won't want to miss. But if you're an enterprise that will have to buy or build such applications, deploy them, and manage them, you'll want to know things like: </p> <ul> <li> <p>How much fragmentation can my developers and users tolerate <i>within</i> the Windows platform, never mind across platforms?</p> </li> <li> <p>Will I be able to remote the Avalon GUI using Terminal Services and Citrix?</p> </li> <li> <p>Is there any way to invest in Avalon without stealing resources from the Web and mobile stuff that I still have to support?</p> </li> </ul> <p></p> <p>Then again, why even bother to ask these questions? It's not enough to believe that the return of rich-client technology will deliver compelling business benefits. (Which, by the way, I think it will.) You'd also have to be shown that Microsoft's brand of rich-client technology will trump all the platform-neutral variations. Perhaps such a case can be made, but the concept demos shown so far don't do so convincingly. The Amazon demo at the Longhorn PDC (Professional Developers Conference) was indeed cool, but you can see similar stuff happening in <a href="http://www.ultrasaurus.com/sarahblog/archives/000140.html">Laszlo</a>, Flex, and other RIA (rich Internet application) environments today. Not, admittedly, with the same 3D effects. But if enterprises are going to head down a path that entails more Windows lock-in, Microsoft will have to combat the perception that the 3D stuff is gratuitous eye candy, and show order-of-magnitude improvements in users' ability to absorb and interact with information-rich services. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Comparison of RDF Query Languages
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-09#1100
2004-06-09T18:32:42Z
<p>The W3C RDF Data Access Working Group recently released an initial public Working Draft specification for "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-rdf-dawg-uc-20040602/"><font color="#000000">RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements</font></a>". Naturally, this triggered discussion on the RDF mailing list along the following lines:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"> <p>In section, 4.1 Human-friendly Syntax, you say<font size="4"><b> </b></font>"There must be a text-based form of the query language which can be read and written by users of the language", and you list the status as "pending".</p> <p>As background for section 4.1, you may be interested in <a href="http://www.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/WBS/pha/rdf-query/">RDFQueryLangComparison1</a> (original text replaced with live link).<br /> <br />It shows how to write queries in a form that includes English meanings.<br /> <br />The example queries can be run by pointing a browser to <a eudora="autourl" href="http://www.reengineeringllc.com/" title="http://www.reengineeringllc.com/">www.reengineeringllc.com</a> .<br /> <br />Perhaps importantly, given the intricacy of RDF for nonprogrammers, one can get an English explanation of the result of each query.<br /> <br />-- Dr. Adrian Walker of <a href="https://www.reengineeringllc.com/ibl_login.html#about">Internet Business Logic </a> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The Semantic Web continues to take shape, and Infonauts (information centric agents) are already taking <a href="http://www.reengineeringllc.com/IBL_tutorial_part1.html">shape</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">A great thing about the net is the "back to the future" nature of most Web and Internet technology. For instance we are now frenzied about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Event Drivent Architecture (EDA), Loose Coupling of Composite Services etc. Basically rehashing the CORBA vision.</p> <p dir="ltr">I see the Semantic Web playing a similar role in relation to artificial intelligence. </p> <p dir="ltr">BTW - It still always comes down to data, and as you can imagine <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> will be playing its usual role of alleviating the practical implementation and ulization challenges of all of the above :-)</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p>
2006-12-14T15:53:29-05:00
Comparison of RDF Query Languages
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-09#557
2004-06-09T17:32:42Z
<p>The W3C RDF Data Access Working Group recently released an initial public Working Draft specification for "<a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-rdf-dawg-uc-20040602/"><font color="#000000">RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements</font></a>". Naturally, this triggered discussion on the RDF mailing list along the following lines:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>In section, 4.1 Human-friendly Syntax, you say<font size="4"><b> </b></font>"There must be a text-based form of the query language which can be read and written by users of the language", and you list the status as "pending".</p> <p>As background for section 4.1, you may be interested in <a href="http://www.aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de/WBS/pha/rdf-query/">RDFQueryLangComparison1</a> (original text replaced with live link).<br /> <br />It shows how to write queries in a form that includes English meanings.<br /> <br />The example queries can be run by pointing a browser to <a eudora="autourl" href="http://www.reengineeringllc.com/" title="http://www.reengineeringllc.com/">www.reengineeringllc.com</a> .<br /> <br />Perhaps importantly, given the intricacy of RDF for nonprogrammers, one can get an English explanation of the result of each query.<br /> <br />-- Dr. Adrian Walker of <a href="https://www.reengineeringllc.com/ibl_login.html#about">Internet Business Logic </a> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The Semantic Web continues to take shape, and Infonauts (information centric agents) are already taking <a href="http://www.reengineeringllc.com/IBL_tutorial_part1.html">shape</a>.</p> <p dir="ltr">A great this about the net is the "back to the future" nature of most Web and Internet technology. For instance we are now frenzied about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), Event Drivent Architecture (EDA), Loose Coupling of Composite Services etc. Basically rehashing the CORBA vision.</p> <p dir="ltr">I see the Semantic Web playing a similar role in relation to artificial intelligence. </p> <p dir="ltr">BTW - It still always comes down to data, and as you can imagine <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> will be playing its usual role of alleviating the practical implementation and ulization challenges of all of the above :-)</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
XML, the New Database Heresy
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-06-04#555
2004-06-04T04:04:48Z
<p dir="ltr">A great <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=d28ce1fb-7b27-407d-b1a3-0b9a34831ca1">post </a>by Dare, especially his bringing into context the essence of this matter refrred to by C.J. Date as "XML the New Database Heresy".</p> <p dir="ltr">I have little to add to this matter as our understanding and vision is aptly expressed via the architecture and feature set of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> (this area was actually addressed circa 1999).</p> <p dir="ltr">We are heading into a era of multi-model databases, these are single database engines that are capable of effectively serving the requirements of the Hierarchical, Network, Relational, and Object database <a href="http://www.web-dictionary.org/encyclopedia/db/DBMS.html#Navigational_databases">models</a> . As we get closer to the unravelling of universal storage, hopefully this will get clearer.</p> <p dir="ltr">Back to Dare's commentary:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.informatik.uni-trier.de/~ley/db/indices/a-tree/d/Date:C=_J=.html">C.J. Date</a>, one of the most influential names in the relational database world, had some harsh words about XML's encroachment into the world of relational databases in a recent article entitled <a href="http://searchdatabase.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid13_gci962948,00.html">Date defends relational model </a> that appeared on SearchDatabases.com. Key parts of the article are excerpted below </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Date reserved his harshest criticism for the competition, namely object-oriented and XML-based DBMSs. Calling them "the latest fashions in the computer world," Date said he rejects the argument that relational DBMSs are yesterday's news. Fans of object-oriented database systems "see flaws in the relational model because they don't fully understand it," he said. </p> <p>Date also said that XML enthusiasts have gone overboard. </p> <p>"XML was invented to solve the problem of data interchange, but having solved that, they now want to take over the world," he said. "With XML, it's like we forget what we are supposed to be doing, and focus instead on how to do it." </p> <p>Craig S. Mullins, the director of technology planning at BMC Software and a SearchDatabase.com expert, shares Date's opinion of XML. It can be worthwhile, Mullins said, as long as XML is only used as a method of taking data and putting it into a DBMS. But Mullins cautioned that XML data that is stored in relational DBMSs as whole documents will be useless if the data needs to be queried, and he stressed Date's point that XML is not a real data model. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Craig Mullins points are more straightforward to answer since his comments don't jibe with the current state of the art in the XML world. He states that you can't query XML documents stored in databases but this is untrue. Almost three years ago, I was writing articles about <a href="http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/29/0725214&mode=thread&tid=156">querying XML documents stored in relational databases</a>. Storing XML in a relational database doesn't mean it has to be stored in as an opaque binary BLOB or as a big, bunch of text which cannot effectively be queried. The next version of SQL Server will have extensive capabilities for querying XML data in relational database and doing joins across relational and XML data, a lot of this functionality is described in the article on <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/xml/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnsql90/html/sql2k5xml.asp">XML Support in SQL Server 2005</a>. As for XML not having a data model, I beg to differ. There is a data model for XML that many applications and people adhere to, often without realizing that they are doing so. This data model is the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/1999/REC-xpath-19991116#data-model">XPath 1.0 data model</a>, which is being updated to handled typed data as the <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-xpath-datamodel-20031112/">XQuery and XPath 2.0 data model</a>. </p> <p dir="ltr">Now to tackle the meat of C.J. Date's criticisms which is that XML solves the problem of data interchange but now is showing up in the database. The thing first point I'd like point out is that there are two broad usage patterns of XML, it is used to represent both rigidly structured tabular data (e.g., relational data or serialized objects) and semi-structured data (e.g., office documents). The latter type of data will only grow now that office productivity software like <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/office">Microsoft Office</a> have enabled users to save their documents as XML instead of proprietary binary formats. In many cases, these documents cannot simply shredded into relational tables. Sure you can shred an Excel spreadsheet written in spreadsheetML into relational tables but is the same really feasible for a Word document written in WordprocessingML? Many enterprises would rather have their important business data being stored and queried from a unified location instead of the current situation where some data is in document management systems, some hangs around as random files in people's folders while some sits in a database management system. </p> <p dir="ltr">As for stating that critics of the relational model don't understand it, I disagree. One of the major benefits of using XML in relational databases is that it is a lot easier to deal with fluid schemas or data with sparse entries with XML. When the shape of the data tends to change or is not fixed the relational model is simply not designed to deal with this. Constantly changing your database schema is simply not feasible and there is no easy way to provide the extensibility of XML where one can say "after the <font face="Courier New">X </font>element, any element from any namespace can appear". How would one describe the capacity to store “any data” in a traditional relational database without resorting to an opaque blob? </p> <p dir="ltr">I do tend to agree that some people are going overboard and trying to model their data hierarchically instead of relationally which experience has thought us is a bad idea. Recently on the XML-DEV mailing list entitled <a href="http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/200405/msg00216.html">Designing XML to Support Information Evolution </a>where Roger L. Costello described his travails trying to model his data which was being transferred as XML in a hierarchical manner. Micheal Champion accurately described the process Roger Costello went through as having "rediscovered the relational model". In a response to that thread I wrote "Hierarchical databases failed for a reason". </p> <p dir="ltr">Using hierarchy as a primary way to model data is bad for at least the following reasons </p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div>Hierarchies tend to encourage redundancy. Imagine I have a <Customer> element who has one or more <ShippingAddress> elements as children as well as one or more <Order> elements as children as well. Each order was shipped to an address, so if modelled hierarchically each <Order> element also will have a <ShippingAddress> element which leads to a lot of unnecessary duplication of data. </div> </li> <li> <div>In the real world, there are often multiple groups to which a piece of data belongs which often cannot be modelled with a single hierarchy. </div> </li> <li> <div>Data is too tightly coupled. If I delete a <Customer> element, this means I've automatically deleted his entire order history since all the <Order> elements are children of <Customer>. Similarly if I query for a <Customer>, I end up getting all the <Order> information as well. </div> </li> </ol> <p>To put it simply, experience has taught the software world that the relational model is a better way to model data than the hierarchical model. Unfortunately, in the rush to embrace XML many a repreating the mistakes from decades ago in the new millenium. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/">Dare Obasanjo aka Carnage4Life</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Mozilla Project and XUL
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-28#553
2004-05-28T22:40:08Z
<font size="2"> <p>By David Mertz, IBM <a href="http://www.developerworks.com">developerWorks</a> </p> <p>In Part 2 of a serial article on GUIs and XML configuration data, David discusses how XML is used in the configuration of GUI interfaces. He looks at Mozilla's XML-based User Interface Language (XUL) which allows you to write applications that run without any particular dependency on the choice of underlying operating system. This may seem strange at first, but you'll soon see that this Mozilla project offers powerful tools for GUI building that allow you to develop for an extensive base of installed users. Mozilla is now much more than a browser: it is a whole component and GUI architecture. Indeed, Mozilla is more cross-platform and more widely installed on user systems than probably any other GUI library you are likely to consider. What you might think of as general purpose GUI/widget libraries -- Qt, wxWindows, GTK, FOX, MFC, .NET, Carbon, and so on -- have various advantages and disadvantages. But none of them can be assumed to be already installed across user systems. Many of them are only available on a subset of the platforms Mozilla supports, and most are relatively difficult to install or have licensing issues. Mozilla is worth installing just because it is such a great browser; once you have it, you have a free platform for custom applications. To be completely cross-platform in your Mozilla/XUL applications, you need to restrict yourself to configuring GUIs in XUL and programming their logic in JavaScript.</p> <p> <a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-matters35/"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/x-matters35/</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also XUL References: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/xul.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/xul.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Open Source PABX System + P2P VOIP (musings)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-27#552
2004-05-28T01:17:16Z
<p> <a href="http://www.asterisk.org/">Asterisk</a> (discovered via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/05/26.html#a1009">this</a> Jon Udell post) is a complete PBX in software. It runs on Linux and provides all of the features you would expect from a PBX and more. </p> <p>Quoting from the Asterisk home page:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Asterisk does voice over IP in three protocols, and can interoperate with almost all standards-based telephony equipment using relatively inexpensive hardware. </p> <p>Asterisk provides Voicemail services with Directory, Call Conferencing, Interactive Voice Response, Call Queuing. It has support for three-way calling, caller ID services, ADSI, SIP and H.323 (as both client and gateway). </p> <p>Check the <a href="http://www.asterisk.org/index.php?menu=features">Features</a> section for a more complete list.</p> </blockquote> <p>Naturally, this got me thinking about Skype; could Asterik and Skpe be meshed into something out of this world (Sykype, WiFi, and Asterisk)? But Skype isn't Open Source, so this would have to be something the Skype team would want to embark upon I guess? </p> <p>As I pondered I searched further, and stumbled across this Open Source competitor of</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
XUL Challenge: Counter Entries
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-27#551
2004-05-27T17:26:27Z
<p dir="ltr">The day we are able to click on any of the links below (using User Agents of our choice, on platforms of our choice) we will be set. </p> <p dir="ltr">This collection of "counter" demos shows mirage</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Gates touts the merits of blogs in speech to CEOs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-21#550
2004-05-21T20:16:52Z
<a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/archives/010427.phtml">Gates touts the merits of blogs in speech to CEOs</a> Bill Gates didn't announce plans for his own Web log yesterday, but in a speech to top corporate executives, he <a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/174338_ceosummit21.html">extolled the virtues</a> of the online journals and related technologies. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/">Lockergnome's Tech News Watch</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Semantic Web brings clarity to the Universal Server concept
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-21#1190
2004-05-21T03:14:42Z
<p dir="ltr">As I continue my quest to unravel the thinking and vison behind the "Universal Server" branding of <a href="http://www.openlnksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a>, it always simplifies matters when I come across articles that bring context to this vision. </p> <p dir="ltr">Tim Berners-Lee provided a <a href="http://www.w3.org/2004/Talks/0519-tbl-keynote/">keynote at WWW2004</a> earlier this week, and <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/au/192">Paul Ford </a>provided a <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/05/20/www-timbl.html">keynote breakdown</a> from which I have scrapped a poignant excerpt that helps me illuminate Virtuoso's role in the inevitable semantic web.</p> <p dir="ltr">First off, I see the <a href="http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html">Semantic Web</a> as a core component of Web 2.x (a minor upgrade of <a href="http://www.web2con.com/">Web 2.0</a>), and I see Virtuoso as a definitive Web 2.0 (and beyond) technology, hence the use today of the branding term "Universal Server". A term that I expect to become a common product moniker in the not too distant future.</p> <p dir="ltr">The first challenge that confronts the semantic web is the creation of Semantic content. How will the content be created? Ideally, this should come from data, at the end of the day this is a data contextualization process. The excerpt below from Paul's <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2004/05/20/www-timbl.html">article</a> highlights the point:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"> <p>Rather than concerning themselves unduly with hewing to existing ontologies, Berners-Lee pushed developers to start using RDF and triples more aggressively. In particular, he wants to see existing databases exported as RDF, with ontologies created ad-hoc to match the structure of that data. Rather than using PHP scripts only to produce HTML, he suggested, create RDF as well. Then, when all of the RDF is aggregated, apply rules and see what happens. "Let's not fall back on handmade markup."</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Data in existing databases does not have to be exported as RDF, especially if sensitivity to change is a specific contextual requirement. Naturally, the assumption is made that most databases don't have the ability to produce RDF so an additonal tool would be required to perform the data exports and transformation, and then a separate HTTP server makes this repurposed RDF data accessible over HTTP.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"> <p dir="ltr">Later in the talk, he described a cascade of Semantic Web connections, postulating that one day, individuals may be able to follow links from a parts catalog to order status, from location to weather to taxes.</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The final excerpt (above) outlines the kinds of interactions that the Semantic Web facilitates. The traversal from a "part catalog" to "order status", or from "location" to "weather" to "taxes", illustrates the roles that services and service orchestration will also play in the Semantic Web era.</p> <p dir="ltr">Thus, we can safely deduce the following about the semantic web:</p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div>It has RDF at its foundation </div> </li> <li> <div>We need to transform existing data into RDF; ideally retaining sensitivity to changes</div> </li> <li> <div>Allows ontologies to be associated with RDF post generation</div> </li> <li> <div>RDF graph navigation will be event driven and orchestrated (the cascading effect)</div> </li> <li> <div>There will be an RDF Query Language (there are several burgeoning ones currently)</div> </li> <li> <div>HTTP will be the prime transport protocol</div> </li> </ol> <p>I would also like to conclude that what we know today, as the monolithic "point of presence" on the web called a "Web Site" (which infers browsing and page serving), is naturally going to morph into a different kind of "point of presence" that is capable of delivering the following from a single process:</p> <ol> <li> <div>Serve up Semantic Data from existing data sources </div> </li> <li> <div>Provide execution endpoints for Web Services</div> </li> <li> <div>Provide an instigation point for events that trigger Service Orchestratio</div> </li> </ol> <p>This is what Virtuoso is all about, and why it is described as a "Universal Server"; a server instance that speaks many protocols, delivering a plethora of functionality (Database, Web Services Platform, Orchestration Engine, and more).</p>
2007-04-23T12:42:13-04:00
Semantic Web bringing clarity to the Universal Server concept
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-20#548
2004-05-21T03:14:42Z
<p dir="ltr">As I continue my quest to unravel the thinking and vison behind the "Universal Server" branding of <a href="http://www.openlnksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a>, it always simplifies matters when I come across articles that bring context to this vision.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Misleading use of "FREE" and New Open Source Business Models
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-18#547
2004-05-18T19:41:30Z
<p dir="ltr">I have excerpted an interesting piece below regarding the license changes announced by Six Apart re. Moveable Type. I agree with the core message, but don't see this as an issue of begging etc (as David Winer puts it). Product developers shouldn't go to these lengths to justify why their products aren't FREE in the conventional understang of the term.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Preventable SQL DBMS Vulnerabilities
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-17#546
2004-05-18T00:42:08Z
<p>Here are some excerpts (inlined) with my comments (outlined) from an <a href="http://www.db2mag.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=18901175">interesting article</a> on SQL DBMS exploits and vulnerabilities by <a href="http://www.appsecinc.com/">Aaron C. Newman</a>, for <a href="http://www.db2mag.com/show">DB2 Magazine</a> titled "6 Security Secrets Attackers don't want You To Know".</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>How secure is your data? Looking at your information management resources through a would-be intruder's eyes can help you find (and fix) vulnerabilities.</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Naturally :-)</p> <p></p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>When E. F. Codd developed his relational data model in 1970, the business world was a different place. Almost 35 years after his seminal work appeared, RDBMSs that sprung from Codd's ideas are the standard for storing corporate information. And, with government and industry regulations dictating what kinds of information companies have to store, manage, and audit (and for how long), protecting this information is more important than ever. Unfortunately, it's also more challenging</p> <p>Even in 1985, when <a href="http://www.databaseanswers.com/codds_rules.htm">Dr. Codd published 12 guidelines for RDBMSs</a>, there was little concern for data security. In those days, gaining access to a database was so difficult that advanced security features on the database were irrelevant. </p> <p>Today, RDBMSs carry the lifeblood of every organization. Note the use of the plural: Organizations now have many databases that are decentralized in terms of use and security controls. E-business demands that data access be extended to customers, partners, suppliers, and other parties who were rarely considered in the early data management days. With all this availability ? not to mention pressure from an array of government and industry regulations (see the sidebar, <a href="http://www.db2mag.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=18901175#sidebar">"Security and Compliance"</a>) ? the need to control exactly who can access or modify data is becoming paramount. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Absolute facts, that are still partially understood at best. For instance we are still in a so called "Information Age" in which standards based data access remains an issue of contempt instead of absolute necessity. </p> <p dir="ltr">There are a number of prevailing myths about standards based data access that continue to cloak reality:</p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div>ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLEDB all deliver poor performance (compared to their native, proprietary, and database specific counterparts; native interfaces)<br /> </div> </li> <li> <div>You can't really right generic database applications with these standards due to inconsistencies in the DBMS implementations of SQL (not true! there are many aspects of the specs that address these concerns if only a majority of driver vendors would implement these features, and the application developers actually used them by seeking drivers with full implementations).</div> </li> </ol> <p>Even if the above were true (which I refute strongly), how about the general security vulnerabilities that affect both Native, and Standards compliant, data access interfaces?</p> <p>Aaron's article does a good job of highlighting 6 areas of vulnerability:</p> <ol> <li> <div>DBMS Defaults (usernames and passwords)</div> </li> <li> <div>Authentication (at connect time)</div> </li> <li> <div>Database Privileges</div> </li> <li> <div>Fixpaks </div> </li> <li> <div>Buffer Overflows</div> </li> <li> <div>SQL Injection</div> </li> </ol> <p>What I have been able to do very quickly (thanks to blogging, and the power of a blog engine that supports <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=543">WebDAV</a>), is write a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/articles/uda_rule_book_sql_attacks.htm">tabulated response to each of the items </a>(bar Fixpaks) indicating how the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/info/mtproduct.htm">OpenLink Multi-Tier Data Access Drivers </a>(for ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, and OLEDB) protect corporate databases from each of these vulnerabilities.</p> <p>To cut a long story short, we are increasingly living a contradiction where the terms "simple" and "free" are supposed to lead us to products that can adequately handle the challenges of an increasingly sophisticated grid of inter-connecting point. </p> <p>I have been asked on numerous occassions, "How can you build a company and business based on data access technology?". My reply is the same as usual, "because everything comes down to data". If the data is compromised in anyway, then kiss Information, Knowledge, and everything else goodbye!</p> <table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="336"> <tbody> <tr> <td></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Collaboration Software
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-14#543
2004-05-14T23:39:35Z
<p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=d2312299-0c0d-497b-9268-4b124f61f801">Dare Obasanjo</a> points out that Microsoft Sharepoint offers "by reference" as opposed to "by value" mail attachment capability that <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/02/27/09TCxythos_1.html">Jon Udell reviewed </a>in a recent blog post, true! So does Virtuoso in a number of ways (most importantly independent of client or server operating system).</p> <p dir="ltr">This issue really brings WebDAV into scope as this is the protocol that enables this capability (as covered by Jon's piece), and it is one of the many client and server side protocols implemented by <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">OpenLink Virtuoso</a> (the key to how Virtuoso delivers URI based SQL-XML, XQuery, XPath services). </p> <p dir="ltr">When you install Virtuoso you simply have to start the Virtuoso server instance to the get WebDAV functionality going. All of Virtuoso's services are advertised at ports, and in the case of WebDAV you will find this at port 8890 if you start the demo database. </p> <p dir="ltr">To exploit the Virtuoso/WebDAV server from any WebDAV client (or point urls at WebDAV hosted resources) simply do the following:</p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div>Install Virtuoso and depending on your OS do the following:</div> </li> <ul> <li> <div>Windows - create a <a href="http://support.openlinksw.com/support/tutorials.vsp?c=Web+Server">Web Folder </a>that points to a WebDAV server</div> </li> <li> <div>Mac OS X - <a href="http://developer.apple.com/technotes/tn/tn2043.html">mount a WebDAV</a> folder</div> </li> <li> <div>Linux - mount a <a href="http://www.sfu.ca/acs/linux/webdav-linux.html">WebDAV directory</a> (also see the <a href="http://dav.sourceforge.net/">Davfs2</a> Open Source project)</div> </li> <li> <div>You can also make WebDAV client calls from Virtuoso's Stored Procedure Language (Virtuoso PL) or use WebDAV implementations in any development environment of your choice (<a href="http://www.independentsoft.de/webdav/">.NET</a>, <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/skunkdav/">Java</a>, .<br /> </div> </li> </ul> <li> <div>Place content that you want to reference in your mails in your WebDAV repository via any of the client side mechanisms described in step 1. You can see the results of this in my earlier <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/virtuoso/index.vspx?id=505">blog post</a>, even better pass the <a href="http://kingsleydemo.openlinksw.com:8890/rtmhosting/99bottles.php">url </a>on in an email! Or browse the <a href="http://kingsleydemo.openlinksw.com:8890/rtmhosting/">WebDAV folder </a>(there are some nuggets deliberately left in place :-) )<br /> </div> </li> <ul> <li> <div>You could simply save an Office Doc (<a href="http://kingsleydemo.openlinksw.com:8890/rtmhosting/webDADWWW2004.ppt">powerpoint</a>, excel, word etc) to this location and the circulate urls in your mails (this has been standard practice at OpenLink for many years; we even have a full blown portal server that would soon be available as a public service to sharing anything via DAV and as usual some more... stay tuned)<br /> </div> </li> </ul> <li> <div>That's it for any platform (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris, AIX, HP-UX etc.) once you install Virtuoso!</div> </li> </ol> <p>BTW - This blog is WebDAV based (it's a live instance of Virtuoso doing many things; WebDAV, HTTP, SQL-XML based feed generation for ATOM, RSS, Blog Post APIs support (Moveable Type, Metaweblog, Blogger, ATOM), Free Text, XPath, XQuery, and more). </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
News Aggregators As Denial of Service Clients
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-14#542
2004-05-14T21:50:58Z
<a href="http://www.25hoursaday.com/weblog/PermaLink.aspx?guid=847d181c-7b28-4863-9317-52f2940fd162">News Aggregators As Denial of Service Clients</a> <p>Every once in a while I see a developer of a news aggregator that decides to add a 'feature' that unnecessarily chomps down the bandwidth of a web server in a manner one could classify as rude. The first I remember was <a href="http://www.yole.ru/projects/syndirella/">Syndirella</a> which had a feature that allowed you to syndicate an HTML page then specify regular expressions for what parts of the feed you wanted it to treat as titles and content. There are three reasons I consider this rude, </p> <ul> <li>If a site hasn't put up an RSS feed it may be because they don't want to deal with the bandwidth costs of clients repeatedly hitting their sites on behalf of a few users</li> <li>An HTML page is often larger than the corresponding RSS feed. The <a href="http://www.slahsdot.org/index.rdf">Slashdot RSS feed</a> is about 2K while just the raw HTML of the front page of slashdot is about 40K </li> <li>An HTML page could change a lot more often than the RSS feed [e.g. rotating ads, trackback links in blogs, etc] in situations where an RSS feed would not</li> </ul>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
South Korea's house of the future
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-13#541
2004-05-13T17:09:07Z
<p> <a href="http://news.com.com/2010-1040_3-5211422.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">South Korea's house of the future</a> Even with the privacy fears, the home-networking technology South Korea is promoting is hard to resist, CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos says. </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>In a ubiquitous computing demonstration set up by South Korea's Ministry of Information and Communication (<a href="http://dw.com.com/redir?destUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mic.go.kr%2Feng%2Findex.jsp&siteId=3&oId=2010-1040-5211422&ontId=1040&lop=nl_ex">MIC</a>), large-screen TVs served up virtual versions of the morning newspaper. A system using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags, meanwhile, tabulated grocery items in a cart and sent the bill to a cell phone account. </p> <p>In the wired car, a liquid-crystal display panel/computer in the back seat could play music or video from a home hard drive, find parking spaces, pay bridge tolls, or conduct a video conference with people back at the office. </p> <p>[via <a href="http://news.com.com/">CNET News.com</a>]</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The A to Z of wireless terms and technologies
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-05#540
2004-05-05T21:48:30Z
<a href="http://www.vnunet.com/Features/1154910">The A to Z of wireless terms and technologies</a> Everything you always wanted to know about ... wireless <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.vnunet.com/Features">VNUNET Features</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Is Everything Becoming A Service?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-03#539
2004-05-03T20:34:46Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20040503/039214.shtml">Is Everything Becoming A Service?</a> For a long time now I've been a big believer that there are no digital goods. If you want to sell a digital good, you actually need to sell a service (basically, the ability to provide the good in the future), or you're going to get forced to give it away for free. It's not hard to work into the basic economics of how that works. However, Paul Saffo is taking that idea and going even further with it, suggesting that all <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_19/b3882621.htm"><i>phsyical</i> goods will be sold as services as well</a>. He points out that it's already starting to happen with mobile phones: without a service contract they're just paperweights. However, he can't believe service providers haven't figured out that they should be giving out the phones for free to encourage more service usage. He says other physical goods will follow the same pattern. He even predicts that you may get your car for free, but you'll have to pay for the service to make it run - such as alerting you that it's time for an oil change, and telling you that the nearest garage is ready and waiting for you. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">A Service is an instance of a Product (a unit of value propositon delivery), just like an Object is an instance of a Class. Think about it :-)</p> <p dir="ltr">Products have always been Services, and information technology is just catching up as per usual (lingo wise).</p> <p dir="ltr"></p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Contd: The Patent Mess
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-03#538
2004-05-03T20:26:52Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20040503/0946252.shtml">The Patent Mess</a> MSNBC is running yet another article that looks at <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4837371/">problems with the patent system</a>, focusing on the problem we most discuss around here: small intellectual property houses that buy up perfectly obvious patents, or those with prior art, and then go around threatening small sites to get them to pay up rather than fight the ridiculous patent. In most cases, the patent is for taking some sort of obvious action and moving it onto the internet. Even a strong defender of patent rights admits in the article that the "pendulum may have swung too far." No one is saying their shouldn't be patents, but there are way too many cases where these sorts of patents are clearly being used to hold back innovation - which is against the very point of the patent system. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
How blogs and wikis can help knowledge management
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-03#537
2004-05-03T19:08:13Z
<a href="http://www.infosential.com/archives/2004/05/how_blogs_and_wikis_can_h.shtml">How blogs and wikis can help knowledge management</a> Knowledge management is one of the hottest business topics around at the moment, not least because organisations increasingly realise that the store of knowledge held by their employees is one of the main ways in which they can differentiate themselves... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.infosential.com/">Cutting Through...</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Mono mDnsResponder
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-05-03#536
2004-05-03T19:05:15Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Brady Anderson has released the first version of his <a href="http://forge.novell.com/modules/xfmod/project/?mdnsresponder">multicast DNS responder</a> written in C# for the Mono and .NET platforms. This is the foundation for implementing rendezvous-like functionality in your applications. [via <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/">Mono Project News</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">This is an example of Open Source adding a critical pieces of infrastructure to .NET that doesn't currently exist (in a sense an embrace and extend). The community isn't waiting for a .NET Frameworks implementation to clone, instead it has implemented this using Mono, which by implication means availability under Microsoft .NET.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
GUIs and XML Configuration Data: A Look at the Use of XML in Mac OS X and KDE
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-30#535
2004-04-30T22:25:43Z
<font size="2"> <p>David Mertz, IBM developerWorks</p> <p>Over time, XML has permeated many niches. One area where XML is used increasingly is in the configuration of graphical user interfaces, especially in elements that are persistent but should not be fixed at compile-time. In this installment, the author looks at the use of XML in Mac OS X's Aqua GUI, and in the K Desktop Environment (KDE) which is either standard or available in most modern Linux distributions. So far, the use of XML in configuring modern GUIs is a bit haphazard. Most interfaces use XML in some places, but other mechanisms elsewhere. But it's clear that the general movement is toward XML. Clearly, Mac OS X Aqua and KDE each have their own XML philosophy. Mac OS X uses solely XML elements that correspond to broad data types, while everything that is really application-specific or GUI-specific is shunted off into the PCDATA content of container elements. In contrast, KDE's XML feels very usage-specific.</p> <p> <a href="http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-matters34.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-matters34.html</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>----------------------------------------------------------------------</p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Standards-Based Look at XAML's Features
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-29#534
2004-04-29T21:15:30Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Nigel McFarlane, <a href="http://www.devx.com/">devX.com</a> </p> <p>Microsoft's XAML markup language floats on top of the .NET platform. It is compiled into .NET classes, usually C#, which reduces it to a set of objects. Along with a host of other XML dialects it is an example of a new type of specification for GUIs. </p> <p>This article takes a look at XAML's tags to see what (if anything) is new in them. There are many such GUI specifications now, a few being <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/xul/">Mozilla's XUL</a>, <a href="http://www.oracle.com/consulting/offerings/platform/jhs_fs.pdf">Oracle's UIX</a>, <a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=Macromedia+Flex">Macromedia's Flex </a>and the XML files created by the <a href="http://www.gtkmm.org/gnomemm2/reference/html/namespaceGnome_1_1Glade.html">Gnome Glade tool</a>. Although not W3C standards, some of these new GUI specifications are already on the W3C standards track. An example is the box model used within Mozilla's XUL, which is headed toward inclusion in future CSS drafts. </p> <p>The original and most popular source of XML definitions is, however, still the World Wide Web Consortium. The W3C is responsible for formalizing XML and many XML applications such as XHTML and SVG. Given that these standards are mostly complete, do we really need all these new XML GUI dialects?</p> <p>Microsoft's XAML is a new spin on XML-based GUI description languages, borrowing very little syntax from established standards. Let's see if it's a radical improvement in some way, or if it's merely familiar old friends dressed up in new clothes.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/20834"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.devx.com/webdev/Article/20834</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also XAML References: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/ms-xaml.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/ms-xaml.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Paper Killer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-28#533
2004-04-28T17:13:16Z
<a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/garfinkel0504.asp?trk=top">The Paper Killer</a> Finally, character recognition software that can reliably scan paper documents, and let you get rid of them. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/">Technology Review Feed v2.1</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Patent Busting Project:
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-27#532
2004-04-27T17:14:23Z
<font size="2"> <p>An EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation)</p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
SQL-XML Evaluation and Comparison By InfoWorld
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-26#531
2004-04-27T00:15:05Z
<p>There is a <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/infoworld/article/04/04/23/17FExml_2.html">new evaluation and comparison </a>article from InfoWorld that compares the SQL-XML integration offerings of the major DBMS vendors (Oracle 10g, DB2 8.1, Sybase ASE 12.5, and SQL Server 2000)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft's Magic Pen
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-26#530
2004-04-26T19:07:03Z
<p>A digital pen invented at Microsoft's Beijing lab will allow people to switch effortlessly between electronic documents and paper. </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Wang’s digital pen also reflects an ongoing transformation in the process of invention at some large corporate labs, a hybridization of the lone inventor and traditional corporate R&D. Wang is the pen’s lead inventor, and it is his insight, daring, and creativity that have largely driven the effort to develop it. But at the same time, he could not have made such rapid progress without Microsoft’s collective expertise in pattern recognition algorithms, computer vision, handwriting technologies, and text-editing software. “Personally, I’m really excited about it,” says Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, whose main facility is in Redmond, WA. “It’s an example of a new kind of product incubation that we do,...one that brings together people with many different skills to solve a unique problem.”</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/huang0504.asp?trk=top">Read on.</a> </p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/">Technology Review Feed v2.1</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Gigablast Search Tool
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-24#529
2004-04-24T21:38:41Z
<a href="http://www.gigablast.com/">Gigablast</a> is a fast search engine. It's not using the same ranking algorithm as Google. At first I thought it was, but some of my standard searches show radically different results. Overall I really like it. It's designed to make transitioning from Google as painless as possible. And it compares favorably to Google in clutter. Google is going down the same path that Altavista went down, adding lots of doo-dads and paid distractions that take you away from the search results, which is the reason we use a search engine. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Essay about current and past trends -- Joi Ito
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-24#528
2004-04-24T21:27:24Z
<p>Here are some thoughts on where I think things are going in the mobile and content space.</p> <p> <em>I wrote this essay before reading <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Culture">Free Culture</a> so I'm saying a lot of stuff that <a href="http://www.lessig.org/">Larry</a> says better...</em> </p> <p>Several crucial shifts in technology are emerging that will drastically affect the relationship between users and technology in the near future. Wireless Internet is becoming ubiquitous and economically viable. Internet capable devices are becoming smaller and more powerful.</p> <p>Alongside technological shifts, new social trends are emerging. Users are shifting their attention from packaged content to social information about location, presence and community. Tools for identity, trust, relationship management and navigating social networks are becoming more popular. Mobile communication tools are shifting away from a 1-1 model, allowing for increased many-to-many interactions; such a shift is even being used to permit new forms of democracy and citizen participation in global dialog.</p> <p>While new technological and social trends are occurring, it is not without resistance, often by the developers and distributors of technology and content. In order to empower the consumer as a community member and producer, communication carriers, hardware manufacturers and content providers must understand and build models that focus less on the content and more on the relationships. </p> <p> <strong>Smaller faster</strong> </p> <p>Computing started out as large mainframe computers, software developers and companies “time sharing” for slices of computing time on the large machines. The mini-computer was cheaper and smaller, allowing companies and labs to own their own computers. The mini computer allowed a much greater number of people to have access to computers and even use them in real time. The mini computer lead to a burst in software and networking technologies. In the early 80’s, the personal computer increased the number of computers by an order of magnitude and again, led to an explosion in new software and technology while lowering the cost even more. Console gaming companies proved once again that unit costs could be decreased significantly by dramatically increasing the number of units sold. Today, we have over a billion cell phones in the market. There are tens of millions camera phones. The incredible number of these devices has continued to lower the unit cost of computing as well as devices imbedded in these devices such as small cameras. High end phones have the computing power of the personal computers of the 80’s and the game consoles of the 90’s.</p> <p> <strong>History repeats with WiFi</strong> </p> <p>There are parallels in the history of communications and computing. In the 1980’s the technology of packet switched networks became widely deployed. Two standards competed. X.25 was a packet switched network technology being promoted by CCITT (a large, formal international standards body) and the telephone companies. It involved a system run by telephone companies including metered tariffs and multiple bilateral agreements between carriers to hook up.</p> <p>Concurrently, universities and research labs were promoting TCP/IP and the Internet opportunity for loosely organized standards meetings being operated with flat rate tariffs and little or no agreements between the carriers. People just connected to the closest node and everyone agreed to freely carry traffic for others.</p> <p>There were several “free Internet” services such as “The Little Garden” in San Francisco. Commercial service providers, particularly the telephone company operators such as SprintNet tried to shut down such free services by threatening not to carry this free traffic.</p> <p>Eventually, large ISPs began providing high quality Internet connectivity and finally the telephone companies realized that the Internet was the dominant standard and shutdown or acquired the ISPs.</p> <p>A similar trend is happening in wireless data services. GPRS is currently the dominant technology among mobile telephone carriers. GPRS allows users to transmit packets of data across the carrier network to the Internet. One can roam to other networks as long as the mobile operators have agreements with each other. Just like in the days of X.25, the system requires many bilateral agreements between the carriers; their goal is to track and bill for each packet of information.</p> <p>Competing with this standard is WiFi. WiFi is just a simple wireless extension to the current Internet and many hotspots provide people with free access to the Internet in cafes and other public areas. WiFi service providers have emerged, while telephone operators –such as a T-Mobile and Vodaphone- are capitalizing on paid WiFi services. Just as with the Internet, network operators are threatening to shut down free WiFi providers, citing a violation of terms of service. </p> <p>Just as with X.25, the GPRS data network and the future data networks planned by the telephone carriers (e.g. 3G) are crippled with unwieldy standards bodies, bilateral agreements, and inherently complicated and expensive plant operations.</p> <p>It is clear that the simplicity of WiFi and the Internet is more efficient than the networks planned by the telephone companies. That said, the availability of low cost phones is controlled by mobile telephone carriers, their distribution networks and their subsidies.</p> <p> <strong>Content vs Context</strong> </p> <p>Many of the mobile telephone carriers are hoping that users will purchase branded content manufactured in Hollywood and packaged and distributed by the telephone companies using sophisticated technology to thwart copying.</p> <p>Broadband in the home will always be cheaper than mobile broadband. Therefore it will be cheaper for people to download content at home and use storage devices to carry it with them rather than downloading or viewing content over a mobile phone network. Most entertainment content is not so time sensitive that it requires real time network access.</p> <p>The mobile carriers are making the same mistake that many of the network service providers made in the 80s. Consider Delphi, a joint venture between IBM and Sears Roebuck. Delphi assumed that branded content was going to be the main use of their system and designed the architecture of the network to provide users with such content. Conversely, the users ended up using primary email and communications and the system failed to provide such services effectively due to the mis-design.</p> <p>Similarly, it is clear that mobile computing is about communication. Not only are mobile phones being used for 1-1 communications, as expected through voice conversations; people are learning new forms of communication because of SMS, email and presence technologies. Often, the value of these communication processes is the transmission of “state” or “context” information; the content of the messages are less important.</p> <p> <strong>Copyright and the Creative Commons</strong> </p> <p>In addition to the constant flow of traffic keeping groups of people in touch with each other, significant changes are emerging in multimedia creation and sharing. The low cost of cameras and the nearly television studio quality capability of personal computers has caused an explosion in the number and quality of content being created by amateurs. Not only is this content easier to develop, people are using the power of weblogs and phones to distribute their creations to others. </p> <p>The network providers and many of the hardware providers are trying to build systems that make it difficult for users to share and manipulate multimedia content. Such regulation drastically stifles the users’ ability to produce, share and communicate. This is particularly surprising given that such activities are considered the primary “killer application” for networks.</p> <p>It may seem unintuitive to argue that packaged commercial content can co-exist alongside consumer content while concurrently stimulating content creation and sharing. In order to understand how this can work, it is crucial to understand how the current system of copyright is broken and can be fixed.</p> <p>First of all, copyright in the multimedia digital age is inherently broken. Historically, copyright works because it is difficult to copy or edit works and because only few people produce new works over a very long period of time. Today, technology allows us to find, sample, edit and share very quickly. The problem is that the current notion of copyright is not capable of addressing the complexity and the speed of what technology enables artists to create. Large copyright holders, notably Hollywood studios, have aggressively extended and strengthened their copyright protections to try to keep the ability to produce and distribute creative works in the realm of large corporations.</p> <p>Hollywood asserts, “all rights reserved” on works that they own. Sampling music, having a TV show running in the background in a movie scene or quoting lyrics to a song in a book about the history of music all require payment to and a negotiation with the copyright holder. Even though the Internet makes available a wide palette of wonderful works based on content from all over the world, the current copyright practices forbid most of such creation.</p> <p>However, most artists are happy to have their music sampled if they receive attribution. Most writers are happy to be quoted or have their books copied for non-commercial use. Most creators of content realize that all content builds on the past and the ability for people to build on what one has created is a natural and extremely important part of the creative process.</p> <p>Creative Commons tries to give artists that choice. By providing a more flexible copyright than the standards “all rights reserved” copyright of commercial content providers, Creative Commons allows artists to set a variety of rights to their works. This includes the ability to reuse for commercial use, copy, sample, require attribution, etc. Such an approach allows artists to decide how their work can be used, while providing people with the materials necessary for increased creation and sharing. </p> <p>Creative Commons also provides for a way to make the copyright of pieces of content machine-readable. This means that a search engine or other tool to manipulate content is able to read the copyright. As such, an artist can search for songs, images and text to use while having the information to provide the necessary attribution.</p> <p>Creative Commons can co-exist with the stringent copyright regimes of the Hollywood studios while allowing professional and amateur artists to take more control of how much they want their works to be shared and integrated into the commons. Until copyright law itself is fundamentally changed, the Creative Commons will provide an essential tool to provide an alternative to the completely inflexible copyright of commercial content. </p> <p>Content is not like some lump of gold to be horded and owned which diminishes in value each time it is shared. Content is a foundation upon which community and relationships are formed. Content is the foundation for culture. We must evolve beyond the current copyright regime that was developed in a world where the creation and transmission of content was unwieldy and expense, reserved to those privileged artists who were funded by commercial enterprises. This will provide the emerging wireless networks and mobile devices with the freedom necessary for them to become the community building tools of sharing that is their destiny.<br /> </p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://joi.ito.com/">Joi Ito's Web</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
IKVM (Java for .NET and Mono) Update
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-24#527
2004-04-24T20:55:32Z
<p>An <a href="http://weblog.ikvm.net/story.aspx/faq">IKVM</a> (technology for running Java under Mono and Microsoft .NET runtimes) update:</p> <ul> <li>The next Mono release will contain the C half of the IKVM JNI provider and the next IKVM snapshot will contain the C# half of the Mono JNI provider. This means that JNI will work out of the box on Mono (for the parts of JNI that are actually implemented). Thanks to Zoltan and Miguel for this.</li> <li>I'm planning an IKVM 0.8 release to coincide with the Mono 1.0 release.</li> <li>John Luke added IKVM support to MonoDevelop. Read about it <a href="http://www.advogato.org/person/jluke/diary.html?start=5">here</a> or see the screenshot <a href="http://helios.acomp.usf.edu/~luke/md-java-ikvm.png">here</a>.</li> <li>I successfully started up Eclipse 3.0 M8 for the first time yesterday. Thanks to Michael Koch for his work on GNU Classpath's java.nio implementation and all the other GNU Classpath hackers, of course.</li> <li>In the comments, Jesus Garcia point me to <a href="http://swingwt.sourceforge.net/">SwingWT</a>. An SWT based implementation of AWT and Swing by Robin Rawson-Tetley. Very cool stuff! It doesn't run on the latest snapshot due to a JNI bug, but I have it running and it's very cool to see the <a href="http://www.frijters.net/swingset.png">SwingSet demo running on IKVM</a>.</li> </ul> <p>I hope to do a new snapshot in the first week of May and after that to work towards the 0.8 release. </p> <img alt="Image" height="0" src="http://weblog.ikvm.net/aggbug.ashx?id=f6763ea7-5c93-4408-9c72-719f587f9445" width="0" /> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://weblog.ikvm.net/">IKVM.NET Weblog</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
INSTEAD-OF Triggers
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-23#526
2004-04-24T00:52:50Z
<p>During a session with a potential customer/partner I was posed the following question re. <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso's Virtual Database</a> functionality:</p> <p>"Can I create an updateable SQL VIEW in Virtuoso that would comprise columns from 3rd party databases such as Oracle, SQL Server, and say MySQL".</p> <p>The answer was yes, based on the fact that Virtuoso does support SQL <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/TRIGGERS.html#TRIGGERS">INSTEAD-OF Triggers</a> - even in Virtual Database mode. </p> <p>I am certainly keen to see if any other Virtual Database style products achieve this feat (which is trying for many homogeneous SQL database engines).</p> <p>Dr. Paul Dorsey of <a href="http://www.dulcian.com/">Dulcian, Inc</a>. wrote a very <a href="http://www.dulcian.com/papers/INSTEAD%20OF%20Trigger%20Views_ODTUG.htm">good article about this subject</a>, and here is an excerpt from his article overiew:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Views are an important part of application development. Since Oracle 7.3, we quickly recognized the importance of using Oracle’s updateable view feature. An updateable view allows you to join several tables and perform updates against the driving table. For example, if you join EMP and DEPT in the traditional way and display columns from both tables, DML operations are possible against EMP but not DEPT. </p> <p class="Text">For traditional relational database designs, this is enough functionality. For example, in a typical Forms application, when you are basing a block on a table, the additional columns that you want to display are lookups from other tables and can therefore be easily supported using traditional updateable views. These views are built using a combination of joins and outer joins or,<span> </span>in extreme cases, looking up additional information through functions embedded in the views. Under no circumstances should post query triggers be used to support this functionality. Post query triggers cause unnecessary network traffic and also embed the logic in the application rather than in the database or somewhere else where it can easily be reused.</p> <p class="Text">What happens in a situation where the information you want to display in the block requires a query that is so complex that your ability to maintain (insert, update, delete) that information using a simple updateable view is eliminated? The updateable views are relatively restrictive. Only a single table can be updated. Joins must be created carefully and based on Foreign Key constraints in the database. No set operators such as UNION or MINUS can be used. For these reasons, it is common to end up with a block that cannot be updated as required. How do most developers handle this situation?</p> <p class="Text" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in"><!--[if !supportLists]-->a)<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"> </span><!--[endif]-->By placing complex logic in the form (WHEN-VALIDATE-ITEM triggers)</p> <p class="Text" style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in"><!--[if !supportLists]-->b)<span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal"> </span><!--[endif]-->By writing procedures that access Forms’ ability to replace the Insert, Update, Delete routines and place that logic in the form</p> <p class="Text">These practices are just as undesirable as using POST-QUERY triggers. The logic is in the wrong place and is not reusable. </p> <p class="Text">The INSTEAD-OF trigger views feature was introduced by Oracle in version 8.15. This feature enables developers to create views on single or multiple tables or any other view imaginable by writing INSTEAD-OF triggers that tell the view how to behave when Inserts, Updates or Deletes are issued. Peter Koletzke and I first wrote about this feature in our Oracle Press book <i>Oracle Developer: Advanced Forms & Reports</i> (2000). At the time, we gave the feature relatively brief mention because we believed that most of the systems we were building included blocks based on traditional updateable views, which allow updates to a single table. Now, there is a good reason to look more closely at INSTEAD-OF trigger views. </p> </blockquote> <p class="Text" dir="ltr">Database Journal also has an <a href="http://www.databasejournal.com/features/mssql/article.php/1437741">article on this subject</a>.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Silicon Valley Diaspora
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-20#525
2004-04-20T15:21:28Z
<a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=P3763_0_6_0_C">The Silicon Valley Diaspora</a> Silicon Valley is suffering a brain drain that is just going to keep getting worse. Historically the valley has been the beneficiary of brain drains from around the world. The diasporas of China, India, Russia, and others all came to sunny California to start their companies and make their fortunes. Companies like Juniper, QLogic, Exodus, and Silicon Labs are among the hundreds of companies that have generated billions in sales and wealth started by the best and brightest from around the... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.alwayson-network.com/rss/2_0.xml">AlwaysOn Network</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The iPod car
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-20#524
2004-04-20T14:44:03Z
<a href="http://techdigestuk.typepad.com/tech_digest/2004/04/the_ipod_car.html">The iPod car</a>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
SQL Support in Mozilla?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-16#523
2004-04-16T16:13:30Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/sql/">Mozilla's SQL Support </a>allows applications to directly connect to SQL databases. A web application no longer needs to pass information through a scripting language, such as Perl or Python, in order to recieve information it can use. The removal of the layer seperating applications and data simplifies the job of the programmer. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Somehow I missed this effort, and only stumbled across it today after experimenting with <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso's SyncML features</a> (and then pondering about OutLook, WinFS, and what may or may not happen with SyncML support - another story).</p> <p dir="ltr">As usual the SQL binding to Mozilla caught my attention (I do recall trying to get Marc and Jim Clark to head down this path many years ago via an email; at least Jim acknowledged not knowing that much about SQL and past it on.., and as for Marc well... nothing happened).</p> <p dir="ltr">A few</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web Inventor Wins $1.23 Million Award
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-15#521
2004-04-15T21:40:33Z
<font size="2"> <p>Tim Berners-Lee First Honoree of Millennium Technology Prize.</p> <p>Reuters, via MSNBC News</p> <p>World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee won $1.23 million on Thursday, the largest single amount of money he has made from an invention that has made many others very rich. Berners-Lee, 48, was named the first winner of the world's largest technology award -- the Millennium Technology Prize -- by the Finnish Technology Award Foundation at a ceremony in the Finnish city of Espoo. When myriad dot-com firms went public in the late 1990s, their founders were instantly turned into millionaires at the height of the Internet investment bubble. Most people would be hard-pressed to name the retiring Internet architect, who bypassed cashing-in on his technology contributions for an academic's salary at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States.</p> <p> <a href="http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4744554/"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4744554/</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also the W3C news item: <a href="http://www.w3.org/News/2004"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.w3.org/News/2004#item64</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Open Source Vulnerabilities Database (OSVDB)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-13#518
2004-04-13T23:29:33Z
<p>This is an open source initiative to provide a centrally managed and globally accessible database of security vulnerabilites across an extensive realm of products.</p> <p>Their manifesto as presented on their web site:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>"OSVB is an independent and open source database created by and for the community. Our goal is to provide accurate, detailed, current, and unbiased technical information". </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">They also have an XML-RPC based service for programmatic interaction at: <a href="http://www.osvdb.org/xmlrpc-server-client-documentation.php">http://www.osvdb.org/xmlrpc-server-client-documentation.php</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Judge Says Aggregating Content Online Is Legal
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-09#516
2004-04-10T01:38:46Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20040409/1534252.shtml">Judge Says Aggregating Content Online Is Legal</a> This case may turn out to be a lot more important than people realize, but a judge has ruled that <a href="http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/ap/ap_story.html/Financial/AP.V3311.AP-Copyright-Case.html">an aggregator of information on boat sales did not infringe the copyrights</a> of a site they scraped for information. The judge pointed out that the aggregator only took factual info (which is not copyrightable) and the images it took weren't actually the property of the site, but those who uploaded them. This does leave open the possibility that those users could sue, but considering the fact that they're trying to sell their boats, they probably appreciate the wider exposure. Of course, all of this might not matter if Congress passes a law <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20040121/1840224.shtml">allowing companies to copyright databases</a>. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
621 variations of The "99 Bottles of Beer" programming puzzle
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-07#504
2004-04-07T23:48:39Z
<p> <a href="http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net//">621 variations of the "99 Bottles of Beer" programming puzzle</a> implemented across a plethora of programming languages. Cool!</p> <p>As I completed this post a bell went off! Why not use this for a quick live demo of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso's hosting capabilities</a>? Starting off with something simple like PHP for instance?</p> <p>So, I quickly did the following:</p> <ol> <li>Cut and pasted the PHP version of this programming puzzle into a text file (using notepad) </li> <li>Copy and pasted from my Windows Directory to my Virtuoso WebDAV directories on our Windows and Linux Virtuoso Demo Servers. I achieved this by creating Web Folders (Windows OS level</li> </ol>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
621 variations of The "99 Bottles of Beer" programming puzzle
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-07#501
2004-04-07T20:02:05Z
<a href="http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net//">621 variations of the "99 Bottles of Beer" programming puzzle</a> implemented across a plethora of programming languages. Cool!
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
621 variations of The "99 Bottles of Beer" programming puzzle
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-07#508
2004-04-07T20:02:05Z
<a href="http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net//">621 variations of the "99 Bottles of Beer" programming puzzle</a> implemented across a plethora of programming languages. Cool!
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
621 variations of The "99 Bottles of Beer" programming puzzle
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-07#513
2004-04-07T20:02:05Z
<a href="http://www.99-bottles-of-beer.net//">621 variations of the "99 Bottles of Beer" programming puzzle</a> implemented across a plethora of programming languages. Cool!
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Small-minded orchestration
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-07#500
2004-04-07T16:15:31Z
<a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/blog/lc00aa00025.html">Small-minded orchestration</a> BEA and IBM this week published an ill-conceived mongrel specification called BPELJ. Edwin Khodabakchian has done a ... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/blog/">Loosely Coupled weblog</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Customer demand for a ubiquitous InfoPath runtime
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-06#499
2004-04-06T18:55:04Z
<p dir="ltr">My little addition to the observation below re. InfoPath: when will this tool actually make use of ADO.NET or ODBC in a manner reflective of these data access APIs? There are supposed to facilitate database independence, but InfoPath simply does not want to know anything other than SQL Server or ACCESS?</p> <p dir="ltr">So we all buy and deploy copies of InfoPath, and then get rid of our non SQL Server and ACCESS databases? Wow!</p> <p dir="ltr">How about InfoPath emitting XForms compliant forms? Even better, what about</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Customer demand for a ubiquitous InfoPath runtime
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-06#506
2004-04-06T18:55:04Z
<p dir="ltr">My little addition to the observation below re. InfoPath: when will this tool actually make use of ADO.NET or ODBC in a manner reflective of these data access APIs? There are supposed to facilitate database independence, but InfoPath simply does not want to know anything other than SQL Server or ACCESS?</p> <p dir="ltr">So we all buy and deploy copies of InfoPath, and then get rid of our non SQL Server and ACCESS databases? Wow!</p> <p dir="ltr">How about InfoPath emitting XForms compliant forms? Even better, what about</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Macromedia Brings Flash to the Enterprise
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-04-01#498
2004-04-01T19:45:16Z
<font size="2"> <p dir="ltr">XML based generation of Rich and Native UI's is gathering momentum, it might also be a point to understand the complimentary relationship that exists between <a href="http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/Forms/">XForms</a> and these XML based GUI generators.</p> <p dir="ltr">BTW - <a href="http://dubinko.info/events/XTech2003/img0.html">Here</a> is a great XForms presentation that helps aids in the contextualization of my prior comments.</p> <p dir="ltr">The actual Macromedia MXML (Flex) review by Jon Udell follows:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>After a decade of web-style development, I'm sold on the idea of using markup languages to describe the layouts of user interfaces and to coordinate the event-driven code that interconnects widgets and binds them to data. The original expression of that model was HTML and JavaScript, but variations have flourished. Mozilla-based applications have been using <a href="http://www.xulplanet.com/">XUL (XML User Interface Language)</a> for years. <a href="http://www.laszlosystems.com/">The Laszlo Presentation Server </a>uses a description language called LZX. Microsoft has previewed <a href="http://longhorn.msdn.microsoft.com/lhsdk/core/overviews/about%20xaml.aspx">XAML (Extensible Application Markup Language)</a> for Longhorn.</p> <p>Now comes <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/devnet/flex/articles/paradigm.html">MXML (Macromedia Flex Markup Language)</a>, the latest development in Macromedia's ongoing quest to reposition the near-ubiquitous Flash player as a general-purpose presentation engine for rich Internet applications. With XML markup at its core, Flex is inherently IDE- friendly, and Macromedia has two IDE initiatives underway. One, code-named Brady, builds on Dreamweaver MX. The other, code-named Partridge, leverages Eclipse.</p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Full Review: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/03/29/13TCflex_1.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/03/29/13TCflex_1.html</font> </u></a> </p> <font size="2"> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Also see XML for UI Languages: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/userInterfaceXML.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/userInterfaceXML.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Nothing stops any of the engines mentioned above (proprietary user interfaces as per the diagram below)</p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Will SQL Become The ETL Language Of Choice?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-28#497
2004-03-29T02:57:59Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://www.rittman.net/archives/000825.html">Will SQL Become The ETL Language Of Choice?</a> </p> <p>Will SQL replace proprietary tool languages as the ETL language of choice? Yves de Montcheuil <a href="http://www.dmreview.com/editorial/newsletter_article.cfm?nl=bireport&articleId=1000016&issue=031604">asks this question over at DMReview.com</a>.</p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.rittman.net/">Mark Rittman's Oracle Weblog</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Natural History of Software Platforms
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-28#496
2004-03-29T02:32:19Z
A very interesting <a href="http://www.synthesist.net/writing/software_platforms.html">article</a> by David Stutz about how software packages eventually become platforms.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
CIA Open Source Notification System
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-26#495
2004-03-27T02:27:32Z
<p> <a href="http://cia.navi.cx/doc/">CIA is a system</a> for tracking open-source projects in real-time. People all over the world are constantly collaborating and creating software, creating a constant flow of new code and new ideas. CIA provides an easy way for people to observe this flow. Developers can see the latest changes to their code immediately, users can subscribe to see the latest bugfixes in their favorite programs. Everyone can take a chance to step back and look at open source development as a whole. </p> <p> <a href="http://cia.navi.cx/doc/how-cia-works">Read on..</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Metadata? Thesauri? Taxonomies? Topic Maps! Making Sense Of It All.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-24#493
2004-03-24T15:43:12Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Lars Marius Garshol, Ontopia Technical Report</p> <p>Information Architecture is the discipline dealing with the modern version of this problem: how to organize web sites so that users actually can find what they are looking for. Information architects have so far applied known and well-tried tools from library science to solve this problem, and now topic maps are sailing up as another potential tool for information architects. This raises the question of how topic maps compare with the traditional solutions. The paper argues that topic maps go beyond the traditional solutions in the sense that it provides a framework within which they can be represented as they are, but also extended in ways which significantly improve information retrieval. The paper tries to show that topic maps provide a common reference model that can be used to explain how to understand many common techniques from library science and information architecture.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tm-vs-thesauri.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.ontopia.net/topicmaps/materials/tm-vs-thesauri.html</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also (XML) Topic Maps: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/topicMaps.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/topicMaps.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Software Hall of Fame: Dan Bricklin
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-23#491
2004-03-24T02:43:11Z
<p> <a href="http://www.danbricklin.com">Dan Bricklin</a> comes to mind every time I encounter yet another addition to ever growing</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
DBMS Hall of Fame: Larry Ellison
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-23#488
2004-03-24T02:09:16Z
<p>Larry Ellison (love him or hate him) continues to impact the RDBMS market (-your-choice-itively). Here is an <a href="http://www.crn.com/sections/special/supplement/816/816p35_hof.asp">article that tells the inextricable story of Oracle and Larry Ellison</a>. Some excerpts:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <font face="ARIAL,HELV" size="2">Whether it is attempting to buy a Mig jet fighter, building a $40- million house modeled on a medieval Japanese village or turning the industry on its head with his latest idea, Ellison is the antithesis of the gray-suited execs or antiseptic yuppies that seem to proliferate in Silicon Valley. What better man to start the database industry? Or the relational database industry, to be exact.</font> </p> <p> <font face="ARIAL,HELV" size="2">There always have been databases, of course. But they were unwieldy, hierarchical, flat-file-based creatures that depended on a team of programmers to extract meaningful information.</font> </p> <p> <font face="ARIAL,HELV" size="2"><a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/resources/news/20030423_edgarpassaway.shtml">Ted Codd</a>, an IBM Corp. researcher, had published a seminal paper in 1970 describing a "relational database" whereby data was separated out from applications and arranged in tables and columns and could be queried and joined though a variety of dimensions (the <a href="http://www.databaseanswers.com/codds_rules.htm">12 rules of Codd</a>). The new database described would, for example, allow queries into sales of a product by region sorted by month, without having to write a separate program. </font> </p> <p> <font face="ARIAL,HELV" size="2">Codd's paper, heavy on algebraic formulas, did not exactly set the industry on fire. It was six years before IBM and a team at Berkeley decided to start building a relational database.</font> </p> <p> <font face="ARIAL,HELV" size="2">It may have been six years before a product was available if not for Ellison and a company he started called Relational Software Inc. (RSI).</font> </p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Digital Technology Hall of Fame: Charles Geschke
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-23#487
2004-03-24T01:41:18Z
<p>Adobe, Photoshop, Moveable Type are all part of our daily computing lexicon, and increasingly do in the digital net era. Conversely, I wonder how many know the name <a href="http://www.crn.com/sections/special/hof/hof.asp?ArticleID=11156">Charles Geschke</a>? Well he (and <a href="http://www.crn.com/sections/special/supplement/816/816p49_hof.asp">John Warnock</a>) are the ones that made this all happen (against many odds in the early days at Adobe).</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <font face="UNIVERS" size="2">"The enormity of the impact that this company has had on the way everything that is printed is produced cannot be measured," said Christopher Galvin, an analyst with Hambrecht & Quist LLC in San Francisco. And Geschke himself points out that this sphere of influence now includes Hollywood, television and, of course, the Internet.</font> </p> <p> <font face="UNIVERS" size="2">Armed with his childhood penchant for disassembling the family's appliances and a trio of college degrees, he wound up at <a href="http://www.crn.com/sections/special/hof/hof.asp?ArticleID=11165">Xerox Corp.'s famed Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)</a>, a breeding ground for inventions that seemingly made billions for everyone except Xerox. He hired Warnock in 1978 and in 1980 founded PARC's Imaging Sciences Laboratory with the mission of marrying computer technology to Xerox's legacy printing products. The duo's Interpress page-description language became Xerox's internal standard, but the company refused to license it to others. </font> </p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p></p> <p> <font face="UNIVERS" size="2">Frustrated with the inability to publicly showcase their creation, Geschke and Warnock left PARC and started Adobe in 1982, naming the fledgling company after the creek running behind Warnock's house. The original mission, Warnock recalled, was to go into a service business, "kind of like what Kinko's is today." </font> </p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Development Tools Hall of Fame: Phillipe Kahn
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-23#484
2004-03-24T01:03:07Z
<p>Another <a href="http://www.crn.com/sections/special/hof/hof.asp?ArticleID=11159">historical article </a>from the software industry archives about a software development tools pioneer and maverick.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <font face="UNIVERS" size="2">Kahn, former chairman and chief executive of <a href="http://www.borland.com">Borland International Inc</a>., first shook the industry like a gale force wind in 1984 with SideKick for $49. He took on what he called the software robber barons who overcharged for their software. Later, he applied similar pricing principles and guerrilla marketing to languages, compilers and spreadsheets.</font> </p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
DBMS Hall of Fame: Prof. Michael Stonebraker
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-23#483
2004-03-24T00:40:37Z
<p>An <a href="http://www.crn.com/sections/special/HOF/hof00.asp?ArticleID=21432">interesting piece</a> I stumbled across regarding one of the RDBMS industry's notable pioneers. </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <font face="UNIVERS" size="2"><font face="Arial,Helvetica,Geneva,Swiss,SunSans-Regular" size="2">Today, technology areas that catch Stonebraker's eye include wireless and data integration on the Web. <br /> <br />Started Ingres project in early 1970s at Berkeley to develop relational databases. Ingres Corp. formed in 1980.<br /> <br />Another Berkeley project, Postgres, yielded object relational databases and spawned Illustra Information Technologies in 1992.<br /> <br />Became Informix's CTO in 1996, holding that post until September 2000.<br /> <br />Launched Cohera, a maker of federated databases, in 1999, based on a Berkeley research project, Miraposa.</font> </font> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://www.crn.com/sections/special/HOF/hof00.asp?ArticleID=21432">Read on..</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Demo Hell and back
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-23#482
2004-03-23T20:04:04Z
<p>This piece links to a great <a href="http://www.frenchguys.com/temp/Mono.ppt">Mono presentation</a> (bar the reference placement of MySQL/PostgreSQL in a box somewhat adjacent to ADO.NET (see slide 7). When ADO.NET should have be associated with Data Providers for ODBC, MySQL, PostgresSQL, and others for clarity (the natural goal of the presentation).</p> <p>We have got to take time to understand the Data Access Layer, if we don't we will utlimately <a href="http://www.securityfocus.com/archive/1/358200">pay a hefty price </a>(IMHO).</p> <p>This blog post is also hillarious, especially if you have encountered the mercurial "Murphy" during live product demos.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>So, today I went to hell. And then I came back. It was a short trip.</p> <p>This year, I am giving a presentation on Mono at Brainshare in Salt Lake City, an intro to Mono for developers. I got a pretty good turnout with a few ximian people in the back (including Joe whom I saw for the first time without a hat).</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>So I plug in my PowerBook 12" as I always do but for some reason I have a hard time getting the projector to display its output. After struggling a little I resort to using the desktop provided by Novell, running Ximian Desktop 2 (and some version Suse Linux).</p> <p>So I upload my <a href="http://www.frenchguys.com/temp/Mono.ppt" target="_blank">presentation</a> to <a href="http://www.frenchguys.com/" target="blank">www.frenchguys.com</a> from my mac and then download it back to the desktop. Now I can make my presentation, which goes well. Then I get to a slide that just says : <b>DEMO</b>. Hmmm. Demo. I don't have Mono installed on that generic machine I was just given. I am going to need magic. So to magic I resort.</p> </blockquote> <p align="right">[via <a href="http://go-mono.com/monologue">Monologue</a>]</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The future's bright with RDF [Dr Ont's Semantic Spout]
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-19#481
2004-03-19T19:30:56Z
<a href="http://www.schemaweb.info/blogs/Blog.aspx?entryid=38">The future's bright with RDF [Dr Ont's Semantic Spout]</a> <div> <p>Web technologists who are still undecided about that big leap into <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a> might take heart from the experience of my own developer, Derek.</p> <p>The picture below is Derek as I found him just a short year ago in <a href="http://www.denbighweb.co.uk/">Denbigh</a>, situated in the heart of the 'silicon valley' of North Wales. The poor bloke was on the rocks, desperate for even Access database or <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/support/flash/action_scripts/actionscript_tutorial/">ActionScript</a> work.</p> <p> <img alt="Before RDF" border="0" src="http://www.schemaweb.info/blogs/images/derek.jpg" /> </p> <p>And now, after making the move to RDF, we see that Derek is now a go-ahead semantic web executive with a large desk and two computers.</p> <p> <img alt="After RDF" border="0" src="http://www.schemaweb.info/blogs/images/derek2.jpg" /> </p> <p>Now isn't that living proof that RDF does you (and your wallet) good, all you <a href="http://www.corante.com/many/archives/2004/03/16/relationship_a_vocabulary_for_describing_relationships_between_people.php">RDF sceptics</a>!</p> </div> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.schemaweb.info/">SchemaWeb Bloggers</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Patently Unfair?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-19#480
2004-03-19T18:40:06Z
<font size="2"> <p>By Susan Kuchinskas, <a href="http://internetnews.com">InternetNews.com</a> </p> <p>There's a new Internet business model on the rise: Buy a patent, hold onto it until the technology it covers has penetrated the market, then assert your rights. These "submarine patents" are making waves throughout the industry... The U.S. Patent and Trade Office handles close to 300,000 applications a year, which works out to about 1,000 applications arriving every business day. New applications are growing at the rate of 10 percent a year. No wonder it described itself in a report to Congress as "an agency under siege." One group on the attack is a horde of critics who charge that the USPTO has issued overly broad rights on Internet technologies and business processes. Critics say such patents place control of e-commerce, digital media and the Web itself in the hands of a few. For all the talk of reform, [Greg] Aharonian believes there are too many vested interests for real change to take place. The patent office makes money by issuing patents. Then, the lawyers make money off the resulting lawsuits.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3326431"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3326431</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also Patents and Open Standards: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/patents.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/patents.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Interesting Search Product
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-17#477
2004-03-17T23:27:44Z
<p dir="ltr">Mark Cuban introduces an interesting new search product. His blog post also sheds light on a somewhat forgotten approach to entrepreneurship and investing. Check out the blog post excerpt below:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.blogmaverick.com/entry/5448013812388767/">Today was a very good day</a> Busy, busy, busy. To start things off, the SEC filing for my purchase of shares in Mamma.com hit the tape. </p> <p>I think mamma.com has that potential. It's not Google or Yahoo, nor will it be a top 5 search engine anytime soon. But it is a good metasearch tool that I use and have used. Google and Yahoo have become carbon copies of each other, and for me, other than usenet and news searches, it's too big. I like the way Mamma.com organizes websearches, and I use it for picture searches. I'm not going to make a big investment in a company just because I use its product. I invested in the company because it generates cash. I'm not into PE ratios, Price to Sales, etc., etc. I'm into good ole fashioned cash. </p> <p>The company has a simple business proposition: sell its web traffic and keep expenses very low. As long as it can continue to grow its traffic and keep costs down, it will do what I expect of it -- put money in the bank at a rate of 15 pct or more of sales. </p> <p>Hopefully, I will be able to help it along by cross-promoting it with other businesses I have, and providing technical and marketing support for their management team. Nothing in the business world is a sure thing, and please don't invest in this company because I did, but I obviously like the company's prospects. </p> </blockquote> <p align="right">[via <a href="http://www.blogmaverick.com/">Blog Maverick</a>]</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Moving to XML: Does it Mean Throwing Out Your RDB Queries?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-17#476
2004-03-17T16:04:22Z
<font size="2"> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>By Jack Vaughan, Application Development Trends</p> <p>XML has clear benefits as a lingua franca for integration, but it must co-exist with a well-established body of relational DB know-how. More than a few architects are concerned that they will soon have to throw a slew of finely tuned relational queries out the window and start over. JNetDirect recently unveiled software to address RDB-to-XML data mapping. JSQLMapper is a bidirectional data-mapping tool that cuts requirements for custom coding to bring relational data into XML format. With JSQLMapper, developers can create data mappings from existing relational data stores to XML documents.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=9092"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.adtmag.com/article.asp?id=9092</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>See also XML and Databases: <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/xmlAndDatabases.html"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://xml.coverpages.org/xmlAndDatabases.html</font> </u></a> </p> </font> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Why on earth does XML's emergence somehow imply dumping existing investement in relational database queries? </p> <p dir="ltr">XML provides an alternative, uniform, and widely adopted mechanism for exploiting existing relational data. The emergence of the recent SQL/XML (SQLX) standard should at least bring this into clearer perspective.</p> <p dir="ltr">Obviously the lack of practical SQLX tutorial material may be the source of some of the confusion about this subject matter, so here are a few urls:</p> <p dir="ltr">Generating RSS from SQL Data - <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/articles/rssvirtsqlx.htm">http://www.openlinksw.com/articles/rssvirtsqlx.htm</a> (this is one of many ways that this can be achieved using <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">OpenLink Virtuoso</a>).</p> <p dir="ltr">SQLX Tutorials and online demos - <br /> <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/tutorial/xml/index.vsp?f=1">http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/tutorial/xml/index.vsp?f=1</a> </p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> <p dir="ltr"> </p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
MySQL Adjusts Licensing for LAMP and similar communities
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-16#475
2004-03-16T19:20:00Z
<p dir="ltr">Here</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft Ship Dates Falling Like Dominoes (Yukon & Whidbey)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-10#474
2004-03-10T23:15:56Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,1546542,00.asp?kc=MWRSS02129TX1K0000535">Microsoft Ship Dates Falling Like Dominoes</a> </p> <p>ANALYSIS: It's not just Longhorn that's a long way off. Now the 'Yukon wave' is receding into 2005. [via <a href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/">Microsoft Watch from Mary Jo Foley</a>]</p> </blockquote> <div align="left">As indicated in my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/index.vspx?id=138">post at the height of the PDC Yukon hoopla</a>, you can</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Beyond knowledge?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-10#473
2004-03-10T23:12:54Z
<p> <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/03/09.html#a940">Beyond knowledge?</a> </p> <p> </p> <table align="right" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="4"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/india_pr.html"><img alt="Image" src="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/images/FF_94_1.jpg" /> </a> <div align="center" class="realsmall">Aparna Jairam</div></td> </tr> <tr> <td> <a href="http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/turner.asp"><img alt="Image" src="http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/members/memberphotos/turner.jpg" /> </a> <div align="center" class="realsmall">Shirley Turner</div></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>The February issue of Wired features an <a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/india_pr.html">article on offshoring</a> by Daniel Pink, author of <a href="http://allconsuming.net/item.cgi?isbn=0446678791">Free Agent Nation</a>. Wired's story, entitled <i>The New Face of the Silicon Age</i>, might instead have been called <i>Free Agent World</i>. Here's a stunning exchange between Pink and New Jersey state senator Shirley Turner: <blockquote>I toss a slur across her desk. I call her a protectionist. <br /> <br />"Oh, and I'm proud of it," she responds. "I wear that badge with honor. I am a protectionist. I want to protect America. I want to protect jobs for Americans." <br /> <br />"But isn't part of this country's vitality its ability to make these kinds of changes?" I counter. "We've done it before - going from farm to factory, from factory to knowledge work, and from knowledge work to whatever's next." <br /> <br />She looks at me. Then she says, "I'd like to know where you go from knowledge." [<a href="http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.02/india_pr.html">Wired: Kiss Your Cubicle Goodbye</a>] </blockquote> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Where indeed? I think protectionism is the wrong approach. And I think <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/03/08.html#a939">Dick Cook's ideas</a> are right. But let's not kid ourselves. What's at stake here isn't just call-center jobs, or <a href="http://tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/02/23/NumbingCoding">mind-numbing</a> code-writing jobs, or <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/opinion/04FRIE.html">accounting jobs</a>. Creativity, innovation and hard work are the levers that move the global economy, and anybody, anywhere, will be able to grasp those levers. [via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p>As for the question posed at the end of the article; where do we go "beyond knowledge?" I have a simple answer -</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Cool RFID Animated Demo from MIT
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-09#472
2004-03-09T22:30:36Z
<p>Another <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/visualize0304.asp">example of the emerging trend towards animated technology demos</a>. In this case the subject matter is <a href="http://www.aimglobal.org/technologies/rfid/what_is_rfid.asp">RFID</a>, and the demo comes from <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/index.asp">MIT's Technology Review</a>.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Ontology mapping for blogs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-05#471
2004-03-05T21:57:11Z
<a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com:3030/blojsom-hp/blog/technologies/semweb/ontologies/?permalink=D73C1BF8D6F911413BA7FAE629764D04.textile">Ontology mapping for blogs</a> <p>Man this is interesting. Is Dave Winer getting into the idea of ontology merging? Read <a href="http://www.cadence90.com/blogs/2003_11_01_nixon_archives.html">this comment</a> and judge for yourself:<br /> <br />?The hierarchy itself is separate ? you (could) publish an <span class="caps">OPML</span> file of that hierarchy and put it in a public place.<br />In answering the question, ?Why do it this way?? Dave gave an interesting response ? the atomization of a blog into feeds would allow users to merge the ?my world? of their blog with content from the many ?their worlds? on the net. Such merged topical hierarchies could then themselves be exported as an <span class="caps">OPML</span> file and a defacto statement of ?this is my point of view, my information and other information from beyond my domain that I think is important.?</p> <p>There?s a number of folk hard at work on this problem: the <a href="http://www.xfml.org/">XFML</a> folks, Paolo Valdemarin & Matt Mower on their <a href="http://k-collector.evectors.it/">k-collector</a>, and our very own SWAD-E thesaurus project which <a href="http://www.w3c.rl.ac.uk/SWAD/deliverables/8.2.html#2.5">discusses mapping issues</a> . Heck, we even discussed the issue in our <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/reports/open_demonstrators/hp-requirements-specification.html">requirements specification</a>. All at different levels of sophistication and complexity. I suspect that something as simple as blog categorization won't run into the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/Europe/reports/open_demonstrators/hp-requirements-specification.html">really hard thesaurus mapping problems</a>, but that it won?t be straightforward as Dave?s comments might lead one to think.</p> <p>To expand on this theme, let?s think about how people might want to share categories. Firstly, you might want to simply reuse someone else?s categorization scheme. That?s fine as a bootstrap, but what if you already have a scheme? What if the 2 schemes overlap? What happens to your previously categorized blog entries? You might, I suggest, want at least the ability to say ?these two categories are the same?.<br />Then there?s the aggregation of categories. Without some sort of mapping, two blogs using different categorization schemes are just that ? 2 blogs.<br />A feasible approach is the decentralized ontology creation favoured by <a href="http://topicexchange.com/">Topic Exchange</a> and k-collector. Here, people suggest new topics/categories, and the (ever growing) structure is shared among the community. A fine idea, but one I fear is not scaleable beyond a very small community.<br />Finally, there is the idea of ?semantic lenses? ? using 2 different categorization schemes to view the <b>same</b> content.</p> <p>Oh, one other thing. Reading on, I note ?Dave?s idea is that supporting views other than reverse-chron gives new participants entry points into the data?. I couldn?t agree more, this is what I was trying to demonstrate with semantic view, navigation and query on the semantic blogging <a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com/~stecay/downloads/script.html">prototype</a>.</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com:3030/blojsom-hp/blog/">Semantic Blogging Demonstrator</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Screen Capture Demos (aka animated howtos and tutorials)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-03-05#470
2004-03-05T17:54:39Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/03/04.html#a933">Screen video tips</a> </p> <p>Several folks wrote with questions and comments about the OS X screen video I posted the other day. I mentioned that Media Encoder was the capture tool, but didn't specify how I got from Windows Media to Flash. For that, I used <a href="http://www.techsmith.com/products/studio/default.asp">Camtasia Studio</a>. I've heard good things about <a href="http://www.qarbon.com/">Qarbon</a> but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Chris Ryland, from Em Software, wrote to recommend <a href="http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/">SnapzPro X 2</a> specifically for OS X (and QuickTime). </p> <p> <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/03/04.html#a933">See complete article</a>.</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Contd: Open Source Lock-in
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-02-20#467
2004-02-20T20:59:00Z
<p>I can't believe that a <a href="http://www.knowprose.com/mtentries/000918.html">response</a> to <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/01/16/03OPstrategic_1.html">Jon Udell's reference </a>to <a href="http://www.knowprose.com/mtentries/000918.html">my comments </a>re. the MySQL GPL stunt lay unanswered since the 20th of January! </p> <p>I took a closer look at the blog post/response by <a href="http://www.technorati.com/profile/Taran/426803/7f468ffa9f8809bd1746ea86e8d98a23"> Taran</a>, and</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Search Beyond Google
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-02-17#466
2004-02-17T17:59:01Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/archives/009026.phtml">Search Beyond Google</a> </p> <p>Google has a large lead over its rivals in U.S. audience share, accounting for 77 percent of all searches in August 2003 (including searches conducted at AOL and Yahoo!, which used the Google search engine). But in the search industry, innovation is a wild card. In 1999, you could have said that AltaVista had pretty much finished off the search market,notes Whit Andrews, a research director at technology advisory firm Gartner. In 1997, it was Inktomi. In 1995, it was Yahoo!. You never know in the search business when there?s somebody down the street who is going to make you look like yesterday's news.</p> <p> <i>Good article on <a href="http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/print_version/roush0304.asp">the future of search engines</a>. One that caught my eye was <a href="http://www.mooter.com/">Mooter</a>; I'll be watching that one closely. </i>[via <a href="http://channels.lockergnome.com/news/">Lockergnome's Technology News</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Great piece! I took a quick look at <a href="http://www.mooter.com/corp/index.html">Mooter</a>, and I was very impressed. I certainly remember the internal emails that brought AltaVista, AllTheWeb, and eventually Google to my attention. Of course there will be search beyond Google, that's what makes us human (our</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft and Google: Nasty tactics reported
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-02-05#463
2004-02-05T17:51:00Z
<p> <a href="http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/archives/2004_02_01_susanmernit_archive.html#107598350398465355">Microsoft and Google: Nasty tactics reported</a> A story that Microsoft is behaving like a bully and threatening Google. <span class="text"></span> </p> <p> <font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">The search engine war between Google and MSN is generating some nasty tactics reminiscent of the Microsoft vs. Netscape battle of the mid '90's. Those who remember that battle will recall the almost surgical methods used by Microsoft to all but destroy Netscape. Today, Netscape is a shell of its former self, kept in a dull corner of the Time Warner empire and denied the attention or funding it needs to reemerge as a viable entity in the browser market. Many will also remember the tactics used by Microsoft to destroy Netscape generated years of anti-trust litigation and almost led to the break-up of the world's richest corporation and largest software maker. At the end of the day of course, Microsoft got off with a wrist slap and the knowledge that the US Government will not kill a goose that lays golden eggs (and whose products run much of the national infrastructure). Microsoft is obviously feeling free to resort to some its old tricks and the search engine wars are about to go mainstream, possibly becoming public entertainment. Remember the film, Pirates of Silicone Valley? This script promises to be even more interesting.</font> </p> <p> <font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">Search is the fastest growing sector of the Internet and the advertising industry. Currently considered a $2 - 2.5Billion industry, industry experts expect search and search technology to generate over $8Billion per annum by 2007. As a yardstick to measure by, the logging industry in British Columbia is valued at approximately $5Billion per year. Search, in other words, is a serious global business that is projected to generate staggering revenues and growth over the next half-decade. That much money tends to generate a great deal of motivation.</font> </p> <p> <font face="arial, helvetica, sans-serif">According to yesterday's New York Times, Microsoft has officially turned its great eye on Google and is specifically targeting Google and its employees. Microsoft recruiters are said to be calling Google staff at home, telling them that MSN's new search tool will bury Google and that they had better defect north to Redmond Washington as soon as possible before their jobs and soon to be stock options are worthless. Executives from both companies were seen watching each other like hawks at last week's World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland. Wherever a Google representative went, a MSN exec was steps behind, and vica versa. Meanwhile, back in the United States, Microsoft employees are examining Google patents looking for potential weaknesses to exploit. Microsoft is obviously playing for keeps and appears to be preparing to head off the inevitable legal battles that will stem from the introduction of Microsoft's new operating system, Longhorn, currently in development and scheduled for release early next year.</font> </p> <p> <a href="http://www.isedb.com/news/index.php?t=reviews&id=675">Read on..</a> </p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://susanmernit.blogspot.com/">Susan Mernit's Blog: Navigating the Info Jungle</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Remember WebDAV
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-02-03#462
2004-02-03T21:04:10Z
<p> <a href="http://www.webdav.org">WebDAV</a> is one of those interesting standards that sometimes gets lost in the broader industry hoopla. Well I finally decided to take a look at <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/">Mozilla's Calendar project </a>as more open solution for sharing my calendar. After browsing around a little I came a across the following <a href="http://www.mozilla.org/projects/calendar/faq.html#share">piece</a>:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <em>To share your calendars, you need access to a </em> <a href="http://www.webdav.org/"><em>webDAV server</em> </a><em>. If you run your own web server, you can install </em> <a href="http://www.webdav.org/mod_dav"><em>mod_dav</em> </a><em>, a free Apache module that will turn your web server into a webDAV server. Instructions on how to set it up are on their website. Once you set up your webDAV server, you can publish your calendar to the site, then subscribe to it from any other Mozilla Calendar. Automatically updating the calendar will give you a poor man's calendar server.</em> </p> </blockquote> <p>Through WebDAV we will be able to share calendars across disparate calendaring tools (albeit with some degree of pain when Outlook is in the mix). Even better for me, I can post my shared calendar data via a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> instance (internally and externally since <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm#webdav">WebDAV is one of the many protocols that it implements</a>), in short I could even seriously consider generating this on the fly and sharing it via this blog (Wow!).</p> <p>We aren't too many miles away from open and standards compliant Unified Data Storage thanks to WebDAV.</p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Newer IM Marketshare Numbers
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-02-02#457
2004-02-02T22:03:08Z
<a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001487.html">Newer IM Marketshare Numbers</a> <p>Okay, it turns out that I was less wrong <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001485.html">than I thought</a> a little while ago. I'd like to quote <a href="http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/public/print.php/2176631">an article on Instant Messaging Planet</a> here:</p> <blockquote>"Since 1999, when AOL served 100 percent of IM users, AOL confronted two major new IM entrants, Yahoo! and Microsoft, as well as numerous smaller entrants," the application continues, citing figures from industry researcher Media Metrix, now part of comScore Networks. "As a result, AOL has experienced a substantial decline in its IM share. Its share of unduplicated, all-location users has fallen from 100 percent to <strong>58.5 percent</strong> in just three and one-half years." </blockquote> <p>There we have it. AOL is a bit over half the IM market. That means Yahoo and Microsoft probably have something close to 25% each. Those numbers are from April 2003, so it's anybody's guess as to which direction they've gone since then.</p> <p>Thanks to <a href="http://www.jamesmcmurry.com/">Jim</a> for the pointer to newer stats.</p> <p> <b>Update:</b> He also IM'd me a <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5065650.html?tag=cd_mh">a CNet article</a> from August which says:</p> <blockquote>Although AOL's AIM and ICQ together make up the largest IM network, MSN and Yahoo are making strides. In March 2003, AIM had 31.9 million unique users while ICQ had 28.3 million, according to ComScore Media Metrix. MSN Messenger reached 23.1 million unique users while Yahoo Messenger reached 19 million. Both Microsoft and Yahoo launched IM clients with virtually zero market share. </blockquote> <p>So there we go. It's really a four horse race.</p> <p> <b>Another Update:</b> Based on the international feedback rolling in, it would seem that the "A" in "AOL" really does mean America. The Microsoft Monopoly is indeed strong overseas. Interesting.</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/">Jeremy Zawodny's blog</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Newer IM Marketshare Numbers
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-02-02#456
2004-02-02T22:02:43Z
<a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001487.html">Newer IM Marketshare Numbers</a> <p>Okay, it turns out that I was less wrong <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/001485.html">than I thought</a> a little while ago. I'd like to quote <a href="http://www.instantmessagingplanet.com/public/print.php/2176631">an article on Instant Messaging Planet</a> here:</p> <blockquote>"Since 1999, when AOL served 100 percent of IM users, AOL confronted two major new IM entrants, Yahoo! and Microsoft, as well as numerous smaller entrants," the application continues, citing figures from industry researcher Media Metrix, now part of comScore Networks. "As a result, AOL has experienced a substantial decline in its IM share. Its share of unduplicated, all-location users has fallen from 100 percent to <strong>58.5 percent</strong> in just three and one-half years." </blockquote> <p>There we have it. AOL is a bit over half the IM market. That means Yahoo and Microsoft probably have something close to 25% each. Those numbers are from April 2003, so it's anybody's guess as to which direction they've gone since then.</p> <p>Thanks to <a href="http://www.jamesmcmurry.com/">Jim</a> for the pointer to newer stats.</p> <p> <b>Update:</b> He also IM'd me a <a href="http://news.com.com/2100-1032_3-5065650.html?tag=cd_mh">a CNet article</a> from August which says:</p> <blockquote>Although AOL's AIM and ICQ together make up the largest IM network, MSN and Yahoo are making strides. In March 2003, AIM had 31.9 million unique users while ICQ had 28.3 million, according to ComScore Media Metrix. MSN Messenger reached 23.1 million unique users while Yahoo Messenger reached 19 million. Both Microsoft and Yahoo launched IM clients with virtually zero market share. </blockquote> <p>So there we go. It's really a four horse race.</p> <p> <b>Another Update:</b> Based on the international feedback rolling in, it would seem that the "A" in "AOL" really does mean America. The Microsoft Monopoly is indeed strong overseas. Interesting.</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/">Jeremy Zawodny's blog</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Esther has new blog and it has RSS
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-01-26#455
2004-01-26T16:15:35Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/01/23.html#a6332">Esther has new blog, but where's the RSS?</a> </p> <p> <a href="http://weblog.edventure.com/">Esther Dyson has a new weblog</a>. Esther, you really are blowing it by not having an RSS feed. At least I couldn't find it.</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer -- Geek Aggregator</a>]</div> </blockquote> <div dir="ltr" align="left">Hmm.</div> <div dir="ltr" align="left">I found Esther's RSS feed, and she hasn't blown anything, she has simply gone one step further with <a href="http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/05/30/rss_autodiscovery">RSS Autodiscovery</a> (that's how I found her RSS feed</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Unstructured information not really the first point of departure
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-01-14#454
2004-01-15T03:01:44Z
<a href="http://www.unstruct.org/archives/000220.html">Unstructured information not really the first point of departure</a> This is a guest feature by Ramn Fallon that deals with an issue that we often hear about - that is that "unstructured information" is not really a proper term since information (and even data) per definition carries some sort... align=right>[via href="http://www.unstruct.org/">unstruct.org - Unstructured Information Management]
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
No Remote XQuery Concerns Here
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-01-12#451
2004-01-12T17:35:52Z
<p dir="ltr">A very interesting exchange that came through my RSS feeds this morning - starting with <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2004/01/12.html#a884">Jon's piece</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Planet RDF Community Weblog
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-01-09#448
2004-01-09T23:24:04Z
<font size="2"> <p> <a href="http://planetrdf.com/"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://planetrdf.com/</font> </u> </a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>Planet RDF is an aggregate of the weblogs of software developers in and around the semantic web community. We hope both to take advantage of the community that exists, and also to foster more collaboration between independent developers.</p> <p>Although by nature not always 100% focused on semantic web content, it provides a great snapshot of the work being done and new web sites of interest to those working on the semantic web.</p> <p>The participant weblogs are sourced from Dave Beckett's Semantic Web bloggers list, <a href="http://journal.dajobe.org/journal/2003/07/semblogs/"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://journal.dajobe.org/journal/2003/07/semblogs/</font> </u></a><font size="2">, with a bit of additional editorial control to keep the web site focused loosely on topic. Send mail to Dave, dave.beckett@bristol.ac.uk, if you think you have a blog (with a valid RSS 1.0 feed, naturally) that we'd be interested in, and we'll check it out.</font> </p> <p>For the technically curious: web standards are used as much as possible and the usual electically invalid input of HTML from weblogs has been cleaned up to be as near XHTML-valid as we could muster, both in the web page and the aggregated RDF, <a href="http://planetrdf.com/index.rdf"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://planetrdf.com/index.rdf</font> </u></a> </p> <font size="2"> <p>Planet RDF was developed by Matt Biddulph, Dave Beckett and Phil McCarthy.</p> </font> </font> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Why I Like XML, Blogging, and the Internet
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-01-09#447
2004-01-09T16:20:38Z
<p>I like XML and the Internet for the same <a href="http://davenet.scripting.com/2000/07/10/whyILikeXml">reasons expressed by Dave Winer</a>. I like blogging because it enables me to cross reference or propagate (internally or externally) my reasons for liking XML :-) </p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
MySQL 4.1 Client Libraries go GPL
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-01-07#446
2004-01-08T04:26:20Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://blog.bitflux.ch/p1626.html">MySQL and the GPL</a> Interesting read and thoughts and discussion about MySQL and "their" interpretation (backed by FSF) of the GPL on <a href="http://www.edwardbear.org/serendipity/archives/1193_My_Beef_with_MySQLs_License.html">Sterling's Blog</a> </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://blog.bitflux.ch/">Bitflux Blog</a>]</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Well it looks like the guys at MySQL AB have made a very bad move re. the MySQL 4.1 client libraries. They have made these libraries GPL as opposed to LGPL (these license format of the prior library releases), which simply means that any application that uses these libraries is now a "derivative work" and basically required to unveil source.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">I wonder how the tons of LAMP users and developers feel right now, a change of this magnitude in mid-stream! Nice way to treat a community that has built itself around MySQL's LGPL Client Libraries</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">A few years ago I had to rescue the <a href="http://www.iodbc.org">iODBC (Independent ODBC) SDK project </a>from the hands of <a href="http://www.fsf.org">FSF</a> (Free Software Foundation), and this was done solely to prevent what MySQL and FSF are attempting to pull off (FSF had a clear understanding of the inherent importance of data that is not necessarily comprehended by LAMP, or the broader industry). </div> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div align="left"> <em>Unfortunately I couldn't locate the Kingsley Idehen vs. Richard Stallman FreeODBC mailing list debate archive re. iODBC anywhere on the net, so this </em> <a href="http://udell.roninhouse.com/bytecols/1999-11-03.html"><em>interview link </em> </a><em>will have to suffice).</em> </div> </blockquote> <div align="left">Ironically MySQL as opposed to iODBC|ODBC|unixODBC has come to instinctively define data access in the LAMP world, and in doing so the very essence of the ODBC value proposition has been somewhat lost.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Recap:</div> <div align="left">ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is an API (Application Programming Interface) that enables database independent application development. <a href="http://www.iodbc.org/index.php?page=docs/odbcstory#walkthrough">Its implementation architecture</a> enables Applications to bind to a Driver Manager which in turn loads ODBC Drivers. Now, initially this doesn't look like a big deal, but it is, and the situation re. MySQL 4.1 illustrates the benefit of this architecture by protecting LAMP users and developers from the GPL'd 4.1 Client Libraries since MySQL is accessible via ODBC. <br /> </div> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div align="left"> <em>note: ODBC Driver developers that use the 4.1 client libraries are "derivative work" and they will have to release source code which means we won't be updating our MySQL ODBC Drivers because we won't be forced into release the source code of our ODBC Drivers.</em> </div> </blockquote> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">LAMP applications that are bound to iODBC|unixODBC|Microsoft ODBC will not be exposed to this stunt by FSF and MySQL AB. Why? Because an ODBC based LAMP solution isn't touching those MySQL 4.1 client libraries!</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Now if you think that you are stumped simply because you went innocently down the LAMP path by buying into the "MySQL data access is good enough perception", and now find yourself over invested in MySQL specific code (that is data access code bound directly to the MySQL client libraries), please don't worry! There is an <a href="http://www.iodbc.org/index.php?page=mysql2odbc/index">Open Source solution called MySQL2ODBC</a> that is based on the pre 4.1 MySQL client libraries that enables your MySQL specific application (which is typical of LAMP solutions) to become iODBC compliant, and this is achieved without a wholesale rewrite of your application. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">I have been an ardent ODBC supporter since its inception simply because data is timelessly important, and ODBC provides a critical solution for separating application logic from data repositories. There is a lot of SQL data driving mission critical business applications globally, and failure to comprehend ODBC's value proposition ultimately results in loss of control over Data, which is the foundation from which Information and Knowledge are derived.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">You should never find yourself locked into any database vendor, programming language vendor, operating system vendor, or business application vendor, simply becuase you want exploit your own data. </div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left">Ironically the statement above is for the most part the real reason why ODBC has such a bad wrap!</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
New Open Source ODBC SDK Site
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-01-06#445
2004-01-07T00:16:03Z
<p>A revamped <a href="http://www.iodbc.org/">iodbc.org</a> site is now live. A cross platform ODBC SDK (for writing Drivers, or making applications database independent) remains an important part of the tecnology spectrum for the information age. The further we go into the information age, the more obvious the value of data access, and a standards base API will become.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Enterprise Databases get a grip on XML
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2004-01-06#442
2004-01-06T23:17:07Z
<blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <p> <a class="listLinkLrg" title="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D" href="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D" target="_new"> <strong><font face="Verdana">Databases get a grip on XML</font> </strong> </a> <br /> <font size="2"></font><font face="Verdana">From <a href="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D">Inforworld</a>.</font> <br /> <br /> <font face="Verdana,Geneva,Arial,sans-serif" size="2">The next iteration of the SQL standard was supposed to arrive in 2003. But SQL standardization has always been a glacially slow process, so nobody should be surprised that SQL:2003 ? now known as SQL:200n ? isn?t ready yet. Even so, 2003 was a year in which XML-oriented data management, one of the areas addressed by the forthcoming standard, showed up on more and more developers? radar screens. <a title="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D" href="http://newsletter.infoworld.com/t?ctl=4FEDB6:1F3948D" target="_blank">>> READ MORE</a> </font> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">This article rounds up product for 2003 in the critical area of Enterprise Database Technology. It's certainly provides an apt reflection of how Virtuoso compares with offerings from some the larger (but certainly slower to implement) database vendors in this space. As usual Jon Udell's quote pretty much sums this up:</font> </p> <blockquote style="margin-right: 0px;" dir="ltr"> <p dir="ltr"> <span class="artText"><em>"While the spotlight shone on the heavyweight contenders, a couple of agile innovators made noteworthy advances in 2003. </em> <a class="regularArticleU" href="http://www.infoworld.com/699"><em>OpenLink Software?s Virtuoso 3.0</em> </a><em>, which we reviewed in March, stole thunder from all three major players. Like Oracle, it offers a WebDAV-accessible XML repository. Like DB2 Information Integrator, it functions as database middleware that can perform federated ?joins? across SQL and XML sources. And like the forthcoming Yukon, it embeds the .Net CLR (Common Language Runtime), or in the case of Linux, Novell/Ximian?s Mono."</em> </span> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Albeit still somewhat unknown to the broader industry we have remained true our "innovator" discipline, which still remains our chosen path to market leadership. Thus, its worth a quick Virtuoso release history, and features recap as we get set to up the ante even further in 2004:</font> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virtuoso.htm">1998 - Virtuoso's initial public beta</a> release with functional emphasis on Virtual Database Engine for ODBC and JDBC Data Sources.</font> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virtuoso1.htm">1999 - Virtuoso's official commercial</a> release, with emphasis still on Virtual Database functionality for ODBC, JDBC accessible SQL Databases.</font> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/v2releas.htm">2000 - Virtuoso 2.0</a> adds XML Storage, XPath, XML Schema, XQuery, XSL-T, WebDAV, SOAP, UDDI, HTTP, Replication, Free Text Indexing (*feature update*), POP3, and NNTP support.</font> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/v27releas.htm">2002 - Virtuoso 2.7</a> extends Virtualization prowess beyond data access via enhancements to its Web Services protocol stack implementation by enabling SQL Stored Procedures to be published as Web Services. It also debuts its Object-Relational engine enhancements that include the incorporation of Java and Microsoft .NET Objects into its User Defined Type, User Defined Functions, and Stored Procedure offerings.</font> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virt3beta.htm">2003 - Virtuoso 3.0</a> extends data and application logic virtualization into the Application Server realm (basically a Virtual Application server too!), by adding support for ASP.NET, PHP, Java Server Pages runtime hosting (making applications built using any of these languages deployable using Virtuoso across all supported platforms).</font> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Collectively each of these releases have contributed to a very premeditated architecture and vision that will ultimately unveil the inherent power of critical I.S infrastructure virtualization along the following lines; data storage, data access , and application logic via coherent integration of SQL, XML, Web Services, and Persistent Stored Modules (.NET, Java, and other object based component building blocks).</font> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <font face="Verdana"></font> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Free XForms and RELAX NG Documentation
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-12-05#439
2003-12-05T21:45:14Z
<p dir="ltr">Interesting developments on the documentation front. I can now look at integrating either one of these books into the <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Online Documentation </a>database (which is XML, RSS, and OPML in action), but more importantly help to spread the good work of these authors, which will potentially generate revenue for them on a variety of fronts (the good work isn't going to be in vain). </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.ldodds.com/blog/archives/000094.html">XForms Freebie</a> First Eric van der Vlist makes his RELAX NG book freely available, and now Micah Dubinko has done the same re <a href="http://dubinko.info/writing/xforms/book.html">XForms</a>.</p> <p>RELAX NG is a <a href="http://books.xmlschemata.org/relaxng/page2.html">book</a> in progress written by Eric van der Vlist for O'Reilly and submitted to an open review process. The result of this work will be freely available on the World Wide Web under a <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html">Free Documentation Licence</a> (FDL).</p> <p>The subject of this book, RELAX NG (<a href="http://relaxng.org/">http://relaxng.org</a>), is a XML schema language developped by the OASIS RELAX NG Technical Committee and recently accepted as Draft International Standard 19757-2 by the Document Description and Processing Languages subcommittee (<a href="http://dsdl.org/">DSDL</a>) of the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34/WG 1).</p> <p>[via <a href="http://www.ldodds.com/blog/">Lost Boy</a>]</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Officially introducing Mono.Security
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-12-03#436
2003-12-03T20:39:24Z
<a href="http://pages.infinit.net/ctech/20031202-1004.html">Officially introducing Mono.Security</a> <p>I've been talking a lot about Mono.Security but until today I didn't realize that it was never <i>officially</i> introduced - at least in my blog.</p> <p>The only existing introduction is the <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/crypto.html" target="_blank">Mono's Crypto status page</a> - which BTW is a great place to learn what's in and/or out Mono's cryptography.</p> <p><lazy-geek:copy-n-paste><br /> <b>Rational</b>: This assembly provides the missing pieces to .NET security. On Windows CryptoAPI is often used to provide much needed functionalities (like some cryptographic algorithms, code signing, X.509 certificates). Mono, for platform independence, implements these functionalities in 100% managed code.<br /></ lazy-geek:copy-n-paste> </p> <p> </p> <p>The most important piece of information is <i>100% managed code</i>. This means that Mono.Security isn't tied to the Mono runtime and/or specific class library - you're free (really it's <a href="http://www.opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.php" target="_blank">MIT X11</a> licensed) to use it on any runtime you choose.</p> <b>Structures</b> <ul> <li>ASN1 decoding, encoding and type conversions;</li> <li> <a href="http://www.rsasecurity.com/rsalabs/pkcs/pkcs-7/index.html" target="_blank">PKCS #7</a> structures - used for Authenticode and SPC support and currently being updated for implementing <code>System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs</code> in .NET 1.2;</li> </ul> <b>Many security file formats including little known / undocumented formats</b> <ul> <li>PVK - Private Key files. Files that contains the private part of a public key. The format is mostly used by makecert.exe. Keys can be encrypted with RC4<sup>tm</sup> using a user supplied password. Not very secure;</li> <li>SPC - Software Publisher Certificates. Files that contains a collection of X.509 certificates and/or CRLs. This is the format required by signcode.exe to append an Authenticode</li> </ul>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Deploying .NET on Mac OS X Inches closer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-12-02#433
2003-12-03T03:49:43Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/all.html#12%2F02%2F2003+12%3A00%3A00">02 Dec 2003: Mono 0.29 has been released</a> </p> <p>This release took us a long time to go out, but it is pretty exciting, with PPC supported. The best Mono release ever! [via <a href="http://monologue.go-mono.com/">Monologue</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">This time <a href="http://www.ximian.com/about_us/press_center/press_releases/index.html?pr=openlink_mono">last year </a>Mono enabled us to deliver a release of<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso"> Virtuoso </a>that unveiled the power of .NET integration as a database extension mechanism on Windows and Linux along the following lines; <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/tutorial">User Defined Types, User Defined Functions, and Stored Procedures using any .NET bound language</a>. It also enabled the deployment of ASP.NET applications on Linux, and on Windows without IIS. One item missing from my check list at the time was a Virtuoso release for Mac OS X with identical functionality. </p> <p dir="ltr">This announcement implies we are within striking distance of a Virtuoso 3.2 release that enables .NET classes and frameworks utilization (along the lines described above) on Mac OS X.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Look Out, Outlook: RSS Ahead in 2004
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-12-02#432
2003-12-02T23:10:02Z
<p dir="ltr">An <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1399365,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594">interesting piece by Steve Gillmor</a>, especially as we entering the 2004 prediction season. Here are some of his predictions (Web 2.0 content related details in my parlance):</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>RSS information routers will emerge in 2004 with the following characteristics: </p> <p>? Persistent storage of XHTML full-text/graphics/audio/video of RSS feeds <br />? XPATH search across local and Net stores <br />? Self-forming and reordering subscriptions lists based on the aggregated priorities of user-chosen domain experts <br />? Use of IM notification for post notification to aggregate affinity groups and active conversations <br />? Integration of Hydra-like collaborative tools for multi-author conference transcripts <br />? Videoconferencing routing and broadcast/recording tools <br />? Integration of speech recognition and real-time indexing to allow quoting of linear audio and video streams <br />? Mesh networked peer-to-peer synchronization engine for item propagation across shared spaces on multiple clients, including phones; iPods; and eventually Longhorn PDAs (circa 2006). </p> <p>Armed with these tools, new industries will emerge in rapid succession: </p> <p>? Metadata-driven directories that dynamically create RSS feeds based on affinity <br />? Virtual conferences <br />? IM/RSS presence networks for rich collaboration and e-mail replacement <br />? Content-generation tools based on small, routable XHTML objects <br />? A DRM network with enough creative and hardware support to blunt the Microsoft/RIAA DRM threat to peer-to-peer port hijacking. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.eweek.com/">eWeek.com - Steve Gillmor's Collaboration and Messaging Topic Center</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft Killing the Web ?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-11-13#431
2003-11-13T21:26:34Z
<p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This is a really interesting collection of </span> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><em>Blogobillia</em> </font><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">!</span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It starts here with one of many excerpts from <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">Scoble's blog</a>:<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/scriptingArchive/2003/11/12#When:9:47:09AM">Dave Winer</a>, <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/11/11.html#a844">Jon Udell</a>, and now <a href="http://lists.xml.org/archives/xml-dev/200311/msg00500.html">Gerald Bauer </a>says that Microsoft is killing the Web. Or trying to.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The guys above are pretty seasoned individuals (they save me a lot of writing too amongst other things).<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Now here is a response from Microsoft?s Blog evangelist supremo Scoble to their comments and genuine concerns.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">OK, let's assume that's true.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Microsoft has 55,000 employees. $50 billion or so in the bank.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Yet what has gotten me to use the Web less and less lately? RSS 2.0.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Seriously. I rarely use the browser anymore (except to post my weblog since I use Radio UserLand).<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">See the irony there? Dave Winer (who at minimum popularized RSS 2.0) has done more to get me to move away from the Web than a huge international corporation that's supposedly focused on killing the Web.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Now, let's look at what's really going on here. We're going back to being a great platform company. We're trying to provide a platform that lets developers build new applications that are impossible to build on other platforms. At the PDC you saw some of that. New kinds of forms. New kinds of games. New kinds of business apps. New kinds of experiences.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">But, we also are looking for ways to make the Web better too. Now, we haven't talked about what we're doing with the browser. I hear that'll come later. Astute Longhorn testers have already seen that we snuck a pop-up ad blocker into the browser without telling anyone about it. Whoa. That means we're gonna turn off MSN's capabilities of selling popup ads.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I hear there's more coming too. But, why should we do it all? Wasn't the point of the past four years to get Microsoft to stop trying to do it all? The DOJ and now the European Union are still after us cause we tried to do it all. Instead, let's just go back and be a great platform company.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We just gave you a great foundation for a killer new kind of application. One that goes FAR beyond HTML. And, even if you stick with Mozilla, your experiences on Longhorn will get better. For instance, fonts are being rendered in the GPU now on Longhorn. Your Web pages will look better and behave better on Longhorn than they will on any other platform. Period.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">And wait until Mozilla's and other developers start exploiting things like WinFS to give you new features that display Internet-based information in whole new ways.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">If Microsoft really wants to create a better platform shouldn?t this be truly futuristic? If so, then it should issue the first major salvo by dropping the restrictions on <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/Collaboration/University/Europe/RFP/Rotor/">Rotor</a>? <p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We are moving into the distributed component based computing age where runtime environments (.NET CLR, Mono, J2EE, and others) act a Component Execution Junction boxes (instead of the Monolithic Operating Systems of today) in a continuum of services orchestrated by messages in response to events emanating from value consumption requests (what we call application behviour today) from a myriad of value consumers (application users). <p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">There is no need for covert and protracted protection of an obsolete Windows Operating System (the underlying fear that keeps Rotor shackled in my opinion), since its obsolescence is in full motion as Longhorn clearly demonstrates. <p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Imagine a <u>fusion of sorts across Microsoft .NET, Mono, and Rotor</u>, with a single portable runtime as the end product (slotting nicely into its place in the imminent distributed component and services era). All the benefits of programming language independence in true glory - the ECMA-CLI is all about programming language independence. Now that would be unequivocally revolutionary, and Microsoft would actually be doing what I think it has been desperately trying to achieve for a long time; the delivery of really cool technology that seriously impact us all in a positive way without the usual World Domination Concerns. <p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Anyway, back to the current reality where we have covert attempts to lock us all into Windows getting more and more transparent per technology release cycle. The very antithesis of what I espoused in the last paragraph (or dream). I believe that Scoble's instincts lie in this realm too, and you never know this evangelist may turn Messiah :-) </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Here's the final excerpt from Scoble?s post:<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">There's a whole lot of more useful stuff coming. Both for the Web and for newer Internet-centric rich-client approaches. Personally, it's about time. I'm already using the Web less and less thanks to things like RSS 2.0.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I'm watching 636 sites every day. Try to do THAT in your Web browser.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p style="MARGIN-LEFT: 0.5in"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">So, yes, blame it on me. I'm trying to kill the Web. Isn't it time to move on? Didn't we move on from the Apple II? Didn't we move on from DOS? Didn't we move on from Windows 3.11? Can't you see a day when we move on from the Web and get something even more fantastic? I can. Dave Winer can. Why not you? [via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>]<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">If you kill the Web en route to getting us a Portable Execution Junction box from Microsoft, I think you would have served mankind pretty damned well. We won't have to gripe about Web 1.0 (Browser Driven Web) because we would be well into Web 2.0 and beyond (which doesn?t define the Web experience predominantly via browsing).<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
WinFS Synchronization Architecture
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-11-13#428
2003-11-13T19:55:27Z
<p>Here is an <a href="http://longhorn.msdn.microsoft.com/lhsdk/winfs/conthethreemainsynchronizationcomponents.aspx">architecture diagram </a>that sheds light on the WinFS synchronization architecture. There are two things that caught my attention when looking at this diagram:</p> <ol> <li>Third Party integration points are clearly identified <br /> </li> <li>No mention of SyncML (although worst case this could be bootstrapped by a third party SyncML Adapter).</li> </ol> <p>I hope other diagrams will be are clear as this, especially the ones relating to actual storage :-)</p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Creating RSS Using SQLX
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-11-11#423
2003-11-11T23:33:50Z
<p>Here is a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/articles/rssvirtsqlx.htm">practical example of how to create RSS on the fly from SQL </a>data sources leveraging Virtuoso 3.2's SQLX implementation.</p> <p>This is further illuminates the content of my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/virtuoso/index.vspx?id=426">earlier post</a> on this subject.</p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
XML Development Hindered by Lack of Conformity to Data Connectivity Standards ?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-11-11#422
2003-11-11T23:14:55Z
<p dir="ltr">I've just read an</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Borland's Early Years: A Wild Ride
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-11-05#415
2003-11-05T17:31:38Z
<a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/ssivakumar/posts/35896.aspx">Borland's Early Years: A Wild Ride</a> <font face="Verdana" size="2">A nice article about history of Borland </font> <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1370757,00.asp"><font face="Verdana" size="2">http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1370757,00.asp</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> </font> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/">WebLogs @ ASP.NET</a>]</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
.Mono Roadmap announced.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-11-05#414
2003-11-05T16:33:33Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>The <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/mono-roadmap.html">Mono Roadmap</a> and <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/mono-hacking-roadmap.html">Mono Hackers Roadmap</a> have been released. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/">Mono Project News</a>]</div> <div align="left"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Virtuoso 3.2 Web Services Platform Features Enhancements
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-11-05#413
2003-11-05T15:07:08Z
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">We released Virtuoso 3.2 last week with significant enhancements to Web Services Platform functionality that includes:</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Replace and defend -- Contd
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-31#410
2003-10-31T20:58:52Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Reading the Longhorn SDK docs is a disorienting experience. Everything's familiar but different. Consider these three examples: </p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">[Full story: <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/10/31.html#a836">Replace and defend</a> via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">"Replace & Defend" is certainly a strategy that would have awakened the entire non Microsoft Developer world during the recent PDC event. I know these events are all about preaching to the choir (Windows only developers), but as someone who has worked with Microsoft technologies as an ISV since the late 80's there is something about this events announcements that leave me concerned. </p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Ironically these concerns aren't about the competitive aspects of their technology disruptions, but more along the lines of how Microsoft (I hope inadvertently) generates the kinds of sentiments echoed in the <a href="http://longhornblogs.com/scobleizer/posts/345.aspx#FeedBack">comments thread </a>from <a href="http://longhornblogs.com/">Scobles</a> recent <a href="http://longhornblogs.com/scobleizer/posts/345.aspx">"How to hate Microsoft"</a> post. As indicated in my response to this post, I don't believe Microsoft is as bad or evil as is instinctively assumed in many quarters, but I can certainly understand why they are hated by others which is really unfortunate, especially bearing in mind that they have done more good than harm to date (in my humble opinion) . </p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Anyway, back to my concerns post PDC which I break down as follows:</p> <ol dir="ltr"> <li> <div style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Disruptive assaults on existing standards with the only benefit being Microsoft platform centricity. <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/10/31.html#a836">Jon Udell addressed this in his "Replace and Defend" post </a>(which kicked of this post), and I see exactly what he sees here, and I don't see any reason for this approach whatsoever. Even if one of these standards was deficient what stops the Microsoft from addressing these deficiencies, and then should the W3C's standards acceptance and ratification process bogs things down at least let the industry know you gave it openness a chance but have to move on etc.. <br /> <br /> </div> </li> <li> <div style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Gradual obsolescence of existing Microsoft standards which used to provide interfaces for 3rd party ISV partners, and replacing these with totally closed infrastructure implementations that bind to Microsoft products only. A good example is <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/longhorn/default.aspx?pull=/msdnmag/issues/04/01/WinFS/default.aspx">WinFS</a>, I believe in the unified data storage concept, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=406">it's a vision that I've believed in for many years</a>, but there is no notion from any PDC presentation or Blog that I have read so far (I aggregate a serious number of feeds) that Microsoft is committed to an architectural strategy that enables 3rd party ISVs to hook their data stores and data sources into this storage infrastructure - it's simply about <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/index.vspx?id=407">Yukon (SQL Server)</a> and that's basically it.</div> </li> </ol> <p style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">WinFS needs to architecturally separate the <strong>System Provider</strong> from the <strong>Data Provider</strong> (pretty much the OLE-DB architecture) with Microsoft naturally providing reference System Provider (pretty much what was demonstrated at PDC) and Data Provider (ADO.NET, OLE DB, and ODBC) implementations. Third parties can choose to produce custom WinFS Service or Data Providers which serve their data access needs. It's impractical to want to force every non SQL Server customer over to SQL Server in order them to exploit WinFS, and I certainly hope this isn't the definitive strategy at Microsoft.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Yukon's Top 10 Development Features & Virtuoso
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-30#407
2003-10-31T04:39:03Z
<a href="http://demo2.usnet.private:8890/?id=1307">Yukon's Top 10 Development Features & Virtuoso</a> <p>Yukon's top 30</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
WinFS validates Unified Storage Vision
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-29#406
2003-10-29T18:34:00Z
<p dir="ltr">I have been following the PDC event and information outflows with very keen interest. The newly published document from Microsoft re. WinFS is certainly interesting reading, especially as it articulates a vision that validates our<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso"> Virtuoso universal server </a>(as far as data storage goes). The excerpt below pretty much sums this up:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Every year, as new hard disks get bigger and faster, applications catch up by producing more data. Hard disks are commonly used to store personal information: correspondence, personal contacts, and work documents. These items are currently treated as separate entities, yet they are interrelated on some level; and it's no surprise that e-mail comes from your personal contacts list and influences the work that you should be doing and hence determines the documents that you'll create. When you have a large number of items, it is important to have a flexible and efficient mechanism to search for particular items based on their properties and content. Up until now, storage mechanisms like Outlook</p> </blockquote>
2006-07-21T07:24:45.000001-04:00
HOWTO: Apache-PHP-ODBC on Mac OS X
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-24#399
2003-10-24T20:55:06Z
<div class="Section1"> <p> <font face="Times New Roman"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><font size="2">There is a new </font> <a href="http://www.iodbc.org/iodbc-phposxHOWTO.html"><font size="2">HOWTO document</font> </a><font size="2"> that addresses an area of frequent confusion on Mac OS X, which is how do you build PHP with an ODBC data access layer binding (</font> <a href="http://www.iodbc.org/"><font size="2">iODBC</font> </a><font size="2"> variant) using Mac OS X Frameworks as opposed to Darwin Shared Libraries. </font> </span> </font> </p> <p> <font face="Times New Roman"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></span> </font> <font face="Times New Roman" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><font size="2">This document basically brings clarity to both the Frameworks and Darwin Shared library approaches</font>.</span> </font> </p> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Virtuoso Hosting CLR & ASP.NET Demo
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-24#402
2003-10-24T19:08:04Z
<div class="Section1"> <p> <font size="2">I finally have two live servers that demonstrate Virtuoso</font> </p> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Virtuoso of a Server
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-23#395
2003-10-23T21:57:48Z
<font size="2"> <p> <a href="http://www.nwfusion.com/index.html">NETWORK WORLD</a> NEWSLETTER: MARK GIBBS ON WEB APPLICATIONS </p> <p> <font size="2">Today's focus: A Virtuoso of a server</font> </p> <p>By <a href="http://www.nwfusion.com/columnists/gibbs.html">Mark Gibbs</a> </p> <p>One of the bigger drags of Web applications development is that building a system of even modest complexity is a lot like herding cats - you need a database, an applications server, an XML engine, etc., etc. And as they all come from different vendors you are faced with solving the constellation of integration issues that inevitably arise.</p> <p>If you are lucky, your integration results in a smoothly functioning system. If not, you have a lot of spare parts flying in loose formation with the risk of a crash and burn at any moment.</p> <p>An alternative is to look for all of these features and services in a single package but you'll find few choices in this arena.</p> <p>One that is available and looks very promising is OpenLink's Virtuoso (see links below).</p> <p>Virtuoso is described as a cross platform (runs on Windows, all Unix flavors, Linux, and Mac OS X) universal server that provides databases, XML services, a Web application server and supporting services all in a single package.</p> <p>OpenLink's list of supported standards is impressive and includes .Net, Mono, J2EE, XML Web Services (Simple Object Application Protocol, Web Services Description Language, WS-Security, Universal Description, Discovery and Integration), XML, XPath, XQuery, XSL-T, WebDav, HTTP, SMTP, LDAP, POP3, SQL-92, ODBC, JDBC and OLE-DB.</p> <p>Virtuoso provides an HTTP-compliant Web Server; native XML document creation, storage and management; a Web services platform for creation, hosting and consumption of Web services; content replication and synchronization services; free text index server, mail delivery and storage and an NNTP server.</p> <p>Another interesting feature is that with Virtuoso you can create Web services from existing SQL Stored Procedures, Java classes,</p> <p>C++ classes, and 'C' functions as well as create dynamic XML</p> <p>documents from ODBC and JDBC data sources.</p> <p>This is an enormous product and implies a serious commitment on the part of adopters due to its scope and range of services.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <em>Virtuoso is enormous by virtue of its architectural ambitions, but actual disk requirements are</em> </p> </blockquote> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Using SQL-XML Based RSS Feeds to Syndicate Documentation, Tutorials, and Demos
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-21#392
2003-10-21T13:41:15Z
<p> <font size="2">I have embellished a number of weblogs that I oversee (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen">Personal</a>, <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a>, and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs/uda">UDA</a>) as part of an OpenLink technology "dog-fooding" effort. We now have SQL-XML based RSS 2.0 feeds that make an array of content available for RSS Aggregators as well as ad hoc <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xquery/">XQuery</a> and <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/xpath">XPath</a> queries over <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebDAV">HTTP/WebDAV</a>.</font> </p> <br /> <table id="table1" width="74%" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="236"> <font size="2"><strong>Feed</strong> </font></td> <td width="336"> <font size="2"><strong>Description</strong> </font></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="236"> <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/"><font size="2">Virtuoso Documentation</font> </a></td> <td width="336"><font size="2">Product documentation available as a collection RSS feeds per chapter with a feed catalog in an <a href="http://docs.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/virtdocs.opml">OPML file</a>.</font></td> </tr> <tr> <td width="236"><font size="2">Data Access Driver Suite Documentation</font></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Commercial Server Supports Four Weblog APIs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-09#389
2003-10-09T18:33:00Z
Just came across this interesting post by <a href="http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench">Rogers Cadenhead</a> which shed's light on Virtuoso's xmlStorageSystemAPI() implementation which is available as a live demonstration on our <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/tutorial">demo server</a> machine (alongside many other demos -- there are <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/tutorial/opml.vsp">OPML</a>, <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/tutorial/ocs.vsp">OCS</a>, and <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/tutorial/rss.vsp">RSS</a> feeds for these funcitonality demos/tutorials). <a href="http://www.cadenhead.org/workbench/categories/javaTips/2003/10/09.html#a949" title="Workbench: Thursday, October 09, 2003">Commercial Server Supports Four Weblog APIs</a> Virtuoso 3.2 will be released in beta form latter this week or early next week, and it extends the Weblog Functionality aspect of Virtuoso to include the following: Tracbacks and Pingbacks CommentAPI Subscription Harmonization Atom The new release will include an Weblog Platform module that offers the Virtuoso equivalent of Moveable Type or pMachine, the fundamental difference being that Virtuoso's storage is database independent and the application layer is developed using the Virtuoso's web application development languages (<a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/tutorial/web/index.vsp?f=1">VSP and VSPX</a>).
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What's Up with Feedster?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-03#386
2003-10-03T13:29:00Z
<p>I have been trying to get <a href="http://feedster.com">Feedster</a> to index my blog correctly and no matter what I do I get the same result -- neither my <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen">main blog </a>nor any of my other <a href="http://kidehen.typepad.com">non Radio Userland blogs </a>ever get presented on the search <a href="http://feedster.com/search.php?q=kingsley+idehen&sort=date&ie=UTF-8&limit=15&type=rss">results page</a>.</p> <p>Strangely enough, when there is a reference to my blog the urls are broken because they actually point to articles from my internal blog (which is part of a private net behind a firewall). Now, I do actually blog behind my corporate or home firewall (depending on my location at time of blogging), and I when I blog the actual typing and editing occurs within a single Blog Editor (typically using Zempt, w.bloggar, or Newzcrawler). My blog posts are propagated (conditionally using upstream rules via the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> Blog Engine) to many <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/weblogs">surrogate blogs </a>such as the ones listed above which may or may not be Virtuoso based, they just need to support Blog Post APIs such as Moveable Type, Meta-Weblog, or Blogger. </p> <p>Anyway, I need to know if there is something about this blog site that is tripping up Feedster.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
RSS: The Best Of All Possible Worlds
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-02#383
2003-10-03T02:37:52Z
<a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/articles/indiv/2003/000192.html">RSS: The Best Of All Possible Worlds</a> <p>The thing that most surprised me today in the <a href="http://www.pulver.com/rvc2003/">SoftEdge</a> panel on Social Software was the reaction to RSS. I should be clear that I am an RSS true believer. It seems to me that metadata as a byproduct of social software engines (be it blogging or social networking or whatever) is not only enviable, it is inevitable. <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/rss/">RSS</a> and <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/">FOAF</a> and other yet-to-be-determined social software data protocols will become standards because it simply makes good sense for them to be standardized. Anyone paying attention to the unbelievable development and adoption curve of wireless can appreciate the immense value driven by standards -- and, in particular, standards that are truly standard. So it came as a bit of a shock to me that when I questioned the panelists on the implications of RSS and the Semantic Web, they were less sold on the inevitability of it all. </p> <p>When asked the question of whether the proliferation of RSS and FOAF might make it possible for reader technology to be the next killer application in knowledge management, I got very strong reactions from both Reid Hoffman and Meg Hourihan. Reid stated that he did not believe that RSS was sufficiently robust to provide significant value an any level. Meg followed up with a general indictment of the semantic web, which she views merely as a geek utopia. I will admit that I'm a fan of Candide (particularly at the hands of <a href="http://www.leonardbernstein.com/">Bernstein</a>), but I hardly view myself as Panglos. One need look no further than, for example, the tools that <a href="http://www.oddpost.com/learnmore.html">Oddpost</a> has incorporated into its web email client to allow an integrated email and blog experience. Better yet, through a relatively simple web service, Oddpost can deliver an RSS feed of a particular Google News search so that you can keep track of keywords that are of interest to you without having to visit Google repeatedly to find out if your company or candidate or favorite band has been mentioned in today's news. The same is true of watch lists on <a href="http://www.technorati.com/watchlists/index.html">Technorati</a>. Rather than periodically check to see if someone has linked to your blog, Technorati will do the work for you and deliver the info to your inbox only when there is information to be delivered. These examples are just the tip of the iceberg but the demonstrate the nascent power of RSS and related standards. I'll have to wait for another panel to have that argument with Reid and Meg. </p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/">VentureBlog</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Nigerian SCO Connection
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-01#888
2003-10-01T22:44:03Z
<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">I am a Nigerian reminiscing as my country that turns 43 today (as a post-colonial independent nation). </span> </span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p><p xmlns="o"></p> <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">October the 1st is an emotional day for many Nigerians, especially those of us in the Diaspora. Our country remains a paradox as the excerpts below attest:</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">The more popular view of Nigerians as a result of the proliferation of 419 scams (the mangled by-product of misdirected intellectual prowess and the boundless depths of greed -- which applies to perpetrators and victims alike).</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> <a href="http://www.beblogging.com/blog/20031001-214515"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">The Nigerian SCO Connection</font> </span> </a> "I AM MR. DARL MCBRIDE CURRENTLY SERVING AS THE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF THE SCO GROUP ..." [via <a href="http://www.beblogging.com/blog/"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">Be Blogging</font> </span></a>]</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Funny! But many a truth is told in jest (I think that's how the quote goes); this one is pretty damned poignant. </span> </p> <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Unbeknownst to many, there are other views of Nigeria (unfortunately these aren't the norm).</span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">The call for optimism by our president (he doesn't support or condone the 419 nonsense):</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"></span> </p> <p xmlns="o"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">President Olusegun Obasanjo urged Nigerians <a href="http://odili.net/news/source/2003/oct/1/40.html">to change their ways and be optimistic about the future</a> as <country-region xmlns="st1" xmlns:n0="w" n0:st="on">Nigeria</country-region> marks its 43rd <place xmlns="st1" xmlns:n0="w" n0:st="on"><city n0:st="on">Independence</city></place> anniversary. Read on </span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">[via <a href="http://nigeriaworld.com/"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">Odili.net </font> </span></a>� this site desperately needs RSS!]</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"></span> </p> <p xmlns="o"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">There is an increasing pool of key high-tech players of Nigerian decent (and nationality) making constructive impact on the high-tech industry (making it <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2"><a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/23/21FEinnovidehen_1.html">less lonely for myself</a> </font></span>and other Nigerians in the high-tech arena):</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"></span> </p> <p xmlns="o"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> <a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/user/Carnage4Life/diary"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">Dare Obasanjo</font> </span> </a> is a member of Microsoft's WebData team, which among other things develops the components within the System.Xml and System.Data namespace of the .NET Framework, Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML), and Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC). More of Dare's writings on XML can be found on his <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/voices/xml.asp"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">Extreme XML column</font> </span></a> on MSDN. </span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> <a href="http://uche.ogbuji.net/uche.ogbuji.net/caramusis/"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">Uche Ogbuji</font> </span> </a> is a consultant and co-founder of Fourthought Inc., a consulting firm specializing in XML solutions for enterprise knowledge management applications. Fourthought develops 4Suite, the open source platform for XML middleware. Mr. Ogbuji is a Computer Engineer and writer born in <country-region xmlns="st1" xmlns:n0="w" n0:st="on">Nigeria</country-region>, living and working in <place xmlns="st1" xmlns:n0="w" n0:st="on"><city n0:st="on">Boulder</city>, <state n0:st="on">Colorado</state>, <country-region n0:st="on">USA</country-region></place>. <br /> <b>Website</b>: <a href="http://www.fourthought.com/"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">http://www.fourthought.com/</font> </span></a> </span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> </span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> <a href="http://www.emeagwali.com/index.shtml"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">Philip Emeagwali</font> </span> </a>, a computer scientist, is one of the <a href="http://emeagwali.com/history/internet/index.html" _base_href="http://radioafrica.biz"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">fathers of the Internet</font> </span></a> and a <a href="http://www.emeagwali.com/printed-articles/upstream/natures-own-numbers-man_upstream_january-27-1997.html" target="new" _base_href="http://radioafrica.biz"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">trailblazer in petroleum extraction</font> </span></a>," as quoted by <a href="http://fyi.cnn.com/fyi/interactive/specials/bhm/story/black.innovators.html" target="new" _base_href="http://radioafrica.biz"> <i> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><font face="Arial" size="2">CNN</font> </span> </i></a>. </span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"></span> </p> <p xmlns="o"> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Philip leaves all Nigerians with this <a href="http://emeagwali.com/speeches/nigeria/43rd-independence-anniversary-message/index.html">important message</a> on this special day (key excerpt below):</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p style="margin-left: 0.5in;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">"Our investments in education and technology will be our legacy to our children. They are investments that will bring the best out of the next generation of Nigerians and enable us to reach our potential as individuals, as communities, as a nation." </span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Happy Birthday dear motherland!</span> </p> <a href="index.vspx?tag=Africa" rel="tag" style="display:none;">Africa</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=Nigeria" rel="tag" style="display:none;">Nigeria</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=xml" rel="tag" style="display:none;">xml</a>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Nigerian SCO Connection
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-10-01#380
2003-10-01T22:20:20Z
<p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">I am a Nigerian reminiscing as my country</span> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Variation on The Syncato Theme
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-26#378
2003-09-26T21:39:06Z
<p> This is an imput form that will post to Syncato and then bring you back to the Virtuoso based XQuery post (assuming you spot the comment post I made earlier) re. BloggerCon</p> <br />
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Dynamic (XQuery Based) BloggerCon Attendee List
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-26#377
2003-09-26T19:14:46Z
<table border="1"> <xquery xmlns="urn:schemas-openlink-com:xml-sql" xmlns:n0="urn:schemas-openlink-com:xml-sql" n0:context="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/blogs/gems/bloggerCon/opml/day1.opml"> for $o in document("day1.opml")//outline return <tr><td> {string($o/@text)}</td> <td><a href={string($o/@url)}>{string($o/@url)}</a></td></tr> </xquery> </table>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Jeff Bezos Comments about Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-25#373
2003-09-25T18:48:00Z
The following excerpt from a recent <a href="http://yahoo.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_39/b3851607.htm">BusinessWeek interview with Jeff Bezos</a> demonstrates how important the "Executable Web" aspect of Web 2.0 (next generation Web comprising two complimentary tracks: Executable Web of Web Services and Syndicated Web or XML based content such as <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss">RSS</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/RDF/">RDF</a>, <a href="http://www.opml.org/">OPML</a>, <a href="http://internetalchemy.org/ocs/">OCS</a>, <a href="http://www.foaf-project.org/">FOAF</a> etc.). <blockquote>Q: Amazon.com now runs sites and on-line operations for retailers such as Target and Toys 'R' Us. What's the future for that services business? A: It's a rapidly growing part of our business. And that goes from [large] companies that are customers of that all the way down to individuals using our Web services to tap into the fundamental platform that is Amazon.com. They can build their own applications very effectively. It's almost closer to an ecosystem. Q: So Amazon is becoming a kind of software platform a bit like Microsoft (MSFT )? A: People are building stuff that surprises us. That's what's so interesting about this. We've built this big base of technology to serve ourselves, and now we're opening it up and letting people access it. They're taking these fundamental pieces and building completely new things that not only would we have never gotten around to but in some cases maybe never even have thought of. There are thousands of developers who are building applications using Amazon Web services. The sky's the limit on their creativity. Q: What arises from all those efforts? A: People will be able to build very powerful applications by hooking together a whole bunch of Web services from a whole bunch of different companies. Q: What benefit is Amazon.com getting from this? A: It's too early to say. It's certainly not a major source of revenue for us. But when people use our Web services, they give us credit for that. That turns out to be very helpful. </blockquote> A few years ago the race was on to simply have a Web Site, then this requirement evolved into a requirement for a database driven site. Today we are seeing the final stages of the Web 2.0 inflection which will inevitably change the focus toward the need for a Point of Presence on the Web for exposing or invoking Web Services and/or Syndicating or Subscribing to XML based content.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The future of the World Wide Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-25#372
2003-09-25T10:52:46Z
<p>Tim Berners Lee's "<a href="http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/live/">The Future of the World Wide Web</a>" is now available as Video-On-Demand (via <a href="http://www.bogieland.com/infodesign/archive/000631.htm#000631">InfoDesign</a>).</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The future of instant messaging
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-24#371
2003-09-24T20:27:50Z
<p>A pretty verbose (on the marketing front) article and interview that dances around the real issue! </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://rss.com.com/2008-1032_3-5081443.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">The future of instant messaging</a> Reuters' IM boss David Gurle says instant messaging could turn MSN, Yahoo and AOL into the equivalent of phone companies. [via <a href="http://www.news.com/">CNET News.com - Front Door</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p>When will IM get standardized via the common adoption of interoperable IM standards? That's the crux of the matter.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
MedicineNet.com Announces Free RSS News Syndication Service
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-24#370
2003-09-24T18:34:23Z
<p>More nuggets for the burgeoning semantic web. It's amazing how quickly things are taking shape. Here is one the latest additions to this effort:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r91468125">MedicineNet.com Announces Free RSS News Syndication Service</a> URLwire Sep 24 2003 10:50AM ET </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - XML and metadata news</a>]</div> <div align="right"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Future of Weblogging
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-18#250
2003-09-19T02:21:02Z
<p>Nico MacDonald: <a href="http://www.spy.co.uk/Articles/Spiked/Weblogging/">The Future of Weblogging</a>. </p> <div class="SpyStandfirst">Nico Macdonald puts Weblogging in the context of the history of online publishing, explaining its novelty and value, and indicating where it needs to innovate. He concludes with a proposal encouraging publishers to properly embrace the Weblogging model. </div> <div class="SpyStandfirst"> </div> <div class="SpyStandfirst"> <a href="http://www.spy.co.uk/Articles/Spiked/Weblogging/">More.</a> </div> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Java Virtual Machine Bridges for .NET
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-09#249
2003-09-09T22:10:02Z
<p>The difference between the bottom-line value propositions of Java and .NET really come down to the fact that Java is platform independent at the cost of losing your programming language choices, while .NET is programming language independent at the expense of your operating system choices (of course Mono will reduce this burden over time somewhat).</p> <p>With statement above in mind it's quite pleasing to see the emerging pool of .NET bridges for the Java Virtual Machine (basically tools that allow the use of Java Components within the .NET CLI (CLR and .NET bound languages e.g. C#, VB.NET, and others):</p> <p> <font color="#000080"><strong>JavaBridge (awaiting url)</strong> </font> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Java Virtual Machine Bridges for .NET
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-09#354
2003-09-09T21:47:44Z
<p>The difference between the bottom-line value propositions of Java and .NET really come down to the fact that Java is platform independent at the cost of losing your programming language choices, while .NET is programming language independent at the expense of your operating system choices (of course Mono will reduce this burden over time somewhat).</p> <p>With statement above in mind it's quite pleasing to see the emerging pool of .NET bridges for the Java Virtual Machine (basically tools that allow the use of Java Components within the .NET CLI (CLR and .NET bound languages e.g. C#, VB.NET, and others):</p> <p> <font color="#000080"><strong>JavaBridge (awaiting url)</strong> </font> - This is a .net package that is compiled into the VMLoader.dll; which must be referenced via the references feature of Visual Studio or from the commandline using the '/r:VMLoader.dll' switch.</p> <p> <font face="Arial" color="#003366" size="4"> <font face="Arial" color="#003366" size="2"> <b><a href="http://www.jnbridge.com/jnbpro.htm">JNBridgePro</a> </b> </font><font face="Arial" color="#000000" size="2"> is a Java/.NET interoperability tool that enables new or existing Java code to fully participate in the cross-language development capabilities of Microsoft .NET (pronounced "dotnet"), while maintaining Java</font> </font> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
eBay Finally get Web Services
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-05#248
2003-09-05T21:32:16Z
<p dir="ltr">In response to this post:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>EBay has a new developer evangelist (Jeffrey McManus) and <a href="http://mcmanus.typepad.com/">today he started a weblog</a>. [via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">I found out that eBay are no longer Web Services laggards relative to Google and Amazon. </p> <p dir="ltr"> <strong>What is the eBay API?</strong> </p> <p>The Application Programming Interface (API) is the heart of the <strong><a href="http://developer.ebay.com/DevProgram/developer/api.asp">Developers Program</a></strong>. Normally, users buy and sell items using the eBay online interface, interacting with eBay directly. But with the eBay API, you communicate directly with the eBay database in XML format. By using the API, your application can provide a custom interface, functionality and specialized operations not otherwise afforded by the eBay interface. </p> <p>Using the API, you can create programs that: </p> <ul> <li>Submit items for listing on eBay</li> <li>Get the current list of eBay categories</li> <li>View information about items listed on eBay</li> <li>Get high bidder information for items you are selling</li> <li>Retrieve lists of items a particular user is currently selling through eBay</li> <li>Retrieve lists of items a particular user has bid on</li> <li>Display eBay listings on other sites</li> <li>Leave feedback about other users at the conclusion of a commerce transaction</li> </ul> <p>Because the API is not dependent on the eBay user interface, it allows you to create stable, custom functionality and interfaces that best meet your business needs. </p> <p>The definition of Web Services has just gotten simpler:<br />Web Services define technology that let's you buy and sell from eBay or Amazon without browsing either site.</p> <p>Cool!</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Multimedia Blogging
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-04#247
2003-09-04T17:49:37Z
While reading <a href="http://www.vnunet.com">computing magazine</a> I stumbled across an article titled: <a href="http://www.vnunet.com/lite/News/1142978">Picture Messaging Comes To The Rescue</a>. The interesting this about this article is that it is inadvertently brings attention to the breadth of blogging. Here are some article excerpts: <blockquote>Lives could be saved if pioneering messaging trial is a success Mobile phone photo messaging could help to save lives at the scene of an accident if a new service being tested in Scotland is successful. Fife Fire & Rescue Service has started trials using photo messaging to receive advice from doctors on how to deal with critical injuries at major incidents. Rescue officers will send photo messages of accidents via GPRS to the Accident and Emergency (A&E) unit at Dunfermline's Queen Margaret hospital, preparing emergency wards for the arrival of casualties and receiving help in return. 'We plan to send pictures of traffic accidents directly to the hospital, in order to get advice about how best to deal with the accident victims,' said Fife Fire & Rescue Service firemaster Mike Bitcon. Using the photographs, doctors can assess the injuries and prepare appropriately, as well as deciding if a doctor should be present at the scene of the accident. 'We're confident that this initiative will help to save lives,' said Bitcon.</blockquote> This can all happen right now, and independent of any particular network carrier or device via the inherent power of blogging (using mobile or multimedia blogging technology).
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Technology: Just Make It Simpler
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-09-02#246
2003-09-02T17:23:20Z
<p>Here is very good article that sheds light current trends that should be of increasing concern. In the past I have described this internally as the "<em>Web of Distrust and Fallability</em>" which has been sold to the unsuspecting public as a "<em>Web of Trust and Infallability</em>"</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Source: <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_36/b3848011_mz001.htm">BusinessWeek Online </a>.<br /> <br /> <font class="text" face="arial,helvetica,univers">"A huge chunk of the electricity grid fails. The Internet clogs up, and PCs crash. The space shuttle falls to the earth. Complex high-tech systems everywhere appear to be failing, and our society feels increasingly threatened. What is going on? Have we built a high-tech society that is doomed to crash and burn again and again? Can we fix it?" </font> </p> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_36/b3848011_mz001.htm">Read on.</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Well-Formed Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-22#245
2003-08-22T18:32:02Z
<p>I just came across this article while brainstorming about the <a href="http://wellformedweb.org/story/9/#auto">Comment API</a> and it's potential use (subject of another post as this is being implemented as I write) within Blog Clients (RSS Aggregators and Readers).</p> <p>Back to the article. This is an essay by <a href="http://bitworking.org/foaf.rdf">George Gregorio </a>who is so into auto discovery that he deliberately stuffed his contact details in an FOAF file that you need to auto discover using a FOAF auto discovery aware client (e.g. FOAFnaut or the human brain for instance :-) ) . Anyway, he is an excerpt from his essay (a very good read).</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Over a month ago <a href="http://www.ftrain.com/">Paul Ford</a> published a great essay entitled <a href="http://www.ftrain.com/google_takes_all.html">How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web</a>. After reading it the first time I thought it was a great introduction to the <a href="http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/">Semantic Web</a>, an idea I had been trying to wrap my head around even since encountering RDF as it is baked into <a title="RDF Site Summary" href="http://www.purl.org/rss/1.0/spec">RSS 1.0</a>. I had seen the light and bought into the promise of the Semantic Web. </p> <p>Time passes...</p> <p>With Dave Winer's floating of the idea of <a href="http://backend.userland.com/rss">RSS 2.0</a> discussions ensue about the RDF in RSS 1.0. After spending some time badgering poor Bill Kearney for a <a href="http://burningbird.net/cgi-bin/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=528">concrete benefit of having RDF in RSS 1.0</a> and not getting a really satisfactory answer I went back and read Paul Ford's essay again. I wanted to get that old religious feeling back again. It didn't work. The magic was gone. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://wellformedweb.org/story/1">Read on...</a> </p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Cool XSL-T Tutorial
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-22#244
2003-08-22T04:07:59Z
XSLT is one of the most powerful aspects of the entire XML value proposition (this weblog site is an example of what XML and XSLT can deliver), but is also one of the more daunting aspects (both hands-on and getting your brain wrapped around the syntax). Here is a really nice <a href="http://www.zvon.org/xxl/XSLTutorial/Books/Output/example1_ch1.html">XSLT tutorial</a> site. Demystify XSLT, and the world of XML's potential really opens up. It certainly accelerates the comprehension to the concept of <a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com:3030/blojsom-hp/blog/technologies/blogging/metadata/?">generating RSS from internal data sources</a> - bearing in mind that in the case of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> we use our in-built XSLT processor for facilitate XML-RPC to SOAP bridging, SQL-XML, RSS, OPML, RDF, FOAF, Atom|Echo, OCS feed generation amongst other things.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://services.devx.com/feeds.cfm">DevX RSS Feeds</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-21#243
2003-08-21T23:17:04Z
Ah! DevX have got it re. <a href="http://services.devx.com/feeds.cfm">RSS!</a> They have responded positively to the obvious disruptive effects of RSS on the Web 1.0 portal model. Good stuff! Welcome to Web 2.0's RSS Syndication Model. Now all they need is RSS Auto Discovery, and an OPML and.or OCS file and things really get rolling (<a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso 3.2</a> will give to them out of the box! Or should I say post-installation :-) ) They also have a good article/page that lists a collection of <a href="http://www.devx.com/DevX/Article/16190">RSS Readers, Aggregrators, and related technologies</a> .
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
RSS: INJAN (It's not just about news)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-21#241
2003-08-21T15:41:25Z
<p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">When Virtuoso first unleashed support for XML (in-built XSL, Native XML Storage, Validating XML Parser, XPath, and XQuery) the core message was the delivery of a single server solution that would address the challenges of creating XML data.</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">In the year 2000 the question of the shape and form of XML data was unclear to many, and reading the article below basically took me back in time to when we released <a href="http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=916">Virtuoso 2.0</a> (we are now at <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">release 3.0</a> commercially with a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virt32_wwdc1.htm">3.2 beta </a>dropping any minute).</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">RSS is a great XML application, and it does a great job of demonstrating how XML --the new data access foundation layer-- will galvanize the next generation Web (I refer to this as Web 2.0.). </span> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;"> <p> <a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com:3030/blojsom-hp/blog/technologies/blogging/metadata/?permalink=1214847A10C1966396472E816A7A4243.textile">RSS: INJAN (It's not just about news)</a> </p> <p> <span class="caps">RSS</span> is not just about news, according to <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rss-dev/message/5764">Ian Davis on rss-dev</a>.<br />He presents a nice list of alternatives, which I reproduce here (and to which I�d add, of course, bibliography management)</p> <ul> <li>Sitemaps: one of the S�s in <span class="caps">RSS</span> stands for summary. A sitemap is a summary of the content on a site, the items are pages or content areas. This is clearly a non-chronological ordering of items. Is a hierarchy of <span class="caps">RSS</span> sitemaps implied here � how would the linking between them work? How hard would it be to hack a web browser to pick up the <span class="caps">RSS</span> sitemap and display it in a sidebar when you visit the site?</li> <li>Small ads: also known as classifieds. These expire so there�s some kind of dynamic going on here but the ordering of items isn�t necessarily chronological. How to describe the location of the seller, or the condition of the item or even the price. Not every ad is selling something � perhaps it�s to rent out a room.</li> <li>Personals: similar model to the small ads. No prices though (I hope). Comes with a ready made vocabulary of terms that could be converted to an <span class="caps">RDF</span> schema. Probably should do that just for the hell of it anyway � gsoh</li> <li>Weather reports: how about a week�s worth of weather in an <span class="caps">RSS</span> channel. If an item is dated in the future, should an aggregator display it before time? Alternate representations include maps of temperature and pressure etc.</li> <li>Auctions: again, related to small ads, but these are much more time limited since there is a hard cutoff after which the auction is closed. The sequence of bids could be interesting � would it make sense to thread them like a discussion so you can see the tactics?</li> <li>TV listings: this is definitely chronological but with a twist � the items have durations. They also have other metadata such as cast lists, classification ratings, widescreen, stereo, program type. Some types have additional information such as director and production year.</li> <li>Top ten listings: top ten singles, books, dvds, richest people, ugliest, rear of the year etc. Not chronological, but has definate order. May update from day to day or even more often.</li> <li>Sales reporting: imagine if every department of a company reported their sales figures via <span class="caps">RSS</span>. Then the divisions aggregate the departmental figures and republish to the regional offices, who aggregate and add value up the chain. The chairman of the company subscribes to one super-aggregate feed.</li> <li>Membership lists / buddy lists: could I publish my buddy list from Jabber or other instant messengers? Maybe as an interchange format or perhaps could be used to look for shared contacts. Lots of potential overlap with <span class="caps">FOAF</span> here.</li> <li>Mailing lists: or in fact any messaging system such as usenet. There are some efforts at doing this already (e.g. yahoogroups) but we need more information � threads; references; headers; links into archives.</li> <li>Price lists / inventory: the items here are products or services. No particular ordering but it�d be nice to be able to subscribe to a catalog of products and prices from a company. The aggregator should be able to pick out price rises or bargains given enough history.</li> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com:3030/blojsom-hp/blog/">Semantic Blogging Demonstrator</a>] </div> </ul> </span> </blockquote> <p> <span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial;">Thus, if we can comprehend RSS (the blog article below does a great job) we should be able to see the fundamental challenges that are before any organization seeking to exploit the potential of the imminent Web 2.0 inflection; how will you cost-effectively create XML data from existing data sources? Without upgrading or switching database engines, operating systems, programming languages? Put differently how can you exploit this phenomenon without losing your ever dwindling technology choices (believe me choices are dwindling fast but most are oblivious to this fact).</span> </p> <p xmlns="o"></p> <p> </p> <a href="index.vspx?tag=xml" rel="tag" style="display:none;">xml</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=rss" rel="tag" style="display:none;">rss</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=syndication" rel="tag" style="display:none;">syndication</a>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
ODBC : The UNIX Story
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-15#239
2003-08-15T15:05:49Z
<p>ODBC (Open DataBase Connectivity) remains an enigma technology to those who would potentially benefit the most from it. Unfortunately the common line of thought in the non Windows world is that <u>LAMPifying</u> applications is simply good enough -- LAMP</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
RSS is a Billion Dollar Format
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-07#238
2003-08-07T04:17:41Z
<a href="http://scriptingnews.userland.com/stories/storyReader$2140">Essay</a>: "RSS is a billion-dollar format. If you objectively look at all the content that flows through it you'll see that, like Apple in 1983, it can't be stopped. It doesn't matter who wants to stop it." <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Macro Economic Climate and Web Services Investments
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-06#236
2003-08-06T21:45:10Z
<font size="2"> <p>* The sluggish U.S. economy has impacted the investments by many companies in Web services projects, but it has not killed these projects, according to a survey by Gartner.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.bijonline.com/News.asp?NewsID=979"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.bijonline.com/News.asp?NewsID=979</font> </u> </a> </p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
IBM Announces New Integration Portal
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-06#235
2003-08-06T21:44:09Z
<font size="2"> <p>* IBM has introduced new portal software for accessing and integrating disparate applications, business processes, and data while collaborating with colleagues via a single Web-based environment and sign-on. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.bijonline.com/News.asp?NewsID=980"> <u><font color="#0000ff" size="2">http://www.bijonline.com/News.asp?NewsID=980</font> </u> </a> </p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
A Weblog-Based Content Architecture for Business
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-06#234
2003-08-06T16:41:11Z
An interesting article that shed's light on how corporate blogging can impact the enterprise. Ironically, we pretty much work this way at OpenLink and this was one of the overriding reasons for adding weblog functionality to Virtuoso. If we can use blogs as electronic filing cabinets, then the obvious need to integrate weblog data with other corporate data sources for a myriad of other data, information, and knowledge creation and dissemination efforts should be pretty obvious. To quote <a href="http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/">Dave Pollard</a> the article author: <blockquote>"In a previous post, <a href="http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2003/03/23.html#a133">The Weblog as Filing Cabinet</a> , I proposed that business weblogs could be used to codify and 'publish', in a completely voluntary and personal manner, the individual worker's entire filing cabinet. The key advantage of providing such a capability is vastly increased access to, and sharing of, a company's knowledge. This post outlines a content architecture that could enable this to occur. This architecture would have two principal components: The Enterprise Content Architecture and the Desktop Content Architecture".</blockquote> <a href="http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2003/03/23.html#a133">Read On.</a>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Howl is Rendezvous for Windows and Linux
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-05#232
2003-08-05T19:18:55Z
<p dir="ltr">Very interesting, we have basically ported Zeroconfig as released by Apple (in Open Source) too, and used it in both our <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso</a> 3.x and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/product.htm">UDA</a> 5.x products.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.swampwolf.com/products/">Howl</a> is Rendezvous for Windows and Linux. [via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">In the case of UDA you can configure ODBC and JDBC consumable data source names that are hosted on the server. Users can nownbspsimply picknbspDSNs from anbspcombo box and they are ready to make connections to remote databases from any ODBC, JDBC, OLE DB, or ADO.NET application.nbspAnother benefit ofnbspZeroconfignbspis that it facilitates centralized server side configuration which further enhances our server side session rules book;nbspwhich serves all our Multi-Tier data access drivers.</p> <p dir="ltr">In the case of Virtuoso you are able to bind to pre-configured Virtuoso instances in exactly the same way.</p> <p dir="ltr">Our Zeroconfig support has beennbspimplemented across Solaris, AIX, Digital UNIX, IRIX, HP-UX amongst others, but this is a project of interest all the same, and we may end up contributing to this effort.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Do We Need the Semantic Web?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-05#231
2003-08-05T15:43:30Z
<p> <a href="http://jena.hpl.hp.com:3030/blojsom-hp/blog/technologies/semweb/ontologies/?permalink=7B6285E13EDF7EB20F3CCC52935BF01E.textile">Do We Need the Semantic Web?</a> </p> <p>Yes we do, and we will have one. The article below looks at some of the challenges associated with this quest (for the most part the concerns are valid but not insumountable).</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.eekim.com/blog/books/semanticweb.html">EEK Speaks</a> about the semantic web. A well written article, covering a variety of points. Also talks about >a href="http://www.wiley.com/legacy/compbooks/daconta/sw/">Michael Daconta et al's Semantic Web book, which sounds worthwhile. I</p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Motorola's new PDA phone with built-in GPS
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-03#230
2003-08-04T00:23:04Z
<a href="http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/007988.php">Motorola's new PDA phone with built-in GPS</a> Mobile.Burn is calling it "possibly the most advanced phone you'll come across this year," and Motorola's new A920 PDA phone really does look hot: it's a keypad-less GSM/UMTS/GPRS phone with built-in GPS for navigation and location-based services, an integrated digital camera, a slot for SD memory cards, and it runs on an operating system similar to the one found in Sony Ericsson's P800. Read... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.gizmodo.com/">Gizmodo</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Blogs for Intranets (K-Logs)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-03#229
2003-08-03T22:47:55Z
<p dir="ltr">I see K-logs emerging as the term for "behind the firewall blogging" what I would havenbsperstwhile described as "corporate blogging" or "corporate weblogs".</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://blog.bitflux.ch/p1237.html">Blogs for Intranets</a> ROI calculations: K-Logs vs. traditional Intranet Portals John Robb has written a weblog entry that compares the ROI of enterprise portals and k-logs (k-logs are weblogs used inside an organisation). In it, he finds that k-logs provide similar benefits at a fraction of the cost. K-Log productivity: Time to find and ... </p> <p>[via <a href="http://blog.bitflux.ch/">Bitflux Blog</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">I certainly by into the advantage of k-logs over intranet portals as I have witnessed this first hand within our enterprise.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft to do for Usenet what it did for Email & The Web?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-08-03#228
2003-08-03T21:10:56Z
<p> <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/08/03/142259">Microsoft to do for Usenet what it did for Email & The Web?</a> </p> <p> <a href="http://netscan.research.microsoft.com/">Netscan</a> is an interesting NNTP based project and it is pretty much along the same lines of what <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso</a> has provided (albeit with an inferior UI) for NNTP since 1999.</p> <p>Using Virtuoso the data presented by Netscan could very easily be presented as XML which could then be further processed using XPath, XQuery, and XSL-T with the final result RDF (since this is metadata afterall - another contribution to the Semantic Web)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Blogs as Disruptive Tech
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-31#226
2003-08-01T01:22:52Z
<p>How weblogs are flying under the radar of the Content Management Giants</p> <p>The term "Disruptive Technology" has always kinds irked me, pretty much in the same way the word "Proprietary Technology" has in the past. The problem I had with "Proprietary Technology" is that I've spent a lot of my professional career on the "Open...." side of the fence. I am a firm beliver in "Open Systems" (in all its historic forms; UNIX, Client-Server, Internet Protocols etc.), so describing OpenLink Software (even the company name gives me away!) product as being proprietary is really difficult, especially as I believe in the concept of our value proposition being the only thing that should actually be proprietary.</p> <p>Back to "Disruptive Technology". Prior to reading the piece below </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>[<a href="http://www.webcrimson.com/ourstories/blogsdisruptivetech.htm">Blogs as Disruptive Tech - How weblogs are flying under the radar of the Content Management Giants</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p>I had similar conflicts, and strangely enough I simply forgotthat old principle of physics which states; "for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction". </p> <p>Disruputive technology in most use cases describes how new technologies and paradigms create market inflections amongst vendors in a particular market segment. Ironically, this is the basis of everything I do (spot new technologies and paradigms and then look at how they can be used produce valuable solutions). It doesn't mean that I can't deliver "Market Disruptive Technology" to my customers in such a way that it minimizes the"Disruption"to their existing IT infrastructures (at least to the degree this is feasible in a given situation). </p> <p>For what it's worth I blogged this piece using a "Disruptive" utlility called <a href="http://mozblog.mozdev.org/">Mozblog</a> (I've had some problems using this plugin until now). </p> <p>The keys to getting this Blog plugin working are as follows:<br /> </p> <ol> <li>Download and follow instructions at: <a href="http://mozblog.mozdev.org/installation.html">http://mozblog.mozdev.org/installation.html</a> </li> <li>Use the Moveable Type or Other option when setting up your Blog Server's XML-RPC endpoint <p>That's it.<br /> </p> </li> </ol>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Email: Killer App Or Just A Killer?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-31#224
2003-07-31T18:28:28Z
<p dir="ltr">The current state of e-mail is one of the travesties of the Internet in my opinion, the excerpt below pretty much sums this up"</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030730/2334203.shtml">Email: Killer App Or Just A Killer?</a> While many people consider email to be the "killer app" that brought the internet into homes and businesses, now some are saying that <a href="http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030731.ujack0731/BNStory/Technology/">email has become annoying and costly</a>. The most obvious issue is with spam, but there are other things as well. Maintaining an email server is a pain, and keeping email free from viruses is an additional cost. For companies that monitor email (and there are more and more), that's yet another expense. Finally, since there are questions about email security, some companies are telling employees not to use email for sensitive material. Thus, for many companies, email is only useful for informal communications, and you can only find those messages once you wade through all the spam and viruses - or so this article would have you believe. It's really not <i>that</i> bad - and there are reasonable technology solutions that should be able to keep most companies afloat with minimal costs. Yes, it's annoying, but the benefits of having email certainly outweigh the annoyances associated with it. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">One of the reasons for e-mail enabling <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso</a> (circa. 2000) was to set the stage for addressing what I anticipated would ultimately become the Spam Monster. This is how the solution was envisioned.</p> <p dir="ltr">Build a Driver/Sink that could be attached to the SMTP Agents such as Sendmail, Excim, Exchange etc.. such that the mail received is actually stored in a DBMS Engine (in this case Virtuoso or an ODBC accessible database). Once the mail is in the database it is then possible for Triggers to handle filtering of the Mime headers and mail body (using regular experessions). The end result being that Spam and Virulent mails are already filtered prior to POP or IMAP retrieval.</p> <p dir="ltr">With the emergence of Bayesian Spam Filters and other Anti Spam solutions there remains a possibility for this pursuing the best of both worlds. Enhance the DB Engine via its extensions API (In the case of Virtuosowhich supports Python, Perl etc..), or enhance the Mail Driver/Sink by extending it in a similar manner (a little more work if extensibility isn't part of the original Mail Sink design). My preference is obviously to handle this at the database level so that the Bayesian spam filter becomes a Trigger on the table into which the mail is stored. </p> <p dir="ltr">With a database in the mix I pretty much have a rules based engine for e-mail and also a pretty flexible mechanism for dealing with false positives (nothing's perfect!) since they remain in the database too, but not automatically part of the IMAP or POP retrieval process.</p> <p dir="ltr">At the end of the day e-mail is data and we simply need to look at data </p> <div align="right"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Newspaper Web Sites Struggle To Attract Younger Readers
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-31#223
2003-07-31T16:13:27Z
<p dir="ltr">I think all news papers need to get with the program re. RSS content syndication for starters. It really isn't that complex a business model to figure out.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030731/0213215.shtml">Newspaper Web Sites Struggle To Attract Younger Readers</a> Younger people today simply don't subscribe to paper newspapers. When you grow up with the internet at your fingertips, there just doesn't seem to be a reason to subscribe to a print publication. Newspapers know that the younger generation is going online, but they're <a href="http://www.ojr.org/ojr/business/1059602230.php">having even more trouble getting teens and young adults to visit their websites</a>. The simple stuff that they used to rely on - classifieds, movies and entertainment listings aren't doing the trick. People are just going to sites like eBay and Yahoo to get all that info. However, a few newspapers are starting to figure out what works to attract a younger audience, and it isn't that surprising when you think about it. They're taking the one advantage they have (being local) and combining it with the major advantage of the internet (interactivity). Thus, they're building localized community sites, focused on local events: local sports, local reviews, local dating. The sites that do that well seem to be attracting their fair share of younger surfers. </p> </blockquote> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</div> <div align="right"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
VSIP program free of charge
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-30#209
2003-07-30T21:46:48Z
<p dir="ltr">Microsoft just made the <a href="http://www.vsipdev.com/">VSIP program free of charge</a>. Awesome.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr">[via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p>Now this is good news from Microsoft! This means that products like <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso</a> can now compete head-on with Yukon (on a level playing field when it arrives) as far as Visual Studio.NET integration goes. Hopefully I will no longer have to rant about any of the following:</p> <ol> <li>Missing Data Access Controls and Wizards for ODBC (we already have annbsp interesting Generic ADO.NET Provider en route to GA release)</li> <li>Tightly bound integration between Visual Studio.NET <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/Jul03/07-29InnovationListPR.asp">("Whidbey" or "Orcas")</a>nbspand Yukon (next release of SQL Server), it's up to us (OpenLink) to get the same degree of integration re. Virtuoso (via VSIP), but most importantly Visual Studio's future will not be inextricably linked to Yukon's (let's hope the same applies to IE and Longhorn)</li> </ol> <p>I wonder if the same degree of openness could extend to Web Matrix? That would be something indeed!</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microcontent Trends
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-23#313
2003-07-23T20:28:03Z
<p>Joi Ito, in a <a href="http://joi.ito.com/archives/2003/07/22/thoughts_on_microcontent_metadata_and_trends.html">must-read rant about microcontent trends</a> says "Microsoft will continue to dominate the desktop, but it will become less relevant as consumer electronics companies embrace open standards and use Internet web services and applications to make consumer electronics devices rich with content."</p> <p>Um, Joi, did you have some bad sushi before you wrote this?</p> <p>Let me explain why you're wrong.</p> <p>First of all, Microsoft is investing a LOT in "non PC devices." So, even if you're right that the desktop will become less important (hint: you're not), I don't think you can count Microsoft out, or say it'll become less relevant.</p> <p>Second of all, TONS of people are getting camera phones. What's the first thing they do? Post them on a web site, right? OK. So far, camera phones + server means that the desktop is outta the picture, right? But, where do people view those camera phone pictures? I'll tell you where I look at Chris Pirillo's moblog, for instance: on my Tablet PC.</p> <p>So, how again did the new device that came along decrease the relevance of the desktop?</p> <p>Now, I predict Joi's answer will be that Japanese kids don't use PCs and they just use cell phones for everything. Well, sorry. Viewing a photo off of one of those new Nikon multi-mega-pixel pro cameras on a small cell phone screen just isn't my idea of fun. And trying to type ASCII characters into a weblog on a cell phone's keypad ain't my idea of fun either (and, yes, I've played with the latest in phones -- a co-worker just brought a bunch back from Tokyo). The fact that some kid somewhere is doing that, doesn't prove a thing.</p> <p>But, I've been corrupted. I can predict the future a bit since I've seen a ton of secret stuff inside Microsoft. I certainly don't think the desktop becomes less relevant. In fact, to a whole raft of users, the desktop (or, the Tablet top, if you will) will be more important in 2005, not less.</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Blogging By The Numbers
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-23#312
2003-07-23T16:18:50Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030723/0912241.shtml">Blogging By The Numbers</a> Well, look at that. Apparently blogging has become such a big deal that there's now research coming out about the "space" (yes, it's a "space" now). For those who thought that AOL's entrance into blogging was "the end", I'd say the fact that market researchers are focused on the topic may be an even worse sign. Anyway, the numbers suggest that there are <a href="http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/applications/article/0,,1301_2238831,00.html">between 2.4 and 2.9 million blogs</a>, with the majority of them using free hosting services from LiveJournal, Blogger or DiaryLand. What they don't see is how many of these sites are actually updated on a regular basis, and how many were just someone messing around for a couple of days. Jupiter has found that about 2% of the online community has created a blog - and that it's split evenly between genders, with most bloggers being experienced online users (online at least 5 years). The odd thing is that while the gender split is equal for writers, the readers are skewed to the male side. Also, the readers seem wealthier than the writers. More than half of all blog writers have household incomes of less than $60,000, but more than half of blog readers have household incomes over $60,000. Of course, as with any such studies, I imagine the accuracy could be questioned. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Is The Internet an Application?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-16#205
2003-07-16T19:07:00Z
Certainly Not. Its the infrastructure used to develop a plethora of distributed applications: World Wide Web, Usenet, SMTP based Mail, Instant Messaging and more. Along the same lines it might be interesting to shed additional light on the evolving nature of the World Wide Web as one of the more prominent Internet Applications. Personally, I have always seen the World Wide Web as a distributed collection of arbitrarily linked multi-format databases (structured, semi-structured, and unstructured ). Today the unstructured format dominates, but we are clearly heading toward a period where there is a significant increase in the structured database variant (aka Semantic Web). Thus, we could also be looking at a period where <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">multi-purpose</a> and <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">multi-protocol servers</a> -rather than the protocol and purpose specific servers (such as dedicated HTTP-Only Servers) dominate the URI processing realm.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web Services--A Manager's Guide.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-16#204
2003-07-16T17:28:51Z
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0321185773/rds-20/002-2080753-6561607">Web Services--A Manager's Guide.</a> Last month I <a href="http://www.rds.com/doug/weblogs/webServicesStrategies/2003/06/20.html">suggested</a> that someone do a comparative review of this new book by Anne Thomas Manes and <a href="http://www.rds.com/books/">my latest book</a>. Last week, I had the opportunity to meet Anne and get a copy of her book. Rather than wait, here are my own--admittedly biased--comparisons. <p>"A Manager's Guide," as the title suggests, is the perfect pragmatic guide for managing a current web-services project. If you want to know what works <i>today</i>, right down to the specific products from individual vendors, Anne's book is the one to buy. .NET versus Java? Which J2EE platform or UDDI registry server? The current state of the basic protocols: SOAP, WSDL, UDDI? You'll find the answers in one place. As with my book, there are no code fragments or XML listings. It's for managers, not programmers. But this book is the one to buy for your tactical requirements. </p> <p>"Loosely Coupled," on the other hand, takes a more strategic view, and in a sense picks up where Anne's book leaves off. I don't explain any of the protocols. In fact I rarely mention them by name. I assume (a) you'll learn about them somewhere else (such as from Anne's book), and (b) they'll change quickly anyway. Anne has a 30-page chapter on "Advanced Web-Services Standards," which is where my book kicks in. As the subtitle suggests, I look more deeply at the missing pieces of web services: transactions, security, reliable asynchronous messaging, orchestration and choreography, QoS, contracts and other business issues, infrastructure, and the big one: industry-specific semantics. </p> <p>Both books cover the fundamental concepts of web services such as service-oriented architectures. Anne, however, sees web services as being fundamentally about application integration, which clearly is the sweet spot today. I look at the issues surrounding inter-organizational loosely coupled web services, taking a longer-term and more strategic view. If you're thrust into managing a web-services project, need to ramp-up quickly, select vendors and products, and be able to communicate with your developers, buy Anne's book. If you need to develop a long-term web-services strategy for your organization, buy mine. In other words: buy them both. I think you'll like the combination. </p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.rds.com/doug/weblogs/webServicesStrategies/">Doug Kaye: Web Services Strategies</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
New Bugzilla RSS Feeds
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-16#203
2003-07-16T15:37:19Z
Please take a look at the new Channel Roll Gems (on the Blog Home of the insternal community blog) that provide RSS feeds from our internal bugzilla database. You should be able to simply drag and drop these gems on to your Newzcrawler channels pane.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
eBay Will Someday Buy Oracle?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-07#202
2003-07-07T20:51:56Z
<p> <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/07/04/1955241">O'Reilly on the Commoditization of Software</a> </p> <p>Certinaly an interesting proposition, or should I say vision, but I don't think this proposition does justice to some of the valid insights contained in this recent <a href="http://www.idg.se/ArticlePages/idgnet.asp?id=4635">IDG interview </a>with <a href="http://tim.oreilly.com/">Tim O'Reilly</a>. Here are some of Tim's quotes:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <em>"Nobody is pointing out something that I think is way more significant: all of the killer apps of the Internet era: Amazon (.com, Inc), Google (Inc.), and Maps.yahoo.com. They run on Linux or FreeBSD, but they're not apps in the way that people have traditionally thought of applications, so they just don't get considered. Amazon is built with Perl on top of Linux. It's basically a bunch of open source hackers, but they're working for a company that's as fiercely proprietary as any proprietary software company."</em> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Solutions are always more important that the technology that makes up the solutions from a business development perspective. The trouble is that the constituent parts of a solution ultimately affect the longevity of the solution (the future adaptability of the solution), hence the middleware and components segments of the software industry.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"> <em>"With eBay it's even clearer. The fact is, it's the critical mass of marketplace buyers and sellers and all the information that people have put in that marketplace as a repository."<br /> <br />"So I think we're going to find more and more places where that happens, where somebody gets a critical mass of customers and data and that becomes their source of value. On that basis, I will predict that -- this is an outrageous prediction -- but eBay will buy Oracle someday. The value will have moved so much to people who are not now seen as software suppliers."</em> </p> </blockquote> <p>In reading this article that I can only assume that Tim does realize the inevitable; computing is, and always will be about data -- creation, transformation, dissemination, and exploitation. That said, you don't maximize the opportunities that such a realization accords by acquiring the largest vendor of database software. </p> <p>The largest database vendor doesn't imply dominance in any of the following areas:</p> <ol> <li>Data Creation </li> <li>Data Storage</li> <li>Data Access</li> <li>Data Dissemination</li> <li>Data Exploitation</li> </ol> <p>I see the Internet as the Database (comprising various forms), and the Web as a dominant database segment within Internet realm. Every Internet Point of Presence is really a point of Data interaction; Creation, Storage, Access, Dissemination, and Exploitation.</p> <p>eBay can acquire a license from Oracle or any other database vendor and still be sucessful, and all they need to do is come to the actual realization that like Amazon and Google they could become a very important Executable and Semantic Web platform by finally understanding that their home page isn't that important, it's the interactions with the site that matter. All of this is certainly achievable without acquiring Oracle.</p> <p>In short, this applies to any organization that seeks to incorporate the Internet into their operational strategy (Business Development, Customer Services, Intranets, Extranets etc.). I am inclined to believe that Sofware Commoditization (which has been with us for a very long time) is the new moniker for "its all about data" or to quote <a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/index.rss">Sam Ruby</a>, "It's just data".</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Tim O'Reilly about network aware software
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-07#201
2003-07-07T20:51:35Z
<p> <a href="http://blog.bitflux.ch/p1077.html">Tim O'Reilly about network aware software</a> </p> <p>Tim O'Reilly wrote some thoughts about network aware software. Good sumup and nice ideas, why not only blogs should be net-aware (and where even blogs can be improved ;) ) </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <div align="left">"<i>For the desktop, my personal vision is to see existing software instrumented to become increasingly web aware. It seems that Apple are doing a good job with this. (What does web aware mean for me? Being able to grok URIs, speaking WebDAV, and using open standard data formats.)</i>" -- <strong>Edd Dumbill</strong> </div> <div align="left"></div> <div align="left">[via <a href="http://blog.bitflux.ch/">Bitflux Blog</a>]</div> </blockquote> <div align="left">I agree, but you do have to add Open Data Access formats (such as ODBC and to some degree JDBC) to this mix otherwise the you will need to create data for Open Standard Data Formats from sratch (tough for any enterprise irrespective of size).</div> <div align="left"></div> <div align="left">Tim O'Reilly added the following items to Edd's list:</div> <div align="left"> <ul> <li> <p>Rendezvous-like functionality for automatic discovery of and potential synchronization with other instances of the application on other computers. Apple is showing the power of this idea with iChat and iTunes, but it really could be applied in so many other places. For example, if every PIM supported this functionality, we could have the equivalent of "phonester" where you could automatically ask peers for contact information. Of course, that leads to guideline 2. </p> </li> </ul> </div> <p>Another application is discovery of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/info/docs/uda50/mt/features.html#features">ODBC data sources</a>, and database servers. Rendezvous can also simply security and administration of data sources accessible by either one of these standards data access mechanisms. It can also apply to XML databases and data sources exposed by <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">XML Databases</a>.</p> <p></p> <p></p> <ul> <li>If you assume ad-hoc networking, you have to automatically define levels of access. I've always thought that the old Unix ugo (user, group, other) three-level permission system was simple and elegant, and if you replace the somewhat arbitrary "group" with "on my buddy list", you get something quite powerful. Which leads me to... <p></p> <p></p> </li> <ul> <li>Buddy lists ought to be supported as a standard feature of many apps, and in a consistent way. What's more, our address books really ought to make it easy to indicate who is in a "buddy list" and support numerous overlapping lists for different purposes. <br /> </li> </ul> <li>Every application ought to expose some version of its data as an XML feed via some well-defined and standard access mechanism. It strikes me that one of the really big wins that fueled the early web was a simple naming scheme: you could go to a site called www.foo.com, and you'd find a web server there. While it wasn't required, it made web addresses eminently guessable. We missed the opportunity for xml.foo.com to mean "this is where you get the data feed" but it's probably still possible to come up with a simple, consistent naming scheme. And of course, if we can do it for web sites, we also need to think about how to do it for local applications, since... </li> </ul> <p>The very point I continue to make about Internet Points of Presence beingactual data acces points, in short these end points should be served by database serverprocesses. This is the very basis of <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a>, the inevitability of this realization remains the undepinings of this product. There are other products out there that have some sense of this vision too, but there is a little snag (at least so far in my research efforts), and that is the tendency to create dedicated independent server per protocol (an ultimate integration, administration, and maintenance nightmare).</p> <ul> <li>We ought to be able to have the expectation that all applications, whether local or remote (web) will be set up for two-way interactions. That is, they can be either a source or sink of online data. So, for example, the natural complement to amazon's web services data feeds is data input (for example, the ability to comment on a book on your local blog, and syndicate the review via RSS to amazon's detail page for the book.) And that leads to: <p></p> <p></p> </li> <li>We really need to understand who owns what, and come up with mechanisms that protect the legitimate rights of individuals and businesses to their own data, while creating the "liquidity" and free movement of data that will fuel the next great revolution in computer functionality. (I'm doing a panel on this subject at next week's Open Source Convention, entitled "<a href="http://conferences.oreillynet.com/cs/os2003/view/e_sess/4526">We Need a Bill of Rights for Web Services</a>.") <p></p> <p></p> </li> <li>We need easy gateways between different application domains. I was recently in Finland at a Nokia retreat, and we used camera-enabled cell phones to create a mobile photoblog. That was great. But even more exciting was the ease with which I could send a photo from the phone not just to another phone but also to an email address. This is the functionality that enabled the blog gateway, but it also made it trivial to send photos home to my family and friends. Similarly, I often blog things that I hear on mailing lists, and read many web sites via screen-scraping enabled email lists. It would be nice to have cross-application gateways be a routine part of software, rather than something that has to be hacked on after the fact.</li> </ul> <div align="left">The wish list is pretty much a clear articulation of key items that should matter most to decision makers (CTOs and CIOs) ; in particular those that continue to wrestle with the identification and isolation of relevantcomponentsfor their enterprisearchitectures. </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Earth to Andreessen: browser innovation is at hand
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-04#199
2003-07-04T16:00:40Z
<p> <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31572.html">Earth to Andreessen: browser innovation is at hand</a> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Think different.</p> <p>Netscape founder Marc Andreessen doesn't think there's going to be any innovation in web browsers in the next five years. Someone should buy him a flight to Glasgow. <br /> <br />That's the home of <a href="http://www.picsel.com/">Picsel</a>, whose handheld browser we first wrote about last Spring. I had a chance to look at it in February and it's comfortably the most impressive demo I've seen all year. Picsel's roots are in file viewing technology, rather than HTML, and for co-founder Majid Anwar it's been a case of waiting the world to catch up.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/31572.html">Read on.</a> </p> <p>[via <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register</a>]</p> </blockquote> <div align="right"></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Impact of RSS on Information Overload
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-03#196
2003-07-03T22:37:26Z
<font size="2"> <p>As my periodic <a href="http://www.newzcrawler.com">Newzcrawler</a> news feeds flashed before me (every two hours), an item titled "<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030703/0117244.shtml">RSS Killed The Infoglut Star</a>" caught my attention. So I commenced to skim through the article, and was struck by the following commentary from <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">TechDirt</a> (one of many RSS based channels):</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <em>"Here is yet another article raving about how RSS changes how they get information. I've heard this same story so many times that I'm a bit confused. I keep trying the various RSS readers, and I just haven't been hooked. I use them for a few days, and then realize that my old method of surfing websites was much more enjoyable and much more efficient".</em> </p> </blockquote> <p>I have written a <u><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/articles/rsskillsinfoglut.htm">very detailed article</a></u> that journalizes a set of hands-on activities that I embarked upon after reading this article -- <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen/images/SharpReader.png">screen shots</a> and relevant Wikipedia links included. The article is deliberately presented in a "Step By Guide" style with lot</p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Attribute based programming
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-02#195
2003-07-02T15:37:00Z
<blockquote dir="ltr" style="margin-right: 0px;"> <div class="Section1"> <p> <font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Attribute based programming is a model by which you add metadata to a class, which allows it to change its behavior based on the metadata. One way I use it is to extend enumerations, so that they can contain more info than just a name and a value. A great example is how we create stored procedure parameters in our data access layer. We created a standard list of parameters that can be passed into and out of stored procs, using standard names, and data types. This way when you see a parameter name Foo, you can guarantee that it is exactly the same as someone else�s definition of Foo. The old school approach to this is to create a utility class with a bunch of static methods that you would call to create each stored procedure parameters. The associated article for this example can be found at http://www.donxml.com/FunwithAttributeBasedProgramming.htm<br />[<a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/Community/UserSamples/Details.aspx?SampleGuid=892f2428-01fd-4994-9568-a3243eb03584">GotDotNet: Samples</a>]</span> </font> </p> </div> </blockquote>
2006-07-07T09:00:45.000009-04:00
What's So Great About .NET?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-07-01#194
2003-07-01T17:07:11Z
<p>What's So Great About .NET?</p> <p>Its openness. Microsoft .NET's openness is one of the stronger points of the .NET vision even though it isn't a prominent part of the Microsft marketing push.</p> <p>The source of this openness within the .NET architecture lies in thenbsp.NET' CLR component (aka <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/net/ecma/">ECMA-CLI </a>nbsp) which was handed over to ECMA by Microsoft pretty much in response to Sun's <a href="http://java.sun.com/pr/1999/12/pr991207-08.html">failure</a> to do the obvious re. Java.</p> <p>The article excerpt below (from .NET Magazine) sheds some insight into the Language level openness of .NET (but unfortunately doesn't shed any light on how this openness extends beyond the Windows platformnbspvia efforts such as <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/">Mono</a>nbspand <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=3A1C93FA-7462-47D0-8E56-8DD34C6292F0&displaylang=en">Rotor</a> ).</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Quoting the <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/dotnetmag/2001_12/online/online_eprods/bmeyer/default.asp">article </a>author, <a href="http://www.inf.ethz.ch/personal/meyer/">Bertrand Meyer</a>:</p> <p> <em>"..a particular aspect of .NET, not necessarily the one most prominently featured in Microsoft's own literature, should be of particular interest to anyone involved in software development, student or not</em> </p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Rise of Relational Databases
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-29#193
2003-06-29T14:24:56Z
<p> <a href="http://www.nap.edu/readingroom/books/far/ch6.html">The Rise Of Relational Databases</a> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">As we head full throttle into the Information Age and resulting Knowledge based economies, it's important to remain cognizant of the critical role that</span> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Interesting Database History: INFORMIX
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-26#192
2003-06-26T23:45:45Z
<a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informix">Interesting Database History: INFORMIX</a> <p class="subtitle">From <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>, the free encyclopedia. </p> <p> <strong>Informix</strong> is a <a class="internal" title="Relational database" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relational_database">relational database</a> and for almost 20 years was also the name of the company who developed it. Informix DBMS was a development of the pioneering <a class="internal" title="Ingres" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingres">Ingres</a> system that also led to <a class="internal" title="Sybase" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybase">Sybase</a> and <a class="internal" title="SQL Server" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_Server">SQL Server</a>, and was the #2 database system behind <a class="internal" title="Oracle" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle">Oracle</a> for some time in the 1990s. Their brush with success was surprisingly short-lived however, and by 2000 a series of management blunders had all but destroyed the company. In <a class="internal" title="2001" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001">2001</a> they were purchased by <a class="internal" title="IBM" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM">IBM</a> in order to gain access to Informix's existing market share and customer base. Long term plans to merge Informix technology with <a class="internal" title="DB2" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB2">DB2</a> are in place, since the Informix Arrowhead project is now called DB2 Arrowhead. <a class="internal" title="IBM" href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM">IBM</a> is also commited in supporting older versions. </p> <p> <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informix">Read on.</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
EXCEL spreadsheet to INFORMIX via ODBC
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-26#191
2003-06-26T23:33:17Z
<p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Since the inception of <a href="http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/O/ODBC.html">ODBC</a> (circa. late 1992) there have been two prime barriers to its total comprehension:</span> </p> <ul> <li> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Misconception that it's inherently slow (a message originating from it's creator's, not Microsoft, but rather, the collection of DBMS vendor companies that actually created the <a href="http://www.rdg.opengroup.org/public/news/nov95/sqlaccgp.htm">SAG CLI </a>from which ODBC was derived)</span> </li> <li> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><a href="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Ken_North/odbcvend.htm">ODBC Drivers</a> are valueless (or at best a check in the box item) so bottom line they cost nothing and we (the DBMS vendors) shall offer them to you free of charge.</span> </li> </ul> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The performance issues arenbspnow long forgotten (at least as far as <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/">OpenLink Software's</a> contribution to ODBC goes). But the ODBC Drivers must be FREE as they offer little or no value problem rages on.</span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The <a href="http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&threadm=qeEJa.28465%24hI1.4255%40nwrddc01.gnilink.net&rnum=8&prev=/groups%3Fq%3Dopenlink%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN%26scoring%3Dd">Usenet posting </a>below pretty much sums up why I decided that OpenLink needednbspto get into the ODBC Driver business in the first place. We anticipated significant problems in the area of usability, configurability and security if all a driver had to offer was query fulfillment in the form of a result set. </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The excerpt below shows an all too common dilemma with ODBC (should you reach rollout and put ODBC in the hands of information and knowledge workers):</span> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <em><font face="Courier New">nbspHi all, </font> </em> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <em><font face="Courier New">I set up an Excel spreadsheet to our production database through ODBC driver to get a report. Everything was working fine, and life was good until I found a little problem with the SQL tool in Excel. </font> </em> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <em><font face="Courier New">Normally, to get a report Excel will write a select statement according to criterias that the users input/ choose. It also allows anyone to Edit the select statement it writes in a little box. What I did was changing that select statement to delete/update statement. And it ran. </font> </em> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <em><font face="Courier New">What surprised me was that it actually ran the statement against the database and delete/update tables accordingly. This is not what we want. I have not been able to find any options to turn this thing off so that the user cannot edit the generated select SQL. </font> </em> </span> </p> <p> <font face="Verdana"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <em><font face="Courier New">I know all the permissions the user has are defined through the username that is defined in ODBC. </font> </em> </span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <em><font face="Courier New">We don't want to change all the user permissions on the database side. Is there any other way ? MS Excel 2000 <a href="http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informix">Informix IDS 9.30 </a>UC1 Dynix/ptx V4.5.3 Thanks N.</font> </em> </span> </font> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The user's ODBC usage requirements are unconventional to a database engine. What do I mean? Well relational databases fundamentally handle security on a <u>user or role basis</u>, and this security schemes can be applied to tables and rows, but it does nothing for this scenario. </span> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The ODBC Drivers from OpenLink Software were built (in 1993 I might add)nbspwith thisnbspmiddleware predicamentnbspand more in mind. As you might imagine, most ODBC vendors will tell you to sort out the security either at thenbspdatabase end or the client application end.nbsp</span> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/main/product.htm">OurnbspDrivers </a>(the <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/info/mtproduct.htm">Multi-Tier </a>variant) on the other hand enable you to configure a set of rules that will enforce read-only access on an application basis such that in this particular case when Excel is used the session is read-only irrespective of what exits MS Query. The rules can even enable read-write or read-only access to Excel (or other ODBC compliant application) and the basis of any combination of the following: username, client ip, machine alias, application, lan subnet, and any user definable profile (we call these domains).</span> </p> <p dir="ltr"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/info/docs/whitepap.htm">Additional reading</a> as t</span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">his is only the tip of the iceberg.</span> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Doc Searls is covering the Corporate Weblogging thing.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-26#190
2003-06-26T21:45:36Z
<p dir="ltr">Corporate blogging is about data transformation from raw form to contextual form (knowledge aka competitive advantage). The ability to consume, distill, synthesize, and disseminate, is how corporations ultimately attain success or failure. Corporate blogging done the right way is just one of many IT based initiatives at the disposal of those corporations that comprehend the potential impact on their bottom and top lines.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Ahh, <a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/2003/06/24#hearingVoices">Doc Searls is covering the Corporate Weblogging thing</a>.</p> <p>Personally, I think corporate weblogging is a non-event. For instance? Am I a corporate weblogger? I don't think so. I don't have Microsoft's executive blessing for this.</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The blessing isn't the point. Corporations have always blogged (or attempted to, they just never called it blogging, or simply lacked cohesive technology to make the concept gel). Every second of the day in any corporation data come in, and goes out (after numerous transformations across a plethora of contexts).</p> <p dir="ltr">Every corporation knows that it has to create, persist, and disseminate knowledge, and like the Internet, Web, XML, Web Services, and now Blogging, technology is simply catching up in a somewhat standardized form.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Funny, I was talking with my boss's boss today. Vic Gundotra (General Manager of Platform Evangelism). I asked him "so, from a Microsoft's exec point of view, what would you like me to do on my weblog?"</p> <p>He answered: "I don't want to tell you what to do, because anything I tell you will only screw it up and make it boring."</p> </blockquote> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr">Oh, you mean like <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/blogs/ericr/">Eric Rudder's weblog</a>? Now I'm in trouble... ;-) </p> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">[via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Your boss was right on every count :-)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
[Gripe|Rant] Google Just Shipped a Toolbar
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-26#189
2003-06-26T21:34:58Z
<p>As I performed my ritualistic scan of happenings in the blogospshere (which is far more cost-effective than conventional browsing by the way), I encountered the piece below <em>[via </em> <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/"><em>The Scobleizer Weblog</em> </a><em>]</em>:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <em>I was over at Chris Pirillo's blog, and see that </em> <a href="http://toolbar.google.com/index-beta.php"><em>Google just shipped a beta of a Toolbar</em> </a><em>. Oh, this is awesome. The toolbar is one of my favorite things.</em> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">There was a second of excitement, and then reality struck, one second I wanted to download in anticipation of being blown away, but in reality I knew I was on a quest to encounter an all too familiar problem (I've done many iterations of this loop since the late 80's across many initially exciting offerings):</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"> <em>Why to do great companies shoot themselves in the foot, time and time again? I ask.</em> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">What do I mean by this statement? Well Google has just produced a toolbar that only works with IE (applause), andnbspdelivered this at a time when Microsoft has made it pretty clear that they have Google in their sights as depicted in the blogosphere commentary below: </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Just about a month ago, Tim Oren <a href="http://www.pacificavc.com/blog/2003/05/19.html#a215">commented</a> on some postings by <b><a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/">Doc Searls</a></b> and <a href="http://davewiner.userland.com/">Dave Winer</a> about Microsoft plans to take on Google. At the time, Tim questioned whether search could actually get enough Microsoft energy -- given all of the other issues at hand. </p> <p>Earlier today, Dave <a href="http://davenet.userland.com/2003/06/18/boucherOnHatchMicrosoftAimsAtGoogle">updated</a> the story, spiced up by some <a href="http://scriptingnews.userland.com/stories/storyReader$2071">comments</a> from a recent interviewee sharing what he learned in his interview with the GM of MSN Search. Fascinating stuff. Google in Microsoft's gun sights. With a small (50 people -- small for Microsoft?) team driving search at Microsoft -- they might actually be able to innovate quickly.</p> <p>[Courtesy of: <a class="weblogTitle" href="http://www.loftesness.com/radio/"><font color="#000000" face="Georgia">Scott Loftesness</font></a>nbsp]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">This is also at a time when the "Macduff" in Mozilla is pretty much on it's way (moving bushes and all)nbspto decapitate IE's head (not a damned minute too soon in my opinion, Macbeth's time is up on the browser front!).</p> <p dir="ltr">Bottom line,nbspcan't Google produce a browser indpendent toolbar? Or one for all the main browsers (there aren't that many) Why bolsternbspit's largest threat? Beta or not, the futility paradox remains.</p> <p dir="ltr">And one final frustration, what on earth is a <u>"BlogThis</u>" feature that sends everyone to <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">Blogger</a>? Yes, I know Google owns <u>Pyra</u>, but so what?nbspWe have a number of Blog Servers and Clients in the blogoshpere, <u>why pursue such a deliberately closed strategy in an inherently open realm</u>? Having Microsoft as a competitive threat is one thing, but being your own worst enemy is simply scarey!</p> <p dir="ltr">What'snbspwrong with us having a browser independent tool bar equipped with a "BlogThis" plug-in that could post to any Blog Host/Server using any one of the following; Blogger (1.0 or 2.0), Meta-Weblog, or MoveableType? This is standard functionality in most Blog Clients today.</p> <p dir="ltr">Two Thumbs Down in my book. </p> <p dir="ltr">nbsp</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
OpenLink Software Announces Virtuoso 3.2
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-25#187
2003-06-25T21:35:54Z
<p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/press/virt32_wwdc1.htm">OpenLink Software Announces Virtuoso 3.2 </a> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This <a href="http://wwdc2003.openlinksw.com/"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font face="Arial" size="2">Blog Site</font> </span></a> is actually powered by <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> 3.2 (has been doing so prior to the announcement). Hmm. product utilization preceding press release? Why not?</span> <b> <span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><font size="3"></font> </span> </b> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <b><span style="FONT-FAMILY: Arial">OpenLink adds Weblog client and server functionality to <br />Virtual Database Engine for SQL, XML, and Web Services</span> </b><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"> <br /> <br /> <b>Burlington, MA. June 25, 2003</b> - OpenLink Software, Inc., a leading provider of universal data access and enterprise information integration middleware, announces Virtuoso 3.2 </span> </p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
OpenLink Software Announces Updated ODBC Drivers, SDK, and Runtime Components for Mac OS X
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-25#186
2003-06-25T21:35:28Z
<font size="3"><b>OpenLink demonstrates continuing commitment to cross-platform Open Database Connectivity.</b> </font> <br /> <br /> <p> <font size="2"><b>Burlington, MA. 25 June 2003</b> - OpenLink Software, Inc., industry and technology leader in the development and deployment of secure, high-performance database connectivity drivers for ODBC</font> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Amazon.com RSS Feeds
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-25#181
2003-06-25T13:27:02Z
<p> <a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_06_22.html#005997">Amazon RSS Feeds</a> </p> <p>RSS feeds are everywhere, and they are changing the Web landscape fast. The Web is shifting from distributed freeform database, to distributed semi-structured database. </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_06_22.html#005997">Amazon.com RSS Feeds</a> They never got around to it, so we set up <a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/amazon/" target="_blank">160+ separate RSS channels</a> for darn near every type of product on Amazon.com for you. If you have any feedback for this new (free) service, please let us know immediately! We're looking to make it an outstanding and permanent part to your <a href="http://chris.pirillo.com/MySubscriptions.opml" target="_blank">collection</a>. Enjoy! (Chris) [via <a href="http://update.lockergnome.com/">Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p>Your Web Site is gradually becoming a database (what?). Yes, your Web Site needs to be driven by database software that can rapidly create RSS feeds for your organizations non XML and XML data sources. Your web site needs to provide direct data access to users, bots, Web Services.</p> <p>Here is my <a href="http://kidehen.com:8890/blogdb/">blog database </a>for instance, you can query the XML data in this database using XQuery, XPath, and Web Services (if I decide to publish any of my XML Query Templates as Web Services). </p> <p>Note the teaser here, each XML document is zero bytes! This is becuase these are live <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Virtuoso SQL-XML </a>documents that are producing a variety of XML documents on the fly, which means that they retain a high degree of sensitivity to changes in the underlying databases supplying the data. I could have chosen to make these persistent XML docs with interval based synchronization with the backen data sources (but I chose not to for maximum effect).</p> <p>As you can see SQL and XML (Relational and Hierarchical Models) engines can co-exist in a single server, ditto Object-Relational (which might be hidden from view but could be used in the SQL that serves the SQL-XML docs), ditto Full Text (see the search feature of this blog) and finally, ditto directed graph model for accessing my RDF data.(more on this as the RDF data pool increases).</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Lack Of Internet Skills A Barrier To Progress At Work
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-25#182
2003-06-25T13:27:02Z
<p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030625/0124245.shtml">Lack Of Internet Skills A Barrier To Progress At Work</a> </p> <p>We need to get with the program, technology is no silver bullet, we have brains for a reason, we simply need to exercise the brain muscle (this activity has been in rapid decline). The piece below pretty much sums up this sentiment:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030625/0124245.shtml">Lack Of Internet Skills A Barrier To Progress At Work</a> I would guess this really depends on what your job entails, but a new survey has found that many people who lack internet "skills" feel that it has <a href="http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_793495.html">held them back at work</a>. There are plenty of jobs where I would assume it would be a requirement that you know how to use the internet, while there are plenty of others where it shouldn't matter one way or the other. Also, I imagine this problem will begin to decrease over time as a new generation of workers shows up who were brought up on the internet. Of course, then we'll find out that a lack of "mobile phone text messaging" or some other random tech skill will be holding people back at work. These are all skills that can be picked up with a little bit of effort. If people think they need them to advance in their job, isn't it their responsibility to learn these skills? You make yourself employable by keeping up-to-date. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</p> </blockquote> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">I say, "Get with the Program!".</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>We all know that the only benchmark that matters, is the one that you run in-house using the systems that comprise your IT infrastructure. </p>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-25#183
2003-06-25T13:27:02Z
<p>We all know that the only benchmark that matters, is the one that you run in-house using the systems that comprise your IT infrastructure. </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r77267478">Apple's benchmarks under fire</a> ZDNet Jun 25 2003 7:13AM ET </p> <p>[via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - ZDNet</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p>OpenLink Software has provided an Open Source benchmark utility that support Mac OS X, Linux, and UNIX. Thus, if mission critical database oriented performance is what is most relevant to your needs (as opposed to Photoshop) then simply download either one, or both of the following:</p> <p> <a href="http://oplweb2.openlinksw.com:8080/download/util.vsp">OpenLink ODBC Bench</a> (you can test TPC-A and TPC-C like performance of the G5 and compare against other platforms) via ODBC)</p> <p> <a href="http://oplweb2.openlinksw.com:8080/download/util.vsp">OpenLink JDBC Bench </a>(same thing using JDBC)</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Quest For Common Syndication
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-24#180
2003-06-24T21:15:03Z
<p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://scriptingnews.userland.com/backissues/2003/06/24#When:3:47:37AM">Quest For Common Syndication</a> </p> <p dir="ltr">Under normal circumstances this would be a very scary propositon - weblogs have reached hype status, and this means 800 pound gorillas are approaching the patch!. Why should we create our own blogsphere FUD.</p> <p dir="ltr">Well things work differently in the blogspehere, and it leads to wonderful opportunities for like minded individuals to put their vast array of skills to constructive use. My hunch is that this effort -syndication format standardization- will be sorted out quickly, and even act as a showcase for the collaborative prowess of Blogs and Wikis. Take a look at the blog snippet below (I urge you to follow the Wiki link).</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1472.html">Sam Ruby is leading</a> an effort to create a new weblog format and API. There's <a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/">a Wiki</a> that's open for all to contribute to, and an impressive <a href="http://intertwingly.net/wiki/pie/RoadMap">list</a> of people who support the work. [via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">I hope this is one of many similar efforts that usher in the next phase of the Web (the Semantic one of course!).</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
How Amazon Opens Up And Cleans Up
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-24#179
2003-06-24T13:14:17Z
<p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030624/0155223.shtml">How Amazon Opens Up And Cleans Up</a> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>Just yesterday we had an article about how Amazon's technology was becoming their <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030623/0132207.shtml">biggest product</a>, but that could soon change as people continue to innovate around <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jun2003/tc20030624_9735_tc113.htm">Amazon's web services offering</a>, letting just about anyone access Amazon's vast database, and built interesting and useful applications on it. When they originally launched this offering a number of developers thought it was cool, but weren't sure what could actually be done with it. However, given some time, data, and an open API, creative developers are always going to come up with interesting solutions. I don't know if any of these are really a "killer app" yet, but Amazon now has a vision of being the "e-commerce platform" for the world. There's something appealing about that notion. If, anytime you wanted to sell something on your website, you could easily hook into Amazon's catalog, transaction processing, and fulfillment process, there are some interesting possibilities. Right now, it's just simple things, such as creating a way to automatically match up the top song titles being played on the radio with those CDs at Amazon. In the future, though, you could see how an even bigger and more powerful Amazon could become something of a central "bucket of e-commerce" which many other sites pull from in creative ways. So, then, the question becomes how big is this opportunity, really? As I said, it's an appealing idea, but how many people actually buy through these sorts of applications vs. those who just go to Amazon and buy it themselves. The "killer app" built on top of Amazon would need to have really compelling reasons to buy directly through it - and I don't think anyone's gotten that far yet. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>]</p> </blockquote> <p>There is nothing wrong with embracing Open Standards. Amazon is demonstrating</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Missing Future
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-23#178
2003-06-23T16:37:41Z
<a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/dbrowning/posts/9155.aspx">The Missing Future</a> <font face="Tahoma" size="2">On</font> <a href="http://www.randomhacks.net/"><font face="Tahoma" size="2"> Random Hacks</font> </a><font face="Tahoma" size="2">, Eric Kidd says: </font> <blockquote> <font face="Tahoma" size="2">... that between MS and open source initiatives, there will be no room in the marketplace for small software companies. </font> </blockquote> <p> <a href="http://www.randomhacks.net/stories/the-missing-future.html"><font face="Tahoma" size="2">This is an interesting article</font> </a><font face="Tahoma" size="2">, one that brings up many good points. Overall, I don't really agree with him. I think, for the most part, <b>commercial software companies will still be able to co-exist with MS and open source in the market place</b>. </font> </p> <p> <font face="Tahoma" size="2">Open source software is great, and I think its a great resource of applications for technologically savvy people (especially developers), but it's still not targeted at novice end users (like my mom). Will this change in the future? Probably to some extent, but <b>I still think open source will lag behind commercial software vendors due to lack of marketing and polishing</b>. </font> </p> <p> <font face="Tahoma" size="2">On the other hand, I do see a specific niche of the software development market dieing out in the next few years due to the open source movement: custom control vendors. These guys have been lucky for the past decade because most development shops don't want to spend the time writing the next cool button bar, but many developers on their own time love this kind of development. Just look at </font> <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/"><font face="Tahoma" size="2">Code Project</font> </a><font face="Tahoma" size="2">. Anytime we need a control for one of our apps, </font> <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/"><font face="Tahoma" size="2">Code Project</font> </a><font face="Tahoma" size="2"> is the first place we go. Why? Well, not only do we get great controls, we get the source! This way, if something is screwed up (which is has been), we can fix the bug and move on (which we do [and send it to the control developer]). </font> </p> <p> <font face="Tahoma" size="2">BTW, if anyone thinks that a small development shop can't exist when competing against the likes of MS and open source, check out </font> <a href="http://www.fogcreek.com/"><font face="Tahoma" size="2">fog creek software</font> </a><font face="Tahoma" size="2">. <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/">Joel </a>has managed to create a <u>profitable</u> software company, that sells a few great products, make a little bit of money <b><em>and</em> provide his developers offices</b>. </font> </p> <p> <font face="Tahoma"> <font size="2"> <font color="#000080"><b>One day maybe I'll be fortunate enough to work for Joel!</b> </font> </font> </font> </p> <p>[via <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/">WebLogs @ ASP.NET</a>]</p> <div> <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com">OpenLink Software</a> has been able to build a profitable business selling ODBC Drivers against a backdrop of Open Source and Free commercial alternatives. Now this is all well and good if decision makers understand our value proposition</div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Open Database Connectivity for Mac OS X
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-23#177
2003-06-23T15:37:38Z
<p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><a href="http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/06/20/odbc.html">Open Database Connectivity for Mac OS X</a> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">It continues to amaze me that the fundamental implications of corporate data access remains misunderstood by all parties in the ITsphere. How can any organization afford to be ambivalent about where data is stored, and their ability to transform this data into information and knowledge (ultimate competitive advantage)? Data is the most valuable company asset (we even had data in the enterprise before computers!).</span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Mac OS X is attempting to make a serious push into the enterprise, but how can this be taken seriously if solving one of the biggest problems in the enterprise today isn't a flagship item driving the enterprise marketing strategy? The excerpt below simply sums this up:</span> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">One of the new, albeit virtually undocumented features included in Jaguar is ODBC, or Open Database Connectivity. ODBC allows programs to connect to databases from different vendors using the same set of connectivity protocols. This allows for simplified database programming as well as database access from programs that normally would not allow such access. For instance, with ODBC you can use Excel to get data from MySQL, or you can use FileMaker to get data from Oracle. </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">From article titled <a href="http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/06/20/odbc.html"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Open Database Connectivity in Jaguar</span></a> by <a href="http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/au/1236"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Andrew Anderson</span></a> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Open Database Connectivity is the only mechanism today that will enable any application to connect to any database without compromising choices across the following lines: Operating System, Programming Language, Desktop Productivity Tools, and Database Engine. All alternatives fail in one of the listed areas, with the ultimate destination being the painful realization that you are down a technology cul-de-sac (and these cost money via integration and data access quagmires). <p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> </blockquote> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Amazon's Software Emerges As Valuable Product
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-23#176
2003-06-23T14:37:35Z
<p> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030623/0132207.shtml">Amazon's Software Emerges As Valuable Product</a> </p> <p>Amazon has pretty much got it right! <br />The perennial question re. Web Services has how does one define Web Services in simple terms. My response has always been:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <em>The ability to interact with a Web Point of Presence without visual navigation. A good example being the ability to send the "amazon.com" site a message in order to order a book instead of physically navigating to the site.</em> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">This has been my definition since 2001 long before Amazon implemented it's Web Services APIs. </p> <p dir="ltr">In recent times I came a cross this post in the general blogsphere at <a href="http://www.ecademy.com/module.php?mod=club&op=forum&c=10&t=9581&xref=21496">Ecademy</a>(sheer coincedence I might add. I wasn't looking for it, but that's what this emerging semantic web experience is all about):</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr">I thought I'd kick off that old chestnut - "What is a web service?" - again with the definition according to the <a href="http://www.w3.org/" target="_blank">W3C</a>. They should know ... shouldn't they ...<br /> <br /> <i>A Web service is a software system identified by a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are defined and described using XML. Its definition can be discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using XML based messages conveyed by Internet protocols.</i> <br /> <br /> <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-ws-arch-20021114/#whatisws" target="_blank">http://www.w3.org/TR/2002/WD-ws-arch-20021114/#whatisws</a> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Accurate, but kind of obscure for the none technical reader. </p> <p dir="ltr">Sofware companies always seek to reach the land of critical mass (this is the single destination of every software vendor), and critical mass implies the creation of an ecosystem served by the software vendor (Microsoft is king of critical mass and this is the secret of their success!). </p> <p dir="ltr">Amazon as an eCommerce pioneer has pretty much figure this out (their patent pounding sometime compromises this reality, I certainly don't like this part of their behavior), and they have correctly used <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/aws/landing.html/102-5810298-5560950">Web Services </a>as the vehicle. </p> <p dir="ltr">Google has pretty much figured this out too, and before Amazon I might add. </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"> <a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030623/0132207.shtml">Amazon's Software Emerges As Valuable Product</a> I'm surprised that it's taken people this long to realize that the most valuable part of Amazon.com's business might not be their stores, but <a href="http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/business/6134899.htm">their ability to run stores for others</a>. Amazon.com still has, by far, some of the best technology out there for running an e-commerce site. In the early days of e-commerce, any good online shopping innovation was quickly copied, but more recently it seems that no one has been able to keep up with Amazon's advancements. It's not clear if this is due to Amazon's patent-crazy nature, or if most others have simply given up the fight. Either way, Amazon is doing their best to capitalize on their technology lead, and it seems that there's no shortage of willing customers. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>] </p> </blockquote> <div dir="ltr">I don't quite understand what eBay is waiting for, especially as the visual web is in decline as we move towards an executable web in which the brand is only as good as the critical mass generated Web Services consumers, and not the eyeballs collated from home page hits.</div> <p dir="ltr">See this <a href="http://www.ftrain.com/google_takes_all.html">futuristic piece </a> (How Google beat Amazon and eBay to the Semantic Web) that sheds some speculative light on how this could play out.</p> <p> </p> <div align="right"> <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Corporate Weblogs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-22#174
2003-06-22T21:27:21Z
<a href="http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/archives/000979.html">Corporate Weblogs</a> <p>The NY Times has a great <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/business/yourmoney/22EXLI.html?ex=1371614400&en=aa6f8754247627bf&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND"> <u> <i><b>article </b> </i> </u></a>on corporate Weblogs.<br /> </p> <p>[via <a href="http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/">Michael Gartenberg</a>]</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Put Weblogs To Work
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-22#288
2003-06-22T18:31:30Z
<p> <a href="http://www.macworld.com/2003/07/features/putweblogstowork/">Put Weblogs To Work</a> </p> <p>This is an interesting piece from <a href="http://www.macworld.com/2003/07/features/putweblogstowork/">MacWorld</a> by <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/users/shacker/">Scot Hacker</a>. It's an interesting perspective on blogging, and the excerpt below pretty much hits the nail on the head re. the real potential of the Web.</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>With no paper, printing, or distribution costs, the Internet has eliminated many of the financial barriers to publishing. Whether you're a CEO, a scientist, or simply someone with an opinion, the Web offers you unprecedented access to an audience, as well as the ability to provide up-to-the-minute news. That's assuming, of course, that you have the time and technical skills to constantly update and maintain a growing Web site and online community. </p> <p>But now even these barriers are disappearing, thanks to the rising popularity of Weblog systems, publishing tools that let you post daily -- or even hourly -- Web content without writing a lick of HTML. </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">The position espoused above is pretty much what the real potential of the Web is all about. It is about empowerment, freedom of expression, without the prohibitive cost of conventional publishing outlet developement. </p> <p dir="ltr">Funnily enough the first coming of the Web (I will write about this in more detail in a future post) didn't really do much for individual empowerment, if anything it mangled the vision; you had to possess graphic design skills to do the simplest of things becuse the perception that site beauty superceded content quality.</p> <p dir="ltr">To quote Jon Udell from last years <a href="http://archive.infoworld.com/articles/fe/xml/02/03/04/020304fewiner.xml">InfoWorld Innovator's </a>award piece on Dave Winer (one of the honorees):</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"> <font class="regularArticle"><em>"The Web was meant to be a medium for sharing written communication, but things didn't turn out that way at first. In Manila and now in Radio, Winer has been steadily reducing the complexity of Web publishing."</em> </font> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr"> <font class="regularArticle">Dave Winer added this quote:</font> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p dir="ltr"> <font class="regularArticle"><em>"In 1999 we got the number of steps required to publish Web content down from 18 to three," Winer recalls. "<strong>Now we're at zero steps</strong>. Just save a file and you're done."</em> </font> </p> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">Zero Steps, basically signify that the chasm between the old web and the new web has finally been bridged (at least technology wise).</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Virtuoso Blog System Quick Setup Guide
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-21#287
2003-06-21T21:50:13Z
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"><strong>Virtuoso Blog System setup instructions:</strong> </span> </p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial"></span> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Blog Explosion
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-20#168
2003-06-21T02:37:12Z
<a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/articles/indiv/2003/000131.html">The Blog Explosion</a> <p>I was just over at <a href="http://www.technorati.com/">Technorati</a> and noticed the "weblogs watched" count went over 400,000 today (it's at exactly 400,091 right now). It was only <a href="http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000242.html#000242">March 5</a> when the 100,000 mark was passed. At this rate, there will be more than 6 million blogs by the end of the year.</p> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/">VentureBlog</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="<a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/03/07/XPathandXSLT/default.aspx">Real-World XML</a>">Manipulate XML Data Easily with the XPath and XSLT APIs in the .NET Framework</a
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-19#283
2003-06-19T15:06:51Z
From MSDN: Download the code for this article: <a href="http://download.microsoft.com/download/A/F/7/AF737510-D281-49DE-A1EE-5DDF696625AF/XPathandXSLT.exe">XPathandXSLT.exe</a> (166KB) SUMMARY XPath is emerging as a universal query language. With XPath, you can identify and process a group of related nodes in XML-based data sources. XPath provides an infrastructure that is integral to XML support in the .NET Framework. The XPath navigation model is even used under the hood of the XSLT processor. In this article, the author reviews the implementation details of the XPath navigator and the XSLT processor and includes practical examples such as asynchronous transformations, sorted node-sets, and ASP.NET server-side transformations.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What's new in Web Matrix ?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-18#282
2003-06-18T12:02:22Z
<p>I had been anticipating the release of Web Matrix 2.0, but was pretty disappointed with the blatant attempts to lock users into SQL Server and ACCESS (of course I know that manual imports are possible re. my .net provider for non Microsoft databases, but that's beside the point). From the feature list:</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <strong>Easy Data UI Generation</strong>. Web Matrix makes it easy to create data bound pages without writing code. Drop SQL/MSDE or Access tables on your page to create data-bound grids, or start with Data Page templates for reports or Master/Detail pages. Code builders help you generate code to select, insert, update and delete SQL/MSDE or Access data. <br /> <font face="Verdana" size="2"> </font>[via <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/">WebLogs @ ASP.NET</a>]</p> </blockquote> <div>It only makes it easy for two databases which are both Microsoft owned? What really baffles me is why they don't use ADO.NET, by the way this is their own data abstraction technology. The same approach has also been applied to InfoPath and this is certainly a disturbing trend for unsuspecting end-users, developers, systems architects, and decision makers. Before you know it you lose your database choices. </div> <div> </div> <div>Could this be an oversight on the part of Microsoft? I don't think so somehow, we are taking a very interesting journey here from database independence to database specificity ( ODBC->OLEDB-ADO.NET-[SQL Server|Acces] ), all in a quest to covertly reduce choices (I think I've seen this movie before! And I might have to rewrite the script).</div> <div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
iTunes: Death of Record Companies
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-18#139
2003-06-18T11:45:31Z
<a href="http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/2003/06/17.html#a606">iTunes: Death of Record Companies</a> <p>Check out this <a href="http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,49472,00.html">short Business 2.0 piece</a> showing how each dollar collected per song is divided up. Artists get 12 cents out of a dollar. The music download service (i.e. Apple) gets 40 cents. That leaves 48 cents up for grab as music download industry emerges, expands, and consolidates while the real world music distribution business shrinks. I expect record companies will start to dwindle during the expansion phase as they start losing artists to the music download industry. There will still be middlemen, but record companies will be left with peddling only oldies. [via <a href="http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/">Don Park's Blog</a>]</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
iTunes: Death of Record Companies
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-18#280
2003-06-18T11:45:31Z
<a href="http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/2003/06/17.html#a606">iTunes: Death of Record Companies</a> <p>Check out this <a href="http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,49472,00.html">short Business 2.0 piece</a> showing how each dollar collected per song is divided up. Artists get 12 cents out of a dollar. The music download service (i.e. Apple) gets 40 cents. That leaves 48 cents up for grab as music download industry emerges, expands, and consolidates while the real world music distribution business shrinks. I expect record companies will start to dwindle during the expansion phase as they start losing artists to the music download industry. There will still be middlemen, but record companies will be left with peddling only oldies. [via <a href="http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/">Don Park's Blog</a>]</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Get Ready for Yukon
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-18#138
2003-06-18T05:19:22Z
<p> <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/dotnetmag/2003_06/magazine/columns/sqlconnection/default.asp">Get Ready for Yukon</a> </p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p>The next release of SQL Server promises increased developer productivity and reduced DBA workload. </p> <p>by Roger Jennings June 2003 Issue <a href="http://www.ftponline.com/dotnetmag/">.NET Magazine</a> </p> </blockquote> <p>After reading this article I decided to put together a simple comparitive analysis of our existing product and the soon to be released Yukon.</p> <p>Our <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso/whatis.htm">Universal Server</a> product called <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> will compete head on with this future release of SQL Server in many regards (.NET CLR hosting, Native XML Types, SQL-XML, XMLA, Web Services etc.), but I am also keen to see what interesting perspectives Microsoft's implementation brings to the table. Here is a summary comparison, note that some of the hyperlinks in the table below actually take you to live functionality demos (for effect these links point to a Linux server, and you can change the machine part of the url from "demo" to "kingsleydemo" to see the equivalent demos on an XP server).</p> <table width="97%" border="1"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="42%"><font size="2"></font></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
RSS --- The Next Killer Application
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-17#136
2003-06-17T21:07:33Z
Mary Harrsch: <a href="http://ts.mivu.org/default.asp?show=article&id=2010">RSS -- The Next Killer App for Education</a>. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Ingres - A Forgotten Database, the untold story
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-17#279
2003-06-17T11:18:57Z
<p> <a href="http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=10951">Ingres - A Forgottent Database The Untold Story</a> </p> <p> <em>Ingres (technically, Advantage Ingres Enterprise) is, arguably, the forgotten database. There used to be five major databases: Oracle, DB2, Sybase, Informix and Ingres. Then along came Microsoft and, if you listened to most press comment (or the lack of it), you would think that there were only two of these left, plus SQL Server</em>. [From <a href="http://www.it-director.com/article.php?articleid=10951">IT-Director</a>]</p> <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px"> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Oracle, Microsoft, and IBM would certainly like the illusion of a 3 horse race, as this is the only way they can induce Ingres, Informix, and Sybase users to jump ship, and this, even though database migrations are by far the most risk prone and problematic aspects of any IT infrastructure. <p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Here is the interesting logic from the self-made big three, if you want to take advanatage of new paradigms and technologies such as XML, Web Services, and anything else in the pipeline you have to move all your data out of these databases, and then get all the mission critical applications re-associated with one of these databases, and by the way when you do so it is advisable that you use native interfaces (so that sometime in the future you have no chance whatsoever of repeating this folly at their expense).<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The simple fact of the matter (which the self-made big three do not want you to know) is that you can put ODBC, JDBC, even platform specific data access APIs such as OLE DB and ADO.NET atop any of these databases, and then explore and exploit the benefits of new technologies and paradigms as long as the tool pool supports one of more of these standards.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">Unfortunately the no-brainer above appears to be the more difficult of the choices before decision makers. In other words, many would rather dig themselves into a deeper hole (unknowingly i can only presume) that ultimately leads to technology lock-in.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">The biggest challenge before any RDBMS based infrastructure today isn't which of the self-made big three to migrate to wholesale, rather, how to make progressive use of the pool of disparate applications, and application databases that proliferate the enterprise. <p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> <span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Arial">This is another way of understanding the burgeoning market for Virtual Databases, which in my opiion present the new frontier in database technology.<p xmlns="o"></p> </span> </p> <p> </p> </blockquote>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Blogs vs Wikis
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-16#133
2003-06-16T16:51:40Z
<a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1469.html">Blogs vs Wikis</a> <a href="http://x180.net/Blog/Conferences/NFJS/Milwaukee03Review.html">Bob Martin</a>: <em>Blogs are for hearing about what an individual says about something. Wikis are for seeing what a community thinks about something.</em> [via <a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/">Sam Ruby</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Blogs vs Wikis
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-16#278
2003-06-16T16:51:40Z
<a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1469.html">Blogs vs Wikis</a> <a href="http://x180.net/Blog/Conferences/NFJS/Milwaukee03Review.html">Bob Martin</a>: <em>Blogs are for hearing about what an individual says about something. Wikis are for seeing what a community thinks about something.</em> [via <a href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/">Sam Ruby</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
How Google beat Amazon and Ebay to the Semantic Web
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-12#130
2003-06-12T22:07:55Z
<p>If there is one article you need to read in order to comprehend the magnitude of the semantic web, it is certainly this <strong><a href="http://www.ftrain.com/google_takes_all.html">one</a></strong>.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Structured writing, structured search
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-12#129
2003-06-12T20:50:59Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/06/12.html#a720">Structured writing, structured search</a> <blockquote> <i>From a user's point of view, XPath query strings are pretty darned geeky. I'm hopeless with them myself unless I have examples in front of me. I find that having a list of examples available in the context of my own live data, and synchronizing it to an input box in which examples can be modified, leads me to discover and record more useful patterns. A subtler thing happens too. As you're writing the XHTML, the search possibilities begin to guide your choices. [Full story at <a href="http://webservices.xml.com/pub/a/ws/2003/06/10/xpathsearch.html">O'Reilly Network</a>] </i> </blockquote>I always think that my latest invention is the coolest one ever, so you should take this with a grain of salt, but I can't stop thinking about the implications of this one. First, because of the cross-browser, cross-OS angle introduced by Mozilla. Second, because it strikes me that XPath really could be packaged up for use by civilians (i.e., non-geeks). Third, because the availability of structured search -- during the writing process -- can have a profound effect on how (and why) we structure what we write. <b>...</b> [via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Enabling Integration of Internal and External Data
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-11#126
2003-06-11T22:54:38Z
<p> <font face="Arial" size="2"><strong>Enabling Integration of Internal and External Data</strong> </font> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.sys-con.com/xml/article2a.cfm?id=652&count=18437&tot=14&page=12">piece</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-11#276
2003-06-11T21:13:07Z
<p>An interesting <a href="http://www.sys-con.com/xml/article2a.cfm?id=652&count=18437&tot=14&page=12">piece</a> by Michael Carey architect for Liquid Data at BEA re. Enterprise Information Integration from <a href="http://www.sys-con.com/xml">XML Journal</a>.</p> <p>Key quote.</p> <p> <em>Since the dawn of the database era more than three decades ago, enterprises have been amassing an ever-increasing volume of information - both current and historical - about their operations. For the past two of those three decades, the database world has struggled with the problem of somehow integrating information that natively resides in multiple database systems or other information sources (Landers and Rosenberg).</em> </p> <p>This is the root cause of many of the systems integration challenges facing may IT decsion makers. They want to exploit the new and emerging technologies, but the internal disparity of data and application logic presents many obstacles.</p> <p>Michael had this to say in his introduction.</p> <p> <em>The IT world knows this problem today as the enterprise information integration (EII) problem: enterprise applications need to be able to easily access and combine information about a given business entity from a distributed and highly varied collection of information sources. Relevant sources include various relational database systems (RDBMSs); packaged applications from vendors such as Siebel, PeopleSoft, SAP, and others; "homegrown" proprietary systems; and an increasing number of data sources that are starting to speak XML, such as XML files and Web services</em>.<br /> </p> <p>Virtuoso (which coincedentally has been used to build and host this blog) has been developed to address the challenges presented above; by providing a Virtual Database Engine for disparate data and application logic (all the GEMs on this page have been generated on the fly using it's SQL-XML functionality).</p> <p>Additional article excerpts:<br /> <em>With XQuery, the solution sketched above can be implemented by viewing the enterprise's different data sources all as virtual XML documents and functions. XQuery can stitch the distributed customer information together into a comprehensive, reusable base view.</em> </p> <p>A critical issue at this point is how sensistive the XML VIEW is to underlying data source changes. Enterprises are dynamic, so static XML VIEWs are going to be suboptimal in many situations. Applications are only as relevant as the underlying data fluidity served up by the data access (this issue is data format agnostic).</p> <p>Virtuoso addresses this problem through its support of Persistent and Transient forms of XML VIEWs (which are derived from SQL, XML, Web Services, or any combination of these).</p> <p>Final excerpt:<br /> <em>The relational data sources can be exposed using simple default XML Schemas, and the other sources - SAP and the credit-checking Web service - can be exposed to XQuery as callable XQuery functions with appropriate signatures.</em> </p> <p>Unfortunately XML Schemas aren't easy, so making this a requirement for producing XML VIEWs is somewhat problematic (or should I say challenging). Of course this approach has it merits, but it does put a significant knowledge acquisition burden on the end-user or developer. This is why Virtuoso also supports an approach based on SQL extensions for generating XML from SQL that facilitate the production of Well Formed and/or Valid XML documents on the fly from heterogeneous SQL Data Sources (this syntax is identical to the FOR XML RAW | AUTO | EXPLICIT modes of SQL Server). It can also use it's in-built XSL-T engine to further transform other non SQL XML data sources (and then generate an XML Schema for the final product if required and validate against this schema using it's in-build XML Schema validaton engine).</p> <p>This article certainly sheds light on the kinds of problems that EII based technologies such as Virtual Databases are positioned to address.</p> <p>There is a live XQuery demo of Virtuoso at: <a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/xqdemo"><a href="http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/xqdemo">http://demo.openlinksw.com:8890/xqdemo</a></a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Windows migration brings down shipping
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-11#275
2003-06-11T18:01:03Z
<a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_06_08.html#005840">Windows migration brings down shipping</a> "UK ports have been in chaos over the past week because they tried to migrate from their mainframe to a Windows-based system and ended up reverting to manual processing" - <i>Although the gut reaction for some people will be "serves 'em right for trying to switch to Windows", I suspect this is a simple case of poor migration strategy.</i> (Peter) [via <a href="http://update.lockergnome.com/">Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes</a>] <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>One day a shipping yard, and another day it could be an entire nation!</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
RSS Behind the Firewall
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-10#274
2003-06-11T03:49:21Z
<a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000782.html">RSS Behind the Firewall</a> <p>I knew this day would come, but I've been trying to avoid it. For roughly a year now, I've been happily reading various news source by using RSS aggregators of various form and function. Some were desktop apps and others were server-side. Some for Windows, some for Linux, and some for OS X.</p> <p>In recent months, there's been growing <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000421.html">talk</a> about RSS at work. And I don't mean things like the <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/mt/mt-search.cgi?search=finance+rss&IncludeBlogs=1">Finance</a>, <a href="http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/index.xml">Ask</a>, or <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/archives/000774.html">Buzz RSS</a> stuff. There's been talk of using it <em>internally</em>. We have a growing number of internal weblogs (or people looking to experiment with them) and some in-house tools that now generate RSS.</p> <p>This is great.</p> <p>But it's going to suck too.</p> <p>The honeymoon is over. Now I need to have <em>two</em> aggregators: one at home and one at work.</p> <p>I'm used to doing this for e-mail, but that doesn't mean I like it. I suppose I could start taking my laptop to work every day, but then I'd have to take my laptop to work everyday.</p> <p>I've been thinking about this for a while and haven't come up with any good solution. I suppose that someone could work on synchronizing aggregators. Then I could sync up my home and work aggregators somehow. Maybe that'll happen?</p> <p>I wonder if is going to become a more common problem as RSS picks up steam in various companies.[via <a href="http://jeremy.zawodny.com/blog/">Jeremy Zawodny's blog</a>]</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Moblogging with Dan
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-10#272
2003-06-10T21:26:21Z
<a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/2003/06/10#mobloggingWithDan">Moblogging with Dan</a> <p> <a href="http://www.bricklin.com/log/">Dan Bricklin</a>'s <a href="http://www.bricklin.com/log/jupiterclickz200306.htm">pix from the conference yesterday</a> are up. He's using one of those Sonys with the big objective lens. Makes all the difference. The pix in the restaurant were taken under very low light. They look great.</p> <p>Says <a href="http://danbricklin.com/log/2003_01_03.htm">here</a> it's the DSC-717.[via <a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/">The Doc Searls Weblog</a>]</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft Reinvents FrontPage, Tapping Into the Power of XMLTo Build Live Data-Driven Web Sites
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-10#271
2003-06-10T18:29:32Z
<p> <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2003/jun03/06-10FrontPage2003XMLPR.asp">Microsoft Reinvents FrontPage, Tapping Into the Power of XMLTo Build Live Data-Driven Web Sites</a> Microsoft Corp. today announced that Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003, part of the Microsoft Office System, has been reinvented to support a wide range of capabilities for building dynamic, Extensible Markup Language (XML)-based, data-driven Web sites, while retaining the ease of use that has helped make it one of the most popular Web site design tools on the market today. FrontPage 2003 will be the first commercially available, fully WYSIWYG Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT) editor in which users can work with live data to create interactive and dynamic Web sites, streamlining the process of sharing information on the Web. [via <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/news/releases.html">Loosely Coupled news releases live feed</a>]</p> <p> <em>This also includes Weblog Editing and Posting I believe.</em> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Entity Design Pattern
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-10#270
2003-06-10T17:52:56Z
<a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/aaguiar/posts/8485.aspx">The Entity Design Pattern</a> <p>There is a <a href="http://www.codeproject.com/gen/design/EntityDesignPattern.asp">good article</a> in CodeProject about the Entity Design Pattern. The guy who wrote it is definitely in the same frequency as DeKlarit. </p> <p>[via <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/aaguiar/">Andres Aguiar's Weblog</a>]</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
SharpReader gets even better again!
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-10#269
2003-06-10T17:41:08Z
<a href="http://aspnetweblog.com/posts/7802.aspx">SharpReader gets even better again!</a> <a href="http://www.hutteman.com/" target="_blank">Luke</a> just released an updated version of <a href="http://sharpreader.com/" target="_blank">SharpReader: 0.9.1</a> New features: <ul> <li>Change feed URL on 301 (moved permanently) HTTP-response. </li> <li>Window-size fix for Large Fonts. </li> <li>Feed Properties Pane (available through the feed popup-menu or ALT-Enter). </li> <li>Refresh Rate moved from toolbar to feed properties pane. </li> <li>Auto-purge: after x days or after x items. </li> <li>Better support for content-encoding of 'deflate'. </li> <li>Implement IBlogExtension and allow multiple plugins. Plugins are available through the item popup-menu or Ctrl-B. Plugin installation is still done by simply saving the plugin in the plugins directory. </li> <li>Spacebar moves to next unread item. </li> <li>Handle &apos; in xhtml:body. </li> </ul>Nice. Great job..again :) [via <a href="http://aspnetweblog.com/">ScottW's ASP.NET WebLog</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Clickz Weblog Business Strategies Conference: Day 1
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-09#115
2003-06-09T20:09:06Z
<p> <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3291">Clickz Weblog Business Strategies Conference: Day 1</a> </p> <p> <a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/au/1024"><em>Timothy Appnel</em> </a><em> is an independent consultant and writer specializing in emerging technologies and trends. He is taking</em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/06/04/xslt-svg.html">Visualizing XSLT in SVG</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-09#267
2003-06-09T16:58:44Z
<b><a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2003/06/04/xslt-svg.html">Visualizing XSLT in SVG</a> </b> by <a href="http://www.xml.com/pub/au/89">Chimezie Ogbuji </a>June 04, 2003 There are a number of visual tools employed by XML editors and viewers which make verbose XML documents easier to browse and manipulate. XML Spy is, for example, such a tool. This article will introduce how <a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=svg">SVG</a> can be used to create a visual representation of an <a href="http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=xslt">XSLT</a> stylesheet. This will be done through a XSLT stylesheet which will transform an arbitrary stylesheet into an SVG document.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
How Databases Changed The World
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-09#113
2003-06-09T09:28:17Z
<a href="http://searchdatabase.techtarget.com/bestWebLinks/0,289521,sid13_tax281575,00.html"><b>How Databases Changed The World</b> </a> by Tim DiChiara, Site Editor (<a href="http://www.searchdatabase.com">SearchDatabase.com</a>) How did the database industry get started? How has it changed the face of business? What were the key milestones, the big obstacles and the lessons learned? I recently came across an interesting panel discussion addressing these very issues, featuring many of the database pioneers and leaders of the last 30 years: Chris Date, Herb Edelstein, Bob Epstein, Ken Jacobs, Pat Selinger, Roger Sippl and Michael Stonebraker. It's available via streaming <a href="http://www.computerhistory.org/events/lectures/db_02102003/">video</a> and was recorded in February at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. After a chatty and lengthy (45 minutes!) introduction only interesting to hardcore insiders, you can see Chris Date waxing eloquent about Ted Codd (complete with quotes from Shakespeare, no less), Herb Edelstein waxing eloquent about Chris Date, and Michael Stonebraker at his geeky best. There's also interesting trivia about the beginnings of SQL, the role of INGRES, why the relational model will stand the test of time and some friendly Oracle and IBM bashing (and Microsoft and Sybase and...). I urge all you data management pros interested in broadening your knowledge of the field to check it out! If you're still not satiated, don't forget about our collection of backgrounders about the DBMS and the data management industry.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
How Databases Changed The World
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-09#266
2003-06-09T09:28:17Z
<p> <a href="http://searchdatabase.techtarget.com/bestWebLinks/0,289521,sid13_tax281575,00.html"><b>How Databases Changed The World</b> </a> by Tim DiChiara, Site Editor (<a href="http://www.searchdatabase.com">SearchDatabase.com</a>) </p> <p>How did the database industry get started? How has it changed the face of business? What were the key milestones, the big obstacles and the lessons learned? I recently came across an interesting panel discussion addressing these very issues, featuring many of the database pioneers and leaders of the last 30 years:</p> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Date">Chris Date</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.computerhistory.org/events/lectures/db_02102003/edelstein/">Herb Edelstein</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.computerhistory.org/events/lectures/db_02102003/epstein/">Bob Epstein</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybase">Sybase</a> who shared code with Microsoft for remarketing on SQL Server on OS/2 which inevitably lead to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_SQL_Server">Microsoft SQL Server</a> we know today)<br /> <a href="http://www.oracle.com/corporate/pressroom/html/kjacobs.html">Ken Jacobs</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oracle_database">Oracle</a>'s Dr. DBA)<br /> <a href="http://www.witi.com/center/witimuseum/halloffame/2004/pselinger.php">Pat Selinger </a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DB2">DB2</a> precursor called System R) <br /> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informix">Roger Sippl</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informix">Informix</a>)<br /> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Stonebraker">Michael Stonebraker</a> (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingres">Ingres</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostgreSQL">Postgres</a>, and <a href="http://mariposa.cs.berkeley.edu/about.html">Mariposa</a>)<br /> <br />The event is available via streaming <a href="http://www.computerhistory.org/events/lectures/db_02102003/">video</a> and was recorded in February at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. After a chatty and lengthy (45 minutes!) introduction only interesting to hardcore insiders, you can see Chris Date waxing eloquent about Ted Codd (complete with quotes from Shakespeare, no less), Herb Edelstein waxing eloquent about Chris Date, and Michael Stonebraker at his geeky best. There's also interesting trivia about the beginnings of SQL, the role of INGRES, why the relational model will stand the test of time and some friendly Oracle and IBM bashing (and Microsoft and Sybase and...). I urge all you data management pros interested in broadening your knowledge of the field to check it out! If you're still not satiated, don't forget about our collection of backgrounders about the DBMS and the data management industry. <a href="index.vspx?tag=sql" rel="tag" style="display:none;">sql</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=rdbms" rel="tag" style="display:none;">rdbms</a><a href="index.vspx?tag=database" rel="tag" style="display:none;">database</a>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Pl-iP4 Hyperthreading Adapter
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#265
2003-06-08T21:25:48Z
<a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_06_08.html#005817">Pl-iP4 Hyperthreading Adapter</a> Want hyperthreading, but don't want to spring for a new motherboard? This might be the way to do it. About a millimeter in height, it sits between the processor and the motherboard. With a BIOS update from the manufacturer and this adapter, it is possible to run a hyperthreading CPU with buying a new motherboard. (Oliver) [via <a href="http://update.lockergnome.com/">Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What is Trackback?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#111
2003-06-08T21:20:31Z
<div class="blogdate"> <strong>What is trackback about?</strong> </div> <div class="trackback-text">Sometimes when you see a post on somebody's blog that you like, it's enough just to leave a comment on the other blog about that issue. But what if you've got something to say about the issue that you'd like to share with readers of your own blog? If you do post to your blog, you have to go and leave a comment in the other blog if you want the people there to know about your own blog entry.<br />[From <a href="http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/what-is-tb.htm">http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/what-is-tb.htm</a>]</div> <div class="trackback-text"> </div> <div class="trackback-text"> <div class="blogdate">Do I have to be using Movable Type?</div> <div class="trackback-text">At this time, only <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/">Movable Type</a> is configured "out of the box" to use trackback. However, if you have your own web server space you may be able to set up <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/docs/tb-standalone.html">Stand-Alone Trackback</a> to work with your blogging system. You might also wish to look into similar applications such as <a href="http://www.hixie.ch/specs/pingback/pingback">Pingback</a>.</div> <div class="trackback-text"> </div> <div class="trackback-text"> <em>No! Virtuoso's Blogg System supports this feature.</em> </div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What is Trackback?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#264
2003-06-08T21:20:31Z
<div class="blogdate"> <strong>What is trackback about?</strong> </div> <div class="trackback-text">Sometimes when you see a post on somebody's blog that you like, it's enough just to leave a comment on the other blog about that issue. But what if you've got something to say about the issue that you'd like to share with readers of your own blog? If you do post to your blog, you have to go and leave a comment in the other blog if you want the people there to know about your own blog entry.<br />[From <a href="http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/what-is-tb.htm">http://www.muhajabah.com/islamicblog/what-is-tb.htm</a>]</div> <div class="trackback-text"> </div> <div class="trackback-text"> <div class="blogdate">Do I have to be using Movable Type?</div> <div class="trackback-text">At this time, only <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/">Movable Type</a> is configured "out of the box" to use trackback. However, if you have your own web server space you may be able to set up <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/docs/tb-standalone.html">Stand-Alone Trackback</a> to work with your blogging system. You might also wish to look into similar applications such as <a href="http://www.hixie.ch/specs/pingback/pingback">Pingback</a>.</div> <div class="trackback-text"> </div> <div class="trackback-text"> <em>No! Virtuoso's Blogg System supports this feature.</em> </div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/archives/001132.html">HTTP Conditional Get for RSS Hackers</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#263
2003-06-08T20:57:28Z
<p> <span class="title"><a href="http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/archives/001132.html">HTTP Conditional Get for RSS Hackers</a> </span> </p> <span class="title"> <h3>What is a conditional get?</h3> <p>My <a href="http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/nerdfull.xml"><font color="#cccc66">full-length RSS feed</font></a> is about 24,000 bytes long. It probably gets updated on average twice a day, but given the current tools, people still download the whole thing every hour to see if it's changed yet. This is obviously a waste of bandwidth. What they really <em>should</em> do, is first ask whether it's changed or not, and only download it if it has.</p> <p>The people who invented <a title="RFC2616: The HyperText Transfer Protocol" href="http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.html"><font color="#cccc66">HTTP</font></a> came up with something even better. HTTP allows you to say to a server in a single query: ?If this document has changed since I last looked at it, give me the new version. If it hasn't just tell me it hasn't changed and give me nothing.? This mechanism is called ?Conditional GET?, and it would reduce 90% of those significant 24,000 byte queries into really trivial 200 byte queries. [From FishBowl <a href="http://fishbowl.pastiche.org/archives/001132.html">Blog</a>]</p> </span> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://demo2.usnet.private:8890/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog">Kingsley Idehen's Weblog</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>When Mono is completed, Linux is the option for the desktop.</p>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#108
2003-06-08T18:51:20Z
<p>When Mono is completed, Linux is the option for the desktop.</p> <p>[From <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/fbouma/">Frans Bouma's blog</a> in Boldface, <em>My comments in italics</em>]</p> <p>Randy Holloway <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rholloway/posts/8369.aspx">wrote</a> about his <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rholloway/posts/8370.aspx">vision on Linux</a> and then especially about Linux on the desktop. I disagree with his vision, I think Linux is definitely an option for the desktop at the moment and thus also in the foreseably future. It will become <em>the</em> option for the desktop when Mono is completed. The reason for this is simple: a lot of Windows programs will be written using .NET. If you can run these programs on Linux too, using Mono, what's keeping you on Windows? Perhaps the games. But definitely not the business applications, since the Linux version for spreadsheets, browsers, wordprocessors, emailprograms and other every-day software are solid <em>today</em>, even when compared to Microsoft Office XP. </p> <p> <em>Linux desktop office applications do not rival those of Windows, in particular Office 2003. We have to be careful when we make generic statements such as this becuase the end result is disappointment and frustation for corporate Linux neophyte.</em> </p> <p> <em>Imagine a corporate power user that has used Excel to produce Pivot tables (like I do) that provide me with a critical success factors dashboard for my enterprise. If I was to move to any of the incarnations of open office this would be lost. Now, for the corporate user -knowledge, information worker- that I believe Randy has in mind this remains a problem re. Linux as a desktop offering today.</em> </p> <p> <em>On the other hand, how true is the position that I presented above? By this I mean, how many knowledge workers actually make use of Pivot Tables in Excel? Something tells me I am the exception rather than the norm. Thus, moving away from Desktop productivity tools of type "Office 200x", and looking at email, and web browsing etc. Linux certainly matches Windows pound for pound, but is this enough? What is the current "activation threshold" for Windows vs. Linux for a Desktop user (who just wants email and web browsing)? I think this is Linux distribution dependent, now the last time I attempted this experiment (at least over a year ago) Windows won flat out becuase I had to wrestle with X Configuration en route to getting a graphical desktop (I believe this has improved vastly of late, but I need to perform this experiment using current 8.x and higher Linux distros.).</em> </p> <p>I've hated Linux and especially its most hardcore supporters, for years. However, you can't have an unbiased vision on what is best for a given company to use as the OS of choice if you are biased yourself. Mono changed me, I really think Mono is the best Linux has ever experienced: it makes transitions of software written for the Windows platform to a free (as in beer, I don't believe in the GPL-philosophy) OS possible.</p> <p> <em>Mono is going to be the most significant Linux <--> Windows harmonization effort over the long term. This is because parity will no longer be about getting the likes of Open Office to reach functional parity with "Office 200x" as future Windows applications will be "managed code" in nature (a strategic Microsoft goal over the long term), and Mono's goal is to run "managed code" outside the Windows platform (this applies to Linux, UNIX, and other platforms).</em> </p> <p>Besides Mono, I do think Linux is a good platform to use for everyday business applications today, because the office tools can use Exchange, they can read/write MS Office documents, so why bother investing in MS software when you can save that money and choose the alternative? The only problem is: when you have a lot of desktops to admin as a sysadmin, and you want to do that with the easy tools in Windows server 2003, you're out of luck. </p> <p> <em>Linux is a good platform for everday business applications, but not quite good enough in the area of unravelling it's value proposition to the point of obvious simplification for corporate decision makers. This is the current hump in the road to this critical destination in my humble opinion.</em> </p> <p> <em>Randy and Frans are making very good points that shed light on some of the less covered aspects of the Linux vs. Windows debate.</em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>When Mono is completed, Linux is the option for the desktop.</p>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#261
2003-06-08T18:51:20Z
<p>When Mono is completed, Linux is the option for the desktop.</p> <p>[From <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/fbouma/">Frans Bouma's blog</a> in Boldface, <em>My comments in italics</em>]</p> <p>Randy Holloway <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rholloway/posts/8369.aspx">wrote</a> about his <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rholloway/posts/8370.aspx">vision on Linux</a> and then especially about Linux on the desktop. I disagree with his vision, I think Linux is definitely an option for the desktop at the moment and thus also in the foreseably future. It will become <em>the</em> option for the desktop when Mono is completed. The reason for this is simple: a lot of Windows programs will be written using .NET. If you can run these programs on Linux too, using Mono, what's keeping you on Windows? Perhaps the games. But definitely not the business applications, since the Linux version for spreadsheets, browsers, wordprocessors, emailprograms and other every-day software are solid <em>today</em>, even when compared to Microsoft Office XP. </p> <p> <em>Linux desktop office applications do not rival those of Windows, in particular Office 2003. We have to be careful when we make generic statements such as this becuase the end result is disappointment and frustation for corporate Linux neophyte.</em> </p> <p> <em>Imagine a corporate power user that has used Excel to produce Pivot tables (like I do) that provide me with a critical success factors dashboard for my enterprise. If I was to move to any of the incarnations of open office this would be lost. Now, for the corporate user -knowledge, information worker- that I believe Randy has in mind this remains a problem re. Linux as a desktop offering today.</em> </p> <p> <em>On the other hand, how true is the position that I presented above? By this I mean, how many knowledge workers actually make use of Pivot Tables in Excel? Something tells me I am the exception rather than the norm. Thus, moving away from Desktop productivity tools of type "Office 200x", and looking at email, and web browsing etc. Linux certainly matches Windows pound for pound, but is this enough? What is the current "activation threshold" for Windows vs. Linux for a Desktop user (who just wants email and web browsing)? I think this is Linux distribution dependent, now the last time I attempted this experiment (at least over a year ago) Windows won flat out becuase I had to wrestle with X Configuration en route to getting a graphical desktop (I believe this has improved vastly of late, but I need to perform this experiment using current 8.x and higher Linux distros.).</em> </p> <p>I've hated Linux and especially its most hardcore supporters, for years. However, you can't have an unbiased vision on what is best for a given company to use as the OS of choice if you are biased yourself. Mono changed me, I really think Mono is the best Linux has ever experienced: it makes transitions of software written for the Windows platform to a free (as in beer, I don't believe in the GPL-philosophy) OS possible.</p> <p> <em>Mono is going to be the most significant Linux <--> Windows harmonization effort over the long term. This is because parity will no longer be about getting the likes of Open Office to reach functional parity with "Office 200x" as future Windows applications will be "managed code" in nature (a strategic Microsoft goal over the long term), and Mono's goal is to run "managed code" outside the Windows platform (this applies to Linux, UNIX, and other platforms).</em> </p> <p>Besides Mono, I do think Linux is a good platform to use for everyday business applications today, because the office tools can use Exchange, they can read/write MS Office documents, so why bother investing in MS software when you can save that money and choose the alternative? The only problem is: when you have a lot of desktops to admin as a sysadmin, and you want to do that with the easy tools in Windows server 2003, you're out of luck. </p> <p> <em>Linux is a good platform for everday business applications, but not quite good enough in the area of unravelling it's value proposition to the point of obvious simplification for corporate decision makers. This is the current hump in the road to this critical destination in my humble opinion.</em> </p> <p> <em>Randy and Frans are making very good points that shed light on some of the less covered aspects of the Linux vs. Windows debate.</em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Weblogs Are Free, Diverse, and Equal. Broacast Media Can Be, Too
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#107
2003-06-08T17:51:11Z
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3281">Weblogs Are Free, Diverse, and Equal. Broacast Media Can Be, Too</a> The recent article The FCC, Weblogs, and Inequality is not brilliant. Rather, it is a fundamentally misinformed and badly argued comparison of weblogs and traditional media. [via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Weblogs Are Free, Diverse, and Equal. Broacast Media Can Be, Too
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#260
2003-06-08T17:51:11Z
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3281">Weblogs Are Free, Diverse, and Equal. Broacast Media Can Be, Too</a> The recent article The FCC, Weblogs, and Inequality is not brilliant. Rather, it is a fundamentally misinformed and badly argued comparison of weblogs and traditional media. [via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Anatomy of an India success story
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#259
2003-06-08T17:08:55Z
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2009-1086_3-1013842.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Anatomy of an India success story</a> <b>Raman Roy</b> assisted AmEx and GE in setting up service centers in India long before overseas outsourcing became fashionable. Wharton speaks with the man known as the father of Indian BPO. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.news.com/">CNET News.com</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Merrill Lynch: Linux saves money
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-08#258
2003-06-08T17:05:58Z
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2100-1016_3-1014287.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Merrill Lynch: Linux saves money</a> An executive at the investment banker says research shows that deploying Linux internally that could save the company millions of dollars. [via <a href="http://www.news.com/">CNET News.com</a>] <div><exception/></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Intel Benchmark Test: Linux Goes to 600,000
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-06#257
2003-06-07T02:26:03Z
<a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_06_01.html#005803">Intel Benchmark Test: Linux Goes to 600,000</a> "...Using the TPC-C benchmark test, Intel measured the computing performance of a 32-processor Itanium server running Linux, getting a score of almost 600,000 transactions per minute. "<br /> <br />Seems Linux is moving up to where the big boys play. (jobert) [via <a href="http://update.lockergnome.com/">Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Intel Benchmark Test: Linux Goes to 600,000
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-06#103
2003-06-07T02:25:32Z
<a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_06_01.html#005803">Intel Benchmark Test: Linux Goes to 600,000</a> "...Using the TPC-C benchmark test, Intel measured the computing performance of a 32-processor Itanium server running Linux, getting a score of almost 600,000 transactions per minute. "<br /> <br />Seems Linux is moving up to where the big boys play. (jobert) [via <a href="http://update.lockergnome.com/">Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Intel Benchmark Test: Linux Goes to 600,000
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-06#256
2003-06-07T02:25:32Z
<a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_06_01.html#005803">Intel Benchmark Test: Linux Goes to 600,000</a> "...Using the TPC-C benchmark test, Intel measured the computing performance of a 32-processor Itanium server running Linux, getting a score of almost 600,000 transactions per minute. "<br /> <br />Seems Linux is moving up to where the big boys play. (jobert) [via <a href="http://update.lockergnome.com/">Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
UK councils dump Windows for Linux
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-06#255
2003-06-06T13:58:46Z
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r74774733">UK councils dump Windows for Linux</a> ZDNet Jun 6 2003 9:09AM ET <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - ZDNet</a>]</div> <p class="a2" align="left">The move has particular significance since the council last year completed a successful e-government 'pathfinder' project involving a group of neighbouring councils: Barking and Dagenham, Hackney, Havering, Redbridge, Thanet, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. </p> <p class="a2" align="left">"If this is seen to work in Newham, it has the potential to be a significant project, changing the perceptions of other councils," said Tim Dawes, director of local government technology consultants Nineveh. </p> <p class="a2" align="left">Nottingham is set to decide on new software for its 6,500 desktop PCs by the end of 2003 and confirmed to E-Government Bulletin this week that open source solutions are being considered. The news follows the council's successful migration to a Linux-based email system last year, after suffering numerous problems with its proprietary system. </p> <p class="a2" align="left">According to technology manager Richard Heggs, shifting to open source messaging has cut costs by at least a third, a saving that would be repeated for desktops. </p> <p class="a2" align="left"> <em>Looks like the municipalities figured out the cost-benefits of Linux vs. Windows much quicker than the corporates.</em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Market For Money
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#254
2003-06-06T03:06:53Z
<a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/articles/indiv/2003/000119.html">The Market For Money</a> <p>I just read this on <a href="http://www.loftesness.com/radio/">Scott Loftesness's blog</a> and thought it was worth sharing. <a href="http://www.loftesness.com/career.html">Scott</a> was an EVP at Visa in the early 90's and his blog is an unbelievably comprehensive discussion of the payments space. Here is his discussion of Visa's recent announcement that this Visa system had reached $1 Trillion in annual United States transaction volume. It is an amazing growth curve and reminds me of a comment Peter Thiel, the former CEO of PayPal, made to me one day when we were having lunch -- he said that when he was pitching PayPal to VCs he was tempted to describe his market opportunity as the "market for money." Visa's numbers prove that that is precisely their market. VC's are always looking for big markets to penetrate and the market for money certainly qualifies. Here are Scott's thoughts:</p> <blockquote>Visa USA announced this morning that, for the first time, its annual sales volume exceeded $1 trillion. </blockquote> <blockquote>The record usage means that an average of $32,000 went through the Visa system every second of every day over the 12-month period that ended March 31 - or nearly 10 percent of the 2002 U.S. Gross Domestic Product. </blockquote> <blockquote>"One trillion dollars is an almost incomprehensible number, but it represents clear evidence of the silent revolution we're witnessing in the way consumers pay for goods and services. It means $12 of every $100 consumers spent in the U.S. is spent using a Visa card," said Carl Pascarella, president and CEO of Visa USA. "This is an important milestone in the history of U.S. commerce. Clearly, more and more people rely upon the security and convenience of Visa credit, debit and other payment products. To put it into context, $1 trillion could buy 162,000 Harley-Davidson motorcycles every day for a year."</blockquote> <blockquote>By comparison, $1 trillion is greater than the combined volume of all other U.S. payment organizations, a field that includes MasterCard, American Express, Discover and others.</blockquote> <blockquote>Just before I left Visa in 1994, I remember having a discussion with a colleague about growth in sales volume. 1993 had just ended with $500 billion in annual Visa sales on an international basis. We were focused on that total growing to $1 trillion globally over the next five years. As I recall, the US in 1993 was about 40+% of the global total -- so the growth in US volume over the last nine years has been pretty amazing. Of course, this is also one of those statistics that has a nice built-in inflation hedge too (the numbers just keep growing!). $32,000 a second -- at a $50 average ticket that works out to an average of 640 Visa transactions per second.[via <a href="http://www.ventureblog.com/">VentureBlog</a>]</blockquote> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Linux vs SCO: An opinion from the BSD point of view.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#100
2003-06-06T02:47:06Z
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3268">Linux vs SCO: An opinion from the BSD point of view.</a> <P> Greg Lehey has written an excellent article for Daemon News on the Linux versus SCO debacle from the point of view of a BSD user. (Or at least from the point of view of one BSD user). <P> One particularly interesting idea: <P> <blockquote> <quote> Linux source code is freely available. UnixWare source code is not, even less than many other proprietary UNIX implementations. Thus it would be easier to copy code from Linux to UnixWare then from UnixWare to Linux. </quote> </blockquote> <P> Lehey also has a page tracking the debate. [via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Linux vs SCO: An opinion from the BSD point of view.
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#253
2003-06-06T02:47:06Z
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3268">Linux vs SCO: An opinion from the BSD point of view.</a> <P> Greg Lehey has written an excellent article for Daemon News on the Linux versus SCO debacle from the point of view of a BSD user. (Or at least from the point of view of one BSD user). <P> One particularly interesting idea: <P> <blockquote> <quote> Linux source code is freely available. UnixWare source code is not, even less than many other proprietary UNIX implementations. Thus it would be easier to copy code from Linux to UnixWare then from UnixWare to Linux. </quote> </blockquote> <P> Lehey also has a page tracking the debate. [via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Venture Capital Thawing Out?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#369
2003-06-06T02:38:31Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030605/1835224.shtml">Venture Capital Thawing Out?</a> Since mid-to-late March I've been hearing a lot more stories of venture capitalists doing deals that sound a lot more like deals done in the mid-nineties, than the ones done over the past three years. There's at least been some evidence that VCs are (1) realizing that they're sitting on a ton of money (2) valuations are cheap and (3) there's a light at the end of the tunnel for the economic downturn. Plenty of startups are now saying that <a href="http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/6018690.htm">VCs are actually chasing them</a>, rather than the other way around. Of course, VCs loosening their purse strings doesn't mean they won't be funding overhyped companies - and many companies with seasoned execs are trying to <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20030519/0118204.shtml">avoid VCs altogether</a>. However, for folks in Silicon Valley who seem to think our entire economy is based on how much VCs are putting into companies, this is probably good news. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Blog noise is 'life or death' for Google
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#368
2003-06-06T02:34:25Z
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/31070.html">Blog noise is 'life or death' for Google</a> Letters Pollution control [via <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register</a>] <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>Look, Google simply needs to evolve! Like all products. It they don't then a semantic search engine will exploit the opportunity. </em> </div> <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>Perpetual improvement is the name of the game, and down with the churn-stiffle sentiment of this article.</em> </div> <div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Blog noise is 'life or death' for Google
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#98
2003-06-06T02:34:25Z
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/35/31070.html">Blog noise is 'life or death' for Google</a> Letters Pollution control [via <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register</a>] <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>Look, Google simply needs to evolve! Like all products. It they don't then a semantic search engine will exploit the opportunity. </em> </div> <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>Perpetual improvement is the name of the game, and down with the churn-stiffle sentiment of this article.</em> </div> <div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft's Faustian bargains
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#367
2003-06-05T15:53:41Z
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2010-1071_3-1013311.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Microsoft's Faustian bargains</a> The secret of the software giant's success lies not in its ability to innovate, but in its negotiating skills, says CNET News.com's <b>Michael Kanellos</b>. [via <a href="http://www.news.com/">CNET News.com</a>] <div> </div> <div> <em>Key Excerpt:</em> </div> <div> <p>There are few, if any, organizations in the world today with the same prowess in drafting contracts as the Redmond, Wash.-based behemoth. Time and time again, Microsoft manages to craft cagey deals that make friends out of enemies--or that compel friends to engage in alliances they might not otherwise want to make. </p> <p>Founder Bill Gates isn't evil, as conspiracy theorists like to allege--he's just the Otto von Bismarck of his day. </p> <p> <em>True! But some of his employees are a little evil (just a tad). </em> </p> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
.NET Wrappers for Gecko
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#366
2003-06-05T14:10:10Z
<a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/aaguiar/posts/8300.aspx">.NET Wrappers for Gecko</a> <a href="http://www.cookcomputing.com/blog/archives/000271.html">.NET Wrappers for Gecko</a> <p>In case you missed it, A.N.Other added a comment to my <a href="http://www.cookcomputing.com/blog/archives/000266.html#266">recent post</a> on Mozilla Firebird, succintly pointing to a <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/embedding/wrappers/DotNETEmbed/">project</a> which is building .NET wrappers for the Gecko engine using Managed C++. I've not yet had a chance to look into this any further. [via <a href="http://www.cookcomputing.com/blog/">Cook Computing</a>] [via <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/aaguiar/">Andres Aguiar's Weblog</a>]</p> <p> <em>This is an interesting development, the crux of the matter being accessibility to Gecko from Visual Studio. <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/embedding/wrappers/DotNETEmbed/ManagedGecko.html">Details</a> </em> </p> <div> <em>This would certainly be useful in our current news aggregator project as it allows the aggregator to be browser independent.</em> </div> <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>What we need next is Mozilla hosting .NET in the same manner that IE6 does.</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
.NET Wrappers for Gecko
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#96
2003-06-05T14:10:10Z
<a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/aaguiar/posts/8300.aspx">.NET Wrappers for Gecko</a> <a href="http://www.cookcomputing.com/blog/archives/000271.html">.NET Wrappers for Gecko</a> <p>In case you missed it, A.N.Other added a comment to my <a href="http://www.cookcomputing.com/blog/archives/000266.html#266">recent post</a> on Mozilla Firebird, succintly pointing to a <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/embedding/wrappers/DotNETEmbed/">project</a> which is building .NET wrappers for the Gecko engine using Managed C++. I've not yet had a chance to look into this any further. [via <a href="http://www.cookcomputing.com/blog/">Cook Computing</a>] [via <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/aaguiar/">Andres Aguiar's Weblog</a>]</p> <p> <em>This is an interesting development, the crux of the matter being accessibility to Gecko from Visual Studio. <a href="http://lxr.mozilla.org/seamonkey/source/embedding/wrappers/DotNETEmbed/ManagedGecko.html">Details</a> </em> </p> <div> <em>This would certainly be useful in our current news aggregator project as it allows the aggregator to be browser independent.</em> </div> <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>What we need next is Mozilla hosting .NET in the same manner that IE6 does.</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Business Wikis in action
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#365
2003-06-05T10:34:52Z
This <a href="http://www.socialtext.net/etech/">site</a> is a good example of Blogs and Wiki's in action. Certainly take a look at the event presentation <a href="http://www.socialtext.net/etech/index.cgi?PowerPoint%20Gallery">slides</a> area. In particular see the Amazon <a href="http://www.syndic8.com/~jeff/aws/">presentation</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Business Wikis in action
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-05#95
2003-06-05T10:34:52Z
This <a href="http://www.socialtext.net/etech/">site</a> is a good example of Blogs and Wiki's in action. Certainly take a look at the event presentation <a href="http://www.socialtext.net/etech/index.cgi?PowerPoint%20Gallery">slides</a> area. In particular see the Amazon <a href="http://www.syndic8.com/~jeff/aws/">presentation</a>.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Xpressions Software Multiple SQL Injection Attacks
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-04#94
2003-06-05T01:09:54Z
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r74534543">Xpressions Software Multiple SQL Injection Attacks</a> Net Security Jun 4 2003 8:39PM ET... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Ballmer memo targets Linux
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-04#363
2003-06-05T00:08:22Z
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r74497334">Ballmer memo targets Linux</a> ZDNet Jun 4 2003 2:32PM ET [via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - ZDNet</a>] <div></div> <p> <em>Key Quote from Ballmer:</em> </p> <p>"Information is the lifeblood of business," Ballmer countered, "and software is what gives people and businesses the ability to harness it. Software is what enables us to collect, manipulate, access, store, share, analyze and act on information. It enables companies to constantly hone their competitive edge. So, contrary to the idea that we're entering a 'post-technological era,' I believe that taking software to the next level will be one of the biggest sources of value creation for customers, and that Microsoft is well-positioned to enable this and to benefit from it." </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Fixing Venture Capital
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-04#362
2003-06-04T15:30:21Z
<p>There are certain fundamental assumptions about doing business in the VC world that make venture capital a bad fit with entrepreneurship. And since it's the entrepreneurs who create the businesses that the VCs fund, this is a major problem.<font size="2"> </font>[via <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/">Joel on Software</a>]</p> <p> <em>Good stuff! This is about facts rather than fiction. The article serves the VC and the Entrepreneur pretty well. </em> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Top ten leadership qualities
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-04#361
2003-06-04T13:44:04Z
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r74447576">Top ten leadership qualities</a> ZDNet Jun 4 2003 8:57AM ET [via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - ZDNet</a>] <div> </div> <div> <em></em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/ar_g.asp?ar=1298&pagenum=1&L2=13&L3=13&srid=27&gp=0">Recentralizing IT</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#359
2003-06-03T21:41:06Z
I subscribe to the quarterly McKinsey Reports, and they usually have one article on IT management trends etc.. Read this <a href="http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/ar_g.asp?ar=1298&pagenum=1&L2=13&L3=13&srid=27&gp=0">one</a> for instance. Exceprts: Recentralizing IT Large companies face a quandary in managing their IT infrastructure—the hardware, operating systems, and networks that account for 40 to 60 percent of their total IT costs. They know that a centralized IT infrastructure serving all of a company's business units delivers huge economies of scale and higher performance but can be inflexible and unresponsive to local needs. Yet a decentralized infrastructure, though more flexible, is not only 20 to 30 percent more expensive than a centralized one but also less reliable. Although decentralized models now prevail, the pendulum is swinging back toward centralized control. A new model of IT governance may capture the best of both worlds. The take-away To capture the efficiencies of consolidation while providing for flexibility and accountability, IT managers should prepare a menu of available products, with clearly specified costs and service levels. Business managers can select the products and services they need—and are willing to pay for.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rholloway/posts/8197.aspx">Deconstructing the Yukon Delay </a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#358
2003-06-03T21:28:41Z
Deconstructing the Yukon Delay Microsoft is <a href="http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1116195,00.asp">citing</a> customer concerns about product stability and internal dependencies on Whidbey as the primary drivers for the project delays in the Yukon release. The software is now projected to release in the second half of 2004. I'm the last person that would criticize Microsoft for delaying the schedule to ensure that the product is reliable, however I take exception with their claim that customer concern is a factor. If customers were not voicing their concerns over product stability, how would Microsoft do anything differently? The nature of the product, being a database server, is that is must be reliable and secure. I think this is Microsoft's way of responding to perception that they release "beta" quality software without sufficient testing and allow the customers to discover the issues. In my opinion the Whidbey dependence is the primary driver for the scheduling delays, although without inside knowledge of the product development initiative it is probably not possible to understand the complexities. Microsoft is probably better off citing the new Yukon features and the Whidbey dependencies rather than "customer concerns" over reliability. Security and reliability concerns need to be Microsoft's concerns, not the customer's.[<a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rholloway/posts/8197.aspx">via Randy Holloway's Blog] </a> <br /> <i>Transalates to: we have some additional time to make Virtuoso even better!</i>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Who's handing out the crack at Microsoft?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#357
2003-06-03T19:22:15Z
<a href="http://www.surfmind.com/musings///2003/05/31/">Who's handing out the crack at Microsoft?</a> IE6 is the last non-OS based release of the browser? "Futher improvements to IE will require enhancements to the underlying OS". <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/itcommunity/chats/trans/ie/ie0507.asp">source</a>, via <a href="http://techno-weenie.com/archives/2003/05/30/003134.php">techno-weenie</a>.<br /> <br />You gotta be kidding. This is great news for Mozilla, even give the recent <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=3226">AOL prostitution</a>. There are huge strides left to be made in the browser UI -- and they have huge potential impact. There is no other software paradigm in the history of computers that's used and usable by as many people.<br /> <br />Others in the blogdom have questioned the economic payoff of improving IE, given a 88%+ market share. The abandonment of standards based progress by MSoft is reprehensible. [via <a href="http://surfmind.com/musings/">Surf*Mind*Musings</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Who's handing out the crack at Microsoft?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#87
2003-06-03T19:22:15Z
<a href="http://www.surfmind.com/musings///2003/05/31/">Who's handing out the crack at Microsoft?</a> IE6 is the last non-OS based release of the browser? "Futher improvements to IE will require enhancements to the underlying OS". <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/technet/treeview/default.asp?url=/technet/itcommunity/chats/trans/ie/ie0507.asp">source</a>, via <a href="http://techno-weenie.com/archives/2003/05/30/003134.php">techno-weenie</a>.<br /> <br />You gotta be kidding. This is great news for Mozilla, even give the recent <a href="http://www.mozillazine.org/talkback.html?article=3226">AOL prostitution</a>. There are huge strides left to be made in the browser UI -- and they have huge potential impact. There is no other software paradigm in the history of computers that's used and usable by as many people.<br /> <br />Others in the blogdom have questioned the economic payoff of improving IE, given a 88%+ market share. The abandonment of standards based progress by MSoft is reprehensible. [via <a href="http://surfmind.com/musings/">Surf*Mind*Musings</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Inner-Browsing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#356
2003-06-03T17:30:57Z
<a href="http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2003/inner-browsing/">Inner-Browsing: Extending Web Browsing the Navigation Paradigm</a> This article introduces a paradigm where navigation and access to information occurs inside a web page - as opposed to the traditional model where a new web page is sent to the web browser when new information is requested. [via <a href="http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/">DevEdge Viewsource</a>] <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>A very good read!</em> </div> <div> <em>This pretty much set the stage for our new dynamic Web Services demos which demonstrate how SOAP support in Mozilla can be used to reduce round trips of conventional web applications. This capability was IE specific (as per our demos) until Mozilla's addition of SOAP extensions to its Javascript implementation.</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Inner-Browsing
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#86
2003-06-03T17:30:57Z
<a href="http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/2003/inner-browsing/">Inner-Browsing: Extending Web Browsing the Navigation Paradigm</a> This article introduces a paradigm where navigation and access to information occurs inside a web page - as opposed to the traditional model where a new web page is sent to the web browser when new information is requested. [via <a href="http://devedge.netscape.com/viewsource/">DevEdge Viewsource</a>] <div> <em></em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.computerweekly.co.uk">ComputerWeekly</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#355
2003-06-03T15:33:09Z
by Jack Schofield (<a href="http://www.computerweekly.co.uk">ComputerWeekly</a>) <p>"How is your blog doing?" That is a terrible way to start a dinner party conversation, or a Computer Weekly column, but it is a question you should be able to answer. I bet very few of you can. <a href="http://demo2.usnet.private:8890/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/index.vsp?date=2003-06-03#84">More</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.computerweekly.co.uk">ComputerWeekly</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#85
2003-06-03T15:33:09Z
by
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
BEA Systems and Salesforce.com Announce Strategic Alliance to Deliver BEA WebLogic Workshop Java Controls for sforce
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-03#83
2003-06-03T10:36:34Z
<a href="http://www.bea.com/framework.jsp?CNT=pr01057.htm&FP=/content/news_events/press_releases/2003">BEA Systems and Salesforce.com Announce Strategic Alliance to Deliver BEA WebLogic Workshop Java Controls for sforce</a> BEA Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: BEAS), the world's leading application infrastructure software company, and salesforce.com, the world leader in delivering software-as-service, today announced a strategic alliance to provide services-oriented application development solutions based on BEA WebLogic Workshop 8.1 and the BEA WebLogic Enterprise PlatformT. The companies' alliance will help advance sforce - the first client/service application development framework that enables enterprises to rapidly build and deliver business applications using the software-as-service model. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/news/releases.html">Loosely Coupled news releases live feed</a>] <div></div> </div> <p> <em>When will these guys get? You don't implement industry standards in order to become product or vendor dependent. Web Services support should not reduce choice of Application Servers. I guess we need to show them what I mean via our eCRM; it services will be SOAP consumable via a WSDL file and that's it.</em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Borland, Microsoft Move Closer on Databases
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-02#352
2003-06-02T23:49:19Z
<a href="http://demo2.usnet.private:8890/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/index.vsp?date=2003-06-02#81">Borland, Microsoft Move Closer on Databases</a> <p> <a href="http://redir.internet.com/rss/prod-news/www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/2215361">Borland, Microsoft Move Closer on Databases</a> The two competitors put differences aside to push a new environment on the .NET Framework. [via <a href="http://ipw.internet.com/news.html">Internet Product News</a>]</p> <p> <em>Ah! Now I get it, let's be database specific by bundling developer copies of all the supported databases. So we get one really huge product simply becuase we don't realize that ADO.NET pretty much ensures some degree of DB independence (ODBC delivers the real thing for SQL. but that's old hat! Not!).</em> </p> <p> <em></em> </p> <p> </p> <div></div> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://demo2.usnet.private:8890/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog">Kingsley Idehen's Weblog</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Borland, Microsoft Move Closer on Databases
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-02#351
2003-06-02T17:37:45Z
<p> <a href="http://redir.internet.com/rss/prod-news/www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/2215361">Borland, Microsoft Move Closer on Databases</a> The two competitors put differences aside to push a new environment on the .NET Framework. [via <a href="http://ipw.internet.com/news.html">Internet Product News</a>]</p> <p> <em>Ah! Now I get it, let's be database specific by bundling developer copies of all the supported databases. So we get one really huge product simply becuase we don't realize that ADO.NET pretty much ensure some degree of DB independence (ODBC delivers the real thing for SQL. but that's old hat! Not).</em> </p> <p> <em></em> </p> <p> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What makes a weblog a weblog?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-02#350
2003-06-02T17:08:32Z
<a href="http://www.thearchitect.co.uk/weblog/archives/2003/06/000155.html">What makes a weblog a weblog?</a> Dave Winer provides a summary of the technical and operational aspects of what makes a weblog a weblog in this article. A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser.... [via <a href="http://www.thearchitect.co.uk/weblog/">TheArchitect.co.uk - Jorgen Thelin's weblog</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
What makes a weblog a weblog?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-02#80
2003-06-02T17:08:32Z
<a href="http://www.thearchitect.co.uk/weblog/archives/2003/06/000155.html">What makes a weblog a weblog?</a> Dave Winer provides a summary of the technical and operational aspects of what makes a weblog a weblog in this article. A weblog is a hierarchy of text, images, media objects and data, arranged chronologically, that can be viewed in an HTML browser.... [via <a href="http://www.thearchitect.co.uk/weblog/">TheArchitect.co.uk - Jorgen Thelin's weblog</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
OSCOM Wrapup
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-01#348
2003-06-02T02:57:29Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/06/01.html#a708">OSCOM Wrapup</a> Here are the <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/misc/oscom/intro.html">slides</a> from OSCOM keynote at Harvard on Friday. The title of the talk was: "Everything you need to know about content management, you (should have) learned in grade school." Grade school lesson #1 was: "Write effective titles." It's surprisingly hard to remember that lesson. On <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/misc/oscom/titlesMatter.html">these</a> <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/misc/oscom/slideScript.html">two</a> slides, I admitted the ironic fact that <i>my own slideshow software</i> did not, initially, create meaningful HTML doctitles. Driving down to the conference, I realized I'd made the same error at another level. The entire slideshow was untitled! I wondered who would notice. Leonard Megliola <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0125462/2003/05/31.html#a20">nailed it</a>. After the talk Tony Byrne, of <a href="http://www.cmswatch.com/CMSWatch/">CMSWatch</a>, quoted an old adage: "Naming and cache invalidation are the hardest problems." How true! <b>...</b> [via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
OSCOM Wrapup
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-06-01#79
2003-06-02T02:57:29Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/06/01.html#a708">OSCOM Wrapup</a> Here are the <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/misc/oscom/intro.html">slides</a> from OSCOM keynote at Harvard on Friday. The title of the talk was: "Everything you need to know about content management, you (should have) learned in grade school." Grade school lesson #1 was: "Write effective titles." It's surprisingly hard to remember that lesson. On <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/misc/oscom/titlesMatter.html">these</a> <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/misc/oscom/slideScript.html">two</a> slides, I admitted the ironic fact that <i>my own slideshow software</i> did not, initially, create meaningful HTML doctitles. Driving down to the conference, I realized I'd made the same error at another level. The entire slideshow was untitled! I wondered who would notice. Leonard Megliola <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0125462/2003/05/31.html#a20">nailed it</a>. After the talk Tony Byrne, of <a href="http://www.cmswatch.com/CMSWatch/">CMSWatch</a>, quoted an old adage: "Naming and cache invalidation are the hardest problems." How true! <b>...</b> [via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Semantic Web Client UI Diagram
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-31#347
2003-05-31T22:08:00Z
<a href="http://www.xulplanet.com/cgi-bin/ndeakin/homeN.cgi?ai=136">Semantic Web Client UI Diagram</a> I'm getting really excited by this Semantic Web stuff I'm doing. here's a screenshot / diagram of how it works to display some dynamic UI based on FOAF, RSS, and some movie information. The UI is written using a number of small (less than 1K) XUL and XBL files, although any kind of XML file can theoretically be used. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.xulplanet.com/ndeakin/">Neil's Place</a>] <div></div> </div> <em>This is simply cool!</em>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Semantic Web Client UI Diagram
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-31#78
2003-05-31T22:08:00Z
<a href="http://www.xulplanet.com/cgi-bin/ndeakin/homeN.cgi?ai=136">Semantic Web Client UI Diagram</a> I'm getting really excited by this Semantic Web stuff I'm doing. here's a screenshot / diagram of how it works to display some dynamic UI based on FOAF, RSS, and some movie information. The UI is written using a number of small (less than 1K) XUL and XBL files, although any kind of XML file can theoretically be used. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.xulplanet.com/ndeakin/">Neil's Place</a>] <div></div> </div> <em>This is simply cool!</em>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Microsoft Linux? Or Microsoft Unix?
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#346
2003-05-30T21:25:37Z
<a href="http://techdirt.com/articles/20030530/1425224.shtml">Microsoft Linux? Or Microsoft Unix?</a> <b>Ryan</b> writes <i>"Microsoft working on a version of Linux? Mike Elgan writes that the Redmond company is losing its grip on the government market, and when the corporate market falls it will be motivated to release its own Linux distribution. <a href="http://www.mikeslist.com/65.htm">Microsoft Linux</a> may soon be more than just a <a href="http://www.mslinux.org/">hoax</a>!"</i> Of course, the argument isn't based on any actual knowledge, but just a reasoned guess. This rumor/prediction seems to pop up every few months, and I usually just ignore it. However, now, the latest I, Cringely column has a much more well reasoned analysis of why he thinks <a href="http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20030529.html">Microsoft is going to launch their own Unix</a>. He thinks that's the real reason behind their recent licensing of Unix IP from SCO. They realized that if they're going to launch their own Unix-style operating system, why not make it actually Unix, instead of Linux? As I said, these rumors (and hoaxes) have been around for ages, so I wouldn't put too much weight into them at this point. [via <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/">Techdirt</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
OpenGIS Consortium Publishes Web Map Server Cookbook
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#345
2003-05-30T20:34:47Z
<p>OpenGIS Consortium Publishes Web Map Server Cookbook. The OpenGIS Consortium (OGC) has released a draft Version 1.0 Web Map Server Cookbook as "the first in a planned series of books detailing the implementation and use of OpenGIS Specifications." This Cookbook covers the XML-based Web Map Server (WMS) interface implementation specification. WMS "defines interfaces for Web-based software to learn about, retrieve, merge and query maps. The Cookbook provides the basic understanding and steps needed for implementing and exploiting the WMS interface and related technologies. Chapter 1 establishes the background and context of the WMS interface implementation specification including a discussion of WMS client and server development technologies (XML, XSL/XSLT, ASP/JSP, etc.). <a href="http://xml.coverpages.org/ni2003-05-30-b.html">More. </a> </p> <p> <a href="http://www.ogcnetwork.org/docs/03-050.pdf">Full Spec</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
AOL, Microsoft IM 'Interop Pledge' Intrigues
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#344
2003-05-30T18:32:29Z
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r73873605">AOL, Microsoft IM 'Interop Pledge' Intrigues</a> AtNewYork May 30 2003 1:06PM ET... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
AOL, Microsoft IM 'Interop Pledge' Intrigues
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#71
2003-05-30T18:32:29Z
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r73873605">AOL, Microsoft IM 'Interop Pledge' Intrigues</a> AtNewYork May 30 2003 1:06PM ET... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Application Coordination Pioneer Choreology Secures a Further $4.5 Million Investment by Atlas Venture
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#343
2003-05-30T18:15:15Z
<a href="http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/cb_headline.cgi?&story_file=bw.052903/231495530&directory=/google&header_file=header.htm&footer_file=">Application Coordination Pioneer Choreology Secures a Further $4.5 Million Investment by Atlas Venture</a> Choreology Ltd, the application coordination software company, announces a $4.5 million funding agreement with Atlas Venture. This is in addition to an initial investment of $3 million by Atlas Venture, announced in July 2002, and founder and angel funding of $1 million. Choreology, founded in January 2001 by a group of worldwide experts in the field of distributed transaction management, is developing application coordination software for business transaction management. Many of the company's staff have substantial experience in delivering sophisticated distributed computing solutions in organizations across a broad range of industries. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/news/releases.html">Loosely Coupled news releases live feed</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
ASP.NET Forums
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#341
2003-05-30T18:13:16Z
<a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rhoward/posts/2954.aspx">ASP.NET Forums</a> <p> <font face="Arial">Last night we updated the <a href="http://www.asp.net/">ASP.NET Website</a> </font> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
ASP.NET Forums
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#69
2003-05-30T18:13:16Z
<a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rhoward/posts/2954.aspx">ASP.NET Forums</a> <p> <font face="Arial">Last night we updated the <a href="http://www.asp.net/">ASP.NET Website</a> to ASP.NET 1.1. So far so good, we found a couple of bugs in the forums that we had to patch this morning, but overall the site seems to run faster! Today we got even more good news, we should have our new dual-processor SQL box online by-end-of-week. It's somewhat amazing that our little SQL Server (single-proc. 750 MHZ 1GB RAM) has handled the load of (<font face="Arial">we're serving about 100K unique users / day on the site right now.)</font>:</font> </p> <ul> <li> <font face="Arial">All the content from <a href="http://www.asp.net/">www.asp.net</a> (all content is stored in the DB)</font> </li> <li> <font face="Arial">All the interactive content from <a href="http://www.asp.net/ControlGallery/">www.asp.net/ControlGallery/</a> </font> </li> <li> <font face="Arial">All the interactive content from <a href="http://www.asp.net/Forums/">www.asp.net/Forums/</a> (requires the most database utilization)</font> </li> <li> <font face="Arial">All the interactive online versions of the starter kits (such as IBuySpy Store, Portal, etc.)</font> </li> </ul> <p> <font face="Arial">Unfortunately the search functionality of the forums is killing CPU utilization on the SQL Server. Once we get the new DB in place we'll dedicate it to the forums --- should definitley speed up the site even more! </font>[via <a href="http://weblogs.asp.net/rhoward/">Rob Howard's Blog</a>]</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Essay about Weblogs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#340
2003-05-30T18:02:17Z
<p>Essay: <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/whatMakesAWeblogAWeblog">What makes a weblog a weblog?</a> <i>In progress.</i> [via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</p> <p> <em>Very good read.</em> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Essay about Weblogs
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#68
2003-05-30T18:02:17Z
<p>Essay: <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/whatMakesAWeblogAWeblog">What makes a weblog a weblog?</a> <i>In progress.</i> [via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</p> <p> <em>Very good read.</em> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
SalesForce.com recruiting integration partners
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-30#339
2003-05-30T15:33:43Z
<p>Salesforce.com is expected this week to unveil partnerships with Microsoft, BEA Systems, Sun Microsystems, and Borland Software </p> <p> <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/30/22NNsforce_1.html">http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/30/22NNsforce_1.html</a> </p> <p></p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web-enable Your Business Intelligence Using XML/A and ASP.NET
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-29#338
2003-05-29T20:01:48Z
<p>Don't you sometimes wish that accessing database data were easier, and you didn't have to deal with such things as OLE DB, ODBC, and JDBC</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Web-enable Your Business Intelligence Using XML/A and ASP.NET
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-29#66
2003-05-29T20:01:48Z
<p>Don't you sometimes wish that accessing database data were easier, and you didn't have to deal with such things as OLE DB, ODBC, and JDBC</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Weblog API Multiplexer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-29#337
2003-05-29T16:25:29Z
<a href="http://internetalchemy.org/2003/05/weblogAPIMultiplexer.html">Weblog API Multiplexer</a> After reading this article by Ben Hammersley, it stuck me that what the weblog community needs is a Weblog API Multiplexer service. This would be a service that would accept a ping containing some posting info, e.g. the entry's trackback... [via <a href="http://internetalchemy.org/">Internet Alchemy</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Weblog API Multiplexer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-29#65
2003-05-29T16:25:29Z
<a href="http://internetalchemy.org/2003/05/weblogAPIMultiplexer.html">Weblog API Multiplexer</a> After reading this article by Ben Hammersley, it stuck me that what the weblog community needs is a Weblog API Multiplexer service. This would be a service that would accept a ping containing some posting info, e.g. the entry's trackback... [via <a href="http://internetalchemy.org/">Internet Alchemy</a>] <div> </div> <div> <em>I smell new Virtuoso Blog features here. This article sheds light on the fundamental value of Web Services, and its intersection with emerging blog section of the SemWeb (Semantic Web), without explicity seeking to do so (based on my reading). </em> </div> <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>At the time making this blog entry, it would be nice if I could create a metadata entry that references this article (make a statement about the article in general, and then make a specific statement about "intersection" as used above). Yes, "intersection", what does this mean (as used in my paragraph above)? That where ontologies come into play, the use of "intersection" means something to me (but not the the SemWeb client that pick of the statement from my metadata repository; RDF doc for instance).</em> </div> <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>So we need to have standard annotation terms (ontologies) when persisting metadata statements (RDF). </em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
Novell Claims Ownership of UNIX System V
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-28#336
2003-05-28T13:46:25Z
<p> <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/28/1252229">Novell Claims Ownership of UNIX System V</a> </p> <p> <em>A must read. </em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
XML for Analysis Council Gains Momentum and Added Industry Support
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-27#335
2003-05-27T19:23:47Z
<a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/05-27-2003/0001953685&EDATE=TUE+May+27+2003,+08:01+AM">XML for Analysis Council Gains Momentum and Added Industry Support</a> The XML for Analysis (XMLA) Council today announced the success of the first public XMLA Interoperability Event, which took place at The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) conference in San Francisco, May 11 - 14. The goal of this event was to provide more detail into the efforts and progress of the XMLA specification, and to further demonstrate the importance of XMLA as a leading open, industry standard in the Business Intelligence and Business Performance Management marketplaces. The event, sponsored by the XMLA Council, showcased early release versions of XMLA-compliant products from 18 Business Intelligence and Business Performance Management solution providers, including Applied OLAP, Arcplan, Aspirity, Brio, Comshare, Crystal Decisions, Hyperion, Intellimerce, Microsoft,<br />Microstrategy, MIS, Panorama, ProClarity, SAP, SAS, Simba Technology, SPSS, and Temtec. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/news/releases.html">Loosely Coupled news releases live feed</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
XML for Analysis Council Gains Momentum and Added Industry Support
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-27#63
2003-05-27T19:23:47Z
<a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=SVBIZINK3.story&STORY=/www/story/05-27-2003/0001953685&EDATE=TUE+May+27+2003,+08:01+AM">XML for Analysis Council Gains Momentum and Added Industry Support</a> The XML for Analysis (XMLA) Council today announced the success of the first public XMLA Interoperability Event, which took place at The Data Warehouse Institute (TDWI) conference in San Francisco, May 11 - 14. The goal of this event was to provide more detail into the efforts and progress of the XMLA specification, and to further demonstrate the importance of XMLA as a leading open, industry standard in the Business Intelligence and Business Performance Management marketplaces. The event, sponsored by the XMLA Council, showcased early release versions of XMLA-compliant products from 18 Business Intelligence and Business Performance Management solution providers, including Applied OLAP, Arcplan, Aspirity, Brio, Comshare, Crystal Decisions, Hyperion, Intellimerce, Microsoft,<br />Microstrategy, MIS, Panorama, ProClarity, SAP, SAS, Simba Technology, SPSS, and Temtec. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/news/releases.html">Loosely Coupled news releases live feed</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Future of Internet Explorer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-27#334
2003-05-27T18:50:13Z
<p> <a href="http://www.slightlybent.com/200305archive001.asp#1053867954001">The Future of Internet Explorer</a> I Just said something to <a title="Sam Ruby" href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1432.html" target="_blank">Sam Ruby</a> in a comment that has caused me to stop and think. We are currently seeing all kinds of supposedly leaked information and screenshots of MS's next operating system, Longhorn. This is not due out till the end of 2004 or the beginning of 2005. A full 1 1/2 to 2 years away. Where are all the leaked screenshots and Information on the next version of Internet Explorer? Is there a next version? I read somewhere the other day that the IE team was actually smaller than the MS Works team. given that IE owns 95% of the browser market and MS Works owns, what?, of the office suite market, this seems a little more strange. </p> <p> <em>Not strange at all, that's how Monopolies operate. They do not have any embracing to do right now (in other words there is nothing to kill in this market place). </em> </p> <p>I have over 150 weblogs I monitor through my new reader and a good portion of them are MS employees (becuase I work in a MS enviroment). To the best of my knowledge, not one of them is from the IE team. All this has lead me to ask if IE is dead. If so, is it because MS doesn't see any point in developing it further or could they be worried that any further development would be viewed as anti-competitive? </p> <p> <em>The problem here is no direction, many of the larger companies live of the innovation of smaller companies. The like to say, "Ah"! "We'll have one of those in the future sometime...", and then crush smaller company if the FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) doesn't bury the perceived threat (anything that is generating revenue that they aren't taxing; bottom-line). </em> </p> <p> <em>Well while the cat's away the mice will play, Mozilla is getting stronger and better by the minute. So there may just be a reason for IE to come back to its <u>destructive life</u>.</em> </p> <p>[via <a href="http://www.slightlybent.com/default.asp">Slightly Bent</a>]</p> <p> <em></em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Future of Internet Explorer
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-27#62
2003-05-27T18:50:13Z
<p> <a href="http://www.slightlybent.com/200305archive001.asp#1053867954001">The Future of Internet Explorer</a> I Just said something to <a title="Sam Ruby" href="http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1432.html" target="_blank">Sam Ruby</a> in a comment that has caused me to stop and think. We are currently seeing all kinds of supposedly leaked information and screenshots of MS's next operating system, Longhorn. This is not due out till the end of 2004 or the beginning of 2005. A full 1 1/2 to 2 years away. Where are all the leaked screenshots and Information on the next version of Internet Explorer? Is there a next version? I read somewhere the other day that the IE team was actually smaller than the MS Works team. given that IE owns 95% of the browser market and MS Works owns, what?, of the office suite market, this seems a little more strange. </p> <p> <em>Not strange at all, that's how Monopolies operate. They do not have any embracing to do right now (in other words there is nothing to kill in this market place). </em> </p> <p>I have over 150 weblogs I monitor through my new reader and a good portion of them are MS employees (becuase I work in a MS enviroment). To the best of my knowledge, not one of them is from the IE team. All this has lead me to ask if IE is dead. If so, is it because MS doesn't see any point in developing it further or could they be worried that any further development would be viewed as anti-competitive? </p> <p> <em>The problem here is no direction, many of the larger companies live of the innovation of smaller companies. The like to say, "Ah"! "We'll have one of those in the future sometime...", and then crush smaller company if the FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt) doesn't bury the perceived threat (anything that is generating revenue that they aren't taxing; bottom-line). </em> </p> <p> <em>Well while the cat's away the mice will play, Mozilla is getting stronger and better by the minute. So there may just be a reason for IE to come back to its <u>destructive life</u>.</em> </p> <p>[via <a href="http://www.slightlybent.com/default.asp">Slightly Bent</a>]</p> <p> <em></em> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Harry Tuttle award
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-27#333
2003-05-27T13:06:02Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/27.html#a704">The Harry Tuttle award</a> The weekend's Harry Tuttle award goes to <a href="http://clarity.awakeheart.net/">Robert Ivanc</a>. On Friday he wrote to inform me that my weblog was interfering with an otherwise painless visit to the dentist: <blockquote> <i>A few days ago, I was waiting at a dentist and trying to kill the time thought of using my Nokia 3650 (with Doris HTML browser) to have a look at your site, to see if there's anything there that might put my mind on other matters than the precarious closeness of the dentist drilling machines! And what I found out was how hard it was to get to the actual content on your site...I had to scroll through all of what is usually hidden...after about 10 minutes or so I finally got to the content. Any way to redesign it, so that content gets loaded first or putting up a mobile lightweight version? </i> </blockquote> <p>Excellent point. I thought about this for five seconds and realized that Rob could solve this problem for himself -- and for others -- in a very simple way. I pointed him at the solution, and he picked up the ball and ran with it. <b>...</b> </p> <p> </p> <p>My blog is currently available in two XML flavors: the <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/rss.xml">standard feed</a> and the <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/longDescriptionFeed.xml">extended feed</a>. My suggestion to Rob was to write an XSLT transform for one or the other, and pipe the XML content through it (using the W3C's public XSLT transformation service) to create a lightweight HTML rendering. </p> <p>Here is the <a href="http://awakeheart.net/rss2html.xsl">XSLT file</a> Rob wrote. Here's how <a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/06/webdata/xslt?xslfile=http%3A%2F%2Fawakeheart.net%2Frss2html.xsl&xmlfile=http%3A%2F%2Fweblog.infoworld.com%2Fudell%2Frss.xml&transform=Submit">it renders</a> my standard feed. Here's how <a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/06/webdata/xslt?xslfile=http%3A%2F%2Fawakeheart.net%2Frss2html.xsl&xmlfile=http%3A%2F%2Fweblog.infoworld.com%2Fudell%2Fgems%2FlongDescriptionFeed.xml&transform=Submit">it renders</a> my extended feed. </p> <p>As Rob notes in <a href="http://clarity.awakeheart.net/archives/000233.html#000233">his writeup</a>, there was a problem with the extended feed, so originally he was only able to pipe the standard feed to his Nokia. But that was my fault, not his. I kicked my setup and it seems to be working properly now. Rob's conclusion: </p> <blockquote> <i>Wow, that was pretty simple and quite powerful. The power of this kind of ad hoc scripting never ceases to amaze me! [<a href="http://clarity.awakeheart.net/">Clarity's Blog</a>] </i> </blockquote> <p>[via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>]</p> <p> <em>Very cool! The power of XSLT! Now I am sure we can see how Virtuoso would extend this further? In short I will try to have this become an attribute of my Blog. </em> </p> <p> <em>Virtuoso could enable this site to automatically determine what type of User Agent (clients such as Web Browsers)</em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
The Harry Tuttle award
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-27#61
2003-05-27T13:06:02Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/27.html#a704">The Harry Tuttle award</a> The weekend's Harry Tuttle award goes to <a href="http://clarity.awakeheart.net/">Robert Ivanc</a>. On Friday he wrote to inform me that my weblog was interfering with an otherwise painless visit to the dentist: <blockquote> <i>A few days ago, I was waiting at a dentist and trying to kill the time thought of using my Nokia 3650 (with Doris HTML browser) to have a look at your site, to see if there's anything there that might put my mind on other matters than the precarious closeness of the dentist drilling machines! And what I found out was how hard it was to get to the actual content on your site...I had to scroll through all of what is usually hidden...after about 10 minutes or so I finally got to the content. Any way to redesign it, so that content gets loaded first or putting up a mobile lightweight version? </i> </blockquote> <p>Excellent point. I thought about this for five seconds and realized that Rob could solve this problem for himself -- and for others -- in a very simple way. I pointed him at the solution, and he picked up the ball and ran with it. <b>...</b> </p> <p> </p> <p>My blog is currently available in two XML flavors: the <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/rss.xml">standard feed</a> and the <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/longDescriptionFeed.xml">extended feed</a>. My suggestion to Rob was to write an XSLT transform for one or the other, and pipe the XML content through it (using the W3C's public XSLT transformation service) to create a lightweight HTML rendering. </p> <p>Here is the <a href="http://awakeheart.net/rss2html.xsl">XSLT file</a> Rob wrote. Here's how <a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/06/webdata/xslt?xslfile=http%3A%2F%2Fawakeheart.net%2Frss2html.xsl&xmlfile=http%3A%2F%2Fweblog.infoworld.com%2Fudell%2Frss.xml&transform=Submit">it renders</a> my standard feed. Here's how <a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/06/webdata/xslt?xslfile=http%3A%2F%2Fawakeheart.net%2Frss2html.xsl&xmlfile=http%3A%2F%2Fweblog.infoworld.com%2Fudell%2Fgems%2FlongDescriptionFeed.xml&transform=Submit">it renders</a> my extended feed. </p> <p>As Rob notes in <a href="http://clarity.awakeheart.net/archives/000233.html#000233">his writeup</a>, there was a problem with the extended feed, so originally he was only able to pipe the standard feed to his Nokia. But that was my fault, not his. I kicked my setup and it seems to be working properly now. Rob's conclusion: </p> <blockquote> <i>Wow, that was pretty simple and quite powerful. The power of this kind of ad hoc scripting never ceases to amaze me! [<a href="http://clarity.awakeheart.net/">Clarity's Blog</a>] </i> </blockquote> <p>[via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>]</p> <p> <em>Very cool! The power of XSLT! Now I am sure we can see how Virtuoso would extend this further? In short I will try to have this become an attribute of my Blog. </em> </p> <p> <em>Virtuoso could enable this site to automatically determine what type of User Agent (clients such as Web Browsers) is being used by the visitor and then automatically associated the required XSTL stylesheet for the User Agent.</em> </p> <p> <em>This was one of the very basic Virtuoso XML and XSLT demos (circa 2000-2001).</em> </p> <p> <em>Blogging is going to provide a very fluid demo canvas for Virtuoso as this article demonstrates.</em> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
World wakes up to true speed of WiFi
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-27#332
2003-05-27T10:30:53Z
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/30866.html">World wakes up to true speed of WiFi</a> Just as it gets faster <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register</a>]</div> <div align="right"> </div> <div align="left"> <em>I thought we were supposed to trust published benchmark numbers? </em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
World wakes up to true speed of WiFi
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-27#60
2003-05-27T10:30:53Z
<a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/69/30866.html">World wakes up to true speed of WiFi</a> Just as it gets faster <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.theregister.co.uk/">The Register</a>]</div> <div align="right"> </div> <div align="left"> <em>I thought we were supposed to trust published benchmark numbers? </em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.xulplanet.com/cgi-bin/ndeakin/homeN.cgi?ai=133">Data Structures and RDF</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-23#330
2003-05-24T02:27:45Z
<a href="http://www.xulplanet.com/cgi-bin/ndeakin/homeN.cgi?ai=133">Data Structures and RDF</a> Time to chime in on the RDF debate. There are four general ways of storing information: A list, in which one has a number of items, which may or not be related to one another. A table, in which one has a number of items (records), each with a distinct set of properties or columns. A tree, in which one has a hierarchy of items. A graph, in which one has a number of items (nodes), with the nodes connected to each other in some way. There are others, but they are more or less just variations of the same. There are examples all over of each type. Arrays are examples of lists. Of course, they are used all over the place. Relational databases typically store all of their data in tables. So do spreadsheets. Trees are used for mail or news messages and your bookmarks. XML is a syntax for specifying trees of information. The Windows and Classic Macintosh file systems are presented and/or stored as a tree. The Unix file system however isn't a tree. It's a graph. RDF is a graph. The Web is also a graph -- it's a bunch of pages connected via links. Each of the four storage methods, lists, tables, trees, and graphs, increase in complexity as you go up. Lists are simple to store. Graphs are the most difficult. Actually, that doesn't need to be the case. But, very few programming languages come with any kind of Graph structure ready to use. Due to the complexity, you should probably store data in the lowest type possible, depending on the kind of data you have. You can always use one of the structures higher than what is necessary. A list could be stored in a table with only one column, a table can be stored in a tree, where a root node has a set of records, each with a set of properties, and a tree is really a specialized form of graph. However, the reverse is not true. You can't store a graph in a tree, you can't store a tree in a table, and you can't store a table in a list. Any place where you see someone trying to is a hack. Many people don't know this though. So they just store everything in a tabular database or in XML, regardless of what it is. This has two problems. First, you get data that can be stored in a simpler format, stored in some more complex format. So you get people passing lists of things around using XML. Or, configuration files stored in XML. Second, you get people trying to coerce more complex data into a simpler format, so you might see people trying to shove trees of data into a database. Or you get serialized RDF written as XML. Many people think that XML is the ultimate format for storing data. It isn't. It can represent trees nicely, and it can do tables and lists if you really wanted it to, but it can't represent graphs, not cleanly anyway. Perhaps what is needed is an eXtensible Graph Language, which represents graphs of data. There is RDF-XML, and XGMML but both use a language for describing trees. Actually, it shouldn't be called the eXtensible Graph Language, because then people will get confused thinking it's like XML. Because a tree can be represented as a graph, all data could be represented in the Graph Language (not that it should be, of course), unlike XML which can't. Of course, this assumes there isn't some higher level structure above the graph. Long, long ago, people stored data in lists, because that was all that was available. Then, someone came up with the idea of storing data in tables. So relational databases came along and people moved up the ladder to tables. A few years ago, XML came along so data moved up again to trees. Can you guess what will happen next? The Semantic Web folks want us to move to using graphs. Should we move to graphs? Seems to be the next logical step in information evolution. What's holding us back? Well, it's probably too soon. The world is still in the tree phase. One day, graphs will start to become more popular -- it will just take time. In 30 years, someone might come up with something beyond graphs, and we'll all slowly switch to it as well. There's also the RSS in RDF debate. Many people don't see the value in storing RSS data in RDF. This is because the information stored in a single RSS file isn't a graph -- it's a tree, so plain-old XML actually makes more sense. Of course, the Semantic Web folks don't agree. Why? Because they aren't thinking in terms of a single RSS file - they are thinking of building giant collections of RSS data, all linked together so that it forms one giant - hey, it's not a tree - it's a graph. Then, you can search and navigate it like you can with the existing Web. But of course, the Semantic Web lets the servers and the software you're using, know more about what you're talking about. This is unlike current popular search engines like Google which are pretty much just guessing. You can make it better, sure, but the best way to acheive accuracy is if someone tells it the answer to begin with.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.xulplanet.com/cgi-bin/ndeakin/homeN.cgi?ai=133">Data Structures and RDF</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-23#59
2003-05-24T02:27:45Z
<a href="http://www.xulplanet.com/cgi-bin/ndeakin/homeN.cgi?ai=133">Data Structures and RDF</a> Time to chime in on the RDF debate. There are four general ways of storing information: A list, in which one has a number of items, which may or not be related to one another. A table, in which one has a number of items (records), each with a distinct set of properties or columns. A tree, in which one has a hierarchy of items. A graph, in which one has a number of items (nodes), with the nodes connected to each other in some way. There are others, but they are more or less just variations of the same. There are examples all over of each type. Arrays are examples of lists. Of course, they are used all over the place. Relational databases typically store all of their data in tables. So do spreadsheets. Trees are used for mail or news messages and your bookmarks. XML is a syntax for specifying trees of information. The Windows and Classic Macintosh file systems are presented and/or stored as a tree. The Unix file system however isn't a tree. It's a graph. RDF is a graph. The Web is also a graph -- it's a bunch of pages connected via links. Each of the four storage methods, lists, tables, trees, and graphs, increase in complexity as you go up. Lists are simple to store. Graphs are the most difficult. Actually, that doesn't need to be the case. But, very few programming languages come with any kind of Graph structure ready to use. Due to the complexity, you should probably store data in the lowest type possible, depending on the kind of data you have. You can always use one of the structures higher than what is necessary. A list could be stored in a table with only one column, a table can be stored in a tree, where a root node has a set of records, each with a set of properties, and a tree is really a specialized form of graph. However, the reverse is not true. You can't store a graph in a tree, you can't store a tree in a table, and you can't store a table in a list. Any place where you see someone trying to is a hack. Many people don't know this though. So they just store everything in a tabular database or in XML, regardless of what it is. This has two problems. First, you get data that can be stored in a simpler format, stored in some more complex format. So you get people passing lists of things around using XML. Or, configuration files stored in XML. Second, you get people trying to coerce more complex data into a simpler format, so you might see people trying to shove trees of data into a database. Or you get serialized RDF written as XML. Many people think that XML is the ultimate format for storing data. It isn't. It can represent trees nicely, and it can do tables and lists if you really wanted it to, but it can't represent graphs, not cleanly anyway. Perhaps what is needed is an eXtensible Graph Language, which represents graphs of data. There is RDF-XML, and XGMML but both use a language for describing trees. Actually, it shouldn't be called the eXtensible Graph Language, because then people will get confused thinking it's like XML. Because a tree can be represented as a graph, all data could be represented in the Graph Language (not that it should be, of course), unlike XML which can't. Of course, this assumes there isn't some higher level structure above the graph. Long, long ago, people stored data in lists, because that was all that was available. Then, someone came up with the idea of storing data in tables. So relational databases came along and people moved up the ladder to tables. A few years ago, XML came along so data moved up again to trees. Can you guess what will happen next? The Semantic Web folks want us to move to using graphs. Should we move to graphs? Seems to be the next logical step in information evolution. What's holding us back? Well, it's probably too soon. The world is still in the tree phase. One day, graphs will start to become more popular -- it will just take time. In 30 years, someone might come up with something beyond graphs, and we'll all slowly switch to it as well. There's also the RSS in RDF debate. Many people don't see the value in storing RSS data in RDF. This is because the information stored in a single RSS file isn't a graph -- it's a tree, so plain-old XML actually makes more sense. Of course, the Semantic Web folks don't agree. Why? Because they aren't thinking in terms of a single RSS file - they are thinking of building giant collections of RSS data, all linked together so that it forms one giant - hey, it's not a tree - it's a graph. Then, you can search and navigate it like you can with the existing Web. But of course, the Semantic Web lets the servers and the software you're using, know more about what you're talking about. This is unlike current popular search engines like Google which are pretty much just guessing. You can make it better, sure, but the best way to acheive accuracy is if someone tells it the answer to begin with.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://internetalchemy.org/2003/05/myRDFStyle.html">My RDF Style</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-23#57
2003-05-23T18:13:27Z
<a href="http://internetalchemy.org/2003/05/myRDFStyle.html">My RDF Style</a> I've realised that I'm unconciously using a subset of the RDF/XML serialization syntax. My mind must have read the spec, absorbed shedloads of RDF over the years and filtered out all the bits that aren't immediately useful. Now that we're... [via <a href="http://internetalchemy.org/">Internet Alchemy</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/001332.html">RDFniks of the world untie!</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-23#328
2003-05-23T18:00:52Z
<a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/001332.html">RDFniks of the world untie!</a> Tim Bray follows up his comments on RDF/XML syntax, he also mailed me, confirming that his problem is with the... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://dannyayers.com/">Raw Blog</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/001332.html">RDFniks of the world untie!</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-23#56
2003-05-23T18:00:52Z
<a href="http://dannyayers.com/archives/001332.html">RDFniks of the world untie!</a> Tim Bray follows up his comments on RDF/XML syntax, he also mailed me, confirming that his problem is with the... <div align="right">[via <a href="http://dannyayers.com/">Raw Blog</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/isItTheSyntax">My thoughts</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-23#327
2003-05-23T15:39:41Z
<p> <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/isItTheSyntax">My thoughts</a> re Tim Bray's thread on RDF. [via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</p> <p> <em>Key excerpt of relevance to us (as potential providers of an application that demonstrates RDFs value prop.):</em> </p> <p>It's not the syntax that makes the difference, it's the app. History supports this view. How many people tried to pry apart the <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=obscure"> <strong><font color="#920011">obscure</font> </strong></a> Excel file format on the Mac? Or the Lotus file format on the PC? Name all the market leaders of the past, and only the Web had both the killer app and a transparent format. Maybe the relationship is multiplicative. Maybe Excel would have <i>been the Web</i> if it had used an open file format that anyone could understand. What if you could have created a spreadsheet with BBEdit or a HyperTalk script? The mind boggles at the possibilities (it never happened, of course).</p> <p> <em>Even in Office 2003 there is a failure to really open things up.</em> <br /> <br />An aside, <a href="http://scriptingnews.userland.com/weblogsearch/?q=paoli"> <strong><font color="#920011">Jean Paoli</font> </strong></a> rushes into the room, jumping up and down and saying "That's what I'm doing that's what I'm doing."<br /> <br />Anyway, I don't see any killer apps in the RDF crowd. I see lots of people with strong opinions and not much software. Killer apps are not something you wish into existence. Lots of people have said that RDF models a relational database. Okay that tells me something important, the killer app is a relational database. </p> <p> <em>Ha Ha!</em> </p> <p>But we already have relational databases. They were new when I was a grad student, and that was a <i>long</i> time ago. <img alt="Image" src="http://static.userland.com/shortcuts/images/qbullets/sidesmiley.gif" /> <br /> <br /> <em>Yeah, but what we don't have is a relational databases that incorporate RDF as part of the database technology evolution roadmap. Of course many will get it (and FUD-emulate) when we unveil something via Virtuoso.</em> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/isItTheSyntax">My thoughts</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-23#55
2003-05-23T15:39:41Z
<p> <a href="http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/isItTheSyntax">My thoughts</a> re Tim Bray's thread on RDF. [via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</p> <p> <em>Key excerpt of relevance to us (as potential providers of an application that demonstrates RDFs value prop.):</em> </p> <p>It's not the syntax that makes the difference, it's the app. History supports this view. How many people tried to pry apart the <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=obscure"> <strong><font color="#920011">obscure</font> </strong></a> Excel file format on the Mac? Or the Lotus file format on the PC? Name all the market leaders of the past, and only the Web had both the killer app and a transparent format. Maybe the relationship is multiplicative. Maybe Excel would have <i>been the Web</i> if it had used an open file format that anyone could understand. What if you could have created a spreadsheet with BBEdit or a HyperTalk script? The mind boggles at the possibilities (it never happened, of course).</p> <p> <em>Even in Office 2003 there is a failure to really open things up.</em> <br /> <br />An aside, <a href="http://scriptingnews.userland.com/weblogsearch/?q=paoli"> <strong><font color="#920011">Jean Paoli</font> </strong></a> rushes into the room, jumping up and down and saying "That's what I'm doing that's what I'm doing."<br /> <br />Anyway, I don't see any killer apps in the RDF crowd. I see lots of people with strong opinions and not much software. Killer apps are not something you wish into existence. Lots of people have said that RDF models a relational database. Okay that tells me something important, the killer app is a relational database. </p> <p> <em>Ha Ha!</em> </p> <p>But we already have relational databases. They were new when I was a grad student, and that was a <i>long</i> time ago. <img alt="Image" src="http://static.userland.com/shortcuts/images/qbullets/sidesmiley.gif" /> <br /> <br /> <em>Yeah, but what we don't have is a relational databases that incorporate RDF as part of the database technology evolution roadmap. Of course many will get it (and FUD-emulate) when we unveil something via Virtuoso.</em> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/doc/#">Semantic Web Tutorial Using N3</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-23#326
2003-05-23T10:15:51Z
<a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/doc/#">Semantic Web Tutorial Using N3</a> Must-read : This is an introduction to semantic web ideas aimed at someone with experience in programming, perhaps with web... [via <a href="http://dannyayers.com/">Raw Blog</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/doc/#">Semantic Web Tutorial Using N3</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-23#54
2003-05-23T10:15:51Z
<a href="http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/doc/#">Semantic Web Tutorial Using N3</a> Must-read : This is an introduction to semantic web ideas aimed at someone with experience in programming, perhaps with web... [via <a href="http://dannyayers.com/">Raw Blog</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://myrss.com/p/r/d/6/fnd2.html">Kendall Clark finds the latest XHTML 2.0 draft contains good news</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#325
2003-05-22T21:31:33Z
<a href="http://myrss.com/p/r/d/6/fnd2.html">Kendall Clark finds the latest XHTML 2.0 draft contains good news</a> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.xml.com/">xml.com</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://myrss.com/p/r/d/6/fnd2.html">Kendall Clark finds the latest XHTML 2.0 draft contains good news</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#53
2003-05-22T21:31:33Z
<a href="http://myrss.com/p/r/d/6/fnd2.html">Kendall Clark finds the latest XHTML 2.0 draft contains good news</a> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.xml.com/">xml.com</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.go-mono.com/index.html#May20th,2003:OpenLinkreleasesWineLibpatches.">May 20th, 2003: OpenLink releases WineLib patches.</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#324
2003-05-22T20:13:33Z
<a href="http://www.go-mono.com/index.html#May20th,2003:OpenLinkreleasesWineLibpatches.">May 20th, 2003: OpenLink releases WineLib patches.</a> OpenLink <a href="http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/mono-winforms-list/2003-May/000284.html">announced</a> the release of Vladimir's work to turn Wine into a library that can be used dynamically from Mono. This work simplifies the work on System.Windows.Forms as it is no longer necessary have a special version of the GC, nor have a stub program.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.go-mono.com/index.html#May20th,2003:OpenLinkreleasesWineLibpatches.">May 20th, 2003: OpenLink releases WineLib patches.</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#52
2003-05-22T20:13:33Z
<a href="http://www.go-mono.com/index.html#May20th,2003:OpenLinkreleasesWineLibpatches.">May 20th, 2003: OpenLink releases WineLib patches.</a> OpenLink <a href="http://lists.ximian.com/archives/public/mono-winforms-list/2003-May/000284.html">announced</a> the release of Vladimir's work to turn Wine into a library that can be used dynamically from Mono. This work simplifies the work on System.Windows.Forms as it is no longer necessary have a special version of the GC, nor have a stub program. [via <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/">Mono Project News</a>] <div> <em></em> </div> <div> <em>What has happened here is that we have created an a Linux/UNIX shared library based API for <a href="http://www.winehq.com">WINE</a> (which is a WIN32 emulation layer). This will accelerate (via development simplication) the System.Windows.Forms namespace implementation within Mono.</em> </div> <div> <em></em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<title>Hosted RSS Content Creation Utility</title>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#323
2003-05-22T18:41:47Z
<div>Hosted RSS Content Creation Utility</div> <a href="http://myrss.com/">MyRSS.COM</a> is a cool hosted service for generating RSS from HTML content! I found this just as I was about to commence attempts to convince the likes of Forbes and Fortune magazine to produce RSS feeds
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3218">Sue me, I'm a Linux User!</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#322
2003-05-22T16:14:26Z
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3218">Sue me, I'm a Linux User!</a> In a great example of Linux users banding together to fight SCO's attempt to exert ownership over portions of the Linux operating system, there's now an on-line petition available where thousands of Linux users are literally offering SCO an opportunity to sue them. <p> The petition is appropriately titled, "Hey SCO - Sue Me!". <p> Check it out - or join the crowd! <div align="right">[via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3218">Sue me, I'm a Linux User!</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#50
2003-05-22T16:14:26Z
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3218">Sue me, I'm a Linux User!</a> In a great example of Linux users banding together to fight SCO's attempt to exert ownership over portions of the Linux operating system, there's now an on-line petition available where thousands of Linux users are literally offering SCO an opportunity to sue them. <p> The petition is appropriately titled, "Hey SCO - Sue Me!". <p> Check it out - or join the crowd! <div align="right">[via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3220">WWW2003 -- day two</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#320
2003-05-22T14:13:52Z
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3220">WWW2003 -- day two</a> Facts and figures about WWW2003; W3C standards update; progress report on 802.11b-enabled community coverage. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</a>]</div> <blockquote cite="http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-ws-arch-20030514/#id2608426"> <p align="center">A Web service is a <strong>software system</strong> identified by a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are <strong>defined and described using XML</strong>. Its definition can be discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using <strong>XML based messages</strong> conveyed by <strong>Internet protocols</strong>.</p> </blockquote> <p class="author" align="center"> <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Hugo/">Hugo Haas, W3C</a> </p> <p class="author" align="left"> <em>As result of the above Web Services enable browserless consumption of services available at a URI. Good examples being the ability to purchase a book, CD, or any other item from Amazon without browser based interaction with the Amazon site (URI: </em><a id="tabs__ctl3_overviewDocUrl" href="http://soap.amazon.com/schemas2/AmazonWebServices.wsdl" target="_new">http://soap.amazon.com/schemas2/AmazonWebServices.wsdl</a> and UDDI Discovery URI: <a href="http://uddi.microsoft.com/discovery?businesskey=bfb9dc23-adec-4f73-bd5f-5545abaeaa1b">http://uddi.microsoft.com/discovery?businesskey=bfb9dc23-adec-4f73-bd5f-5545abaeaa1b</a>) <em>. <br /> <br />Further reading:</em> </p> <p class="author" align="left"> <em>W3C Web Services Architecture Draft: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/">http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/</a> <br />W3C Web Services Glossary: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-gloss/">http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-gloss/</a> </em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3220">WWW2003 -- day two</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-22#49
2003-05-22T14:13:52Z
<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/3220">WWW2003 -- day two</a> Facts and figures about WWW2003; W3C standards update; progress report on 802.11b-enabled community coverage. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://meerkat.oreillynet.com/">Meerkat: An Open Wire Service: O'Reilly Network Weblogs</a>]</div> <blockquote cite="http://www.w3.org/TR/2003/WD-ws-arch-20030514/#id2608426"> <p align="center">A Web service is a <strong>software system</strong> identified by a URI, whose public interfaces and bindings are <strong>defined and described using XML</strong>. Its definition can be discovered by other software systems. These systems may then interact with the Web service in a manner prescribed by its definition, using <strong>XML based messages</strong> conveyed by <strong>Internet protocols</strong>.</p> </blockquote> <p class="author" align="center"> <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Hugo/">Hugo Haas, W3C</a> </p> <p class="author" align="left"> <em>As result of the above Web Services enable browserless consumption of services available at a URI. Good examples being the ability to purchase a book, CD, or any other item from Amazon without browser based interaction with the Amazon site (URI: </em><a id="tabs__ctl3_overviewDocUrl" href="http://soap.amazon.com/schemas2/AmazonWebServices.wsdl" target="_new">http://soap.amazon.com/schemas2/AmazonWebServices.wsdl</a> and UDDI Discovery URI: <a href="http://uddi.microsoft.com/discovery?businesskey=bfb9dc23-adec-4f73-bd5f-5545abaeaa1b">http://uddi.microsoft.com/discovery?businesskey=bfb9dc23-adec-4f73-bd5f-5545abaeaa1b</a>) <em>. <br /> <br />Further reading:</em> </p> <p class="author" align="left"> <em>W3C Web Services Architecture Draft: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/">http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/</a> <br />W3C Web Services Glossary: <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-gloss/">http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-gloss/</a> </em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<big>SQL Injection FAQ </big>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#319
2003-05-21T22:27:45Z
<p align="center"> <font color="#0080c0" size="2"> <big> <strong><big>SQL Injection FAQ </big> </strong> </big> </font> </p> <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> <strong><font color="red"></font> </strong> </p> <strong><font color="red"> </font> </strong> <a href="http://www.sqlsecurity.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=2&tabid=3"> <strong> <font color="red"><a href="http://www.sqlsecurity.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=2&;tabid=3">http://www.sqlsecurity.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=2&;tabid=3</a> <br /> </font> </strong> </a> <strong><font color="red"> </font> </strong> <br /> <div align="center"> <center> <table width="80%" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="100%"> <p> <big> <strong><font size="2">Are other SQL Servers (Sybase, Oracle, DB2) subject to SQL injection?</font> </strong> </big> </p> <p> <font size="2">Yes, to varying degrees. Here is a site that can get you more details on some of the issues with other SQL Servers. </font> <a href="http://www.owasp.org/" target="_blank"> <a href="http://www.owasp.org/"><font size="2">http://www.owasp.org</font> </a> </a> </p> <font size="2"><b>What is SQL Injection and why is all this information not included in the regular FAQ?</b> </font> <p> <font size="2">SQL Injection is simply a term describing the act of passing SQL code into an application that was not intended by the developer. Since this topic is not specifically restricted to SQL Server it is not included in the normal FAQ. In fact, much of the problems that allow SQL injection are not the fault of the database server per-se but rather are due to poor input validation and coding at other code layers. However, due to the serious nature and prevalence of this problem I feel its inclusion in a thorough discussion of SQL Server security is warranted.</font> </p> <p> <big> <strong><font size="2">What causes SQL Injection?</font> </strong> </big> </p> <p> <font size="2">SQL injection is usually caused by developers who use "string-building" techniques in order to execute SQL code. For example, in a search page, the developer may use the following code to execute a query (VBScript/ASP sample shown):</font> </p> <p> <font face="Courier New" color="#ff0000" size="2">Set myRecordset = myConnection.execute("SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE someText ='" & request.form("inputdata") & "'")</font> </p> <p> <font size="2">The reason this statement is likely to introduce an SQL injection problem is that the developer has made a classic mistake - poor input validation. We are trusting that user has not entered something malicious - something like the innocent looking single quote ('). Let's consider what would happen if a user entered the following text into the search form:</font> </p> <p> <font size="2">' exec master..xp_cmdshell 'net user test testpass /ADD' --</font> </p> <p> <font size="2">Then, when the query string is assembled and sent to SQL Server, the server will process the following code:</font> </p> <p> <font face="Courier New" color="#ff0000" size="2">SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE someText ='' exec master..xp_cmdshell 'net user test testpass /ADD'--'</font> </p> <p> <font size="2">Notice, the first single quote entered by the user closed the string and SQL Server eagerly executes the next SQL statements in the batch including a command to add a new user to the local accounts database. If this application were running as 'sa' and the MSSQLSERVER service is running with sufficient privileges we would now have an account with which to access this machine. Also note the use of the comment operator (--) to force the SQL Server to ignore the trailing quote placed by the developer's code.</font> </p> <p> <a href="http://www.sqlsecurity.com/faq-inj.asp"><font size="2">More</font> </a> </p> <p> <em><font color="#000000" size="2">Very intresting that these are all Native Interface based exploits. So the security issue isn't ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, or OLE DB specific (although they certainly increase the potential damage that can be unleashed via metadata analysis en route to that huge Cartesian Product ; the mother of all Exploits!). Our Session Rules Book was devised in 1993 with many of these issues in mind, and to this date there are no other ODBC/JDBC/OLE DB products out there that even come close to acknowledging this reality.</font> </em> </p></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </center> </div>
2006-12-04T08:41:24.000003-05:00
<big>SQL Injection FAQ </big>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#48
2003-05-21T22:27:45Z
<p align="center"> <font color="#0080c0" size="2"> <big> <strong><big>SQL Injection FAQ </big> </strong> </big> </font> </p> <p align="center"> </p> <p align="center"> <strong><font color="red"></font> </strong> </p> <strong><font color="red"> </font> </strong> <a href="http://www.sqlsecurity.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=2&tabid=3"> <strong> <font color="red"><a href="http://www.sqlsecurity.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=2&;tabid=3">http://www.sqlsecurity.com/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabindex=2&;tabid=3</a> <br /> </font> </strong> </a> <strong><font color="red"> </font> </strong> <br /> <div align="center"> <center> <table width="80%" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td width="100%"> <p> <big> <strong><font size="2">Are other SQL Servers (Sybase, Oracle, DB2) subject to SQL injection?</font> </strong> </big> </p> <p> <font size="2">Yes, to varying degrees. Here is a site that can get you more details on some of the issues with other SQL Servers. </font> <a href="http://www.owasp.org/" target="_blank"> <a href="http://www.owasp.org/"><font size="2">http://www.owasp.org</font> </a> </a> </p> <font size="2"><b>What is SQL Injection and why is all this information not included in the regular FAQ?</b> </font> <p> <font size="2">SQL Injection is simply a term describing the act of passing SQL code into an application that was not intended by the developer. Since this topic is not specifically restricted to SQL Server it is not included in the normal FAQ. In fact, much of the problems that allow SQL injection are not the fault of the database server per-se but rather are due to poor input validation and coding at other code layers. However, due to the serious nature and prevalence of this problem I feel its inclusion in a thorough discussion of SQL Server security is warranted.</font> </p> <p> <big> <strong><font size="2">What causes SQL Injection?</font> </strong> </big> </p> <p> <font size="2">SQL injection is usually caused by developers who use "string-building" techniques in order to execute SQL code. For example, in a search page, the developer may use the following code to execute a query (VBScript/ASP sample shown):</font> </p> <p> <font face="Courier New" color="#ff0000" size="2">Set myRecordset = myConnection.execute("SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE someText ='" & request.form("inputdata") & "'")</font> </p> <p> <font size="2">The reason this statement is likely to introduce an SQL injection problem is that the developer has made a classic mistake - poor input validation. We are trusting that user has not entered something malicious - something like the innocent looking single quote ('). Let's consider what would happen if a user entered the following text into the search form:</font> </p> <p> <font size="2">' exec master..xp_cmdshell 'net user test testpass /ADD' --</font> </p> <p> <font size="2">Then, when the query string is assembled and sent to SQL Server, the server will process the following code:</font> </p> <p> <font face="Courier New" color="#ff0000" size="2">SELECT * FROM myTable WHERE someText ='' exec master..xp_cmdshell 'net user test testpass /ADD'--'</font> </p> <p> <font size="2">Notice, the first single quote entered by the user closed the string and SQL Server eagerly executes the next SQL statements in the batch including a command to add a new user to the local accounts database. If this application were running as 'sa' and the MSSQLSERVER service is running with sufficient privileges we would now have an account with which to access this machine. Also note the use of the comment operator (--) to force the SQL Server to ignore the trailing quote placed by the developer's code.</font> </p> <p> <a href="http://www.sqlsecurity.com/faq-inj.asp"><font size="2">More</font> </a> </p> <p> <em><font color="#000000" size="2">Very intresting that these are all Native Interface based exploits. So the security issue isn't ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, or OLE DB specific (although they certainly increase the potential damage that can be unleashed via metadata analysis en route to that huge Cartesian Product ; the mother of all Exploits!). Our Session Rules Book was devised in 1993 with many of these issues in mind, and to this date there are no other ODBC/JDBC/OLE DB products out there that even come close to acknowledging this reality.</font> </em> </p></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </center> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
By Harry Fuecks
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#997
2003-05-21T20:49:29Z
<h2> <font size="3">By Harry Fuecks</font> <br /> <font size="2">Here's a question: what if I was to tell you that you can write your own version of Word using something like HTML and JavaScript? What if I added that you could run on your hard disk or launch it directly from your Web server and use it to update your site's content? It sounds a little far fetched, I know, but it's right here, right now -- and it calls itself "Zool". </font> </h2> <p>Here?s what this three-part series will cover:</p> <p></p> <ul> <li>The XUL Revolution: just who is Zool? </li> <li>Back to School: time to dust of that JavaScript... </li> <li>Zoolology: getting read to fire up your first XUL application </li> <li>3D Browsing with XUL: straight in at the deep end. </li> <li>Desperately Seeking: the search is over. </li> <li>Takeaway Menu: with fries please! </li> <li>But no one uses Mozilla: back to browser detection. </li> <li>The Rise of the Rich Client: the future is XUL. </li> </ul> <p> <strong><a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/article/1140/1">Part 1</a> </strong> </p> <p> <em><u>My Comments</u>:<br /> </em><em>I am a firm believer in the possibilities presented by XUL. It will enable the bundling of UI, Data, Data Manipulation logic (Application or Module ) as part of a payload hosted on report server Like Virtuoso. Basically, I anticipate the emergence of an IDE that is able to persist is UI components (widgets) and UI behaviour as XML using the XUL grammer. Then along comes a XUL Processor that is able to emit a XUL based UI payloads ( via user agent aware transformation) as:<br />.NET/Mono Windows Forms assemblies<br />Javascript<br />Flash MX<br />XUL (If we know the client is Mozilla or Firebird for instance)<br />.....<br />I think this is a Virtuoso demo in the making :-)</em> </p> <p> <br /> <br /> <br /> </p> <p> <font face="Verdana"></font> </p>
2006-07-07T08:29:38-04:00
By Harry Fuecks
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#318
2003-05-21T20:49:00Z
<h2> <a href="http://www.sitepoint.com/feedback/1140"><font size="3">By Harry Fuecks</font> </a> </h2>
2006-07-07T08:58:06.000001-04:00
<a href="http://www.waypath.com/apis/xmlrpc1">has</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#317
2003-05-21T20:25:28Z
Waypath <a href="http://www.waypath.com/apis/xmlrpc1">has</a> an XML-RPC interface for keyword searches on weblog content. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</div> <div align="left"> <em>Could be interesting re. Virtuoso's Blogging Services.</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.waypath.com/apis/xmlrpc1">has</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#45
2003-05-21T20:25:28Z
Waypath <a href="http://www.waypath.com/apis/xmlrpc1">has</a> an XML-RPC interface for keyword searches on weblog content. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>]</div> <div align="left"> <em>Could be interesting re. Virtuoso's Blogging Services.</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<b>by Todd Brehe</b>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#316
2003-05-21T20:19:06Z
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><b>by Todd Brehe</b> </font> <br /> <p> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Every January, trade publications put out lists of predictions for the coming year. They discuss products, services, and trends that they think will change the way business is done, labeling some of these "disruptive technologies."</font> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<b>by Todd Brehe</b>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#44
2003-05-21T20:19:06Z
<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"><b>by Todd Brehe</b> </font> <br /> <p> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Every January, trade publications put out lists of predictions for the coming year. They discuss products, services, and trends that they think will change the way business is done, labeling some of these "disruptive technologies." </font> </p> <p> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">The idea of disruptive technologies comes from Clayton Christensen's 1997 book, "The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail." A disruptive technology is a method, procedure, skill, device, or material that redefines competitive standards, and it often forces us to re-examine the way we work. Also note that the technology doesn't have to be a physical item. </font> </p> <p>[skipped a little ...]</p> <p> <font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">At first glance, it doesn</font> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.mysql.com/press/release_2003_14.html">MySQL Database Available for New AMD64 Architecture</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#315
2003-05-21T19:20:40Z
<p> <a href="http://www.mysql.com/press/release_2003_14.html">MySQL Database Available for New AMD64 Architecture</a> MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular open source database, today announced that the MySQL</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/7365.aspx">Death of the Browser?</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#311
2003-05-21T15:22:49Z
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/7365.aspx">Death of the Browser?</a> <br /> <a href="http://scoble.weblogs.com/">Scoble</a> <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2003/05/20.html#a3092">speculates</a> on the death of the web browser and the rise of rich clients. I agree wholeheartedly. The internet is a great medium, and the browser has been great as a "least common denominator" for delivering information and application functions. The constantly evolving protocols on the web are enabling us to do much <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwinforms/html/wnf_taskvision.asp">better</a> though, and I think more developers should scrutinize the development of applications using the browser when rich clients can be developed, implemented, and delivered to users with ease. [via <a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/">Randy Holloway's Blog</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/7365.aspx">Death of the Browser?</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#38
2003-05-21T15:22:49Z
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/7365.aspx">Death of the Browser?</a> <br /> <a href="http://scoble.weblogs.com/">Scoble</a> <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2003/05/20.html#a3092">speculates</a> on the death of the web browser and the rise of rich clients. I agree wholeheartedly. The internet is a great medium, and the browser has been great as a "least common denominator" for delivering information and application functions. The constantly evolving protocols on the web are enabling us to do much <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnwinforms/html/wnf_taskvision.asp">better</a> though, and I think more developers should scrutinize the development of applications using the browser when rich clients can be developed, implemented, and delivered to users with ease. [via <a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/">Randy Holloway's Blog</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2100-1012_3-1008588.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Microsoft makes gains in database arena</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#310
2003-05-21T15:16:12Z
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2100-1012_3-1008588.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Microsoft makes gains in database arena</a> Cost-conscious buyers help boost Microsoft's database revenue last year, despite a 7 percent slide in the overall market, a new study says. [via <a href="http://www.news.com/">CNET News.com</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2100-1012_3-1008588.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Microsoft makes gains in database arena</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#37
2003-05-21T15:16:12Z
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2100-1012_3-1008588.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Microsoft makes gains in database arena</a> Cost-conscious buyers help boost Microsoft's database revenue last year, despite a 7 percent slide in the overall market, a new study says. [via <a href="http://www.news.com/">CNET News.com</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.bloki.com/">Bloki is</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#309
2003-05-21T12:11:11Z
<a href="http://www.bloki.com/">Bloki is</a> "a Web site on which you can create Web pages, right in your browser, with no additional software required. Think of it as a word processor for the Web." [via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>] <div> </div> <div> <em>This is an interesting product, especially in relation to our current Virtuoso Blog, Wiki, and General Content Mgmt. efforts.</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.bloki.com/">Bloki is</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-21#36
2003-05-21T12:11:11Z
<a href="http://www.bloki.com/">Bloki is</a> "a Web site on which you can create Web pages, right in your browser, with no additional software required. Think of it as a word processor for the Web." [via <a href="http://www.scripting.com/">Scripting News</a>] <div> </div> <div> <em>This is an interesting product, especially in relation to our current Virtuoso Blog, Wiki, and General Content Mgmt. efforts.</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<h2 class="title" style="CLEAR: both">The meaning of </h2>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-20#308
2003-05-20T14:35:44Z
<div class="titlepage"> <div> <h2 class="title" style="CLEAR: both">The meaning of </h2> </div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/20.html#a695">Testing for Windows rot</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-20#307
2003-05-20T14:34:00Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/20.html#a695">Testing for Windows rot</a> It's nice to see the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/19/technology/19NECO.html">mentioning</a> Ward Cunningham as the father of <a href="http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors">Wiki</a>. I wonder, though, whether another of Ward's efforts -- Extreme Programming, and in particular his advocacy of test-driven software development -- might not ultimately affect more people's lives. <b>...</b> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/20.html#a695">Testing for Windows rot</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-20#34
2003-05-20T14:34:00Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/20.html#a695">Testing for Windows rot</a> It's nice to see the New York Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/19/technology/19NECO.html">mentioning</a> Ward Cunningham as the father of <a href="http://www.c2.com/cgi/wiki?WelcomeVisitors">Wiki</a>. I wonder, though, whether another of Ward's efforts -- Extreme Programming, and in particular his advocacy of test-driven software development -- might not ultimately affect more people's lives. <b>...</b> <div align="right">[via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/2003/05/18#printwash">Doc has that covered anyway</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-19#33
2003-05-19T17:42:15Z
<p>Enough of the Google stuff. <a href="http://doc.weblogs.com/2003/05/18#printwash">Doc has that covered anyway</a>. Onto having a great afternoon with the wife. Hope your weekend is going great.[via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>]</p> <div>Looks like the print world is getting a little uneasy about blogging? </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r72328568">Microsoft to license SCO Group Unix rights</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-18#305
2003-05-18T18:25:00Z
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r72328568">Microsoft to license SCO Group Unix rights</a> ZDNet May 19 2003 2:37AM ET <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - ZDNet</a>] <div></div> </div>Houston! We have a problem.<br />Note, that Bill Gates was an early backer of the Original SCO company (the one that licensed the AT&T UNIX license), and this was prior to SCO acquiring Unixware (the AT&T UNIX IP vehicle). I think IBM and the other large Linux stake holders may have screwed up here, and Microsoft is going make this clearer in the not to distant future.
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/7161.aspx">Whidbey/Yukon Connection</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-18#304
2003-05-18T17:45:33Z
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/7161.aspx">Whidbey/Yukon Connection</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/">Mary Jo</a> provides an <a href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,1091178,00.asp">overview</a> of some the upcoming features in Whidbey, and emphasizes the link between that product and the Yukon release. If anything concerns me about the upcoming Yukon release, this dependency is it. Its going to be tough to coordinate shipping these two products with all of the new functionality in each. [via <a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/">Randy Holloway's Blog</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/7161.aspx">Whidbey/Yukon Connection</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-18#31
2003-05-18T17:45:33Z
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/7161.aspx">Whidbey/Yukon Connection</a> <br /> <a href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/">Mary Jo</a> provides an <a href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,1091178,00.asp">overview</a> of some the upcoming features in Whidbey, and emphasizes the link between that product and the Yukon release. If anything concerns me about the upcoming Yukon release, this dependency is it. Its going to be tough to coordinate shipping these two products with all of the new functionality in each. [via <a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/">Randy Holloway's Blog</a>] <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/britchie/posts/3920.aspx">.NET Languages Everywhere</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-16#30
2003-05-16T22:23:07Z
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/britchie/posts/3920.aspx">.NET Languages Everywhere</a> <p>More .NET languages are popping up everyday. I've put together one of the most extensive lists of languages and posted it <a href="http://www12.brinkster.com/brianr/languages.aspx">here</a>. </p> <p>Its pulled from many sources including: <a href="http://www.asp.net/Default.aspx?tabindex=8&tabid=40"><font face="Verdana" size="2">.NET Languages</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (ASP.NET), </font> <a href="http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_dotnet.html#oo_dotnet_netlang"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Cetus</font> </a>, <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/resources/Default.aspx?ResourceTypeDropDownList=Language+vendors"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Language Vendors</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS GotDotNET), </font> <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/lang/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">.NET Language Group</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS GotDotNET), </font> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/partners/language/default.asp"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Visual Studio Partners: Language Vendors</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS), </font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/mailing-lists.html">Mono-list</a>, </font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a>, </font> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://sourceforge.net/">SourceForge.net</a> </font> </p> <ul> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Ada </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.usafa.af.mil/dfcs/bios/mcc_html/a_sharp.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">A# - port of Ada to .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Dr. Martin C. Carlisle) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">APL </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.dyadic.com/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Dyalog.Net - Dyalog APL</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Dyadic) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">AsmL </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/fse/asml/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Abstract State Machine Language</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS Research)</font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Visual Basic </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">VB.NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/mbas.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">mbas</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Mono/Ximian) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">C# </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vcsharp/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">C#</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/c-sharp.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">mcs</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Mono/Ximian)</font> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.southern-storm.com.au/portable_net.html">cscc</a> (DotGNU Portable.NET)</font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Caml </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/projects/ilx/fsharp.htm"><font face="Verdana" size="2">F# (ML and Caml), Abstract IL, ILX</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS Research) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">C++ </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/techinfo/articles/upgrade/managedext.asp"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Managed Extensions for C++</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/cplusplus/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Managed and Unmanaged C++</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (GotDotNet) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Cobol </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.netcobol.com/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">NetCOBOL - COBOL for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Fujitsu) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.microfocus.com/products/netexpress/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Net Express</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Micro Focus) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Delphi </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://borland.com/dotnet/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Borland Delphi and C++Builder Support for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Borland) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/delphinet"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Delphi.NET - interoperability tools</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Marcus Schmidt) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Eiffel </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.eiffel.com/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Eiffel for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Interactive Software Engineering) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Forth </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.dataman.ro/dforth/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Delta Forth .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Valer BOCAN) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Fortran </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.lahey.com/dotnet.htm"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Lahey/Fujitsu Fortran for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Lahey Computer Systems, Inc.) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.salfordsoftware.co.uk/compilers/ftn95/dotnet.shtml"><font face="Verdana" size="2">FTN95 - Fortran for Microsoft .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Salford Software Ltd.) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Java </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vjsharp/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Visual J# .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://weblog.ikvm.net/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">IKVM.NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> - Java VM for .NET </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">JavaScript </font> </li> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/jscript/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">JScript .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (GotDotNet) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://janet-js.sourceforge.net/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">JANET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> - JavaScript-compatible language</font> </li> </ul> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">LOGO </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://monologo.sourceforge.net/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">MonoLOGO</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Richard Hestilow) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Lua <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.tecgraf.puc-rio.br/~rcerq/luadotnet/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Lua.NET: Integrating Lua with Rotor</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (PUC-RIO</font> </li> </ul> </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Mercury </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/research/mercury/dotnet.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Mercury on .NET</font> </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Mondrian</font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="http://www.mondrian-script.org/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Mondrian and Haskell for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Nigel Perry) </font> </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Oberon </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/oberon.net/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Active Oberon for .net</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (ETH Zuerich) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Perl </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/NET/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Perl for .NET, PerlNET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (ActiveState SRL.) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Pascal </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.fit.qut.edu.au/PLAS/ComponentPascal/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Component Pascal</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (QUT) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">PHP </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.akbkhome.com/Projects/PHP_Sharp"><font face="Verdana" size="2">PHP Sharp</font> </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Python </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://home.attbi.com/~chetangadgil//DotNetWrapperForPython.htm"><font face="Verdana" size="2">KOBRA</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/dotnet/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Open Source Python for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Mark Hammond) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Ruby </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-PaloAlto/9251/ruby/nrb.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">NetRuby</font> </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">RPG </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/partners/language/asna.asp"><font face="Verdana" size="2">ASNA Visual RPG for .NET</font> </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Scheme </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://rover.cs.nwu.edu/~scheme/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Scheme</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Northwestern University) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Small Talk </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.smallscript.org/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">S#</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (SmallScript LLC)</font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">SML (Standard Meta Language) </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/TSG/SMLNET/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">SML.NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS Research, University of Cambridge) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Visual Basic </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">VB.NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/mbas.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">mbas</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Mono/Ximian)</font> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">I'll try to keep this updated when I run across a new language. If anyone knows of any others, let <a href="about:blankbrianlritchie@hotmail.com">me</a> know.</font>[via <a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/britchie/">Brian Ritchie's Blog</a>]</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/britchie/posts/3920.aspx">.NET Languages Everywhere</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-16#303
2003-05-16T22:23:07Z
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/britchie/posts/3920.aspx">.NET Languages Everywhere</a> <p>More .NET languages are popping up everyday. I've put together one of the most extensive lists of languages and posted it <a href="http://www12.brinkster.com/brianr/languages.aspx">here</a>. </p> <p>Its pulled from many sources including: <a href="http://www.asp.net/Default.aspx?tabindex=8&tabid=40"><font face="Verdana" size="2">.NET Languages</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (ASP.NET), </font> <a href="http://www.cetus-links.org/oo_dotnet.html#oo_dotnet_netlang"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Cetus</font> </a>, <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/community/resources/Default.aspx?ResourceTypeDropDownList=Language+vendors"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Language Vendors</font></a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS GotDotNET), </font> <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/lang/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">.NET Language Group</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS GotDotNET), </font> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/partners/language/default.asp"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Visual Studio Partners: Language Vendors</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS), </font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.go-mono.com/mailing-lists.html">Mono-list</a>, </font><font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.google.com/">Google</a>, </font> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://sourceforge.net/">SourceForge.net</a> </font> </p> <ul> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Ada </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.usafa.af.mil/dfcs/bios/mcc_html/a_sharp.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">A# - port of Ada to .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Dr. Martin C. Carlisle) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">APL </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.dyadic.com/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Dyalog.Net - Dyalog APL</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Dyadic) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">AsmL </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/fse/asml/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Abstract State Machine Language</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS Research)</font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Visual Basic </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">VB.NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/mbas.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">mbas</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Mono/Ximian) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">C# </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vcsharp/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">C#</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li> <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/c-sharp.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">mcs</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Mono/Ximian)</font> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2"><a href="http://www.southern-storm.com.au/portable_net.html">cscc</a> (DotGNU Portable.NET)</font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Caml </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://research.microsoft.com/projects/ilx/fsharp.htm"><font face="Verdana" size="2">F# (ML and Caml), Abstract IL, ILX</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS Research) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">C++ </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/techinfo/articles/upgrade/managedext.asp"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Managed Extensions for C++</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/cplusplus/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Managed and Unmanaged C++</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (GotDotNet) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Cobol </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.netcobol.com/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">NetCOBOL - COBOL for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Fujitsu) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.microfocus.com/products/netexpress/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Net Express</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Micro Focus) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Delphi </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://borland.com/dotnet/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Borland Delphi and C++Builder Support for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Borland) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/delphinet"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Delphi.NET - interoperability tools</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Marcus Schmidt) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Eiffel </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.eiffel.com/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Eiffel for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Interactive Software Engineering) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Forth </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.dataman.ro/dforth/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Delta Forth .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Valer BOCAN) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Fortran </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.lahey.com/dotnet.htm"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Lahey/Fujitsu Fortran for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Lahey Computer Systems, Inc.) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.salfordsoftware.co.uk/compilers/ftn95/dotnet.shtml"><font face="Verdana" size="2">FTN95 - Fortran for Microsoft .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Salford Software Ltd.) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Java </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vjsharp/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Visual J# .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://weblog.ikvm.net/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">IKVM.NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> - Java VM for .NET </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">JavaScript </font> </li> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/jscript/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">JScript .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (GotDotNet) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://janet-js.sourceforge.net/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">JANET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> - JavaScript-compatible language</font> </li> </ul> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">LOGO </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://monologo.sourceforge.net/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">MonoLOGO</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Richard Hestilow) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Lua <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.tecgraf.puc-rio.br/~rcerq/luadotnet/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Lua.NET: Integrating Lua with Rotor</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (PUC-RIO</font> </li> </ul> </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Mercury </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.cs.mu.oz.au/research/mercury/dotnet.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Mercury on .NET</font> </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Mondrian</font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2"> <a href="http://www.mondrian-script.org/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Mondrian and Haskell for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Nigel Perry) </font> </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Oberon </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.oberon.ethz.ch/oberon.net/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Active Oberon for .net</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (ETH Zuerich) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Perl </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://aspn.activestate.com/ASPN/NET/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Perl for .NET, PerlNET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (ActiveState SRL.) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Pascal </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.fit.qut.edu.au/PLAS/ComponentPascal/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Component Pascal</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (QUT) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">PHP </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.akbkhome.com/Projects/PHP_Sharp"><font face="Verdana" size="2">PHP Sharp</font> </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Python </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://home.attbi.com/~chetangadgil//DotNetWrapperForPython.htm"><font face="Verdana" size="2">KOBRA</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://starship.python.net/crew/mhammond/dotnet/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Open Source Python for .NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Mark Hammond) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Ruby </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValley-PaloAlto/9251/ruby/nrb.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">NetRuby</font> </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">RPG </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/partners/language/asna.asp"><font face="Verdana" size="2">ASNA Visual RPG for .NET</font> </a> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Scheme </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://rover.cs.nwu.edu/~scheme/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">Scheme</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Northwestern University) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Small Talk </font> <ul> <li> <a href="http://www.smallscript.org/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">S#</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (SmallScript LLC)</font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">SML (Standard Meta Language) </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/TSG/SMLNET/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">SML.NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS Research, University of Cambridge) </font> </li> </ul> </li> <li> <font face="Verdana" size="2">Visual Basic </font> <ul> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/"><font face="Verdana" size="2">VB.NET</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (MS) </font> </li> <li class="sub"> <a href="http://www.go-mono.com/mbas.html"><font face="Verdana" size="2">mbas</font> </a><font face="Verdana" size="2"> (Mono/Ximian)</font> </li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p class="sub"> <font face="Verdana" size="2">I'll try to keep this updated when I run across a new language. If anyone knows of any others, let <a href="about:blankbrianlritchie@hotmail.com">me</a> know.</font>[via <a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/britchie/">Brian Ritchie's Blog</a>]</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<p>IBM TO SHIP DB2 INTEGRATION SOFTWARE</p>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-16#301
2003-05-16T20:34:07Z
<font size="2"> <p>IBM TO SHIP DB2 INTEGRATION SOFTWARE</p> <p>Posted May 15, 2003 4:46 PM Pacific Time</p> <p>IBM on Tuesday plans to announce availability of its DB2 Information Integrator software, for integrating and analyzing multiple forms of information, the company acknowledged on Thursday.</p> <p>In beta since February, the software is intended to enable customers to manage centrally data, text, images, photos, video and audio files stored in different databases, according to IBM. XML content and Web services also are supported.</p> <p> <em><strong>Interesting Quote:</strong> </em> </p> <p class="ArticleBody" page="1">"If we move to information as a utility for giant data grids, this is key technology for hiding or making unimportant the location and type of data. This software enables the data to be accessed transparently wherever it might be," Jones said. </p> <p class="ArticleBody" page="1"> <em><strong>Product Pricing</strong> </em> <br />DB2 Information Integrator will be available for $20,000 per processor and $15,000 per data source connector.<br />Detail will also be available on Tuesday. </p> <p class="ArticleBody" page="1">The cost for a bulk adapter license is about $75,000. If change capture is involved, the adapter license costs about $150,000. Real-time integration costs are mips-based, with a starting cost of about $300,000. One adapter can be used to translate and make native calls to all environments. <br /> <br /> <em>Very interesting pricing! </em> </p> <p class="ArticleBody" page="1">For the full story: <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/15/HNdb2integrate_1.html"> <u> <font color="#0000ff" size="2"><a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/15/HNdb2integrate_1.html">http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/15/HNdb2integrate_1.html</a> </font> </u></a> </p> </font>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<span class="authorsource">Mary Jo Foley</span>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-16#300
2003-05-16T14:31:49Z
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="left"><br /> <span class="authorsource">By</span></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_17/b3626167.htm">Remember Pointcast? Smells like RSS spirit...</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-16#299
2003-05-16T09:56:28Z
<a href="http://www.businessweek.com/1999/99_17/b3626167.htm">Remember Pointcast? Smells like RSS spirit...</a> <p> <img alt="Image" src="http://webserver.cpg.com/features/cover/3.4/pointcast.gif" align="right" />I find myself explaining Blogging, RSS, News Aggregation, Radio, etc. to a lot of folks lately.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/emailvideonews/www.cnet.com/video/synd/mail_redir2.html?page=http://www.news.com/,vid_win=http://news.com.com/1601-2-1000672.html">Video</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#298
2003-05-16T03:57:33Z
<p>Enjoy the <a href="http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/emailvideonews/www.cnet.com/video/synd/mail_redir2.html?page=http://www.news.com/,vid_win=http://news.com.com/1601-2-1000672.html">Video</a> .</p> <p>Virtuoso 64-Bit is becoming a priority, larger addressable memory space (we are talking about 512GB memory re. 64-Bit systems). </p> <p>You can now do on Windows what you could have done many years ago on IRIX and Digital UNIX :-)</p> <p></p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/blog/2003_05_11_lc.htm#200285729">Bosworth befuddles the message</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#297
2003-05-16T02:49:25Z
<p> <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/blog/2003_05_11_lc.htm#200285729">Bosworth befuddles the message</a> Adam Bosworth, BEA's chief architect and SVP of advanced development, has always been consistent in putting messaging ... [via <a href="http://www.looselycoupled.com/blog/">Loosely Coupled weblog</a>]</p> <p> <em>I am not the only one having a bad article reading week!</em> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<font size="+1">XML Features of Oracle 8i and 9i</font>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#296
2003-05-15T21:16:32Z
<p class="sitetext"> <font face="arial,helvetica" size="3"> <b><font size="+1">XML Features of Oracle 8i and 9i</font> </b> <br /> </font> </p> <p> </p> <p>XML and relational databases are both technologies for structuring, cataloguing and processing data. If data has a regular and atomic structure, it is more appropriate and efficient to use a database than XML. </p> <p> <em>Databases store data, XML is not a storage mechanism, it is a storage format (amongst its many capabilities).</em> </p> <p>In this case, why would you wish to go to the trouble of converting such data from a database into XML and vice versa? Reasons include: </p> <ul> <li>XML is easy to convert further into different formats as required: e.g HTML, PDF, and plain text. This gives a flexibility to web applications where data can be searched for and accessed from the database, and then formatted for output in different formats using e.g XSL. </li> </ul> <p> <em>XML seperates data from formatting (and programming logic). XSL is now broken down into two parts; XSLT</em> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<div class="hd">Bosak on Universal Business Language</div>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#295
2003-05-15T20:27:01Z
<div class="hd">Bosak on Universal Business Language</div> <div class="by">00:23, 15 May 2003 UTC | <a href="http://xmlhack.com/author.php?id=2">Simon St.Laurent</a> </div> <br /> <div class="bd"> <p>At last week's XML Europe, Jon Bosak, the "father of XML", confessed that "yes, I have visions" as he explained how he hoped XML might help in "saving the world", leveling the playing field of global commerce by lowering the cost of doing business.</p> <p> <a href="http://xmlhack.com/read.php?item=1967">More..</a> </p> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/12.html#a687">Interfaces and habits</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#22
2003-05-15T19:52:13Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/12.html#a687">Interfaces and habits</a> <table align="right"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0201379376"><img height="140" alt="jef raskin, the humane interface" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0201379376.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg" width="96" /> </a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <blockquote> <i>It seems kind of unfair, doesn't it? First, developers have to understand and accommodate users' habits. Then we have to deliver solutions that add value while surreptitiously encouraging users to adopt better habits. Finally, we have to bring to the surface, examine, and modify our own deeply-ingrained habits. That's a painful and psychologically hard thing to do. But happy users are not the only reward. The habit of breaking habits will serve you well. [Full story at <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/09/19OPstrategic_1.html">InfoWorld.com</a>] </i>[via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>]</blockquote> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/12.html#a687">Interfaces and habits</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#294
2003-05-15T19:52:13Z
<a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/05/12.html#a687">Interfaces and habits</a> <table align="right"> <tbody> <tr> <td> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/asin/0201379376"><img height="140" alt="jef raskin, the humane interface" src="http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0201379376.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg" width="96" /> </a> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <blockquote> <i>It seems kind of unfair, doesn't it? First, developers have to understand and accommodate users' habits. Then we have to deliver solutions that add value while surreptitiously encouraging users to adopt better habits. Finally, we have to bring to the surface, examine, and modify our own deeply-ingrained habits. That's a painful and psychologically hard thing to do. But happy users are not the only reward. The habit of breaking habits will serve you well. [Full story at <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/05/09/19OPstrategic_1.html">InfoWorld.com</a>] </i>[via <a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/">Jon's Radio</a>]</blockquote> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/dbox/default.aspx?key=2003-05-11T06:04:08Z">Don Box is proposing moving to XHTML for RSS</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#293
2003-05-15T16:12:26Z
<p> <a href="http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/dbox/default.aspx?key=2003-05-11T06:04:08Z">Don Box is proposing moving to XHTML for RSS</a>. [via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>]</p> <p> <em>Very interesting, especially as a top Microsoft Architect acknowledges XUL (this isn't a XUL article).</em> </p> <div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<span class="largeHEADLINE">Microsoft Struggles To Get Yukon Database Beta Out The Door </span>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#292
2003-05-15T15:51:34Z
<span class="largeHEADLINE">Microsoft Struggles To Get Yukon Database Beta Out The Door </span> <br /> <img height="8" alt="spacer" hspace="0" src="http://i.cmpnet.com/internetweek/blank.gif" width="20" border="0" /> <br /> <b>By Barbara Darrow, CRN</b> <p> <img height="8" alt="spacer" hspace="0" src="http://i.cmpnet.com/internetweek/blank.gif" width="8" border="0" /> <br />Boston -- The clock is ticking on Yukon. </p> <p>Microsoft has promised the first real beta of its next-generation database for the first half of the year. Depending on how first half is defined, that gives the company just over a month. Company sources said the push is on internally to deliver a beta drop by June 1, just in time for the company's TechEd conference in Dallas.</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r71463748">Hack attacks on banks increase</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#19
2003-05-15T15:22:09Z
<p> <a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r71463748">Hack attacks on banks increase</a> ZDNet May 12 2003 10:30AM ET [via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - ZDNet</a>]</p> <p>Looks like data access security issues are beginning to resonate somewhat (we are still a few miles away from the implications re. native vs. open data access standards). </p> <div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<span class="authorsource">Mary Jo Foley</span>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#18
2003-05-15T15:21:06Z
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="left"> <span class="authorsource">By <a class="authorsource" href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/author_bio/0,4308,a=2274,00.asp"><span class="authorsource">Mary Jo Foley</span></a> </span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="Image" height="10" src="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/images/ms_spacer.gif" wifth="1" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="Image" height="10" src="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/images/ms_spacer.gif" wifth="1" /></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td class="ArticleBody" valign="top" align="left">It was <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2003/04-29naa.asp">just a passing mention.</a> But Chairman Bill noted at yesterday's Newspaper Association of America Annual Convention that Microsoft is very interested in making sure blogging tools are there to support folks doing "bottom-up publishing." Microsoft has been sticking its toes in the blogging tools waters, as of late, with everything from a <a id="40735" title="Blogging Plug-In Debuts in Media Fun Pack" href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,1039374,00.asp">Windows Media 9 blogging plug-in,</a> to <a id="37282" title="Microsoft Tests the Blogging Tool Waters" href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,894021,00.asp">its Community Starter Kit,</a> to other goodies under development by some of <a id="36437" title="Microsoft Bloggers" href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,933657,00.asp">Microsoft's best bloggers.</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<span class="authorsource">Mary Jo Foley</span>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#289
2003-05-15T15:21:06Z
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td align="left"> <span class="authorsource">By <a class="authorsource" href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/author_bio/0,4308,a=2274,00.asp"><span class="authorsource">Mary Jo Foley</span></a> </span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="Image" height="10" src="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/images/ms_spacer.gif" wifth="1" /></td> </tr> <tr> <td><img alt="Image" height="10" src="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/images/ms_spacer.gif" wifth="1" /></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td class="ArticleBody" valign="top" align="left">It was <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/speeches/2003/04-29naa.asp">just a passing mention.</a> But Chairman Bill noted at yesterday's Newspaper Association of America Annual Convention that Microsoft is very interested in making sure blogging tools are there to support folks doing "bottom-up publishing." Microsoft has been sticking its toes in the blogging tools waters, as of late, with everything from a <a id="40735" title="Blogging Plug-In Debuts in Media Fun Pack" href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,1039374,00.asp">Windows Media 9 blogging plug-in,</a> to <a id="37282" title="Microsoft Tests the Blogging Tool Waters" href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,894021,00.asp">its Community Starter Kit,</a> to other goodies under development by some of <a id="36437" title="Microsoft Bloggers" href="http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,4248,933657,00.asp">Microsoft's best bloggers.</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r71929758">IT pros 'need better communication skills'</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#17
2003-05-15T15:19:07Z
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r71929758">IT pros 'need better communication skills'</a> ZDNet May 15 2003 10:13AM ET <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - ZDNet</a>]</div> <div align="left">Three-quarters of IT recruitment consultants interviewed for the survey said it was vital that IT staff were good communicators, with almost 70 percent believing that customer relations experience is also important. <a href="http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2126510,00.html">Business knowledge</a> is also useful, according to six in ten of the recruiters spoken to.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"> <em>It has obviously taken the current economic climate to see the obvious.</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r71929758">IT pros 'need better communication skills'</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#286
2003-05-15T15:19:07Z
<a href="http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r71929758">IT pros 'need better communication skills'</a> ZDNet May 15 2003 10:13AM ET <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.moreover.com/">Moreover - ZDNet</a>]</div> <div align="left">Three-quarters of IT recruitment consultants interviewed for the survey said it was vital that IT staff were good communicators, with almost 70 percent believing that customer relations experience is also important. <a href="http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2126510,00.html">Business knowledge</a> is also useful, according to six in ten of the recruiters spoken to.</div> <div align="left"> </div> <div align="left"> <em>It has obviously taken the current economic climate to see the obvious.</em> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.dotnetweblogs.com/yassers/posts/5558.aspx">VM Ware vs Virtual PC</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#285
2003-05-15T13:36:44Z
<a href="http://www.dotnetweblogs.com/yassers/posts/5558.aspx">VM Ware vs Virtual PC</a> <p> <font face="Trebuchet MS" size="2">I've installed and used both VMWare and Virtual PC on my tablet. VPC has one key advantage: It lets the guest OS use the right drivers for your hardware. VMWare installs its own drivers for things like display and network. In my case, VMWare's virtualized drivers caused two problems: The guest OS could not connect to the network using the host's wireless connection. This is meant I always had to be plugged in to an ethernet for the guest to be connected - an inconvenience more than a real problem. The second, more serious, issue was going into full screen. VMWare let me choose 640x480 or 1024x768. Going into full screen with the latter resolution caused my tablet's display to go into vertical (portrait) mode. I tried everything I could think of to put it back to landscape but had no success. This is a real issue since, needless to say, using VS .NET in 640x480 is a real challenge. VPC has none of these problems. I can use my wireless network from the guest OS and I can choose from 640x480, 800x600, and 1024x768 all in full screen mode. Although there's one slight problem in VPC: When using the wireless network, the guest OS cannot ping the host OS. I can live with that.<br />Next I want to install Longhorn in a VPC on my tablet. I don't even know if VPC supports Longhorn, stay tuned.</font>[via <a href="http://www.dotnetweblogs.com/yassers/">Yasser Shohoud</a>]</p> <p> <em>This is what blogs are supposed to be all about; unadulterated dissemination of knowledge. We have got to share knowledge as opposed to hoarding it!</em> </p> <p> </p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_05_04.html#005439">Google to fix blog noise problem</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#15
2003-05-15T04:01:00Z
<p> <a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_05_04.html#005439">Google to fix blog noise problem</a> "Google is to create a search tool specifically for weblogs, most likely giving material generated by the self-publishing tools its own tab." - <i>Is blogging causing search engine results to be skewed? An interesting discussion indeed.</i>(Peter) [via <a href="http://update.lockergnome.com/">Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes</a>]</p> <p>Blogging is clearly an inflection that affects search engine players. Google are announcing rather than doing. This is always indicates concern about the inflection (its potential adverse effects on current business model re. keyword searches and AD banners).</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_05_04.html#005439">Google to fix blog noise problem</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#284
2003-05-15T04:01:00Z
<p> <a href="http://www.lockergnome.com/update/archives/week_2003_05_04.html#005439">Google to fix blog noise problem</a> "Google is to create a search tool specifically for weblogs, most likely giving material generated by the self-publishing tools its own tab." - <i>Is blogging causing search engine results to be skewed? An interesting discussion indeed.</i>(Peter) [via <a href="http://update.lockergnome.com/">Lockergnome's Bits and Bytes</a>]</p> <p>Blogging is clearly an inflection that affects search engine players. Google are announcing rather than doing. This is always indicates concern about the inflection (its potential adverse effects on current business model re. keyword searches and AD banners).</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/6781.aspx">Developers vs. Programmers</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-15#14
2003-05-15T04:00:07Z
<a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/posts/6781.aspx">Developers vs. Programmers</a> <p> <a href="http://software.ericsink.com/index.html">Eric</a> has written a <a href="http://software.ericsink.com/No_Programmers.html">great piece </a>on the difference between developers and programmers, and makes the case that a small ISV should not hire programmers per his definition. I think the distinction that Eric makes between programmers and developers (or engineers) is an important one. <br /> <br />I'd take Eric's argument a step further though. If you're NOT a "big company", there is probably no justification to hire "programmers" for any purpose. Unless you have legions of people to work on your products, why would you ever want people on staff that can't contribute to the design phase, write specification documents, design automated test and build processes, and contribute to the overall development process? At a minimum, every person you hire should have the potential to do these things given the right environment and opportunity. Some people will spend much more time coding than others, but all team members should be able to make contributions beyond writing code. [via <a href="http://dotnetweblogs.com/rholloway/">Randy Holloway's Blog</a>]</p> <p>Amen!</p> <div></div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
eCRM Evaluation and Comparison (of sorts)
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-14#277
2003-05-14T19:38:01Z
<p> <span class="DropCap">T</span>he next release of Microsoft SQL Server, code-named "Yukon," will reshape the Windows relational database management system (RDBMS) landscape. Yukon promises to incorporate the benefits of native XML and object-oriented databases within a fully programmable relational database framework. A new Reporting Service, support for InfoPath (formerly XDocs) data-entry forms, and Transact-SQL (T-SQL) enhancements round out Yukon's new feature set. David Campbell, Microsoft's product unit manager for the SQL Server engine, gave .NET developers a Yukon preview at VSLive! San Francisco this past February. In this article, I'll analyze Campbell's "Database of the Future: A Preview of Yukon and Other Technical Advancements" keynote address from an IT management and SQL Server DBA perspective. </p> <p>For more see full <a href="http://www.fawcette.com/dotnetmag/2003_06/magazine/columns/sqlconnection/default.asp">article</a> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0100059/stories/2002/04/05/howToBackupImportantRadioFiles.html">backup Radio</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-14#12
2003-05-14T18:18:06Z
<p>What's the best way to move Radio UserLand over to a new computer? Without breaking anything. Yeah, I've read the "<a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0100059/stories/2002/04/05/howToBackupImportantRadioFiles.html">backup Radio</a>" site, but that's not what I want to do. I want to move my entire Radio license, copy, and all the data contained therein, to a newly-setup computer. I can't get it to work. Any tips?[via <a href="http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/">The Scobleizer Weblog</a>]</p> <div>Well what I wanted to do, and have successfully achieved, is as follows (this isn't to knock Radio Userland which in my opinion is a fabulous piece of pioneering work in the weblog space):</div> <ol> <li>Migrate my Radio Blog Web to a <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso</a> Blog Server (it is a Web Log server that supports; Blogger API 1.0/2.0, Meta-Weblog API, Moveable Type, and xmlStorageSystem)</li> <li>Continue to use Radio as my desktop blogging tool, but also as the local blog server gateway for other tools that I use such as w.bloggar, FM Radio and Newzcrawler</li> </ol> <p>How was this acheived?</p> <ol> <li>I had to reconfigure the Radio #upstream.xml file so that it points to my Virtuoso Server for xmlStorageSystem Web Publishing</li> <ul> <li> <font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <p>This is my modified version of #upstream.xml<br /><!--<font color="#808080" size="1"> edited with XMLSPY v5 rel. 3 U (http://www.xmlspy.com) by Kingsley Idehen (OpenLink Software) </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">--><br /><</font><font color="#800000" size="1">upstream</font><font color="#ff0000" size="1"> type</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">="</font><font size="1">xmlStorageSystem</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">"</font><font color="#ff0000" size="1"> version</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">="</font><font size="1">1.0</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">"><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <!--</font><font color="#808080" size="1">This is my Virtuoso WebDAV account</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">--><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <</font><font color="#800000" size="1">usernum</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">></font><font size="1">kingsley</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"></</font><font color="#800000" size="1">usernum</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <</font><font color="#800000" size="1">name</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">></font><font size="1">Kingsley Idehen</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"></</font><font color="#800000" size="1">name</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <!--</font><font color="#808080" size="1">This is my Radio Password Name Reference</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">--><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <</font><font color="#800000" size="1">passwordName</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">></font><font size="1">default</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"></</font><font color="#800000" size="1">passwordName</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <!--</font><font color="#808080" size="1">This is the Virtuoso instance reference</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">--><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <</font><font color="#800000" size="1">server</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">></font><font size="1">demo2.usnet.private</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"></</font><font color="#800000" size="1">server</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <!--</font><font color="#808080" size="1">Virtuoso HTTP Server Instance Port Number</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">--><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <</font><font color="#800000" size="1">port</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">></font><font size="1">8890</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"></</font><font color="#800000" size="1">port</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <</font><font color="#800000" size="1">protocol</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">></font><font size="1">soap</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"></</font><font color="#800000" size="1">protocol</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <!--</font><font color="#808080" size="1">Virtuoso XML-RPC or SOAP Endpoint</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">--><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <</font><font color="#800000" size="1">rpcPath</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">></font><font size="1">/xmlStorageSystem</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"></</font><font color="#800000" size="1">rpcPath</font> <font color="#0000ff" size="1">><br /> </font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <</font><font color="#800000" size="1">soapAction</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">></font><font size="1">/xmlStorageSystem</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1"></</font><font color="#800000" size="1">soapAction</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">><br /></</font><font color="#800000" size="1">upstream</font><font color="#0000ff" size="1">></font> </p> </font> </li> <li> <p> <font color="#0000ff" size="1"> <font color="#000000" size="2">You also have to make the following change via the following Userland Radio menu path <font size="2">"Radio"->Window->Radio.root->user->radio->prefs->upstream->servers:<br /> <font size="2"><strong>'serverCapabilities'->flError = true;</strong> </font></font> </font> </font> </p> </li> </ul> <li>Publish my local Radio site, this time to Virtuoso rather than the Userland Community Server destination</li> </ol> <p>New Architecture</p> <p>----------------------<br />| Blogging Clients<br />---------------------<br /> |<br />------------<br />| Local Radio Userland Web Server <br />--------------------------------<br /> |<br />-----------<br />| Virtuoso Server (RSS, RDF, XML, SQL etc.. in one place for further use)<br />----------------------</p> <p>End result is productive blogging, and reusable content storage in my Virtuoso knowledgebase.</p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/14/cz_tm_0514sf.html">Forbes Magazine Article</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-14#262
2003-05-14T17:34:58Z
<p> <span class="mainarttxt"><a href="http://www.forbes.com/2003/05/14/cz_tm_0514sf.html">Forbes Magazine Article</a> </span> </p> <p> <em><span class="mainarttxt">Net margins and return on equity are popular metrics that investors turn to in an effort to identify the most profitable companies. One less-used measure is return on invested capital, or ROIC. </span> <br /> <br /> <span class="mainarttxt">Definitions of return on capital vary, but they all try to capture the same thing: how much a company has earned on all the capital it has invested, which includes both equity and debt. By including both, return on capital shows how a company uses all of its financial resources. </span> <br /> <br /> <span class="mainarttxt">For our purposes, we define ROIC as earnings before interest, depreciation and amortization divided by invested capital. Invested capital encompasses shareholders' equity, plus all long-term liabilities and short-term debt.</span> </em> </p> <p> <span class="mainarttxt">WOW! We now use this metric to assess companies? Times have really changed!</span> </p> <p> <span class="mainarttxt">This could be the basis of an <a href="www.xbrl.org">XBRL</a> project, the goal being to produce an XQuery to filter for all companies with a positive ROIC. Watch this space, it would be a great <a href="http://www.openlinksw.com/virtuoso">Virtuoso demo</a>!</span> </p> <p> <span class="mainarttxt"> </span> </p> <table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td class="mainarttblhed">ROIC Industry Leaders</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="1" border="0"> <tbody> <tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> <td><b>Company</b><b> </b></td> <td><b>Price</b><b> </b></td> <td><b>Latest 12- Month Sales ($mil)</b><b> </b></td> <td><b>Return On Invested Capital</b><b> </b></td> <td><b>2003 Estimated P/E</b><b> </b></td> <td><b>2003 Estimated EPS Growth</b> </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"> <td><b>Applebee's Int'l</b> (nasdaq: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=APPB">APPB</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=APPB">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=APPB">people </a>) </td> <td>$28.73 </td> <td>$862 </td> <td>25.4% </td> <td>17 </td> <td>15% </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> <td><b>AutoZone</b> (nyse: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=AZO">AZO</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=AZO">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=AZO">people </a>) </td> <td>86.60 </td> <td>5,407 </td> <td>30.7 </td> <td>17 </td> <td>26 </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"> <td><b>CVS</b> (nyse: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=CVS">CVS</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=CVS">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=CVS">people </a>) </td> <td>27.08 </td> <td>24,524 </td> <td>16.8 </td> <td>14 </td> <td>10 </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> <td><b>Dell Computer</b> (nasdaq: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=DELL">DELL</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=DELL">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=DELL">people </a>) </td> <td>32.45 </td> <td>35,404 </td> <td>32.9 </td> <td>33 </td> <td>24 </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"> <td><b>HCA</b> (nyse: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=HCA">HCA</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=HCA">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=HCA">people </a>) </td> <td>32.42 </td> <td>20,129 </td> <td>18.1 </td> <td>11 </td> <td>10 </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> <td><b>McClatchy</b> (nyse: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=MNI">MNI</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=MNI">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=MNI">people </a>) </td> <td>59.95 </td> <td>1,087 </td> <td>13.4 </td> <td>20 </td> <td>7 </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"> <td><b>PepsiCo</b> (nyse: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=PEP">PEP</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=PEP">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=PEP">people </a>) </td> <td>43.47 </td> <td>25,541 </td> <td>25.9 </td> <td>20 </td> <td>12 </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> <td><b>Select Medical</b> <b></b>(nyse: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=SEM">SEM</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=SEM">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=SEM">people </a>) </td> <td>19.68 </td> <td>1,167 </td> <td>18.8 </td> <td>16 </td> <td>33 </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#eeeeee"> <td><b>University of Phoenix Online</b> (nasdaq: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=UOPX">UOPX</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=UOPX">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=UOPX">people </a>) </td> <td>45.16 </td> <td>418 </td> <td>39.1 </td> <td>51 </td> <td>66 </td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="#cccccc"> <td><b>Wal-Mart Stores</b> (nyse: <a class="maintkrlink" href="http://www.forbes.com/finance/mktguideapps/compinfo/CompanyTearsheet.jhtml?tkr=WMT">WMT</a> - <a href="http://www.forbes.com/markets/company_news.jhtml?ticker=WMT">news </a>- <a href="http://www.forbes.com/peopletracker/results.jhtml?startRow=0&name=&ticker=WMT">people </a>) </td> <td>55.49 </td> <td>244,524 </td> <td>15.6 </td> <td>27 </td> <td>13 </td> </tr> </tbody> </table></td> </tr> <tr> <td class="mainarttblsrc">Prices as of May 13 (with XBRL it would as of last XQuery). Sources would read: Would be my Virtuoso DB instance. </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> <span class="mainarttxt"></span> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/14/1316256">Amazon Takes Pikachu To The Patent Office</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-14#252
2003-05-14T17:14:29Z
<p> <a href="http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/05/14/1316256">Amazon Takes Pikachu To The Patent Office</a> </p> <p> <strong>from the it's-not-"would-be-nice-to-catch-them-all" dept.<br /> </strong><a href="mailto:theodp@aol.com">theodp</a> writes <i>"On Tuesday, Amazon was awarded a patent for <a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=/netahtml/srchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=6,564,213.WKU.&OS=PN/6,564,213&RS=PN/6,564,213">Search Query Autocompletion</a>. From the Summary of the Invention--'For example, if Pokemon toys are currently the best selling or most-frequently-searched-for items within the database, the term <a href="http://www.pokemon.com/">POKEMON</a> may be suggested whenever a user enters the letters "PO," even though many hundreds of other items in the database may start with "PO.'"</i> See, Amazon practices the mantra "Gotta catch 'em all" with patents. </p> <p>Is this real! How can every fundamental database programming technique that has been in existence for years be co-opted by Amazon simply becuase they have realized that the Web is actually a Database (albeit distributed and free form in nature today, and obvioulsy semnatic in the future). </p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/emailvideonews/www.cnet.com/video/synd/mail_redir2.html?page=http://www.news.com/,vid_win=http://news.com.com/1601-2-1000672.html">Video</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-14#360
2003-05-14T16:55:05Z
<p>Enjoy the <a href="http://chkpt.zdnet.com/chkpt/emailvideonews/www.cnet.com/video/synd/mail_redir2.html?page=http://www.news.com/,vid_win=http://news.com.com/1601-2-1000672.html">Video</a> .</p> <p>Virtuoso 64-Bit is becoming a priority, larger addressable memory space (we are talking about 512GB memory re. 64-Bit systems). </p> <p>You can now do on Windows what you could have done many years ago on IRIX and Digital UNIX :-)</p> <p> </p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000802.shtml">buying Blogger creator Pyra Labs</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-14#8
2003-05-14T14:34:37Z
With Google <a href="http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/000802.shtml">buying Blogger creator Pyra Labs</a> many are wondering when and if Microsoft will take a similar plunge into the Weblog-tools world. <p>It will come as a surprise to many that, with little fanfare, Microsoft officially entered the blogging-tool space. At the recent VSLive! developer conference, Microsoft unveiled five new sample applications built on top of its ASP.Net scripting environment. One of these five ? the ASP.Net <a href="http://www.asp.net/Default.aspx?tabindex=9&tabid=47">Community Starter Kit </a>? is a blog builder.</p> <p> <a href="http://www.asp.net/Default.aspx?tabindex=9&tabid=47">The Community Starter Kit</a> consists of application code, templates, documentation and forum-based help. According to Microsoft's own definition of the kit: "The Community Starter Kit enables you to quickly create a community Web site such as a user group site, a developer resource site, or a news site." </p> <p>Some additonal commentary from <a href="http://www.drupal.org/node/view/1203">Drupal</a>:<br /> <em>Food for </em> <a href="http://www.megnut.com/weblogs/002620.asp"><em>thought and discussion</em> </a><em>. What would happen when every </em> <a href="http://www.msn.com/"><em>MSN/Hotmail</em> </a><em> user was automatically given the option to opt in for a free weblog (a la </em> <a href="http://www.livejournal.com/"><em>LiveJournal</em> </a><em>)?</em> </p> <p> <em>Here is an extreme scenario. Having single sign-on in place (.NET Passport), every MSN user could comment on anyone else's blog and have his personal preferences follow him or her as he/she travels from weblog to weblog; a problem the rest of the weblog world has yet to solve. </em> </p> <p>Well! I think we have one Virtuoso Blogging Subsystem evangelist in the making here :-) </p> <p> <em>Naturally, their weblogs would seemingly integrate with their IM service/client, and both Internet Explorer and Outlook would get a handy "blog this" feature. Moreover, having billions of MSN users, they could establish </em> <a href="http://langemark.com/node.php?id=82"><em>de facto technology standards</em> </a><em> and render existing technologies such as the </em> <a href="http://plant.blogger.com/api/"><em>Blogger API</em> </a><em>, </em> <a href="http://www.xmlrpc.com/metaWeblogApi"><em>MetaWeblog API</em> </a><em> and </em> <a href="http://www.movabletype.org/trackback/"><em>Trackback</em> </a><em> almost useless. At every aspect, they would have an immediate technical advantage over established weblog software.</em> </p> <p>Like you know what .. they would! These APIs simply need a product that demonstrates:<br />What they are, Why they are useful, and more importantly how they preserve freedom of choice re. IT infrastructure Lampooning -- (L)inux, (A)pache, (M)ySQL, (P)HP|ERL|YTHON|)-ONING -- isn't the solution but potentially the problem.</p> <p>I think we see why OPS needs blogging, ditto Virtuoso !</p>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
LAMP Post, by Jeremy Zawodny
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-13#7
2003-05-14T01:29:58Z
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2100-1021_3-1000851.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">VC watch: Crossbeam Systems grabs $18 million</a> The security software company's investors include Matrix Partners and Intel Capital...Teros gets $12 million...OSA Technologies raises more than $9 million. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.news.com/">CNET News.com</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1071705,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530">What's a Wiki?</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-13#6
2003-05-14T01:23:39Z
<a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1071705,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530">What's a Wiki?</a> While blogs are the hot topic in Web-based communication forums, wikis are growing in popularity and are unique forums in a number of ways. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.eweek.com/">Technology News from eWEEK and Ziff Davis</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<em>I was asked about my weblog engine in email and in comments, so I'll just post a quick reply.<br /><br />Its pretty much a very simple home-grown blogging engine along with a web-based admin front-end thats still partially in the works. All built on ASP.NET v1.1... of course. All the data (entries, comments, links etc.) is managed in a SQL database. The pages were developed in </em>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-13#5
2003-05-13T17:40:53Z
<em>I was asked about my weblog engine in email and in comments, so I'll just post a quick reply.<br /> <br />Its pretty much a very simple home-grown blogging engine along with a web-based admin front-end thats still partially in the works. All built on ASP.NET v1.1... of course. All the data (entries, comments, links etc.) is managed in a SQL database. The pages were developed in </em> <a href="http://www.asp.net/WebMatrix" target="_new"><em>Web Matrix</em> </a> <em> (as part of app-building exercise while preparing for a new updated version - more on that specifically in a future post sometime soon).<br /> </em>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/05/technology/05NECO.html?ex=1052712000&en=902439b824280194&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND">Children at the Technology Helm</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-13#4
2003-05-13T12:54:39Z
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/05/technology/05NECO.html?ex=1052712000&en=902439b824280194&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND">Children at the Technology Helm</a>. Ineptitude afflicts parents who cede the role of the household's chief technology officer to their offspring. By Hubert B. Herring. [<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/pages/technology/index.html">New York Times: Technology</a>]
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2100-1027_3-1001121.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Apple's iTunes spurs Net music sharing</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-12#3
2003-05-13T03:10:02Z
<a href="http://rss.com.com/2100-1027_3-1001121.html?type=pt&part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news">Apple's iTunes spurs Net music sharing</a>. The software is opening up a new way for Mac owners to share their music on the Net--threatening to put iTunes in the center of a controversy the company had hoped to avoid. [<a href="http://www.news.com/">CNET News.com</a>]
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00
<a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1071705,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530">What's a Wiki?</a>
http://www.openlinksw.com:443/blog/kidehen@openlinksw.com/blog/?date=2003-05-12#1
2003-05-13T02:50:35Z
<a href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1071705,00.asp?kc=PCRSS02129TX1K0000530">What's a Wiki?</a> While blogs are the hot topic in Web-based communication forums, wikis are growing in popularity and are unique forums in a number of ways. <div align="right">[via <a href="http://www.eweek.com/">Technology News from eWEEK and Ziff Davis</a>] <div></div> </div>
2006-06-22T08:56:58-04:00