Daniel lewis has penned a variation of post
about Linked Data enabling PHP applications such
as: Wordpress, phpBB3, MediaWiki etc.
Daniel simplifies my post by using diagrams to depict the
different paths for PHP based applications exposing Linked Data - especially those that already
provide a significant amount of the content that drives Web 2.0.
If all the content in Web 2.0 information resources are distillable into
discrete data objects endowed with HTTP based IDs (URIs), with zero "RDF handcrafting Tax", what do we end up
with? A Giant Global Graph of Linked Data; the Web as a
Database.
So, what used to apply exclusively, within enterprise settings
re. Oracle, DB2,
Informix, Ingres, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL,
PostrgeSQL, Progress Open Edge, Firebird, and others, now applies to the Web.
The Web becomes the "Distributed Database Bus" that connects
database records across disparate databases (or Data
Spaces). These databases manage and expose records that are
remotely accessible "by reference" via HTTP.
As I've stated at every opportunity in the past, Web 2.0 is the
greatest thing that every happened to the Semantic Web vision :-) Without the "Web 2.0 Data Silo Conundrum" we wouldn't
have the cry for "Data Portability" that
brings a lot of clarity to some fundamental Web 2.0 limitations
that end-users ultimately find unacceptable.
In the late '80s, the SQL Access Group (now part of X/Open) addressed a similar problem with
RDBMS silos within the enterprise that
lead to the SAG CLI which is exists today as Open Database
Connectivity.
In a sense we now have WODBC (Web Open Database Connectivity),
comprised of Web Services based CLIs and/or traditional back-end
DBMS CLIs (ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLE-DB, or Native), Query Language
(SPARQL Query Language), and a Wire Protocol
(HTTP
based SPARQL Protocol) delivering Web
infrastructure equivalents of SQL
and RDA, but much better, and with much broader scope for
delivering profound value due to the Web's inherent openness.
Today's PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl,
Perl, ASP.NET developer is the enterprise 4GL
developer of yore, without enterprise confinement. We could even be
talking about 5GL development once the Linked Data
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
Closed World (solely) to a mesh of Closed
& Open World view schemas.