Linked Data enabling PHP Applications

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:09:49 GMT

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.

Google Ups Web 2.0 Ante with Web Services edition of AdWords

Fri, 28 Jan 2005 23:36:17 GMT

Google has just unveiled a Web 2.0 initiative in the form of a Web Services interface for its AdWords service. You can now programmatically interact with Google's keyword based advertising service using SOAP calls (with service signature described using WSDL).

An immediate implication is that you can generate Google AdWords based adds using any development environment (Virtuoso's SQL Stored Procedure Language, any .NET bound language, Java, C/C++, PHP, Ruby, Perl, Python, TCL etc.) that supports SOAP, WSDL, and I would presume WS-Security.

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 Universal Servers e.g. OpenLink Virtuoso). For instance, you could manage AdWords campaigns across product portfolios using Triggers (the SQL database kind) or Notification Services.

Kingsley Idehen's Blog Data Space

Linked Data enabling PHP Applications

Google Ups Web 2.0 Ante with Web Services edition of AdWords