Bob Ferris constructs a take on the SW at: On Resources, Information Resources and Documents.
Whatever you think of Bob’s vision of the SW, the fundamental problem is one of requiring universal use of a flat identifier (URI).
Which leaves us with string comparison. Different string, different thing being identified.
Some of the better SW software now evaluates RDF graphs for identification of entities.
Not all that different from how we identify entities.
Departs from the URI = Identifier basis of the SW, but to be useful, that was inevitable.
Two more challenges face the SW (where topic maps can help, there are others):
1) How to communicate to other users what parts of an RDF graph to match for identity purposes? (including matching on subparts)
2) How to communicate to other users when non-Isomorphic RDF graphs are semantically equivalent?
More on those issues anon.
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