Comments on: RDFa http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/12/08/rdfa/ The blog of John D. Cook Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:10:06 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: John http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/12/08/rdfa/comment-page-1/#comment-10718 John Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:41:16 +0000 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/?p=1045#comment-10718 Well, it's refreshing to hear some criticism of RDF etc. Most people either ignore it or talk about it as if it were mankind's greatest hope. Well, it’s refreshing to hear some criticism of RDF etc. Most people either ignore it or talk about it as if it were mankind’s greatest hope.

]]> By: Daniel Lemire http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2008/12/08/rdfa/comment-page-1/#comment-10714 Daniel Lemire Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:56:34 +0000 http://www.johndcook.com/blog/?p=1045#comment-10714 RDF is nice. But it has been around for nearly ten years now (if not over ten years, I can't recall). There are many, many ways to serialize RDF and RDFa is just the latest salvo. It is not even all that novel as Dublin Core is already commonly embedded in HTML pages (Dublin Core is the most widely used form of RDF). I know of only two practical applications of RDF. Creative Commons and Dublin Core. And Creative Commons RDF is like an extension on Dublin Core, so it hardly counts. The basic problem is that RDF is metadata. Metadata is not all that useful. More metadata does not mean better technology. That's a myth. The problem with metadata is that it is wrong, misleading, too general, too specific... you name it... there is never a good match between the metadata and the user query. A little bit of metadata is great. Too much is a waste of time. RDF is nice. But it has been around for nearly ten years now (if not over ten years, I can’t recall). There are many, many ways to serialize RDF and RDFa is just the latest salvo. It is not even all that novel as Dublin Core is already commonly embedded in HTML pages (Dublin Core is the most widely used form of RDF).

I know of only two practical applications of RDF. Creative Commons and Dublin Core. And Creative Commons RDF is like an extension on Dublin Core, so it hardly counts.

The basic problem is that RDF is metadata. Metadata is not all that useful.

More metadata does not mean better technology. That’s a myth.

The problem with metadata is that it is wrong, misleading, too general, too specific… you name it… there is never a good match between the metadata and the user query.

A little bit of metadata is great. Too much is a waste of time.

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