[rdfweb-dev] FOAF site update and recent developments

[Dan Brickley]

(copying FOAF list for info)
 
Hi all

Just a heads-up that I've spent a little time lately updating the FOAF site
at http://rdfweb.org/ -- nothing dramatic, just cleaning out some obsolete 
docs/links, and actually writing in the front page weblog. I also fixed a bug 
in the MailMain patch I'm using to generate RSS feeds from our mailing lists[1]
which might be of wider interest. I've set up new lists for the foafnaut and 
foafcorp efforts, begun a tidyup of the Wiki and have been making an effort to
write up interesting developments in the weblog as they happen. There's a huge 
backlog of course, but even this week things have been busy, with 
I18N discussions (lots re Japan + foaf-a-matic translations in 8(!) languages[3]),
XML::FOAF, Spring v.1.3.1, FOAF Checker and a 'howto' for using the foaf:weblog 
property. There are various (funky) RSS feeds linked from the front page of 
the site, pointers to IRC logs and suchlike should you care to keep an eye on 
our discussions.

The FOAF 'home page' at http://rdfweb.org/foaf/ is shrinking, for maintainability,instead I intend to use the wiki and weblog for links to resources, news, 
howtos etc. I've also linked a bunch of the more frequently accessed FOAF 
links from the front page alongside the weblog, for easy access. Needs a bit 
more work on navigation, duplication-avoidance and content, but I'm getting there. 
I've also been making a start on the long-awaited FOAF Specification cleanup, 
which will (see discussion on FOAF list at [2]) introduce a more 
fine-grained way of representing the stability of individual FOAF terms. Instead 
of worrying whether 'FOAF' itself is stable, finished etc or not, you will get 
to worry about whether individual things like foaf:depiction, foaf:weblog, 
foaf:aimChatID etc have stabilised, using a 'stable','testing','unstable' 
terminology borrowed from Debian. We're building a floating ship here, it's 
good to know which planks we can safely step on... ;)

That's about it really. Just wanted to let RSS folks know that things are 
moving along. So, next stop is the spec. I plan to have something interesting 
for you all to read by mid July, or a damn good excuse why not... ;)

take care,

danbri

[1] the RSS mailman patch trail goes:
http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-interest/2003Feb/0047.html
http://rdfig.xmlhack.com/2003/02/09/2003-02-09.html#1044813421.381747
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=657951&group_id=103&atid=300103
-> http://rdfweb.org/2003/06/mailman-rss/rsspatch for my patch'd patch. 

[2] http://rdfweb.org/pipermail/rdfweb-dev/2003-June/011267.html
[3] http://rdfweb.org/mt/foaflog/archives/000018.html

ps. I considered posting this from my non-work address, danbri at rdfweb.org
to be clear that FOAF isn't a W3C "thing" (although I hope W3C folk like it :)
However I'm subscribed to RSS-DEV as danbri at w3.org I think, so am 
announcing this as danbri at w3.org. Having noted this, I'll carry on as 
usual with danbri at w3.org.

pps. FOAF, being semantic web vapourware, has never been officially announced.
If you've no idea what I'm babbling on about, Edd's Dumbill's article from 
a year ago is a good introduction, as well as being the thing that thrust 
an ill-documented FOAF out into the wider world.  See 
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/xml/library/x-foaf.html or 
the 'finding friends with foaf' sidebar link from http://rdfweb.org/