[rdfweb-dev] rdf:resource vs rdf:about (was Re: Tidy up your FOAF week)

[Dan Brickley]

* Norman Walsh <ndw at nwalsh.com> [2004-06-16 13:36-0400]
> / Josh Sled <jsled at asynchronous.org> was heard to say:
> | On Wed, 2004-06-16 at 10:03, Leigh Dodds wrote:
> |
> |> > - We come up with a method of qualifying seeAlso to say it's pointing at 
> |> > a PPD as opposed to an RSS file.
> |> 
> |> <rdfs:seeAlso>
> |>    <foaf:PersonalProfileDocument rdf:resource="..."/>
> |> </rdfs:seeAlso>
> |
> | Nit-picking... that should really be "rdf:about", not "rdf:resource"... 
> |
> | <XXX> rdfs:seeAlso <...>.
> | <...> rdf:type foaf:PersonalProfileDocument.
> 
> Really? That means I'm confused. I thought rdf:about was for resources
> described herein and rdf:resource was for pointers to resources.
> 
>   <rdf:Description rdf:about="http://example.org/foo">
>     <dc:title>The ubiquitous foo page</dc:title>
>     <dc:isVersionOf rdf:resource="http://example.org/AllThingsFoo"/>
>   </rdf:Description>
> 
> What am I missing?

They should both have been called rdf:webID :(

The rdf:about XML attribute is used on XML elements which stand for 
nodes in the graph (ie. things, entities); the value is used to carry
a URI name for the thing the node represents. By contrast, the rdf:resource 
XML attribute is used on XML elements which stand for edges in the graph 
(ie. relationships, properties), the value carries a URI name for the 
thing the edge points to (ie. the object of the relevant RDF statement).

The (more recent) rdf:nodeID design learns from this ugliness, and uses
the same attribute name on both node-encoding elements and edge-encoding
elements. http://esw.w3.org/mt/esw/archives/000034.html tries to explain
this in a little more detail.

Dan