[foaf-dev] Multiple language foaf descriptions

[Toby Inkster]

On Mon, 28 Jun 2010 09:20:25 +0200
Lorenzo De Tomasi <lorenzo.detomasi at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think that a single rdf file for each language is the best.By this
> way, you can specify different data for each language, i.e. en:
> <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://isotype.org"/> | it:
> <foaf:homepage rdf:resource=" http://isotype.org/?lang=it"/>  
> 
> What do you think?

While individual files per RDF might be a good way of, say, hiding
English information from Italian-speakers and vice versa, it doesn't
add anything semantically.

For instance, the presence of:

	<foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://isotype.org/?lang=it"/>

in an RDF file written mostly in Italian doesn't imply anything about
the language of the page <http://isotype.org/?lang=it>, which could
still be in English, Swedish or Urdu. I think perhaps a better way
would be to put both homepages in the same RDF file, and use RDF to
indicate which language the pages are in.

	<foaf:homepage>
	  <foaf:Document rdf:about="http://isotype.org/">
	    <language xmlns="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
	        rdf:resource="http://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/eng"/>
	  </foaf:Document>
	</foaf:homepage>
	<foaf:homepage>
	  <foaf:Document rdf:about="http://isotype.org/?lang=it">
	    <language xmlns="http://purl.org/dc/terms/"
	        rdf:resource="http://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/ita"/>
	  </foaf:Document>
	</foaf:homepage>

-- 
Toby A Inkster
<mailto:mail at tobyinkster.co.uk>
<http://tobyinkster.co.uk>