RDF (Resource Description Framework): What can be better than having all of your research interests overlap in one term? This is my current situation in describing the term RDF – it has classification, Greek roots, XML and countless possibilities. Sam referenced this term a couple of weeks ago when she dealt with the semantic web and I think that the time is right to revisit it.
Technically speaking, RDF is a specification dictating how descriptive metadata should be formatted. Simply put, RDF is nothing more than an XML-based ontology. Ontology, from the Greek root for “being,” tries to define an item through setting up a triplet that links a subject, a predicate, and an object. At the risk of oversimplifying, let me provide the following example: If trying to define myself in ontological terms, I can say that I am a member of the ITD staff. Here, we have a subject – “I,” a predicate – “am a member of,” and an object – “ITD staff.” Similarly, if I convert this ontology into simple RDF-XML that a computer can understand, albeit pretty sloppy and not able to validate because I left out crucial namespace information, it would look something like this:
<rdf:Description about=”https://courses.lis.illinois.edu/user/view.php?id=3277&course=1″>
<dc:relation>http://www.lis.illinois.edu/itd/</dc:relation>
</rdf:Description>
I have drawn a link from myself (now identified through my Moodle Profile’s URL) to the ITD Office through the use of the Dublin Core element “relation.”
Clear as mud, right? Well, if you’d like to learn more about RDF as well as its practical applications, such as RSS feeds and Creative Commons licenses, check out the following links:
http://www.techterms.com/definition/rdf
Enjoy!!
