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Subject: RE: [xri] Feedback requested on terms used in Metadata spec


Nat, there is no inherent "problem" with this approach if that is what the XRI authority intended. What Marty and Dave and I found, however, was that for every use of a date cross-reference describing its parent node, another example can be created in which it described its child node.

 

So we concluded that the only thing that can be stated unambiguously is that:

 

1) A $d cross-reference describes an identifier representing a date (which is contained in the cross-reference)

 

2) The XRI authority that assigns the $d cross-reference is responsible for interpretation of what it "describes" outside of the cross-reference.

 

In other words, we don't need to define in the Metadata spec that a metadata cross-reference describes the node before it or the node after it, only that it defines a date (or version, or language, or type) and can be compared with other XRIs that are otherwise identical except for the same cross-reference.

 

So let me turn the question around: do you see anything wrong with this approach?

 

=Drummond

 


From: Sakimura, Nat [mailto:n-sakimura@nri.co.jp]
Sent: Sunday, January 15, 2006 6:37 PM
To: Drummond Reed; Schleiff, Marty; Wachob, Gabe; xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [xri] Feedback requested on terms used in Metadata spec

 

Sorry, I still do not quite follow, I guess, but my feeling is that it is very useful if one can determine what the metadata really describes. For example, for version, it is nice to be able to determine that in

 

=GabeW*resume*($d*2002-10-10T17:00:00Z)*job

 

 

*($d*2002-10-10T17:00:00Z) is describing =GabeW*resume and not job.

The version metadata in this case actually describes the immediately preceding segment "resume". Although it just explains "resume", this in turn means that it is describing "=GabeW*resume".

 

What is the problem of this approach?

 

Nat

 

 


From: Drummond Reed [mailto:drummond.reed@cordance.net]
Sent: Thursday, January 12, 2006 12:30 PM
To: 'Schleiff, Marty'; 'Wachob, Gabe'; xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [xri] Feedback requested on terms used in Metadata spec

Do not listen to that man behind the giant aluminum curtain at Boeing. Those questions he keeps asking just happen to have about 30 years of thought and experience behind them and he has completely resculpted the contour of XRI metadata because he has asked the hard questions long enough and insisted on clear, clean, even answers with little (preferably no) ambiguity.

 

Gabe, here's an answer your question about the application of the RDF S-P-O pattern (that's subject-predicate-object for anyone who's not an RDF disciple). As Marty explained, the solution we realized for making XRI metadata both simple and unambiguous was by including the subject (the identifier being described) as part of the cross-reference.

 

For example, if we wanted to express that the identifier "pays" was the French word and not the English word, the S-P-O triple would be:

 

Subject = "pays"

Predicate = "$l"

Object = "fr"

 

…with the resulting XRI being…

 

            $l*fr*pays

 

…which when used as a cross-reference in the context of another resource might be something like…

 

            xri://xri.example.com/dictionary/($l*fr*pays)/defintion.html

 

What threw off our analysis of the underlying pattern being the S-P-O pattern was the fact that the very simple XRI metadata cross-references we have been using for quite a while actually fit this pattern even though they were only two "levels" deep. Example:

 

            $v*2.0

 

…which when used in context (to choose a particular very real example from the XRI Resolution 2.0 spec) would be…

 

            xri://$res*local*($v*2.0)

 

In this use of XRI metadata, the identifier "$v" directly describes the identifier "2.0". In RDF terms, what we realized was that this was just like the metadata in the following XML snippet:

 

            <strong>car</strong>

 

If you analyze this tag from an RDF perspective, what you get is:

 

Subject = "car"

Predicate = fontstyle (implicit)

Object = "strong"

 

In other words, it's implicit in the semantics of the tag <strong> that it's a font style. You could make this much more explicit as follows:

 

            <font style="strong">car</font>

 

Marty and I realized that $v and $d both followed this implicit predicate pattern. So "$v*2.0" from an S-P-O perspective is:

 

Subject = "2.0"

Predicate = $v

Object = version number (implicit)

 

And "$d*2002-10-10T17:00:00Z" from an S-P-O perspective would be:

 

Subject = "2002-10-10T17:00:00Z "

Predicate = $d

Object = XML datetime (implicit)

 

Marty then suggested that $v and $d, besides their "implicit" numeric version and XML datetime formats, respectively, could also have other formats defined explicitly without conflicting with the implicit default. Examples:

 

            $v*alpha*b.e.c

 

Subject = "b.e.c"

Predicate = $v

Object = "alpha" (explicit)

 

            $d*year*2005

 

Subject = "2005"

Predicate = $d

Object = "year" (explicit)

 

So (I realize this is a very long answer to your question), the S-P-O pattern applies strictly to the identifier that is the subject of the cross-reference, i.e., the final subsegment of the cross-reference (ALWAYS).

 

What it ducks is the question of what the entire XRI metadata cross-reference describes – if it does describe anything explicitly. In other words, under the above use of the S-P-O pattern, the S-P-O only operates within the XRI metadata cross-reference. The mere inclusion of an XRI metadata cross-reference in an XRI does not explicitly tell you what it describes.

 

Marty and I did discuss a way to make that ambiguous, which again would be by using cross-references. For example, in your question about whether the date cross-reference in…

 

=GabeW*resume*($d*2002-10-10T17:00:00Z)*job

 

...describes your resume or your job, one easy way to make this unambigous is…

 

=GabeW*(resume*($d*2002-10-10T17:00:00Z))*job

=GabeW*resume*(($d*2002-10-10T17:00:00Z)*job)

 

It sure is unambiguous to me what describes what in these identifiers.

 

However, other than suggesting/specifying the use of cross-references when you really want to make it unambiguous what a XRI metadata cross-reference refers to, I'm in favor of just tightly defining the XRI metadata cross-reference syntax and letting identifier authorities use these within other XRIs as needed.

 

Whatchathink?

 

=Drummond

 

 


From: Schleiff, Marty [mailto:marty.schleiff@boeing.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 4:57 PM
To: Wachob, Gabe; Drummond Reed; xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [xri] Feedback requested on terms used in Metadata spec

 

Hi Gabe (& All),

 

Now you're asking me really hard questions. I think you need to understand that when Drummond and I work together, it's mostly him doing the work. I have three unofficial roles in the collaboration: 1) repeatedly ask stupid questions about a particular concept until Drummond gets enough practice answering in various ways, and can figure out the best way to describe it in a spec; 2) think up bizarre use cases to test out our ideas; and 3) continually pester him and try to convince him that there are some places where an xref doesn't make sense. For good answers, I think we'll have to wait for Drummond to chime in.

 

I'm apparently guilty of trying to constrain the specs too much. I don't like the concept of it being up to the issuer to decide how to interpret the target of the metadata. In and XRI containing ".../pays/pays/(l*fr)/pays/pays/...", to which part(s) should the metadata apply? I.e., which part(s) should have French pronunciation? The ambiguity drove us to putting it into the xref, e.g., ".../pays/pays/($l*fr*pays)/pays..."

 

Your "left" / "right" idea is an interesting approach we hadn't thought of (at least I hadn't thought of it - maybe Drummond had).

 

 

 Marty.Schleiff@boeing.com; CISSP
Associate Technical Fellow - Cyber Identity Specialist
Computing Security Infrastructure
(425) 957-5667

 

 


From: Wachob, Gabe [mailto:gwachob@visa.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 4:29 PM
To: Schleiff, Marty; Drummond Reed; xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [xri] Feedback requested on terms used in Metadata spec

Marty-

    Are you saying that metadata XREFs should have a way of saying "the thing identified to the left of me" vs. "the thing identified to the right of me" ? So, in the pattern of:

 xri-metadata       = "$" predicate [ “*” object ] “*” subject

  you might have:

=GabeW*resume*($v*left*1.2) -- indicating version 1.2 of my resume

vs.

=GabeW*resume*($v*right*2002-10-10T17:00:00Z)*job -- indicating my job as of 10/10/02?

 

  I guess I'm confused about the concept of having a *choice* about what the metadata applies to.. I don't quite understand how/why these metadata xrefs "apply" to parts of the XRI. In that sense, I guess I'm saying that I don't understand how the subject is *part* of an XRI. It would seem to me that the subject has to be explicit if you are to have the Subject-Predicate-Object model.

 

Can we state succinctly what it means when such a S-P-O triple appears in an XRI? What inference do we draw by its mere presence? Isn't it just a convenient way to qualify everything to the right of the metadata XREF, and nothing more?

 

-Gabe

 


From: Schleiff, Marty [mailto:marty.schleiff@boeing.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 4:19 PM
To: Wachob, Gabe; Drummond Reed; xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [xri] Feedback requested on terms used in Metadata spec

Hi Gabe (& All),

 

Drummond and I have discussed/debated at length how to express the portion of an XRI to which metadata applies. We determined that the only way to clearly associate metadata with the intended subject of the metadata is to include the subject and metadata within the same xref. How metadata associates with portions of the XRI outside the metadata xref is up to the XRI issuer. This is one of several concepts for which we're interested in reactions from the rest of the TC. There are other issues, but rather than point them out, I'll be interested to see if you recognize them on your own.

 

Marty.Schleiff@boeing.com; CISSP
Associate Technical Fellow - Cyber Identity Specialist
Computing Security Infrastructure
(425) 957-5667

 

 


From: Wachob, Gabe [mailto:gwachob@visa.com]
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 12:54 PM
To: Drummond Reed; xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: RE: [xri] Feedback requested on terms used in Metadata spec

I guess I'm partial to the RDF-mindset, but I'm thinking that it is an odd fit to make that tight a connection to the S-P-O model since its not clear what the actual *subject* is in all cases - to wit, isn't the subject the thing outside the metadata cross-reference? Doesn't the Metadata XREF explicitly describe/refer to something *outside* the metata XREF?

 

If we *could* mesh this with RDF concepts, that'd would be interesting.

 

Otherwise, I don't have a strong preference between the other four items. They all seem pretty isomorphic to me, without having thought about this very deeply.

 

    -Gabe

 


From: Drummond Reed [mailto:drummond.reed@cordance.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 11, 2006 11:45 AM
To: xri@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [xri] Feedback requested on terms used in Metadata spec

I'm happy to report that Marty and I, after a series of in-depth work sessions (abetted by Dave McAlpin when he's been in town), believe we have wrestled the metadata dragon most of the way to the ground.

 

The "dragon" is a tighter, more consistent ABNF for all forms of XRI metadata as well as a much cleaner set of rules about what it describes.

 

Without going into all the gory detail, what XRI Metadata 2.0 Working Draft 08 will recommend is a very simple ABNF for "tagging" an identifier with XRI metadata, which can then be used as a cross-reference inside another XRI. The important clarification we will be making is that this metadata only describes the "subject" identifier (the identifier being described, to borrow term from RDF). For example, in the XRI…

 

      xri://xri.example.com/some/filename*($v*2.3)

 

…the metadata "$v" only describes the identifier "2.3". It tells you it’s a version number. That's it. From the identifier above, it would be a pretty obvious conclusion that the identifier authority intended the cross-reference "($v*2.3)" to identify a version namespace for the resource identifier by "filename". However in the following XRI…

 

      xri://xri.example.com/some/filename*($v*2.3)*anotherfile

 

…it may not be quite as clear – does the identifier "($v*2.3)" create a version namespace for "filename" or for "anotherfile"?

 

The answer is: that's up to the identifier authority and out of scope for the XRI Metadata spec. The scope of the Metadata spec is limited to defining well-known semantics and syntax for a limited set of broadly useful identifier metadata (versions, dates, languages, types, and annotations).

 

With that explained, here's what we'd like feedback on: the semantics of the actual production names used in the ABNF – which (per our experience with XRI syntax) we'd like to match up with the terms used in the text of the Metadata spec itself.

 

Following are four "versions" of the ABNF that are all identical structurally but different in the production names for the first two of the three productions in the proposed syntax. (Marty and I both like the term "subject" for the third component -- the identifier being described -- since this is consistent with RDF and SAML and other similar uses.)

 

We'd just like to know which of these (if any) are preferred by other members of the TC, since semantics is not something that can be determined by fiat. Please send a reply email to the list with a comment about your preference if you have one (or a different suggestion if you feel something else altogether would work better).

 

Thanks,

 

=Drummond and Marty

 

Example 1 ("tag" wording)

 xri-metadata        = "$" metadata-tag [ “*” metadata-tag-value ] “*” subject

 metadata-tag        = ( alpha / xref )

 metadata-tag-value  = ( xri-subseg / xref )

 subject             = ( xri-subseg / xref )

Example 2 ("attribute" wording)

  xri-metadata       = "$" attribute [ “*” attribute-value ] “*” subject

  attribute          = ( alpha / xref )

  attribute-value    = ( xri-subseg / xref )

  subject            = ( xri-subseg / xref )

Example 3 ("property" wording)

  xri-metadata       = "$" property [ “*” property-value ] “*” subject

  property           = ( alpha / xref )

  property-value     = ( xri-subseg / xref )

  subject            = ( xri-subseg / xref )

Example 4 ("RDF" wording)

  xri-metadata       = "$" predicate [ “*” object ] “*” subject

  predicate          = ( alpha / xref )

  object             = ( xri-subseg / xref )

  subject            = ( xri-subseg / xref )

 

Examples of the five types of XRI metadata:

($l*fr*pays)

($t*ces* john%20henry%20doe)

($v*2.3)

($d*2002-10-10T17:00:00Z)

($-*some.comment.here)

 

How these examples parse to the ABNF above:

 

First production

Second production

Subject

$l

*fr

*pays

$t

*ces

*john%20henry%20doe

$v

*number (default – can be omitted)

*2.3

$d

*XMLdatetime (default – can be omitted)

*2002-10-10T17:00:00Z

$-

*string (default – can be omitted)

*some.comment.here

 

 

 



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