Dan Brickley. This link is to an RDF file (which means it
might not display very well in your browser). The purpose
of this link is not to discuss the subject (Dan Brickley,
who you can read about here) but rather to
show an example of a FOAF (Friend of a Friend)
file. If you are not afraid of XML squiggles, have a look.
I point, in particular, to the <Person>
element at the top of the page. What we have here is an XML
description of Dan Brickley, including his current email
address, date of birth, image, nearest airport, school home
page, and more. Now the purpose of FOAF is to create a web
of trust - the file includes the identities Brickley knows
and trusts; the idea is that, if you trust Brickley, you
can probably trust the people he trusts, and hence, trust
people who might be (via a FOAF chain) complete strangers.
But I am more interested in the concept as a means of
identification. think about it. When we
enter a value into the <creator> field of a
Dublin Core or Learning Object Metadata file, which would
be more useful, Brickley's name, typed as a string, or the
address of his FOAF file? Keep in mind, his FOAF file is
under his control. If he changes his email address, his
place of employment, or even his name, this file changes.
The answer is pretty obvious. So why, then, are we doing it
the other way? By Dan Brickley, July, 2003
[Refer][Research][Reflect] [OLDaily]
9:31:26 AM #
9:31:26 AM #
© 2004 Trond Kristiansen
Temadesign ved Bryan Bell