[topicmapmail] Meaning of URIs - ongoing debate on new W3C forum

[Murray Altheim]

Bernard Vatant wrote:
> Murray
> 
> 
>>Not that the issue isn't important, but what TimBL thinks is really
>>pretty irrelevant. Only those sucked into thinking his viewpoint is
>>important (which admittedly includes a lot within the W3C community)
>>are going to pay any attention to this.
>
> Well, "TBL theory" is more important here than TBL himself, hopefully. I
> was pointing at the theory, not the man :)

If the W3C were run as a democracy (which it usually is, but hasn't
been at important junctures, where it has become a dictatorship, or
at best, an oligarchy), there might be a difference between the man
and the theory.

>>In the long run, it's what
>>the entire web community *does* with URIs that really matters.
>
> Sure enough. Although I like the idea of self-organization and complexity
> emergence in general, I'm less than sure that it will work on the Web.
> Maybe a bit of top-down guidelines is good to help the bottom-up process.
>
>>We're a lot bigger than TimBL and the W3C nowadays, despite what some
>> might want to believe.
>
> Not sure what you mean by that, and how you measure the respective weight
> and size. Who are "we" anyway?

The entire rest of the web community, the developer community, the
businesses and researchers developing web-based and web-related
specifications, applications, and content. That weight far outweighs
the W3C, which has far outlived its usefulness, evidence by the fact
that they've now strayed into territory outside of their original remit.
It's just a consortium, not a standards body, and there are many other
groups providing input into what is now a world community.

>>For myself, I've *tried* (not always successfully) to spend my energy
>>on more fruitful debates. This one has been sucking up vital life
>>juices (to borrow a phrase from the Red Hot Chili Peppers) for waaaay
>>too long. And I'm not sure anyone can ever change the religiosity of
>>their viewpoint via debate -- if that was possible, it'd have happened
>>by now. [maybe I've *finally* gotten old enough to follow those words in
>>Desiderata...]
>
> I'm still optimistic about the capacity of people to change their minds,
> and to see stuck debates get out of the mist and produce something after
> all in the long run. Maybe I'm not old enough yet :))

Far be it from me to discourage you, then. I just know from watching
for many years the actions of the W3C as an entity, and of many of its
staff and members (both pre- and after inception of the W3C) that some
of its more influential are not willing to change their minds, and that
after thousands upon thousands of messages on the subject of URIs
(1,800 in a several month period, if memory serves correctly) it seems
unlikely to be a fruitful exchange.

I find beating my head against the wall at least gives me a sense of
something actually *happening*.

Murray

......................................................................
Murray Altheim                    http://kmi.open.ac.uk/people/murray/
Knowledge Media Institute
The Open University, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK7 6AA, UK               .

   The world, Bush said, is now riven by "the clearest of divides:
   between those who seek order and those who spread chaos; between
   those who work for peaceful change and those who adopt the methods
   of gangsters; between those who honor the rights of man and those
   who deliberately take the lives of men and women and children
   without mercy or shame. Between these alternatives there is no
   neutral ground."
   http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/09/24/MN298975.DTL

   Actions speak louder than words, and I think it's pretty clear
   which side of the divide Bush is on.