RDF - The Ethics Police

Yet another written work by Wingnut!

All rights reserved... email me for republishing permission.

1 July 1999

Hi, and welcome to my document that rambles about the impact of the new Resource Description Framework on the world as we know it. I'm not overly aware on many issues, and I'm far from an expert on new technologies, but I have seen a few of the possibilities. Maybe we should call them... RAMIFICATIONS.

Let's not dig into the super-tech side too much. RDF is a complementary system to the Extensible Markup Language (XML). XML is a way to allow folks to create their own markup languages (make their own tags AND rules for those tags). One such is HTML version 4. HTML 4 is a markup language that is targeted to be used as a documents-DISPLAYing markup language... for painting-up pretty web pages in our browsers. Since XML can be used to make ANY markup language, places like banks, libraries, and government agencies will probably write a markup language via XML... that works best for each of them. This doesn't mean you don't get to see government data in your browser. Anyone, who has written their own markup language... can easily write something called a "binding motor", or at least borrow one from somewhere. A binding motor takes data that has been marked-up in one method, and converts it to another. For example, it could convert USPSML (US Postal Service Markup Language) to HTML (hyper-text markup language - for browsers). Most likely, the USPS computers will notice that you are driving a HTML browser, and won't even bother using its own markup language at all. It will use a SQL (Structured Query Language) -to-HTML motor. SQL is the most accepted ask-a-database-for-some-data method currently used.

Why would the Postal Service invent their own language then? One big reason, is for themselves. Its really nice when the data markup language you use for your job, has tag names that are actually the CORRECT name for a given piece of data. That helps us stay organized. But maybe more importantly, it helps others too. Lets say that someone needed to send a zipcode from a USPS computer, to a bank. The USPS computer would motor-up a document of TYPE USPSML... and it would label it at the top as such. It also puts a URL (web address) on the top of the USPS-type document... which we will talk about below. The motor would wrap a real zipcode... in the USPS's own ZIPCODE tag, and then deliver it to the bank. It might look like this...

<ZIPCODE> 54545 </ZIPCODE>

The motor grabs the zipcode data from the database, probably looks carefully at its FIELD NAME OR TYPE (it realizes this is a zipcode)... and thusly, wraps the zipcode DATA in the zipcode TAGS and flings it at the bank. Easy, huh?

Let's follow our USPSML document to the bank. The bank computer sees a document arrive, that claims to be of type USPS markup language. Now let's say that the bank's computer has never ever seen a document type USPSML before. It asks... "what do you want me to do with this thing?". Well, the makers of XML decided to allow a method for the bank computer to get that answer... on its own. When the USPS markup motor MADE that USPSML document, it put the address at the top of it... where any other motor could find out information about the USPSML document type. Its a file called the Document Type Declaration, or DTD. The bank computer decides it should go to the address given at the top of the USPSML document, and see what's there. It finds a file called USPSML.dtd! In it, are instructions on what a USPSML document IS... particularly, WHAT does the <ZIPCODE> element do and what data is suppose to be inside of its opening and closing tags. And since this USPSML.dtd is the very same DTD used by the USPSML markup motor... then the bank and the postal service are using the same definition of the ZIPCODE tag. So now, let's say that the bank computer received <ZIPCODE> 54r45 </ZIPCODE>. The bank could check the RULES laid down by the USPSML.dtd ZIPCODE element declaration, and see that... no alphabet letters are allowed in a ZIPCODE tag, so the "r" is somehow incorrect. If the bank would have blindly accepted the 54r45 as a legal zipcode, it would have just used it and stored it as it was, and had corrupt data and incorrectness. If the motor at the USPS didn't catch the problem with the "r" in the middle of a zipcode, the bank CAN! And, the bank will call the USPS and they will collaborate and the problem will be found... and the data transferred between them will be consistent, and everyone will party in the streets.

Overall, we have ventured far further into the technical side of XML than I really wanted to get. I wanted to illustrate what XML is, and why some folks will want their own markup languages... and the importance of having the DTD that declares those markup languages... available to all computers and motors who might receive data marked-up in that markup scheme.

We now have a basic understanding of XML and some of its uses, so we can continue with the Resource Description Framework (RDF). RDF is much-based around a couple things called the Meta Content Framework and The Dublin Core. RDF is NOT a markup language written in XML, but it is a FRAMEWORK that CAN BE implemented with XML. RDF is like a set of standardized RULES... that can be used in creation of markup languages for... DATA ABOUT DATA (also known as meta-data). Here's an example. Let's say that a guy wrote a document that helped people understand how digital audio recording works. The actual data... is the document itself. Data ABOUT that data... might include who the author is, how old they are, where they live, the date of the document, and the author's micro-pay account number in case you wanted to re-publish or quote pieces of the document. Web search engines try to present data about data after you search for something. They gather the address of the data, make it into a link for you, and sometimes try to tell you a bit about the document, or maybe send you the first few lines. Data about data, all of it. RDF is a mechanism which is complementary to XML, that allows folks to write markup-languages for DATA ABOUT DATA.

Let's let that soak in for awhile. Lets ponder WHAT IF a web search engine had a big pile of DATA ABOUT DATA for that digital audio tutorial. First let's start with the SUBJECT area of the data about data. To try to structure the subject, we might say its a EARTH-based document, in HTML format, within the EDUCATIONAL category, involving a MEDIA type, called AUDIO, in the sub-category of DIGITAL. If a search engine brought those goods back to you after a web search, that'd be pretty cool, because you have all sorts of info as to whether you want to read that document or not. Was that what you were searching for? If so, click away. If not, you can easily see this, and you won't have to click on it, and read it for 15 minutes before you realize this is not the document you were looking for.

Now let's look at the AUTHOR area of data about data (data about the digital audio tutorial). Again, lets structurize. The author could be living on EARTH, possibly in the USA, and in the state of MINNESOTA, possibly in MINNEAPOLIS, at some address. The author could be 42 years old, and has hobbies of fishing and writing, and has a phone number, and an email address, and a web page address and plays bass guitar as a second job. You can see, that if the AUTHOR allows and provides data about data... in this case, about the author... one could determine if indeed this was the tutorial written by the AUTHOR you were searching for.

Let's not forget about the document's OTHER THAN SUBJECT or AUTHOR areas. Data ABOUT the document could include a creation date, an expiration date, a number of sentences, or number of words. Then there's WHAT ETHNIC LANGUAGE is it written in, and what other documents are affiliated with it. If everyone climbs aboard the RDF train, the search engines will get so meticulous and powerful that you'll rarely get a results that doesn't let you find EXACTLY what you're looking for... because you'll have lots of data about the data that the search engine found.

There, now we can get away from all this technical stuff, because we now understand the need and use for RDF, and XML. By the way, XML is the system of data interchange... used by RDF systems... whatever that means. Let's just say... XML and its creations... handle the data itself, and RDF and its creations, handle data about that data. In a recent, seemingly newsworthy event, basketball superstar Michael Jordan traveled to factories where his signature-series tennis shoes were made. He was out to make sure that no, or minimal child labor practices were involved in the manufacturing of products that carried his signature. Can you see that, in a way, Mr. Jordan went searching for DATA ABOUT DATA? In THIS case, it was actually... data about product. Mr. Jordan, in a way, used a Resource Description Framework. He wanted to find DESCRIPTIONS (details) about a RESOURCE (his signature tennis shoes). DATA ABOUT PRODUCT is very important... and has very extreme ramifications. Data about product... with enough details... is data about the company who makes the product, and their business procedures... and... their business ethics. Let's take a walk into the future.

Wingnut decides he wants to buy a new bass guitar. Although he could go to the bass guitar store, and examine the guitars there, and ask sales people about the materials used in the guitar, and maybe some details about the company who made it... there is no reason to do any of that. Instead, I pour a fresh cup of coffee, open up my browser, and ask for a full DATA ABOUT PRODUCT search for this fancy new guitar I am investigating and scrutinizing. If the company who made the guitar, has "an open-door policy" when it comes to policies, business ethics, product quality and materials, company workforce statistics, cost to manufacture, and offers the names of the people and their home phone numbers of all the employees who built my new guitar... I will have a TON of data about my guitar before I ever need to touch it, or visit the store, or fill out an online order form. The more data that is returned by the search, especially company ethics policies, the more "consumer confidence" rises in me. The more consumer confidence, the more likely I am to buy the guitar.

I think now, you can start to understand that when you wander into the store, with your internet-ready palm-top computer, and you look at a product, and you poke a few words into the search engine ABOUT that product, and you don't get back PILES of DATA ABOUT PRODUCT, you will not want to buy the product. Many companies will simply say... "Its none of the damned consumer's business as to what policies and procedures we use to make our products". And the consumers, if not wanting to buy a pig in a poke, will say "oh yes it IS my business how your product is made!"... just like Mike. And those who get the most RDF-naked, will be the companies that consumers will want to work with and buy from. And products will improve, and business ethics will be more carefully watched and noticed, and people will be happier with the products they buy... and they'll feel like they are part of the company, and part of the process that makes the product BE a quality product. In my book, that's a GOOD THING.

Yes, I understand that we took a rather large "equation bridge" when we moved from DATA ABOUT DATA... to DATA ABOUT PRODUCT. But then again, its NOT called the Internet Resource Description Framework, now is it? RDF really involves data about data. Data about product can be found very fast and efficiently via proper data about data (RDF). Data about product... is really data about data about product. Do you think the people who made my new bass guitar... would consider it to be a resource? I would think so. At least to me, its a resource that allows me to have fun with people, play cool music, make some people happy, make myself happy, and take home a couple of chickens for my survival cause. In all actuality, a solid, well-built, bass guitar... is a pretty wonderful resource, and I'm thankful that a bunch of workers put in their time resources in order to make it for me.

Data about resource. hmm. Data about a document that contains data about a bass guitar. What markup language is that document written in? Probably the Guitar Describing Markup Language (via XML). When we "outward generalize" a phrase like Resource Description Framework, it can be a set of "rules" for describing everything... including humans. This doesn't mean you have to tell the entire internet that you pick your nose, it just means that we all will have a <VICES> element available in Human Description Language version 1.0! But how do we suggest standards unto the nation? If the DTD for the XML version of the Guitar Description Language had an element that a guitar company could use to allow future buyers to read bad customer comments that might have been received ABOUT that guitar... would they ever use it? Does nobility ever win-out over image and plastics?

Companies are real worried about feedback from customers. Its costly to attend to, and sometimes causes companies to have to answer-up to accusations of all sorts. Many companies are resorting to discussion areas, where people can openly grumble about a product, and sometimes help each other with problems. The ponderance is... is it a "moderated" (censored) discussion area? If so, the company may have deleted messages that were too image-damaging or "deemed inappropriate". Some companies will delete all "deemed inappropriate" email they ever received, but since putting "some" customer complaints in public places is noble and image-building... they will write their own complaints and intermix them programmatically within the "product comments" database. Hey, write your own customer complaints, and you can flavor them, reply to them, and even thank yourself for the fine customer support! What else could you ask for out of a smoke-blown company image?!?

I wander off on silly "save the world" thoughts pretty often, don't I? Maybe I'm one of the last great cynics. Maybe I'm angry at the way things are. If you play with programming languages long enough, you start to think that everything needs to be logical. (and also open.) Problem solving... even at planet level... is done best with logic. The problem is that... animal minds and hearts, especially human minds and hearts... don't always deal with logic real well. If I had to save for 14 years to buy that bass guitar, I would have naturally meticulously scrutinized EVERYTHING about its construction techniques. But somewhere, we discovered that if we run around quickly for a company, they give us money. So when it comes time to spend our money, we don't have time to meticulously scrutinize a product we buy, we just need it now, and we buy an expensive one because it would LOGICALLY be the BEST one, in lieu of scrutinizing. Good, I got the guitar, quick. I cannot be slowed down because this company is giving me money to run around quickly for them. Faster and faster. Profits for speed for profits for speed for profits.

The less time you have to scrutinize a product, the easier it will sell, so the more money a company makes, so they can pay you more wages, to work faster, so you scrutinize less, and buy impulsively, so you can have a new toy to play with RIGHT NOW, cuz you don't get much time to play with toys, cuz you work for a company. who pays you money to run around etc. etc. Do you want to know what the logics experts say about machines that self-feed like that? They eventually start breaking apart, cuz they get going too fast. Pieces fling off, junk gets broken, people get broken, planets get broken, and the machine generally tries to eat itself and its supporters. There is a wide gap between doing things logically, and doing things for maximum profit, and unless we somehow close that gap, the machine is going to fly apart. Its like hooking a trillion ropes to the planet and everyone tugging on them at once, all in different directions (toward themselves). Do that long enough... and you'll hurt the planet... or at least your back. Companies found out that they could pull on other peoples' ropes instead of pulling on the planet, and still come up with profits. If you can't harvest your own chunk of planet, harvest someone else's harvest!

I know, I know... its not the most enjoyable subject to talk about, is it? I wonder how many parts need to fly off the machine before someone thinks of pulling its plug? Pulling the plug now will probably cause an economic panic, seeing so many are so dependent upon cash flow. How do you slow down impulsive/unscrutinized buying? Quit doing it so often! Demand that companies tell you every little detail about how a product is made. RDF is a LOGICAL system. ABOUT="a bag of air". There is no reason to set... ABOUT="A wonderful, fabulous, nature-enriched, super-strong, rich lemon-creme, money-back-gauranteed, ozone-safe container full of pure, hypoallergenic, moisturized AIR"! PLEASE!!! Not even ABOUT="A better bag of air than Joe's bag of air"! Those make no sense for a resource description. It makes sense as a marketing statement, which belongs in the Marketing Description Language. With MDL, powerful Java embellishing engines can blow smoke automatically. When the thugs down at Resource Control trim all that unnecessary quality and features from a product, it makes the embellishing much more difficult! Use an embellishing motor! Consumers are in a hurry, so they won't check the actual product quality too closely. They'll take our word that its a quality product. (I wish "a word" was really all we needed to take. Its more like... "ten thousand words".) Then the company can pay more wages... so we can consume more, and we'll care less about quality, because we can afford to buy a replacement for it easier. Here we go again! Can anyone see the receptacle where this thing is plugged in?

I recently established a new "web ring" though I can't seem to find time to get its graphics complete, and I can't find a server to put it on, preferably a Lambdacore MOO server. It is called the "Noble Ring" and it is made up of people and companies (none so far) that are willing to get real "naked" as far as their DATA about PRODUCT... and consequentially, data about COMPANY and its people. Noble Ring folks don't promote themselves, they ask browsees if its ok to send ad banners, they blatantly point out and display email & feedback from dissatisfied customers... they point out weaknesses in their own products or services, and therefore... they have no reason to lie. These companies and people KNOW their consumers are people, who deserve to hear the good and the bad. These consumers never receive "a pig in a poke" from Noble Ring companies, so Noble Ring companies are deemed to be noble and non-self-serving, and people want to be involved with these "naked" companies. Their consumers feel they are part of the company, because they are privy to so much info about the company. Since Noble Ring companies listen carefully to comments and suggestions, and even pummels... about their product or service... they often get great ideas and help from consumers of their products. By the way, buying "a pig in a poke" means buying a product which you know very few details about its creation techniques or quality. Michael Jordan wasn't about to buy a pig in a poke when it came to his signature tennis shoes, and you are the same way when it comes to buying products or services for you and your family.

Look for the free, but scrutinized Noble (No Bull) Ring, coming soon to a website near you. Its the start of something big, and something prideful, and something mankind can become more civilized with. Start readying your sites for becoming a Noble Ring site, by finding opportunities to self-pummel... and providing a link to that ugly wart on your face. ASK browsees to please click on the link to your ad-banner/logo parade, and make sure your #1 direct competitor has a banner at the top, and is the largest, most prominent of all the ads. The competition will move to WHO PROVIDES THE BEST PRODUCT OR SERVICE, instead of WHO CAN BLOW THE MOST SMOKE UP THE CONSUMER'S BUTT. There will be no more smoke... because we each have lots of DATA ABOUT PRODUCT. Although this paragraph sounds like an ad itself, it is not. There is no direct profit in the Noble Ring. It is simply one of the first, and potentially largest, early-impacts of RDF upon Wingy, and maybe upon the world.

Thanks for reading! Best wishes!
Wingnut

Wingy's Scribblin's
Wingy's Homepage
Email Wingnut