Several articles this week on RDF or related topics at XML.com.
Embedded Markup Considered Harmful, Norm Walsh - sticking XML inside other formats
Not long ago, the question of escaped markup turned up in the context of FOAF. The FOAF specification condones no such nonsense
Something we've been battling with in RDF Core but we are not the people to solve this, what looks like, a years old issue and permathread on xml-dev. Evidence: Embedded Markup Considered Harmful (XML.com) by Ted Nelson, October 1997. which is before the XML 1.0 spec was published!
Should Atom Use RDF? by Mark Pilgrim.
For the record, I think that the RDF model is sound, the tools work for me, the serialization is wretched, and the Semantic Web is an unattainable pipe dream.
Personally I've been waiting for (nonameyet) to well, pick a name, plus get the syntax sorted. I've always planned to import it using XSLT into my RDF tools, and generate it a similar way very likely. Nobody is telling the world to convert all their formats and models to RDF ones. Maybe I should add that to my .signature.
The Semantic Web is Closer Than You Think, Kendall Grant Clark. Mostly on the recent OWL Web Ontology Language candidate recommendations. A subtle point is that OWL DL is not upwardly compatible with RDF, only OWL Full. OWL DL is a specialist format.
* Having OWL means a few things are no longer true. First, it is no longer true that the Semantic Web can be dismissively written off as a bit of magical, wishful thinking on the part of some Utopian-leaning technologists. *
Nice balance with Mark
(I'm expecting a lot more XML next time from the deviant since there has been a lot of xml-dev activity to report on this week.)