iSpecies and taxonomy (no, not that kind)

For the last few years I've been lurking on a mailing list run by the Taxonomic Databases Working Group. It's a low volume list used by scientists interested in capturing and marking up taxonomies. That's taxonomy in the Linnaean sense not the semantic web sense. I've been lurking there since I wrote this paper a … Continue reading iSpecies and taxonomy (no, not that kind) →

Problems with Uber-Databases

Interesting posting on potential problems with the "uber-database" approaches embodied by Ning and Google Base from Nova Spivak: Systems such as Google Base and Ning present an N-squared integration challenge to developers. Every app has to be potentially continually re-integrated with up to every other app in the worst case. But even in the best … Continue reading Problems with Uber-Databases →

Trackbacks Off

I've disabled trackbacks in this blog, and kicked the MT cgi script into a corner to make it harder to find. I finally got sick of deleting trackback spam. So if you want to comment, please just shout. Or drop me an email. Or just link to me, as I've got a "links to me" … Continue reading Trackbacks Off →

LazyWeb Request: Choon Button

A request to the all-powerful LazyWeb: I want a button, either on a web page or floating around on my desktop. When I click it, it should discover what I'm currently listening to via the Audioscrobbler web services, then automatically add it to a playlist which I can later download, bookmark, etc. Is there such … Continue reading LazyWeb Request: Choon Button →

IngentaConnect RSS Feed Tweaks

I released a couple of tweaks to the IngentaConnect RSS feeds recently. The most notable addition being the inclusion of foaf:maker properties to associate authors with articles, and inclusion of authors as foaf:Person resources. I've added these alongside the existing dc:creator properties to ensure that Dublin Core aware aggregators can still do something useful with … Continue reading IngentaConnect RSS Feed Tweaks →

Microformats and REST

Just noticed Danny's posting about the new microformat-rest mailing list. I was going to start analysing this but see that Joe Gregorio has already done a good job. I don't think that microformats have much to add to REST as an architectural pattern. It certainly doesn't merit subsetting its use with HTTP; that definitely is … Continue reading Microformats and REST →

RDF and Syntax, Part 2

And now a quote from Bruce D'Arcus: Last week at the Access 2005 conference, I told a room full of mostly library people that their XML standards (I was talking about MODS and MADS in particular) are needlessly complex, inflexible, and awkward; that they were not hacker-friendly. I showed them an alternative schema I've been … Continue reading RDF and Syntax, Part 2 →

RDF and Syntax

Two quotes from Dan Brickley: Sometimes there are emergent properties of a set of sensible, well motivated decisions grounded in a whole load of subtle constraints. From Why Is RDF The Way It Is? ...we should also stop looking over our shoulder at XML. RDF/XML is painful for XML developers because they find themselves lacking … Continue reading RDF and Syntax →

Using Jena in an Application Server

I've been lurking on the jena-dev mailing list for a while now, and I'm constantly impressed with the level of patience displayed by the jena team at handling repeated questions and queries. This is despite the comprehensive documentation which covers all aspects of the toolkit. Often these queries stray outside the realm of RDF and … Continue reading Using Jena in an Application Server →

Information Aesthetics

I don't normally do link blogging, but the information aesthetics blog is too cool not to share, where else can you read about an augmented reality kitchen, the gori node garden, or street clocks? No attribution as I can't remember where I discovered it. Quite possibly via oishii! which is often a source of my … Continue reading Information Aesthetics →