Remembering the Future

This idea of a "typed link" immediately leads to the question of what language to cast these representations. Bryan Thompson has been discussing with Me the possibility of using RDF or topic maps as a representational approach and how that might contrasts with using a small domain specific language built on XML or a pidgin syntax. One of the traps with this kind of discussion, is to mix similar sounding representations operating at different levels. Are we trying to decribe the metadata needed to declaratively defines a report, or are we talking about how a report relates to other documents to provide positions and evidence relating to an issue or argument? We might also be talking about how information in reports can be aggregated or how the aggregation of different report evaluations might be used to support different argument positions. We might be using the report in a reasoning system in order to support some kind of inference. Each one of these positions has representational implications. While there is a tendency to try and be as general an unconstrained as possible, this can often lead to increased complexity and unecessary redundency. If you do something very simple and domain specific, you might make the integration with other systems more difficult. What is a user willing to input? #xml <report report-id = "1"> <institution-list> <institution inst-id="1" /> <institution inst-id="2" /> </institution-list> <market> <location state="CA" county="123" /> <location state="VA" county="234" /> </market> </report> #pidgin 1 report{report-id="1" institution-list{inst-id="1" inst-id="2"} market{ location{state="CA" county="123"} location{ state="VA" county="234" }}} #pidgin 2 [report: 1 [institutions: 1 2] [market: [location:CA 123] [location:VA 234]]] #pidgin 3 [report: 1 [1 2][[CA 123][VA 234]]] #rdf <report id="r1"><includes><institution id="i1"> <report id="r1"><includes><institutionlist id="il1"> <report id="r1"><includes><market id="m1"> <institutionlist id="il1"><includes><institution id="i1"> <institutionlist id="il1"><includes><institution id="i2"> <market id="m1"><includes><location id="l1"> <market id="m1"><includes><location id="l2"> <location id="l1"><includes><state id="s1"> <location id="l1"><includes><county id="c1"> <location id="l2"><includes><state id="s2"> <location id="l2"><includes><county id="c2"> #topicmap <topic id=report > <basename>report</basename> <occurrence id=r1 /> </topic> <topic id=institution > <basename>institution</basename> </topic> <topic id=i1 > <basename>institution 1</basename> </topic> <topic id=i2 > <basename>institution 2</basename> </topic> <topic id=market > <basename>market</basename> </topic> <topic id=m1 > <basename>market 1</basename> </topic> <topic id=location > <basename>location</basename> </topic> <topic id=l1 > <basename>location 1</basename> </topic> <topic id=l2 > <basename>location 2</basename> </topic> <topic id=state > <basename>state</basename> </topic> <topic id=s1 > <basename>state 1</basename> </topic> <topic id=s2 > <basename>state 2</basename> </topic> <topic id=county > <basename>county</basename> </topic> <topic id=c1 > <basename>county 1</basename> </topic> <topic id=c2 > <basename>county 2</basename> </topic> <association id=r1> <instanceOf> <topicRef xlink:href="#report"/> </instanceOf> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#institution-list"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#il1"/> </member> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#market"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#m1"/> </member> </association> <association> <instanceOf> <topicRef xlink:href="#il1"/> </instanceOf> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#institution"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#i1"/> </member> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#institution"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#i2"/> </member> </association> <association> <instanceOf> <topicRef xlink:href="#m1"/> </instanceOf> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#location"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#l1"/> </member> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#location"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#l2"/> </member> </association> <association> <instanceOf> <topicRef xlink:href="#l1"/> </instanceOf> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#state"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#s1"/> </member> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#county"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#c1"/> </member> </association> <association> <instanceOf> <topicRef xlink:href="#l2"/> </instanceOf> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#state"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#s2"/> </member> <member> <roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#county"/> </roleSpec> <topicRef xlink:href="#c2"/> </member> </association> </topicMap>