[Geojson] Interesting comparison of JSON and RDF

Allan Doyle adoyle at eogeo.org
Thu Jul 26 14:30:27 PDT 2007


On Jul 26, 2007, at 11:13 , Sean Gillies wrote:

> You may have read this already, else open it in a new tab and read it
> when you get a chance.
>
> http://blogs.sun.com/bblfish/entry/the_limitations_of_json
>
> I've never felt that GeoJSON should be put forward as a general  
> purpose
> interchange format, and that's why I've resisted the RDF-isms of JDIL.

I agree that GeoJSON isn't targeted at being a general purpose  
interchange format. However, I also cringe every time I read  
something like that blog posting.

People keep thinking that if they only add a little more notation,  
they will achieve semantic nirvana where there is no out-of-band  
information needed and everything can just grok everything else.  
Sure, adding namespaces like foaf: helps you along the way, but how  
do people ever get anything done once they start indirecting  
everything? It seems to me that the trend is towards late-binding so  
that one doesn't have to commit immediately to nailing things down.  
To truly achieve a semantic web, the binding may have to be  
infinitely late. In the meantime, the early-binding constructs are  
out there doing useful things.

I think GeoJSON as is, or maybe even with the feature e stuff pulled  
out is a fine piece of work and we should not be lulled into thinking  
that just one more little bit of notation won't be so bad.

Maybe it's because I started out life as a hardware designer. I feel  
that when you're done, you should have something pretty self- 
contained that just works, preferably in a deterministic way. Or  
maybe I've ossified to the point where I just don't get it and the  
young-uns will have to just move ahead without me.

	Allan

>
> Sean
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> Geojson at lists.geojson.org
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-- 
Allan Doyle
+1.781.433.2695
adoyle at eogeo.org






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