RDF Navigation

Something I'm interested in is RDF Navigation where one might store a sitemap or group of relationships between web resources in an RDF file which could then be queried to extract navigation elements to be presented in the webpage for a given URL.

The cool thing about RDF is that its not tied to the traditional tree or hierachical model of a web site. You can make linear connections between objects in any location, forming associations between siblings, cousins or distant topic related resources.

In RDF we define classes of Objects which then are joined to other Subjects through Verbs. Example Classes useful in a web context:

• Page
• Index subclass of Page
• Folder
• Author subclass of Person

In RDF Verbs are used to represent relationships between groups or classes of objects. Following are some obvious verbs that might apply to RDF navigation:

• Ancestor - parent at any level
• Grandparent - parent of immediate parent
• Parent - immediate parent
• Child - immediate child
• Sibling - same folder level
• Cousin - related topic, but different family

In web terms we often think in purely hierachical terms, but relationships between two web resources may not be hierachical so we need other relationships. Time for an RDF Navigation Example ...

See Also: RDF | Semantic Web | Notes Index

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