SSR simplifications (was Simple Semantics Resolution - RSS 2.0 Module)

["Danny Ayers" <danny666@virgilio.it>]

Thanks Mark.

I've realised from the feedback I've so far received (thanks guys!) that I
haven't explained very well how minimal the effort would be for most content
providers and consumers to take advantage of SSR. There is a bit of work for
module authors, but they get an opportunity to dazzle us. I've inserted the
information below in the spec  (rearranged), it probably makes more sense in
context.

If anyone can think of ways in which I can express this stuff more simply,
I'd be very grateful. It still sounds a lot worse than it is - the bar is
really very low.

http://purl.org/stuff/ssr

Cheers,
Danny.


A very important point I hadn't make clear (in fact I'd said the exact
opposite!) is that it isn't necessary for an XSLT processor to be involved
in day-to-day running at all.

The producer of RSS 2.0 will continue to produce RSS 2.0, except their feed
will contain an extra element.

A consumer of RSS 2.0 can consume the data exactly as before, ignoring the
additional element (the element is from another namespace).

A consumer that understands the RDF model can interpret the feed as RDF.
This may or may not involve the use of XSLT.

The line:

<ssr:rdf transform="http://w3future.com/weblog/gems/rss2rdf.xsl"; />

is intended to state:

"this feed, after processing by the identified XSLT will produce RDF/XML
that may be interpreted as the RDF model of this feed"

There is no duty imposed on either the producer or consumer of the feed to
use the identified stylesheet or even retrieve it. However, such a
stylesheet *must* be available somewhere.

If the feed producer wishes to take advantage of the SSR interpretation,
then they will need to be sure that the modules they are using are
appropriately supported - that there is a reference map available somewhere.

In other words the content provider will have to check that there is a
suitable XSLT transformation available for consumers that wish to use it,
though it is anticipated that the job of writing the XSLT in the first place
will be that of the module author.

This leads to the issue of multiple module support. It remains to be seen
whether or not this will be problematic. But RSS 2.0 + module X is a start.

The benefit is that the existing RSS 2.0 channel can now transparently act
as a conduit for semantically rich data, and be backed by the formal
specifications of the RDF framework.