RDF or XML?
Q: For a specific application, should I use XML or RDF?
A: It depends…
XML's model is
a tree, ie, a strong hierarchy
applications may rely on hierarchy position (eg,
li
in HTML)
relatively simple syntax and structure
not easy to
combine
trees
RDF's model is
a
loose
collections of relations
applications may do “database”-like search
not easy to recover hierarchy
easy to combine relations in one big collection
great for the integration of heterogeneous information
Ivan Herman
, W3C Head of Offices
Madrid, 22 October, 2003
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