"rdf:resource" is a shorthand.

Instead of...

 <property>
   <rdf:Description rdf:about="URI"/>
 </property>

...you just write:

 <property rdf:resource="URI"/>

In RDF, we're making a big graph. Sometimes, the nodes in the graph represent things that are available on the web. We want to draw a tie that node in the graph to that thing on the web. That's what rdf:Description rdf:about does- it connects the Description node to the thing on the web.

Here's from my FOAF file:

<foaf:Person>
  ...
  <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://www.speakeasy.org/~lion/"/>
  ...
</foaf:Person>

This looks like it's the following graph:

(Person) --homepage--> http://www.speakeasy.org/~lion/

In reality, when you undo the RdfResource shorthand, it's drawing the following graph:

(Person) --homepage--> (Description) --about--> http://www.speakeasy.org/~lion/

Research

According to this page, rdf:resource is a shorthand.

I am a little confused- some times, we seem to use "Descriptions." Other times, we don't seem to.

In my FOAF, it just reads:

<foaf:Person rdf:nodeID="me">
  <foaf:name>Lion Kimbro</foaf:name>
  <foaf:givenname>David</foaf:givenname>
  <foaf:family_name>Kimbro</foaf:family_name>
  <foaf:nick>Lion</foaf:nick>
  <foaf:mbox_sha1sum>03550bd644c1c4bdbd4ef0baf0a4e780bcb4211b</foaf:mbox_sha1sum>
  ...
  ...
  <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://www.speakeasy.org/~lion/"/>
  ...
  ...
  <foaf:phone rdf:resource="tel:206.440.0247"/>
  ...
  ...
</foaf:Person>

My home page gets an rdf:resource, shorthand for a description. But why isn't the other stuff description as well?

I suppose because it doesn't have a URL.

Does everything that has a URL, also have a specification by class "Description"?

Well, here's something- my telephone doesn't have a URL, but it's included. Or maybe it does? It's prefaced with "tel:", so perhaps that's a URL as well.

-- LionKimbro DateTime(2004-06-06T03:28:37)