W3C

RDF-Star WG biweekly meeting

21 August 2025

Attendees

Present
AndyS, doerthe, fsasaki, gkellogg, ktk, lisp, niklasl, olaf, ora, pfps, Souri, TallTed, tl
Regrets
gtw, pchampin
Chair
ora
Scribe
ktk

Meeting minutes

Approval of last week’s minutes: 1

ora: any concerns about minutes?

<pfps> not from me

ora: not hearing any

<ora> PROPOSAL: Approve last week's minutes

<pfps> +1

<ora> +1

<gkellogg> +1

<ktk> +0

<niklasl> +1

<TallTed> +1

<AndyS> +1

<tl> 0 (haven't participated)

<lisp> +1

<olaf> +1

RESOLUTION: Approve last week's minutes

Identifying issues to solve before CR 2

https://github.com/orgs/w3c/projects/20/views/8

<Zakim> AndyS, you wanted to ask about horizontal review

AndyS: can we start with the ones that block horizontal review
… I hoped Pierre-Antoine will be here so he could explain what it means

ora: there is a document mentioned in my mail but I'm not sure if this is helpful
… to me it's not immediately obvious which ones would be more critical in this respect.

pfps: there was an issue on normative things but there was a PR on it so it closed the issue.
… Those appear to be ok.

gkellogg: Merging a PR closes the issue. This gives people an opportunity to disagree with it.

tl: the issue about semantics of reification are two PRs about the same topic.
… Some time we would have to discuss it but it would be good if Enrico is here.

pfps: these issues are blocking other work, they are in my opinion the most important.
… issues:
w3c/rdf-star-wg#169

<gb> Issue 169 definition of reifiers is non-normative and seems vague (by rat10) [needs discussion] [propose closing] [ms:CR]

w3c/rdf-star-wg#128

<gb> Issue 128 map the annotation syntax to `rdfs:states` (by rat10) [enhancement] [propose closing] [ms:CR]

w3c/rdf-star-wg#154

<gb> Issue 154 Define an interpretation of propositions relating to their constituents (by niklasl) [propose closing] [ms:CR]

w3c/rdf-semantics#144

<gb> Pull Request 144 No connection between propositions and facts in model-theoretic semantics (by rat10) [ms:CR] [spec:enhancement]

pfps: and https://github.com/w3c/rdf-semantics/issues/102, w3c/rdf-semantics#133 and w3c/rdf-semantics#139 depend on it

<gb> Issue 133 appendix B update needed (by pfps) [ms:CR] [spec:enhancement]

<gb> Issue 102 Check if the interpolation lemma is still true given the new semantics (by franconi) [ms:CR] [spec:enhancement]

<gb> Issue 139 check correctness of Appendix A (by pfps) [ms:CR] [spec:enhancement]

niklasl: regarding https://github.com/w3c/rdf-star-wg/issues/154, I can accept to close this, because I have referenced it in other issues. I do not require any changes to the documents.

ora: other options?

pfps: sounds good to me.

ora: what do we do about w3c/rdf-star-wg#169 and w3c/rdf-star-wg#128

pfps: I would not do any changes.

ora: doerthe what is your opinion.

doerthe: I would close them.

tl: I made pull requests as it was requested from me. We did not discuss the issue here, just in the PRs.
… We don't have a model theoretic semantics for that. And I would much prefer if we would have one. pfps gave a sketch on how that might work. But he does not know if we want such a thing.
… I would want to discuss if we want this or not.

pfps: I disagree with that characterization. I don't think we need that. I gave an example of how it could look like if one wants it.

tl: we are tasked with this.
… not giving statements about statements any definition does not do anyone any service.

doerthe: What exactly do you want to discuss of the multiple issues to guide the discussion.

pfps: we are in the same situation we were in the past. I claim we are fine, there is the counter-claim we are not fine. But I have no idea what is wanted to satisfy the counter-claim. I claim we have a semantics that supports the deliverable of the WG.

lisp8: After reading the comments I think pfps is correct, the semantics has been specified.
… I believe the definition should be specified as a deliverable, not just discussed.

tl: The charter says is statements about statements, not statements about propositions. So we did not deliver that yet.

ora: but to follow up on doerthe's question, what exactly should change?

tl: my hunch is the model theory doesn't express it but it could be done. that it is sound and complete.

lisp8: pfps proposed a solution for this. We should look at it and say if it does solve it or not.

niklasl: In my opinion this is already said in the documents. Saying it normative does not solve something.

tl: we may have a proper definition of facts, but not about assertions of facts.

pfps: it is unclear to me what such a definition would include. and if it would have any semantic import at all.

doerthe: I'm trying to find the root of the problem. It's for me hard to understand what you would like to have now.
… what is missing here?

niklasl: the distinction here is between truth value. The truth value you cannot with just a reference to the proposition make an interpretation. But if it's true, you are referring to "it".

tl: I'm still worried this is not the case.

niklasl: I think you are asking "do you refer to the fact" and in semantic it's clear that propositions that do XXX *are* facts.

ora: it's going back to when things change in a graph. We do not address that though.
… In all the discussions we had we came back to RDF is what it is. It's a simple thing.
… It's not a mandate for the WG to expand the charter to change and define that.
… Let's do the following. Let's vote about this next week.

doerthe: what would we would be voting for or against?

ora: we want to resolve line item 1, 2 and 12.

issues rdf-star #128 and 169 and semanticss 144

<gb> Issue 128 map the annotation syntax to `rdfs:states` (by rat10) [enhancement] [propose closing] [ms:CR]

lisp8: my concrete issue: niklasl describes something that seems to be the case. pfps seems to have a formal expression for that. I think it would be useful. I would want to vote about if this should appear in the document or not. To make it concrete.

<tl> +1 to lisp

TallTed: there is this private email mentioned on a regular basis. This message has not been shared to the group as a whole, could it at least be shared with the members of the list or ideally can it be made public.

ora: I'll talk to the author about it.

pfps: it should include the answer we sent out.

<TallTed> inviting him to a special (or regular) session *might* be worthwhile, if that's possible

ora: yes TallTed we could consider that

ora: can we close some issues in the remaining time.

AndyS: how about w3c/rdf-concepts#163

<gb> Issue 163 Move datatypes definitions in RDF-Schema? (by pchampin) [ms:CR] [spec:editorial]

niklasl: I agree with what AndyS wrote. Schema is more than just the description, as document.

<niklasl> +1 to only core

AndyS: for me defining datatypes is not core. They are important but without them, you still have RDF.

gkellogg: I think we should move it before CR, if we do it.

pfps: how much to move? Do we move all or nothing?

TallTed: what is all?

ora: all datatypes.

AndyS: section 5.1 in RDF concepts

<AndyS> https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf12-concepts/#xsd-datatypes

<AndyS> https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf12-concepts/#section-additional-datatypes

ora: moving the other datatypes would be us giving XML datatypes special treatment.

<TallTed> I think it would be editorial (and good) to drop `built-in` from `XML Schema built-in datatypes` in ¶1 of §5. Datatypes.

niklasl: what about strings and language strings.

gkellogg: I think it would make sense to move them. But the question is what is the definition of a datatype.

<TallTed> +1 gkellogg about moving all of 5.1 and 5.2, and pieces of 5.0

gkellogg: regarding strings and lang strings we have datatype IRIs. But they are not the same way like other datatypes. there is not concrete syntax that is using them explicitly.

lisp8: I would be concerned of what is left of section 5 at all if you do this.

gkellogg: different datatypes had always different requirements for definition and quality.

<niklasl> +1 to gkellogg

<niklasl> and to TallTed (AFAICS)

TallTed: to what would be left: There are some paragraphs left. It could be an example and be left to other documents for discussion.

ora: what would happen if we leave it?

TallTed: nothing, it's just a somewhat weird place.

lisp8: I would strive to be consistent. The section would become completely abstract, which it can. On document level there are advantages to that.

<niklasl> Readers are important.

Summary of resolutions

  1. Approve last week's minutes
Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 244 (Thu Feb 27 01:23:09 2025 UTC).

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Maybe present: lisp8

All speakers: AndyS, doerthe, gkellogg, lisp8, niklasl, ora, pfps, TallTed, tl

Active on IRC: AndyS, doerthe, fsasaki, gkellogg, ktk, lisp, lisp8, niklasl, olaf, ora, pfps, Souri, TallTed, tl