W3C

– DRAFT –
RDF-star WG meeting

08 January 2026

Attendees

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

Meeting minutes

Approval of last week’s minutes: 1

<ktk> PROPOSAL: Approve last week's minutes

ktk: Comunica released a 1.2 implementation. It means we now have 3 implementations of the drafts Jena, Oxigraph and Communica

<ktk> +1

<pfps> +1

<tl> +0 (didn't attend)

<niklasl> +1

<Dominik_T> +1

<lisp> +1

<gtw> +1

<doerthe> +1

<AndyS> +1

<TallTed> +1

<AZ> +0 (wasn't present)

<Tpt> +0 (not present)

<olaf> +1

<Souri> +0 (not present)

RESOLUTION: Approve last week's minutes

Updates from the SPARQL TF

<AndyS> w3c/sparql-query#326

<gb> Issue 326 Remaining erratas and errata-like issues (by Tpt)

Tpt: list of errata (link above), none seem significant

Tpt: w3c/sparql-query#327

<gb> Pull Request 327 Clarify that unaggregated variables in SELECT raise an error (by Tpt) [spec:bug]

Tpt: another one (link above) is a clarification
… consider "SELECT ?s { ... } GROUP BY ?o" -- some parts of the spec consider it a syntax error
… other parts suggest that ?s should be replaced by SAMPLE(?s)
… there seems to be agreement that it should be a syntax error; most implementations consider it like that
… if we make it a syntax error, then implementations may use it as an extension point

AndyS: I think the spec considers it as a syntax error; only the algebra handles it as if it were not
… we also have an old test for it (rejecting it as a syntax error)
… it is more a matter of getting the wrong impression, depending where you look in the spec

lisp: Is it a consensus that a syntax error allows to be an extension point?

AndyS: You can't change the syntax and call it SPARQL 1.2. Lots of systems have extensions in the syntax but cannot call it SPARQL in the strict sense

Horizontal Reviews Tracking 2 3 4

Tpt: I agree with AndyS. What I meant was : people wanting to extend SPARQL cannot do it if we specify it as a SAMPLE.

pchampin: Now would be a good time to ping the horizontal review groups

Roadmap to completion in 2026

ktk: What do we want to send next to horizontal review?

pchampin: We might split the Turtle family of syntaxes from there (RDF/XML and schema)

pchampin: We need to reflect the changes in Turtle to the other formatss (the profile would make sense to RDF/XML)

pchampin: We are slightly closer to completion on Turtle/TriG/NQuads than the other two

pchampin: It might make sense to try make those 3 out there first

AndyS: What we can start now is doing group reviews of the documents

AndyS: To see if there are issues in the spec

<pchampin> +1 AndyS

ktk: Is there something with a big list of TODO?

Tpt: When RDF terms and EXISTS support is done I feel we can push SPARQL 1.2

Tpt: we can fix the remaining issues later

pchampin: I feel there are still big issues on property paths for example

pchampin: Notes have a much lighter life cycle

pchampin: But it's not that they are just not that we should lose track of them

olaf: There two aspects to it: the spec on property paths still have a bunch of smaller issues

olaf: indeed there are no formalization of triple terms on subject/object position of triple path. We have a PR in progress

ktk: Is there any big issue remaining in property path?

Tpt: I am not aware of any issue affecting implementation, it's only formalization issues at my knowledge

olaf: We are not planning to add any new feature on property paths at the moment like p{n,m}

ktk: We are pushing for NQuads/Turtle/TriG as the next batch

ktk: We are not pushing new features to SPARQL but focusing on stabilization

ktk: Does anyone agree?

AndyS: What about RDF/XML?

ktk: We should catch up with RDF/XML editors

<niklasl> w3c/rdf-xml#80

<gb> Issue 80 rdf:annotation and rdf:annotationNodeID may be confused by pre rdf/xml 1.2 parsers (by JervenBolleman)

pchampin: I agree RDF/XML is properly in good shape. I realized only recently that new features in RDF/XML 1.2 won't be rejected by 1.1 parsers

pchampin: I did not realise that RDF/XML did not share this nice feature

AndyS: One of the features that is its:dir that we inherit from the its spec is enough to change the parsing

AndyS: The rdf: namespace is effectively reserved. It is on the group control. We can hide behind "you should not mess with it"

AndyS: We can't easily change the syntax to make sure the parser will break, opposite to Turtle

pchampin: I agree regarding its:dir. Reserving the rdf: namespace post hoc is strange

AndyS: There is already some note on it

AndyS: There is an issue/PR on RDF/XML discussing it

pchampin: I just wanted to make sure we make an informed decision about it

ktk: What is the best case scenario for the publication process? How many months?

pchampin: The more variable step is the horizontal review. We might be very clear that we give the same answers for every RDF spec

pchampin: The AC review is at least 28 days

Review of open actions, available at 5

<pchampin> nothing to report

Identifying issues to solve before CR 6

pchampin: w3c/rdf-turtle#118 on how to handle the VERSION directive

<gb> Issue 118 explain how to interpret multiple `VERSION` directives (by pchampin) [ms:CR]

pchampin: w3c/rdf-n-triples#90 explains how NTriples 1.2 is backward compatible

<gb> Pull Request 90 adds a paragraph stating that N-Triples 1.2 is not ambiguous for 1.1 implementations (by pchampin) [ms:CR]

AndyS: I have an MR to centralize the version wording in concepts: w3c/rdf-concepts#261

<gb> Pull Request 261 Upwards compatibility of versions (by afs)

<ktk> w3ctag/design-reviews#1161

<gb> Issue 1161 WG New Spec: RDF 1.2 N-Triples (by pchampin) [Review type: horizontal review] [Resolution: ambivalent]

ktk: ^ comments on horizontal reviews

AndyS: I made a PR to remove closed issues from a document. Do we keep or remove the issues appendix if it's empty?

AndyS: I think we should remove it because it's for the WG internal work

AndyS: I will update the PR

<pchampin> I think it would make sense to leave it in WDs, and remove it in the CR snapshot

Any Other Business (AOB), time permitting

<ktk> https://github.com/orgs/w3c/projects/20/views/11

ktk: I will close these ^ two issues later

AndyS: We have a SPARQL meeting tomorrow

ktk: Have a good day/evening!

<ktk> s/unagreggated variables/unaggregated variables/

<ktk> s/there seem to be agreement/there seems to be agreement/

<ktk> s/can not do it/cannot do it/

<ktk> s/Now would be good time/Now would be a good time/

<ktk> s/from the there/from there/

<ktk> s/slightly to completion/slightly closer to completion/

<ktk> s/To see if there issues/To see if there are issues/

<ktk> s/live cycle/life cycle/

<ktk> s/loose track/lose track/

Summary of resolutions

  1. Approve last week's minutes
Minutes manually created (not a transcript), formatted by scribe.perl version 248 (Mon Oct 27 20:04:16 2025 UTC).

Diagnostics

Succeeded: s|Tpt: list of errata (link above), none seem significant|

Succeeded: s/q#/

Succeeded: s/Communica released a 1.2 implementation/Comunica released a 1.2 implementation/

Succeeded: s/unagreggated variables/unaggregated variables/

Succeeded: s/there seem to be agreement/there seems to be agreement/

Succeeded: s/can not do it/cannot do it/

Succeeded: s/Now would be good time/Now would be a good time/

Succeeded: s/from the there/from there/

Succeeded: s/other format/other formats/

Succeeded: s/slightly to completion/slightly closer to completion/

Succeeded: s/To see if there issues/To see if there are issues/

Succeeded: s/live cycle/life cycle/

Succeeded: s/loose track/lose track/

Failed: s/unagreggated variables/unaggregated variables/

Failed: s/there seem to be agreement/there seems to be agreement/

Failed: s/can not do it/cannot do it/

Failed: s/Now would be good time/Now would be a good time/

Failed: s/from the there/from there/

Succeeded: s/other format/other formats/

Failed: s/slightly to completion/slightly closer to completion/

Failed: s/To see if there issues/To see if there are issues/

Failed: s/live cycle/life cycle/

Failed: s/loose track/lose track/

Succeeded: s/maybe confused/may be confused/

Succeeded: s/did not realized/did not realise/

Succeeded: s/did not shared/did not share/

Succeeded: s/One of the feature/One of the features/

Succeeded: s/its sepc/its spec/

Succeeded: s/We can hid behind/We can hide behind/

Succeeded: s/make informed decision/make an informed decision/

Succeeded: s/How many month/How many months/

Succeeded: s/implems/implementations/

Succeeded: s/add paragraph stating/adds a paragraph stating/

All speakers: AndyS, ktk, lisp, olaf, pchampin, Tpt

Active on IRC: AndyS, AZ, doerthe, Dominik_T, fsasaki, gtw, ktk, lisp, niklasl, olaf, pchampin, pfps, Souri, TallTed, tl, Tpt