RIF WG nears decision on RDF, Disjointness, and IRIs

Recent progress has been made on some technical issues that have been raised during the design of the Core Rule Interchange Format include RDF Compatibility and Disjoint Names and Definition of URI. The RIF WG has decided to use IRIs. All externally visible symbols in a RIF ruleset will have IRIs as identifiers. The RIF WG has decided that predicates, functions, and individuals in RIF rules can be identified by the same symbol (unlike OWL DL, which requires that a URI identify precisely one of a class, a property, or an individual). The RIF WG has agreed to consider treating RDF data with a special quasi-object-oriented syntax (which has been referred to in the group as a slotted syntax, in which RDF nodes are treated as objects and the properties of a node as slots. Although this is not a formal decision, the group agreed to use this treatment of RDF in RIF Core Rules for the next working draft and solicit feedback.