The Next Frontier for Database Technology
Data Spaces are increasingly accepted as the next frontier for the database technology. DataSpace technology provides storage, query, and data access services for contextualized data (e.g. URI accessible resources).
Weblogs, Wikis, Web Sites, Hosted Services (Google, eBay, Amazon, etc..) are examples of Data Spaces. Data Spaces provide good foundation for Knowledge creation, processing, and dissemination.
The Semantic Web is an example of Web Technology that will benefit immensely from Data Space Server products.
A Data Space (in our paralance) is: Virtuoso Database + ODS Framework and Collaboration Applications.
Our recent DET and RDFS features exposed via ODS Briefcase, collectively demonstrate the concept of URI accessible resources (originating from ODS Applications) that are exposed as RDFS types with associated Metadata expressed in RDF-XML.
Our URIQA implementation goes as far as enabling a single URL to act as the reference to an acutal resource or metadata about the resource withn a Data Space (a location in Briefcase/DAV).
Additional Commentary:
Data Space is a repository for Resources and Metadata about Resources . These Resources are generated from a myriad of Data Sources (SQL, XML, others) in the case of Virtuoso.
A Data Space has its resources defined using RDFS, just as an XML Database would have its XML docs and data fragments described using XMLSchema, and a SQL Database's Data Dictionary via SQL DDL.
Reference Material
- Data Space FAQ
- Semantic Usecase Depiction http://www.w3.org/2006/Talks/0314-ox-tbl/#(20) by Tim Berners-Lee