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Title: Practical RDF by Shelley Powers ISBN: 0-596-00263-7 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: July, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.56 (9 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Good, but....
Comment: Normally, I like O'Reilly books. I've probably bought over 50 of them over the years. This one, however, is not up to their usual standards. While the subject, RDF, is interesting and I feel that the pace and content of the book are good. I find that there are so many typographical errors in the book - at least in the copy that I have - that it takes more effort to figure out what it is that the author means, as opposed to what the text is actually saying, than it's worth. There are places where the text contains contradictions, there are places where the examples are incorrect, and there are places where the information presented is downright wrong. I do not feel that the fault is solely the author's, nor do I feel that the fault lies solely with O'Reilly's editors. But what could have been a good, informative book has been brought low by a lack of proofreading.
If you're really interested in RDF, you may well do better by going to the W3C web site and reading the specifications there than by reading this book.
Rating: 3
Summary: Verbose
Comment: I found the prose of this book tedious and in the way of the material. Normally I appreciate O'Reilly books because I actually sit down and read them, away from the computer, but in this case the prose does nothing to illuminate the material. For example, in the first chapter, which provides an overview of the technology (independent of its XML implementation), the author talks about a particular tool for graphically representing an RDF graph. But (1) the tool is never really introduced -- why should it be in this chapter? and (2) she writes as if the graphical views of the tool are somehow literally the RDF graphs, which are mathematical constructs. In short, the author has done none of the important work of getting to the essence of RDF and presenting it in a logical and convincing manner. The thinking behind RDF is complicated and subtle, in spite of the superficial simplicity of the technology. What I expected was a book that would provide some real explanation, rather than an exhaustive and wordy review of all the concepts in series. This is not the book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not so practical
Comment: For a book about 'practical' RDF this book is mainly about theory. The book doesn't get into applications until chapter 10 and it's coverage of the RSS applications is pretty minor. However, there are some good points. The XML examples are highlighted, which makes them very easy to read. The tough subject matter, meta data about meta data, is well covered in-depth.
I gave it four stars because it is merely mis-titled. The first ten chapters do a solid job, with excellent graphics, explaining RDF. So if you are looking for an general RDF book, you have probably come to the right place. If you are looking for a book to explain why your blog's RSS doesn't validate, you shouldn't buy into the practical title, or this book.
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Title: Content Syndication with RSS by Ben Hammersley ISBN: 0596003838 Publisher: O'Reilly & Associates Pub. Date: 01 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: The Semantic Web : A Guide to the Future of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge Management by Michael C. Daconta, Leo J. Obrst, Kevin T. Smith ISBN: 0471432571 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 19 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Spinning the Semantic Web: Bringing the World Wide Web to Its Full Potential by Dieter Fensel, Wolfgang Wahlster, Henry Lieberman, James Hendler ISBN: 0262062321 Publisher: MIT Press Pub. Date: 15 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: Creating the Semantic Web with RDF: Professional Developer's Guide (With CD-ROM) by Johan Hjelm ISBN: 0471402591 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 11 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $44.99 |
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Title: Towards the Semantic Web: Ontology-Driven Knowledge Management by John Davies, Dieter Fensel, Frank van Harmelen, Frank van Harmelen ISBN: 0470848677 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 21 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $95.00 |
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