RDF?

[FatBusinessman]

Something I saw brought up in this thread was the subject of an "RDF feed" - being a hobbyist Web semi-developer, I'm interested as to what exactly this is. Having had a brief gander at the W3C's section, it looks like some way of organising Stuff™, but I can't really figure out very much beyond that, being a bear of very little brain.

Could someone (for "someone", probably read "Jonty") explain it to me using short words and visual aids please?

 

[evilmonkeh]

from my understanding, RDF is as follows:
a text based document which contains news/articles which are updated every now and again. now you have your php scripts which open these files (remotely) and parse the info and display it to show news or what ever. the advantage of this is that you can use someone elses news and displaye it on your site so it looks like your own

 

[Jonty]

Hi there

RDF (Resource Description Framework) is admittedly something that I don't use all that often (in fact TechNation may well be the first time). Anyway, I went searching for something to explain what it is, and I found What is RDF? on XML.com. Great, I thought, although reading it I wasn't so sure it was what I was after. Then I came across RDF in 50 words or less which goes someway to explaining what it is, with a Mozilla slant. And, of course, there is the W3C RDF site itself

Essentially RDF is a common, lightweight, XML-based framework that assists in the exchange of knowledge and information on the Web (many examples of which can be found above).

What Scurvy.monkeh describes sounds, to me at least, a little more like RSS (Really Simple Syndication/Rich Site Summary depending on who you listen to). This is a similar XML-based framework, but one which allows news and other information to be accessed remotely and used in a variety of ways. For example, TechNation has an RSS news feed (both v0.91 and v2.0) which allows Trillian and any other RSS compatible program to retrieve the news headlines, and display them, in this case, directly on my desktop . . .

This Harvard site has some nice information on what RSS is all about.

Not sure if this helps at all, if not, just shout

Kind Regards