Another major problem is that getting data to work together from different APIs requires
translating among them. RDF promises to be a close-to-universal data representation. I have
always thought there is some merit to the semantic web stack, at the bottom of which is RDF.
Hence, I??™m keeping an eye on RDF and other semantic web tools. I can certainly believe that if
more and more data were expressed in RDF, things would connect better. RDF is, however,
not a panacea. (That??™s why I think a study of the SIMILE project (http://simile.mit.edu) is
a practical way to start looking at semantic web technology.)
Specifically, when you use a new API, you want to minimize the type of new learning; you
want the API to be similar to what you??™ve already seen before. I think of the DRY (???don??™t repeat
yourself???) principle: it??™s nice to not have to tackle the same thing repeatedly??”solve it once,
run it anywhere. For example, if you write code to access the Flickr API in one language and in
one framework, wouldn??™t it be nice to be able to not have to redo that code when you have
another need? That??™s the ideal anyway.
Tools and services can help you reach these goals. The key aspect of good tools is that they
simplify the routine stuff and let you concentrate on the essence of the problem. There are
always trade-offs, however??”and we??™ll look at them as we look at the various tools.
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