Calendaring in RDF rather than 'vanilla' XML

• merging data from different sources using uris
• merging different kinds of data

Example: merging personal and conference data

Example: merging conference data, annotations, and speaker information

Repeating events

• ...are common examples of event data:
  
  recurring meetings, opening hours, TV programmes
  
  
• ...are complex to describe:
  
  "every monday in May unless a public holiday"
  
  "every weekday in june"

Querying an RDF data source for calendaring information

• query any RDF data source regardless of how the data is stored

Example: a 'SquishQL' RDF query

SELECT ?event, ?date  
WHERE 
(ical::DAY ?event "Monday")
(ical::DATE ?event ?date)

Results for a 'SquishQL' RDF query over a simple data source: only the data explicitly encoded in RDF is returned

Results for a 'SquishQL' RDF query over a 'clever' data source: database can infer that an event occurs on Monday even if it doesn't explicitly say so in the database

'Orlando' model and RDF

• in RDF the model is more important than the syntax
• we have to get the model right!
• Orlando model could be used to express the model behind rules within an RDF calendaring database

Orlando model example

Shop x is open every monday in June

DECLARE shopOpen Greg(2004) AND wDay(Mo) AND yMonth(June) AND Hour(9:15/13)

explicitly in RDF:

or as a rule within a database which is optimised for recuring queries

either way a query like

SELECT ?openHour, ?closeHour    
WHERE 
(ical::DATE ?recurEvent "2004-06-15")
(skical::open ?recurEvent ?openHour)
(skical::close ?recurEvent ?closeHour)

Produces the result

RDF Calendaring taskforce

www-rdf-calendar-request@w3.org

Technical discussion of systems, vocabulary and scenarios relating to the use of RDF and XML with calendaring and scheduling tools on the Web. The focus of the list is on practical implementation work (testbeds, prototypes, collaborative development)

http://ilrt.org/discovery/2001/04/