[OWL] User-defined datatypes syntax in RDF/XML

[Holger Knublauch]

All,

in the first OWL 1.1 workshop in Galway we briefly discussed the issue 
of how to represent user-defined XSD types in OWL.  I haven't seen 
further traffic on this question.  The current 1.1 Syntax document [1] 
shows the constructs in the concrete syntax, but the open question to me 
is how the RDF/XML syntax would look like.  As some of you may remember 
we implemented a work-around [2] in Protege.  I still like this 
approach, because it allows users to keep all information in a single 
file and format.  However, others have argued that we should not 
duplicate syntax if it can also be expressed by means of pure XSD files, 
and this point of view also has its advantages.

As I am about to implement one of these solutions for TopQuadrant's 
ontology editing platform [3], I would like to follow the most likely 
trend in anticipation of OWL 1.1.

Thanks for any follow-up discussion,
Holger


[1] http://www-db-out.bell-labs.com/user/pfps/owl/syntax-20060614.html
[2] http://protege.stanford.edu/plugins/owl/xsp.html
[3] http://www.topbraidcomposer.com/