Re: [Visionaries] User data storage

[James Michael DuPont]

Just look at the redland and rdf work that I am doing.
Soon we will have a redland storage server for all to use.

mike
--- Peter Minten <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> it's nice if the data of users can be stored in a standard, but
> simple way. That
> means no 1000 file formats for 1000 webservices. Different
> webservices need to
> store different data however, but that's not a reason to reinvent the
> syntax
> wheel time and time again.
> 
> Futhermore, since we're trying to give the user freedom the standard
> syntax
> should be easily readable so that the user knows what's on his/her
> system.
> 
> The most flexible form of data storage is probably a graph, with the
> vertices
> being data nodes. RDF is modeled around this concept.
> 
> The most readable structured form of data storage is AFAIK YAML. YAML
> provides
> quite easy semantics but still allows for many kinds of structured
> data to be
> used, it even allows you to set the type of data manually.
> 
> As I've (kinda) proven before (in mail 'RDF/YAML' to this list) RDF
> can be
> expressed in YAML. Granted, YAML is still an emerging technology and
> is not yet
> standardized on stuff like namespaces (which are heavily used in
> RDF/XML), but I
> have no doubt that that will come soon enough.
> 
> RDF can also be stored in many other ways however, including in
> memory, in n3
> notation or in RDF/XML. But for writing down RDF to a file YAML is
> usually best
> IMHO.
> 
> Now how does this fit into the DotGNU system? Many webservices will
> want to
> store the documents of a user on a remote medium, the users harddrive
> or a
> virtual harddrive [1]. But, we want to make DotGNU easy for the user
> and for the
> programmers, so it would be nice if a document could easily be found
> and loaded.
> 
> Now add webservice interoperabilty. To avoid a format mess you need
> clearly
> defined formats with data chunks that have clearly defined meanings.
> RDF is
> perfect for that. Thus if all documents are in RDF interoperabilty
> would greatly
> increase.
> 
> Security is also an important issue. I wouldn't give a webservice
> full access to 
> my homedir, even if it was necessary to save a file. Instead I'd
> rather have my 
> DGEE download the file and save it. In this case the trusted DGEE on
> my computer 
> would do the saving. The key element there is btw that the webservice
> can send 
> data, but the user must tell the DGEE if and where the data should be
> stored.
> 
> Another approach to the security problem is sandboxed directories for
> each 
> webservice with configurable access for webservices. You can do this
> with normal 
> directories and normal files, but a special directory system and
> RDF/YAML files 
> makes it work better.
> 
> The idea of the RDF/YAML data storage (which I dub DGFS to save my
> keyboard :-) 
> is that you have a set of administrative index files and a set of
> data files. 
> The administrative files are:
> * Index files (what documents where created by which webservice?,
> etc)
> * Permission files (who can access these files?)
> 
> Additionally the DGFS could protect against data lossage by making
> the DGFS a 
> CVS repository. Granted, CVS technology increases the load and save
> times, but 
> those are not too great anyway due to the transmission over the
> internet. The 
> downside is of course the required diskspace, though the absurd huge
> harddrives 
> of these days make that a less powerful argument. I for one would be
> glad if an 
> override of my files would be revertable.
> 
> So in conclusion the DGFS could:
> * Decrease search times by providing indices.
> * Increase interoperability between webservices.
> * Protect files against unwanted reading.
> * Save files from deletion.
> 
> Greetings,
> 
> Peter
> 
> [1] It's usually not desirable to store user document on the server
> webservice
> application, since the user wants a clear oversight of his/her data
> and the
> webservice provider doesn't want to waste diskspace. Thus the data
> should be
> stored on the harddrive of the user, on  a floppy, zip or whatever or
> on a
> virtual harddrive. I consider a virtual harddrive the best option
> since it's
> accessible from anywhere.
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Visionaries mailing list
> address@hidden
> http://dotgnu.org/mailman/listinfo/visionaries


=====
James Michael DuPont
http://introspector.sourceforge.net/

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