@reiver ⊼ (Charles) 

I am outputting ActivityPub/ActivityStreams content for the listing of what is in a directory.

Think of it as the AP/AS version of output from the `ls` command.

AP/AS has a whole bunch of stuff that can be used to represents files. Even sub-types of files

https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#object-types

And, while AP/AS has 'Collection' (and 'CollectionPage') —

https://www.w3.org/TR/activitystreams-vocabulary/#dfn-collection

AP/AS doesn't have a 'Directory' type (as a sub-type of 'Collection')

#ActivityPub #ActivityStreams #FediDev #FediDevs #Fediverse

Activity Vocabulary

Mar 29 at 7:10amWeb
Show threadMaddy6d ago
@reiver Cool! Is this part of a larger project?
Show thread@reiver ⊼ (Charles) 6d ago

@maddyunderstars

Yes, I am creating a high performance read-only HTTP server for static files — that has built-in support for ActivityPub/ActivityStreams.

It also supports (the read operations of) WebDAV. So, it can be used as a shared read-only drive in operating-systems (OSes) that support WebDAV.

Show thread🫧 socialcoding..6d ago

@reiver

Today "ActivityStreams: Where do you want to go to today?" might be a slogan we borrowed from Microsoft.

The question is whether #ActivityStreams should be used - besides all the things it is already being used for - to also map to file systems.

The #LinkedData nature of #ActivityPub is generally shunned in favor of plain #JSON. That in itself is fine, as long as:

a) information still represents valid #JSONLD.

b) information models still follow data modeling best practices.

c) information models are designed with #interoperability in mind.

Not saying your approach is good or bad, just observing that everyone mapping and overloading their own app-specific semantics to the poor AS vocab looks to me a worst-practice. We can get away with it, as we made post-facto interop the poor man's accepted practice, lacking more rigorous extension process and guidance.

There are likely existing standardized ontologies.

Show thread🫧 socialcoding..6d ago

@reiver

A quick 2 second search on file system #ontologies did not directly yield a great standard candidate, but it did return some interesting results on #SemanticFileSsystems.

Like this paper and #ontology design:

https://semantic-file-system-ontology.sourceforge.net/

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324605710_The_Design_and_Development_of_a_Semantic_File_System_Ontology

Semantic File System Ontology

Show thread@reiver ⊼ (Charles) 6d ago

@smallcircles

I agree that AP/AS has its limitations and shortcomings, but —

I want this to work with Fediverse software.

If I choose a Linked-Data namespace not supported by any Fediverse software, it won't be.

...

I don't mind adding additional namespaces — and given AP/AS is missing fields for some information I want to expose, I'll likely need to.