Dan: Does the linked data movement really depend upon RDF? It doesn’t seem like it has to. Maybe it could grow faster if it didn’t.

Bruce: Let’s turn the question around and ask: if not RDF, then what? You definitely need some model on which to base it, it seems to me, and things like GRDDL, microformats, etc. leave a lot of flexibility on the encoding end. The key for linked data is really the URI, of course, which becomes kind of like a key for a global database.

Me: Does it need a single data model? It does if machines are doing all the work automagically, but if there are people involved does it? The key to me seems to be the “linked” part. I really like Dan’s coining of “Linked Description” — this doesn’t seem to be splitting hairs to me, like Bruce suggests, but more of a recognition of a component in the process which isn’t considered necessary in the Linked Data perspective.