#1159: WG New Spec: RDF 1.2 Concepts and Abstract Data Model

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Opened Oct 21, 2025

Specification

https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf12-concepts/

Explainer

https://www.w3.org/TR/rdf12-primer/

Links

  • The WG's request for this TAG review: https:// <!-- Usually a deep link into minutes or an email thread. -->
  • Previous early design review, if any: https://github.com/w3ctag/design-reviews/issues/####
  • An introduction to the feature, aimed at unfamiliar audiences: Compared to RDF 1.1, the three main new features in RDF 1.2 are
    • triple-terms, that allow to make statements about other RDF statements (asserted or not) in a better way than the old-style reification
    • the ability to attach a base direction on language tagged strings, which complies with i18n good practices
    • a way to declare which version of RDF is used in RDF concrete syntaxes
  • A description of the problems that end-users were facing before this proposal:
  • Alternatives considered:
  • Examples of how to use the proposal to solve the end-users' problems: see explainer
  • What do the end-users experience with this proposal: since RDF's "end-users" are developers and information architect, the notion of "user experience" does not quite apply
  • User research you did to validate the problem and/or design, if any: none by the WG (but triple-terms have long been studied by the academic community as RDF* / RDF-star)
  • Web Platform Tests: N/A

The specification

Where and by whom is the work is being done?

  • GitHub repo: https://github.com/w3c/rdf-concepts/
  • Primary contacts:
    • Olaf Hartig (@hartig), Invited Expert, Editor
    • Pierre-Antoine Champin (@pchampin), W3C / Inria, Editor
    • Andy Seaborne (@afs), Apache Software Foundation, Editor
    • Adrian Gschwend (@ktk), Zazuko, Chair
    • Ora Lassila (@rdfguy), Amazon, Chair
  • Organization/project driving the specification: W3C
  • This work is being funded by: none
  • Primary standards group developing this feature: RDF & SPARQL WG
  • Incubation and standards groups that have discussed the design:

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