Leigh Dodds has posted an update on the FOAF-a-matic mk2, which is really good to see.

The import vCard function I wrote for it was the most basic of the basic, and definitely could do with expanding, and as Leigh mentions, being able to support the vCard-RDF format would be great.

I also agree with him thaat my FOAF file-loading was flawed, but I can forgive myself for two reasons:

1. I think a FOAF file should have a description
2. Neither mine nor Leigh’s approach will correctly handle Eric Vitellio’s old FOAF file (his live FOAF file is very different).

Of course, real FOAF files in the wild are never going to have that description field (although, of course, all FOAF files that pass through the FOAF-a-matic should have it added if it doesn’t exist 🙂 ), and will thus better handled by Leigh’s method, but I can excuse myself again by virtue of a third reason: I’m rubbish at using Jena to select the nodes I want from a graph.

In other news, it turns out Leigh lives and works in Bath! Ha! I never would have guessed! Bristol is my home town, and seemingly the centre of global FOAF development (Libby Miller and Dan Brickley are both based in Bristol too). Another big advocate of RDF and the semantic web is Danny Ayers, who lives in Italy, but used to live in Sheffield, which is where I currently live! (the Uni he attended is about a five minute walk from my front door)

I enjoy circles like this, they make me very happy. 🙂