[SOLVED] RDFa chaining with about and resource

RDFa chaining with about and resource

The W3C recommendation for RDFa Core 1.1 Second Edition gives examples for chaining: http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-core/#h3_s_chaining

Example 29:

<div about="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Albert_Einstein">
  <div rel="dbp-owl:residence">
    <span about="http://dbpedia.org/resource/German_Empire"></span>
    <span about="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Switzerland"></span>
  </div>
</div>

Why don't they use resource instead of about to state the object? like this:

<div about="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Albert_Einstein">
  <div rel="dbp-owl:residence">
    <span resource="http://dbpedia.org/resource/German_Empire"></span>
    <span resource="http://dbpedia.org/resource/Switzerland"></span>
  </div>
</div>

Or does chaining with rel and resource not work for some reason?

In the recommendation they say, that about is used to state a subject in RDF terminology and resource can be used for objects: http://www.w3.org/TR/rdfa-core/#h2_s_syntax

But here (in example 29) about is used to state the object IMO. What should I use now? about or resource?

Thx for any help.

Solution

If you check the two versions using RDF translator you'll see that the versions are semantically identical. However, IMHO, it is better to have a single about="" enhanced with one or more resources. Logically, about="" is similar to skos:topConcept. The related statements, identified with resource="", add precision to the topConcept.