One thing led to another, starting with Doc Searls' weblog, which mentioned Danny Ayers' piece. Gleaning, rather than understanding, the meaning of the latter, I browsed on:
http://ideagraph.net/xmlns/ibis/
http://k-collector.evectors.it/
http://swordfish.rdfweb.org/discovery/2003/10/whwhwhwh/
http://www.benhammersley.com/dparchives/007935.html#comments