Does RDF data instance have RDF Schema embedded in it?

Question

There exists a pre-defined norm for RDF Schema. I was wondering whether RDF data instance does have RDF Schema snippet embedded in it? Something like name of a class which also happens to be the name of a subject/object.

Answer 1

That is not necessary. You can have both separated the definition and the data. For instance if your create a FOAF document you won't be including the FOAF schema on it, but just using a reference to it like the followig (very simple snippet):

<foaf:Person rdf:about="#me" xmlns:foaf="http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/">
  <foaf:name>Dan Brickley</foaf:name>
  <foaf:mbox_sha1sum>241021fb0e6289f92815fc210f9e9137262c252e</foaf:mbox_sha1sum>
  <foaf:homepage rdf:resource="http://danbri.org/" />
  <foaf:img rdf:resource="/images/me.jpg" />
</foaf:Person>