This specification defines the XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.1, which allows elements to be inserted into XML documents in order to create and describe links between resources. It uses XML syntax to create structures that can describe links similar to the simple unidirectional hyperlinks of today's HTML, as well as more sophisticated links.

This document describes some useful changes that could be incorporated into an XLink 1.1 Specification.

The interaction of XLink linking elements and styling has not previously been carefully described. This note, the result of an XML Linking/XSL joint task force, attempts to rectify that oversight by providing a clear conceptual model for linking and styling and suggestions for the practical application of that model using current W3C Recommendations (and Working Drafts, Candidate Recommendations, and Proposed Recommendations).

Both XLink [XLink] and RDF [RDF] provide a way of asserting relations between resources. RDF is primarily for describing resources and their relations, while XLink is primarily for specifying and traversing hyperlinks. However, the overlap between the two is sufficient that a mapping from XLink links to statements in an RDF model can be defined. Such a mapping allows XLink elements to be harvested as a source of RDF statements. XLink links (hereafter, "links") thus provide an alternate syntax for RDF information that may be useful in some situations.

This Note specifies such a mapping, so that links can be harvested and RDF statements generated. The purpose of this harvesting is to create RDF models that, in some sense, represent the intent of the XML document. The purpose is not to represent the XLink structure in enough detail that a set of links could be round-tripped through an RDF model.

This is a sample short description for this specification; over time we will replace this description with a real one.