edicates; it may be queried purely as though it were an abstract object-database with no significance attached to the "names" of the subjects retrieved.
However, when HTTP URIs are used as names for entities, they become real - they work - they can be dereferenced. You can publish RDF data on the web simply, precisely because it takes the form of URIs using the HTTP protocol. From an alternative perspective, the entire WWW becomes an abstract database free to be queried. It allows data published by different organizations to be federated, a process known as Linked Data
