Occasionally, I get asked for pointers on the Semantic Web. Since I've made embarrassingly brief appearances as a representative to a W3C Semantic Web Working Group and have followed the Semantic Web evolution for several years now, I suppose I can rightly point and say "Go there."
In doing this, a technical question that keeps popping up is... "What is it?" The, slightly-less-technical follow-up question is "Where can I go for more info?" Consider this blog entry answers to these innocent questions.
What is it?
This is taken, verbatim, from the W3C Semantic Web main page:
"The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across application, enterprise, and community boundaries. It is a collaborative effort led by W3C with participation from a large number of researchers and industrial partners. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF), which integrates a variety of applications using XML for syntax and URIs for naming."
To put my spin on it, it is a Tim Berners Lee vision and the slow forming reality of a network of related information, the people who capture and relate it, and the machines that can automatically process it, greatly aiding in the organization and utilization of networked content.
But it can be said more simply; Tim Berners Lee describes it as follows:
"The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation."
Finally, I like Graham Glass's simplification best of all:
"The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation."
Where can I go for more info?
You might pick one or all of the following as your entry points:
- W3C Slide-show: Questions and Answers on the Semantic Web
- W3C Slide-show (David Wood): The Semantic Web ... and Publishing
- RDF Basics: The W3C's RDF Primer
- MIT Press Book: The Semantic Web Primer
- Interesting, Historical (and Unfinished): Graham Glass's blog series: Semantic Web: Rise of the Machines
Oped
As
far as I can tell, currently, the point to be taken seriously is that
RDF is a standard, known way to represent metadata. Whatever the format
(RDF XML, RDF Graphs, N3, etc), RDF is *the* best way to
represent it right now. OWL builds on top of it to give us a basic
vocabulary for adding semantics about RDF statements. The more
we can all begin to create and share OWL-style metadata documents, the more easily
machines can begin to infer new information from these, finally delivering on the original Semantic Web vision.
Useful Resources
Sites:
- Stanford TAP: http://tap.stanford.edu/
- W3C: http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/
- University of Maryland: http://www.mindswap.org/
- DAML Semantic Web Services: http://www.daml.org/services/
- HP Labs: http://www.hpl.hp.com/semweb/index.html
- SW-Authoritative Blogger, David Wood: http://prototypo.blogspot.com
- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_Web
Technology:
- CWM: Tim Berners Lee's POC playground
- Cerebra: (previously Network Inference) A Semantic Web - based company
- Jena: HP's free Semantic Web Framework
- Kowari: A free Semantic Web storage and analysis platform
- Protege: A Semantic Web ontology editor
Examples:
- Browser tool, Magpie: http://iswc2004.semanticweb.org/demos/40/
- Stanford TAP: http://tap.stanford.edu/tap/demos.html
- Excellent, working XML walkthrough: http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/avilayp/papers/semweb_one.htm
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