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The Semantic Web

The Semantic Web is a mesh of information linked up in such a way that it can be easily processed by computers on a global scale. You can think of it as being an efficient way of representing data on the World Wide Web, or as a globally linked database. Information on the Semantic Web is maintained in a structured form on web servers, and is fairly easy for both computers and people to work with. Semantic Web technologies are very much in their infancy, and with the exception of those points on the web where semantic data is being integrated, they are not usually something you can point your web browser at like websites. They also suffer from the chicken-egg problem - no killer application will be written without enough data, and no data will be converted without the benefit of a killer application. With this in mind, here are some links that are relevant to this discussion:


Semantic Web Concept & Vision:

  • The Semantic Web (Scientific American Article) - one of the early articles on the Semantic Web outlining its potential.
  • The Semantic Web Lifts Off - an article by Tim Berners-lee et al describing recent progress on the Semantic Web.
  • The Semantic Web: An Introduction - introduction to the concepts and principles behind the Semantic Web.
  • The Semantic Web in Breadth - how the pieces of the Semantic Web fit together.


    • Semantic Web Technicalities:

  • The Semantic Web (for Web Developers) - an introduction to the Semantic Web for web developers.
  • Semantic Web for Life Sciences - a forum for issues and initiatives relevant to the use of Semantic Web technologies for the life sciences.
  • Resource Description Framework (RDF) - the W3C framework that gives meaning to data on the Semantic Web.
  • Primer for N3 - a simple notation for getting started with the Semantic Web.
  • Is the Semantic Web Hype? (PDF) - a technical presentation looking at some of the problems with RDF as a method of knowledge representation.


    • Examples of Semantic Web Applications:

  • Piggy Bank - an extension to the Firefox web browser that turns it into a “Semantic Web browser”.
  • Semantic Bank - the server companion of Piggy Bank that lets you persist, share and publish Semantic data.
  • Bibster - a Semantic Web tool for managing, searching, and sharing bibliographic data in a peer-to-peer network.
  • RDFMapper - a Semantic Web mapping service. Just click "submit query" to see an example.
  • RDFizers - a series of tools that transform existing data into an RDF representation for the Semantic Web.

    • By Vince Smith at Sep 7 2005 - 00:18 | add new comment