The Semantic Web is an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning
(semantics) of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to
understand and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content. It derives from
World Wide Web Consortium director Sir Tim Berners-Lee's vision of the Web as a universal medium for
data, information, and knowledge exchange.
At its core, the semantic web comprises a set of design principles, collaborative working groups,
and a variety of enabling technologies. Some elements of the semantic web are expressed as
prospective future possibilities that are yet to be implemented or realized. Other elements of the
semantic web are expressed in formal specifications. Some of these include Resource Description
Framework (RDF), a variety of data interchange formats (e.g. RDF/XML, N3, Turtle, N-Triples), and
notations such as RDF Schema (RDFS) and the Web Ontology Language (OWL), all of which are intended
to provide a formal description of concepts, terms, and relationships within a given knowledge
domain.
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). |
