See also: Vision | Artifical Intelligence | Internet | Data
Home Page: http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/ at W3C
Semantics is the branch of semiotics dealing with the study of meaning we attach to language. The Semantic Web will allow software to interact more efficiently without human intervention. The idea is based upon a set of standards for protocol for metadata.
The rich vision of the semantic web is an extension of the current web in which data is given meaning through the use of a series of technologies. The Semantic Web is the part of the web that allows for automated communication between machines on behalf of users. Rather than visit a search engine and crawl through a flat listing of possible matches, users will be able to issue complex information requests and receive a summarised reply.
The Semantic Web is an immense collaborative, internet project involving computer programming endeavours such as eXtensible Markup Language (XML), Resource Description Framework (RDF), ontologies and intelligent agents.
The Semantic Web should allow applications to seamlessly communicate with each other. This data must be used to conduct automated reasoning and linked via global decentralised method. One of the problems facing developers of the Semantic Web is that meaning is dependent on context. Natural language is often ambiguous (http://www.cisp.org/imp/march-2001/miller/03-01miller.htm), therefore errors in comprehension are common. Then computer processing faces the same problem.
Tim Berners-Lee is the vanguard of the semantic web and the creator of the web. He outlined a roadmap (http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/Semantic.html) for his vision of how the internet could evolve to address this knowledge management issue with low-level information retrieval and automated processing of online content.
Related Links
- The Semantic Web (http://infomesh.net/2001/swintro/) An introduction
- The Semantic Web (http://www.davidgreen.me.uk/articles/iwr-dec02.html) – A clear and concise article by David Green
- Semantic Planet (http://www.semanticplanet.com/) – weblog
- SemanticWeb (http://www.semanticweb.org/) – News, Community portal
- Semantic Web Trust and Security Resource Guide (http://www.wiwiss.fu-berlin.de/suhl/bizer/SWTSGuide/) – Related links and descriptions
- Planet RDF (http://planet.rdfhack.com/) – Source of the latest Semantic Web news
- Semantic Web Interest Group – IRC Scratchpad (http://rdfig.xmlhack.com/) – a notepad with URLs from SWIG IRC chat
Related Topics
TakeDown.NET -> “Semantic-Web”