An introduction to the resource description framework

Abstract

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is an infrastructure that enables the encoding, exchange and reuse of structured metadata. RDF is an application of XML that imposes needed structural constraints to provide unambiguous methods of expressing semantics. RDF additionally provides means for publishing both human-readable and machine-processable vocabularies designed to encourage the reuse and extension of metadata semantics among disparate information communities. The deployment of these constructs allows the vast unstructured mass of information on the Web to be transformed into something more manageable, and thus something far more useful. © 2001 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.