Interpretations of the web of data

Abstract

The emerging Web of Data utilizes the web infrastructure to represent and interrelate data. The foundational standards of theWeb of Data include the UniformResource Identifier (URI) and the Resource Description Framework (RDF). URIs are used to identify resources and RDF is used to relate resources. While RDF has been posited as a logic language designed specifically for knowledge representation and reasoning, it is more generally useful if it can conveniently support other models of computing. In order to realize theWeb of Data as a general-purpose medium for storing and processing the world’s data, it is necessary to separate RDF from its logic language legacy and frame it simply as a data model. Moreover, there is significant advantage in seeing the Semantic Web as a particular interpretation of theWeb of Data that is focused specifically on knowledge representation and reasoning. By doing so, other interpretations of theWeb of Data are exposed that realize RDF in different capacities and in support of different computing models.