The Semantic Web for all

Abstract

Over the past few years Semantic Web technologies have brought significant changes in the way structured data is published, shared and consumed on the Web. Emerging online applications based on the Web of Objects or Linked Open Data can use the Web as a platform to exchange and reason over semantically rich data covering any topic. Yet two-thirds of the world population is deprived of Web access and is thus deprived from applications that could have a critical impact on their life. There is a need to adapt Semantic Web technologies to put them to work 'for all' in challenging contexts. This special issue describes progress made towards reaching that goal.