Resource Description Framework

Abstract

This chapter provides a detailed primer for the Resource Description Framework (RDF 1.1) standard, proposed as a common data model for publishing and exchanging structured data on the Web. We first motivate the need for a data model like RDF. We then describe the types of terms used in RDF: the basic building blocks of the framework. We discuss how these terms can be combined to make coherent statements in the form of RDF triples, and how triples form graphs and datasets. Thereafter we discuss the RDF vocabulary: a built-in set of terms used for modelling more complex data, such as complex relations and ordered lists. Finally, we give an overview of the different syntaxes by which RDF can be serialised and communicated.