Semantic web and its applications

Abstract

The World Wide Web has changed the way people communicate with each other and the way business is conducted. The Semantic Web is a "web of data" that enables machines to understand the semantics or meaning of information on the World Wide Web. This paper provides the basic knowledge required to the Semantic Web and gives an overview of some semnatic web applications. It firstly describes the Extensible Markup Language (XML), introduces the basic concepts of Resource Description Framework (RDF) and Resource Description Framework Schema (RDFS), describes the contents and purpose of ontologies and owl specification documents, then gives the brief descriptions about logic and rules used, finally shows some typical semantic applications. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.