A Semantic Web Primer

Citation

Anh Tran, L. (2008), "A Semantic Web Primer", Library Hi Tech, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 490-491. https://doi.org/10.1108/07378830810903409

The advent of the web has changed the traditional view of information systems. These systems are considered tailor‐made, cost‐intensive database applications in the web environment. During the last decades, databases have been integrated on the web that allows the semantics of the data to be made available along with the data. As a result, web users have been offered the appropriate choice of presentation format; and the application programs via the Internet can provide a formal and machine‐processable form to the semantics of the data. Such semantics are called the semantic web (SW), which includes essential techniques for improving the existing web and its use. Relying on the above definitions, this book presents the fast‐moving nature of SW concepts, technologies, and standards in the eight chapters in detail.

The first chapter provides an overview of the SW vision from the existing web to the SW, with useful examples. This chapter also provides definitions for the key terms associated with the concepts, principles and techniques of SW. The next six Chapters (2‐7) focus on the techniques, tools and uses of the SW, including:

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  XML (Extensible Markup Language), which describes the structure of web documents for supporting syntactic interoperability.

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  RDF (Resources Description Framework) refers two concepts: 1) a language that allows the user to express statements of objects (resources), and 2) a standard data model for machine‐processable semantics.

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  OWL (Web Ontology Language), which presents a current proposal for a web ontology language.

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  Rules (including logic and inference), both monotonic and non‐monotonic, that are used in the framework of SW.

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  Applications describing the kinds of uses to which SW technology can be applied, such as horizontal information products, data integration, skill‐finding, a think tank portal, e‐learning, online procurement, and so on.

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  Ontology engineering, which is associated with methodological issues when building ontologies (constructing ontologies manually, reusing existing ontologies, using semiautomatic methods, and ontology mapping, etc.).

In the conclusion Chapter 8 addresses such critical issues as false objections raised against the SW effort, current status of the SW work, the uptake of the SW technology, etc. and define the key challenges facing the SW community at present.

This is an essential textbook about the SW at undergraduate level, and already it has been used in dozens of courses around the world and has been published in several language versions (Japanese, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, etc.). In this second edition the book includes a substantial number of new elements in the SW language stack, new application areas, and new tools. Additionally, the book includes exercises and projects, suggested reading at the end of every section, and annotated references to the online materials available at: www.semanticwebprimer.org. This site provides PowerPoint slides for each chapter that can be used for teaching and the online versions of code fragments in the book.

The authors include Grigoris Antoniou, Professor at the Institute for Computer Science, Foundation for Research and TEchnology‐Hellas; and Frank van Harmelen, Professor in the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam.