Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Semantic Web

  • Reference work entry
Encyclopedia of Multimedia

  • 118 Accesses

Synonyms

W3C ontology Web language

Definition

The Semantic Web, in particular the W3C Ontology Web Language (OWL) Recommendation, provides powerful new use-cases for information retrieval, searching, and manipulation.

Introduction

For the most part, today's World-Wide Web provides the mechanisms for interactions between human users, web servers, and the content stored on servers. The HTML standard, while nicely render-able on Web browsers, is concerned almost exclusively with content presentation (as opposed to the meaning). This leads to problems when trying to enable software agent-based interaction with the web server content because HTML may not be easily machine-processable due to under-specified information semantics. Why is agent-based interpretation of the Web important? Consider the following use-cases (some from W3C specifications) which, for various reasons, are difficult to achieve based solely on the first generation Web (see [1] for more details):

  1. 1....

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 449.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 329.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    OWL code snippets are illustrative only. For detailed explanation of the syntax, please see [3]

References

  1. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), “OWL Web Ontology Language Guide,” http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-guide/.

  2. T. Berners-Lee, “Standards, Semantics, and Survival,” a talk given to the Software and Information Industry Association, New York, January 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  3. V. Haarslev and R. Moller, “Racer: A Core Inference Engine for the Semantic Web,” Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Evaluation of Ontology-based Tools (EON2003) at Second International Semantic Web Conference ISWC 2003, Sanibel Island, pp. 27–36, 2003.

    Google Scholar 

  4. S. Bechhofer, “OWL Reasoning,” http://owl.man.ac.uk/2003/why/latest/.

  5. I. Horrocks, “Logical Foundations for the Semantic Web,” a talk given at the University of Glasgow, March 10th, 2003, http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/∼horrocks.

  6. G. Anoniou and F.V. Harmelen, “Semantic Web Primer,” MIT, Cambridge, 2004.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Schahram Dustdar

  2. Telcordia Technologies, Piscataway, NJ, USA

    Ben Falchuk

Authors
  1. Schahram Dustdar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Ben Falchuk
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Florida Atlantic University (FAU), 33431, Boca Raton, FL, USA

    Borko Furht (Department Chair) (Department Chair)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2008 Springer-Verlag

About this entry

Cite this entry

Dustdar, S., Falchuk, B. (2008). Semantic Web. In: Furht, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Multimedia. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78414-4_214

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation