The Semantic
Web is the next generation
of the Web. Actually the Web serves people,
not machines. The Semantic Web is a web of
special data. People use every day lots
of data knowledge acquired via experience
and learning. Such data is not contained
in the existing web or is not accessible.
The
word semantic stands
for the meaning of:
The semantic of something is the meaning of something.
The Semantic Web is a web that describes thingsin
a way that also computers can understand.
I
can see my bank statements on the web, my photographs,
and perhaps my appointments in a calendar. But
can I see my photos in a calendar to see what
I was doing when I took them? Can I see and access
my bank statements from my calendar? Why not?
This is so because data is controlled by applications,
and each application keeps the its own data to itself:
they are not part of a web of data.
Sentences
like:
*
The Beatles was a popular band from Liverpool.
* John Lennon was a member of the Beatles.
* The song "Don Quijote" was recorded by the Beatles.
can be understood by people. But how can they be understood by
computers?
The
Semantic Web is about two things. It is about
common formats for interchange of data, while
on the original Web we only have interchange
of documents. Also it is about language for recording
how the data relates to real world objects. That
allows a person, or a machine, to start off in
one database, and then move through an unending
set of databases which are connected not by wires
but by being related to the same thing.
"The
Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web
in which information is given well-defined meaning,
better enabling computers and people to work
in cooperation".[Tim Berners-Lee]
More
information:
Semantic
Web Community Portal
Semantic
Web European Projects
Semantic Web in the press:
