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A Semantic Web Primer

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A systematic description of ideas, languages, and technologies that are central to the development of the Semantic Web, for use as a textbook or guide to self-study. The development of the Semantic Web, with machine-readable content, has the potential to revolutionize the World Wide Web and its use. A Semantic Web Primer provides an introduction and guide to this emerging field, describing its key ideas, languages, and technologies. Suitable for use as a textbook or for self-study by professionals, it concentrates on undergraduate-level fundamental concepts and techniques that will enable readers to proceed with building applications on their own. It includes exercises, project descriptions, and annotated references to relevant online materials. A Semantic Web Primer is the only available book on the Semantic Web to include a systematic treatment of the different languages (XML, RDF, OWL, and rules) and technologies (explicit metadata, ontologies, and logic and inference) that are central to Semantic Web development. The book also examines such crucial related topics as ontology engineering and application scenarios. After an introductory chapter, topics covered in succeeding chapters include XML and related technologies that support semantic interoperability; RDF and RDF Schema, the standard data model for machine-process-able semantics; and OWL, the W3C-approved standard for a Web ontology language more extensive than RDF Schema; rules, both monotonic and nonmonotonic, in the framework of the Semantic Web; selected application domains and how the Semantic Web would benefit them; the development of ontology-based systems; and current debates on key issues and predictions for the future.

272 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2004

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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
Profile Image for Steve Whiting.
181 reviews19 followers
February 17, 2016
A decent introduction to the concepts of the Semantic Web, giving the reader a solid grounding in the tools and techniques to build a machine-understandable web of information, though it doesn't really go into much details about how to overcome the difficulties of building and maintaining a workable ontology, other than suggesting some possible approaches.

A couple of caveats: (1) to get the most out of this, you really need to enjoy reading page after page of XML, (2) in a few places you're going to need to have a bit of a grounding in first order logic, if you don't want to be left staring in bafflement at a series of inverted letters and strange symbols, and (3) the authors have an irritating habit of referring to concepts and then either not defining them at all, or not defining them until later in the book - this is a book that would really benefit from access to a web browser to supplement the text and follow the references.
Profile Image for Todd.
16 reviews
February 15, 2011
This is primer, so I thought I'd get a broader perspective on the Semantic Web, but instead I filled in the areas that I already knew. In the 3rd edition I hope they add some of the new info out there about Linked Data.
Profile Image for Karla.
65 reviews1 follower
August 1, 2012
Because this book's intended audience is the computer science community, and not the library community, I didn't find it terribly useful. But I do think it's a fairly well-written text for its purpose.
Profile Image for Dewi Wardani.
78 reviews3 followers
June 7, 2015
A very helpful introduction plus a few "controversial". It's accepted so far it's one of serious prominent book in this area. Only till the middle of stack layers have been discussed technically ... upper layers such as trust is still In conceptual.. thanks
9 reviews
December 9, 2010
it gives me a big hand on my mid-term of Semantic Web
Profile Image for Baa.
10 reviews4 followers
June 24, 2012
Simple examples that made many concepts clear to me for the first time.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews

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