Note: This page summarizes the work of the RDF
Core Working Group,which was completed in 2004. For new information on
the Semantic Web Activity, on tools, etc, please consult the Semantic Web Activity home page and the Activity News. This page is no longer actively
maintained.
Resource Description Framework (RDF)
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) integrates a variety of
applications from library catalogs and world-wide
directories to syndication and aggregation of news,
software, and content to personal collections of music,
photos, and events using XML as an interchange
syntax. The RDF specifications provide a lightweight
ontology system to support the exchange of knowledge on the Web.
The W3C Semantic Web Activity Statement
explains W3C's plans for RDF, including the RDF
Core WG, Web Ontology and the RDF Interest Group.
The RDF Specifications build on URI and XML technologies. The RDF suite of specifications consist
of:
- RDF/XML Syntax Specification
(Revised)
W3C Recommendation
Dave Beckett, ed.
- RDF Vocabulary Description Language 1.0: RDF
Schema
W3C Recomendation
Dan Brickley, R.V. Guha, eds.
- RDF Primer
W3C Recommendation
Frank Manola, Eric Miller, eds.
- Resource Description Framework (RDF):
Concepts and Abstract Syntax
W3C Recommendation
Graham Klyne, Jeremy Carroll, eds.
- RDF Semantics
W3C Recommendation
Patrick Hayes, ed.
- RDF Test Cases
W3C Recommendation
Jan Grant, Dave Beckett, eds.
- RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing
W3C Recommendation
Ben Adida, Mark Birbeck, Shane McCarron, Steven Pemberton, eds.
- RDFa Primer
W3C Working Group Note
Ben Adida, Mark Birbeck, eds.
These documents are intended to jointly replace the original Resource
Description Framework specifications, RDF Model and Syntax
(1999 Recommendation) and RDF Schema (1999
Proposed Recommendation).
RDF along with OWL are Semantic Web specifications.
Other relevant RDF W3C technical reports include:
- Composite
Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies
1.0
W3C Recommendation 15 January 2004. Graham Klyne, Franklin Reynolds, Chris
Woodrow, Hidetaka Ohto, Johan Hjelm, Mark H. Butler, Luu Tran
CC/PP 1.0 is a system for expressing device capabilities and user
preferences using RDF making it easier to deliver Web content to
devices.
- Evaluation and
Report Language (EARL) 1.0
W3C Working Draft 06 December 2002. Wendy Chisholm, Sean B. Palmer
EARL is a general-purpose language for expressing test results and defines
a basic vocabulary in terms of RDF.
- An RDF Schema for
P3P
W3C Note 25 January 2002, Brian McBride, Rigo Wenning, Lorrie Cranor
- An RDF Schema for the XML
Information Set
W3C Note 06 April 2001, Richard Tobin
- Harvesting RDF Statements from
XLinks
W3C Note 29 September 2000, Ron Daniel Jr.
- Accessibility Features of
SVG
W3C Note 7 Aug 2000. Charles McCathieNevile, Marja-Riitta Koivunen discussion
Sep 2000. implements an SVG-to-text convertor.
- PICS Rating Vocabularies in
XML/RDF
W3C NOTE 27 March 2000
- Cambridge
Communiqué
W3C NOTE Oct 1999 on application schema layering
- Web Architecture: Describing and
Exchanging Data
Berners-Lee, Connolly, Swick, W3C Note 7 June 1999
- Document Content
Description for XML
submitted July 1998 to the W3C by IBM and Microsoft. DCD is an RDF
vocabulary to define document constraints in an XML syntax.
- W3C Data Formats
W3C NOTE 29-October-1997, Tim Berners-Lee
See also Tim Berners-Lee's writings on Web Design
Issues including Metadata Architecture
and the OWL specifications which
build on RDF and provide language for defining structured, Web-based ontologies
which enable richer integration and interoperability of data among descriptive
communities.
These sites track developments
related to RDF:
While the RDF specs provide the most in-depth details
about RDF, a number of shorter overviews and presentations are also available,
for developers and for a general audience.
- RDF and Metadata,
Tim Bray, June 09, 1998, xml.com
- Getting into
RDF & Semantic Web using N3, Tim Berners-Lee
- Peer-to-Peer and the Semantic Web: The Power
of Metadata, book chapter by Rael Dornfest & Dan Brickley
- An Idiot's Guide to
the Resource Description Framework by Renato Iannella, January 25,
1999.
- RDF
tutorial, Pierre-Antoine Champin (for developers)
- Summary of
RDF API Discussions (for developers)
- Web Metadata:
A Matter of Semantics by Ora Lassila, IEEE Internet Computing,
July-August 1998
- An
Introduction to the Resource Description Framework by Eric Miller,
D-Lib Magazine, May 1998
- Putting RDF to
Work, Edd
Dumbill.
- Distributed XML:
the role played by XML in the next-generation Web, Edd Dumbill.
- XML and the Web,
by Tim Berners-Lee, XML World 2000,
Boston 2000/09/06
- Frequently asked questions(FAQ) about RDF, with
answers.
- 2004-01, Weaving
Meaning : An Overview of The Semantic Web, by Eric Miller. Presented at
the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan USA
- 2003-05, Semantic Web
Tutorial Using N3 by Tim Berners-Lee, Dan Connolly, and Sandro Hawke at
WWW2003.
- Weaving
A Web of Ideas, Steven M. Cherry, IEEE Spectrum, September 2002
- The semantic web:
How RDF will change learning technology standards, Mikael Nilsson,
Center for User-Oriented IT-design, Royal Institute of Technology,
Stockholm The semantic web: How RDF will change learning technology
standards Mikael Nilsson, Center for User-Oriented IT-design, Royal
Institute of Technology, Stockholm September 27, 2001
- Building a
Semantic Web Site, Eric van der Vlist, XML.com, May 02, 2001
- DAML
could take search to a new level, Jim Rapoza, PC Week Labs February 7,
2000
- A New Dawn,
Glyn Moody, New Scientist, May 30, 1998
- Getting Deep
Into Metadata, Nate Zelnick, The XML Files, a WebDeveloper.com Feature,
June 12, 1998
- New
Specs Are In the Works for Web Data, Brian Hannon, PC Week, May 29,
1998
See also Semantic Web presentations, W3C in The Press and Resource
Description Framework Press in the RDF Resource
Guide
RDF is an enabling technology for a wide variety of projects. The following
is a sample; the Resource
Description Framework Applications and Projects section in the RDF Resource Guide lists many more.
The listing of authoring and other tools on this
page has been removed in July 2006, in favor of the more comprehensive page
on the W3C Wiki. By moving this list to the Wiki, the Semantic Web
community at large can contribute in keeping that information up-to-date.
While content rating was the application
that originally motivated the developoment of PICS and
RDF, syndication and aggregation have emerged as cost-effective applications of
RDF.
-
lightweight multipurpose extensible metadata description and syndication
format. proposed
Aug 2000 to the RDF Interest Group
- XMLNews-Meta - A suite of
specifications for exchanging news and information using open Web
standards
- PRISM: Publishing Requirements
for Industry Standard Metadata
PRISM is a packaging and metadata format, similar to NewsML, RSS, and
XMLNews-Meta. Like RSS 1.0 and XMLNews-Meta, PRISM is based on RDF. PRISM
is developed by an industry consortium of publishing software developers
and publishers, including (among many others) Adobe, Quark, Condé Nast, and
Time Inc.
- The UK Mirror Service is a national UK
service providing mirrors/collections of software and data from around the
world. It uses RDF
internally for mirror description and mirror content description of over 4
million resources. April 2000
- Daniel Veillard's Linux
Packages Database, a tool that makes use of RDF encoded metadata for
locating and identifying dependencies between software packages available
for the Linux operating system.
- Java,
RDF, and the "Virtual Web", Leon Shklar (see also parts two
and three),
a Gamelan Tech Focus series on content syndication and aggregation
strategies, September/October 1999.
Some of the most exciting applications of RDF are at a smaller scale, very
close to home. These applications depend on emerging technical and social
mechanisms for managing trust on the web (access control, privacy, rights
management), so as of this writing (Aug 2001) they tend to be advanced development projects more than production
systems.
The major resource for RDF development activity is the W3C Semantic Web Interest Group
mailing list (archives) and its
IRC chat channel. A good introduction
for developers is What
is RDF? by Tim Bray
on XML.com who have a growing series of
articles and reports about RDF applications including Putting RDF to
Work, RDF
Calendar taskforce, RDF with
prolog, RDF -
why we should care - and RSS, Building the
Semantic Web, The Semantic
Web: A Primer and many others.
The listing of developer's tools on this page has
been removed in July 2006, in favor of the more comprehensive page
on the W3C Wiki. By moving this list to the Wiki, the Semantic Web
community at large can contribute in keeping that information up-to-date.
RDF is a general-purpose language for representing information in the Web.
RDF Schema is a standard which
describes how to use RDF to describe RDF vocabularies on the Web. The following
are a just a sample of a few services that are available to see how people are
creating and using these vocabularies.
- SchemaWeb provides a
comprehensive directory of RDF schemas to be browsed and searched by human
agents and also an extensive set of web services to be used by RDF agents
and reasoning software applications that wish to obtain real-time schema
information whilst processing RDF data.
- Dublin Core
Metadata Registry is an RDF based metadata registry designed to provide
users and applications an authoritative source of information about the
Dublin Core element set and related vocabularies.
- DAML Ontology Library which
organizes hundreds of ontologies in a variety of different ways (keyword,
organization, submission date, etc.)
Conceptual Graphs
SOAP/WSDL
UML/MOF/XMI
- Ontology Definition
Metamodel (ODM), an emerging OMG standard for conceptual modeling and
ontology development based on MOF and UML. The ODM contains a set of MOF
metamodels and UML profile for RDF and OWL, with non-normative mappings to
UML, Topic Maps, Common Logic, and a conceptual ER representation. Dan
Chang and Elisa Kendall, eds.
- Representing UML in
RDF The goal of this work is to make UML "RDF-compatible". This allows
mixing and extending UML models and the language elements of UML itself on
the Web in an open manner.
- A Layered Approach
to Information Modeling and Interoperability on the Web Sergey Melnik,
Stefan Decker, Database Group, Stanford University, : Sep 4, 2000
- A Discussion of the
Relationship Between RDF-Schema and UML, Walter W. Chang, Advanced
Technology Group, Adobe Systems, W3C Note, 04-Aug-1998
- DAML/UML Based Ontology Set
from Lockheed Martin
TopicMaps
- XML Topic Maps through
RDF Glasses, Presented at KT2001, Nikita Ogievetsky, Cogitech, Inc.
- DAML and Quantum Topic Maps,
Presented at KT2002, Nikita
Ogievetsky, Cogitech, Inc.
- XTM to RDF converter,
Cogitech, Inc.
- Representing XML Topic
Maps as RDF, Eric van der Vlist.
- Topic
maps, RDF, DAML, OIL. A comparison, Lars Marius Garshol.
Events and publications in the history of RDF include...
- May 2001: WWW10 W3C's Semantic Web
Track and the Semantic Web Developers
Day. Hong Kong
- Feb 2001: RDF Interest
Group meeting (26-27 Feb 2001)
- Feb 2001: Semantic Web Activity
launched
- Oct 1999: "Cambridge Communiqué" W3C
NOTE issued on application schema layering
- Mar 2000: RDF
Schema Specification 1.0 published as a W3C Candidate Recommendation (
call
for implementation)
- Aug 1999: RDF Interest Group
created
- Feb 1999: RDF Model and Syntax
Specification released as a W3C Recommendation (press release)
- May 1998 RDF - Using
XML to describe Data, Swick, WWW8 presentation
- April 1998 WWW7 Tutorial, Using Web
Metadata: Dublin Core and the Resource Description Framework, Lagoze,
Miller, Lassila, Swick, Iannella, Schloss, Weibel
- Dec 1997 W3C Metadata
Activity Statement presented to the W3C Membership
- Nov 1997 Introduction to RDF
Metadata, W3C NOTE 1997-11-13, Ora Lassila
- Oct 1997 first RDF
working draft released