Abstract: The word semantic implies meaning or, as WordNet defines it, “of or relating to the study of meaning and changes of meaning.” For the Semantic Web, semantic indicates that the meaning of data on the Web can be discovered—not just by people, but also by computers. In contrast, most meaning on the Web today is inferred by people who read web pages and the labels of hyperlinks, and by other people who write specialized software to work with the data. The phrase the Semantic Web stands for a vision in which computers—software—as well as people can find, read, understand, and use data over the World Wide Web to accomplish useful goals for users.

Of course, we already use software to accomplish things on the Web, but the distinction lies in the words we use. People surf the Web, buy things on web sites, work their way through search pages, read the labels on hyperlinks, and decide which links to follow. It would be much more efficient and less time-consuming if a person could launch a process that would then proceed on its own, perhaps checking with the person from time to time as the work progressed. The business of the Semantic Web is to bring such capabilities into widespread use.

In brief, the Semantic Web is supposed to make data located anywhere on the Web accessible and understandable, both to people and to machines. This is more a vision than a technology. In this book, we’ll explore the technologies that will play roles in bringing the vision to life.

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