9.

The Semantic Web

9.1 Introduction
Semantic Web is an extension to the World Wide Web. The purpose of the semantic web is to
provide structure to the web and data in general. It emphasizes on representing a web of data
instead of web of documents. It allows computers to intelligently search, combine and process
the web content based on the meaning that the content has. Three main models of the semantic
web are:
1. Building models
2. Computing with Knowledge
3. Exchanging Information
 Building Models:
Model is a simplified version or description of certain aspects of the real-time entities.
Model gathers information which is useful for the understanding of the particular domain.
 Computing Knowledge:
Conclusions can be obtained from the knowledge present.
Example: If two sentences are given as ‘John is the son of Harry’ and another sentence
given is- ‘Hary’s father is Joey’, then the knowledge that can be computed from it is
– ‘John is the grandson of Joey’
Similarly, another example useful in the understanding of computing knowledge is-
‘All A is B’ and ‘All B is C’, then the conclusion that can be drawn from it is – ‘All A are
C’ respectively.
 Exchanging Information:
It is an important aspect. Various communication protocols have been implemented for the
exchange of information like the TCP/IP, HTML, WWW. Web Services have also been
used for the exchange of the data.
The technologies associated with the semantic web are:
 RDF (Resource Description Framework)
 OWL (Web Ontology Language)
 DL (Description Language)
The query language used is:

 SPARQL ( SPARQL Protocol and RDF query language).

 SHACL (Shape Constraint Language). SHACL is used for validating the RDF graphs
against a set of conditions.
9.2 RDF and ontologies
RDF:
 RDF stands for Resource Description Framework
 RDF is a framework for describing resources on the web
 RDF is designed to be read and understood by computers
 RDF is not designed for being displayed to people
 RDF is written in XML
 RDF is a part of the W3C's Semantic Web Activity
  RDF is a W3C Recommendation from 10. February 2004

The RDF language is a part of the W3C's Semantic Web Activity. W3C's "Semantic Web
Vision" is a future where:
 Web information has exact meaning
 Web information can be understood and processed by computers
 Computers can integrate information from the web
RDF uses Web identifiers (URIs) to identify resources.
RDF describes resources with properties and property values.

RDF Resource, Property, and Property Value

RDF identifies things using Web identifiers (URIs), and describes resources with properties and
property values.
Explanation of Resource, Property, and Property value:
 A Resource is anything that can have a URI, such as "https://www.w3schools.com/rdf"
 A Property is a Resource that has a name, such as "author" or "homepage"
 A Property value is the value of a Property, such as "Jan Egil Refsnes" or
"https://www.w3schools.com" (note that a property value can be another resource)
Ontologies:
The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a family of knowledge representation languages for
authoring ontologies. Ontologies are a formal way to describe taxonomies and classification
networks, essentially defining the structure of knowledge for various domains: the nouns
representing classes of objects and the verbs representing relations between the objects.
Ontologies resemble class hierarchies in object-oriented programming but there are several
critical differences.
Class hierarchies are meant to represent structures used in source code that evolve fairly slowly
(typically monthly revisions) whereas ontologies are meant to represent information on the
Internet and are expected to be evolving almost constantly. Similarly, ontologies are typically far
more flexible as they are meant to represent information on the Internet coming from all sorts of
heterogeneous data sources. Class hierarchies on the other hand are meant to be fairly static and
rely on far less diverse and more structured sources of data such as corporate databases.
n the late 1990s, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Metadata Activity started work on
RDF Schema (RDFS), a language for RDF vocabulary sharing. The RDF became a W3C
Recommendation in February 1999, and RDFS a Candidate Recommendation in March
2000.[19] In February 2001, the Semantic Web Activity replaced the Metadata Activity.[19] In
2004 (as part of a wider revision of RDF) RDFS became a W3C Recommendation.[20] Though
RDFS provides some support for ontology specification, the need for a more expressive ontology
language had become clear.
9.3 Linked open data
What is Open Data?
Open Data (OD) is data that can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose
(from the Open Definition(link is external)).
The open movement seeks to work towards solutions of many of the world’s most pressing
problems in a spirit of transparency, collaboration, re-use and free access. It encompasses open
data, open government, open development, open science, open source, open hardware, open
content, open access, and open science and much more. Participatory processes, sharing of
knowledge and outputs and open source software are among its key tools.

What is Linked Data?

A) Linked Data (LD) is one of the core concepts and pillars of the Semantic Web, also known as
the Web of Data. The Semantic Web is all about making links between resources understandable
not only to humans but also to machines, and Linked Data provides the best practices for making
those links. Linked Data is a set of design principles for sharing machine-readable interlinked data
on the Web.
B) The Web enables us to link related documents. Similarly it enables us to link related data. The
term Linked Data (LD) refers to a set of best practices for publishing and connecting structured
data on the Web. Key technologies that support Linked Data are URIs (a generic means to identify
entities or concepts in the world), HTTP (a simple yet universal mechanism for retrieving
resources, or descriptions of resources), and RDF (a generic graph-based data model with which
to structure and link data that describes things in the world).

What is Linked Open Data?

Linked Open Data (LOD) is linked data that is open data. Tim Berners-Lee gives the clearest
definition of linked open data in differentiation with linked data: "Linked Open Data is Linked
Data which is released under an open license, which does not impede its reuse for free."

Advantages of Linked Open Data

Furthermore, linking open datasets enhances creativity and innovation as all developers, citizens
and businesses can use all those datasets to put things into context and create knowledge and apps.
Also, some of the benefits of Linked Open Data are:

 Efficient use of resources: Linked Open Data reduces redundancy by building upon and
the work of others rather than replicating existing systems.
 Increased information quality: Linked Open Data encourages the standardization of
metadata and data formats, which makes data more reliable and credible.
 Creates added value: By connecting directly to other data, Linked Open Data allows users
to discover, use and reuse information in new and unintended ways.
  Identification of gaps in information: Linked Open Data allows data errors to be
highlighted and corrected.
 Enhances transparency: Linked Open Data creates the means for citizens and advocacy
groups to hold the private sector and governments to account.

9.4 Applications and Web 3.0

It refers the evolution of web utilization and interaction which includes altering the Web into a
database. In enables the upgradation of back-end of the web, after a long time of focus on the front-
end (Web 2.0 has mainly been about AJAX, tagging, and another front-end user-experience
innovation). Web 3.0 is a term which is used to describe many evolutions of web usage and
interaction among several paths. In this, data isn’t owned but instead shared, where services show
different views for the same web / the same data.
The Semantic Web (3.0) promises to establish “the world’s information” in more reasonable way
than Google can ever attain with their existing engine schema. This is particularly true from the
perspective of machine conception as opposed to human understanding. The Semantic Web
necessitates the use of a declarative ontological language like OWL to produce domain-specific
ontologies that machines can use to reason about information and make new conclusions, not
simply match keywords.

Below are 5 main features that can help us define Web 3.0:

1. Semantic Web
The succeeding evolution of the Web involves the Semantic Web. The semantic web improves
web technologies in demand to create, share and connect content through search and analysis based
on the capability to comprehend the meaning of words, rather than on keywords or numbers.

2. Artificial Intelligence
Combining this capability with natural language processing, in Web 3.0, computers can distinguish
information like humans in order to provide faster and more relevant results. They become more
intelligent to fulfil the requirements of users.

3. 3D Graphics
The three-dimensional design is being used widely in websites and services in Web 3.0. Museum
guides, computer games, ecommerce, geospatial contexts, etc. are all examples that use 3D
graphics.

4. Connectivity
With Web 3.0, information is more connected thanks to semantic metadata. As a result, the user
experience evolves to another level of connectivity that leverages all the available information.
 5. Ubiquity
Content is accessible by multiple applications, every device is connected to the web, the services
can be used everywhere

Difference between Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 –

WEB 1.0 WEB 2.0 WEB 3.0

Mostly Read-Only Wildly Read-Write Portable and Personal

Company Focus Community Focus Individual Focus

Home Pages Blogs / Wikis Live-streams / Waves

Owning Content Sharing Content Consolidating Content

Web Forms Web Applications Smart Applications

Directories Tagging User Behaviour

Page Views Cost Per Click User Engagement

Banner Advertising Interactive Advertising Behavioural Advertising

Britannica Online Wikipedia The Semantic Web

HTML/Portals XML / RSS RDF / RDFS / OWL