The terms RDF, OIL, DAML, and topic maps all tend to be mentioned whenever technologies for the semantic web, knowledge management, or information management are being discussed. Finding someone who knows more than one of these well is almost impossible, however.

RDF was designed to be (amongst many other things!) an appropriate data representation formalism for logic/inference applications on the Web. A number of papers and tools already exist that explore the relationship between the W3C's RDF and the world of logic programming. Our aim here is to put some of this into practice and explore the possibilities it raises for a the creation of more intelligent and intuitive information management tools.

This memo describes some experimental work that is being undertaken with the goal of simplifying the application of RDF to a number of information modelling problems, particularly involving relationships between physical-world objects and trust modelling. It is our goal that, by using contexts, a degree of modularity can be introduced that will ease the construction of RDF information models.

I've written before about What's right with RDF, but I have to admit that overall I'm deeply unhappy with RDF on a number of different levels. While I think the kinds of things that RDF does are useful at times, I think RDF gets a number of things painfully wrong. Not only does RDF get them wrong, but RDF's getting things wrong screws up other things as well.

This document provides a brief introduction to the underlying structure of the RDF/XML 1.0 graph serialization syntax. The Intended audience is mainly content and tool developers familiar with XML basics, and with the RDF model, who want a minimalistic understanding of RDF's XML syntax, so they can read and write RDF/XML with more confidence.

This document provides an overview of the RDF “core” implementation, that is, the implementation of the RDF model within Mozilla. It assumes some familiarity with the RDF model as described in the RDF Model and Syntax Specification. See also the Datasource HOWTO for details on writing a datasource.

Columnist Uche Ogbuji begins his practical exploration of knowledge management with XML by illustrating techniques for populating Resource Description Framework (RDF) models with data from existing XML formats. As shown in the three code listings, RDF can be used as a companion to customized XML, not just as a canonical representation for certain types of data. This column, with code samples included, demonstrates how easy it can be to jump-start knowledge management with RDF even relatively late in the development game.

The real test of any technology's value is what kinds of tasks are easier with it than without it. If I hear about some new technology, I'm not going to learn it and use it unless it saves me some trouble. Well, being a bit of a geek, I might play with it a bit, but I'm going to lose interest if I don't eventually see tangible proof that it either makes new things possible or old things easier.

This week the XML Deviant returns from holiday to find that, although the W3C's Resource Description Framework (RDF) technology appears to be gaining supporters, developers still have many concerns about the complexity of its syntax.

The problem with discussing RDF (where that means, "I think this data format should be RDF") is that you can support any four of these RDF issues (model, syntax, tools, vision), in any combination, while vigorously arguing against the others. People who believe that the RDF conceptual model is a good thing may think that the RDF/XML serialization is wretched, or that there are no good RDF tools for their favorite language, or that the Semantic Web is an unattainable pipe dream, or any combination of these things.

What are the advantages of RDF over other metadata systems? In this page we try to collect a list of some of them.

The W3C working group tasked to update and clarify the RDF specification recently released six new working drafts. The group is collecting comments, concerns, and corrections, which will be incorporated into the documents. At the end of November, in preparation for submitting the documents for review as Candidate Recommendations, the working group will begin its final review.

In the first article in this series, I explained some of the semantics of RDF via Prolog (and vice versa). In this article, I'll explore some of the nitty-gritty of working with RDF in Prolog using the SWI-Prolog system.

Okay, so maybe this is a bit more that fifty words, but the key points are pretty simple (and put into bold text for you manager-types who just want to get straight to the point). The Resource Description Framework, or "RDF", is really two things.

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. See http://www.w3.org/RDF/ for details.

One of the enduring joys of having a pulpit, such as is provided by the XML-Deviant column, is the chance to ride one's own hobby horses. While the point of the XML-Deviant column is to represent the most interesting and important facets of debate within the XML development community, it also affords me a chance to promote or demote things, based upon my sense of what is true, good, right, or useful.

Raptor is a free software/Open Source C library that parses RDF syntaxes such as RDF/XML and N-Triples into RDF triples.

IsaViz is a visual environment for browsing and authoring RDF models represented as graphs.

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is an infrastructure that enables the encoding, exchange and reuse of structured metadata. RDF is an application of XML that imposes needed structural constraints to provide unambiguous methods of expressing semantics. RDF additionally provides a means for publishing both human-readable and machine-processable vocabularies designed to encourage the reuse and extension of metadata semantics among disparate information communities.

This article introduces Resource Description Framework (RDF), developed by the W3C for Web-based metadata, using XML as an interchange syntax. RDF's essential aim is to make work easier for autonomous agents, which would refine the Web by improving search engines and service directories. Author Uche Ogbuji gives an overview of RDF aspects from schemas to usage scenarios. The article assumes that you are already familiar with XML.