The goal of the Semantic Web initiative is as broad as that of the Web: to create a universal medium for the exchange of data. It is envisaged to smoothly interconnect personal information management, enterprise application integration, and the global sharing of commercial, scientific and cultural data. Facilities to put machine-understandable data on the Web are quickly becoming a high priority for many organizations, individuals and communities.
The Web can reach its full potential only if it becomes a place where data can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people. For the Web to scale, tomorrow's programs must be able to share and process data even when these programs have been designed totally independently. The Semantic Web Activity is an initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) designed to provide a leadership role in defining this Web. The Activity develops open specifications for those technologies that are ready for large scale deployment, and identifies, through open source advanced development, the infrastructure components that will be necessary to scale in the Web in the future.
The principal technologies of the Semantic Web fit into a set of layered specifications. The current components are the Resource Description Framework (RDF) Core Model, the RDF Schema language and the Web Ontology language (OWL). Building on these core components is a standardized query language, SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle"), for RDF enabling the 'joining' of decentralized collections of RDF data. The GRDDL Recommendation and the work on RDFa aims at creating bridges between the RDF model and various XML formats, like XHTML. The POWDER Working group will develop technologies to find resource descriptions for specific resources on the Web; descriptions which can be ‘joined’ to other RDF data. Finally, SKOS is a model and an RDF vocabulary for expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, 'folksonomies', other types of controlled vocabulary, and also concept schemes embedded in glossaries and terminologies.
The Activity was renewed (Member-only link) in September after a successful Advisory Committee review. The renewal meant the creation of a new Working Group: the OWL Working Group.
The mission of the OWL Working Group, is to produce a W3C Recommendation that refines and extends the 2004 version of OWL. The proposed extensions are a small set that have been identified by users as widely needed, and have been identified by tool implementers as reasonable and feasible extensions to current tools. The group has had its first face-to-face meeting in December 2007 in Manchester, UK and its second face-to-face meeting in April in Washington, DC, USA. It has published six Working Drafts since the last AC meeting.
The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group is continuing its work to develop a mechanism through which structured metadata (“Description Resources”) can be authenticated and applied to groups of Web resources. This mechanism will allow retrieval of the description resources without retrieval of the resources they describe. The group held a face-to-face meeting in Athens, Greece, in January 2008 and also plans another “Stakeholder meeting” (i.e., outreach event) in London, UK, in March 2008. The group has also published a new update of the Description Resources Working Draft at the end of March, 2008. The charter of the Working Group has been extended until 31 December 2008.
The charter of the Data Access Working Group was been extended until 31 December 2007. The Working Group successfully published the SPARQL Recommendation in January 2008, and is now in “hibernation” state.
The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group held its 9th face to face meeting in February 2008, in Paris, France. The group has successfully published three Working Drafts since the last AC meeting.
The GRDDL Working Group has published the GRDDL Recommendation on 11 September 2007 and is currently in “hibernation” state.
The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group has published (jointly with the XHTML2 Working Group) the Last Call Working Draft of the RDFa syntax accompanied by a new realease of the RDFa Primer. In case of a successful review of the LCWD, the group plans to move to Candidate Recommendation phase early April 2008. The group has also published a First Public Working Draft of the SKOS Reference (replacing some older documents) as well as an updated version of the SKOS Primer. Finally, the group also published a new version of the document on Best Practice Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies.
The charter of the Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group (HCLSIG) has been extended until the 15 May 2008, to bridge the time period between its former expiration date and the possible establishment of a successor Interest Group. The Interest Group has published two Working Drafts on the usage of Semantic Web in the Integration of Dat in the HCLSIG domain. The Charter for a new Interest Group has been sent for review to the AC.
The Semantic Web Education and Outreach Interest Group’s has been extended until 31st of March, 2008, essentially to finalize some of the work that had been started and not finished by the time of its original charter expiration (31st of January). The Interest Group has published an IG Note on the usage of URI-s in Semantic Web. Finally, the IG has then been closed at that point and discussions have started to decide in which form such outreach activities should be pursued.
The Activity plans the publication of a number of Recommendations before the next Advisory Committee meeting in October 2008. These include:
| Group | Chair | Team Contact | Charter |
|---|---|---|---|
| GRDDL Working Group (participants) | Harry Halpin | Dan Connolly | Chartered until 31 January 2008 |
| OWL Working Group (participants) | Ian Horrocks, Alan Ruttenberg | Ivan Herman, Sandro Hawke | Chartered until 1 July 2009 |
| Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group (participants) | Phil Archer | Matt Womer | Chartered until 31 December 2008 |
| RDF Data Access Working Group (participants) | Lee Feigenbaum | Eric Prud'hommeaux | Chartered until 31 December 2007 |
| Rule Interchange Format Working Group (participants) | Christian de Sainte Marie, Christopher Welty | Sandro Hawke | Chartered until 31 May 2008 |
| Semantic Web Coordination Group (participants) | Ivan Herman | Ivan Herman | Chartered until 31 May 2011 |
| Semantic Web Deployment Working Group (participants) | Thomas Baker, Guus Schreiber | Ralph Swick | Chartered until 30 December 2008 |
| Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group | Tonya Hongsermeier, Eric Neumann | Eric Prud'hommeaux | Chartered until 31 May 2008 |
| Semantic Web Interest Group | Dan Brickley | Ivan Herman | Chartered until 31 May 2011 |
This Activity Statement was prepared for the April 2008 W3C Advisory Committee Meeting (Members only) per section 5 of the W3C Process Document. Generated from group data.
Ivan Herman, Semantic Web Activity Lead
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