W3C News: Semantic Web

The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation Draft Published

2012-02-02T14:29:17Z

The Provenance Working Group has published a Working Draft of The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation. PROV-DM is a data model for provenance for building representations of the entities, people and activities involved in producing a piece of data or thing in the world. PROV-DM is domain-agnostic, but is equipped with extensibility points allowing further domain-specific and application-specific extensions to be defined. PROV-DM is accompanied by PROV-ASN, a technology-independent abstract syntax notation, which allows serializations of PROV-DM instances to be created for human consumption, which facilitates its mapping to concrete syntax, and which is used as the basis for a formal semantics. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Three Last Call Working Drafts published by the RDF Web Applications Working Group

2012-01-31T15:05:00Z

The RDF Web Applications Working Group has published three Last Call Working Drafts today:

Together, these documents outline the vision for RDFa in a variety of XML and HTML-based Web markup languages. RDFa Core 1.1 specifies the core syntax and processing rules for RDFa 1.1 and how the language is intended to be used in XML documents. RDFa Lite 1.1 provides a simple subset of RDFa for novice Web authors. XHTML+RDFa 1.1 specifies the usage of RDFa in the XHTML markup language.

A number of improvements have been made to RDFa 1.1 over the past year by working closely with Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and the other search engine developers. Public review and comments have resulted in a number of further refinements to the language that eases the learning curve for beginner Web authors.

The release of these documents as Last Call Working Drafts is a signal to the public that the Working Group believes that all of the technical requirements, public comments and reported issues have been addressed. It is also an open invitation to the general public to review and provide feedback on the finalization of this technology via the RDF Web Applications Working Group mailing list, by 21 February. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Workshop Report: Linked Enterprise Data Workshop

2012-01-18T14:15:41Z

W3C today published the final report of the Linked Enterprise Data Workshop, hosted by W3C on the 6-7 December in Cambridge, MA, USA. This workshop provided a way for the community to meet and discuss some of the challenges when deploying application relying on the principles of Linked Data. The presentations covered many different topics, ranging from the benefits a set of additional conventions would bring to specific technical issues such as the challenges of dealing with the reality that URLs do change sometimes, as well as the need for a more robust security model, and specific gaps in the current set of standards.

Participants of the Workshop agreed that W3C should create a Working Group to define a “Linked Data Platform”. This is expected to be an enumeration of specifications which constitute Linked Data, with some small additional specifications to cover specific functionality such as pagination. We anticipate a draft charter will be available in the coming weeks.

Two Drafts Published by the HTML Data Task Force

2012-01-12T15:42:28Z

The HTML Data Task Force of the Semantic Web Interest Group has published two documents today:

The HTML Data Guide aims to help publishers and consumers of HTML data. With several syntaxes (microformats, microdata, RDFa) and vocabularies (schema.org, Dublin Core, microformat vocabularies, etc.) to choose from, it provides guidance on deciding what to choose in a way that meets the publisher's or consumer's needs.
The Microdata to RDF describes processing rules that may be used to extract RDF from an HTML document containing microdata.

Both documents are Working Drafts, with the goal of publishing a final version as Interest Group Notes. Comments and feedbacks are welcome; please send them to the public-html-data-tf@w3.org mailing list.

First Drafts of Two Provenance Specifications Published

2012-01-10T17:16:13Z

The Provenance Working Group has published two First Public Working Drafts:

PROV-AQ: Provenance Access and Query which specifies how to use standard Web protocols, including HTTP, to obtain information about the provenance of Web resources. This is part of the larger W3C provenance framework. Provenance refers to the sources of information, such as people and processes, involved in producing or delivering Web documents, data, and resources.
PROV Model Primer which provides an intuitive introduction and guide to the core data model for building representations of the entities, people and processes involved in producing a piece of data or thing in the world.

Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Last Call: Five SPARQL 1.1 Drafts

2012-01-05T21:32:11Z

The SPARQL Working Group has published (second) Last Call Working Drafts of the following SPARQL 1.1 documents. SPARQL is a set of specfications related to querying a web of linked data. Today's publications

SPARQL 1.1 Update defines an update language for RDF graphs.
SPARQL 1.1 Service Description defines a vocabulary and discovery mechanism for describing the capabilities of a SPARQL endpoint.
SPARQL 1.1 Query Language adds support for aggregates, subqueries, projected expressions, and negation to the SPARQL query language.
SPARQL 1.1 Protocol describes a means for conveying SPARQL queries and updates to a SPARQL processing service and returning the results via HTTP to the entity that requested them.
SPARQL 1.1 Entailment Regimes defines conditions under which SPARQL queries can be used with entailment regimes such as RDF, RDF Schema, OWL, or RIF.

Review comments welcome through 6 February. Learn more about the Semantic Web and Linked Data.

Drafts Updated for XHTML+RDFa 1.1 and RDFa Core 1.1

2011-12-15T22:06:32Z

The RDF Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of RDFa Core 1.1, a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. The group also published an update to XHTML+RDFa 1.1, a Host Language for RDFa Core 1.1. This document is intended for authors who want to create XHTML Family documents that embed rich semantic markup. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation Draft Published

2011-12-15T21:01:57Z

The Provenance Working Group has published a Working Draft of The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation. Provenance of information is crucial in deciding whether information is to be trusted, how it should be integrated with other diverse information sources, and how to give credit to its originators when reusing it. In an open and inclusive environment such as the Web, users find information that is often contradictory or questionable: provenance can help those users to make trust judgments. PROV-DM is a data model for provenance for building representations of the entities, people and activities involved in producing a piece of data or thing in the world. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

First Draft Published of The PROV Ontology: Model and Formal Semantics

2011-12-13T17:32:38Z

The Provenance Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The PROV Ontology: Model and Formal Semantics. The PROV Ontology (also PROV-O) encodes the PROV Data Model [PROV-DM] in the OWL2 Web Ontology Language (OWL2). The PROV ontology consists of a set of classes, properties, and restrictions that can be used to represent provenance information. The PROV ontology can also be specialized to create new classes and properties for modeling provenance information specific to different domain applications. The PROV ontology supports a set of entailments based on OWL2 formal semantics and provenance specific inference rules. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

RDFa Lite 1.1 Draft Published; RDFa 1.1 Primer Updated

2011-12-08T20:45:12Z

The RDF Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft for RDFa Lite 1.1 and an updated Working Draft for the RDFa 1.1 Primer.

One critique of RDFa is that is has too much functionality, leaving first-time authors confused about the more advanced features. RDFa Lite is a minimalist version of RDFa that helps authors easily jump into the structured data world. The goal was to outline a small subset of RDFa that will work for 80% of the Web authors out there doing simple data markup.

The RDFa Primer is a more in-depth introduction to RDFa and all of the structured data markup features that it provides.

The release of these two documents as Working Drafts is an open invitation to the general public to review and provide feedback on the direction of these documents via the RDF Web Applications Working Group mailing list. These documents are intended to be the last Working drafts before RDFa enters Last Call. You can learn more about similar projects to RDFa in W3C's Semantic Web Activity.

Two SPARQL 1.1 Drafts Published

2011-11-17T22:43:52Z

The SPARQL Working Group published two drafts today:

the First Public Working Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Overview, which provides an introduction to a set of W3C specifications that facilitate querying and manipulating RDF graph content on the Web or in an RDF store.
a Last Call Working Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Federated Query, which offers data consumers an opportunity to merge data distributed across the Web from multiple SPARQL query services. Comments on this working draft are welcome before 31 December 2011.

Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Incubator Group Report: Library Linked Data XG Final Report

2011-10-25T13:18:01Z

The W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group has published their final report. In the report, the group characterized the current state of library data management, outlined the potential benefits of publishing library data as Linked Data, and formulated next-step recommendations for library standards bodies, data and systems designers, librarians and archivists, and library leaders. The report is supplemented by two more detailed reports. "Use Cases" describes library applications which showcase the benefits of adopting Semantic Web standards and Linked Data principles to publish library assets such as bibliographic data, concept schemes, and authority files. "Datasets, Value Vocabularies, and Metadata Element Sets" provides a snapshot of key resources available for creating library Linked Data today. The group moved several documents to the W3C's Semantic Web wiki and expects the discussion to continue on the public-lld mailing list, both of which are open to participation by all interested members of the public.

This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track.

Group Note: Ontology of Rhetorical Blocks (ORB)

2011-10-20T14:27:47Z

The Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group has published a Group Note of Ontology of Rhetorical Blocks (ORB). The Ontology of Rhetorical Blocks is a formalization capturing the coarse-grained rhetorical structure of scientific publications. This note is designed to provide a general overview of the motivation and use-cases supporting ORB, in addition to the actual conceptual elements, as well as, practical examples of how to use it in conjunction with different representation languages. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

First Draft of PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation Published

2011-10-18T14:22:44Z

The Provenance Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation. PROV-DM is a core data model for provenance for building representations of the entities, people and processes involved in producing a piece of data or thing in the world. PROV-DM is domain-agnostic but with well-defined extensibility points allowing further domain-specific and application-specific extensions to be defined. It is accompanied by PROV-ASN, a technology-independent abstract syntax notation, which allows serializations of PROV-DM instances to be created for human consumption, which facilitates its mapping to concrete syntax, and which is used as the basis for a formal semantics. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Open Task Forces to Discuss Web Schemas, Data Formats

2011-09-30T17:56:06Z

Structured data on the Web gained additional momentum with the June 2011 announcement from Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! of schema.org, which "provides a collection of schemas ... that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers." The launch raised two topics in particular that will now be the focus of new task forces within W3C's Semantic Web Interest Group; schema.org will participate in these discussions:

Web Schemas Task Force, to be chaired by R.V. Guha (Google). This task force will focus on collaboration around vocabularies.
HTML Data Task Force, to be chaired by Jeni Tennison. This task force will focus on the relationship between RDFa, microdata, and other approaches to structured data on the Web, including how people can combine data sources or translate from one syntax to another.

Anyone may participate in these task forces; for more information see the Semantic Web Interest Group home page. Learn more about the Semantic Web.