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RDF Current Status

This page summarizes the relationships among specifications, whether they are finished standards or drafts. Below, each title links to the most recent version of a document. For related introductory information, see: Inference, Linked Data, Meta Formats, Vocabularies.

Completed Work

W3C Recommendations have been reviewed by W3C Members, by software developers, and by other W3C groups and interested parties, and are endorsed by the Director as Web Standards. Learn more about the W3C Recommendation Track.

Group Notes are not standards and do not have the same level of W3C endorsement.

Standards

2004-02-10

Resource Description Framework (RDF): Concepts and Abstract Syntax

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The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a framework for representing information in the Web.

RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax defines an abstract syntax on which RDF is based, and which serves to link its concrete syntax to its formal semantics. It also includes discussion of design goals, key concepts, datatyping, character normalization and handling of URI references.

2004-02-10

RDF Semantics

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This is a specification of a precise semantics, and corresponding complete systems of inference rules, for the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and RDF Schema (RDFS).

2004-02-10

RDF Primer

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The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a language for representing information about resources in the World Wide Web. This Primer is designed to provide the reader with the basic knowledge required to effectively use RDF. It introduces the basic concepts of RDF and describes its XML syntax. It describes how to define RDF vocabularies using the RDF Vocabulary Description Language, and gives an overview of some deployed RDF applications. It also describes the content and purpose of other RDF specification documents.

2004-02-10

RDF Vocabulary Description Language 1.0: RDF Schema

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The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a general-purpose language for representing information in the Web. This specification describes how to use RDF to describe RDF vocabularies. This specification defines a vocabulary for this purpose and defines other built-in RDF vocabulary initially specified in the RDF Model and Syntax Specification.

2004-02-10

RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised)

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This document defines an XML syntax for RDF called RDF/XML in terms of Namespaces in XML, the XML Information Set and XML Base. The formal grammar for the syntax is annotated with actions generating triples of the RDF graph as defined in RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax.

2004-02-10

RDF Test Cases

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This document describes the RDF Test Cases deliverable for the RDF Core Working Group.

Group Notes

2013-04-09

N-Triples

N-Triples is a line-based, plain text format for encoding an RDF graph.

2013-04-09

N-Quads

N-Quads is a line-based, plain text format for encoding an RDF dataset.

2012-10-09

Microdata to RDF

HTML microdata is an extension to HTML used to embed machine-readable data into HTML documents. Whereas the microdata specification describes a means of markup, the output format is JSON. This specification describes processing rules that may be used to extract RDF [RDF-CONCEPTS] from an HTML document containing microdata.

2012-07-05

RDF Interfaces

The RDF Interfaces Specification defines a set of standardized interfaces for working with RDF data in a programming environment.

2011-03-03

Describing Linked Datasets with the VoID Vocabulary

VoID is an RDF Schema vocabulary for expressing metadata about RDF datasets. It is intended as a bridge between the publishers and users of RDF data, with applications ranging from data discovery to cataloging and archiving of datasets. This document is a detailed guide to the VoID vocabulary. It describes how VoID can be used to express general metadata based on Dublin Core, access metadata, structural metadata, and links between datasets. It also provides deployment advice and discusses the discovery of VoID descriptions.

2006-03-14

XML Schema Datatypes in RDF and OWL

This document addresses three questions left unanswered by these Recommendations: Which URIref should be used to refer to a user defined datatype? Which values of which XML Schema simple types are the same? How to use the problematic xsd:duration in RDF and OWL? In addition, we further describe how to integrate OWL DL with user defined datatypes

2003-10-10

LBase: Semantics for Languages of the Semantic Web

This document describes a mechanism for providing a precise semantics for the Semantic Web Languages (referred to as SWELs from now on. The purpose of this is to define clearly the consequences and allowed inferences from constructs in these languages.

Drafts

Below are draft documents: Candidate Recommendations, Last Call Drafts, other Working Drafts. Some of these may become Web Standards through the W3C Recommendation Track process. Others may be published as Group Notes or become obsolete specifications.

Candidate Recommendations

2013-02-19

Turtle

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a general-purpose language for representing information in the Web.

Last Call Drafts

2013-05-21

Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 2.0

This document defines data categories and their implementation as a set of elements and attributes called the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) 2.0. ITS 2.0 is the successor of ITS 1.0; it is designed to foster the creation of multilingual Web content, focusing on HTML5, XML based formats in general, and to leverage localization workflows based on the XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF). In addition to HTML5 and XML, algorithms to convert ITS attributes to RDFa and NIF are provided.

2013-05-16

JSON-LD 1.0 Processing Algorithms and API

An Application Programming Interface and a set of algorithms for programmatically transforming JSON-LD documents in order to make them easier to work with in programming environments like JavaScript, Python, and Ruby.

2013-04-11

JSON-LD 1.0

A common JSON representation format for expressing directed graphs; mixing both Linked Data and non-Linked Data in a single JSON document.

Other Working Drafts

2013-05-02

vCard Ontology

The document describes a mapping of the vCard specification (RFC6350) to RDF/OWL. The goal is to promote the use of vCard for the description of people and organisations utilising semantic web techniques and allowing compatibility with traditional vCard implementations.

2013-04-09

RDF 1.1 Semantics

This document describes a precise semantics for the Resource Description Framework 1.1 and RDF Schema. It defines a number of distinct entailment regimes and corresponding systems of inference rules. It is part of a suite of documents which comprise the full specification of RDF 1.1.

2013-04-09

TriG

This document defines a textual syntax for RDF called TriG that allows an RDF dataset to be completely written in a compact and natural text form, with abbreviations for common usage patterns and datatypes. TriG is an extension of the Turtle format.

2013-03-07

Linked Data Platform 1.0

A set of best practices and simple approach for a read-write Linked Data architecture, based on HTTP access to web resources that describe their state using RDF.

2013-01-15

RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax

This document is work in progress towards a revision of the RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax Recommendation, and is intended to eventually replace that document. It is part of a larger effort to revise the RDF specifications as published in 2004. The most significant changes from the 2004 edition are: modified string literals, a section on skolemization of blank nodes, and many updated references to other specifications (including a change in terminology from “URI references” to “IRIs”). A fuller list of changes that have been made to date is provided in Appendix A. Various areas of work to be tackled in upcoming working drafts are highlighted throughout the document, but should not yet be understood as an exhaustive list.