W3C Semantic Web News and Events Archive

The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation. The following is an archive of News and Events that have in part made the development and deployment of the Semantic Web possible.

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Semantic Web Education and Outreach Interest Group Launched 2006-09-12T15:30:00+02:00: W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Semantic Web Education and Outreach Interest Group, chaired by Susie Stephens (Oracle). The group is is chartered to collect proof-of-concept business cases, demonstration prototypes, etc, based on successful implementations of Semantic Web technologies, collect user experiences, develop and facilitate community outreach strategies, training and educational resources.

Semantic Web Activity Extended and New Groups Announced 2006-07-14T18:00:00+02:00: W3C is pleased to announce the renewal of the Semantic Web Activity. The W3C Advisory Committee approved the continuing work in RDF data access, rules interchange, and health care and life sciences. Three new groups are chartered for work on Semantic Web deployment, extracting RDF from XML (e.g., to process microformats), and education and outreach.

Rule Interchange Format Use Cases and Requirements Updated 2006-07-10T18:00:00+02:00: The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of RIF Use Cases and Requirements. Synthesized from nearly fifty use cases, the document specifies use cases and requirements for a format that allows rules to be translated between rule languages and thus transferred between rule systems. The group invites comments through 8 September.

RDF/OWL Representation of WordNet Working Draft Published 2006-06-19T18:00:00+02:00: The WordNet Task Force of the Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of RDF/OWL Representation of WordNet. The draft proposes a conversion to RDF and OWL of WordNet, the machine-readable lexical http://www.w3.org/2006/06/22-HCLS-irc.htmlreference system developed at Princeton University for the English language. The group describes how the conversion was made and how it may be queried for use in Semantic Web applications.

Incubator Group to Explore Semantic Web for Multimedia Content 2006-05-05 W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Multimedia Semantics Incubator Group, chartered to show how metadata interoperability can be achieved by using the Semantic Web technologies to integrate existing multimedia metadata standards.

Rule Interchange Format Use Cases and Requirements Working Draft Published 2006-03-27 The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of RIF Use Cases and Requirements. Synthesized from nearly fifty use cases, the document specifies use cases and requirements for a format that allows rules to be translated between rule languages and thus transferred between rule systems.

Image Annotation on the Semantic Web Draft Published 2006-03-22 The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Image Annotation on the Semantic Web. Produced by the group's Multimedia Annotation in the Semantic Web Task Force, the draft describes creation, storage, manipulation, interchange and processing of image metadata. Guidelines and an overview of tools and RDF and OWL vocabularies are provided.

RDF/A Primer Working Draft Published 2006-03-14 The HTML Working Group and the Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group jointly have published the First Public Working Draft of the RDF/A Primer 1.0. Produced by the groups' RDF in XHTML Task Force, the draft is a companion to the XHTML 2.0 specification. This document introduces syntax for expressing RDF metadata within XHTML and explains the use of the XHTML metainformation modules.

Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies Working Draft Published 2006-03-14 The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Best Practice Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies. Produced by the group's Vocabulary Management Task Force, this cookbook offers step-by-step instructions for choosing and publishing an RDF Schema or OWL vocabulary or ontology on the Web, giving example configurations for the Apache HTTP server.

XML Schema Datatypes in RDF and OWL Note Published 2006-03-14 The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has published XML Schema Datatypes in RDF and OWL as a Working Group Note. Providing questions and answers about XML Schema datatypes in the Semantic Web, the Note addresses user defined datatypes, comparison of values, duration, and the use of numeric types.

Semantic Web Primer for Object-Oriented Software Developers Note Published 2006-03-10 The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has published A Semantic Web Primer for Object-Oriented Software Developers as a Working Group Note. Produced by the group's Software Engineering Task Force, the Note shows how development processes can use the Semantic Web as a platform for domain model creation, sharing and reuse. RDF Schema and OWL are shown used in tandem with mainstream object-oriented languages.

SPARQL Protocol for RDF Last Call , 2006-02-21 The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a second Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Protocol for RDF. The draft describes RDF data access and transmission of RDF queries from clients to processors. The protocol is compatible with the SPARQL query language (pronounced "sparkle") and is designed to convey queries from other RDF query languages as well.

RDF / Topic Maps Interoperability Note , 2006-02-10 The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has published A Survey of RDF/Topic Maps Interoperability Proposals as a Working Group Note. The Note records existing proposals for integrating data represented in W3C's RDF/OWL family of languages with data represented in ISO's Topic Maps. It is a starting point for establishing guidelines for combined usage of these standards, assuring interoperability.

SPARQL Protocol for RDF - Last Call , 2006-01-26 The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a second Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Protocol for RDF. The draft describes RDF data access and transmission of RDF queries from clients to processors. The protocol is compatible with the SPARQL query language (pronounced "sparkle") and is designed to convey queries from other RDF query languages as well.

SPARQL Query Results XML Format - Last Call , 2006-01-26 The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a second Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Results XML Format. The SPARQL query language (pronounced "sparkle") offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources.

SPARQL Query Language for RDF , 2005-11-28 The RDF Data Access Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Language for RDF. SPARQL offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources.

W3C Group Links Semantic Web With Medical Industry : 2005-11-22 , W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group (HCLSIG). Chaired by Tonya Hongsermeier (Partners Healthcare) and Eric Neumann (Unaffiliated), the group is chartered to improve collaboration, research and development, and innovation adoption in the health care and life science industries. Aiding decision-making in clinical research, Semantic Web technologies will bridge many forms of biological and medical information across institutions. Additional information is availiable on the press release.

Rules Interchange Working Group Launched : 2005-11-07 , W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group. The group is chartered to produce a language for the exchange of rules and their transfer between rule systems. Rules are executable pieces of declarative knowledge, important in managing complex and dynamic operations. Additional information about the Rule Interchange Format, can be found in the press release.

Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) Working Drafts updated : 2005-11-04 , The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group released updated Working Drafts of the SKOS Core Guide and SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification. The drafts explain how to express classification schemes, thesauruses, subject heading lists, taxonomies, terminologies, glossaries and other types of controlled vocabulary in RDF. Previous SKOS work was supported by the European project SWAD-Europe.

SPARQL Protocol in WSDL 1.1 : 2005-10-25 , The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a First Public Working Draft of the SPARQL Protocol for RDF Using WSDL 1.1. The draft describes the SPARQL protocol for RDF non-normatively in WSDL 1.1. It was written to gain implementation experience using existing Web services toolkits until WSDL 2.0 toolkits become widely available. The group also provides a wiki for code samples.

Simile Release of Piggy-Bank 2.1 : 2005-10-03 , The SIMILE project, a joint project conducted by the W3C, MIT Libraries, and MIT CSAIL has announced the availability of a new major release of Piggy Bank. Piggy Bank is an extension to the Firefox web browser that turns it into Semantic Web application making it easier to manage, organize and share RDF data. Built around its Longwell faceted browser engine, the new Piggy Bank release features greatly improved stability, usability, performance and integration of third-party services (e.g. Google Maps).

RDF Calendar Note published : 2005-09-29 , The W3C Semantic Web Interest Group has release a NOTE on RDF Calendar - an application of the Resource Description Framework to iCalendar Data. This report discusses an effort to apply the Resource Description Framework (RDF) to iCalendar data in order to integrate calendar data with other Semantic Web data such as social networking data, syndicated content, and multimedia meta-data.

Last Call: SPARQL Protocol for RDF : 2005-09-14 , The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Protocol for RDF. The draft describes RDF data access and transmission of RDF queries from clients to processors. The protocol is compatible with the SPARQL query language and is designed to convey queries from other RDF query languages as well. Comments are welcome through 14 October.

Last Call: SPARQL Variable Binding Results XML Format : 2005-08-02 , The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Results XML Format. The SPARQL query language (pronounced "sparkle") offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources. Comments are welcome through 1 September.

Last Call: SPARQL Query Language for RDF : 2005-07-21 , The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Language for RDF. Comments are welcome through 1 September. SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources.

W3C Holds Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services : 2005-06-09 , The W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services is 9-10 June in Innsbruck, Austria, hosted by DERI and supported by EC's IST programme WS2 project. Over sixty organizations are presenting papers identifying areas of shared interest between Web services and Semantic Web communities. Topics include background technologies, registries, taxonomies, search mechanisms, ontologies for Web services, Web services choreography, and business process. Additional information can be found on the press release.

W3C Rule Languages Workshop Report released : 2005-06-07 , The report on the W3C Rule Languages Workshop is now available. Over eighty representatives from various vendors, user communities, and research groups attended and reported on their views, experience, and ideas on options for establishing a standard web-based language for expressing rules. More information is available from the Workshop Web site and the press release.

SPARQL Protocol for RDF Working Draft Released : 2005-06-01 , The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a second Working Draft of the SPARQL Protocol for RDF. The draft describes RDF data access and transmission of RDF queries from clients to processors. The protocol is compatible with the SPARQL query language (pronounced "sparkle") and is designed to convey queries from other RDF query languages as well.

SPARQL Variable Binding Results XML Format Working Draft Released : 2005-06-01 , The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a second Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Results XML Format. The SPARQL query language offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources.

SIMILE Release of Piggy Bank : 2005-05-23 , The SIMILE project, a joint project conducted by the W3C, HP, MIT Libraries, and MIT CSAIL to promote semantic inteoperability of metadata between digital libraries, is happy to announce the release of Piggy-Bank. Piggy Bank is an extension to the Firefox web browser that turns it into Semantic Web browser. Additional details, including installation guides, usage scenarios, and technical documentation, are availiable on the Piggy Bank home page.

Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) Working Draft Released : 2005-05-10, The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group released three First Public Working Drafts: SKOS Core Guide, SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification, and a Quick Guide to Publishing a Thesaurus on the Semantic Web. The drafts explain how to express classification schemes, thesauruses, subject heading lists, taxonomies, terminologies, glossaries and other types of controlled vocabulary in RDF. Previous SKOS work was supported by the European project SWAD-Europe.

XML Schema Datatypes in RDF and OWL Working Draft Released : 2005-05-02, The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group released a First Public Working Draft of XML Schema Datatypes in RDF and OWL. Posing questions and answers about XML Schema datatypes in the Semantic Web, the document discusses user defined datatypes, comparison of values, duration, and the use of numeric types. The group invites public discussion and feedback on implementations.

SPARQL Query Language for RDF : 2005-04-19, The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the third Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Language for RDF. SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources.

Representing Classes As Property Values on the Semantic Web : 2005-04-11, The OEP Task Force of the Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group released Representing Classes As Property Values on the Semantic Web as a Working Group Note. The note presents the direct approach for representing classes as property values in the full OWL Web Ontology Language and RDF Schema, mechanisms for OWL DL and OWL Lite, and considerations for users.

RDF/Topic Maps Interoperability Working Draft Released : 2005-03-29, The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of A Survey of RDF/Topic Maps Interoperability Proposals. The document is a starting point for establishing standard guidelines for combined usage of the W3C RDF/OWL family and the ISO family of Topic Maps standards.

RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements Updated : 2005-03-25, The RDF Data Access Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements. The draft suggests how an RDF query language and data access protocol could be used in the construction of novel, useful Semantic Web applications in areas like Web publishing, personal information management, transportation and tourism.

SPARQL Query Language for RDF second Working Draft released : 2005-02-17, The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the second Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Language for RDF. SPARQL offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources.

Call for Participation: W3C Workshop on Rule Languages for Interoperability 2005-02-12 : Position papers are due 18 March for the W3C Workshop on Rule Languages for Interoperability to be held 27-28 April in Washington, DC, USA. This workshop will bring together rule system vendors, rule users with a need for interoperability, and others to work toward developing a standard rule language, a key next step in promoting data exchange on the Web.

W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services : 2005-02-10, Position papers are due 22 April for the W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services to be held 9-10 June in Innsbruck, Austria. Participants will discuss possible future W3C work on a comprehensive and expressive framework for describing all aspects of Web services leveraging Semantic Web standards.

SPARQL Variable Binding Results XML Format Working Draft released : 2004-12-21, The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the SPARQL Variable Binding Results XML Format. The SPARQL query language offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources.

Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences: Summary : 2004-12-15, The summary and position papers have been published from the W3C Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences held in Cambridge, MA, USA on 27-28 October. The workshop concluded that work is needed in core vocabularies and integration of life science identifiers (LSID) and Web resources, and that an implementers Interest Group will be beneficial.

OWL-S: Semantic Markup for Web Services Note Published 2004-11-22, OWL-S: Semantic Markup for Web Services defines an OWL ontology of services that enables users and software agents helps automate the process of discovering, invoking, composing, and monitoring Web resources that offer particular services and have particular properties. The W3C Member Submission describes the overall structure of the ontology and its three main parts: the service profile for advertising and discovering services; the process model, which gives a detailed description of a service's operation; and the grounding, which provides details on how to interoperate with a service, via messages.

Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences Explores Scientific Data Networks : 2004-10-26 , The W3C Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences is being held in Cambridge, MA, USA on 27-28 October. Data networks allow biology to progress from the mapping of one-dimensional DNA to understanding multi-dimensional organisms and their diseases. Semantic Web technologies such as RDF and OWL enable the rapid creation of rich information networks and can assist in the generation of hypotheses across massive data sets. Workshop participants will address the publication, sharing and management of data networks, and will develop use cases and prototypes. More information about this workshop can be found in the press release.

SIMILE Release of Longwell RDF Browser v1.0 : 2004-10-22 , The SIMILE project, a joint project conducted by the W3C, HP, MIT Libraries, and MIT CSAIL to promote semantic inteoperability of metadata between digital libraries, is happy to announce the release of their web-based general RDF browser, Longwell. Longwell is a Java web application written on top of Jena, Apache Velocity and Apache Lucene, providing the ability to browse and search any kind of RDF dataset, both thru both facetted browsing and free-text search.

SPARQL Query Language for RDF Working Draft released 2004-10-12, The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Language for RDF. SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources.

RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements Updated 2004-10-12, The RDF Data Access Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements. The draft suggests how an RDF query language and data access protocol could be used in the construction of novel, useful Semantic Web applications in areas like Web publishing, personal information management, transportation and tourism.

Ontaria 0.8 Released 2004-09-24, Ontaria is a searchable and browsable directory of semantic web data. Our focus is RDF vocabularies with OWL ontologies, but all the RDF data we index is visible. The site is primarily intended for people creating RDF content who want to better understand which vocabularies are available and how they are being used. Beyond this, Ontaria may be useful for finding and exploring arbitrary RDF content.

RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements Updated 2004-08-04, The RDF Data Access Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements. The draft suggests how an RDF query language and data access protocol could be used in the construction of novel, useful Semantic Web applications in areas like Web publishing, personal information management, transportation and tourism.

Representing Specified Values in OWL 2004-08-03, The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment (SWBPD) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Representing Specified Values in OWL: "value partitions" and "value sets." Comments are welcome. The draft presents methods for representing modified values and collections of values in the OWL Web Ontology Language.

Call for Participation: Public Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences 2004-07-28, Position papers are due 6 September for the W3C Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences to be held in Cambridge, MA, USA on 27-28 October. Attendees will discuss how Semantic Web technologies such as RDF, OWL and the Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) help to manage modern life sciences research, enable disease understanding and accelerate the development of therapies.

RDF Data Access Working Group Meets to Select Initial Design 2004-07-26, The RDF Data Access Working Group reviewed use cases for ebXML and XQuery integration and selected an initial design at its second face-to-face meeting 14-15 July in Carlsbad, California, hosted by Network Inference.

Semantic Web Best Practice and Deployment Working Drafts Published 2004-07-21, The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment (SWBPD) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Defining N-ary Relations on the Semantic Web: Use With Individuals which presents ontology patterns for representing n-ary relations and Representing Classes As Property Values on the Semantic Web which address the issue of using classes as property values in OWL.

RDF and OWL Working Groups Complete Deliverables, Close 2004-07-01, W3C is pleased to announce that the RDF Core and Web Ontology Working Groups have successfully completed all deliverables. Together these W3C Working Groups developed twelve W3C Recommendations specifying the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the OWL Web Ontology Language. Please join us in thanking all participants and Chairs Brian McBride (HP Labs), Dan Brickley (W3C), Jim Hendler (University of Maryland) and Guus Schreiber (Ibrow) for their contributions.

RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements Published 2004-06-03, The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements. The document outlines use cases for RDF query languages and access protocols and their requirements, and examines design objectives.

WWW2004 Semantic Web Track and Devday Presenations Online 2004-05-26, The W3C Track on the Semantic Web and the Semantic Web Developers Day presentations are now online. These presentations provide a status update on the Semantic Web Activity at the W3C and highlight examples of industry adoption and novel appliciations using Semantic Web technologies.

Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages (GRDDL) Note Published 2004-04-13, The W3C Semantic Web Coordination Group has released a Note Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages (GRDDL) which is deisgned to provide a mechanism for encoding RDF statements in XHTML and XML to be extracted by programs such as XSLT transformations.

W3C RDF Data Access Working Group to meet 22-23 April 2004 in Amsterdam 2004-03-17, The W3C RDF Data Access Working Group decided to hold its first face-to-face meeting 22-23 April 2004 in Amsterdam, near XML Europe. Thanks to @semantics for hosting.

W3C Launches Phase 2 of Semantic Web Activity 2004-02-25, W3C announced the launch of Phase 2 of the Semantic Web Activity. Two new Working Groups have been formed; the Best Practices and Deployment WG (charter) and the RDF Data Access Working Group (charter). These join the RDF Core and Web Ontology WGs, the Semantic Web Interest Group, and the Semantic Web Coordination Group.

Semantic Web Interest Group meeting to be held 1-2 March 2004, Cannes-Mandelieu, France. 2004-02-11, The W3C Semantic Web Interest Group is having a face-to-face meeting March 1-2, 2004 in Cannes-Mandelieu, France. All interested Group members are encouraged to attend. A draft agena of this meeting is now availiable.

RDF and OWL are W3C Recommendations 2004-02-10, The World Wide Web Consortium today released the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the OWL Web Ontology Language (OWL) as W3C Recommendations. RDF is used to represent information and to exchange knowledge in the Web. OWL is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, supporting advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management. Read the press release for the full list of twelve documents and testimonials to see how organizations are using these technologies today.

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Parsing OWL in RDF/XML Published 2004-01-15, The Web Ontology Working Group has released Parsing OWL in RDF/XML as a Working Group Note. The OWL language is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, supporting advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management. This document describes a strategy for OWL-RDF parsers.

CC/PP Structure and Vocabularies 1.0 is a W3C Recommendation 2004-01-15, Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. CC/PP 1.0 is a system for expressing device capabilities and user preferences using the Resource Description Framework (RDF). CC/PP guides the adaptation of content, making it easier to deliver Web content to devices.

Resource Description Framework (RDF) Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation 2003-12-15, W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the ` Resource Description Framework (RDF) to Proposed Recommendation. Comments are invited through 19 January. RDF is used to represent information and to exchange knowledge in the Web. The RDF language is presented in six technical reports: RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised), RDF Vocabulary Description Language 1.0: RDF Schema, RDF Semantics, RDF Primer, RDF Test Cases, Resource Description Framework (RDF): Concepts and Abstract Syntax

OWL Web Ontology Language Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation 2003-12-15, W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the OWL Web Ontology Language (OWL) to Proposed Recommendation. Comments are invited through 19 January. OWL builds on W3C's RDF and is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, supporting advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management. The OWL language is presented in six parts: Overview, Guide, Reference, Semantics and Abstract Syntax, Test Cases, and Use Cases and Requirements.

Metalog v2.0b released 2003-10-21, W3C's Semantic Web Advanced Development initiative announces Metalog v2.0b, a reasoning system built for the Semantic Web by adding a query layer on top of RDF. Metalog is user friendly and is designed to make reasoning about the Web particularly easy for all the people, by providing an interface similar to natural language. It is available for all Windows and Linux platforms (a Mac porting is forthcoming too). Metalog is developed by Massimo Marchiori of W3C and the University of Venice, Italy. Learn more about Metalog.

RDF Core releases Second Last Call Documents 2003-10-10, The RDF Core Working Group has released the second Last Call of six Working Drafts. The documents published are RDF Primer, RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax, RDF Semantics, RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised), RDF Vocabulary Description Language 1.0: RDF Schema, and RDF Test Cases Also published as a Working Group Note is LBase, the model theory for Semantic Web languages.

RDF Core releases new round of Documents 2003-09-05, The RDF Core Working Group has released six Working Drafts in response to Last Call comments. The Resource Description Framework (RDF) supports the exchange of knowledge on the Web. The documents published are RDF Primer, RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax, RDF Semantics, RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised), RDF Vocabulary Description Language 1.0: RDF Schema, and RDF Test Cases Also published as a Working Group Note is LBase, the model theory for Semantic Web languages.

Web Ontology Language (OWL) Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation 2003-08-19, W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the OWL Web Ontology Language to Candidate Recommendation. OWL is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, providing advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management. Comments are welcome. Read the press release and FAQ and more about the Semantic Web Activity. The OWL Web Ontology Language in six parts: Overview, Guide, Reference, Semantics and Abstract Syntax, Test Cases, Use Cases and Requirements.

IsaViz 2.0 Released 2003-08-11, W3C's Semantic Web Advanced Development initiative announces a new release of IsaViz, a visual environment for browsing and authoring RDF models represented as graphs. Version 2.0 supports GSS, an RDF-based stylesheet language. Other new features include datatype support, enhanced navigation, better handling of namespace prefix bindings, and an import/export plug-in interface. Learn more about IsaViz.

W3C Translation Index Based on RDF : 2003-05-12, W3C thanks the volunteers who contributed thousands of hours translating W3C publications into more than 30 languages. Showcasing W3C Semantic Web, XML and internationalization technologies, data for volunteer translations of W3C technical reports and related documents is now maintained in RDF encoded in XML. Combining this metadata with other RDF, the translation index makes extensive use of Unicode, links to official versions, and can be viewed according to language or technology. Read the project description and please visit Translations at W3C.

W3C RDF Validation Service Updated : 2003-05-08, The RDF Validation Service has been updated to support all of the specifications described in the RDF Last Call Working Drafts announcement and now supports datatypes. A new interactive graphical visualization of models built on IsaViz is now also provided. The RDF validator is based on the ARP parser version 2 alpha that is distributed as open source by Hewlett-Packard.

OWL Last Call Working Drafts Published : 2003-04-02, The Web Ontology Working Group has released six Working Drafts, five in Last Call, for the OWL Web Ontology Language 1.0, including the OWL Guide, Overview, Use Cases and Requirements, Semantics and Abstract Syntax, Reference, and Test Cases. Comments are welcome through 9 May. OWL is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, providing advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management.

IsaViz 1.2 Released : 2003-02-13, W3C's Semantic Web Advanced Development initiative announces a new release of IsaViz, a visual environment for browsing and authoring RDF models represented as graphs. Version 1.2 supports the RDF Core Working Group's Last Call Working Drafts. New features include enhanced graphics, improved internationalization and Notation 3 support. Learn about IsaViz.

RDF Validator Updated : 2003-02-07 , The W3C RDF Validation Service has been updated to deal correctly with a wide range of characters and character encodings for better internationalization and to support Last Call Working Drafts issued by the RDF Core Working Group . The RDF Validator is based on the ARP parser in Jena 1.6.1 . Graphs are generated using GraphViz 1.8.9 . The service runs under Jigsaw .

OWL Use Cases and Requirements Published : 2003-02-04 , The Web Ontology Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Web Ontology Language (OWL) Use Cases and Requirements . The draft defines "ontology." It outlines six use cases, design goals, requirements and objectives for a language which can describe the semantics of classes and properties used in Web documents.

RDF Core publishes last call documents : 2003-01-24 , The RDF Core Working Group has released six Last Call Working Drafts : RDF Primer , RDF Test Cases , RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised) , RDF Vocabulary Description Language 1.0: RDF Schema , RDF Semantics , and Resource Description Framework (RDF): Concepts and Abstract Syntax . Comments are welcome through 21 February. Also published is a W3C Note, LBase , a framework for specifying Semantic Web languages in a uniform and coherent way.

SWAD-Europe report on Mapping Semantic Web data with RDBMSes published : 2003-01-24 , The SWAD-Europe project has produced a report describing how relational databases are used for RDF storage including reviewing current implementations, database schemas and discussing the detail of the mapping opperations.

SWAD-Europe Semantic Web calendaring workshop report published : 2003-01-07 , The SWAD-Europe project has produced a report from a calendaring workshop held in Bristol in October. It contains usecases, FAQs, tools and references for approaches to describing calendar events in RDF , including information about iCalendar in RDF and RSS and events.

EARL Working Draft Published : 2002-12-10 , The Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 . The specification explains how to use EARL, a general-purpose language for expressing test results, and defines a basic vocabulary in terms of RDF .

CC/PP Last Call Updated : 2002-12-04 , Incorporating comments received during Last Call, the CC/PP Working Group has updated Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies . CC/PP is a user-side hardware, software and preferences profile written in RDF .

New version of OWL Language Reference Working Draft : 2002-11-14 , The Web Ontology Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Language Reference for the Web Ontology Language (OWL) 1.0. Automated tools can use common sets of terms called ontologies to power services such as more accurate Web search, intelligent software agents, and knowledge management

RDF Core Issues new round of Working Drafts : 2002-11-13 , The RDF Core Working Group has released a final round of working draft documents including the RDF Primer , RDF Test Cases , RDF Semantics , RDF Vocabulary Description Language 1.0: RDF Schema , RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised) , and RDF Concepts and Abstract Syntax . The Resource Description Framework ( RDF ) is a general-purpose language for representing information in the Web. The primer is an introduction for all readers. Test cases correspond to technical issues the Working Group is addressing. Semantics specifies precise semantics for RDF and RDFS, with some entailment results. Vocabulary describes how to use RDF to describe application/domain specific vocabularies. Concepts defines the abstract graph syntax on which RDF is based. And syntax defines how one serialize RDF in terms of XML syntax.

New version of OWL Abstract Syntax and Semantics : 2002-11-11 , The Web Ontology Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of OWL Abstract Syntax and Semantics . The draft is a high-level description of the OWL Web Ontology Language 1.0 and its subset OWL Lite. Automated tools can use common sets of terms called ontologies to power services such as more accurate Web search, intelligent software agents, and knowledge management.

Web Ontology Language (OWL) Guide Working Draft Published : 2002-11-11 , The Web Ontology Working Group has published its first Working Draft of the Web Ontology Language (OWL) Guide . The OWL Guide demonstrates the use of OWL to formalize a domain by defining classes and properties of those classes; define individuals and assert properties about them, and reason about these classes and individuals to the degree permitted by the formal semantics of the OWL language.

Working Draft of Web Ontology Language (OWL) Test Cases Published : 2002-10-24 , The first public Working Draft of Web Ontology Language (OWL) Test Cases has been released. The draft illustrates correct OWL usage, the formal meaning of OWL constructs, and resolution of issues considered by the Web Ontology Working Group. OWL is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, providing accurate Web search, intelligent software agents, and knowledge management.

ERCIM News Special Edition on the Semantic Web : 2002-10-08 , The current issue of ERCIM News , the magazine for the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics, is dedicated to the Semantic Web. Included in this issue are 'The Semantic Web lifts off' by Tim Berners-Lee and Eric Miller and 'Semantic Web Advanced Development in Europe' by Brian Matthews, Michael Wilson and Dan Brickley.

Web Ontology Working Drafts Published : 2002-07-31 , The Web Ontology Working Group has released three first Working Drafts. The Feature Synopsis , Abstract Syntax and Language Reference describe the OWL Web Ontology Language 1.0 and its subset OWL Lite. Automated tools can use common sets of terms called ontologies to power services such as more accurate Web search, intelligent software agents, and knowledge management.

Requirements for a Web Ontology Language Updated : 2002-07-18 , The Web Ontology Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of requirements for the Ontology Web Language (OWL) 1.0 . Automated tools can use common sets of terms called ontologies to power services such as more accurate Web search, intelligent software agents, and knowledge management.

IsaViz 1.1 Release : 2002-05-23 , IsaViz is a visual environment for browsing and authoring RDF. Version 1.1 includes improved graphical performance, modified graphical layout and various bug fixes. IsaViz is developed by Emmanuel Pietriga of W3C and Xerox Research Centre Europe.

RDF Core Working Draft Document Suite Published : 2002-04-30 , The RDF Core Working Group has released the suite of Working Draft documents comprising the primary deliverables of this group. These documents include newly released RDF Primer , RDF Model Theory RDF Test Cases , RDF Schema and the previously released RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised) Working Drafts.

New RDF/XML Syntax Working Draft Published : 2002-03-25 , The RDF Core Working Group has released a new RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised) Working Draft. With new support for XML Base, the document updates the grammar in the Resource Description Framework ( RDF ) Model and Syntax Specification in terms of the XML Infoset and RDF Model Theory.

W3C RDF Primer Working Draft Announced : 2002-03-22 , The RDF Core Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of the RDF Primer . The Resource Description Framework ( RDF ) is a general-purpose language for representing information in the Web. This primer provides the fundamentals required to use RDF in applications.

IsaViz - A Visual Authoring Tool for RDF Announced : 2002-03-20 , W3C's Semantic Web Advanced Development initiative announces the release of IsaViz , a visual environment for browsing and authoring RDF models represented as graphs. Developed by Emmanuel Pietriga of W3C and Xerox Research Centre Europe, IsaViz is based on the Xerox Visual Transformation Machine, Hewlett-Packard's Jena, Graphviz from AT&T Research, and Apache's Xerces.

Requirements for W3C Web Ontology Language Published : 2002-03-08 , The Web Ontology Working Group has released a Working Draft of requirements for the Ontology Web Language (OWL) 1.0. Automated tools can use common sets of terms called ontologies to power services such as more accurate Web search, intelligent software agents, and knowledge management.

New RDF Model Theory Note Published : 2002-02-14 , The RDF Core Working Group has released the second public Working Draft of RDF Model Theory . This document provides an substantive update to original draft intended to provide a precise semantic theory for RDF and RDFS, and to sharpen the notions of consequence and inference in RDF.

Schloss Dagstuhl Conference on Rule Markup Techniques Presentation Availiable : 2002-02-12 , Eric Prud'hommeaux, has made availiable his talk on the Pitfalls and Practicalities of Reasoning on the Web presented at Schloss Dagstuhl Conference on Rule Markup Techniques .

An RDF Schema for P3P : 2002-01-25 , The P3P Working Group has published An RDF Schema for P3P as a W3C Note. Based on The Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 (P3P1.0) Specification Last Call Working Draft, the Note represents one possible RDF schema for P3P. P3P simplifies and automates the process of reading Web site privacy policies, promoting trust and confidence in the Web.

DAML+OIL Web Ontology Language Submission : 2001-12-18 , W3C is pleased to receive the DAML+OIL Submission . DAML+OIL is a semantic markup language for Web resources. It builds on earlier W3C standards such as RDF and RDF Schema, and extends these languages with richer modelling primitives. DAML+OIL is the a basis for W3C's Web Ontology Language.

RDF/XML Syntax Sepecification (Revised) Issued : 2001-12-18 , The RDF Core Working Group has released the third public Working Draft of Revised RDF/XML Syntax Specification . This working draft revises the specification of the XML syntax of RDF as originally described in RDF Model & Syntax . This document presents the syntax as amended and clarified by the RDF Core Working Group with the specification now based on the XML Information Set along with mapping rules for creating RDF models as described in the RDF Model Theory W3C Working Draft.

RDF Test Cases Second Draft Issued : 2001-11-15 , The RDF Core Working Group has released the second public Working Draft of RDF Test Cases . This document provides a set of machine processable test cases corresponding to technical issues addressed by the Working Group.

Semantic Web Kick-off in Finland : 2001-11-15 , Marja-Riitta Koivunen, W3C Fellow, has made availiable her talk on the W3C Semantic Web Activity presented at Semantic Web Kick-Off meeting in Helsinki, Finland .

INTAP Semantic Web Conference in Tokyo : 2001-10-29 , Interoperability Technology Association for Information Processing, Japan ( INTAP ) and Keio Research Institute at SFC are hosting a conference involving the Semantic Web for IT-related researchers in Japan to deepen their recognition of the technology and promote their research.

RDF Model Theory Note Published : 2001-09-25 , The RDF Core Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of RDF Model Theory . This document intends to provide a precise semantic theory for RDF and RDFS, and to sharpen the notions of consequence and inference in RDF.

URIs, URLs, and URNs Clarifications Note Published : 2001-09-24 , The W3C/IETF URI Planning Interest Group has published URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0 as a W3C Note. This is a very useful document that serves as a helpful basis for identifying resources on the Semantic Web.

RDF Test Cases : 2001-09-12 , The RDF Core Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of RDF Test Cases . This document provides a set of machine processable test cases corresponding to technical issues addressed by the Working Group.

Refactoring RDF/XML Syntax : 2001-09-06 , The RDF Core Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of Refactoring RDF/XML Syntax . The document records the process of updating the grammar in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification , showing the changes step-by-step.

W3C Launches Web Ontology Working Group : 2001-08-14 , A public announcement is now available of the Web Ontology Working Group , August 14, 2001

Digital Libraries and the Semantic Web : 2001-08-12 , Eric Miller, W3C Semantic Web Activity Lead will be presenting on Digital Libraries and the Semantic Web at the European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries , September 4-9 2001 Darmstadt, Germany

Dublin Core 2001 : 2001-08-10 , The DC-2001 - International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications 2001 , will be held on October 22-26, 2001 at the National Institute of Informatics Tokyo, Japan.

Ivan Herman <ivan@w3.org>, (W3C) Semantic Web Activity Lead

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