Resource Description Framework (RDF)

Upcoming Talks · Software/Projects · Bookmarks

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) integrates a variety of web-based metadata activities including sitemaps, content ratings, stream channel definitions, search engine data collection (web crawling), digital library collections, and distributed authoring, using XML as an interchange syntax.

The W3C Metadata Activity Statement explains W3C's plans for RDF and metadata in detail. Further information on the RDF Working Groups is available to W3C Members.

Mar 1999: RDF Schema Specification released as a W3C Proposed Recommendation
Feb 1999: RDF Model and Syntax Specification released as a W3C Recommendation

Upcoming Talks about RDF

• Metadata for Networked Resources with Carl Lagoze, Eric Miller and Stuart Weibel on May 11 at WWW 8, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• RDF - Tools and Applications with Neel Sundaresan on May 11 at WWW 8, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Databases, Naming, Indexing and Searching with Eric Miller and Stuart Weibel on May 14 at WWW 8 Developer's Day, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

RDF Software and Projects

Try out RDF yourself. (Java required for full visualization effect.)

A number of commercial and noncommercial groups are designing RDF software. A few examples of these activities include:

• SiLRI, the Simple Logic-based RDF Interpreter. SiLRI is a simple deductive database, written by Stefan Decker and Jürgen Angele (University of Karlsruhe) and implemented in Java. SiLRI is able to reason with metadata in the XML serialization of RDF using SiRPAC. SiLRI was developed in the context of the Ontobroker-project.
• SiRPAC; a Simple RDF Parser and Compiler, written by Janne Saarela (W3C). Janne also runs an interactive compilation and visualization service.
• IBM's RDF for XML which provides a Java implementation of RDF for creating technologies that search for, describe, categorize, rate and manipulate data.
• Netscape's RDF Implementation Strategy including demonstrations, technical notes and press releases
• Information on RDF and XML in Mozilla
• Daniel Veillard's Linux Packages Database, a tool that makes use of RDF encoded metadata for locating and identifying dependencies between software packages available for the Linux operating system.
• The Reggie Metadata Editor - Java based Metadata editor created by the Resource Discovery Unit of DSTC that exports HTML 3.2, HTML 4.0 and RDF.
• The CERES Thesaurus Effort - CERES (California Environmental Resources Evaluation System) and USGS Biological Resource Division are building digital thesauri using RDF.
• Dublin Core Metadata Initiative
• Representing vCard v3.0 in RDF by Renato Iannella, Jan 1999
• RDF dumps of the mozilla.org Open Directory are available.
• Representing PSL (Process Specification Language) work at NIST.
• Composite Capability/Preference Profiles work by Nokia, Ericsson, Nortel, IBM etc.
• Automatic RDF Metadata Generation for Resource Discovery using Dewey Decimal Classification, by Charlotte Jenkins, Mike Jackson, Peter Burden and Jon Wallis, School of Computing & IT, University of Wolverhampton

Bookmarks: Recommended Reading

• Frequently asked questions about RDF, with answers.
• Introduction to RDF Metadata
• Metadata Architecture
• W3C Data Formats
• WWW7 Tutorial, Using Web Metadata: Dublin Core and the Resource Description Framework
• An Introduction to the Resource Description Framework by Eric Miller, D-Lib Magazine, May 1998
• Web Metadata: A Matter of Semantics by Ora Lassila, IEEE Internet Computing, July-August 1998
• The RDF Advantages Page (work in progress) by Massimo Marchiori, January 1999.
• An Idiot's Guide to the Resource Description Framework by Renato Iannella, January 25, 1999.
• Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP), Nov 1998
  A user side framework for content negotiation was developed by the members of the W3C Mobile Access Interest Group
• : Document Content Description for XML
  submitted July 1998 to the W3C by IBM and Microsoft. DCD is an RDF vocabulary to define document constraints in an XML syntax.
• ... W3C Tech Reports

Media Articles about RDF

• New Specs Are In the Works for Web Data, Brian Hannon, PC Week, May 29, 1998
• A New Dawn, Glyn Moody, New Scientist, May 30, 1998
• Getting Deep Into Metadata, Nate Zelnick, The XML Files, a WebDeveloper.com Feature, June 12, 1998
• RDF and Metadata, Tim Bray, XML.com, June 9, 1998

Other Sites

• Dave Beckett's list of RDF resources.
• rdf-dev list for developers

Ralph Swick, W3C Metadata Activity Leader
Eric Miller, Bob Schloss, RDF Model and Syntax Chairs
David Singer, RDF Schema Chair
Last updated: $Date: 1999/05/05 12:06:51 $