Semantic Web Principles

Common Models

• To encompass the universe of network-accessible information, the Semantic Web must provide a way of exposing information from different systems. When looking at a possible formulation of a universal Web of semantic assertions, the principle of minimalist design requires that it be based on a common model of great generality. Application or community specific systems may use a variety of internal data models so this implies a requirement for some generic concept of data at a low level that is in common between each system. Only when the common model is general can any prospective commuity specific application be mapped onto the model.