International consortium directed by Tim Berners-Lee
Mission: "Lead the Web to its full potential"
Hosts: MIT, ERCIM, Keio University
Defines Web standards: HTML, XML, Web Services, Semantic Web
W3C track record: building infrastructure to address technical and social needs of the Web
Data Integration across application, organizational, community boundaries
Reduces the technical and social costs for effective integration of networked data at various scales
Web Evolution not Revolution Exposing data hiding in documents, servers and databases Machine Processible data on the Web |
Semantic Web foundation specifications RDF, RDF Schema and OWL are W3C Recommendations as of Feb 2004 (press release and testimonials)
Standardization work is underway in Query and Best Practices.
Moving from a Web of Document to a Web of Data
Gather requirements and define an HTTP and/or SOAP-based protocol for selecting instances of subgraphs from an RDF graph
The goal of this work is to help make it as easy to 'join' data on the Web as it is to merge tables in a local relational database.
SPARQL Query Language, and SPARQL Protocol Working Drafts availiable
Provide guidance, in the form of documents and demonstrators, for developers of Semantic Web applications.
Develop consensus best practices on ontology engineering guidelines, vocabulary development, educational material and demo applications.
Support initiatives for transforming selected high-visibility ontologies and thesaurii to OWL and RDF.
Open standards, commercial and open source and tools - technologies for modeling real world things; sharing these models across the Web.
Focus is on Web Evolution
Web Evolution causing a quiet data revolution
An RDF data model to store RDF statements
Java Ntriple2NDM converter for loading existing RDF data
An RDF_MATCH function which can be used in SQL to find graph patterns in RDF (similar to SPARQL)
Will be release as part of Oracle Database 10.2 later this year
Search application (e.g. ringtone, game, picture) using RDF
Bringing goods closer to customers increased sales RDF was key factor in making this possible |
IBM Internet Technology Group - focusing on general infrastructure for Semantic Web applications
Develop user-centered tools - power of Semantic Web technologies, but hide the underlying complexity
Integrated tool kit (storage, query, editing, annotation, visualization)
Common Representation (RDF), Unique identifiers (LSID), Provenance, Collaboration
Focus on Life Sciences; Potential for transforming the scientific research process
XMP - eXtensible Metadata Platform; based on RDF
Fundamental technology for Adobe's strategy for metadata and information management
More effective organization; intelligent / automation workflows; improved productivity
Supported throughout Adobe Creative Suite, over 700K desktops
Support from 30+ major asset management vendors, on their metadata roadmap
(Smart) Data is King
Enabling more flexible, customized information services / products
"as needed" data integration
Things change, planing for it is cost effective
Social
Technical
Community
Education / Outreach
Lots of work done
Lots of work still to do (insert you here)
The Semantic Web is here