A simplified, non technical introduction to the concepts of the Semantic Web

1. What is the Semantic Web?

2. The Vision I have a dream for the Web [in which computers] become capable of analyzing all the data on the Web – the content, links, and transactions between people and computers. A ‘Semantic Web’, which should make this possible, has yet to emerge, but when it does, the day-to-day mechanisms of trade, bureaucracy and our daily lives will be handled by machines talking to machines. The ‘ intelligent agents ’ people have touted for ages will finally materialize. – Tim Berners-Lee , 1999

6. Semantics simply semantics - meaning behind what you say, what the words are meant to convey If you change the words, you change the syntax, but the semantics remain the same

7. Internet today The Internet created a standard way for communicating – it gave a "voice" to computers so they can to talk to each other and exchange information

8. Internet today Internet enables computers to "talk" to one another but it is not designed to actually teach them what the information actually means Computers merely mimic information to one another

9. Web retrieval Web created quick and easy way to retrieve and view information The web can be thought of as a huge document and retrieval system

11. HTML the document is written in a language called HTML the HTML language defines the syntax that computers can understand it tells the computer how to display the document to you

13. Today’s web The Internet lets us talk to each other The Web lets us store and retrieve any document on the internet Search engines can find just about any website

14. Is there a problem? The problem is Semantics Computers just blindly retrieve and show us information, but they don't understand the meaning behind the web pages they are showing us Computers may understand the syntax, but the semantics are lost on them

15. The Vision If computers could recognize what’s in a web page, they could learn what we're interested in And then they could help us get what we want Computers would change from passively helping us to actively helping us

16. Semantic Web Helps computers understand the meaning behind the web page

17. Semantic Web Web Today is about: documents The Semantic web is about: things Anything; People, places, events, music, movies, organizations, any concept Not only about pointing these things out to a computer but letting the computer know how these things are related to each other

18. Semantic Web Once computer can understand what a person, a place and an event is, it can start helping you interact with those things Search Engines would become much more accurate: when you search, you could say that you are searching for a person, a place or a particular song. The search engine wouldn't have to just depend on key words to refer you to a site - it could use the semantics on the web page

19. Semantic Web It will be possible to create a complex search by typing "I need an application that can compute the Earth's distance to Saturn. I don't want to pay for it."