Layering the Semantic Web: Problems and Directions

The Resource Description Framework and the Resource Description Framework Schema Specification are supposed to be the foundations of the Semantic Web, in that all other Semantic Web languages are to be layered on top of them. It turns out that such a layering cannot be achieved in a straightforward way. This paper describes the problem with the straightforward layering and lays out several alternative layering possibilities. The benefits and drawbacks of each of these possibilities are presented and analyzed.