Chapter 14 – The Semantic Web

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the key enabling technologies of the semantic Web and works through several examples that show the strengths and some of the limitations of this technology as it has been implemented to date. In particular, the chapter outlines a moderately complex example, because most practitioners would do well to move beyond the toy applications that are used for demonstrations and begin to explore how this will work when it starts scaling to real applications. Killer app is the one tool or usage that propels a platform forward. It is the usage that compels the early adopters to use a platform. In the early days of personal computers, killer apps were actually applications. Since then, the term has become generic, meaning any compelling reason to adopt a new platform technology. Once a platform is established, more mainstream users are brought in and many other uses are found. The big payoff for the semantic Web will be the ability to execute a conceptual query over the entire Web.