SWT - Lecture 6 (Introduction To RDF)

SEMANTIC WEB TECHNOLOGIES
Instructor : Amna Basharat Haider

Lecture :6
Date : 3rd February, 2009
A LITTLE RECAP!
FAST-NU, Islamabad Fall 2008 - Lecture 1 Instructor: Amna Basharat Haider

Semantic Web Technologies
Problems with current search engines
• Current search engines = keywords:

▫ high recall, low precision
▫ sensitive to vocabulary
▫ insensitive to implicit content
Search engines
g on the Semantic Web
• concept search instead of keyword search

g g of queries
• semantic narrowing/widening q
• query-answering over >1 document
• document
d t transformation
t f ti operators
t
Semantic Web Wedding Cake
5
LOOKING BACK ON XML!
XML: User definable and domain specific

p markup
p
HTML:
<H1>Introduction to AI</H1>
<UL> <LI>Teacher: Frank van Harmelen
<LI>Students: 1AI, 1I
<LI>Requirements:
LI R i t none
</UL>
XML:
<course>
<title>Introduction to AI</title>
<teacher>Frank van Harmelen</teacher>
<students>1AI, 1I</students>
<req>none</req>
</course>
/
XML: document = labelled tree

• node = label + attr/values + contents
<course date=“...”>
course
<title>...</title>
<teacher>...</teacher> =
<name>...</name> titl teacher
title t h students
t d t
<http>...</http>
<students>...</students>
name http
p
</course>
• XML Schema: ggrammars for describing

g
legal trees and datatypes
• So:
why not use XML to represent semantics?
Syntax versus Semantics

• Syntax:
y the structure of your
y data
• Semantics: the meaning of your data
• Two conditions necessary y for
interoperability:
▫ Adopt a common syntax: this enables
applications to parse the data.
▫ Adopt a means for understanding the
semantics: this enables applications to use the
data.
Drawbacks of XML
• XML is a universal metalanguage for defining markup
• It provides a uniform framework for interchange of

data and metadata between applications
• However, XML does not provide any means of talking

about the semantics (meaning) of data
• E.g., there is no intended meaning associated with

the nesting of tags
▫ It is up to each application to interpret the nesting.
Nesting of Tags in XML

David Billington is a lecturer of Discrete Maths
<course name="Discrete Maths">

<lecturer>David Billington</lecturer>
</course>
<lecturer name=
name="David
David Billington
Billington">
>
<teaches>Discrete Maths</teaches>
</lecturer>
Opposite nesting, same information!

XML and Semantics?

<Predator>
…
</Predator>
• Predator: a medium
medium-altitude,
altitude, long
long-endurance
endurance
unmanned aerial vehicle system.
• Predator : one that victimizes, plunders, or
destroys, especially for one's own gain.
• Predator : an organism that lives by preying
on other organisms.
• Predator: a company which specializes in
camouflage attire.
XML: limitations for semantic markup
• XML makes no commitment on:

n Domain-specific ontological vocabulary
o Ontological modeling primitives
• Requires pre-arranged agreement on n & o
• Only
O l ffeasible
ibl for
f closed
l d collaboration
ll b i
▫ agents in a small & stable community
▫ pages on a small & stable intranet
• Not suited for sharing Web-resources
GOING ON TO RDF NOW!
FAST-NU, Islamabad Fall 2008 - Lecture 1 Instructor: Amna Basharat Haider

RDF basics…
• RDF:
▫ is a W3C standard
standard, which provides tool to describe
Web resources
▫ provides interoperability between applications that
exchange machine-understandable information
• RDF Schema:
▫ is a W3C standard which defines vocabulary for
RDF
▫ organizes this vocabulary in a typed hierarchy
▫ capable to explicitly declare semantic relations
between vocabulary terms
What is RDF ?
• RDF is a data model
x the model is domain-neutral,
domain neutral application
application-neutral
neutral
and ready for internationalization (i18n)
x the model can be viewed as directed, labeled
graphs or as an object-oriented model
(object/attribute/value)
• RDF data model is an abstract, conceptual

layer
y independent
p of XML
x consequently, XML is a transfer syntax for RDF,
not a component of RDF
RDF model
RDF “statements” consist of
resources ((= nodes)) = subject
j
which have properties = predicate
which have values (= nodes,strings) = object
resource value
property
“http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/ has the author Ora Lassila”
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/
author
“Ora Lassila”
RDF Model Example

“W3C”
dc:Publisher
h
http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/
// 3 /TR/REC df /
dc:Creator
dc:Date
“Ora Lassila”
“
“1999-02-22”
RDF – Semantic Web over Web Resources

John
has homepage
has_homepage
Director
has_job
Ontology to_be_friends
_with
has_job has_homepage
Secretary
Mary
BASIC IDEAS OF RDF
Detailed!
Basic Ideas of RDF
• Basic building block: object-attribute-value

triple
▫ It is
i called
ll d a statement
t t t
▫ Sentence about Billington is such a
statement
• RDF has been given a syntax in XML
▫ This syntax inherits the benefits of XML
▫ Other
Oth syntactic
t ti representations
t ti off RDF
possible
Basic Ideas of RDF (2)

• The fundamental concepts of RDF are:
▫ resources
▫ properties
▫ statements
Resources
• We can think of a resource as an object, a
“thing”
thing we want to talk about
▫ E.g. authors, books, publishers, places, people,
hotels
• Every resource has a URI, a Universal

Resource Identifier
• A URI can be
b
▫ a URL (Web address) or
▫ some other kind of unique identifier
Resources
• All things being described by RDF expressions
are called resources:
▫ entire Web page;
▫ a specific XML element;
▫ whole collection of pages;
▫ an object that is not directly accessible via the
Web.
Resources and URIs

• A resource can be anything that has identity
• Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)*
(URI) provide a simple
and extensible means for identifying a resource
• Not all resources are network "retrievable"; e.g.,

human beings, corporations, and books in a library
can also be considered resources
* The term "Uniform Resource Locator" (URL) refers to the

subset
b t off URI that
th t identify
id tif resources via
i a representation
t ti off
their primary access mechanism (e.g., their network "location"),
rather than identifying the resource by name or by some other
attribute(s) of that resource.
resource
URI
Venn diagram of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme categories.

Schemes in the URL ((locator)) and URN ((name)) categories
g both function as
resource IDs, so URL and URN are subsets of URI. They are also, generally,
disjoint sets. However, many schemes can't be categorized as strictly one
or the other, because all URIs can be treated as names, and some schemes
embody y aspects
p of both categories
g – or neither.
Properties
• Properties are a special kind of resources
• They describe relations between resources

▫ E.g.
E g “written
written by
by”, “age”
age , “title”
title , etc.
etc
• Properties are also identified by URIs
• Advantages of using URIs:

▫ Α global,
global worldwide,
worldwide unique naming scheme
▫ Reduces the homonym problem of distributed data
representation
Statements
• Statements assert the properties of resources
• A statement is an object-attribute-value
triple
▫ It consists of a resource, a property, and a
value
• Values can be resources or literals

▫ Literals are atomic values (strings)
( g )
RDF Statement
• Subject of an RDF statement is a resource
• Predicate of an RDF statement is a property

of a resource
• Object of an RDF statement is the value of a

property of a resource
Example of RDF Statement

Ora Lassila is the creator of the resource
http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila.
Subject (resource) http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila
Predicate (property) Creator
Object (literal) “Ora
Ora Lassila”
Lassila
RDF Example (serialization syntax)

<rdf:RDF>
<rdf:Description about=
"http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila">
<s:Creator>Ora Lassila</s:Creator>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF> 's' is a specific namespace prefix, e.g.
xmlns:s="http://description.org/schema/"
RDF Example (abbreviated syntax)

<rdf:RDF>
< df D
<rdf:Description
i ti
about="http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila"
s:Creator="Ora
s:Creator Ora Lassila
Lassila" />
</rdf:RDF>

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SEMANTIC WEB TECHNOLOGIES

Instructor : Amna Basharat Haider

FAST-NU, Islamabad Fall 2008 - Lecture 1 Instructor: Amna Basharat Haider

Problems with current search engines

• Current search engines = keywords:

• concept search instead of keyword search

Semantic Web Wedding Cake

XML: User definable and domain specific

XML: document = labelled tree

• XML Schema: ggrammars for describing

Syntax versus Semantics

• It provides a uniform framework for interchange of

• However, XML does not provide any means of talking

• E.g., there is no intended meaning associated with

Nesting of Tags in XML

<course name="Discrete Maths">

Opposite nesting, same information!

XML and Semantics?

XML: limitations for semantic markup

• XML makes no commitment on:

FAST-NU, Islamabad Fall 2008 - Lecture 1 Instructor: Amna Basharat Haider

• RDF data model is an abstract, conceptual

“http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-rdf-syntax/ has the author Ora Lassila”

RDF Model Example

RDF – Semantic Web over Web Resources

Basic Ideas of RDF

• Basic building block: object-attribute-value

Basic Ideas of RDF (2)

• Every resource has a URI, a Universal

Resources and URIs

• Not all resources are network "retrievable"; e.g.,

* The term "Uniform Resource Locator" (URL) refers to the

Venn diagram of Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) scheme categories.

• They describe relations between resources

• Properties are also identified by URIs

• Advantages of using URIs:

• Values can be resources or literals

• Predicate of an RDF statement is a property

• Object of an RDF statement is the value of a

Example of RDF Statement

RDF Example (serialization syntax)

Ora Lassila is the creator of the resource

RDF Example (abbreviated syntax)

Ora Lassila is the creator of the resource

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