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Handbook of Semantic Web Technologies pp 1–41Cite as

Introduction to the Semantic Web Technologies

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1 Introduction

The Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation [6].

For newcomers to the Semantic Web, the above definition taken from the article, which is often taken as the starting point for the research area, is as good a starting point as any. The goal of the Semantic Web is in some sense a counterpoint to the Web of 2001. That Web was designed as a global document repository with very easy routes to access, publish, and link documents, and Web documents were created to be accessed and read by humans.

The Semantic Web is a machine-readable Web. As implied above, a machine-readable Web facilitates human–computer cooperation. As appropriate and required, certain classes of tasks can be delegated to machines and therefore processed automatically. Of course, the design possibilities for a machine-readable Web are very large, and a number of...

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Acknowledgments

We thank Ian Horrocks and Michael Kifer from preventing mistakes in the sections of the chapter related to logic. We also thank Neil Benn for his help in the final formatting stages.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Walton Hall, MK7 6AA, Milton Keynes, UK

    John Domingue

  2. STI Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 21a, Innsbruck, 6020, Austria

    Dieter Fensel

  3. Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 12180, Troy, NY, USA

    James A. Hendler

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  1. John Domingue
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  2. Dieter Fensel
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Correspondence to John Domingue .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

    John Domingue

  2. STI Innsbruck, University of Innsbruck, Technikerstraße 21a, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Dieter Fensel

  3. Department of Computer Science, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, 12180, USA

    James A. Hendler

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Domingue, J., Fensel, D., Hendler, J.A. (2011). Introduction to the Semantic Web Technologies. In: Domingue, J., Fensel, D., Hendler, J.A. (eds) Handbook of Semantic Web Technologies. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92913-0_1

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