Chapter 16 – Linked Data , Ontologies , and DBpedia

The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement which promotes common data formats on the World Wide Web and aims to convert the currently unstructured and semi-structured documents on the web into a “web of data” by encouraging the inclusion of semantic content (metadata) in web pages. [7] Not only does the Semantic Web need access to data, but relationships among data should be made available, too. This collection of interrelated datasets on the web is referred to as Linked Data, and the relationships among the data are defined using vocabularies, or ontologies. [11] [13] Just as relational databases or XML need specific query languages, the Web of Data needs its own specific query language and facilities. This is provided by the SPARQL query language and the accompanying protocols. [14] To improve the quality of data integration on the web, inferences are used to automatically analyze the content of data and discover new relationships. [12]