The Web Semantic

My latest article published today at the semantic universe.  It covers some of the tools java developers can use to program the semantic web, including my own little project, jenabean, as well as other notables like Elmo for Aduna’s openrdf tool.  I’ve enjoyed my association with the semantic technology conference.  It’s an interesting grouping of all things “semantic” and provides a good place to get your bearings on all the different sub-groupings that makeup semantic technologies.

Back in January an interesting discussion started on the semantic web interest group regarding a possible schism between OWL focused tools and RDF focused tools.   What isn’t mentioned, but is obvious in reading the new OWL2 specs is that RDF isn’t nearly as prominant as it was in OWL1.  Specifically, the first OWL specification was written with all it’s examples in RDF/XML.  OWL2 introduces 3 new representation formats, machester, owl2xml, and owl functional.  That’s in addition to the existing represenation formats (n3, turtle, RDF/XML), and there is a tremendous amount of complexity and details in just understanding the set pre- owl2.  (if you don’t believe me see  this blog post on the details)

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Just saw Ian Davis’s open vocab tool mentioned on his blog.  It’s a novel idea and provides some of what has been missing in the semantic web space in terms of community involvement.  What it provides is the ability for nearly anyone to propose an RDF term, describe it, and even give it a range and domain.