1 Introduction. This lecture provides an introduction to the subject of Semantic Web: the basics and the history of the Web, its limitations, and the vision of the Semantic Web and its core examples.
2 Semantic Web Architecture. This lecture introduces a Semantic Web architecture and its components, namely Uniform Resource Identifier, Extensible Markup Language, XML Schema, Namespaces. Data management examples explain how the architecture foundations are used.
3 Resource Description Framework (RDF). This lecture explains in detail the RDF layer of the Semantic Web stack, in particular, the foundations, such as RDF, RDF Schema, RDF(S) Semantics, RDF(S) Serialization, and implementation aspects such as serialization, entailment. An overview of common RDF tools and ontologies are given as examples.
4 Web of Data. The lecture explains the Web of Data: its origin, evolution and principles. Technologies enabling publication of structured data on the Web are described: Microformats, RDFa, GRDDL. Additionally, Linked Data publishing and consumption principles are explained.
5 Semantic Annotation. This lecture presents methods of semantic annotation generation. The main natural language processing ideas are outlined. In particular, the semi-automatic annotation of text is addressed (system KIM, GATE as examples), and the annotation of multimedia.
6 Storage and Querying. The lecture explains how to store and query RDF data. An overview of the state-of-the-art RDF repositories (Sesame, OWLIM, etc.) and their APIs, as well as SPARQL language introduction are comprised.
7 Web Ontology Language (OWL). The lecture presents and motivates Web Ontology Language (OWL), detailing it basics and dialects: OWL-Lite, OWL-DL, OWL Full. As examples, it provides an overview of tools supporting OWL.
8 Rule Interchange Format (RIF). The lecture presents and motivates Rule Interchange Format (RIF), detailing its syntax and semantics. Connections to different types of logics (first order, horn, description) are explained.
9 Reasoning on the Web. The lecture explains reasoning, in particular the reasoning types applicable to the Web. It introduces Approximate Reasoning, Bounded Reasoning, and gives illustrations from projects LarKC and MaRVIN.
10 Ontologies. The lecture introduces ontologies, in particular, their application to the Semantic Web. It also defines ontology engineering and explains several ontology engineering methodologies.
11 Social Semantic Web. The lecture illustrates the shift from Web to Web 2.0, and provides a number of examples of Web 2.0 applications. Basing on these, further Web evolution, i.e. Social Semantic Web is introduced.
12 Semantic Web Services. This lecture introduces the concept of a service, in particular, in application to the Web, web service technologies (WSDL, SOAP, UDDI). Then it motivates and defines Semantic Web Services, and exemplifies their implementation, in particular by WSMO, WSML, WSMX technologies.
13 Tools. This lecture introduces and gives examples for different types of semantic technology tools. Specifically, semantic crawlers, ontology editors, annotation tools, and storage and reasoning tools are covered.
14 Applications. This lecture overviews validation of Semantic Web technologies in real life case studies. In particular, Dr. Watson, Yahoo! SearchMonkey, ACTIVE case study, INSEMTIVES case studies, and LARKC case study are explained.
Exams
The lecture will be concluded with a written examination on the last lecture's timeslot: January 31, 2011, 17:15-19:00. Students are kindly asked to register in the university system in advance. Usage of lecture handouts, books, or any other kind of assisting reference material won't be permitted at the exam.
Second exam attempt: 17:15-18:45, March 18, 2011, room 3W04.
Third exam attempt: 14:15-16:00, May 2, 2011, room HS 11.
