The Semantic Technology defines and links data on the web or within an enterprise by developing languages to express rich, self-describing interrelations of data in a form that machines can process. Thus, machines are not only able to process long computing strings of characters and index tons of data, but they are also able to store, manage and retrieve information based on meaning and logical relations. Semantics adds another layer to the web and is able to show related factsitems instead of just word matching.

1. Semantic Technology
Origins And Cooking Up
the Semantic Web

2. 1
Semantic Technology refers to a set of standards that allows
computers to understand, share, use and reuse data.

3. 2
Adding semantics (as the name of the technology suggests) to data pieces, semantic
technologies, unlike the traditional technologies, allow for the smooth and efficient data
integration and interoperability.

4. Although not limited to
applications for web
resources only, It is
Semantic Technology that
lies in the heart of the
Semantic Web, or the Web
of Data.
3

5. Far from done, the Web of Data, just as
the Web of Documents, is slowly but
steadily growing, together with the
adoption and maturity of semantic web
technologies from various enterprises.
4

6. The origins of Semantic Technology can be traced back to the not so distant
1989. Back then Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web
was working on his vision for the Web, which in its very essence was about
“anything being potentially connected to anything”. 5

7. 6
This is how the World Wide Web,
as we now know it started. Today,
the Web is a powerful means for
collaboration. We publish, share,
access, use and reuse documents
and files of all conceivable formats.

8. 7
As exciting and disruptive as
this is, it is not the full potential
of the Web. The full potential
of the Web will be unfolded
through Semantic Technology.

9. 8
Semantic technologies are the building blocks of one more layer to the Web,
for it to become the Web of Data - a web where computers are able to
manipulate information on our behalf, meaningfully.

10. 9
For the Semantic Web
to unfold, data on the
Web are to be put in
an understandable
and processable by
machines format.

11. With the help of Semantic Technology rather than locked into siloed, proprietary data
formats that impede storage, access and retrieval, data pieces would seamlessly become
interoperable and easy to integrate. 10

12. Not unlike the document
web,
the data web
involves universal, agreed
upon standards. It is
important that
data pieces are available in
such standard formats.
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For example, just like
there’s lingua franca for
representing documents
on the Web and that is
the Hypertext Markup
Language (HTML), RDF
is a common format for
data to be represented
and shared.

14. 13
A standard model for data interchange on the Web, RDF is among the
main building blocks of the Semantic Web Stack, together with other
Semantic Web technologies, such as OWL, SKOS, SPARQL etc.

15. These standards, along with the other Web standards, are being
developed at The World Wide Web Consortium. They are solid and
have as much industry support as the basic specifications that make
WWW work: HTTP and HTML.
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16. It is these Semantic Web
standards, that will make
the Semantic Web
function. And these
standards are not only
limited for Web use.
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Semantic Technology
is also a cost-effective way for enterprises to
manage their data internally.

18. Using universal data
representation standards
will allow for more effective
search, automation,
integration, and reuse
of content across various
applications, opening
countless opportunities
for more cooperation.
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19. People and organizations, as the W3C Data
Activity’s vision has it, will be able to share
data in a way that enables others to derive
and add value, and to utilize it in ways that
suit them.
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20. The use of semantic web technologies
will ease the communication of
computer systems and make
machines (and us) capable of
understanding mountains of data.
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21. And this is how Semantic Technology will add machine analytical power to our
creative processes of knowledge management and discovery, be it across the
Web or within various enterprise datasets.
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Interested to learn more about how and why Semantic Web Standards are
serving more and more enterprises to make sense of their data? Check the
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more resources on semantic technologies.