CS 875: Semantic Web

World Wide Web (Web 1.0, or the Web, as we now know it) centers on documents and semistructured data in html, rss, and xml. The next generation Web, also called Web 2.0 and Web 3.0, has already started to emerge. Web 2.0 is about user-generated content, user participation such as through tagging, and social networking. Web 3.0, also called Semantic Web, is about labeling content such that machines can process it more intelligently and humans can exploit it more effectively. These labels or metadata add semantics (meaning) to data, and their formal representation enables powerful reasoning that leads not only to better (semantic) search but also to analysis, discovery, and decision making. Semantic Web is already a rapidly emerging field, with standards, technologies, products, and applications-as well as to excellent job prospects (for MS students) and research opportunities (for PhD students)