From World Wide Web to Semantic Web

Abstract

This chapter introduces the incentives for the creation of the Semantic Web, the methodology for its development, and the current status of this development. In contrast to the human function of understanding, the author summarizes four major steps in creating the ability for machines to understand Web content and generate responses. The semantics in the Semantic Web should be explicitly declared in a form that can be operated by a machine, knowledge organization should be provided to support semantic interpretation, software agents must rely on automatic reasoning ability to obtain implied knowledge, and procedural knowledge should be accessed in a community to generate response behavior. Through illustration of the anticipated research efforts in this technology, the author hopes to provide a clear picture of the current status of emergent Semantic Web technology and a suitable direction for its future development.