OWL Introduction

OWL is a language for processing web information.

Prerequisites Before Learning

Before you learn OWL, you should have a basic understanding of XML, XML namespaces, and RDF.

If you need to learn these first, visit:

XML Tutorial and RDF Tutorial at tutorialpro.org.

What is OWL?

• OWL stands for Web Ontology Language
• OWL is built on top of RDF
• OWL is used for processing information on the web
• OWL is designed for interpretation by computers
• OWL is not designed for human reading
• OWL is written in XML
• OWL has three sub-languages
• OWL is a web standard

What is an Ontology?

The term "ontology" comes from philosophy, where it is the study of the nature of various entities and their relationships in the world.

For the web, an ontology is about the precise description of web information and the relationships between web information.

Why Use OWL?

OWL is part of the "Semantic Web Vision" - the goal is:

• Web information has precise meaning
• Web information can be understood and processed by computers
• Computers can integrate information from the Web

OWL is Designed for Computer Processing

OWL is designed to provide a common method for processing Web information (rather than displaying it).

OWL is designed to be read by computer applications (not by humans).

OWL vs RDF

OWL has many similarities with RDF, but compared to RDF, OWL is a more powerful language with stronger machine interpretation capabilities.

Compared to RDF, OWL has a larger vocabulary and more powerful language features.

OWL Sub-languages

OWL has three sub-languages:

• OWL Lite
• OWL DL (includes OWL Lite)
• OWL Full (includes OWL DL)

OWL is Written in XML

By using XML, OWL information can be exchanged between different types of computers using different operating systems and application languages.

OWL is a Web Standard

OWL became a W3C Recommendation in February 2004.

W3C Recommendations (standards) are regarded as web standards by the industry and web community. W3C Recommendations are stable specifications developed by W3C working groups and reviewed by W3C members.

For more information on OWL, visit: http://www.w3.org/2004/OWL/