OWL Introduction

OWL is a language for processing web information

Basic knowledge required before learning

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

If you first learn these projects, please visit:

CodeW3C.com's XML Tutorial And RDF Tutorial.

What is OWL?

  • OWL refers to the Web Ontology Language
  • OWL is built on top of RDF
  • OWL is used to process information on the web
  • OWL is designed for computer interpretation
  • 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, which is the science of studying various entities in the world and how they are related.

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

Why 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 computers to process information

OWL is designed to provide a general method for processing the content of Web information (not to display it).

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

OWL is different from RDF

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

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

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 running different types of operating systems and application languages.

OWL Instances (Airports)

OWL Resources:http://www.daml.org/2001/10/html/airport-ont

Class: Airport

Properties:

Used to make:dumpont2.java

OWL is a Web Standard

OWL became a W3C Recommendation Standard in February 2004.

W3C Recommendations (standards) are revered as web standards by the industry and web communities. W3C Recommended Standards are stable specifications developed by W3C working groups and reviewed by W3C members.

On W3C's OWL documentation:http://www.w3.org/2004/OWL/