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The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a general-purpose language for representing information in the World Wide Web. This Primer is designed to provide the reader the basic fundamentals required to effectively use RDF in their particular applications, while not being too long.
This is a W3C RDF Core Working Group Working Draft produced as part of the W3C Semantic Web Activity. This document incorporates decisions made by the Working Group designed to provide the reader the basic fundamentals required to effectively use RDF in their particular applications.
This document is being released for review by W3C members and other interested parties to encourage feedback and comments. This is the current state of an ongoing work on the Primer. @@In particular, we are still processing comments received on the previous version, so this version does not reflect all the changes that might be made based on those comments.@@
This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use it as reference material or to cite as other than "work in progress". A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR/.
Comments on this document are invited and should be sent to the public mailing list www-rdf-comments@w3.org. An archive of comments is available at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-rdf-comments/.
1. Introduction
2. Making Statements About
Resources
3. An XML Syntax for
RDF
4. Defining RDF Vocabularies:
RDF Schema
5. RDF Containers
6. Some RDF Applications:
RDF in the Field
7. Other Parts of
RDF
7.1 Model Theory
7.2 Test Cases
8. References
9. Acknowledgments
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a general-purpose language for representing information in the World Wide Web. RDF provides a common framework for expressing this information in such a way that it can be exchanged between applications without loss of meaning. Since it is a common framework, application designers can leverage the availability of common RDF parsers and processing tools. Exchanging information between different applications means that the information may be made available to applications other than those for which it was originally created.
We don't intend to make this discussion any more concrete, since it would make the Primer too long.
The complete specification of RDF consists of a number of documents:
This Primer is intended to point you to those documents, since they tell you all you need to know.
The Model Theory, Test Cases, and RDF/XML Syntax documents tell you all you need to know about this.
RDF also defines an XML syntax for writing down and exchanging RDF graphs. This syntax is defined in the RDF/XML Syntax Specification ([RDFXML]), which tells you all you need to know about this.
The facilities for defining RDF schemas are specified in the RDF Schema Specification [RDFSCHEMA], which tells you all you need to know about schemas.
There is often a need to represent collections of things. The Model Theory, Test Cases, and RDF/XML Syntax documents tell you all you need to know about this.
We'd have liked to have told you something about RDF applications, but doing so would make the Primer too long.
The RDF Model Theory document provides a precise definition for the meaning of RDF statements. You are welcome to consult that document if you want to know what it is.
The RDF Test Cases document supplements the textual RDF specifications with specific examples of RDF/XML syntax and the corresponding RDF graph triples.
[RDFMT] RDF Model Theory , W3C Working Draft, 14 February 2002 http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf-mt/
[RDFXML] RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised) , W3C Working Draft, 18 December 2001 http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-rdf-syntax-grammar-20011218/
[RDFTEST] RDF Test Cases , W3C Working Draft, 12 September 2001 (contains N-Triples ) http://www.w3.org/TR/2001/WD-rdf-testcases-20010912/
[RDFSCHEMA] RDF Schema Specification 1.0 , (editor's working draft), September 2001 http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/RDFCore/Schema/20010913/
This document has benefited from inputs from many members of the RDF Core Working Group. We're removed all those inputs in order to make the Primer shorter. Thanks anyway guys!