Also known as
“The 5 minutes tutorial 
to RDF ((Resource Description Framework) & Semantic Web.” With example. This was prepared for an introduction to next-generation SOA (Service-oriented architecture) projects.

1. by Benoît Marchal
from psol.com
RDF
is the
worldwide
brainstorm
Also known as
“The 5 minutes tutorial
to RDF & Semantic Web”

2. © 2013, psol.com
Say I’m planning my next vacation to Roma.

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I search for sights, transport, hotels, and more.

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None of the sites has all the information that I need.
© 2013, psol.com

5. © 2013, psol.com
• I want an hotel
• in Roma
• with good reviews
• for less than €200/night
• near at least one famous sight.
• Yet the sites only have partial data
• which prevents them from answering the question.
But mine is a simple question…

6. © 2013, psol.com
For example if I read an encyclopedia,
I learn that Roma has many remarkable sights
• Colosseum
• Pantheon
• Trevi Fountain
• Holy See
• Imperial Fora
• …

7. © 2013, psol.com
And if I turn to a travel guide,
it recommends several charming hotels
• one of which, called N°9 Colosseo
• is close to the Colosseum
• seems to please tourists
• average rating: 4.5 / 5
• another one is Vatican View
• …

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And from the hotel’s web site,
I find that N°9 Colosseo offers
• double rooms
• costing €195 per night
• for a double bed
• triple rooms
• 4 people suites
• …

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I waste so much time sorting through the data.

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It’s frustrating. I only want to book a room.

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Introducing RDF and the semantic web.
RDF is short for
Resource Description Framework.

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RDF encodes data as triples with distinct identifiers
http://comune.roma.it/
the subject
RDF tags concepts with
Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).
http://the-colosseum.net/
the object
travel:tourist_attractions
the predicate
Each triple has
a subject,
a predicate
and an object.

13. © 2013, psol.com
The encyclopedia data makes 5 triples
http://comune.roma.it/
http://the-colosseum.net/
http://www.vatican.va/
http://trevifountain.net/
http://pantheonroma.com/
travel:tourist_attractions
travel:tourist_attractions
travel:tourist_attractions
travel:tourist_attractions
http://capitolium.org/
travel:tourist_attractions
URI for Colosseum data

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The travel guide data makes 3 triples (abbreviated)
http://no9colosseo.com/
http://the-colosseum.net/
foaf:based_near
rdf:type
acco:Hotel
rev:rating/rev:maxRating
4.5 / 5
same Colosseum, same URI,
different data source

15. © 2013, psol.com
The hotel data makes 4 triples (abbreviated)
http://no9colosseo.com/
n9:doublepricing
n9:doubleroom
acco:Double
gr:hasPriceSpecification/gr:hasCurrencyValue
acco:partOf
acco:includeObject/gr:typeOfGood
acco:bed
€195

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3 sites brainstorm to sort through the data…
Thanks to semantic
and common identifiers,
the 3 sites infer
the answer from the data.

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They have merged and sorted data from 3 sources
http://no9colosseo.com/
n9:doublepricing
n9:doubleroom
€195
http://the-colosseum.net/
http://comune.roma.it/
4.5 / 5merge all data on the Colosseum

18. © 2013, psol.com
A clear answer. I can book my vacation!
Combining data from the encyclopedia,
the travel guide and the hotel’s web
site, they answer that N°9 Colosseo
is close to the Colosseum (a famous
Roman sight). The average rating is 4.5
and rooms start at €195/night.

19. © 2013, psol.com
3 keys for the semantic web, as illustrated by RDF.
identifier management flexible data model versatile syntaxes
(in next presentation)

20. © 2013, Benoît Marchal/psol.com
All rights reserved.
Illustrations: © Alashi/iStock
Photo: © Franck Lecrenay
Questions? Ideas?
I hope so! It’s exciting stuff.
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+ 32 81 22 62 70
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