Semantic Web originally presented at DrupalCamp Dallas 2009 Chris Ruppel @rupl

What is the Semantic Web? Current web is made of generic documents linking to each other Semantic web is composed of meaningful documents that declare their relationships in a machine-readable way.

Current web is made of generic documents linking to each other

Semantic web is composed of meaningful documents that declare their relationships in a machine-readable way.

How do they differ? HTML is a display language. It only specifies paragraphs, lists, headings etc. We want to tell the world about the *nature* of our content, not just the formatting.

HTML is a display language. It only specifies paragraphs, lists, headings etc.

We want to tell the world about the *nature* of our content, not just the formatting.

Way more useful to computers. It’s like having a database described via XHTML. They can transform data in ways we couldn’t see before. They can automate tedious tasks, or extend the functionality of our applications. How is it Beneficial to Us?

Way more useful to computers. It’s like having a database described via XHTML.

They can transform data in ways we couldn’t see before.

They can automate tedious tasks, or extend the functionality of our applications.

Well-chosen HTML Tags Links to other pages on same domain Heading 1 Paragraphs of words words words words words words words words words words words words words Link to different website Link to different website Some mildly related words Semantic Metadata in HTML Site Navigation Article Title Main content of this document, contains the bulk of the useful info that a reader will be searching for. Article Reference #1 Article Reference #2 Sponsored Text Ads

Well-chosen HTML Tags

Links to other pages on same domain

Heading 1

Paragraphs of words words words words words words words words words words words words words

Link to different website

Link to different website

Some mildly related words

Semantic Metadata in HTML

Site Navigation

Article Title

Main content of this document, contains the bulk of the useful info that a reader will be searching for.

Article Reference #1

Article Reference #2

Sponsored Text Ads

What’s the Benefit? Helping Search Engines Help Us All Rich Snippets make search results more useful No need for a branded social network, the whole internet will suffice!

Helping Search Engines Help Us All

Rich Snippets make search results more useful

No need for a branded social network, the whole internet will suffice!

Awesome, but How? Microformats Simple conventions made of classes in HTML Focus on common, real-world content types hCard – contact information hReview – reviews of products, events, businesses, etc XFN – XHTML Friends Network, describes social relationships rel-tag – for a glossary term or definition RDF / RDFa A W3C standard for defining any type of content using “triples” Designed to be public, decentralized and reusable by anyone/anything Integrate any combination of vocabularies to make your own mashup

Microformats

Simple conventions made of classes in HTML

Focus on common, real-world content types

hCard – contact information

hReview – reviews of products, events, businesses, etc

XFN – XHTML Friends Network, describes social relationships

rel-tag – for a glossary term or definition

RDF / RDFa

A W3C standard for defining any type of content using “triples”

Designed to be public, decentralized and reusable by anyone/anything

Integrate any combination of vocabularies to make your own mashup

Microformats in Drupal You might use microformats already! Drupal Modules Tagadelic outputs rel-tag Location can output hCard (kind of incomplete)

You might use microformats already!

Drupal Modules

Tagadelic outputs rel-tag

Location can output hCard (kind of incomplete)

RDFa in Drupal 7 Core Dries originally included RDF support in 2000 Challenged the community to get RDFa into Drupal 7 core CCK provides all the data RDFa needs Everyone can publish semantic data easily!

Dries originally included RDF support in 2000

Challenged the community to get RDFa into Drupal 7 core

CCK provides all the data RDFa needs

Everyone can publish semantic data easily!

High-Profile Examples XFN on Facebook hCard on Twitter rel-tag on Technorati RDFa on Digg

XFN on Facebook

hCard on Twitter

rel-tag on Technorati

RDFa on Digg

Live Demos - Microformats http://whichtwitterapp.com - Reviews hReview hCard rel-tag rel-home rel-bookmark (permalink) Hundreds of examples at http://microformats.org/wiki/

http://whichtwitterapp.com - Reviews

hReview

hCard

rel-tag

rel-home

rel-bookmark (permalink)

Hundreds of examples at http://microformats.org/wiki/

Live Demos - RDFa http://buytaert.net DC and FOAF http://chrisruppel.com FOAF XFN

http://buytaert.net

DC and FOAF

http://chrisruppel.com

FOAF

XFN

Useful Links Example that shows how Microformats and RDFa intersect http://www.standards-schmandards.com/2007/rdfa-and-accessibility/ Getting started with RDFa http://webbackplane.com/mark-birbeck/blog/2009/04/getting-started-with-rdfa Bookmarklet to check any page for RDFa elements http://ubiquity-rdfa.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/install-checker.html FOAF Spec http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/ Google Webmasters RDFa Help http:// www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl = en&answer =146898 http:// www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer =146645 Open Calais Module for Drupal http://www.opencalais.com/applications/calais-module-drupal

Example that shows how Microformats and RDFa intersect http://www.standards-schmandards.com/2007/rdfa-and-accessibility/

Getting started with RDFa http://webbackplane.com/mark-birbeck/blog/2009/04/getting-started-with-rdfa

Bookmarklet to check any page for RDFa elements http://ubiquity-rdfa.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/install-checker.html

FOAF Spec http://xmlns.com/foaf/spec/

Google Webmasters RDFa Help http:// www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl = en&answer =146898 http:// www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer =146645

Open Calais Module for Drupal http://www.opencalais.com/applications/calais-module-drupal