Semantics in Wiki - Community-Built Databases: Research and Development - page 244

Fig. 10.2 RDF example [ 13 ]

framework for expressing information so it can be exchanged between applications
without loss of meaning. The ability to exchange information between different
applications means that the information may be made available to applications other
than those for which it was originally created.
According to Davies [ 14 ], Semantic technologies are functional capabilities that
enable both people and computers to create, discover, represent, organise, process,
manage, reason with, present, share and utilise meanings and knowledge to accom-
plish business, personal and societal purposes. Semantic technologies are tools that
represent meanings, associations, theories and know-how about the uses of things
separately from data and programme code. This knowledge representation is called
ontology - a run-time semantic model of information, defined using constructs for:

l Concepts - classes, things
l Relationships - properties (object and data)
l Rules - axioms and constraints
l

Instances of concepts - individuals (data, facts)

10.3.2 Functions of Semantic Technology

Davies [ 14 ] describes the functions of semantic Web technology as: to create,
discover, represent, organise, process, manage, reason with, present, share and
utilise meanings and knowledge in order to accomplish business, personal and
societal purposes. Davies further pointed out that the business value of semantic
technologies has three dimensions or axes as shown in Fig. 10.3 :

l Capabilities enabled by semantic technologies and new solution patterns. New
capabilities are the main value driver.
l Lifecycle economics of semantic solutions measured as the ratio of benefits to
cost and risk. The lifecycle perspective focuses on development risk.