Traditional databases are highly structured and centrally controlled. You can
type things into existing forms but only the IT department can add new types of
records. The semantic web takes a different approach. It provides a vocabulary
to describe the information and relationships stored in databases. Data owners
can use this vocabulary to label their information and publish it online. As the
description and vocabulary are public, any program can process the data; just as
any web browser can display a website. Similarly, information from different
sites can be merged and processed together.
Information in the semantic web is described using RDF (Resource Description
Framework). It is a language that lets people describe data. For example, it
might provide a bibliographic description of this article: author, publication,
date and title. HP Labs has co-developed SPARQL[i] (SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language,
pronounced ‘sparkle’). SPARQL is the query language and access protocol of the
Semantic Web. HP has lead the development of the SPARQL specification. It is a
language that programmers can use to search RDF descriptions in web pages, as if
they were records in a more traditional database. “SPARQL will make a huge
difference,” said Berners-Lee, in an interview for ZDNet.co.uk.
Everything in this series of articles exists today, albeit in prototype form. This is
the job of a research lab – to make the future visible. IF HP Labs are right,
their research – virtualisation, trusted computing, utility computing and the
semantic web – offer a vision of IT that is substantially different from what we
see today. Computers will process data on a global scale; they will get more
done, more efficiently. They will be reliable and trustworthy, and you will be
able to rent supercomputer performance by the hour. William Gibson said that the
future is already here, it’s just unevenly distributed. If you’re looking for
it, try HP Labs Bristol. |
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