The Web, as it exists today, primarily supports human understanding
and the interpretation of the vast information space it
encompasses. However the Web was originally designed with a goal to
support not only human-human communication but also as one that
would enable automated machine processing of data with minimal human
intervention. The Semantic Web is Tim Berners-Lee's vision of a
machine understandable and unambiguously computer interpretable
Web. The rationale behind such a system is that most of the data
currently posted on the web is buried in HTML files suitable for
human reading and not for computers to manipulate meaningfully. The
semantic Web, an extension of the current web, can be thought of as
a globally linked database where information is given well-defined
meaning using metadata for better enabling computers and humans to
work in close co-operation. The realisation of a Semantic Web will
thus make machine reasoning more ubiquitous and devastatingly
powerful, creating an environment where intelligent software agents
can roam, carrying out sophisticated tasks for their users.
This course is about investigating the next generation of the Web
whose key distinguishing characteristics will be the support for and
use of semantics in new, more effective, more intelligent, ways of
managing information and supporting applications.
