Semantic Web and Ontologies

This chapter attempts to explain the semantic Web (SW) project, which is first a vast program of enrichment of Web resources by a layer of semantic representation of content, even if this will not suffice to describe the magnitude and potential impacts of such a perspective. It discusses the real scope of SW and of different issues raised by such an approach. The chapter particularly queries the significance of the ontological attempts that oscillate between standardization of descriptions and multiple interpretations. It begins to place SW with respect to the current Web. The roles of ontologies in knowledge engineering are numerous. The chapter focuses on their specific role in relation to metadata associated with Web resources as proposed by SW. Controlled Vocabulary Terms meta data; semantic Web