The goal of semantic web research is to allow the vast range
of web-accessible information and services to be more effectively
exploited by both humans and automated tools. To
facilitate this process, RDF and OWL have been developed
as standard formats for the sharing and integration of data
and knowledge—the latter in the form of rich conceptual
schemas called ontologies. These languages, and the tools
developed to support them, have rapidly become de facto
standards for ontology development and deployment; they
are increasingly used, not only in research labs, but in large
scale IT projects. Although many research and development
challenges still remain, these “semantic web technologies”
are already starting to exert a major influence on the development
of information technology.