Resource Description Framework


Resource Description Framework

(World-Wide Web, specification, data)(RDF) A specificationbeing developed in 2000 by the W3C as a foundation forprocessing meta-data regarding resources on the Internet,including the World-Wide Web.

Resource Description Framework data consists of resources(nodes), and property/value pairs describing the resource.A node is any object which can be pointed to by a URI,properties are attributes of the node, and values can beeither atomic values for the attribute, or other nodes. Forexample, information about a particular web page (a node),might include the property "Author". The value for the Authorproperty could be either a string giving the name of theauthor, or a link to a resource describing the author.

Resource Description Framework only specifies a mechanism forencoding and transferring meta-data. It does not specify whatthat meta-data should, or can be. RDF does not, for example,define an "Author" attribute. Sets of properties are definedwithin RDF Vocabularies (or Schemas). Anynone can create anRDF schema, describing a specialized set of properties, bycreating a resource, referenced by the Schema URI, whichprovides a human- and machine-understandable definition of theschema's properties. The description of a node may includeproperties defined in different schemas. The propertieswithin a resource description are associated with a certainschema definition using the XML namespace mechanism.Schemas currently being developed include a content screeningsystem modeled after PICS, and a bibliographic vocabulary,such as the Dublin Core Initiative.

http://w3c.org/RDF/.

W3C Resource Description Framework-RDF Model and Syntax Specification.