RDF is a specification currently being developed
to support the definition of metadata across
the web. This page briefly describes RDF and
provides links to authoritative sources.
RDF is the Resource Description Framework proposed by Netscape as
an open industry standard for describing how metadata for
content is defined in web documents. This metadata is descriptive
information about the structure and content of information in a
document. This standard is useful for describing information
about indexing, navigating and searching a site, as well as push
channel definitions and digital signatures. This standard will
make it easier for users to find what they need and to integrate
this information on to their desktop. RDF will be an application
of XML.
Many companies that provide information, like ABC News, CNN and
Time Inc support the RDF proposal. The search engines like
Altavista, Yahoo and Webcrawler also support RDF.
Netscape Announcement discusses the purpose of RDF and lists
some of the companies that support the RDF proposal.
RDF Working Group
hosts working papers that explain the RDF architecture.
Resource Discovery Project provides a overview of the information
architecture involving content seekers (people looking for
information), discovery services (search tools) and the content
providers (the information warehouse). This article discusses the
research activities in support of improvements for meta-content
management.
Using the RDF Data Model as an SGML Architecture is an article
by W. Eliot Kimber that describes the author's attempt to use the
Resource Description Framework (RDF) data model as an SGML document
architecture conforming to the Architectural Forms Declaration
Requirments annex of ISO/IEC 10744:1997 (HyTime Second Edition).
Includes an explanation of RDF base architecture as well as examples
of using that architecture derived from the examples used in the RDF
working draft.
