Practical RDF

by Shelley Powers

Book Overview

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a structure for describing and interchanging metadata on the Web--anything from library catalogs and worldwide directories to bioinformatics, Mozilla internal data structures, and knowledge bases for artificial intelligence projects. RDF provides a consistent framework and syntax for describing and querying data, making it possible to share website descriptions more easily. RDF's capabilities, however, have...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0596002637
• ISBN13: 9780596002633
• Release Date: August 2003
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media
• Length: 331 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.3" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

A huge time saver

This book is Practical RDF and not "Progamming with RDF (with examples)". Yes, you can find all of the information in this book by searching the Internet. The point is that your results will vary based on who you, how much time you have at your disposal, which day it is, and whether your phone is about to ring. What Powers and the editors have done in Practical RDF is put the most relevant information (available at the time) in one place, with the typical advantages and disadvantages of a book, such as, you don't need an internet connection, it's operating system neutral, you can make notes in it, it's easy to put down and return to, etc.. I spent the last month researching RDF online. After all that work, I frankly didn't learn much from the book. However, I could have saved myself a lot of time had the book arrived at my door earlier. We in the information business know how hard it is for our colleagues to embrace semi-new technology. Having a (or several) copy of this bookoin your bookshelf can save you loads of breath. Most people don't take well to "go do your own research." This book contains the research on RDF and is therefore indispensable for all except those who are fortunate enough to work independently. As noted in other reviews, there are areas for improvement. The technology has advanced since 2003. The original text was probably rushed. This book is due for a second revision, perhaps with more focus on OWL and inference (e.g., take the cwm out for a spin). For those seeking programming grit, the problem is very similar to programming with XML: which platform, language, and tools do you choose? With XML and RDF, many cross-platform tools exist (Jena, Sesame, Redland). As with most programming books, online documentation from open source tools are likely to be far more useful. When you want to learn about a largish subject, buy a book. When you want to program, there's no substitute for writing code. In sum, if there was a book that better educates the uninitiated to RDF, I would mention it here. But I haven't found one, and of course I'm hopeful that someone will write it. Until then, Practical RDF is the best of the pack.

If you want Practical RDF, this is the book!

This is a very good book on a subject that is notoriously difficult to present. It *is* a practical book, with syntax examples from the start, but by necessity there is also quite a lot of theory in the early chapters. After covering the concepts involved in RDF and RDF Schema Shelley moves on to creating vocabularies and gives good (practical) overviews of the toolkits/APIs available to the developer. The latter sections explore existing (and potential) applications. As Shelley makes clear in the introduction, there are many different ways of viewing RDF. The way she goes about it is from the point of view of someone who works with Web technologies on a daily basis, sleeves rolled up. The writing style is fairly informal, which may not be to everyone's tastes. But I liked it, found it friendly, and think it's very helpful in this context. Rather than fudging issues Shelley is honest for example when applications don't behave as they're meant to. The occasional editorial errors are irritating, but don't really get in the way of the content. Shelley's commitment to the subject matter and the book are not in doubt. She was brave enough to put her early drafts online for public review, and since publication has been providing maintenance material on her Practical RDF weblog. Her own practical work takes advantage of the techniques discussed in the book, check out the Burningbird blog. The Resource Description Framework is at the heart of rapidly growing aspects of Web development, and Shelley's book provides a practical introduction. With the code, explanations and pointers to related material provided it's certainly enough for any developer to start taking advantage of RDF technologies. Whether you're looking for a good modeling approach for your application, or arrived at RDF from RSS syndication, or are interested in the Semantic Web vision, you'll get lots from this book.

Not so practical

For a book about 'practical' RDF this book is mainly about theory. The book doesn't get into applications until chapter 10 and it's coverage of the RSS applications is pretty minor. However, there are some good points. The XML examples are highlighted, which makes them very easy to read. The tough subject matter, meta data about meta data, is well covered in-depth. I gave it four stars because it is merely mis-titled. The first ten chapters do a solid job, with excellent graphics, explaining RDF. So if you are looking for an general RDF book, you have probably come to the right place. If you are looking for a book to explain why your blog's RSS doesn't validate, you shouldn't buy into the practical title, or this book.

Best introduction to RDF, RDFS, and OWL available

RDF and its allied technologies (RDFs, OWL, etc.) have been evolving in fits and starts for the past several years, but the dust finally seems to be settling in RDF Land, so, months ago, when I learned that O'Reilly was going to be publishing an RDF book, I was cautiously hopeful. The very few books on the subject that had been published were sorely lacking. For the most part, the available online tutorials were sketchy at best and many seemed to have been obsoleted by developments within the W3C working groups handling the several relevant Recommendations. Although it wouldn't have taken much for Practical RDF to come out ahead of the competition, I'm happy to say that Practical RDF is far and above the best RDF/RDFS/OWL book available. It left me wanting more, wishing that the author had developed more demo RDF vocabularies and shifted the extensive (and quite good) survey of RDF software tools and utilities to the book's website, but what's there is pure gold.

Clear explanations and examples

"Practical RDF" provides useful and detailed discussions of many important aspects of RDF including; vocabulary, ontology, schema, development tools and applications. Starting in chapter one with an introduction to the Semantic Web, Shelley Power quickly moves on to developing RDF triplet and graphs models in chapter two. She presents elementary examples that offer an easy starting ramp for novices to RDF. Vocabulary, ontology and schema are well developed. In later chapters, the more difficult concepts of reification, collections and containers are discussed, but the presentation is less satisfying due to the unstable nature of their W3C status.Several chapters were devoted to the key RDF tool makers, which were well represented and discussed including; HP's Jena, RDFGateway, Semaview and SMORE. Illustrative applications for most tools were provided.The writing style was comfortable and relaxed making the material cohesive and enjoyable. This is the first comprehensive book on RDF that reduces some of its more abstract mathematics to practical examples. The book paves the way for more demanding topics such as Web Ontology Language and the Semantic Web.