The Semantic Web is a vision: the idea of having data on the web defined and linked in a way, that it can be used by machines - not just for display purposes, but for using it in various applications. Many ongoing projects and efforts require Semantic Web technology, e.g., in:
- eScience: e.g., in the Community Modeling Environment Project of the Southern California Earthquake Center, the GEON Project, or the GeneOntology effort.
- eGovernment: Creating effective interoperation facilities for e-Government (e.g., for creating single entrance points for services used by citizens) requires data exchange and service agreements, e.g. in the NSF Digital Government Program.
- eCommerce: Interconnecting businesses reduces costs and raises efficiency. Efforts like Papinet, the Distributed Management Taskforce, or XML-HR develop standardized Vocabularies and Ontologies for interoperation.
- eSociety: Efforts like A-friend-of-a-friend are using Semantic Web infrastructure for connecting and creating communities.
All these efforts (and countless more) need infrastructure. The Semantic Web Cluster of the Digital Enterprise Research Institute is committed to developing and researching the infrastructure necessary to enable the Semantic Web in all these different scenarios, with a special focus on large scale interoperation.
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