KWTR: Semantic Web rule languages
From semanticweb.org
[edit] Contributors:
Paula-Lavinia Patranjan (REWERSE, University of Munich)
Please add your CV in the list of contributors
- What is the state of the art of Semantic Web in your research field?
Offering a flexible, adaptive approach towards applications development on a high level of abstraction, rule languages have already been developed by different communities and deployed in various application domains. Companies manage and specify their business logic in the form of rules. Rules are also being used for modeling security policies in cooperative systems, and they are gaining popularity as a means of reasoning about Web data.
To exploit the full potential of rule-based approaches, the business rules and the Semantic Web communities have started to develop solutions for reusing and integrating knowledge specified in different rule languages. W3C has brought the two communities together to work on developing a format for interchanging rules within the W3C Rule Interchange Working Group. This cooperation towards standardization is an important step towards a more wider adoption of Semantic Web technologies in the industry.
- Provide references and short abstracts of three papers you consider as significant in your research field.
An interesting research work has been done within the Xcerpt project (www.xcerpt.org). Xcerpt is a rule-based language for Semantic Web data. Xcerpt strives for versatile querying on the Semantic Web, i.e. for a uniform querying of different data formalisms such as XML and RDF data.
Three member submissions for Web rule
languages, namely the Semantic Web Rule Language (SWRL), the Web Rules
Language (WRL), and SWSL Rules (a rule language proposed by the
Semantic Web Services Language Committee,
http://www.daml.org/services/swsl/) were submitted to
the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).
The W3C work towards a standard interchange format for rules can be
followed at http://www.w3.org/2005/rules/wg.
- Please provide one or more examples (either business, or research, or both) in which semantic web has been used (if you can, add some references).
Rule languages are very suitable for describing policies and some types of credentials. They can be succesfully employed for automatic negotiations of terms in various kinds of applications. Such an example is described in the use case 'Negotiating eCommerce Transactions Through Disclosure of Buyer and Seller Policies and Preferences', which is part of the First and Second W3C Public Working Draft of 'RIF Use Cases and Requirements' of the W3C Rule Interchange Working Group (see for example http://www.w3.org/TR/2006/WD-rif-ucr-20060710/).
- Are there existing tools or demos? Please indicate some of them.
The W3C Semantic Web Education and Outreach Interest Group works towards a new Information Portal where Semantic Web tools, demos, and other relevant information is to be found. For more information see http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/sweo/.
Visit http://rewerse.net for information on how rule languages are applied in different application domains.
The use case mentioned above can be implemented by using Protune (http://rewerse.net/deliverables/m12/i2-d2.pdf).
- What are the open problems in your Semantic Web research field? Why?
Different kinds of interesting research problems exist in the field of rule languages. One of them, as mentioned also above, is the uniform and efficient querying of different kinds of Semantic Web data (tree- and graph-shaped data).
Another interesting issue is the interchange of rule languages, which is at moment discussed within the Semantic Web Activity at the W3C.
- Provide references and links of the most relevant Semantic Web research projects in your field.
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- What challenges try these projects to overcome?
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- What are their foreseen benefits (both in market and scientific community)?
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- When, in your opinion, will projects’ results be ready for industry?
It depends on many factors. However, there are already rule languages and Semantic Web technologies used in the industry.
- Do you think that it is important to invest (money and time) in these topics? Why?
Yes, it is. Rule languages are not of interest only in the academia, but also in the industry.
- What are, in your opinion, the most relevant Semantic Web challenges that will be solved in the long term (10 years)? Why?
One issue that is not to be neglected is the technology transfer of Semantic Web technologies. It is not an easy task to convince the industry about the benefis of the Semantic Web.
