The semantic web and knowledge representation

Abstract

The vision of the Semantic Web is a collection of documents in the World Wide Web whose content is meaningful to computers. In this vision computers can directly and effectively process information stored in the Web without having to depend on human guidance. This vision also underlies Knowledge Representation, a subdiscipline of Artificial Intelligence. Research in Knowledge Representation over the last four decades has produced some surprising results but has also identified some very difficult problems that need to be overcome if this vision is to be realized in its entirety. The Semantic Web vision provides several opportunities for Knowledge Representation that have not been exploited in the past as well as some new difficulties that could hinder application of techniques from Knowledge Representation to the Semantic Web. Achieving the vision of the Semantic Web will require exploiting the successes of Knowledge Representation in a challenging new environment.