Understanding Semantic Web and Ontologies: Theory and Applications

One of the most interesting inventions, in recent decades, is that of Web Services [36]. These are computer program "applications": self-describing, selfcontained applications whose function is to automatically share information over the Internet with other applications. Some weaknesses such as browsing information without taking its meaning into account have recently appeared in Web Services. This creates a need for a new Web with more relevance to the user. Semantic Web is actually an extension of the current one in that it represents information more meaningfully for humans and computers alike. It enables the description of contents and services in machine-readable form, and enables annotating, discovering, publishing, advertising and composing services to be automated. It was developed based on Ontology, which is considered as the backbone of the Semantic Web. In other words, the current Web is transformed from being machine-readable to machineunderstandable. One function of the Web is to build a source of reference for information on several subjects, while the Semantic Web is designed to build a web of meaning.