Resource Description Framework (RDF)

RDF is a standard model for data interchange on the Web. RDF has features that facilitate data merging even if the underlying schemas differ, and it specifically supports the evolution of schemas over time without requiring all the data consumers to be changed.

RDF extends the linking structure of the Web to use URIs to name the relationship between things as well as the two ends of the link (this is usually referred to as a “triple”). Using this simple model, it allows structured and semi-structured data to be mixed, exposed, and shared across different applications.

This linking structure forms a directed, labeled graph, where the edges represent the named link between two resources, represented by the graph nodes. This graph view is the easiest possible mental model for RDF and is often used in easy-to-understand visual explanations.

The Resource Description Framework (RDF) emerged in the late 1990s from W3C efforts to describe web resources with machine-readable metadata. RDF became a W3C Recommendation in 1999, followed by RDF Schema (RDFS) in 2000 to provide basic vocabularies and typing, weith major revision in 2004 clarified the abstract data model and semantics, stabilizing the notion of triples and graphs.

Owner: W3C

License: Apache 2.0

Tags: Interchange, Schema, Semantics

Properties: Triples, Graphs, Identifiers, Schema, Semantics, Serializations, Queries, Inferencing, Reification, Annotations, Comments, Domains

Website: https://www.w3.org/RDF/