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RDF-DEV FAQ Version 0.09

1. About this document

1.1 Where does this document come from?

This is the Frequently Asked Question document for the RDF Developers list RDF-DEV. The RDF-DEV FAQ is maintained by the RDF-DEV list owner, Dan Brickley. Neither the RDF-DEV mailing list nor this document are official products of the W3C. The W3C Metadata team maintain an RDF FAQ document at http://www.w3.org/RDF/FAQ which you should read first.

2. About the RDF-DEV list

2.1 How can I subscribe/unsubscribe to the rdf-devlist?

To subscribe, mail to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk containing the following text in the body of the message: subscribe rdf-dev firstname lastname

2.2 How can I send messages to everyone on the list?

To send a message to the rdf-dev mailing list: rdf-dev@mailbase.ac.uk

2.3 Where can I find out more about the mailing list set up?

There are various additional documents available on the Mailbase web site. The RDF-DEV related pages are available from http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/rdf-dev/.

3. About RDF

3.1 What does RDF stand for?

RDF is the "Resource Description Framework", so called because it provides a framework for describing resources.

3.2 Is a more detailed overview of RDF available online?

The best place to start is at http://www.w3.org/RDF/ with the Model and Syntax Specification. The following specifications are available:

• Model and Syntax
(describes the abstract data model and its representation in XML)
• RDF Schema Specification (describes the mechanism for creating RDF vocabularies)

Several introductions, overviews and tutorials have been written. These include:

• An Introduction to RDF Metadata (W3C NOTE 1997-11-13)
• W3C Data Formats (W3C NOTE 29-October-1997)
• An Introduction to the Resource Description Framework (D-Lib Magazine, May 1998)
• RDF and Metadata (what is RDF? Why would you want to use it? XML.com's technical editor Tim Bray describes the significance of metadata and the relationship between RDF and XML.
• Web Metadata: A Matter of Semantics (IEEE Internet Computing, July-August 1998) [login required]
• RDF Made Easy by John Cowan
• Netscape's Mozilla site provides a technical overview of RDF (as of Oct 1998 this document when read out of context does not distinguish clearly between the Mozilla RDF implementation and the official RDF spec).