As the world enters the era of big data, there is a serious need to give a semantic perspective to the data in order to find unseen patterns, derive meaningful information, and make intelligent decisions. Semantic technologies offer the richest machine-interpretable (rather than just machine-processable) and explicit semantics that are being extensively used in various domains and industries. These technologies reduce the problem of large semantic loss in the process of modelling knowledge, and provide sharable, reusable knowledge,and a common understanding of the knowledge. As a result, the interoperability and interconnectivity of the model make it priceless for addressing the issues of querying data. These technologies work with the concepts and relations that are very lose to the working of the human brain. They provide a semantic representation of any data format: unstructured or semi-structured. As a consequence, data becomes real-world entity rather than a string of characters. For these reasons, semantic technologies are highly valuable tools to simplify the existing problems of the industry leading to new opportunities. However, there are some challenges that need to be addressed to make industrial applications and machines smarter. This book aims to provide a roadmap for semantic technologies and highlights the role of these technologies in industry. The book also explores the present and future prospects of these semantic technologies along with providing answers to various questions like: Are semantic technologies useful for the next era (industry 4.0)? Why are semantic technologies so popular and extensively used in the industry? Can semantic technologies make intelligent industrial applications? Which type of problem requires the immediate attention of researchers? Why are semantic technologies very helpful in people’s future lives? This book will potentially serve as an important guide towards the latest industrial applications of semantic technologies for the upcoming generation, and thus becomes a unique resource for scholars, researchers, professionals and practitioners in the field.

This professional book provides a series of case studies which give examples of real benefits to be derived from the adoption of semantic web based ontologies in real world situations, such as telecommunication, B2B integration, tourism, education and more. The book is designed to create platforms for bringing experts together (key government representatives, industry and academia) from different countries, and to compile the most recent use of semantics and ontologies.

This is the first book to explore how Semantic Web technologies (SWTs) can be used to create intelligent engineering applications (IEAs). Technology-specific chapters reflect the state of the art in relevant SWTs and offer guidelines on how they can be applied in multi-disciplinary engineering settings characteristic of engineering production systems. In addition, a selection of case studies from various engineering domains demonstrate how SWTs can be used to create IEAs that enable, for example, defect detection or constraint checking. Part I “Background and Requirements of Industrie 4.0 for Semantic Web Solutions” provides the background information needed to understand the book and addresses questions concerning the semantic challenges and requirements of Industrie 4.0, and which key SWT capabilities may be suitable for implementing engineering applications. In turn, Part II “Semantic Web-Enabled Data Integration in Multi-Disciplinary Engineering” focuses on how SWTs can be used for data integration in heterogeneous, multi-disciplinary engineering settings typically encountered in the creation of flexible production systems. Part III “Creating Intelligent Applications for Multi-Disciplinary Engineering” demonstrates how the integrated engineering data can be used to support the creation of IEAs, while Part IV “Related and Emerging Trends in the Use of Semantic Web in Engineering” presents an overview of the broader spectrum of approaches that make use of SWTs to support engineering settings. A final chapter then rounds out the book with an assessment of the strengths, weaknesses and compatibilities of SWTs and an outlook on future opportunities for applying SWTs to create IEAs in flexible industrial production systems. This book seeks to build a bridge between two communities: industrial production on one hand and Semantic Web on the other. Accordingly, stakeholders from both communities should find this book useful in their work. Semantic Web researchers will gain a better understanding of the challenges and requirements of the industrial production domain, offering them guidance in the development of new technologies and solutions for this important application area. In turn, engineers and managers from engineering domains will arrive at a firmer grasp of the benefits and limitations of using SWTs, helping them to select and adopt appropriate SWTs more effectively. In addition, researchers and students interested in industrial production-related issues will gain valuable insights into how and to what extent SWTs can help to address those issues.

This book describes methodologies for developing semantic applications. Semantic applications are software applications which explicitly or implicitly use the semantics, i.e. the meaning of a domain terminology, in order to improve usability, correctness, and completeness. An example is semantic search, where synonyms and related terms are used for enriching the results of a simple text-based search. Ontologies, thesauri or controlled vocabularies are the centerpiece of semantic applications. The book includes technological and architectural best practices for corporate use. The authors are experts from industry and academia with experience in developing semantic applications.

The rapid advancement of semantic web technologies, along with the fact that they are at various levels of maturity, has left many practitioners confused about the current state of these technologies. Focusing on the most mature technologies, Applied Semantic Web Technologies integrates theory with case studies to illustrate the history, current state, and future direction of the semantic web. It maintains an emphasis on real-world applications and examines the technical and practical issues related to the use of semantic technologies in intelligent information management. The book starts with an introduction to the fundamentals—reviewing ontology basics, ontology languages, and research related to ontology alignment, mediation, and mapping. Next, it covers ontology engineering issues and presents a collaborative ontology engineering tool that is an extension of the Semantic MediaWiki. Unveiling a novel approach to data and knowledge engineering, the text: Introduces cutting-edge taxonomy-aware algorithms Examines semantics-based service composition in transport logistics Offers ontology alignment tools that use information visualization techniques Explains how to enrich the representation of entity semantics in an ontology Addresses challenges in tackling the content creation bottleneck Using case studies, the book provides authoritative insights and highlights valuable lessons learned by the authors—information systems veterans with decades of experience. They explain how to create social ontologies and present examples of the application of semantic technologies in building automation, logistics, ontology-driven business process intelligence, decision making, and energy efficiency in smart homes.

In this volume, Rudi Studer and his team deliver a self-contained compendium about the exciting field of Semantic Web services, starting with the basic standards and technologies and also including advanced applications in eGovernment and eHealth. The contributions provide both the theoretical background and the practical knowledge necessary to understand the essential ideas and to design new cutting-edge applications.