Resource Description Framework (RDF)

RDF is the Resource Description Framework proposed by Netscape as an open industry standard for describing how metadata for content is defined in web documents. This metadata is descriptive information about the structure and content of information in a document. This standard is useful for describing information about indexing, navigating and searching a site, as well as push channel definitions and digital signatures. This standard will make it easier for users to find what they need and to integrate this information on to their desktop. RDF will be an application of XML. Many companies that provide information, like ABC News, CNN and Time Inc support the RDF proposal. The search engines like Altavista, Yahoo and Webcrawler also support RDF.

The W3C provides a description of RDF, it's status and purpose; and a public draft of a work in progress. A FAQ is also provided.

Netscape Announcement discusses the purpose of RDF and lists some of the companies that support the RDF proposal.

RDF Working Group hosts working papers that explain the RDF architecture.

Resource Discovery Project provides a overview of the information architecture involving content seekers (people looking for information), discovery services (search tools) and the content providers (the information warehouse). This article discusses the research activities in support of improvements for meta-content management.

Using the RDF Data Model as an SGML Architecture is an article by W. Eliot Kimber that describes the author's attempt to use the Resource Description Framework (RDF) data model as an SGML document architecture conforming to the Architectural Forms Declaration Requirments annex of ISO/IEC 10744:1997 (HyTime Second Edition). Includes an explanation of RDF base architecture as well as examples of using that architecture derived from the examples used in the RDF working draft.