The Semantic Web: A Guide to the Future of XML, Web Services, and Knowledge Management

This book is a must-read for anyone, including researcher, developer or CXO who is involved or plans to be involved with Semantic Web. Although, I have been involved with related technologies, namely ontology engineering since the late 80s, I could not put this book down until I finished it cover to cover. The breadth and depth of the subjects discussed are fabulous and was a great refresher for me on how technologies such as web services, XML, RDF and ontologies tie together. What most people do not realize is that technologically, we are ready for the semantic web. It is just as matter of time before everyone in the Internet industry realize the value of this technology and start a new gold rush towards providing the tools and products that will make it possible for machines to talk to other machines in a semantic web of programs that will expand corporate intranets, extranets and ultimately the Internet.The examples the authors use are very helpful and to the point. In addition, the authors do a great job in identifying what is out there already and how it all fits together.

I highly recommend this book for readers looking for a firm foundation in Semantic Web terminology and concepts. I found it to be a solid reference book because I keep coming back to it as I research further and develop my skills. My recommendation is to study the book carefully and then keep it close as you discover and monitor the vast amount of information available on the web itself. The level of detail in this guide is just right for printed material. It is deeper and richer than just an overview presentation, yet not too deep in implementation details - that would make the book quickly out of date anyway. There are many tutorials and implementation guides on the web, but it is difficult to make sense of them without a solid foundation. This book is designed to give the reader a good foundation of understanding. (This is why six out of nine chapters begin with the word "Understanding...")My favorite chapters are: Chapter 1: What is the Semantic Web? Chapter 2: The Business Case for the Semantic Web Chapter 9: Crafting Your Company's Roadmap to the Semantic WebThese chapters are well written and thoughtful. Executives and managers should study these three chapters thoroughly, and then refer back to Chapters 3 through 8 ("Understanding...") as they move on to other sources.One last accolade: I have not seen a printed guide that does a better job of listing references and hyperlinks throughout its pages. The appendix, which lists 121 very relevant sources, is alone worth the price of the book.

If you find yourself falling behind with the latest technologies mentioned in tech articles on the web and published in the latest tech rags then this book will get you up to speed. This book gives a solid explaination of the latest technologies and ties them all together to explain the momentum behind the semantic web. If you are a project manager, business developer or an architect looking to plot the technical strategy for the future of your project or company this book will help you make those decisions.

This book is an excellent read : strong on substance without getting too complicated. The book does a good job of balancing the vision with the technology that is going on now. While this book does go into details (ontologies, taxonomies, XML technologies, RDF, web services, etc.), it does it in such a way that it is easy to understand. It is good in that there are some chapters that are geared towards businessmen (CTOs), and others geared for the more technical. Don't think that you can read it all in one sitting, though. I just finished it, but I will probably need to re-read some of the chapters (the chapter on ontologies is very good, but is a lot to digest). I enjoyed this book immensely. Other books I have seen on this subject are way too difficult to understand.

This book is timely on the market. The importance of introducing semantics into a Java Web Services Architecture is important. The authors did a great job of explaining the problem space for freshers as well as those with experience.Simply put, buy this book.