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.