Glossary

Besides these items, a general Web source called MetaGlossary is another useful starting point.

Atom: The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP for short) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating Web resources.

Binding: Binding is the creation of a simple reference to something that is larger and more complicated and used frequently. The simple reference can be used instead of having to repeat the larger thing.

Data Space: A data space may be personal, collective or topical, and is a virtual "container" for related information irrespective of storage location, schema or structure.

DOAP: DOAP (Description Of A Project) is an RDF schema and XML vocabulary to describe open-source projects.

FOAF: FOAF (Friend of a Friend) is an RDF schema for machine-readable modelling of homepage-like profiles and social networks.

Folksonomy: A folksonomy is a user-generated set of open-ended labels called tags organized in some manner and used to categorize and retrieve Web content such as Web pages, photographs, and Web links.

GeoNames: GeoNames integrates geographical data such as names of places in various languages, elevation, population and others from various sources.

GRDDL: GRDDL is a markup format for Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages; that is, for getting RDF data out of XML and XHTML documents using explicitly associated transformation algorithms, typically represented in XSLT.

High-level Subject: A high-level subject is both a subject proxy and category label used in the hierarchical subject classification scheme (taxonomy) used by the UMBEL ontology. Higher-level subjects are classes for more atomic subjects, with the height of the level representing broader or more aggregate classes.

Microformats: A microformat (sometimes abbreviated ?F or uF) is a piece of mark up that allows expression of semantics in an HTML (or XHTML) web page. Programs can extract meaning from a web page that is marked up with one or more microformats.

Ontology: An ontology is a data model that represents a set of concepts within a domain and the relationships between those concepts. Loosely defined, which is the preference of the UMBEL project, ontologies on the Web can have a broad range of formalism, or expressiveness or reasoning power.

OPML: OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is an XML format for outlines, and is commonly used to exchange lists of web feeds between web feed aggregators.

OWL: The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is designed for defining and instantiating formal Web ontologies. An OWL ontology may include descriptions of classes, along with their related properties and instances. There are generally three dialects recognized: OWL Lite, OWL DL (descriptive logic) and OWL Full.

RDF: Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a family of World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) specifications originally designed as a metadata model but which has come to be used as a general method of modeling information, through a variety of syntax formats. The RDF metadata model is based upon the idea of making statements about resources in the form of subject-predicate-object expressions, called triples in RDF terminology. The subject denotes the resource, and the predicate denotes traits or aspects of the resource and expresses a relationship between the subject and the object.

RDFa: RDFa is a set of extensions to XHTML being proposed by W3C. RDFa uses attributes from XHTML's meta and link elements, and generalises them so that they are usable on all elements allowing XHTML annotation markup with semantics.

RDF Schema: RDFS or RDF Schema is an extensible knowledge representation language, providing basic elements for the description of ontologies, otherwise called RDF vocabularies, intended to structure RDF resources.

RSS: RSS (an acronym for Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated digital content, such as blogs, news feeds or podcasts.

SIOC: Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities Project (SIOC) is based on RDF and is an ontology defined using RDFS for interconnecting discussion methods such as blogs, forums and mailing lists to each other.

SKOS: SKOS or Simple Knowledge Organisation System is a family of formal languages designed for representation of thesauri, classification schemes, taxonomies, subject-heading systems, or any other type of structured controlled vocabulary; it is built upon RDF and RDFS.

SKSI: Semantic Knowledge Source Integration provides a declarative mapping language and API between external sources of structured knowledge and the Cyc knowledge base

SPARQL: SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") is an RDF query language; its name is a recursive acronym that stands for SPARQL Protocol and RDF Query Language.

Subject: A subject is always a noun or compound noun and is a reference or definition to a particular object, thing or topic, or groups of such items. As used by UMBEL, subjects are meant to be concrete and specific, and not conceptual or abstract.

Subject Extraction: Subject extraction is an automatic process for retrieving and selecting subject names from existing knowledge bases or data sets. Extraction methods involve parsing and tokenization, and then generally the application of one or more information extraction techniques or algorithms.

Subject Proxy: A subject proxy as used by UMBEL is a canonical name or label for a particular object; other terms or controlled vocabularies may be mapped to this label to assist disambiguation. A subject proxy is always representative of its object but is not the object itself.

Subject Structure: The subject structure is the topology of the graph that represents the subjects within a given data set. In UMBEL 'core' this topology is flat; in the 'unofficial' reference look-up structure the UMBEL topology is hierarchical and interlinked.

Tag: A tag is a keyword or term associated with or assigned to a piece of information (e.g. a picture, article, or video clip), thus describing the item and enabling keyword-based classification of information. Tags are usually chosen informally by either the creator or consumer of the item.

Topic: The topic (or theme) is the part of the proposition that is being talked about (predicated). In topic maps, the topic may represent any concept, from people, countries, and organizations to software modules, individual files, and events. Topics and subjects are closely related. Topic is deprecated in UMBEL to limit confusion with

Topic Map: Topic maps are an ISO standard for the representation and interchange of knowledge. A topic map represents information using topics, associations (similar to a predicate relationship), and occurrences (which represent relationships between topics and information resources relevant to them), quite similar in concept to the RDF triple.

UMBEL: UMBEL is the name for both the project and its associated high-level subject ontology. The acronym stands for Upper Mapping and Binding Exchange Layer.