Social Networking on the Semantic Web

The Semantic Web promised to enable a new generation of intelligent applications by providing programs and software agents with rich and effective ways to share information and knowledge. The Semantic Web allows people and groups to define sharable ontologies – collections of classes, properties and objects – with well defined and unambiguous meaning. These ontologies permits computer programs to read, publish and exchange information and knowledge, enhancing interoperability, cooperation, and service-oriented architectures. While we are early in the development and exploration of the Semantic Web, there is evidence that the concepts and technologies are being adopted and used. One of the most widely used current ontologies is FOAF, or "Friend of a Friend". The FOAF ontology specifies a vocabulary that can be used to define, exchange and search for social information – information describing people, their attributes and their relationships with others. We will briefly review the concepts underlying social networks and the Semantic Web and then describe how they are embodied in FOAF and being used today on the Semantic Web.