5.0 out of 5 stars Alternative title: The Most Gentle Introduction to the Semantic Web

E.S. · November 1, 2011

This is one of the best books I read on Semantic Web and its alternative title should be "The Most Gentle Introduction to the Semantic Web". Gentle indeed, but not in the sense of "semantic web for dummies".One of the authors, Prof. James Hendler, is the co-author of *THE* article that introduced the concept of Semantic Web to the world (Scientific American Magazine, May 2001). Being an expert in a field and writing a top notch technical introduction that strikes a very good balance between utility and clarity do not necessarily go hand in hand, but in this particular case readers like me should consider themselves very lucky because this book is the perfect blend. Not only does it introduce and explain almost all of the concepts in a very clear and lively manner, but it is full of real-world examples. Being far from a dry technical introduction, the book shows "why"s of Semantic Web with "how"s of it.At its current page count, it is only expected that the book avoids some implementation- and programming-related topics, but books such as A Developer's Guide to the Semantic Web can easily fill this gap. On the other hand, despite the abundance of books that jump into nitty gritty details of semantic web programming, the books that describe semantic modeling practices and kindly show the pitfalls of ontology design belong to a very rare species, and this fact alone is one of the reasons why I give five stars in this review.One of the most original parts of the book is at the end: In a brief appendix, the authors give a list of the most frequently asked questions related to semantic web, modeling, ontology design, together with short answers and page number references for further explanations.Creating a useful ontology for a real-world domain which can carry its weight and prove its utility in many different software applications is not something that can simply be mastered by reading this book, it takes lots of effort, trial and error. Nevertheless this book, in its updated second edition, is a very useful, thoughtful and elegant contribution to the growing literature of practical semantic web.

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book for learning about the semantic web

A.S. · October 30, 2013

I needed to ramp up on the semantic web, RDF, and SPARQL very quickly, and this book was exactly what I needed. It's extremely well organized, and does a fantastic job of building up important concepts. This is a book built for learning, and I think the authors did a superb job teaching the material.I'm generally a techie type, and typically learn languages new by just diving in and writing code. But with semantic web, there are some fundamental concepts which make it really hard to just jump into RDF, SPARQL, triple stores, etc., if you don't really get them. I'm very impressed with how well this book covers those fundamental concepts.It's also very well written. I got the Kindle edition, which was great to read on the subway during my commute. I thought Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist was actually a good read, and within days I was up to speed. Reading this book was a huge time saved, and I was much better prepared when it came time to dive into code.All in all, this is a very impressive work. Kudos to the authors -- well done. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to do real work with the semantic web.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Book reasonable cost and fast shipping

A.G.C. · June 26, 2022

Good entry level technical introduction to the Semantic web. A little dated (2012), but still informative.

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise yet engaging introduction to Semantic Web modeling

P.S. · February 22, 2016

For anyone looking to have a quick introduction to Semantic Web and/or to get started using modeling languages, this is a very good book written by renowned practitioners of the field. The ideas are presented in a very clear, simple yet thought-provoking way. The introduction to OWL isn't quite elaborate probably for the reason that that is not the purpose of this book. Hence, after having read 'Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist', if a more foundational text on the topic is desired, in my opinion, 'Foundations of Semantic Web' would be the next choice. However, for beginners, this book is great.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful introduction to semantic web technology

J.C. · February 13, 2014

This is a great first book to understand the key technologies surrounding the semantic web. The authors have done a fantastical job building up the subject and helping you to understand not just that what and how, but why the semantic web is the way it is. I found the RDF - RDFS - RDFS plus - OWL build up extremely valuable, as I finally feel like I understand the purpose each serves and how they relate to one another. I also feel like I have enough of a base to start building some ontologies of my own. A must read for anyone who is interested in the subject.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to the semantic web

J.K.H. · April 30, 2020

This book strikes a good balance of concepts and code examples. Recommended for those who have some experience working with relational databases, and perhaps object oriented programming.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good overview, with working details

G.M.S. · December 26, 2013

"Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist" gave me a solid overview of how and why one would adopt RDF/OWL and related protocols for linking information across the web. The book includes examples of real-world uses for this set of solutions. And that's important, because the single biggest concern one might have about adopting these solutions is, "Is anyone else doing it?" Because this technology won't work in a vacuum. Like other data formats (e.g., XML and JSON) it needs consumers to make it worthwhile.

5.0 out of 5 stars at last - semantic web I understand

J.I. · November 7, 2011

I have purchased three highly-acclaimed semantic-web books.After spending many hours on these books. I learned many facts, but understood very little.With this book - I understand what can be done with semantic technology. My head is full of possible implamentation ideas, as opposed to the sleep the other books induced.This is the best tech book I read

Un super libro

F.R. · November 8, 2015

Contenuti chiari ed esemplificati, un libro da non perdere per tutti quelli che lavorano con RDF. Ben strutturato e utile

RDFの勉強に役に立ちました

新. · January 1, 2014

すべて英語です。でも、読みやすいです。僕は英語があまり得意ではありませんが、とても楽しく読めました。しかしながら、なれるのに時間がかかるのと、RDFは作ってみないと理解しづらいかもしれません。

What the title says

A.K. · January 31, 2014

The book contains what the title says. Get it if you are interested in Linked Data or modeling data using RDF, OWL, SKOS, SPARQL etc.

Cracking book - really clear and well explained

D.B. · April 2, 2020

I've been dealing on and off with semantic web stuff for a few years now, most from ad hoc bits on the web. This was a really good book to pull it all together. Now circulating around the rest of the team as good enough to get them going from scratch.

Strong recommended for people with or without semantic web knowledge

Y.Z. · November 9, 2015

If you want to learn what is Semantic web and worry about that you don't have any database background, don't worry, this book is for people both with or without database background. The authors explain sophisticated concepts in plain text with handy examples. This book gives deep insights from both high level and low level point of view (and all technologies are up-to-date!).