Ontology Building using RDF

• Basic Ideas of RDF

• RDF Building Blocks
• RDF Data and graph Model
• Blank Node

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

Semantic Web Stack
(updated, W3C, 2006)

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 What is RDF?
Resource Description Framework“
• A W3C standard data model since 2004
• originally for describing metadata for web
pages, but has grown beyond that
– structured information
– universal, machine-readable data exchange format
– main syntax uses XML for serialization

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Basics
• RDF is based on the idea of identifying
resources using Web identifiers and describing
resources in terms of simple properties and
property values.

• To identify resources, RDF uses Uniform

Resource Identifiers (URIs) and URI
references (URIrefs).

• Definition: A resource is anything that is

identifiable by a URIref.

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer

ElKorany
 RDF Triples
• RDF statements can be written down using triple notation. In this notation, a
statement is written as follows:
subject predicate object .
• Example:

<http://www.example.org/index.html>
<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/creator>
<http://www.example.org/staffid/85740> .

<http://www.example.org/index.html>
<http://www.example.org/terms/creation-date> "August 16, 1999" .

<http://www.example.org/index.html>
<http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/language> "en" .

• Note: In this notation URIs are written out completely, in angle brackets.

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Triples
• Triple
– A Resource (Subject) is anything that can have a URI: URIs or
blank nodes
– A Property (Predicate) is one of the features of the Resource:
URIs
– A Property value (Object) is the value of a Property, which can
be literal or another resource: URIs, literal, blank nodes
(anonymous label)

Property
Resource Value
(subject) (predicate) (object)

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Basic Ideas of RDF
• The fundamental elemnts of RDF are:
– resources
– properties
– Statements

• Basic building block: subject-predicate-object (triple).

– E.g.: “Prof. Abeer ElKorany teaches CS465”.
– This is called a statement.
– View 1: Sentences in the form <subject, predicate, object>
• <Abeer ElKorany works-for FCAI>
– View 2: Directed graphs with labeled edges

hasColleague
Ahmed Mohamed

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer

ElKorany
 Example
• Consider the following statements:
– http://www.example.org/index.html has a
creation-date whose value is August 16, 1999.
– http://www.example.org/index.html has a
language whose value is English.

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer

ElKorany
The RDF Graph of the Example

We can add other info like:

http://www.w3.org/People/EM/contact#me,
whose name is Eric Miller, whose email
address is [email protected], and whose title is Dr.”

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

Example (cont’d)

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Example
http://www.example.org/index.html has
a creator whose value is “John Smith”

• The subject is the URL

http://www.example.org/index.html
• The predicate is the word "creator"
• The object is the phrase “John Smith”

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 What does a URI mean?
• RDF uses a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) to identify a
web resource, and properties to describe the resource.

• Sometimes URIs denote a web resource

– “http://umbc.edu/~finin/finin.jpg” denotes a file
– We can use RDF to make assertions about the resource, e.g.,
it’s an image and depicts a person with name Tim Finin, …

• Sometimes concepts in the external world

– E.g., “http://umbc.edu/” denotes a particular University
located in Baltimore.

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

RDF Data Model

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Graph Data
1. Resource nodes: A resource is anything that can have things
said about it (e.g., book, person, etc). In a visual
representation, resources are represented by ovals.

2. Literal nodes: a literal is the same as a value. In a visual

representation, literals are represented by rectangles.

Resource: “http://www.cambridge…/about/rob”
Value of the foaf:name property is "Rob Gonzalez".

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Triples
• Since a cell is represented with three values, the
basic building block for RDF is called the triple.

• A sample triple
Subject Predicate Object
Shakespeare wrote King Lear

• Subject is what the sentence is about

• Predicate is the property of the subject
• Finally, the object is the value of the property
(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany
 Example of RDF Statement

Ora Lassila is the creator of the resource

http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila.
Subject (resource) http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila
Predicate (property) Creator
Object (literal) “Ora Lassila”

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Statements
• Statements assert the properties of resources
• A statement is an object-attribute-value triple
– It consists of a resource, a property, and a
value

• Values can be resources or literals

– Literals are atomic values (strings)

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer

ElKorany
 Statement examples
• Statement: “The author of
http://www.w3schools.com/RDF is Jan Egil Refsnes”
– Subject: http://www.w3schools.com/RDF
– Predicate: author
– Object: Jan Egil Refsnes
• Statement: “The homepage of
http://www.w3schools.com/RDF is
http://www.w3schools.com”
– Subject: http://www.w3schools.com/RDF
– Predicate: homepage
– Object: http://www.w3schools.com

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Example (subject of statement)

Ora Lassila is the creator of the resource

http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila.
Subject
<rdf:RDF>
<rdf:Description rdf:about=
"http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila">
<s:Creator>Ora Lassila</s:Creator>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Example (predicate of statement)

Ora Lassila is the creator of the resource

http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila.

<rdf:RDF>
<rdf:Description about=
"http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila">
<s:Creator>Ora Lassila</s:Creator>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

Predicate (C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Example (object of statement)

Ora Lassila is the creator of the resource

http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila.

<rdf:RDF>
<rdf:Description about=
"http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila">
<s:Creator>Ora Lassila</s:Creator>
</rdf:Description>
Object
</rdf:RDF>

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Example (reference to ontology)

Ora Lassila is the creator of the resource

http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila.
<rdf:RDF>
<rdf:Description about=
"http://www.w3.org/Home/Lassila">
<s:Creator>Ora Lassila</s:Creator>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>
a specific namespace prefix as reference to
ontology where predicates are defined, e.g.
xmlns: s="http://description.org/schema/"
(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany
 Resources (subject of statement)
• A resource is any object (“things” we want to talk about)
that can be pointed to by a URI
– a document, a picture, a library book, a real person,
authors, books, publishers, places, people, hotels

• Every resource has a URI, a Universal

Resource Identifier
• A URI can be
– Web addrresshttp://dbpedia.org/page/Tim_Berners-Lee OR
– some other kind of unique identifier
(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer
ElKorany
Properties (predicate of statement)
• Properties are a special kind of resources
that describe relations between resources
– E.g. “written by”, “age”, “title”, “author-of” etc.
• Properties are also identified by URIs
• Advantages of using URIs:
– Α global, worldwide, unique naming scheme
– Reduces the homonym problem of distributed
data representation

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer

ElKorany
 Namespaces
• A namespace is a URI that is defined once at the
beginning and used in sentences later without
referring to URI again.
– Example:
lit stands for http://www.WorkingOntologist.com/
Examples/Chapter3/Shakespeare.owl#
geo stands for http://www.WorkingOntologist.com/
Examples/Chapter3/geography.owl#

lit and geo are called Namespaces.

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Replace with namespaces

Subject Predicate Object

Shakespeare lit:wrote KingLear

Shakespeare lit:wrote MacBeth

AnneHathaway bio:married Shakespeare

AnneHathaway bio:livedWith Shakespeare

Shakespeare bio:livedIn Stratford

Stratford geo:isIn England

England geo:partOf UK

Scotland geo:partOf UK

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Simple example of RDF
<RDF>
<Description about="http://www.w3schools.com/RDF">
<si:author>Jan Egil refsnes</author>
<si:homepage>http://www.w3schools.com</homepage>
</Description>
</RDF>

http://www.w3schools.com/RDF

author homepage

Jan Egil refsnes http://www.w3schools.com

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 The RDF Graph
• An RDF document is an unordered collection of
triples.

• The subject of one triple can be the object of another.

• So the result is a directed, labelled graph.

• A triple’s object can also be a literal, e.g., a string.

RDF is a graph

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Graph(cont.)
• Graphically, RDF models statements by nodes and arcs
in a graph.

• In the RDF graph notation, a statement is represented

by:
– a node for the subject
– a node for the object
– an arc for the predicate, directed from the subject
node to the object node.

• A node may be identified by a URIref or it can be a

literal (it can also be a blank node; will explain this
later).

• An arc is identified by a URIref.

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer
ElKorany
 The RDF Graph (cont.)
• The subject of a statement can be the object of another.
• Such collections of statements form a directed, labeled
graph.
hasColleague
M A
hasHomePage
hasColleague

http://www.cs.mam.ac.uk/~
Sara ahmed

• The object of a triple can also be a “literal” (a string).

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Tabular Representation
Subject Predicate Object

Shakespeare wrote King Lear

Shakespeare wrote Macbeth

Anne Hathaway married Shakespeare

Shakespeare lived in Stratford

Stratford is in England

Macbeth set in Scotland

England part of The UK

Scotland part of The UK

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

RDF Tabular as a Graph

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

Expanding of data

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 More data

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Syntax
• RDF has an XML syntax that has a specific meaning.

• An RDF document starts by an rdf:RDF element

– The content of that element is a number of
statements.

• A namespace mechanism is used

– Disambiguation
– Namespaces are expected to be RDF documents
defining resources that can be reused
– Large, distributed collections of knowledge
(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany
 RDF syntax(cont.)
• Starting with <rdf:RDF> and end with
</rdf:RDF>
• <rdf:RDF>: the root element
• <rdf:Description> is the main element to
define the subject, predicate and object of the
statement
• RDF Namespace
– http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#,
• File format: .rdf
(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany
 Template/frame for RDF statement
Predicate
Subject Value

•A subject can contain several property elements

•Object-descriptions can be used as subject-descriptions for further triples

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Syntax
• Statements are defined using the tag Descriptions
“rdf:Description”.
• Every description makes a statement about a resource
• Every attribute or nested element inside a Description is a property
of that Resource.
• URIs are in <angle brackets>
– Literals are ”enclosed in quotes”
– whitespace (blanks, line feeds) is ignored
• Recall the previous example

<rdf:Description about="some.uri/person/mohamed">
<hasColleague resource="some.uri/person/ahamed"/>
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description about="some.uri/person/ahmed">
<si:hasHomePage>http://www.cs…ac.uk/~ahmed</hasHomePage>
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description about="some.uri/person/sara">
<si:hasColleague resource="some.uri/person/ahmed"/>
</rdf:Description>

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Complete Example
<?xml version=“1.0“ encoding=“UTF-8“ ?>
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:cd="http://www.recshop.fake/cd#">

<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://www.rechshop.fake/cd/Empire Burlesque">
<cd:artist>Bob Dylan</cd:artist>
<cd:country>USA</cd:country>
<cd:company>Columbia</cd:company>
<cd:price>10.90</cd:price>
<cd:year>1985</cd:year>
</rdf:Description>
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://www.rechshop.fake/cd/Hide your heart">
<cd:artist>Bonnie Tyler</cd:artist>
<cd:country>UK</cd:country>
<cd:company>CBS Records</cd:company>
<cd:price>9.90</cd:price>
<cd:year>1988</cd:year>
</rdf:Description>
<!-- more cds -->
</rdf:RDF>
(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany
 RDF Container Elements
• RDF Container used to collect a number of
resources or attributes, about which we want
to make statements as a whole It is used to
describe group of things
– <Bag>: a list of members without order
– <Seq>: a list of members with order
– <Alt>: a list of members that only one can be
selected

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Containers
• Groups of things that has no way to close them :
<bag> <seq> <alt>
– <bag> unordered list; duplicates allowed
– <seq> ordered list; duplicates allowed
– <alt> list of alternatives; one will be selected

• While “RDF:Collection”: enumerates the

specified members (the group only contains the
specified members listed in the collection)

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Example <alt>
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<rdf:RDF
xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:cd="http://www.recshop.fake/cd#">
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://www.recshop.fake/cd/Beatles">
<cd:format>
<rdf:Alt>
<rdf:li>CD</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>Record</rdf:li>
<rdf:li>Tape</rdf:li>
</rdf:Alt> Exactly one of these formats
</cd:format>
</rdf:Description>
</rdf:RDF>

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Limiting the scope
Collection - describes a group of things represented
as a predefined list structure i.e contains only the
specified members, no others.
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://recshop.fake/cd/Beatles">
<cd:artist rdf:parseType="Collection">
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://recshop.fake/cd/Beatles/George"/>
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://recshop.fake/cd/Beatles/John"/>
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://recshop.fake/cd/Beatles/Paul"/>
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://recshop.fake/cd/Beatles/Ringo"/>
</cd:artist>
</rdf:Description>

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Blank node
• Blank node is called anonymous resource in
RDF
• Blank node are nodes without URI:
– Unnamed resources
– More complex constructs
• Resources for which we do not have a URI as
identifier, because
– We may not know the URI
– There is no point in minting a URI for them

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Semantics of Blank Nodes
• In terms of first-order logic, a blank node corresponds to an
existentially quantified variable (or a Skolem constant).
Thus, a graph with blank nodes is similar to an existentially
quantified first order logic statement.

• Blank nodes are useful to represent n-ary relationships in

RDF (e.g., the relationship between John Smith and the street,
city, state, and postal code components of his address.

• Blank nodes are also useful to more accurately make

statements about resources that may not have URIs, but that
are described in terms of relationships with other resources that do have
URIs.

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer

ElKorany
 Blank node(cont.)
• Blank nodes are also useful to more accurately make
statements about resources are described in terms of
relationships with other resources that do have URIs

• It just provides the necessary connectivity between

various parts of the graph.

• Blank node in RDF can essentially be interpreted as a

logical statement, “there exists.” That is, in these
statements we assert “there exists student, who lived
in cairo, who attend class SE465”
(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany
 Blank Node
• Nodes like John's address may not require "universal" identifiers.
• Nodes with only local meaning can be blank.
• Nodes like John's address may not require "universal" identifiers.

• Nodes like John's address may not require "universal" identifiers.

If we gives _:johnaddress as the identifier for the blank node

• Nodes like John's address may not require "universal" identifiers.

• Nodes with only local meaning can be blank.

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

exstaff:85740 exterms:address _:johnaddress .
_:johnaddress exterms:street "1501 Grant Avenue" .
_:johnaddress exterms:city "Bedford" .
_:johnaddress exterms:state "Massachusetts" .
_:johnaddress exterms:postalCode "01730" .

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Blank node

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 Blank node

No Subject Predicate Object

1 http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf- http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1title "RDF/XML Syntax
syntax-grammar Specification (Revised)"
2 genid:A144010 http://example.org/stuff/1.0fullName "Dave Beckett"

3 http://www.w3.org/TR/rdf- http://example.org/stuff/1.0editor genid:A144010

syntax-grammar
4 genid:A144010 http://example.org/stuff/1.0homepage http://purl.org/net/dajobe/

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany

 RDF Validator
• http://www.w3.org/RDF/Validator/

• Provides a validator for your RDF data.

• It creates a graph of your RDF statements

– Choose the appropriate “Display Result Option”.

• Very useful to start writing RDF documents

(C) Copyright 2022 by Prof. Abeer ElKorany