A graph model for rdf
Jonhatan Hayes · 2004
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a language for metadata assertions about information resources on the World-Wide Web, and is thus a foundation for a future Semantic Web. The atomic construct of RDF are statements, which are triples consisting of the resource being described, a property, and a property value. A collection of RDF statements can be intuitively understood as a graph: resources are nodes and statements are arcs connecting the nodes. The graph nature of this abstract triple syntax is indeed appealing, but the RDF specification does not distinguish clearly among (1) the term of RDF Graph (merely a set of triples, thus not a standard graph), (2) the mathematical concept of graph, and (3) the graph-like visualization of RDF data (“node and directed-arc diagrams”). This thesis argues that there is need for an explicit graph representation for RDF, which allows the application of technics and results from graph theory and which serves as an intermediate model between the abstract triple syntax and task-specific serialization of RDF data. Directed labeled graphs currently used