Applicability assessment of Semantic Web technologies

The Semantic Web is one of the fastest developing fields within the Information and Communication Technology sector and, as such, under constant examination by scientists and IT professionals. This article aims to provide a better understanding of the applicability of Semantic Web tools and technologies in practice. This aim will be achieved by surveying the recommended and emerging W3C standards, presenting an overview of the state-of-the-art in the Semantic Web research in the European Union, analysing the W3C collection of Case studies and Use Cases, and discussing the extent of adoption of Semantic Web technologies. The overall technology maturity level assessment has shown that Semantic Web technologies are finding their ways into real-world applications, and that, rather than being merely a fashionable research issue, the Semantic Web, slowly but surely, becomes our reality.

Research highlights
► Semantic Web technologies are finding their ways into real-world applications.
► Semantic-based technologies have been steadily increasing their relevance in recent years in both the research and business worlds.
► Ontology-based approaches to data and service integration have already been well established in corporate settings.
► SW approaches proved their advantages in domain-specific applications.
► Major open issues: scalability and run-time support, interoperability, data synchronization, and large-scale adoption.