Metadata for Web Ontologies and Rules: Current Practices and Perspectives

The Semantic Web contains a number of different knowledge artifacts, including OWL ontologies, RIF rule sets and RDF datasets. Effective exchange and management of these artifacts demand the use of metadata and prompt availability of accurate reference documentation. In this paper, we analyze the current practices in metadata usage for OWL ontologies, and we propose a vocabulary for annotating RIF rules. We also introduce a software tool –Parrot– that exploits these annotations and produces reference documentation for combinations of ontologies and rules.