XML Databases and the Semantic Web
March 18, 2010 by BPELworld.com
Product Description
Efficient access to data, sharing data, extracting information from data, and making use of the information have become urgent needs for today’s corporations. With so much data on the Web, managing it with conventional tools is becoming almost impossible. New tools and techniques are necessary to provide interoperability as well as warehousing between multiple data sources and systems, and to extract information from the databases. XML Databases and the Semantic Web focuses on critical and new Web technologies needed for organizations to carry out transactions on the Web, to understand how to use the Web effectively, and to exchange complex documents on the Web.This reference for database administrators, database designers, and Web designers working in tandem with database technologists covers three emerging technologies of significant impact for electronic business: Extensible Markup Language (XML), semi-structured databases, and the semantic Web. The first two parts of the book explore these emerging technologies. The third part highlights the implications of these technologies for e-business. Overall, the book presents a comprehensive view of critical technologies for the Web in general and XML in particular.The semantic Web, XML, and semi-structured databases are still relatively new technologies that integrate many other technologies. As these technologies and integration of these advances mature, we can expect to see progress in the semantic web. The information contained in XML Databases and the Semantic Web is essential to the future success of effective e-business on the Web.
Buy from Amazon –> XML Databases and the Semantic Web
I wasn’t very happy with the book. Although I am not an expert in the XML and semantic web-related issues, the book appeared shallow to me. The writing style is rather good, but content seems suboptimal.
Rating: 3 / 5
I am a manager of an IT group for an Insurance company and we are employing web applications. I found this book extremely useful. It takes a step-by-step approach starting from the very basics. It gave me a lot of information about the web and data management. As the author himself points out that the book does not intend to discuss XML in any depth. Each of the chapters could be expanded into a more detailed book. I would like to read more on web services, briefly discussed in this book. The author also gives several useful references for a more in-depth analysis of the topics. The author also points out that ideas surrounding the semantic web are preliminary. I also read a recent but very interesting article in Information Week about the semantic web and it is at least a few years away. Nevertheless web services, XML, RDF and Ontologies are the emerging technologies needed for the semantic web. This book has really motivated me to read more on this topic.
Rating: 5 / 5
This is one of the most readable and unique books about XML and its real power that’s available. There are others, but they are more academic in nature, such as “Internet Based Workflow Management: Towards a Semantic Web” by Dan Marinescu (an excellent book in its own right, but requires a significant amount of prior knowledge of agents, knowledge management and other topics).
What I like about this book is that it leads you through the details of XML, metadata related topics to ensure you have a good understanding of the key technical and business issues. You require little prior knowledge of XML to understand the introductory material. The author then addresses the semantic web aspect, including data mining, advanced XML concepts and semistructured databases. Next, the conceptual foundation is used to show you how to apply this information in practical ways.
This book is ideal for e-commerce architects because it covers both business and technical issues, and goes into more detail than one would expect given the wide range of topics covered. If you want to go further into intelligent agents and a truly semantic web using XML or any other technical building block I also recommend reading “Network Query Language” by David Pallmann and Harry Forsdick. That book is more oriented towards development using a specific tool set (NQL); however, it will augment this book if you are actually implementing web intelligence instead of exploring its potential.
Rating: 5 / 5
I am new to the field of web and databases and found this to be an excellent book. It is very well written and very easy to read. It does not hype up the area like some other books do and provides a very realistic picture. I am now eager to learn more about the field.
Rating: 5 / 5
This books covers a lot of topics very well. It starts with a discussion of web databases and semi-structured databases and then goes on to discuss XML, RDF and finally ties all the concepts together in a discussion of the semantic web. Semantic web is still evolving and the author clairifies the various concepts quite well. While this may not be at the right level for a technologist or a developer, this book will be quite appropriate for a manager or executive who wants to get a quick introduction to the semantic web and XML.
Rating: 4 / 5