The Resource Description Framework (RDF) integrates a variety of web-based metadata activities including sitemaps, content ratings, stream channel definitions, search engine data collection (web crawling), digital library collections, and distributed authoring, using XML as an interchange syntax.

This book is a printed version of two important online documents: Resource Description Framework (RDF) Schema Specification 1.0 and Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification. The Schema Specification describes how to use RDF to describe RDF vocabularies. It also defines a basic vocabulary for this purpose, as well as an extensibility mechanism to anticipate future additions to RDF. The RDF Model and Syntax Specification introduces a model for representing RDF metadata as well as a syntax for encoding and transporting this metadata in a manner that maximizes the interoperability of independently developed Web servers and clients.