The all pervasive web is influencing all aspects of human endeavour. In order to
strengthen the description of web resources, so that they are more meaningful to
both humans and machines, web semantics have been proposed. These allow better
annotation, understanding, search, interpretation and composition of these resources.
The growing importance of these has brought about a great increase in
research into these issues.
We propose a series of books that will address key issues in web semantics on an
annual basis. This book series can be considered as an extended journal published
annually. The series will combine theoretical results, standards, and their realizations
in applications and implementations. The series is titled “Advances in Web Semantics”
and will be published periodically by Springer to promote emerging Semantic
Web technologies. It will contain the cream of the collective contribution of the International
Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Web Semantics Working
Group; WG 2.12 & WG 12.4. This book, addressing the current state of the art, is the
first in the series. In subsequent years, books will address a particular theme, topic or
issue where the greatest advances are being made. Examples of such topics include:
(i) process semantics, (ii) web services, (iii) ontologies, (iv) workflows, (v) trust and
reputation, (vi) web applications, etc. Periodically, perhaps every five years, there will
be a scene-setting state of the art volume. This will provide a collection of work by the
top experts and minds in the field, in an area of the utmost importance to business, IT
and industry.