What is RDF?

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RDF is a technical term for a way of describing things in a form that can be processed and interpreted by computers. Descriptions are stated in a formal way that labels an item with a named characteristic and the detail of the characteristic. For instance, a book may have these characteristics and details:

• title: On The Origin Of Species By Means Of Natural Selection
• subject: Evolutionary biology
• author: Charles Darwin

RDF descriptions can seem very laborious because each characteristic is set out in its own right. Instead of saying "It was a dark and stormy night", an RDF description might say:

• The illumination that night was "dark".
• The weather that night was "stormy".

RDF might also tell you the criteria by which the night was classified as "stormy", by referring to the Beaufort scale for example.

The formality of the RDF scheme makes it possible for computer systems to read, compare and interpret these descriptions and work out relationships between them. To say that Charles Darwin is the author of one book may enable us to identify other books by Charles Darwin. If we find letters written by Charles Darwin on the subject of "Evolutionary biology", we might deduce that he is also the author of "The Origin Of Species".

See also:

• What is the Semantic Web?
• What is RSS?