Guest Editor's Introduction: Ontologies, OWL, and the Semantic Web

This special issue of IT Professional provides an overview of the progress that has been made in translating semantic Web concepts into real world applications. Much work has gone into developing standards for semantic Web applications, including XML, the resource description framework (RDF), and the Web Ontology Language (OWL). Nevertheless, some Semantic Web concepts and technologies have gained considerable traction. Ontologies, for example, have become indispensable tools in the biological sciences and genomic research. XML-based Web services and the service oriented architecture (SOA) found in many enterprise architectures borrow many of their ideas from the semantic Web, including intelligent search and discovery of new services.