A web of data with a meaning in the sense that computer programs can know enough about the data to process it.

Refers to a proposal for the future World Wide Web, consisting of documents that are put together in such a way that it facilitates automated information gathering and research in a far more meaningful way than can be accomplished with current web search tools. The most basic element is the semantic link. The usability and usefulness of the Web and its interconnected resources will be enhanced through: documents 'marked up' with semantic information (an extension of the DEFANGED_meta tags used in today's Web pages to supply information for Web search engines using web crawlers). common metadata vocabularies (ontologies) and maps between vocabularies that allow document creators to know how to mark up their documents so that agents can use the information in the supplied metadata, automated agents to perform tasks for users of the Semantic Web using this metadata web-based services (often with agents of their own) to supply information specifically to agents.

The objective of the Semantic Web Architecture is to provide a knowledge representation of linked data in order to allow machine processing on a global scale.

"The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation." - Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, Ora Lassila in http://www.scientificamerican.com/2001/0501issue/0501berners-lee.html See also http://www.SemanticWeb.org/ and http://www.w3.org/2001/sw