OK, but you need some foundations 2010-01-24

Reviewer: J. Stroop

The other reviews are basically correct, this is a good, broad overview and will get you up and running quickly. Beware, however, that the examples are poorly edited: for example, the namespaces used the text, the illustrations, and the source code are frequently different. This isn't too big a deal if you have some background w/RDF concepts in general and know how to debug these inconsistencies, but if you're truly a noob, you may run into some trouble.

Clear conceptual explanations, helpful examples 2010-01-20

Reviewer: R. D. MCDUFF

Semantic Web Programming is the best book on the market. I flipped through two or three other textbooks before being recommended this book by a colleague. I am so glad I found this book.

The differentiating feature of Semantic Web Programming is the frequency of visual images that help to explain the core programming concepts. The examples are also very helpful.

This book gets my highest recommendation. I am sure you will find it useful.

Best Semantic Web Book to Date 2010-01-18

Reviewer: Christopher Troilo

As a programmer, it's sometimes frustrating to consistently books written in research/ academic vernacular when you are trying to enhance your knowledge base from a functional standpoint. Semantic Web Programming was recommended to me by someone who swore it was the "real deal", as it were. I have to admit, I was dubious, since many of the other books "written for programmers" were either far too basic, or far too based in theory rather than practicality. I am extremely pleased to report that Semantic Web Programming is precisely what it claims to - an excellent tool for learning semantic web with the programmer in mind. I can't recommend this book enough, quite frankly, and found it to be an excellent purchase.

Brought me from clueless to confident in a month 2009-09-18

Reviewer: mdkid123

I was tasked earlier in the year with investigating ontologies and semantic web technologies, with the expectation of producing a working application (demo) by the year's end (for a mobile R&D group). I spent a few months reading white papers as well as a book "Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist". Neither was of much use to an absolute novice. Luckily, my manager dropped this book off on my desk in July, which was an absolute godsend. Over the next month or so, I worked my way through all of the well-written chapters and example code. It took a while, but I am now confident with my work tasks ahead. I could not say that at the beginning of July. If you devote the time, I'm positive that you'll get a firm grasp of the subject matter.

Broad coverage and lots of code examples 2009-08-29

Reviewer: Techie Evan

This book will help you acquire knowledge or skills in: the Semantic Web approach to Information Modeling, the use of rules to augment such models when needed, where to find data sets already formatted for Semantic Web usage or ontologies that you could adapt for your application if you don't want to create one from scratch, how to interrogate the Semantic Web using special browsers or browser plugins, search engines, or a query language such as SPARQL, how to use an open-source tool such as Protege from Stanford University to create Semantic Web Information Models, an open-source reasoning engine like Pellet for making inferences flowing from your data sets, and an open-source development framework like Jena from Hewlett Packard for creating Semantic Web applications.

This is not the only book written for software developers but it is the best available so far, especially if you are a Java Developer. Toby Segaran et al's "Programming the Semantic Web" uses Python as the main programming language and has more limited coverage of Semantic Web topics. Both books, however, are quite readable even if you are not a programmer. If you're really looking to learn just the concepts, however, you might want to consider "A Semantic Web Primer 2nd Edition" by Grigoris Antoniou and Frank van Harmelen, or "Introduction to the Semantic Web and Semantic Web Services" by Liyang Yu, instead.

I like this book very much not only because it is very well-written and thought out, but also for its up-to-date and broad coverage. It covers Version 2 of the Web Ontology Language used for Information Modeling, so new features such as property chains, keys, and custom data types are discussed. It has a good tutorial on SPARQL, and the chapter on Patterns and Best Practices include architectural recommendations and useful tips for managing URIs and annotations. It provides references to important concept papers, and to popular open-source and commercial tools.

I do hope that future editions of this book will include: more concrete discussions of the challenges involved in modeling and using Semantic Web data due to the paradigm's adherence to the Open World rather than the Closed World Assumption, and recommendations on potential approaches to model versioning and addressing security concerns such as role-based viewing of Semantic Web data. Overall, however, an excellent book!