Courses in Computer Science, Roskilde University

DB 2: The Web of Data and XML (preliminary course description)

Computer applications increasingly access online data and exchange data with other applications. Huge amounts of data are now stored online in "the Cloud". This "web of data" includes data mined from online sources such as social websites. The first goal of this course is to introduce the essentials necessary for designing systems and exploiting the possibilities opened up for sharing data and building information systems and services around the web of data. The second goal is to introduce concepts that turn "data" into "knowledge"; how to attach semantics to data so that applications can process it more meaningfully and intelligently.

Contents

• Data models for web data
• Essentials of XML (Extensible Markup Language)
• Semantic Web concepts; RDF (Resource description framework), Ontologies
• Link to classical databases; XML-enabled and native-XML databases
• Survey of typical applications

Learning outcomes

• be familiar with XML and associated languages such as DTD and Xquery,
• know how to use XML for modelling data, storing and retrieving it in databases,
• understand the basic concepts of the semantic web
• know how to store, query and retrieve XML data in conventional databases.