Knowledge Representation on the Web Revisited : The Case for Prototypes

Abstract

Recently, RDF and OWL have become the most common knowledge representation languages in use on the Web, propelled by the recommendation of the W3C. In this paper we examine an alternative way to represent knowledge based on Prototypes. This Prototype-based representation has different properties, which we argue to be more suitable for data sharing and reuse on the Web. Prototypes avoid the distinction between classes and instances and provide a means for object-based data sharing and reuse. In this paper we discuss the requirements and design principles for Knowledge Representation based on Prototypes on the Web, after which we propose a formal syntax and semantics. We further show how to embed knowledge representation based on Prototypes in the current Semantic Web stack and report on an implementation and practical evaluation of the system.