The DARPA Agent Markup Language (DAML) was the name of a US funding program at the US

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

(DARPA) started in 1999 by then-Program Manager James Hendler, and later run by Murray Burke, Mark Greaves and

Michael Pagels Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

. The program focused on the creation of machine-readable representations for the Web. One of the Investigators working on the program was

Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John Berners-Lee (born 8 June 1955), also known as TimBL, is an English computer scientist best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web. He is a Professorial Fellow of Computer Science at the University of Oxford and a profe ...

. Working with the program managers and other participants, Tim helped shape the effort to create technologies and demonstrations for what is now called the Semantic Web, leading in turn to the growth of

knowledge graph The Google Knowledge Graph is a knowledge base from which Google serves relevant information in an infobox beside its search results. This allows the user to see the answer in a glance. The data is generated automatically from a variety of so ...

technology. A primary outcome of the DAML program was the DAML language, an

agent Agent may refer to: Espionage, investigation, and law *, spies or intelligence officers * Law of agency, laws involving a person authorized to act on behalf of another ** Agent of record, a person with a contractual agreement with an insuran ...

markup language Markup language refers to a text-encoding system consisting of a set of symbols inserted in a text document to control its structure, formatting, or the relationship between its parts. Markup is often used to control the display of the document ...

based on RDF. This language was followed by an extension entitled

DAML+OIL The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies. Ontologies are a formal way to describe taxonomies and classification networks, essentially defining the structure of knowledge for vario ...

which included researchers outside of the DARPA program in the design. The 2002 submission of the DAML+OIL language to the

World Wide Web Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working t ...

(W3C) captures the work done by DAML contractors and the EU/ U.S. ad hoc Joint Committee on Agent Markup Languages. This submission was the starting point for the language (later called

OWL Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...

) to be developed by W3C's web ontology

working group A working group, or working party, is a group of experts working together to achieve specified goals. The groups are domain-specific and focus on discussion or activity around a specific subject area. The term can sometimes refer to an interdis ...

, WebOnt. DAML+OIL was a syntax, layered on RDF and

XML Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a markup language and file format for storing, transmitting, and reconstructing arbitrary data. It defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. ...

, that could be used to describe sets of facts making up an

ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities ...

. DAML+OIL had its roots in three main languages - DAML, as described above,

OIL An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturate ...

(Ontology Inference Layer) and

SHOE A shoe is an item of footwear intended to protect and comfort the Foot, human foot. They are often worn with a sock. Shoes are also used as an item of decoration and fashion. The design of shoes has varied enormously through time and from cult ...

, an earlier US research project. A major innovation of the languages was to use RDF and XML for a basis, and to use RDF namespaces to organize and assist with the integration of arbitrarily many different and incompatible ontologies. Articulation ontologies can link these competing ontologies through codification of analogous subsets in a

neutral point of view Neutral point of view may refer to: * Objectivity (science), the concept of a position formed without incorporating one's own prejudice * Neutrality (philosophy), to maintain neutrality at all times {{Disambig ...

, as is done in the

Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read ref ...

. Current ontology research derived in part from DAML is leading toward the expression of ontologies and rules for reasoning and

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

. Much of the work in DAML has now been incorporated into

RDF Schema RDF Schema (Resource Description Framework Schema, variously abbreviated as RDFS, , RDF-S, or RDF/S) is a set of classes with certain properties using the RDF extensible knowledge representation data model, providing basic elements for the descr ...

, the

and their successor languages and technologies including schema.org

External links

About DAMLW3C Web Ontology (WebOnt) Working Group (OWL) (Closed)Submission request to the World Wide Web Consortium: DAML+OIL Web Ontology Language
Markup languages Knowledge representation languages Semantic Web

See also

External links