The Web as we know it today is changing from a Web of documents towards a Semantic Web, where meaning is associated with data allowing the creation of a new generation of novel and intelligent applications. This master's thesis gives a technical state of the art analysis of the W3C standards that will enable the Semantic Web and also considers the significance of the Microformats initiative.
Based on existing solutions in both Java and Ruby, it is discussed how to integrate the standards with object-oriented programming languages. It is found that current implementations of the GRDDL standard have poor support for the majority of microformatted data on today's Web. A GRDDL adapter for the ActiveRDF framework is thus developed and is shown to radically improve Microformats compatibilty.
Development of Sementic Web applications is discussed with regards to how it differs from traditional Web application development. It is also explained how ActiveRDF can be combined with Ruby on Rails to allow rapid development of Semantic Web applications. Using this combination of frameworks and the GRDDL adapter developed in this project, a prototype implementation of a Personal Semantic Organizer is made.