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  <TITLE>Metalog - the semantic web query/logical system</TITLE>
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<H1>
<IMG ALT="Metalog" SRC="images/head.jpg" BORDER="0" WIDTH="162" HEIGHT="121" ALIGN="middle">Metalog - towards the Semantic Web
</H1>
<P>
[Nearby: <A HREF="docs/sw-easy.html">Semantic Web Made Easy</A> -
<A HREF="docs/pnl.html">PNL</A> - <A HREF="download/">Download</A> -
<A HREF="docs/quick-guide">Quick Guide</A> - 
<A HREF="history.html">History</A> - <A HREF="people.html">People</A> -
<A HREF="todos.html">Todo's</A>]
<p>
<hr>
<em>News:</em> Metalog v2.1 (with Macintosh support) forthcoming, stay tuned!<br>
<em>News:</em> New <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Massimo/papers/2004/wi2004.pdf">research paper on Metalog</a> published.<br>
<em>News:</em> Due to high user demand, the <a href="docs/quick-guide">Quick Guide</a> is now also available online.
<hr>

<P>
Metalog is a next-generation reasoning system for the Semantic Web. Historically,
Metalog has been the <I>first semantic web system</I> to be designed, introducing
reasoning within the Semantic Web infrastructure by adding the
<EM>query/logical</EM> layer on top of RDF. 


<H2>
<img src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/32x32/question.gif" width="32" height="32"
border="0" alt="" /> Why?
</H2>

<P>
What is Metalog good for?
<UL>
<LI>To <em>showcase</em> the potential of the Semantic Web
<LI>To <em>teach</em> the Semantic Web
<LI>To <em>understand</em> how reasoning on the Web can work
<LI>To <em>bring the user in the loop</em>, by <A HREF="docs/sw-easy.html">making the Semantic Web easier</a>
</UL>


<H2>
<img src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/Lib48x" width="32" height="32"
border="0" alt="" /> Design
</H2>
<P>
The design of Metalog comes from the need of blending two necessities of
the Semantic Web:
<UL>
  <LI>
    The first one is <EM>reasoning</EM>, that is to say, the ability to reason,
    query, express logical relations. In other words, to do some "thinking" on
    the Web.
  <LI>
    The second one is to try to <EM><A HREF="docs/sw-easy.html">make the Semantic
    Web Easy</A></EM>, or at least to start this quest.
</UL>
<P>
Therefore, Metalog has a double face: a powerful reasoning extension on one
hand, and a very user-friendly interface on the other, which constitutes
another possible level in the Semantic Web hierarchy: the so-called
<EM><A HREF="docs/pnl.html">pseudo natural language (PNL)</A></EM> layer.
The PNL (despite its hard name!) makes much easier for everybody to understand the Semantic Web, without having to learn heavy geek-like formalisms: 
essentially, the way the user interacts is via English-like dialogues, 
where one can "read" and "write" without having to learn a new different
language. 

<H2>
<img src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/install48x" width="32" height="32"
border="0" alt="" /> Downloads
</H2>
<P>
The Metalog system is available both for Windows and for Linux platforms.
A Macintosh porting is on the way. Check the <A HREF="download/">download
page</A> for details and to get the latest Metalog distribution.
<H2>
<img src="http://www.w3.org/1999/09/ql/ICONS/BOOKS05.GIF" width="32"
height="32" border="0" alt="" /> Documentation
</H2>
<P>
Every <A HREF="download/">Metalog distribution</A> comes complete with
a <a href="docs/quick-guide">Quick Guide</a>. There is also the paper
<a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Massimo/papers/2004/wi2004.pdf">Towards a People's Web: Metalog</a> that gives a more technical introdution to the
Metalog system, and its future developments.<br>
<P>
You can
check out the <A HREF="history.html">history</A> of the project.
<H2>
<img src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/faq48x" width="32" height="32"
border="0" alt="" /> <A NAME="Contacts">Contacts/Feedback</A>
</H2>
<P>
Comments, suggestions and contributions regarding Metalog are welcomed (Metalog
is an open-source project, so everybody is welcome to join and help). Any
request or feedback about Metalog can be sent to
<A HREF="mailto:metalog@w3.org">metalog@w3.org</A> . If you want, you can
have a look at the <A HREF="people.html">people</A> behind Metalog.
<P>
A <A HREF="todos.html">list of todo's</A> is maintained as well, planning
what are the next things on the Metalog agenda.
<P>
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