Marko A. Rodriguez and Joshua Shinavier recently submitted a paper entitled “The RDF Virtual Machine” to arXiv and for peer-review.

Abstract: The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a standard semantic network data model that is used to create machine-understandable descriptions of the world, and is the basis of the Semantic Web. This article discusses the application of RDF to the representation of computer software and virtual computing machines. The Semantic Web is posited as not only a web of data, but also as a web of programs and processes.

The article discusses both Neno/Fhat and Ripple (also see this blog entry) and presents some categories for thinking about the various aspects of Semantic Web programming languages and their respective interpreters/virtual machines.

Some interesting uses cases for these frameworks are presented in the last part of the article. These include:

1. • Open computing: an extension of Open Data in which algorithms, virtualized computing machines, and underlying hardware computing resources are made publicly available.
   

2. • Distribute computing: in which the process is moved to the data, as opposed to the data to the process (see image above).
   

3. • Reflective computing: as computational processes reside in the URI/literal address space, reflection from the API to the RVM is possible.