Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 30, 2026

Cwm (software)

Cwm is a general-purpose data processing software for the Semantic Web, similar to sed or awk for text files or XSLT for XML. It is a forward chaining semantic reasoner that can be used for querying, checking, transforming and filtering information. Its core language is RDF, extended to include rules, it can use RDF/XML or RDF/N3 serializations.

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Jun 30, 2026
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Cwm (pronounced koom) is a general-purpose data processing software for the Semantic Web, similar to sed or awk for text files or XSLT for XML. It is a forward chaining semantic reasoner that can be used for querying, checking, transforming and filtering information.1 Its core language is RDF, extended to include rules, it can use RDF/XML or RDF/N3 (see Notation3 Primer) serializations.

cwm can perform the following tasks:

  • Parse and pretty-print the following RDF formats: XML RDF, Notation3, and N-Triples.
  • Store triples in a queryable triplestore (a triples' database).
  • Perform inferences as a forward chaining FOPL inference engine.2
  • Perform builtin functions such as comparing strings, retrieving resources, all using an extensible builtins suite.

cwm was written in Python from 2000–10 onwards by Tim Berners-Lee and Dan Connolly of the W3C.

References

References

  1. Ferrari, Elena; Thuraisingham, Bhavani (2005-10-31). Web and Information Security. Idea Group Inc (IGI). ISBN 978-1-59140-590-0.
  2. Thuraisingham, Bhavani; Cadenhead, Tyrone; Kantarcioglu, Murat; Khadilkar, Vaibhav (2014-08-01). Secure Data Provenance and Inference Control with Semantic Web. CRC Press. ISBN 978-1-4665-6943-0.
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