The W3C has announced that eleven specifications of SPARQL 1.1 have been published as recommendations. SPARQL is the Semantic Web query language.  We caught up with Lee Feigenbaum, VP Marketing & Technology at Cambridge Semantics Inc. to discuss the significance of this announcement. Feigenbaum is a SPARQL expert who currently serves as the Co-Chair of the W3C’s SPARQL Working Group, leading the design of SPARQL.

Feigenbaum says, “SPARQL 1.1 is a huge leap forward in providing a standard way to access and update Semantic Web data. By reaching W3C Recommendation status, Semantic Web developers, vendors, publishers and consumers have a stable, well-vetted, and interoperable set of standards they can rely on for the foreseeable future.”

“The SPARQL 1.1 recommendations provide much-needed parity with common SQL capabilities like subqueries and aggregates and also includes features like property paths for easily navigating linked data graphs.  SPARQL 1.1 Update gives developers an easy and standard way to create and update semantic data in bulk. SPARQL 1.1 also gives us standard ways to do query federation, to advertise the capabilities of SPARQL services, to work with results in JSON and CSV formats, and to interact with RDF data in a RESTful manner. In sum, the SPARQL 1.1 standards should help propel significant innovation within and adoption of Semantic Web applications.”

You can learn more about SPARQL from Lee Feigenbaum in a half-day tutorial, “SPARQL By Example” at the Semantic Technology & Business Conference. Registration is open, and the full conference program is available here.