The World-Wide-Web has traditionally been viewed as a large hypertextual structure. However, recent developments in mark-up languages [16, 19], interoperability protocols [2] and web-based knowledge representation languages [8, 10, 12] have introduced new perspectives on the web. For instance, XML can be used to realise a database perspective on the web, supporting data integration across multiple applications. The work on RI)F and RDFS provides the initial building blocks to go beyond simple integration based on structure towards semantic integration. Web-based knowledge representation languages such as OIL [8], Shoe [10] and XOL [12] move closer to this objective, providing advanced knowledge representation functionalities to support semantic interoperability and intelligent search. These approaches can be seen as informed by a distinct perspective on the web, which is often called the semantic web. The defining aspect of this perspective is the desire to move away from uni-dimensional hypertext, or simple data integration to achieve semantic integration between agents, based on shared conceptualizations. These shared conceptualization are normally called ontologies [9].
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