Introduction to the Special Issue on Semantic Web Data Management

During the last decade we have witnessed a tremendousincrease in the amount of data that is available onthe Web in almost every field of human activity. Financialinformation, weather reports, news feeds, product information,and geographical maps are only a few examplesof such data, all intended to be consumed by the millionsof users surfing the Web. The advent of Web 2.0 applications,such as Wikis, social networking sites and mashupshave brought new forms of data and have radicallychanged the nature of modern Web. They have transformedthe Web from a publishing-only environment intoa vibrant place for information exchange. Web users areno longer plain data consumers but have become activedata producers and data dissemination agents, contributingfurther to the increase of the information plethora onthe Web.