The Semantic Web: An Introduction

Sorry to be negative, but this is really old (2001 writeup). A lot of things have changed. For a good 'visual' example of semWeb in action, look at Reuter's openCalais project. Install the gnosis firefox plugin, and be amazed at the possibilities :0

Another good site to monitor is of course readwriteweb. They published recently an OPML file with good rss feeds to follow this movement. And for state-of-the art, see larkc.eu (disclaimer: I work on that project). larkc.eu aims to do semantic web reasoning at a scale never before seen (i.e., the entire web).

There's a longer one at this address: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=306555

if this doesn't make it, something a lot like it will.

also checkout rdfabout.com ... great mini slideshow.

it can be hard to make it through the exhaustive specs and academic terminology, but it would be so huge if it were already so huge ;p

seems like a really dry introduction. Tons of info I'm sure but anything called an "Introduction" seems like it would be friendlier.