SKOS, or Simple Knowledge Organization System, is a W3C designed for representing thesauri, classification , taxonomies, authority control systems

W3C recommendation designed for the representation of thesauri, classification schemes, taxonomies, subject heading systems, or other structured controlled vocabularies.

SKOS is a work area that develops specifications and standards to support the use of knowledge organization systems ( KOS ) , such as thesauri , classification schemes, subject heading systems, and taxonomies within the Semantic Web

SKOS and RDF

SKOS provides a standard way to represent knowledge organization systems using the Resource Description Framework (RDF). Encoding this information in RDF allows it to be transmitted between computer applications in an interoperable manner.

The use of RDF also allows knowledge organization systems to be used in decentralized and distributed metadata applications. Decentralized metadata is becoming a typical scenario, where service providers want to add value to metadata collected from various sources.