One could fairly say that the role of rules in the semantic web has been controversial; in the few short years since the first publication of the Semantic Web stack, Rules have sometimes been given a central role, at other times a peripheral role, and sometimes left out completely. Why such variation for an technology with thirty years of background?
The reason for these differences of opinion stem from different goals for the inclusion of rules in the Semantic Web stack. At one extreme are the Description Logicians who see no need for a general-purpose programming language in the semantic web stack. At the other extreme are those who want to build a web infrastructure with the capacity for emergent intelligence.
Our experience with deploying semantic web solutions using OWL alongside rules suggests a moderate middle path; we don't need or even want our web infrastructure to exhibit intelligence; that's what our applications are for. We just need a consistent and coherent web of information to work from. Simply put, we just want our web infrastructure not to be so dumb.
Armed with this understanding, we can see the role of rules in the Semantic Web in a different light, and see a clear role of rules in the semantic web stack.
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