I have found the concept of linked data attractive. It seems like the right way to take the web forward. As part of brainstorming things for Allotrop, I wanted to understand the different components of  the semantic web.

You should start with this TED talk by Tim Berners-Lee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM6XIICm_qo

There is a free book available at linkeddatabook.com which goes in the details of the various things that need to come together for linked data to work. It doesn’t has any prerequisite, so if you want to get familiar with the idea of semantic web, then it is a good read.