"More and more people are using the query language SPARQL (pronounced 'sparkle') to pull data from a growing collection of public and private data. Whether this data is part of a semantic web project or an integration of two inventory databases on different platforms behind the same firewall, SPARQL is making it easier to access this data using both open source and commercial software. In the words of W3C Director and web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, 'Trying to use the Semantic Web without SPARQL is like trying to use a relational database without SQL. SPARQL lets them query information from databases and other diverse sources in the wild, across the Web.'"--Resource description page.