The RDF-star Working Group has published a first Draft Note of RDF 1.2 Primer. This primer is designed to provide the reader with the basic knowledge required to effectively use RDF. It introduces the basic concepts of RDF and shows concrete examples of the use of RDF. Secs. 3-5 can be used as a minimalist introduction into the key elements of RDF. Changes between RDF 1.1 and RDF 1.2 are summarized in a separate document: What’s New in RDF 1.2.

The RDF Star Working Group has published the last two First Public Working Drafts of its Recommendation track deliverables:

• RDF 1.2 Semantics: This document describes a precise semantics for the RDF 1.2 Concepts and Abstract Syntax [RDF12-CONCEPTS] and RDF 1.2 Schema [RDF12-SCHEMA]. It defines a number of distinct entailment regimes and corresponding patterns of entailment. It is part of a suite of documents which comprise the full specification of RDF 1.2.
• SPARQL 1.2 Entailment Regimes: There are different possible ways of defining a basic graph pattern matching extension for an entailment relation. This document specifies one such way for a range of standard semantic web entailment relations. Such extensions of the SPARQL semantics are called entailment regimes within this document.

The RDF-star Working Group has published the following 16 First Public Working Drafts, which represent the first milestone in the update of the RDF and SPARQL families of specification towards version 1.2:

1. RDF 1.2 Concepts and Abstract Syntax defines an abstract syntax (a data model) for the Resource Description Framework (RDF), which serves to link all RDF-based languages and specifications.
2. RDF 1.2 XML Syntax defines an XML syntax for RDF called RDF/XML in terms of Namespaces in XML, the XML Information Set and XML Base.
3. RDF 1.2 Turtle defines a textual syntax for RDF called Turtle that allows an RDF graph to be completely written in a compact and natural text form, with abbreviations for common usage patterns and datatypes.
4. RDF 1.2 N-Triples defines a line-based, plain text format for encoding an RDF graph.
5. RDF 1.2 N-Quads defines is a line-based, plain text format for encoding an RDF dataset.
6. RDF 1.2 TriG defines a textual syntax for RDF called TriG that allows an RDF dataset to be completely written in a compact and natural text form, with abbreviations for common usage patterns and datatypes. TriG is an extension of the Turtle format.
7. RDF 1.2 Schema defines a data-modelling vocabulary for RDF data. RDF Schema is an extension of the basic RDF vocabulary.
8. SPARQL 1.2 Query Language defines the syntax and semantics of the SPARQL query language for RDF. SPARQL can be used to express queries across diverse data sources, whether the data is stored natively as RDF or viewed as RDF via middleware.
9. SPARQL 1.2 Update describes SPARQL 1.2 Update, an update language for RDF graphs. It uses a syntax derived from the SPARQL Query Language for RDF.
10. SPARQL 1.2 Protocol specifies the SPARQL Protocol; it describes a means for conveying SPARQL queries and updates to a SPARQL processing service and returning the results via HTTP to the entity that requested them.
11. SPARQL 1.2 Query Results XML Format describes an XML format for the variable binding and boolean results formats provided by the SPARQL query language for RDF.
12. SPARQL 1.2 Query Results JSON Format describes the representation of SELECT and ASK query results using JSON.
13. SPARQL 1.2 Query Results CSV and TSV Formats describes the use of the formats CSV [RFC4180] (comma separated values) and TSV [IANA-TSV] (tab separated values) for expressing SPARQL query results from SELECT queries.
14. SPARQL 1.2 Service Description describes SPARQL service description, a method for discovering, and vocabulary for describing SPARQL services made available via the SPARQL 1.2 Protocol.
15. SPARQL 1.2 Federated Query defines the syntax and semantics of SPARQL 1.1 Federated Query extension for executing queries distributed over different SPARQL endpoints.
16. SPARQL 1.2 Graph Store Protocol describes the use of HTTP operations for the purpose of managing a collection of RDF graphs. This interface is an alternative to SPARQL 1.2 Protocol.