DAML, or the DARPA Agent Markup Language, was a program initiated by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a new ontology language for the Semantic Web. It was designed to extend XML and RDF, allowing for more complex data interchange on the web by enabling computers to understand the semantics, or meaning, of information. The DAML.org website served as a central repository for resources, tools, and documentation related to DAML. It played a crucial role in the evolution of web technologies, eventually contributing to the development of more modern standards like OWL (Web Ontology Language).