Semantic Wiki: Social Semantic Web In Use

A Gentle Introduction

Jesse Wang 12/7/2009Invited Talk at Intelligent Information Processing Lab, Fudan University,

Shanghai, China

About• Jesse Wang ( 王嘉欣 )

– Development Architect | Research Program Manager• Vulcan Inc., Seattle, WA, USA

– Paul G. Allen (Microsoft Co-founder)’s private company• Paul Allen – co-founded Microsoft

– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Allen– Laid the foundation of Microsoft’s success

• Persuaded [[Bill Gates]] to quit [[Harvard University]]• Spearheaded a deal to buy [[QDOS]] and… the rest is history

– A vision and some big ideas…

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http://ProjectHalo.com

WIKI & SEMANTIC WEBOther Big Ideas

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Agenda

• Wiki• Semantic Wiki• Examples of Semantic Wikis• Useful Extensions of Semantic MediaWiki• Fun and Real Applications built on Semantic

MediaWiki

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• Wikipedia– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia– 14 million articles (3.1 million in English) – Deutschsprachige Wikipedia: 900,000+ articles (2009/5)– ウィキペディア日本語版 : 600,000+ articles (2009/7)

• Chinese Wiki-like Encyclopedia– 互动百科 3.9 million articles, 4.3 billion chars

(2009/12)– 百度百科 1900430 articles (2009/12)

Wikis as We Know

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Some Popular Wikis

• AboutUs.org – Intenet Directory: > 14,000,000

• City wikis – umbrella wikis for cities

• GeoNames – places: 8,000,000 +

• OpenStreetMap – the Free Wiki World Map: > 100,000 USERS

• Wikitravel – travel guides

• LyricWiki - Lyrics• Wikileaks – leak info

anonymously• wikiHow – how to …• ShopWiki – you know• SNPedia – you’ll know

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Even More “Wikis”

WetPaint lets you build a rich, online community around the

whatever-it-is that you’re really into. Utilizing the best features of wikis, blogs, forums and social networks, Wetpaint mixes everything you need so you can create, collect, and organize content on your own social website.

Ning Ning offers an easy-to-use service that allows people to

join and create Ning Networks. To explore and express their interests, discover new

passions, and meet new people around shared pursuits.

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Wiki Is HOT

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So What is a Wiki

• By Wikipedia:– A wiki (pronounced /ˈwɪki/ WIK-ee) is a website

that allows the easy[1] creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor.[2][3] Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used to createcollaborative websites, to power community websites, for personal note taking, in corporate intranets, and in knowledge management systems.

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What Wiki Is Really About

• Quick and Easy – no need of extra software• Collaborative Community Authoring• Interlinked Content• Version Control• Notification

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Wikis Engines

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_wiki_softwareIn almost all popular programming languages

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What Wiki is Now: Platform

• Wiki is not only a wiki engine, web site, hosting service…

• It is a social, collaborative productivity system• It is a platform where people can build web

applications• It marries the web of computers with the web

of people• It is a great indicator of human Civilization!

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Many Wiki Services

• Wikia– Wiki communities for everyone

• PBWiki/PBWorks– Online Collaboration that just Works

• Twiki– Open Source Enterprise Wiki and Web 2.0 App Platform

• MoinMoin– advanced, easy to use and extensible WikiEngine

• WikiWorks – Semantic Wiki hosting service

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Wikis Are Great …

• Enable new scale of human collaboration

• Everyone can read• Everyone can write• Everyone can edit• Everyone is accountable for everything

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Wiki : the Web in the Small

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With man power!

Human Involvements are Great!

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But some things are better left to machines…

Wiki Clock ?

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Wikipedia has lots of info, but

•Wikipedia has articles about…

•… all cities•… their populations•… their mayors•… the skyscrapers•… # of floors•… built year

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Not Readily Usable• So can I ask for a list of the world’s 10 largest cities with

a female mayor?– Sort by population, age…

• Or Skyscrapers in China with 70+ floors and built after 2005?– Or in Singapore, Shanghai, East Asia?– Built in year range 1990-2000?– With 50/60 floors and more?– Sort by floors, year, height?– Group by regions, cities?– Height in meter?

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Will Search Help?Not something you can do now or in the foreseeable near future…

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Wikipedia’s answer: lists

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Can you really get your answers?

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Wiki Answers? Nice try, but…

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We NeedMore HelpWhat computers can understand (powered by programs) is simple named entities, such as:... 43285812... 2009-12-07... 400 Guoding Road, Shanghai, China... Jesse WangStill not always correct with all the possible variations of formats...

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Question: How to get Answers out of the Content

• The female majors of top 10 cities, sorted by population, starting year, age…

• All skyscrapers in China (Japan, Thailand,…) of 50 (40/60/70) floors or more, and built in year 2000 (2001/2002) and after, sorted by built year, floors…, grouped by cities, regions…

• Median annual salary of CEOs of Fortune 100 companies in America (Europe, Asian,…)

• (And so on…)28

Answer: More Content

• Not just any type of content• We need structured content• Metadata• Not just any type of metadata• Good quality metadata

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Question: How to get more quality metadata?

SEMANTIC WIKISViews from Different Angles

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Definition: Semantic Wikis

• Semantic Wiki is a wiki that has an underlying model of the knowledge described in its pages.

• The knowledge model found in a semantic wiki is typically available in a formal language, so that machines can process it into an entity-relationship or relational database.

• Semantic Web compatibility• To allow users to make their internal knowledge more

explicit and more formal, so that the information in a wiki can be searched and presented in better ways

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“What structure” & “How to get it”

• A Little More Structure Knowledge Management– Quantity (count, types) Quality (consistent,

complete)– Data in Triples Ontology Reasoning

• Approaches– Wikis for Metadata– Metadata for Wikis

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Nova Spivack: MetaWeb

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Semantic Wikis

2006-now: a major research topic2005: [swikig] mailing list launched2006: First Workshop on Semantic Wikis: From Wiki to

Semantics [SemWiki2006] at ESWC2006, Budva, Montenrego 2006: Second Workshop on Semantic Wikis: Wiki-based

Knowledge-Engineering [WibKe2006] at WikiSym 2006 in Odense, Denmark

2008: Third Workshop on Semantic Wikis: The Wiki Way of Semantics [SemWiki2008] at ESWC2008, Tenerife

2009: Semantic Wiki session in SemTech Conference, San Jose, CA

2008-2009: Semantic MediaWiki user group meetings in Boston, USA, Stanford, USA, and Karlsruhe, DE

34http://semwiki.org

Semantic Wiki Illustrated

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Basics of Semantic Wikis

• Still a wiki, with regular wiki features– E.g. Category/Tags, Namespaces, Title, Versioning, ...

• Typed Content– E.g. Page/Card, Date, Number, URL/Email, String, …

• Typed Links– E.g. “capital_of”, “contains”, “born_in”…

• Querying Interface Support– E.g. “[[Category:Person]] [[Age::<30]]”

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Advanced Semantic Wiki Features

• Semantic forms or templates• Auto-completion based on semantics• Powerful visualizations based on

semantics/structures/types• Rules and reasoning support• Advanced search and queries (faceted search,

SPARQL, etc.)• Import and Export of Semantic Data

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Semantic Web in the SmallSemantic Wikis try to combine the strengths of

Semantic Web machine process-able data integrationcomplex queries

Wikieasy to use and contribute, strongly interconnected, collaborative.

Social Semantic Web

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POPULAR SEMANTIC WIKISSome Examples

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List of Semantic WikisAceWikiArtificialMemoryWagn - Ruby on Rails-basedKiWi – Knowledge in a WikiKnoodl – Semantic

Collaboration tool and application platform

Metaweb - the software that powers Freebase

OntoWikiOpenRecordPhpWiki

Semantic MediaWiki - an extension to MediaWiki that turns it into a semantic wiki

Swirrl - a spreadsheet-based semantic wiki application

TaOPis - has a semantic wiki subsystem based on Frame logic

TikiWiki CMS/Groupware integrates Semantic links as a core feature

zAgile Wikidsmart - semantically enables Confluence

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•A web-based tool that gives communities of modelers and domain experts the ability to collaboratively develop, manage, and use Vocabularies and Knowledgebases

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Browser UI

AJAX Java APIs

Secu

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Ontology Editor

WIKI Visualization RSS Feed

Data StorageSPARQL Query

ProcessorSearch Engine Rules EngineReasoner

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RDF Triple Store Database

SPARQL Query Wizard

Knoodl Features

• Standards-Based Collaborative Vocabulary Management Using a Semantic Wiki

• Cloud-based application ( Amazon EC2 )• Ontology Editing, Import/Export, Search• SPARQL query wizard• Role-based security• Semantic technology development platform

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Roles

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Freebase

• A structured database• Designed to store the amorphous data• 5 million inter-connected topics• More than 3000 types – user expandable• More than 30,000 properties• A collection of web services (API) and hosting

platform

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Everything has a URL and UUIDs

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/en/jake_garn/en/world_financial_center, /en/vulcan_inc, /en/john_woo

Freebase: Write-able, Extensible

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Great Usability and Dynamic ViewsTyped data, Auto-completion, structured views, Ajax UI

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MQL: Querying Freebase

[{ "name": null, "type": "/film/film", "directed_by": { "id": "/en/john_woo" }}]

{ "code": "/api/status/ok", "result": [ { "directed_by": { "id": "/en/john_woo" }, "name": "A Better Tomorrow", "type": "/film/film" }, { "directed_by": { "id": "/en/john_woo" }, "name": "BMW films", "type": "/film/film" }, { "directed_by": { "id": "/en/john_woo" }, "name": "Mission: Impossible II", "type": "/film/film" },

…

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The Freebase ArchitectureAcre is Freebase’s hosted development environment. Free, open, hosted, code reusable and cloneable. More at http://wiki.freebase.com/wiki/Acre

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Semantic MediaWiki (SMW)

• An extension of MediaWiki – the wiki application best known for powering Wikipedia – that helps to search, organize, tag, browse, evaluate, and share the wiki's content.

• Most popular Semantic Wiki• Powering hundreds public sites

– Even more behind firewalls (some very large)

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Vision of SMW

Very flexible system for knowledge managementGentle introduction

Usable as a normal wikiImmediate added value

“The simplest database that could work”Document-centric viewSemantic Web is not a vision any more -- it is here

You can use it – NOW!54

SMW Ongoing DevelopmentExtension for MediaWiki

If MediaWiki gets better, so do weOpen SourceWell documentedActive mailing listWorld wide community

In usage, research, and developmentCommercial Support availableSemantic MediaWiki Core

Mostly stable, not planned to grow anymore

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Semantic Markup is Easy

• In the article page “Fudan University”• The property Located in is just another wiki page• Page “Property:Located in”

– Can have categories [[Category:Properties with actions]]– Can have properties too [[Semantic action::display on

map]]• Domain, range and semantic actions you defined

• In “Category:Universities in China” page– [[Default form::Chinese University basic info form]]

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Fudan University is in [[Located in::Shanghai]]

[[Category:Universities in China]]

Flexible Schema

• Document-centric view– Properties associated with the document (article)– Users can add/remove/modify properties or

values– A natural fit for column-oriented databases

• Content first, schema last– No initial design of schema as in RDBMS– Always optimize later

• By community of users

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With the markupWe can ask

{{#ask:[[Category:Skyscrapers]][[Located in::China]][[Floor count::>50]][[Year built::<2000]]

}}

Faceted browsing is easily available too.

(Result via Dbpedia)

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USEFUL EXTENSIONS TO MAKE SMW BETTER

Markups are great, we need tools to use them

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Halo Extension – a suite of extensionsPaul G. Allen (Microsoft co-founder) has a vision:

“the Digital Aristotle enables anyone to ask any science question and get answers with explanations using a comprehensive, socially authored knowledge base.”

http://ProjectHalo.com

Halo extension is a portion of Project Halo directed by Dr. Mark Greaves at Vulcan Inc.

Project Halo‘s suite of extensions Halo Extension: Helps to make the annotation-process easier and

better manageable, and to simply knowledge retrieval.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:Halo_Extension_User_Manual

WYSIWYG Extension: WYSIWYG editor including graphical annotations and template picker.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:WYSIWYG_Extension

TreeView Extension: Improved exploration of wiki articles.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:TreeView_Extension

EnhancedRetrieval Extension:

Provides full text retrieval and semantic retrieval in one single user interface.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:Enhanced_Retrieval_Extension

RichMedia Extension: Handle more filetypes in your wiki and tag while you upload.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:Rich_Media_Extension

haloACL Extension: User rights management system to protect articles, namespaces, categories and property values.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:HaloAccessControlList

the suite of extensions (continued) SemanticGardening Extension:

Automatically checks your wiki knowledge base for faults.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:Semantic_Gardening_Extension

SemanticNotifications Extension:

Extends MediaWiki’s watch-feature semantically.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:Semantic_Notifications_Extension

DataImport Extension: Enrich your wiki with data from WebServices, legacy systems, and import emails and populate wiki articles from external apps.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:Semantic_Notifications_Extension

Deployment Extension: Upgrade and extend your (S)MW installation automaticallyhttp://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:Deployment_Framework

TripleStore Connector Brings reasoning capabilities to your wiki.http://smwforum.ontoprise.com/smwforum/index.php/Help:Basic_Triplestore

A LOT more extensions

• Semantic Forms, Semantic Form Inputs, Semantic Signup

• Semantic Drilldown, SemanticQueryForm Tool• Semantic Result Formats, Semantic Maps, Semantic

Gallery• Semantic Compound Data and Compound Queries• Semantic History, Semantic Internal Objects• Semantic Notification, NotifyMe, Semantic Tasks• Data Import, Freebase, RDFa• …

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FUN AND REAL APPLICATIONSBuilt on top of Semantic MediaWiki as a platform/framework

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Rudi Studer -- Semantic MediaWiki6767 67

SNPedia: It's a Semantic Wiki

SNPedia"Wikipedia for SNPs"

          Promethease  Read raw DNA               Make a Report

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A Semantic Sci-Fi Movie Database

• From Wikipedia.org• Structure extracted from templates

– Infoboxes and so on• Queries and visualizations

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Work Order Handling System

• Form-based User Interface• Semantics in templates• People agree on priorities

and resources needed

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WikiTags::Smart Connections to Knowledge Workers

• Bring relevant, targeted information– With the tools you are already familiar

with– In the context – better relevance and

productivity– Only when you need it – no information

overload– With linked real-time data– no search

overhead• Let you consume and contribute to Wiki

– Without learning wiki markup syntax– Without remembering where the content

is

SmartTagAdd-insAPI AP

I

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Semantic Entertainment

• Social tag-based characterization

• Keyword search over tag data

• Inconsistent semantics

• Easy to engineer

Increasing technical complexity → ← Increasing User Participation

Algorithm-based object characterization

Database-style search

Consistent semantics

Extremely difficult to engineer

Social database-style characterization

Category/Property+ wiki text query

Semantic consistency via wiki mechanisms

Easy to engineer

Semantic Entertainment(SMW 1.3)

Demo on Seahawks Video

Thanks :: Semanticators | Wikiers

Presentation• Denny Vrandecic• Max Völkel & Sebastian

Schaffert• Greg Milbank• Jamie Taylor• Daniel Hansch

Development• All the Semantic Wikiers• Project Halo, Vulcan Inc.• K. I. T.• Ontoprise GmbH• TeamMersion LLC