Semantic WikisSemantic WikisSocial Semantic Web In Action

2011-03-25Specially Prepared for Tsinghua University Alumniin greater Seattle area for centennial celebration

2

About Me: Jesse Wang 王嘉欣About Me: Jesse Wang 王嘉欣

1996

1997

2005

1988 1998

1993

3

Who is VulcanWho is Vulcan

4

What does Vulcan doWhat does Vulcan do

Vulcan Inc. was established in 1986 by investor and philanthropist Paul G. Allen, co-founder of Microsoft, to manage his

business and philanthropic efforts. Allen is chairman of Vulcan and his sister, Jody

Allen, is president and CEO.

5

It all began with a vision…It all began with a vision…

6

Now the Vision Continues as Project HaloNow the Vision Continues as Project Halo

Project Halo is a staged, long-range research effort by Vulcan Inc. towards the development of a "Digital Aristotle"—a reasoning system capable of answering novel questions and solving advanced problems in a broad range of scientific

disciplines and related human affairs. The project focuses on creating two primary functions: a tutor capable of instructing and assessing students in those

subjects, and a research assistant with broad, interdisciplinary skills to help scientists and others in their work.

Automatic Question Answering System

7

Project Halo’s Focus AreasProject Halo’s Focus Areas

• Automated User-Centered Reasoning and Acquisition System

• Text book you can talk to

AURA

• Semantic Inference with Large Knowledge-base

• Non-monotonic rule system / RIF

SILK

• Semantic MediaWiki +• Knowledge authoring with SMEs

SMW+

Plus other related semantic technologies and commercial efforts

Knowledge Acquisition

9

Crowdsourcing for Better Knowledge AcquisitionCrowdsourcing for Better Knowledge Acquisition

10

Success of WikisSuccess of Wikis

One of human’s greatest inventions

12

A Key Feature of WikiA Key Feature of Wiki

Consensus

This distinguishes wikis from other publication tools

13

Consensus in Wikis Comes fromConsensus in Wikis Comes from

Collaboration– ~17 edits/page on average in

Wikipedia (with high variance)– Wikipedia’s Neutral Point of View

Convention– Users follow customs and

conventions to engage with articles effectively

14

Software Support Makes Wikis SuccessfulSoftware Support Makes Wikis Successful

Trivial to edit by anyone Tracking of all changes, one-

step rollback Every article has a “Talk” page

for discussion Notification facility allows

anyone to “watch” an article Sufficient security on pages,

logins can be required A hierarchy of administrators,

gardeners, and editors Software Bots recognize certain

kinds of vandalism and auto-revert, or recognize articles that need work, and flag them for editors

Finding Deeper InfoFinding Deeper Info

Wikipedia has articles about…• … all cities with info on their

populations, locations and skyscrapers, etc.… all German cars with engine size, accelerating data…

Can you find: Skyscrapers with 50+ floors and built after 2000 in Shanghai (or Chinese cities with 1,000,000+ people)?

Or German(Porsche) cars that accelerate from 0-100km/h in 5 seconds? 15

16

How Wikipedia Answers – List!How Wikipedia Answers – List!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_cars_by_acceleration

17

Going DeeperGoing Deeper

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_cars

18

Deeper…Deeper…

19

And Deeper…And Deeper…

20

And Now…And Now…

23

Static List, Tables, …, Not Useable EnoughStatic List, Tables, …, Not Useable Enough

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_about_Oregon

24

We need structured data

with clear and consistent

semantics

Semantics Come To RescueSemantics Come To Rescue

To find answers like:• All Porsche vehicles made in Germany

that accelerate from 1-100 km/h less than 4 seconds

• Sci-Fi movies made after year 2000 that cost less than $10M and gross more than $30M

• A map showing where all Mercedes-Benz vehicles are manufactured

• 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…

• And many more

25

What is a Semantic WikiWhat is a Semantic Wiki

A wiki that has an underlying model of the knowledge described in its pages.

To allow users to make their knowledge explicit and formal Semantic Web Compatible

Semantic Wiki

26

Two PerspectivesTwo Perspectives

Wikis for Metadata

Metadata for Wikis

List of Semantic WikisList of Semantic Wikis

AceWikiArtificialMemoryWagn - Ruby on Rails-basedKiWi – Knowledge in a WikiKnoodl – Semantic Collaboration tool and application platformMetaweb - the software that powers FreebaseOntoWikiOpenRecordPhpWiki

Semantic MediaWiki - an extension to MediaWiki that turns it into a semantic wikiSwirrl - a spreadsheet-based semantic wiki applicationTaOPis - has a semantic wiki subsystem based on Frame logicTikiWiki CMS/Groupware integrates Semantic links as a core featurezAgile Wikidsmart - semantically enables Confluence

28

29

Basics of Semantic WikisBasics of Semantic Wikis

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

Typed Content (built-ins + user created, e.g. categories)– Page/Card, Date, Number, URL/Email, String, …

Typed Links (e.g. properties)– “capital_of”, “contains”, “born_in”…

Querying Interface Support– E.g. “[[Category:Member]] [[Age::<30]]” (in SMW)

31

Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) Markup SyntaxSemantic MediaWiki (SMW) Markup Syntax

[[Property::Value | Display]]

Tsinghua is a university located in [[Has location::Beijing]], with

[[Has population::27000|about 27 thousands]] students.

In page "Property:Has location":

[[Has type::Page]]

In page "Property:Has population":

[[Has type::number]]

33

Define ClassesDefine Classes

Beijing is a city in [[Has country::China]], with population [[Has population::2,200,000]].

[[Category::Cities]]

Categories are used to define classes because they are better for class inheritance.

The Jin Mao Tower (金茂大厦 ) is an 88-story landmark supertall skyscraper in …

[[Categories: 1998 architecture | Skyscrapers in Shanghai | Hotels in Shanghai | Skyscrapers over 350 meters | Visitor attractions in Shanghai | Landmarks in Shanghai | Skidmore, Owings and Merrill buildings]]

Category:Skyscrapers in China Category: Skyscrapers by country

34

Database-style Query over Wiki DataDatabase-style Query over Wiki Data

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

}}

Example: Skyscrapers in China higher than 50 stories, built before

2000

ASK/SPARQL query target

Data via DBpedia

36

What is the Promise of Semantic Wikis?What is the Promise of Semantic Wikis?

Semantic Wikis promise Consensus over Data

Combine low-expressivity data authorship with the best features of traditional wikis

User-governed, user-maintained, user-defined

Easy to use as an extension of text authoring

The ultimate data aggregator

38

One Key Helpful Feature of Semantic WikisOne Key Helpful Feature of Semantic Wikis

Semantic Wikis are “Schema-Last”Databases require DBAs and schema design;

Semantic Wikis develop and maintain the schema in the wiki

39

Semantic MediaWiki CommunitySemantic MediaWiki Community

Open source (GPL) Well documented Active mailing list Commercial support available World-wide community Regular Conferences

– Next SMWCon 4/28-30, 2011 Arlington, VA

http://semantic-mediawiki.org/Very stable SMW core

Mature while still growing, slowly but steadily

40

SMW Extensions – Help Build Great ThingsSMW Extensions – Help Build Great Things

• Halo Extensions, Semantic Forms, Semantic Notification, …

Data I/O

• Semantic Toolbar, Semantic Drilldown, Enhanced Retrieval, Search…

Query and Browsing

• Semantic Result Printers, Tree View, Exhibit, Flash charts…

Visualization

• HaloACL, Deployment, Triplestore Connector, Simple Rules…• Semantic WikiTags and Subversion Integration extensions • Upcoming Linked Data Extension, with R2R and SILK from F.U.Berlin

Other useful extensions

41

Example: Ultrapedia – Semantic WikipediaExample: Ultrapedia – Semantic Wikipedia

Ultrapedia: An SMW demo built to explore general knowledge acquisition in a wiki

Wikipedia merged with the power of a database Help Readers and Writers Be More Productive

An Analytical Encyclopedia

Better Views of the Wiki DataBetter Views of the Wiki Data

http://wiking.vulcan.com/up/index.php/Porsche_996

Dynamic Views of the Acceleration DataDynamic Views of the Acceleration Data

Graph Views of the Acceleration DataGraph Views of the Acceleration Data

Dynamic Mapping and ChartingDynamic Mapping and Charting

48

Information Discovery via VisualizationInformation Discovery via Visualization

49

The InspirationThe Inspiration

We started with a

We could have an

wiki site

web application

50

Video: Semantic Wikis for A New ProblemVideo: Semantic Wikis for A New Problem

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

Database search + wiki text search

Semantic consistency via wiki mechanisms

Easy to engineer

Semantic Entertainment

Wiki

51

Semantic Seahawks Football WikiSemantic Seahawks Football Wiki

Semantic Entertainment: Query Result Highlight ReelSemantic Entertainment: Query Result Highlight Reel

Commercial Look/Feel

Play-by-play video search

Highlight reel generation

Search on crowd-defined patterns (“touchdowns with big hits”)

Tree-based navigation widget

Very favorable economics

Demo

62

Case Study and Demo: Project Management with SMW+Case Study and Demo: Project Management with SMW+

Automatically populate tables

Just the data you want, At the level you want Calendars and

timelines Workflows Personal menus Form-oriented inputs Notifications via

email/RSS MS Office integration SVN integration

Vulcan Project Management Wiki (Story)Vulcan Project Management Wiki (Story)

Template and style sheet

customizations

Related content

automatically included

64

Vulcan Project Management Wiki (Task)Vulcan Project Management Wiki (Task)

Color codes to indicate types

and status

SVN Integration automatically “Completed”

task and relate to repository

65

Vulcan Project Management Wiki (Visualizations)Vulcan Project Management Wiki (Visualizations)

Demo

66

Screenshot of a Sprint pageScreenshot of a Sprint page

http://wiking.vulcan.com/dev/index.php/Sprint_101020

Data automatically generated via template queries on page

67

Requirements for Wiki “Developers”Requirements for Wiki “Developers”

One need not– Write code like a hardcore programmer– Design, setup RDBMS or make frequent

schema changes– Possess knowledge of a senior system

admin Instead one need

– Configure the wiki with desired extensions– Design and evolve the data model

(schema)– Design Content

• Customize templates, forms, styles, skin, etc.

73

Conclusions: Semantic MediaWiki is a Powerful ToolConclusions: Semantic MediaWiki is a Powerful Tool

Semantic MediaWiki+ (http://smwforum.ontoprise.com) – Open-source, growing semantic wiki software system– Wiki-style text + semantic markups– Collaborative, user-governed subject models and data curation– Simple and extensible data models with easy import/export

SMW+ has many government and industry users– People built applications with it

Knowledge Management viacrowds can work– A way to leverage and exploit

web-collected data– A lightweight collaborative

knowledge management tool

A new platform for lightweight web application development

KB E

ffort (co

st, p

eople

,…)

KB size (number of assertions, complexity…)

Vulcan

Now

Future

AcknowledgementAcknowledgement

Paul Allen

Mark Greaves

Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Tommy Lu

Ontoprise GmbH

William Smith

TeamMersion LLC

Jesse Wang

74

Thank you!

75

Backups starts here

(End of Slides)

76

Case Study: Battle-space Luminary System Case Study: Battle-space Luminary System

Discover when New Information represents a change in understanding of entities– Discovery of explicit entity links, implicit relationships

Large Volumes of Data in various formats– Unstructured news articles– Tactical Reports, Field Intelligence– Structured Database Information

Use Wiki Pages to represent current knowledge about an entity – “what we know” Domain Ontology to represent domain of information – “what we want to know” Issue Alerts when Significant Events occur

– New information according to category– Changing information on topics of interest– Need to send information to various devices – cell phones, email, etc.

77

System DesignSystem Design

Wiki Configuration– Semantic MediaWiki: Large developer community, active development, open

source. Wikipedia uses MediaWiki, so scalability and performance are important.

– Semantic Results Format: Provides various rich media displays of semantic information, including graphs, timelines, maps

– Semantic Forms: Provides convenient user interface for entering semantic data into wiki, avoiding cumbersome wikitext

– Semantic Notifications: Enables sending of notifications when results of semantic query change.

Domain Ontology– Created OWL Ontology for Terrorism

Semantic Parsing, Extraction, Reasoning– Java Process using various Open-Source Toolkits– Rapid plugin of new technologies– Multiple Data Sources supported

78

Sample Content PageSample Content Page

79

Wiki Content DesignWiki Content Design

Use Templates to Ensure Consistent Look-and-Feel– Templates Correspond to Ontology Classes– Fields within Templates correspond to Properties within Ontology– Rich Content Visualizations derived in consistent way

Hierarchical Categories match Class Hierarchy within Ontology– Ensures Validity for Properties– Category included on each Template page to ensure consistency

Forms Provide ability for users to enter data directly into wiki without knowing Wiki Text– Each form corresponds to a Template– Fields within forms correspond to the fields/properties within the Template– GUI can include auto-completion– Created Page immediately linked semantically to rest of Wiki

80

Sample VisualizationsSample Visualizations

Visualizations automatically created

w/o user edit(tables, timelines,

maps, social networks…)

UI enables notifications based

on results of query – message sent when

visualization changes

Wikipedia for Porsches (Acceleration Data Example)Wikipedia for Porsches (Acceleration Data Example)

Information Need: All Porsche models that accelerate 0-100kph in under 5, 6, and 7 seconds

More Porsche Acceleration Data in WikipediaMore Porsche Acceleration Data in Wikipedia

Main PageUltrapedia Main PageUltrapedia Main Page

Tree View Control Abstract/Summary quick preview

Semantics for Improved Wiki NavigationSemantics for Improved Wiki Navigation

The Porsche 996 Acceleration Table In UltrapediaThe Porsche 996 Acceleration Table In Ultrapedia

Same Table as a QuerySame Table as a Query

Which Porsches accelerate fast?Dynamically-Generated Tables for QueriesDynamically-Generated Tables for Queries

Information Need: All Porsche models that accelerate 0-100kph in under 5, 6, and 7 seconds

Graph Views of the Acceleration DataGraph Views of the Acceleration Data

External Data via a Live Ebay QueryExternal Data via a Live Ebay Query

Linking to External Ebay DataLinking to External Ebay Data

Mercedes-Benz E-class W212 Gallery SectionPhotos in Wiki Articles as DataPhotos in Wiki Articles as Data

Volkswagen Production Timeline ViewTimelines from DataTimelines from Data

Dynamic Mapping and ChartingDynamic Mapping and Charting

Editing Wiki Data In PlaceEditing Wiki Data In Place

Return