Semantic MediaWiki

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search
Semantic MediaWiki
Semantic MediaWiki
Developer(s) various
Stable release 1.4.3 / August 5, 2009
Written in PHP
Operating system Cross-platform
Type MediaWiki extension
License GPL
Website Semantic MediaWiki

Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) is an extension to MediaWiki, that allows for annotating semantic data within wiki pages, thus turning a wiki that incorporates the extension into a semantic wiki. Data that has been encoded can be used in semantic searches, used for aggregation of pages, displayed in formats like maps, calendars and graphs, and exported to the outside world via formats like RDF and CSV.

Contents

[edit] Authors

Semantic MediaWiki was initially created by Markus Krötzsch, Denny Vrandečić and Max Völkel, and was first released in 2005. Currently the extension has over 30 developers, although Krötzsch and Vrandečić remain the primary developers. Its development is supported in part by Institute AIFB of the University of Karlsruhe.

[edit] Basic syntax

Every semantic annotation within SMW is a "property" connecting the page on which it resides to some other piece of data, either another page or a data value of some type, using triples of the form "subject, predicate, object".

As an example, a page about Germany could have, encoded within it, the fact its capital city is Berlin. On the page "Germany", the syntax would be:

 ... the capital city is [[Has capital::Berlin]] ...

which is semantically equivalent to the statement "Germany" "Has capital" "Berlin". In this example the "Germany" page is the subject, "Has capital" is the predicate, and "Berlin" is the object that the semantic link is pointing to.

The population of Germany could also be encoded; the syntax might look like:

 ... its population is [[Has population::82,060,000]] ...

which is semantically equivalent to the statement "Germany" "Has population" "82,060,000".

Using SMW's own inline querying tools, a page could then be created that lists all countries with a population greater than, say, 50 million, and their capital city; and Germany would appear in such a list, with Berlin alongside it.

[edit] Usage

Semantic MediaWiki is in use on over 100 public active wikis around the world, in addition to an unknown number of private wikis. Notable public wikis include the Metacafe wiki, SNPedia, Metavid, MetaBase, the Math Images Project, the Sunlight Foundation's OpenCongress wiki and Break.com's Chickipedia.[1][2] Organizations that use SMW internally include Pfizer[3], Harvard Pilgrim Health Care[4] and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.[5] SMW has especially gained traction in the health care domain for collaboratively creating bio-medical terminologies and ontologies.[6] One example is LexWiki which is jointly run by the Mayo Clinic, National Cancer Institute (NCI), World Health Organization (WHO) and Stanford University.

Semantic MediaWiki is also supported on at least three wiki farm websites: Referata by default,[7] as well as Wikia and YourWiki on user request.

[edit] Spinoff extensions

A variety of open-source MediaWiki extensions exist that use the data structure provided by Semantic MediaWiki. Among the most notable are:

  • Semantic Forms - enables user-created forms for adding and editing pages that use semantic data
  • Halo - facilitates creation, retrieval, navigation and organization of semantic data via graphical and intuitive interfaces
  • Semantic Drilldown - provides a faceted browser interface for viewing the semantic data in a wiki
  • Semantic Result Formats - provides a large number of display formats for semantic data, including charts, graphs, calendars and mathematical functions
  • Semantic Maps - displays geographic semantic data using various mapping services

[edit] Community

Semantic MediaWiki developers and users have held three official events so far: a users meeting in Cambridge, Massachusetts in November 2008, a more-informal meetup in Stanford, California in March 2009, and a two-day "SMW Camp" in Karlsruhe, Germany in November 2009. The SMW Camp drew around 40 attendees.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Active sites list on Semantic MediaWiki Community Wiki
  2. ^ Semantic MediaWiki testimonials page
  3. ^ Bio-IT World 2009, Track 3
  4. ^ Wikify Your Metadata! Integrating Business Semantics, Metadata Discovery, and Knowledge Management, March 16, 2010, EnterpriseDataWorld Conference Schedule
  5. ^ Bringing the Semantic Web to Museums, Paul Miller, January 27, 2009
  6. ^ Semantic Wikis: A Comprehensible Introduction with Examples from the Health Sciences. Maged N. Kamel Boulos. Journal of Emerging Technologies in Web Intelligence, Vol. 1, No. 1, August 2009.
  7. ^ Get Your MediaWiki Hosting Here, Jennifer Zaino, SemanticWeb.com, December 1, 2008

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Search Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Semantic MediaWiki
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki"