Semantic Wikis - Social Semantic Web in Action

Semantic Wikis
Social Semantic Web In Action
2011-03-25
Specially Prepared for Tsinghua University Alumni
in greater Seattle area for centennial celebration

About Me: Jesse Wang 王嘉欣
2
1998
1996
2005
1997
1993
1988

Who is Vulcan
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What does Vulcan do
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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.

It all began with a vision…
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Now the Vision Continues as Project Halo
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Automatic Question Answering System
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.

Project Halo’s Focus Areas
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Knowledge Acquisition
Plus other related semantic technologies and commercial efforts

Project Halo’s Goals
Address the core problems in Knowledge Bases
scale
brittleness
Have high impact
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Now
Future

Crowdsourcing for Better Knowledge Acquisition
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Success of Wikis
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One of human’s greatest inventions

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Outline
Wikis and Semantic Wikis
Crowdsourcing and Consensus on Data
Semantic MediaWiki and its Extensions
Wiki-based Knowledge Management on a Larger Scale
Enterprise Knowledge Management
Semantic Encyclopedia
Evolving as a Web Application Development Platform
Examples: Semantic Football, Agile Project Management

A Key Feature of Wiki
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Consensus
This distinguishes wikis from other publication tools

Consensus 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
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Software Support Makes Wikis Successful
Trivial to editby 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
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Finding 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?
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How Wikipedia Answers – List!
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_cars_by_acceleration

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

Deeper…
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And Deeper…
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And Now…
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Look into List in Wikipedia
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_German_cars

Editing Standard Wiki Article – Static List
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Static List, Tables, …, Not Useable Enough
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_about_Oregon

Semantics 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
We need
structured data
with clear
and consistent
semantics
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What 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
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Semantic Wiki
Hybrid ... Better Gas Mileage!

Two Perspectives
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Characteristics of Semantic Wikis
Semantic Wikis
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List of Semantic Wikis
AceWiki
ArtificialMemory
Wagn - Ruby on Rails-based
KiWi – Knowledge in a Wiki
Knoodl – Semantic Collaboration tool and application platform
Metaweb - the software that powers Freebase
OntoWiki
OpenRecord
PhpWiki
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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Basics 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)
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Short History of Semantic MediaWiki
Born at AIFB
Typed links and types and more
Export articles as RDF
Maximally flexible for the wiki user
SMW 0.1 released by AIFB in Sept 2005
Parser/storage support for typed links – [[type::link | label]]
FactBox for semantic relations at end of article
Special:SearchSemantic, with basic auto-completion for link types
Simple query language (“ask”)
Vulcan kicks off Halo Extensions to SMW project in August 2007
SMW 1.0 released by AIFB in Dec 2007, Ontoprise releases Halo Extension 1.0 in parallel
“Property” instead of “Relation” and “Attribute”
Many new datatypes/special pages/UI features
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Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) Markup Syntax
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[[Property::Value | Display]]
Tsinghua is a university located in
[[Has location::Beijing]], with
[[Has population::27000|about 27 thousands]] students.
In page "Property:Haslocation":
[[Has type::Page]]
In page "Property:Haspopulation":
[[Has type::number]]

Special Properties
“Has Type” is a pre-defined “special” property for meta-data
Example: [[Has type::String]]
“Allowed Values” is another special property
[[Allows value::Low]],
[[Allows value::Medium]],
[[Allows value::High]]
In Halo Extensions, there are domain and range support
RDFs expressivity
Semantic Gardening extension also supports “Cardinality”
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Define Classes
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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 landmarksupertallskyscraper 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 by country
Category:Skyscrapers in China

Database-style Query over Wiki Data
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Example: Skyscrapers in China higher than 50 stories, built before 2000
ASK/SPARQL query target
{{#ask:
[[Category:Skyscrapers]]
[[Located in::China]]
[[Floor count::>50]]
[[Year built::<2000]]
…
}}
Data via DBpedia

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Why Semantic Wiki?
Annotation of existing structures with machine readable metadatalinks carry meaning, typing of links, typing of pages
Context dependent adaptation and presentationdifferent domains have different ways of presenting content, personal preferences, etc.
Improved, “intelligent”, search and navigationqueries to the structure, visualisation of structure, derived information
Improved interoperability between systemsexchange of content, integration of different systems, agents, etc.

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
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The ultimate
data aggregator

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Challenges on Data Consensus
Data modeling is (seemingly) a specialized skill
Finding disagreements in data is difficult
Consistently revising data schemas is difficult
Consistency of schema information (“Population”, “Pop”, “Number_of_inhabitants”, etc...)
Consistency of types, units of measure, application of rules…
Semantics/interpretation of properties need explanation for humans
…

One Key Helpful Feature of Semantic Wikis
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Semantic Wikis are “Schema-Last”
Databases require DBAs and schema design;
Semantic Wikis develop and maintain the schema in the wiki

Semantic 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
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http://semantic-mediawiki.org/
Very stable SMW core
Mature while still growing, slowly but steadily

SMW Extensions – Help Build Great Things
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Example: 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
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An Analytical Encyclopedia

Data Flow in the Ultrapedia Prototype
Real-time feed of WP changes
Note most WP page changes will be text and have no semantic import
English Wikipedia subset
Dynamic extraction of WP semantic data into RDF
DBpedia update stream
WP page text updates
DBpedia data updates
WP updates
User-created page updates in Wikipedia
Ultrapedia
Enhanced Ultrapedia Usability
Familiar WP page text and layout
Exhibit-based visualizations
Dynamic tables/categories
Faceted navigation
Queries (both standing and ad-hoc)
Linked to relevant external data
Wikipedia-based Corrections
UP shows the user where to correct data in WP so that DBpedia will extract the correction
Ultrapedia exposes the data source in terms of where the data was extracted from WP
WP changes and corrections get quickly propagated to UP

Ultrapedia: An Analytic Encyclopedia
Goal: Prototype a small semantic encyclopedia
Create an semantic version of a part of Wikipedia
Software is SMW+, Ontobrokertriplestore, DBpedia
Show what a data-aware encyclopedia might look like
Ultrapedia Prototype Details
Test domain is German cars
~2500 Wikipedia pages, ~40000 triples
Features
Similar look and feel to Wikipedia
Dynamic tables and charts
Powerful queries
Navigation beyond search
Edit, discuss and rate data
SPARQL-based queries
Derived assertions (via OntoBroker)

Better Views of the Wiki Data
http://wiking.vulcan.com/up/index.php/Porsche_996

Dynamic Views of the Acceleration Data

Graph Views of the Acceleration Data

Dynamic Mapping and Charting

Information Discovery via Visualization
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The Inspiration
We started with a
We could have an
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wiki site
web
application

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Video: Semantic Wikis for A New Problem
Semantic Entertainment
Wiki
Social database-style characterization
Database search + wiki text search
Semantic consistency via wiki mechanisms
Easy to engineer
Increasing technical complexity ->
← Increasing User Participation
Social tag-based characterization
Keyword search over tag data
Inconsistent semantics
Easy to engineer
Algorithm-based object characterization
Database-style search
Consistent semantics
Extremely difficult to engineer

Semantic Seahawks Football Wiki
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Based on Simple Templates and Forms
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Template:Run Source Code
<noinclude>
This is the 'Run' template.
It should be called in the following format:
<pre>
{{Run
|Running Back=
|Run Direction Type=
|Yardage=
|Run of X Yards=
|Result of Run Type=
}}
</pre>
Edit the page to see the template text.
</noinclude>
<includeonly>
{| class="wikitable"
{{#if:{{{Running Back|}}}|
! Running Back
{{!}} {{#arraymap:{{{Running Back|}}}|,|x|[[Running Back::x]]}}
{{!}}- }}
{{#if:{{{Run Direction Type|}}}|
! Run Direction Type
{{!}} {{#arraymap:{{{Run Direction Type|}}}|,|x|[[Run Direction Type::x]]}}
{{!}}- }}
{{#if:{{{Yardage|}}}|
! Yardage
{{!}} {{#arraymap:{{{Yardage|}}}|,|x|[[Yardage::x]]}}
{{!}}- }}
{{#if:{{{Run of X Yards|}}}|
! Run of X Yards
{{!}} [[Run of X Yards::{{{Run of X Yards|}}}]]
{{!}}- }}
{{#if:{{{Result of Run Type|}}}|
! Result of Run Type
{{!}} {{#arraymap:{{{Result of Run Type|}}}|,|x|[[Result of Run Type::x]]}}
}}
|}
[[Category:Play]]
</includeonly>
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Semantic 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

We CAN Build Applications (Fairly) Easily
With all the extensions of Semantic MediaWiki.
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Social Semantic
Web Applications

Showcase: NPS Wiki: Browse People
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View of Data in NPS Wiki
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Show case: Work Order Processing Wiki (NGT)
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Collaborative Proposal Management at BT with SMW+
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Active Bid Viewer
Service Desk Selector

Showcase: RPI Map
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RPI Map
http://map.rpi.edu
A mash-up map application based on Semantic MediaWiki
Provides location-based information in the RPI campus
Integrates data from various external sources
Visualizes integrated data using Google Map

Social Semantic Web Applications
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Omitting x examples, y pictures and z lines of text…

Case Study and Demo: Project Management with SMW+
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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)
Template and style sheet customizations
Related content automatically included

Vulcan Project Management Wiki (Task)
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Color codes to indicate types and status
SVN Integration automatically “Completed” task and relate to repository

Vulcan Project Management Wiki (Visualizations)
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Demo

Screenshot of a Sprint page
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Data automatically generated via template queries on page
http://wiking.vulcan.com/dev/index.php/Sprint_101020

Requirements for Wiki “Developers”
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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.

Effectiveness of SMW as a Platform Choice
SMW + Extensions
Packaged Software
Custom Development
☺ Still quick to program
☺ Easy to customize
☺ Low-moderate cost
Vulcan Project Wiki
B.L.S.
RPI map
☺Very quick to obtain
N Hard to customize
N Expensive
Microsoft Project
Version One
Microsoft SharePoint
N Slow to develop
☺Extremely flexible
N High cost to develop and maintain
.NET Framework
J2EE, …
Ruby on rails
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Openness of SMW as a Platform
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Open Source
Open Content
Open Metadata

Other SMW+ use?
Collaboration applications were conceived as desktop apps
Then wikis made the web collaborative
Now the action is in mobile apps
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Potential to Build Many More Apps
Why are there 300,000+ apps in the iPhone App Store?
UI limitations drive specificity in apps
People personalize their phones
But better browser technologies are shrinking the gap between native apps and web pages
HTML5, JavaScript, etc.
SMW is a tool to build apps!
Collaborative: social semantic in nature
Data flow and report driven
Cheap to customize and rapidly deployable
High signal-to-noise ratio for the users
Vulcan is investigating this concept
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Summary: Application Platform by SMW+ Extensions
Semantic MediaWiki + wide range of extensions make it a potential application development platform for social semantic web
SMW + extensions provide a choice that fits into cost-effective sweet spot
SMW + extensions could become a great platform for social semantic web application development, with more
Extensions, Widgets and Applications
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There is an app for it!

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Conclusions: 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
Now
Future

Acknowledgement
Thank you!
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75
(End of Slides)
Backups starts here

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.
76

System 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
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Sample Content Page
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Wiki 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
FormsProvide 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
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Sample Visualizations
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UI enables notifications based on results of query – message sent when visualization changes
Visualizations automatically created w/o user edit
(tables, timelines, maps, social networks…)

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 Wikipedia

Main Page
Ultrapedia Main Page

Tree View Control
Abstract/Summary quick preview
Semantics for Improved Wiki Navigation

The Porsche 996 Acceleration Table In Ultrapedia

Same Table as a Query

Which Porsches accelerate fast?
Dynamically-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 Data

External Data via a Live Ebay Query

Linking to External Ebay Data

Mercedes-Benz E-class W212 Gallery Section
Photos in Wiki Articles as Data

Volkswagen Production Timeline View
Timelines from Data

Dynamic Mapping and Charting

Editing Wiki Data In Place
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Semantic Wikis - Social Semantic Web in Action

by Jesse Wang on Mar 26, 2011

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Semantic Wikis - Social Semantic Web in Action — Presentation Transcript