Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) is a full-fledged, open source knowledge management system based on MediaWiki, the software used for Wikipedia. It enables wikis not only to manage textual information, but to define, store and retrieve data to be used inside the wiki (for querying, displaying, aggregating) as well as outside of the wiki. In can be used to produce Open Data, or to consume and re-use Open Data. Many Open Data initiatives lack the viewpoint of internal data monitoring, where SMW can play a vital part not only in identifying relevant datasets, but also in setting up procedures for identifying datasets to be published. www.semantic-mediawiki.org

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Semantic MediaWiki –
Knowledge Management and
Open Data Use Cases
April 20th, 2015
WU, Institute for Information Business
Bernhard Krabina

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Introduction
 KDZ – Centre for Public
Administration Research
 Open Knowledge –
Austrian Chapter
 Semantic MediaWiki
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Agenda
 What is Semantic MediaWiki and what
makes it great for Knowledge Management?
 Some Open Data Use Cases
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Wikipedia – Wikimedia – Mediawiki
Encyclopedia – Operator – Software
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Document Management vs. Wiki
Documents = DMS
 Word
 Excel
 PowerPoint
 PDF
 Approval
 Electronic Signature,
User rights
(File system), Sharepoint,
Fabasoft, Alfresco…
Content = Wiki
 Content of documents
 Text with categories
 Database functions with
forms
 Document upload as an
exception
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Content Management vs. Wiki
Control = CMS
 Access control on
different content types
(Filesystem), Sharepoint,
Drupal, Typo3, Joomla…
Transparency = Wiki
 Everyone can view/edit
everything
 Restrictions on actions
(who can view/edit), not
on content types (what)
 Changes visible
 Easy rollback
Advantage: enables cultural
change!
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Strengths and Weaknesses of
Wikis
 Wikis are great for text…
 easy to use, easy to edit
 full text search
 collaborative editing
 categories to organise pages

 Wikis have weaknesses for knowledge management!
 no data, only text: 995 32
 no relations, just links: Tbilisi —> Krakow
 no querying of data
 lack of structure leads to manual effort
 manual edited lists (List of danube bridges, list of Autrian museums by city)
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The original idea of SMW: make data and
relations inside a wiki readable
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Source: Völkel, Krötzsch, Vrandecic,
Haller, Studer, „Semantic Wikipedia“,
Demos and Posters of the 3rd
European Semantic Web Conference
(ESWC 2006), Budva, Montenegro,
11th-14th June, 2006

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Wikis and Data in 2015
 extract structured information from
Wikipedia and make this information
available on the Web
 free knowledge base that can be
read and edited by humans and
machines alike… central storage for
the data that may be accessed by
the client Wikis
 lets you store and query data within
the wiki's pages. Turns a wiki into a
powerful and flexible knowledge
management system.
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www.semantic-mediawiki.org

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Semantic MediaWiki
 leaves your MediaWiki installation intact
 no patching, just a (bunch of) MW extension(s)
 already existing unstructured content can stay as it is or be
transformed
 gives you all the tools you need for a
collaborative web database
 entering data and text
 representing/visualising data and text within the wiki
 re-use/export data outside the wiki
 everything is done through configuration
 Attributes, Forms, Templates, Filters… are wiki pages
 Queries, parsing, “programming” via Wikitext
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Semantic MediaWiki
Unstructured Text
 Strengths of Wikis
 Structure via
Categories and
Namespaces
 Full Text Search
 Collaborative editing
 …
Structured Data
 Web database
 Online forms
 Result lists
 Facetted search
 Automatically generated
pages
 …
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Vienna History Wiki
www.wien.gv.at/wiki
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Form based data entry
(Semantic Forms)
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„Bennant nach“ =
„named after“
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{{#ask:…}} query for pages named
after „Sigmund Freud“
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List all pages of Category:Person
with Birthyear::1856 and
Sex::male

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RDF/JSON export
= Open Data!
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> 40 different „result formats“
|format=table |format=csv |format=calendar...
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External Data Extension
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Names of Cemetries
in Vienna published
in the OGD catalogue
data.gv.at – reused in
a wiki

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Application landscape in organizations:
Wikis as niche product
Documents
 text documents
 presentations,
spreadsheets, PDFs
 storage in file system
Search:
 Enterprise Search
 DMS (Records man.)
metadata:
Databases
 desktop databases
 specialized applications
 web based databases
 ...
 metadata
 text fields
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Wikis
 unstructured text
 collaborative edition
 versioning & rollback
 content management
 access control
 complex layouts
Websites

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Semantic MediaWiki as
Knowledge Management System
Semantic MediaWiki
Semantic Web
 Input and output of data (not only
text)
 Form based entry, result formats
 Semantic Web standards

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Agenda
 What is Semantic MediaWiki and what
makes it great for Knowledge Management?
 Some Open Data Use Cases
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Open Government
Implementation Model
http://www.kdz.eu/de/open-government-vorgehensmodell

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Implementing OGD Initiatives
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Internal Data Monitoring
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Criterion Description Score
Non-disclosure/ legal restrictions
Is the data subject to non-disclosure obligations or other
legal restrictions or does it include data critical for
infrastructure? 5
Personal or corporate references
Does the data include personal references or can
individuals or companies be identified? 4
Copyright
Is the administrative agency sole proprietor of data
copyright? 5
Value
How high is the estimated value of disclosure for all target
groups? 2
Effort
How high is the effort of disclosure?
3
Content-related data quality
How high is the estimated data quality? (timeliness,
completeness, accurateness, faultiness) 4
Technical availability
Available data formats and data sources, open
standards: OGD formats, extended Five-Star System 2
Synergy
Are agencies already making the data/services available
for other purposes? 5
Sum 30
Sum in percent 75%
Maximum score 40

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Open Data Use Cases
 SMW as Open Data Portal
 Yes. CKAN is the de-facto-standard, but SMW can do it
 SMW as OGD Cockpit: www.ogdcockpit.eu
 Collaboratively build an internal data catalogue:
select datasets to be published
 Support the process BEFORE the actual publishing
 In case of Bonn: make this wiki open to the public, to see
which datasets will NOT be published and why
 SMW as producer of Open Data
 as OpenGLAM tool, for crowdsourcing…
 SMW as consumer of Open Data
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Semantic MediaWiki
Use cases
 Intranet portals
 Project management and –documentation
 Internal Knowledge Management
 Knowledge Portals (external)
 Web databases
 Case/Skills Management
 OpenGLAM/crowdsourcing
 SemanticWeb projects
 ….
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Contact
4. Oktober 2012 · Seite 33
Bernhard Krabina
 krabina@kdz.or.at
 www.kdz.or.at
 @krabina