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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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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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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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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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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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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