SemanticWiki mini-series Session-2 - Thu 20-Nov-2008    (1OAV)

Conference Call Details    (1OB0)

Attendees    (1OBU)

SemanticWiki mini-series Background    (1OQS)

The Semantic Wiki mini-series a 6-month mini-series comprising Talks, Panel Discussions and Online Discourse. The series is co-organized by FZI Karlsruhe, Mayo Clinic, Ontolog, RPI Tetherless World Constellation and Salzburg Research, Austria. This represents a collaborative effort between members from academia, research, software engineering, semantic web and ontology communities. The 6-month mini-series intends to bring together developers, administrators and users of semantic wikis, and provide a platform where they can conveniently share ideas and insights. Through a series of (mainly virtual) talks, panel discussions, online discourse and even face-to-face meetings, participants will survey the state-of-the-art in semantic wiki technology and get exposure to exemplary use cases and applications. Together, they will study trends, challenges and the outlook for semantic wikis, and explore opportunities for collaboration in the very promising technology, approach or philosophy which people has labeled "semantic wiki."    (1ORG)

This series of virtual events will dovetail into the face-to-face workshop: "Social Semantic Web: Where Web 2.0 Meets Web 3.0" at the AAAI Spring Symposium (March 23-25, 2009 at Stanford, California, USA - see: http://tw.rpi.edu/sss09 ).    (1ORH)

See: our SemanticWiki mini-series homepage and the developing program for the rest of the series.    (1ORI)

Session Abstract: An introduction to some of the Semantic Wiki Engines and Related Technologies    (1OQT)

by HaroldSolbrig    (1ORJ)

The purpose of this session is to get an overview and understanding of a variety of different Semantic Wiki implementations. We will have presentations from a variety of different implementations that should allow us to compare and contrast the motivating factors, models, technologies and capabilities. The primary purpose of this session is to allow people to get a good feel for different ways that Semantic Wiki capabilities have been implemented and the sort of problems that they are being built to solve.    (1ORK)

There are many different visions about what a "Semantic Wiki" is, what it can do and how it can be implemented. The objective of this session will be to share ideas and technological approaches to Semantic Wiki implementation. Our panel of semantic wiki technology implementers will take us through some of the following:    (1ORL)

Note that we will not be covering the Semantic Mediawiki and its various extensions in this session. The upcoming session-3 of this mini-series (Thu 2008.12.11) will be dedicated to do that, specifically.    (1ORW)

Agenda & Proceedings:    (1OQU)

Panelists' Presentations: Titles and Abstracts    (1OR2)

1. IkeWiki / KiWi: A versatile platform for the Social Semantic Web    (1ORX)

by SebastianSchaffert / PeterDolog - [ slides ]    (1ORY)

Abstract: KiWi ("Knowledge in a Wiki") is a European Union funded project concerned with knowledge management in Semantic Wikis. Originally founded in the IkeWiki system, KiWi is developing into a very flexible and versatile platform that can be easily customised to many different kinds of Social Semantic Web systems. Underlying all these systems is still the wiki philosophy of anyone can edit, easy editing, easy linking, and versioning, extended with advanced semantic technologies like reasoning, information extraction, and personalisation.    (1ORZ)

2. AceWiki: Controlled English in a Semantic Wiki    (1OS0)

by TobiasKuhn - [ slides ]    (1OS1)

Abstract: AceWiki is a semantic wiki that is powerful and at the same time easy to use. Making use of the controlled natural language ACE, the formal statements of the wiki are shown in a way that looks like natural English. In order to help the users to write correct ACE sentences, AceWiki provides a predictive editor. ACE sentences can be translated into OWL which allows us to use the Pellet reasoner to do reasing tasks within the wiki. Evaluation has shown that AceWiki is easy to use.    (1OS2)

3. SWiM: A wiki for collaborating on mathematical ontologies    (1OS3)

by ChristophLange - [ slides ]    (1OS4)

Abstract: SWiM is a semantic wiki for collaboratively building, editing and browsing mathematical knowledge. The knowledge is represented in the domain-specific structural semantic markup languages OMDoc and OpenMath. SWiM aims at motivating users to contribute to collections of mathematical knowledge by instantly sharing the benefits of knowledge-powered services with them. It is currently being used for authoring OpenMath Content Dictionaries -- lightweight collections of semi-formal definitions of mathematical symbols. Browsing, annotation, and argumentation about problems with knowledge artifacts are of special interest in this case study.    (1OS5)

See: http://wiki.openmath.org & http://kwarc.info/projects/swim/    (1OS6)

4. myOntology: Community-driven Vocabulary Design and Maintenance for E-Commerce    (1OS7)

by MartinHepp - [ slides ]    (1OS8)

Abstract: The myOntology platform is a prototype for creating and maintaining Web vocabularies with minimal entry barriers for contributing domain experts. In this brief talk, I will summarize the key design paradigms and target applications, and demonstrate the current version.    (1OS9)

See: http://www.myontology.org    (1OSA)

5. OntoWiki: a Semantic Wiki and Framework for knowledge-rich applications    (1OSB)

by SoerenAuer / SebastianDietzold - [ slides ]    (1OSC)

Abstract: OntoWiki is a wiki-like tool for managing RDF knowledge bases on the web as well as a framework for building Semantic Web application. In this talk we will summarize both, the framework and the wiki and give an overview to the current implementation.    (1OSD)

See: http://ontowiki.net    (1OSE)

6. HDEWiki: Semantic wikis as an example of model-driven Web applications    (1OSF)

by DanielSchwabe - [ demo video ]    (1OSG)

Abstract: In this talk we will show how a model-driven Web application development environment, HyperDE, can be leveraged to generate a Semantic Wiki. HyperDE can be preloaded with a Semantic Wiki meta-model, which functions as a general Semantic Wiki engine. This environment can be further specialized with domain-specific models for particular domains of interest, when available. The interesting aspect is that the resulting Semantic Wiki combines the advantages of (Semantic) Wikis and of the more traditional, structured or schema-based (sometimes called data-driven) Web applications. From the Semantic Wiki point of view, it also supports collective generation and editing of pages that may contain semantic and non-semantic links and annotations, which can be used to enhance ad-hoc navigation patterns created by users. From the structured applications point of view, it also supports the design of pre-defined navigation structures well suited for known tasks, the generation of specialized editing interfaces for structured data (e.g., forms), and the customization of actual user interfaces depending on particular navigation contexts and on existing semantic annotations.    (1OSH)

The models driving the Semantic Wiki and its data are all represented in an underlying set of RDFS vocabularies, stored in a RDF repository.    (1OSI)

Resources:    (1OR3)

Questions, Answers & Discourse:    (1OR4)

Questions and Discussion captured from the chat session:    (1OT6)

Edited transcript ...    (1OT7)

 MaxVoelkel: Welcome to the chat    (1P17)
 MaxVoelkel: Call page: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2008_11_20    (1P18)
 MaxVoelkel: Slides are linked here: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2008_11_20#nid1OQO    (1P19)
 HaroldSolbrig: Question about AceWiki - how large a knowledge base can Ace Wiki handle?  How does it address 
                the computational complexity of FOL?    (1P1A)
 PeterDolog: Another interesting question, do we have to deal with consistency as the ACE Wiki does?    (1P1B)
 PeterDolog: people naturaly are inconsistent    (1P1C)
 PeterDolog: as they simply have different opinions    (1P1D)
 PeterDolog: So signalling is probably fine    (1P1E)
 HaroldSolbrig: Ah - it uses Pellet, so reasoning is only done on the OWL DL subset.    (1P1F)
 TobiasKuhn: yes, AceWiki uses the OWL DL subset for reasoning.    (1P1G)
 TobiasKuhn: still, AceWiki gets quite slow when complicated facts are added. I hope that future reasoners 
             will perform better in such incremental scenarios.    (1P1H)
 PeterDolog: but keeping the inconsistent statement if they are user based is also fine until otherwise 
             agreed socially    (1P1I)
 Liz Pullen: Agreed. That why structures will always be ill-fitting reality.    (1P1J)
 HaroldSolbrig: @Liz Pullen - this is authored in German.    (1P1K)
 Liz Pullen: Yes, luckily, I needed to pass a German language test for my Masters degree!    (1P1L)
 PeterYim: I would like to go back onto the "Wiki Interchange Format" that PeterDolog mentioned earlier ... 
           can you provide a link, please, Peter    (1P1M)
 PeterYim: also ... wonder how widely has that been adopted by wiki developers ... everyone?    (1P1N)
 PeterDolog: WIF: I think it is this one: http://ontoware.org/projects/wif/    (1P1O)
 HaroldSolbrig: I would be interested whether the wiki interchange format has begun to consider the semantic 
                components...    (1P1P)
 PeterDolog: I do not know the details, maybe the question for sebastian or those in the project    (1P1Q)
 MaxVoelkel: @Harold: Maybe he meant this: http://semanticweb.org/wiki/STIF    (1P1R)
 PeterDolog: back to WIF in IkeWiki    (1P1S)
 PeterDolog: http://www.salzburgresearch.at/research/gfx/schaffert06_ikewiki.pdf Paper mentioning what it is in IkeWiki    (1P1T)
 PeterDolog: Its output is a WIF document enriched by relevant semantic annotations (e.g.
             link types, context adaptation) in RXR format [2].    (1P1U)
 PeterDolog: where [2] [2] D. Beckett. Modernising Semantic Web Markup. In XML
             Europe 2004, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2004.    (1P1V)
 MichelleRaymond: AceWiki seems lovely for reasoning over formal expressions in a knowledge base to make 
                  associations and present them in a single view.  There is also a place in the "Wiki-world" for information 
                  that is not itself described formally. Could ACE be used for metadata over unstructured information and then 
                  used to pull-in the unstructured information? - perhaps with a "WARNING: No consistency check over 
                  information?    (1P1W)
 TobiasKuhn: @Michelle: I am not sure whether I understand what you mean. I plan to support also informal 
             knowledge (in the form of textual comments) to be added to the wiki articles.    (1P1X)
 HaroldSolbrig: Can existing OWL be transformed into ACE?    (1P1Y)
 TobiasKuhn: @Harold: Not (yet) in AceWiki, but the translation OWL->ACE is done for example by the ACE View 
             (a Protege plugin). However, if the OWL class names, for example, do not have the form of nouns then the 
             verbalization gets unnatural.    (1P1Z)
 Liz Pullen: It seems like most of the work going on with Semantic Wikis is being done in Europe. Seems odd 
             if that is the case to use English as a common language.    (1P20)
 Liz Pullen: Unless most of the people signed up for the call just speak English.    (1P21)
 HaroldSolbrig: Good point. Are the wikis maintained in English or are we just being presented the English 
                version?    (1P22)
 Liz Pullen: It might be considered the generic language on the Internet, perhaps?    (1P23)
 ChristophLange: SWiM is maintained in english and has mainly english-speaking users, if you can say 
                 "mainly", with ~ 10 serious users    (1P24)
 MichelleRaymond: Does SWiM have automatic theorem prover support? This may be one method for how to "acquire 
                  the knowledge." ex: Cinderella a geometric theorem prover has an OpenMath-based computer algebra interface.    (1P25)
 ChristophLange: @Michelle: theorem proving is not directly integrated into swim, but there are also 
                 converters between its native language and common theorem provers (Isabelle, PVS, Omega, Mizar, Twelf) -- 
                 not all mature though    (1P26)
 ChristophLange: swim's own services rather work on less formal structures of math knowledge    (1P27)
 ChristophLange: @Michelle: and, on the contrary, there is also a knowledge acquis. bottleneck in theorem 
                 proving. Many areas of math are not even available in such a formaLiz Pullenation -- there, again, a wiki 
                 could help with acquisition (see http://kwarc.info/projects/swim/pubs/flyspeck-wiki-eswc08.pdf for some 
                 specific background)    (1P28)
 MichelleRaymond: @Chistoph: What would be nice is a way to dip into the highly constrained language of the 
                  theorem provers and extract it for collaborative documentation and the inverse.  A core 
                  (bi-directional)issue of theorem provers is: -> TP data presentation of the "proof" in a language for 
                  purposes of discourse and <- discourse statements that are structured but not necessarily "appropriately" 
                  formatted for input into a theorem prover.    (1P29)
 PeterYim: @MartinHepp - which (cc) license are you making your users sign up to?    (1P2A)
 MartinHepp: We use Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/    (1P2B)
 PeterDolog: @Soeren: how easy/difficult and how it is possible to change your wiki to different application?    (1P2C)
 PeterDolog: do you support some kind of API for widgets or faclets?    (1P2D)
 Joanne Luciano: what is the ontowiki API called?    (1P2E)
 HaroldSolbrig: Is the API web-based?    (1P2F)
 SoerenAuer: Re OntoWiki questions: the API is called Erfurt and allows to easily create Semantic Web 
             applications, its implemented in PHP. There is also a screencast for OntoWiki available at: 
             http://OntoWiki.net    (1P2G)
 MichelleRaymond: @Tobias:  Examples of unstructured information that may be associated with the noun 
                  "Organization" include mission statement and membership policy.  The membership policy in particular may 
                  have key concepts within the text that could be pulled out as associated data that would be useful in query 
                  - {cost of membership, intellectual property sharing requirements,...}
                  This is my first exposure to AceWiki. I'll take a closer look to learn more.  Thanks.    (1P2H)
 PeterDolog: @truth maintanace question    (1P2J)
 PeterDolog: in the KIWI project, some people are looking at that    (1P2K)
 PeterDolog: but we are just at the beginning    (1P2L)
 PeterDolog: http://wiki.kiwi-project.eu/multimedia/kiwi-pub:KiWi_d2.3_final.pdf    (1P2M)
 PeterDolog: the document summarizes state of the art from reason maintanace    (1P2N)
 PeterDolog: relevant for the domains which we are studying    (1P2O)
 Joanne Luciano: need to go. bye everyone.    (1P2P)
 Joanne Luciano: and thank you - very informative!    (1P2Q)
 TobiasKuhn: @Michelle: Have a look at the AceWiki website. Send me a message if you have questions!    (1P2R)
 MichelleRaymond: @Tobias: Will do. Thanks.    (1P2S)
 Liz Pullen: Has much work been done on the sociological aspects of semantic computing?    (1P2T)
 Liz Pullen: I'm a social scientist, not a computer scientist.    (1P2U)
 Liz Pullen: Guess not...or people have drifted away.    (1P2V)
 PeterYim: [ed.] @Liz: you might be interested in what comes up in the upcoming "Social Semantic Web: Where Web 
           2.0 Meets Web 3.0" workshop at the AAAI Spring Symposium (March 23-25, 2009) that this series culminates in 
           - see: http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ConferenceCall_2008_11_20#nid1ORH    (1P2W)
 MartinHepp: @Liz Pullen: I think the Semantic Wiki community is one of the few ones in the field closest to 
             social aspects of semantics.    (1P2X)
 MichelleRaymond: @Liz Pullen: There is social science work out there, just likely beyond the scope of 
                  today's time.  But stay tuned.  It will come up.    (1P2Y)
 MartinHepp: My apologies, but I have to leave at this point in time. If there are questions related to 
             myOntology, please contact me by e-mail or skype? All contact details are at http://www.heppnetz.de. Thanks 
             to everybody for this great session!    (1P2Z)
 HaroldSolbrig: Thank you.    (1P30)
 Shon Vick: Is anyone interested in  (semi) automating the wiki <-> ontology mapping?    (1P31)
 Shon Vick: That is you have a wiki and you have an ontology, have an agent that can make 
            annotations (or suggest them)    (1P32)
 Shon Vick: Or the other way around can concepts, properties, etc be infered from wikis?    (1P33)
 PeterYim: this subject will probably be covered in session-5 where ontology curation will be among one of 
           the horizontal applications, Shon    (1P34)
 Shon Vick, Johns Hopkins: thanks peter    (1P35)
 Hala: thank you all    (1P36)
 Shon Vick: thanks, this was good!    (1P37)
 PeterYim: thanks ... bibi    (1P38)
 ChristophLange: thanks all!    (1P39)
 PeterDolog: thanks all for the insides to your engines    (1P3A)
 MaxVoelkel: Wow, what a packed, great sessions! Thanks to all presenters!    (1P3B)
 TobiasKuhn: bye everyone! it was a great session!    (1P3C)
 Brian Lowe: Thanks everyone. Take care.    (1P3D)
 MikeBennett: Thanks all, great session.    (1P3E)
 HaroldSolbrig: Thanks everyone.  A lot going on out there and a lot of new ideas!!    (1P3F)

Session ended 2008.11.20-12:59 pm PST    (1OR5)

Audio Recording of this Session    (1OR6)