Semantic MediaWiki
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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| Developed by | various |
|---|---|
| Latest release | 1.4.2 / February 11, 2009 |
| Written in | PHP |
| OS | Cross-platform |
| Type | MediaWiki extension |
| License | GPL |
| Website | Semantic MediaWiki |
Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) is an extension to MediaWiki (the wiki software implementation that Wikipedia and other sites run), 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.
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[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, and its development is supported by Institute AIFB of Universität Karlsruhe.
[edit] Basic usage
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 "Berlin" "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] 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 manual annotation of properties, using autocompletion and the like
- 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 Google Maps - displays geographic semantic data using Google Maps
[edit] References
- New Scientist, June 7, 2006
- Markus Krötzsch, Denny Vrandecic, Max Völkel, Heiko Haller, Rudi Studer: Semantic Wikipedia. Journal of Web Semantics 5/2007, December 2007.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Homepage of Semantic MediaWiki
- Semantic MediaWiki mail lists and download at sourceforge
- Semantic MediaWiki on mediawiki.org (includes list of current extensions/add-ons to Semantic MediaWiki)
- Semantic MediaWiki Community Wiki - an SMW-powered wiki that lists the people, organizations, etc. involved with SMW
- List of sites that use Semantic MediaWiki on the Semantic MediaWiki Community Wiki
- "Semantic MediaWiki and Discourse DB" - video of Nick Grandy explaining SMW at an Oxford Geek Night
- Semantic MediaWiki: Towards Wikipedia 3.0 - Presentation of the benefits Semantic Mediawiki offers to Wikipedia
- SMW+ User Forum - SMW-enabled forum for users and developers of Semantic MediaWiki+ in a commercial or production environment, providing documentation and manuals
- SMW+ Product Homepage, ontoprise's commercial distribution of Semantic MediaWiki
