Semantic MediaWiki

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Draft

Introduction

“Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) is an extension of Mediawiki – the wiki application best known for powering Wikipedia – that helps to search, organise, tag, browse, evaluate, and share the wiki's content. While traditional wikis contain only text which computers can neither understand nor evaluate, SMW adds semantic annotations that allow a wiki to function as a collaborative database. Semantic MediaWiki was first released in 2005, and currently has over ten developers, and is in use on hundreds of sites. In addition, a large number of related extensions have been created that extend the ability to edit, display and browse through the data stored by SMW: the term "Semantic MediaWiki" is sometimes used to refer to this entire family of extensions. Semantic MediaWiki has been funded in part by projects of the Framework Programmes (FP) of the European Union, SEKT and ACTIVE and by project Halo.” (Introduction to Semantic MediaWiki, retrieved 14:31, 24 August 2011 (CEST))

According to Semantic MediaWiki, “is currently in active use in hundreds of sites, in many languages, around the world, including Fortune 500 companies, biomedical projects, government agencies and consumer directories”.

See also: Semantic Forms

Syntax extensions for Semantic MediaWiki

Typed links

MediaWiki [[is a:: Wiki]]

Annotated values

The Swiss Grading scale goes from 0 to [[grading scale:=6]]

Semantic MediaWiki software

Download and Installation

Tested for MW 1.17 on 18:48, 24 August 2011 (CEST).

Download
PHP requirements

The mbstrings non-default extension must be installed.

Under Ubuntu 10+, it should be there, but check: 

php --info | grep mbstring
Configure LocalSettings.php (mandatory)
$smwgNamespaceIndex = 106; // on top of others, adjust to yours
require_once( "$IP/extensions/Validator/Validator.php" );
include_once( "$IP/extensions/SemanticMediaWiki/SemanticMediaWiki.php" );
enableSemantics('edutechwiki.unige.ch'); // adjust to yours
Configure options in LocalSettings.php (there are many many!)
$smwgShowFactbox = SMW_FACTBOX_NONEMPTY;
Setup the database
Testing

Create a page like:

Then enter something like: 

Testing - adding a property called "testproperty" with value [[testproperty::SandBox]]

Semantic MediaWiki extensions

  • Semantic Result Formats is a Semantic MediaWiki extension that bundles a number of further result formats for SMW's inline queries. It supports formats such as graphing, plotting, timelines, etc.
  • Semantic Watchlist extends Semantic MediaWiki by adding the capability to watch/follow sets of properties for groups of pages (that can be specified with categories and namespaces).

Data import/export

  • Support for RDF triplestores (via SPARQL)

SMW packaged services and distributions

  • SMW+ is a prepackaged version of MediaWiki/Semantic Wiki described as "semantic enterprise wiki that lets you create and share knowledge with your team." Both a free version and a pro version are available.

Links

Official other important SMW sites

Manuals and introductions

See also: User manual, which includes additional links

Official
  • Quick Reference Guide: PNG or PDF
At SMW Community Wiki

Tutorials

Various

  • blog (Jeroen De Dauw, a SWM key developer, interesting posts)
  • SMWCon also known as the Semantic MediaWiki Conference, is a twice-yearly gathering for users, developers and enthusiasts of Semantic MediaWiki,

Semantic MediaWiki sites

Indexes (most listed sites are not really maintained)
Some good/interesting technical examples
  • Gardenology.org - Plant & Garden Wiki Encyclopedia
  • food finds
  • SNPedia, a wiki investigating human genetics.
  • Swiss Experimnet, A platform to enable real-time environmental experiments through wireless sensor networks and a common, modern, generic cyber-infrastructure.
  • AcaWiki enables you to easily post summaries and literature reviews of peer-reviewed research
  • AIFB Web Portal, at Institute of Applied Informatics and Formal Description Methods (AIFB) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. (Includes prime contributors to the Semantic MediaWiki code).

Bibliography

  • Krötzsch, Markus; Denny Vrandecic, Max Völkel, Heiko Haller, Rudi Studer. korrekt:Semantic Wikipedia (JWS2007)|Semantic Wikipedia. Journal of Web Semantics 5/2007, pp. 251–261. Elsevier 2007.
  • Krötzsch. M, D. Vrandecic, M. Völkel, H. Haller, and R. Studer. Semantic Wikipedia (ESWC2006 demo), European Semantic Web Conference, ESWC2006, Budva, Montenegro. Best Poster Award.
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