towards scientific collaboration in a semantic wiki
DESCRIPTION
Workshop Bridging the Gap between Web 2.0 and Semantic Web (SemNet), ESWC 2007TRANSCRIPT
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic WikiBridging the Gap between Web 2.0 and Semantic Web
Christoph Lange
Jacobs University Bremen(formerly International University Bremen)
June 7, 2007
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 1
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Wikis for Science
Current scientific wikis:Wikipedia (partly)PlanetMath (domain-specific). . .
Easy to create and link knowledge items⇒ wikis also suitable for non-public researchprojects
Scientific services currently not available
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 2
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Semantic Wikis
Conventional wikis do not understand the knowledge graph theycontainSemantic wikis address this problem:
usually: 1 page =̂ 1 real-world conceptpages and links typed with terms from ontologies
Semantic wikis are appropriate base system for community-authoredknowledge models:
support stepwise formalisation workflowoffer enhanced navigation and search
Examples: Semantic MediaWiki [KVV06], IkeWiki [Schaffert06], . . .
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 3
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Semantic Services for Science
Foster collaboration in a scientific community – e. g.:suggesting topics of interest to learnersmanage dependencies during development
Both issues solved on the semantic web, but not in semantic wikisWiki extensions for learning exist [Reinhold06], but do not utiliseknowledge contained in the wiki pages!Why are semantic wikis not semantic enough?
Because they are not really built on ontologies!Ontologies are optional mostly; ontology support is too generic
⇒ model generic ontology of (scientific) domain knowledge, designservices on top of that abstraction layer
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 4
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
SWiM, a Semantic Wiki for Mathematics
SWiM prototype: IkeWiki [Schaffert06] + OMDoc [Kohlhase06]editing, presentation, navigation; partly ontology-based
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 5
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Structural Semantic Markup
Structural semantic markup: common way to represent scientificknowledgeMarkup languages available for:
Mathematics: Content MathML, OpenMath, OMDoc, . . .Physics: PhysMLChemistry: CMLGeodata: GML, SensorML, MarineML, ESML, . . .From top to bottom (roughly): less structures, more data
For OMDoc, e. g., there are services for learning assistance, semanticsearch, publishing, theory management, proof verification, . . .Technology transfer in progress [HKS06]
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 6
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Scientific Knowledge Representation
Three levels of scientific knowledge [Kohlhase06]:Objects symbols, numbers, equations, molecules, . . .
Statements axioms, hypotheses, measurement results, examples;relationships: “proves”, “defines”, “exemplifies”, . . .
Theories collections of interrelated statements, determine context:“What does the symbol h mean?”
Successfully applied to mathematics (OMDoc), transferred to physics[HKS06]
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 7
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Bringing Ontologies into Play
Markup language for expressing scientific knowledge availableMake it semantic web aware – formalise it in an ontology!Partly done for OMDoc; further steps: extending, generalising
Theory
Concept
Statement
Symbol
Definition
vimports
contains-1 depends on
defined by
lives in
v
v
v
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 8
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Where is the Knowledge in a Wiki?
Semantic wiki: One page =̂ one conceptSWiM: One page =̂ one statement or theory(small, reusable pages, but not too small)Semantic Web tools need more explicit representation of theknowledge (extract from markup!)
ExampleA wiki page:
<omdoc><proof id="pyth-proof"for="pythagoras">...
</proof></omdoc>
Extracted RDF triples (=̂ graph):
pyth-proof pythagoras
Proof Theorem
type typeproves
proves
<pyth-proof, rdf:type, omdoc:Proof><pyth-proof, omdoc:proves, pythagoras>
(omdoc:* → OMDoc document ontology)
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 10
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Learning Assistance
Added value analysis [KM07] for the “coreproblem” of helping a scholar to understand atopic.setting: Course modules (=̂ theories) connectedby prerequisite links (=̂ theory imports)
1 show navigation bar with direct links fromcurrent topic to other topics, grouped by type
sacrifice: indirect prerequisites not accessibledirectly
2 explore direct and indirect prerequisites (viareasoning)
sacrifice: too many irrelevant links
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 11
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Learning from the Community
New core problem: pre-select relevant prerequisite links!1 Do it the social way: record what other users clicked
sacrifice: What if my needs are different from others’?2 Give a better, personalised estimate!
Single-user context: determine user’s previous knowledge (user model)[M+06]Use the community power: find out to which sub-community the userbelongs
e. g. concerning communities of practice [Müller07]
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 12
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Mission
Implement prototypes of these services and evaluate them in long-termcase studies.
Science Our group is working on the cross-domain integration ofscientific markup languagestest SWiM+ in a heterogeneous environment,particularly dependency management
Education General Computer Science course from fall 2007Convert and import lecture notesevaluate learning assistance
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 13
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
The Big Picture
SWiM+
1
¿∫
−∞
ze−12?2
d ?
1.----------------2.----------------
<xml> ...</xml>
ChangeManagement
Publishing
Search
LearningAssistance
pythagoraspartial-diff-eqnproton
Proof for …
Easy Editing
Note: many services are independent from a particular scientific domain!Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 14
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Related Work
se(ma)2wi [Zinn06]: Semantic MediaWiki . . .. . . fed with OMDoc-formatted knowledge from ActiveMathe-learning environmentCategories and learning metadata are used . . .. . . but structural semantic got lostFormulae in presentational LATEX, untyped links
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 15
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Managing Dependencies: Support the Community
Recall the use case: Stein’s theory R depends on Ton’s theory G. Tonmakes a change; Stein should be informed about that.
1 Tell Stein: a page your page depends on has been changed.benefit: better than “recent changes”sacrifice: Stein himself must figure out whether the change brokesomething
2 Find out whether Ton changed the semantics of G (just ask him)sacrifice: Ton has to classify his change.
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 16
State of the Art Problem Statement SWiM Knowledge Representation Services Conclusion
Managing Dependencies
Previous sacrifices: users themselves must reasontoo much
1 Automatically compute “long-range effects” ofchanges
locutor [Müller06] can!can also do some required fixesIntegrate it into the backend!
<xml> ...</xml>
Ch. Lange (Jacobs University Bremen) Towards Scientific Collaboration in a Semantic Wiki June 7, 2007 17