Organic Data Science through a Semantic Wiki
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Organic Data Science through a Semantic Wiki
To structure the content of this wiki, we use a semantic wiki framework. We use an extension of Semantic MediaWiki that enables contributors to use structured semantic properties to describe the contents of the wiki.
One way in which this wiki structures content is though pre-defined categories. Pages can have special categories, which gives the wiki pages a pre-defined semantic structure. Special categories include Task, Answer, and Data.
In addition, each page has a section called "Structured Properties", where contributors can specify properties and values of the topic of the page. Any contributor can define new properties on the fly. Any contributor can change an existing property by one that is used elsewhere, effectively normalizing the use of the property across pages and therefore across objects.
Another extension in this wiki is that contributor credit is tracked and shown. At the bottom of each page, the contributors to that page are shown together with the details of their contributions to that page. Contributors can also have their own pages, which include any background information they wish to share, and where the edits that they have made are automatically summarized and shown.
- An example of a task page: Document PIHM Model
- An example of a data page: knb-lter-ntl.87.8
- An example of a researcher page: Jordan Read
- An example of a model software page: PIHM Software
A great way to start is to create your own page! Just type your name on the "Search" box, agree to create a page, save it empty, and then add properties imitating the example researcher page above.
Using Structured Content to Dynamically Create Sections of Wiki Pages
Those properties can then be used to answer queries that aggregate automatically those properties and pages. Below are some examples of how a query can be stated using those structured properties, and the automatically generated table that answers the query. These queries can be used to create dynamically generated content.
| Author | Software license | Language | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delft3d | Deltares systems | ||
| IPH-ECO | David da Motta Marques | ||
| PIHM Software | Gopal Bhatt Lorne Leonard Xuan Yu Chris Duffy Mukesh Kumar | GPL v2 | C C++ |
Accessing Structured Content Externally
The structured content in this semantic wiki is represented with the W3C RDF semantic representation standard. This allows others to access and import the content of this wiki into their applications. There is extensive documentation about this API here.
How to Add Text to a Wiki Page
In addition to structured properties, this wiki also allows adding regular wiki text and content. When editing, and before adding any text, click on the "Save Page" button at the bottom. After that select a category. Then you can either: 1) add structured properties by clicking on the "Add" button, or 2) add text and figures as in any other wiki by clicking on the "Edit" button at the top right. To format text and figures, see the Quick Guide to Using a Wiki, or the detailed User's Guide.
