Organic Data Science through a Semantic Wiki

A prototype to illustrate organic team science, focused on data sharing aspects. Contributors propose science questions (right), and decompose them into tasks that lead to sharing datasets, and documenting them with locations, projects, and scientists (left). Research activities, are open and exposed. Anyone can contribute and will be automatically credited (center).

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. Each category of pages has different kinds of structured properties, sometimes organized into sections which are highlighted in a different color. To add a structured property, simply click the "Add" button in that section. We suggest you look at other pages and learn by looking at how they are structured.

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: To develop a framework for organic data science
• 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

Learning to Use this Wiki

Learn here about how to use this organic data science wiki.

To contribute to the wiki, you will need an account. Please send email to Yolanda Gil with subject like "REQUEST FOR ORGANIC DATA SCIENCE ACCOUNT."

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.