Semantics in Wiki - Community-Built Databases: Research and Development - page 251

l Wiki content linked to dynamic models, simulations and visualisations.
l Wiki content linked with external repositories, file systems (e.g. personal
desktop, enterprise servers, Web sources, semantic-enabled feeds, e.g. RSS).
l Richer user access/rights models, including reputation systems.
According to Bao et al. [ 17 ], Semantic Wikis offer the promise of a new
application model with the following interesting characteristics:
l Rich data modelling : User-contributed content may be a mixture of text and
structured data, and semantic wikis can best preserve structured data without
forcing structured representation of the free text part. With the structured data, a
semantic wiki can function like a lightweight database or a knowledge base, and
users can model data using several common modelling methods, e.g. relational
modelling or rule modelling.
l Transparent data processing : as wikis allow simple computing logics (such as
declaring an object and applying a data processing rule) to be published as a part
of wiki pages in the forms of wiki scripts, they are transparent to all wiki users
and can be collaboratively authored and improved in Web browsers.
l Social programming : The transparency of data modelling and data processing
and the convergence model of wikis themselves opens up the development of
Web applications to all interested users.
10.5 Current Semantic Wiki Applications
Semantic MediaWiki has come a long way from its roots as an academic research
project. It 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. There are a number of consulting companies
that implement SMW as part of their solutions, including Benchmarking Partners,
FZI, LeveragePoint and Ontoprise and WikiWorks. The four Websites currently
hosting Semantic MediaWiki and some of its extensions are: Wikia, Referata,
YourWiki and Pseudomenon.
10.5.1 Semantic MediaWiki
Dengler et al. [ 22 ] have extended the Semantic MediaWiki (SMW) software with
process modelling and visualisation functionalities to support a collaborative,
distributed and iterative process documentation with a modelling tool. Using wide-
spread and well-accepted wiki technology, users are able to model and update
organisational processes in a familiar environment by reusing externalised knowl-
edge already stored in wikis. According to these authors, other expected advantages
for modelling business processes with SMW are the reduced maintenance costs of