IADIS International Conference on WWW/Internet 2005

SEMANTIC MEDIAWIKI: A USER-ORIENTED SYSTEMFOR INTEGRATED CONTENT AND METADATAMANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Hendry Muljadi 1, Hideaki Takeda1, Jiro Araki2, Shoko Kawamoto1, Satoshi Kobayashi1, Yoko
Mizuta1, Sven Minoru Demiya1, Satoshi Suzuki1, Asanobu Kitamoto1, Yasuyuki Shirai2, Nobuyuki
Ichiyoshi2, Takehiko Ito2, Takashi Abe3, Takashi Gojobori3, Hideaki Sugawara3, Satoru Miyazaki4,and Asao Fujiyama1
1

National Institute of Informatics,2Mitsubishi Research Institute Inc.,3National Institute of Genetics,4Tokyo University of Science
12-1-2, Hitotsubashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, 22-3-6, Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan,
31111, Tanida, Mishima City, Shizuoka, Japan, 42641, Yamazaki, Noda City, Chiba, Japan
hendry@nii.ac.jp, takeda@nii.ac.jp

ABSTRACTThis paper describes a Semantic MediaWiki, a MediaWiki extended to include the ideas of Semantic Web. The proposed
Semantic MediaWiki works as an integrated system for content management and metadata management.
KEYWORDS

Semantic Web, MediaWiki, RDF statement

1. INTRODUCTION
In the increasing interest in the Semantic Web, more and more Semantic Web applications are beingdeveloped. One of the current main issues for the Semantic Web applications’ development is the simplicity
and user-friendliness for the end users, especially for people with non-IT background.
On the other hand, in the context of collaboration on the web, Wiki has proven itself to be a simple anduser-friendly interface. For example, the community of Wikipedia 1 , the free content encyclopedia isbecoming larger and larger. There have been more than 13,000 people who gave their contributions, either bycreating or by editing articles in Wikipedia. Wiki is a discussion medium, a repository of ideas and a tool forcollaboration [Leuf01]. It is a simple publishing system that is easy to learn and quick to use. In Wiki, people
can create or edit a Wiki page using a simple syntax to write content. So, it is normal to make an assumptionthat an extended Wiki will be useful for the development of a simple and easy-to-use Semantic Web
application.
In a Wiki environment, it is easy to make an RDF resource, since a Wiki page always has a URL, e.g.
http://hostname/wiki/pagename, and this URL can be used as an URI of an RDF resource. RDF consists ofsubject-predicate-object triples that state specific facts about resources or concepts, e.g.
“[Homer]<IsFatherOf>[Bart]”, where subject, predicate and object (if not a literal) are identified via URIs.
Thus, constructing RDF triples in a Wiki environment can be done by enabling the construction of labeledlinks. The labeled link represents the RDF property that links the RDF subject with its object.
This paper presents a Semantic MediaWiki2. Semantic MediaWiki is a MediaWiki extended to enable thecollaborative editing of metadata according to simple RDF statement. In the next section, we describe themodification of MediaWiki to enable the construction of RDF triples. In Section 3, we describe theimplementation of the proposed Semantic MediaWiki.
12

http://en.wikipedia.org
Our current prototype is accessible from http://www.semanticwiki.jp/261

ISBN: 972-8924-02-X © 2005 IADIS

2. SEMANTIC MEDIAWIKI
2.1 MediaWiki
MediaWiki3 is a Wiki software that is written in PHP and uses MySQL database. It is being used to run theWikipedia and also other encyclopedia and dictionary sites. MediaWiki is a very useful tool for collaborative
content management. MediaWiki also has the category management function. This category management
function allows a Wiki page under the namespace (“Category:”) to be used as a metadata, and also allows
user to create class and sub-class relation, and class and instance relation between Wiki pages. In other words,
MediaWiki has the capability to manage: (1) contents, (2) metadata, and (3) the relations between contents
and metadata. However, this category management function is not able to construct RDF triples, the building
blocks of the Semantic Web. Constructing RDF statement in a MediaWiki environment can be done byenabling the writing of labeled links. We use the existing category management function as a reference toenable the writing of labeled links.

2.2 Extending the MediaWiki
Using the existing category management function as a reference, we create a new namespace (“Term:”). A
new table is also created in the Wiki database to deal with the new namespace. Wiki pages that use this newnamespace are being enabled to use the labeled links. The Wiki syntax is [[Term:target_page| property]]. The
RDF triple will be as follows.
source_page property target_page.
Each time the Wiki syntax is used, the Wiki engine will store the RDF triple into the new table in theWiki database. By directly querying the table, the labeled link relation will be displayed on the source_page
as follows.
-> property -> target_page
By clicking the target_page link, the target_page will be created automatically. On the target_page, therelation will be automatically displayed as follows.
<- property <- source_page
By clicking the link that represents the RDF property, the property page will be created automatically. On
the property page, all triples that use the property will be listed.
Fig.1(a) shows the example of the Wiki syntax writing. Fig.1(b) shows the RDF triples that are stored in
the new table of the Wiki database. Fig.2(a) shows the example of how the relations are displayed on thesource_page. Fig.2(b) shows the example of how the relation is shown automatically on the target_page.
Fig.2(c) shows the example of how the relations are listed on the property page.
So by enabling the writing of labeled link, RDF triples can be constructed. Thus, Semantic MediaWiki
can be used as an editor of metadata according to simple RDF statement. It is also worth to note that
Semantic MediaWiki, as an extension of MediaWiki, has the benefit of having all the functions available inMediaWiki as a content management system. And as shown in Fig.3, Semantic MediaWiki can serve as anintegrated system for content management and metadata management.

(a) Using the Wiki syntax for RDF triple construction.

(b) RDF triples are stored in a table of Wiki DB.

Figure1. Writing RDF triples in Semantic MediaWiki.
3

http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net

262

IADIS International Conference on WWW/Internet 2005(a) Display of the source_page.
->property->target_page(b) Display of the target_page.
<-property<-source_page(c) Display of the property page.
source_page->target_page

Figure 2. Display of the Semantic MediaWiki pages.
(Extended )MediaWiki
Metadata Managementisa
isalabe lalabel-cisabe llab

isa

Extension ofMediaWiki

Content Management

Figure 3. Semantic MediaWiki as an integrated system for content management and metadata management

3. IMPLEMENTATIONIn this section, we show a sample use of the Semantic MediaWiki for the Japanese biodictionary
development. Currently, we use MediaWiki 1.3.11 as the base of the Semantic MediaWiki.
Fig.4 shows a Wiki page of a Japanese biology term. A new Wiki page can be created by directly writing
the Wiki page name on the browser, e.g. http://localhost/wiki/Term:biology_term. Fig.4(a) shows the editingbox of the Wiki page. Fig.4(b) shows the display of the Wiki page of the biology term in the biodictionary.
Currently, we have about 1,000 pages as terms in the biodictionary on our system. There are three RDFproperties used in this biodictionary: Synonym, English and English Synonym. Synonym is used to link aJapanese biology term with its Japanese synonym. English is used to link a term with its direct translation’s
English term, while English Synonym is used to link a term with its English term’s synonym. Fig.5 shows thedisplays of the property pages. On each property page, the list of terms which use the particular property isdisplayed. The property pages can be used as a quick reference for seeing relations between terms. Thus,
Semantic MediaWiki is useful for the collaborative editing of contents and metadata according to simple
RDF statement.
biology term(in Japanese)wiki page
namedescription(in Japanese)

writing
RDF
triplescategory(a) The Editing Box of the Wiki page.
(b) Wiki page of the biology term in the biodictionary.
Figure 4. Creating a Wiki page for the biodictionary in the Semantic MediaWiki environment.

263

ISBN: 972-8924-02-X © 2005 IADIS(a) Wiki page of Term:Synonym.

(c) Wiki page of Term:EnglishSynonym.
(b) Wiki page of Term:English.
Fig.5 Wiki pages of the RDF properties used in the biodictionary.

4. RELATED WORK
There are some other Semantic Wikis being proposed [Tazzoli, 2004] [Aumueller, 2005]. SHAWN, a
Semantic Wiki that is proposed in [Aumueller, 2005] is a well-designed system and has the similar purpose
to our system. But it is designed to serve as a metadata management system, rather than as an integrated
system for content management and metadata management, as the Semantic MediaWiki (see Fig.3).

5. CONCLUSION
Semantic MediaWiki is proposed as an extension of MediaWiki that is able to write labeled links to construct
RDF triples. It is a very simple software and as one tries to use this software, one may enjoy a visible editingof Wiki pages’ relations. And since it also inherits all the functions available in MediaWiki, it can serve as a
useful tool for the collaborative editing of contents and metadata according to simple RDF statements.
However, it is also true to say that Semantic MediaWiki could only handle simple RDF statements. Itcannot handle blank node, since a Wiki page should have a name. Further work needs to be done to solve thisproblem. Another further works that need to be done are enabling Semantic MediaWiki to import RDF
statement from external sources, to handle RDFS, and also to construct the inference function within theWiki environment or by integrating Semantic MediaWiki with external application, e.g. Sesame4, an RDF
repository and inference engine.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The research presented in this paper is a part of “the Development of the New Generation BioPortal Project”
which is funded by the Special Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology from the Ministryof Education, Culture, Sport, Science and Technology, the Japanese Government.

REFERENCES
Aumueller, D, 2005. Semantic Authoring and Retrieval Within a Wiki. Proceedings of Second European Semantic Web
Conference. Heraklion, Greece, in CD-ROM.
Leuf, B. and Cunningham, W., 2001. The Wiki Way: Quick Collaboration on the Web. Addison-Wesley, USA
Tazzoli, R. et al, 2004. Towards a Semantic Wiki Wiki Web. Proceedings of Second International Semantic Web
Conference. Hiroshima, Japan, in CD-ROM.

4

http://www.openrdf.org

264