The first system allowing the edition of knowledge structure is probably WebGrid which provides knowledge acquisition through the web. Another outstanding contribution is Ontosaurus. This perspective attracts people interested by scientific research environments or ontology construction. However, the collaborative edition of a knowledge base requires the solution of many technical, legal and social related problems. From a technical point of view, the last problem is difficult.
Few systems deal with it and several approaches are coexisting.
This conclusion is related to the recent reorganisation of research in these fields in France. The problems raised by the presented problematic are diverse and challenging. To that extent, the system uses an object-based representation language and translate it to WebGrid for comparing the ontologies. It notifies the users of the differences. GKB-Editor is used in the famous EcoCyc knowledge base on E. coli metabolism developped by Peter Karp.