Building Semantic Webs for e-government with Wiki technology. (27th December 2005)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wagner, Christian; Cheung, Karen S.K.; Ip, Rachael K.F.; Bottcher, Stefan
• Is Part Of: Electronic government. Volume 3:Number 1(2006)
• Page Start: 36
• Page End: 55
• Publication Date: 2005-12-27
• Subjects: e-government -- electronic government -- semantic web -- Wiki technology -- knowledge management -- KM; Internet in public administration -- Periodicals; 352.380285467805
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1740-7494

Abstract

E-government webs are among the largest webs in existence, based on the size, number of users and number of information providers. Thus, creating a Semantic Web infrastructure to meaningfully organise e-government webs is highly desirable. At the same time, the complexity of the existing e-government implementations also challenges the feasibility of Semantic Web creation. We therefore propose the design of a two-layer semantic Wiki web, which consists of a content Wiki, largely identical to the traditional web and a semantic layer, also maintained within the Wiki, that describes semantic relationships. This architectural design promises several advantages that enable incremental growth, collaborative development by a large community of non-technical users and the ability to continually grow the content layer without the immediate overhead of parallel maintenance of the semantic layer. This paper explains current challenges to the development of a Semantic Web, identifies Wiki advantages, illustrates a potential solution and summarises major directions for further research.