learning with the web 2.0the encyclopedia of life

8/8/2019 Learning with the Web 2.0 The Encyclopedia of Life

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http://www.know-center.at

Know-Center - gefrdert durch das Kompetenzzentrenprogramm

Learning with the Web 2.0The Encyclopedia of Life

Anwar Us Saeed (TU-Graz)

Alexander Stocker (Know-Center)


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September 2007http://www.know-center.at

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Overview

Web 2.0 and Learning

Web 2.0 Applications

Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)

Content

Stake-holders

Technologies

Learning with the EOL

Wikipedia vs EOL

Conclusion


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Web 2.0 describes change web is currently going through

Social phenomena, users interweave their social processeswith the web, new types of knowledge structures

Vast growth of web, emergence of new types of

collaborative technologies

Users change role from mainly consuming information toactively participating in the creation of content

New Rising tools and technologies including content

syndication, semantic annotation, richer user interfaces aretempting social interaction

Social entities act as ressource for collaborative knowledgewhere web in total can be seen as a collaborative learningenvironment


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Entry barriers of Web as learning medium

User interfaces

Access to knowledge pools

Collaborative Content Creation

Niche communities emerge, voluntariliy conducted knowledgetransfer

New types of interactions possible through folksonomies and

semantic annotation and social bookmarking

Finding users with similar interests

Self directed collaborative learning


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Web 2.0 Applications

Everybody knows...

Wikis (wikipedia.com)

Blogs (readwriteweb.com)

Social Bookmarking (del.icio.us, mrwong.com) Social Networking (xing.com, myspace.com,

facebook.com)

Mash-Ups (housingmap.com)

...

Technologies have come to mature stage, where wecan think about the aggregation of knowledge at thehigher degree


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Desire to understand life forms on our planet is not new

Genome project; first species page in 1990

EOL will be a comprehensive knowledge repository for thedomain of life sciences (1.8 million species)

Wish from E.O. Wilson at Ted Conference

I wish that we will work together to help create the keytool that we need to inspire preservation of Earth'sbiodiversity: the Encyclopedia of Life.

EOL will contain a summary of everything known aboutthe species genome, proteome, geographic distribution,phylogenetic position, habitat, ecological relationships,and, not least, its perceived practical importance forhumanity.


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EOL Vision can be realized now, because

Necessary consortium and Cornerstone Institutionsbrought together(Sposors: John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation , Alfred P. Sloan Foundation )

Biodiversity Heritage Library The Field Museum of Natural History Harvard University Marine Biological Laboratory Missouri Botanical Garden Smithsonian Institution... and growing

Global serious concern about rapid detoriation ofecological/ biodiversity system

Maturity of necessary technologies


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Encyclopedia of Life (EOL),a gigantic effort

EOL plans to collect and gather data from diverseressources in one platform

Attemts to provide an environment/ platform forfostering future research

Gathering data of future developments as feedbackfrom the scientists

Knowledge already known about species is available inpieces in different forms and ressources


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Encyclopedia of Life (EOL),a gigantic effort

To collect and present information which caters for thevast and diverse group of stackholders ranging from aschool boy to hightech research institutions andlaboratories.

Affords flexible and end-user focused informationarchitecture which can be viewed in three blocks

Aggregation

Authentication

Atomization


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AggregationEncyclopedia of Life (EOL)

Whole structure of EOL linked by species name,which is the only field common in all biologicaldatabases

Aggregation will bring all the pieces ofinformation from diverse resources and will usetechnologies ranging from OCR to the APIs ofdata providers

Semantic Technologies are used fordisambiguation and reconsiliation of termswhile conducting machine based aggregation ofdata from diverse ressources


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AuthenticationEncyclopedia of Life (EOL)

EOL will secure involvement of scientist and scientificinstitutions that are established experts on each species

Semantic Wiki-like environment will be provided for thescientists so that data on each topic can be validated by

the specialist of the respective field

Learner will have authoritative information

Scientist may use EOL for their research

EOL can shape the future of scientific publishing


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AtomizationEncyclopedia of Life (EOL)

Ontology based technologies structurerepresent the data in customized forms

Novice and expert views on the speciespages

Modules for atomization are developed as opensource

APIs and data mining facilities will be providedto the scientists and laboratories


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Learning with theEncyclopedia of Life (EOL)

Four disrcete content representations engagelearners from school to expert level

Interfaces for mobile devices allow fieldstudies

Web Services


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Wikipedia vs EOL

A comprehensive reference work containing articles on awide range of subjects or on numerous aspects of aparticular field, usually arranged alphabetically(dictionary.com | American Heritage Dictionary)

Both claim to be Encyclopedias but differing in their goals

Wikipedia aims to be a widespread base of knowledge

EOL aims to be focused to gather all ressources in thedomain of biology, creating comprehensive base ofknowledge

Wikipedia covers breath of knowledge, articles arenumerous but often missing detailed level

In EOL articles will be on a consistently detailed level,covering the depth of the topic and will be current


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Wikipedia vs EOL

Encyclopedia for everyone

Grown encyclopedia, usingphenomenon of mass

authoring to the area ofcontent creation

Everybody may contributeto every subject regardlessof expertise in that field

Suitable for providing anoverview

Usage for scientific purposesare limited, validity islacking

Encyclopedia for everyonewith partial content copyrightissues

Content aggregated fromdiverse established ressources

Content will be authenticatedby the scientists

Comprehensive knowledgerepository for all discoveredknowledge on biology

Can be future publishingplatform for the scientificcommunity


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Wikipedia vs EOL

Lack of workflow for qualityassurance

Quality of contentinconsistent and can beeasiliy vandalized

Lack of personalizationfeatures

Bulk of content has to bebrowsed every time

Multimedia content is scarce

Well defined workflow forinformation quality assurance

Validation of content byexperts

Personalization features

End Users are facilitated toorganize content in the formthey want (myEOL)

Presentation in an estheticallypleasing way with vastmultimedia support


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Wikipedia vs EOL

Lacks in currenttechnologies includingtagging, contentsyndication, ajax andsemantic technologies

Dump of whole Wikipedia

No Semantic Technologies inSearch

Set of technologies is verybroad ranging from OCR toAPIs and semantic wikis

EOL provides sophisticatedtechnologies for mining, reuseand mash-up

Smart semantic searchmechanisms (taxonomic

intelligence)


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Conclusion

EOL is well planned and revolutionary using latest webtechnologies

Services will be available on a global basis

Learners will profit from a comprehensive knowledgepool

To make the content freely available to learners will be acrucial milestone (copyright issues)

Success of EOL (wiki-like environments) depends oncritical mass of authors and articles which EOL has wellplanned involving necessary stake-holders

learning with the web 2.0the encyclopedia of life

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