Use of Semantic Wiki Tool to Build a Repository of Reusable Information Objects in Agricultural

Education and Extension : results from a preliminary study

Pritpal Kaur, Shelly Patwar, Gerard Sylvester, V Balaji*

*v.balaji@cgiar.org

Scenario Today : a twin challenge

• Agricultural content is often dispersed and there is no unified view to integrate the resources. Unified view is badly needed.

• Multiple challenges in localization, customization and delivery to extension workers and educators.

Towards a Solution…..

• Semantic Tools provide for Knowledge Representation & Sharing

– Unified knowledge/resource organization model feasible– can provide integrated view

– Specialized and enhanced navigation

– Can provide for rapid information aggregation from reusable information objects

ICRISAT experiment : objective

• Better, more efficient extraction from, and aggregation of, agricultural information resources, along with

– Better Content Navigation– Better Content Organization

Tools and methods

• Content Organization (Semantic Mediawiki (primary) & Topic Map (secondary))

• Content Packaging (eXe Editor)

• Content Navigation (Topic Maps & Semantic Mediawiki)

Sources of Content: Wikipedia and VASAT Web site

• Virtual Academy for the Semi-Arid Tropics (VASAT) is a strategic alliance of National and International partners aimed at combating drought in the Semi-Arid Tropics.

• Generates literacy-style content online (www.icrisat.org/vasat/learning_resources)

Semantic VASAT Wiki Ingredients

+ + =

FAO’s AGROVOC provides the Ontology to link information objects in the Wiki facilitated by OntoWorld’s Semantic Tool

Semantic ToolMediaWiki S/w FAO’s AGROVOCSemantic

VASAT Wiki

http://vasatwiki.icrisat.org

Process with Semantic MediaWiki + Ontology

• Uploaded agricultural content onto VASAT wiki from Wikipedia

• Uploaded learning modules from VASAT Learning Objects Repository

• Categorized content according to AGROVOC

• Manually divided available articles into information objects

• Created semantic relationships

Process Workflow

Curation

SemanticVASAT Wiki

VersionStaging

Agriculture articleExtract

Agricultural Articles

Wiki +

Semantic tool +

Ontology

CommunityReview

http://vasatwiki.icrisat.org/

Information objectsVASAT LO

Repository

AGROVOC Ontologies, categorization

Information Objects on VASAT Wiki

Wikipedia Articlehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peanut

VASAT Wiki Articlehttp://vasatwiki.icrisat.org/index.php/Groundnut

Article extracted and Semantic links established manually

1 23

4

Topic Map for VASAT’s Learning Objects

VASAT LO repository

AGROVOC

ICRISAT’sCrop Topic Map

Available at: http://test2.icrisat.org/

Aggregate Resources

Content aggregated from VASAT Wiki

Content from externalWebsite

Integrate content from various sources

Content aggregated thus could also be exported to various formats

Wiki Article

External Website

Aggregate Content

Content Aggregation from different sources using eXe

Export Content

1 2

34

Content RepurposingContent repackaging and repurposing for export to many formats (compatible with SCORM, IMS-global for LMS and as HTML and to i-POD)

Looking Forward…

Content Organization

Ontology + Wiki-like interface

Intl.agencies

OtherNARS

agenciesCommodity

Markets

Weather / Meteorology

DynamicData

K-Base

Imagery/Maps

Village center

NGOs

Q&A; activitieslog

PublicNARS

agencies