learning with the web 2.0: the encyclopedia of life
DESCRIPTION
In the 1990s, the World Wide Web has revolutionized the way in which knowledgeseekers satisfy their thirst for knowledge. During the recent years, a technological andsocial paradigm shift called Web 2.0 attracted a lot of attention in the Internetcommunity and is considered a major evolution of the web. New online applicationsmake it easier for individuals to learn, using the vast information provided by theInternet and the collective intelligence of its users. The Encyclopedia of Life, a globalrepository for all kinds of information related to life on earth, builds upon the vision ofWikipedia and enhances it with Web 2.0 technologies and a concept for assuring highquality content. After a brief review of the development of the web as a learningresource, the authors of this paper present the concept of the Encyclopedia of Life as aknowledge pool for the domain of biology and compare it to the Wikipedia.TRANSCRIPT
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Learning with the Web 2.0The Encyclopedia of Life
Anwar Us Saeed (TU-Graz)
Alexander Stocker (Know-Center)
September 2007
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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 and Learning
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 to actively participating in the creation of content
New Rising tools and technologies including contentsyndication, 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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Web 2.0 and Learning
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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Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)
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 key tool that we need to inspire preservation of Earth's biodiversity: 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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Encyclopedia of Life (EOL)
EOL Vision can be realized now, because
Necessary consortium and Cornerstone Institutions brought together(Sposors: John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation , Alfred P. Sloan Foundation )
Biodiversity Heritage LibraryThe Field Museum of Natural HistoryHarvard UniversityMarine Biological LaboratoryMissouri Botanical GardenSmithsonian Institution
... and growing
Global serious concern about rapid detoriation of ecological/ 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 diverse ressources 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 in pieces 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 a school boy to hightech research institutions and laboratories.
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 of information from diverse resources and will usetechnologies ranging from OCR to the APIs of data providers
Semantic Technologies are used fordisambiguation and reconsiliation of termswhile conducting machine based aggregation of data 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 bythe 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 a wide range of subjects or on numerous aspects of a particular field, usually arranged alphabetically”(dict ionary.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 of knowledge
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 of content creation
Everybody may contributeto every subject regardlessof expertise in that field
Suitable for providing an overview
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 to organize content in the form they want (myEOL)
Presentation in an estheticallypleasing way with vastmultimedia support
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Wikipedia vs EOL
Lacks in currenttechnologies includingtagging, contentsyndication, ajax and semantic technologies
Dump of whole Wikipedia
No Semantic Technologies in Search
Set of technologies is verybroad ranging from OCR to APIs and semantic wikis
EOL provides sophisticatedtechnologies for mining, reuseand mash-up
Smart semantic searchmechanisms (taxonomicintelligence)
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Conclusion
EOL is well planned and revolutionary using latest web technologies
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 a crucial milestone (copyright issues)
Success of EOL (wiki-like environments) depends on critical mass of authors and articles which EOL has well planned involving necessary stake-holders