IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jpubli/v6y2018i4p44-d180596.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Evolution of the Concept of Semantic Web in the Context of Wikipedia: An Exploratory Approach to Study the Collective Conceptualization in a Digital Collaborative Environment

Author

Listed:
  • Luís Miguel Machado

    (Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information, University of Coimbra, 3004-530 Coimbra, Portugal)

  • Maria Manuel Borges

    (Department of Philosophy, Communication and Information, University of Coimbra, 3004-530 Coimbra, Portugal)

  • Renato Rocha Souza

    (School of Applied Mathematics “EMAp”, Getúlio Vargas Foundation, Rio de Janeiro RJ 22250-900, Brazil)

Abstract

Wikipedia, as a “social machine”, is a privileged place to observe the collective construction of concepts without central control. Based on Dahlberg’s theory of concept, and anchored in the pragmatism of Hjørland—in which the concepts are socially negotiated meanings—the evolution of the concept of semantic web (SW) was analyzed in the English version of Wikipedia. An exploratory, descriptive, and qualitative study was designed and we identified 26 different definitions (between 12 July 2001 and 31 December 2017), of which eight are of particular relevance for their duration, with the latter being the two recorded at the end of the analyzed period. According to them, SW: “is an extension of the web” and “is a Web of Data”; the latter, used as a complementary definition, links to Berners-Lee’s publications. In Wikipedia, the evolution of the SW concept appears to be based on the search for the use of non-technical vocabulary and the control of authority carried out by the debate. As a space for collective bargaining of meanings, the Wikipedia study may bring relevant contributions to a community’s understanding of a particular concept and how it evolves over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Luís Miguel Machado & Maria Manuel Borges & Renato Rocha Souza, 2018. "The Evolution of the Concept of Semantic Web in the Context of Wikipedia: An Exploratory Approach to Study the Collective Conceptualization in a Digital Collaborative Environment," Publications, MDPI, vol. 6(4), pages 1-18, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:6:y:2018:i:4:p:44-:d:180596
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/6/4/44/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/6/4/44/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Wolfgang G. Stock, 2010. "Concepts and semantic relations in information science," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(10), pages 1951-1969, October.
    2. Wolfgang G. Stock, 2010. "Concepts and semantic relations in information science," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 61(10), pages 1951-1969, October.
    3. Jim Giles, 2005. "Internet encyclopaedias go head to head," Nature, Nature, vol. 438(7070), pages 900-901, December.
    4. Dariusz Jemielniak & Eduard Aibar, 2016. "Bridging the gap between wikipedia and academia," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(7), pages 1773-1776, July.
    5. Nicolas Jullien, 2012. "What We Know About Wikipedia: A Review of the Literature Analyzing the Project(s)," Post-Print hal-00857208, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shimada, Takashi & Ogushi, Fumiko & Török, János & Kertész, János & Kaski, Kimmo, 2023. "A simple model of edit activity in Wikipedia," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 630(C).
    2. Franco Bagnoli & Guido de Bonfioli Cavalcabo’, 2023. "A Simple Model of Knowledge Scaffolding Applied to Wikipedia Growth," Future Internet, MDPI, vol. 15(2), pages 1-14, February.
    3. Wei Luo & Julia Adams & Hannah Brueckner, 2018. "The Ladies Vanish? American Sociology and the Genealogy of its Missing Women on Wikipedia," Working Papers 20180012, New York University Abu Dhabi, Department of Social Science, revised Jan 2018.
    4. Aaltonen, Aleksi Ville & Seiler, Stephan, 2014. "Quantifying spillovers in open source content production: evidence from Wikipedia," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 60284, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Charles Ayoubi & Boris Thurm, 2023. "Knowledge diffusion and morality: Why do we freely share valuable information with Strangers?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 75-99, January.
    6. Demidov, Denis & Frahm, Klaus M. & Shepelyansky, Dima L., 2020. "What is the central bank of Wikipedia?," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 542(C).
    7. Hervé, Fabrice & Zouaoui, Mohamed & Belvaux, Bertrand, 2019. "Noise traders and smart money: Evidence from online searches," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 141-149.
    8. Nicolas Jullien, 2012. "What We Know About Wikipedia: A Review of the Literature Analyzing the Project(s)," Post-Print hal-00857208, HAL.
    9. Loris Gaio & Alessandro Rossi & Matthijs den Besten & Jean-Michel Dalle, 2009. "Coordination, Division of Labor, and Open Content Communities: Template Messages in Wiki-Based Collections," DISA Working Papers 0903, Department of Computer and Management Sciences, University of Trento, Italy, revised 29 Jul 2009.
    10. Shane Greenstein & Grace Gu & Feng Zhu, 2021. "Ideology and Composition Among an Online Crowd: Evidence from Wikipedians," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(5), pages 3067-3086, May.
    11. Ethan Mollick & Ramana Nanda, 2016. "Wisdom or Madness? Comparing Crowds with Expert Evaluation in Funding the Arts," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(6), pages 1533-1553, June.
    12. Gordana Apic & Matthew J Betts & Robert B Russell, 2011. "Content Disputes in Wikipedia Reflect Geopolitical Instability," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(6), pages 1-5, June.
    13. Loris Gaio & Alessandro Rossi & Matthijs den Besten & Jean-Michel Dalle, 2009. "Wikibugs: the practice of template messages in open content collections," DISA Working Papers 0904, Department of Computer and Management Sciences, University of Trento, Italy, revised 29 Jul 2009.
    14. Thomas Boulton & Bill B. Francis & Thomas Shohfi & Daqi Xin, 2021. "Investor awareness or information asymmetry? Wikipedia and IPO underpricing," The Financial Review, Eastern Finance Association, vol. 56(3), pages 535-561, August.
    15. Yan Chen & Grace Jeon & Yong-Mi Kim, 2014. "A day without a search engine: an experimental study of online and offline searches," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 17(4), pages 512-536, December.
    16. Guillaume Rollin & José Lages & Tatiana S Serebriyskaya & Dima L Shepelyansky, 2019. "Interactions of pharmaceutical companies with world countries, cancers and rare diseases from Wikipedia network analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(12), pages 1-25, December.
    17. Erik Brynjolfsson & Avinash Collis & Felix Eggers, 2019. "Using massive online choice experiments to measure changes in well-being," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116(15), pages 7250-7255, April.
    18. McLinden, Daniel, 2017. "And then the internet happened: Thoughts on the future of concept mapping," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 293-300.
    19. Samer El Zant & Katia Jaffrès-Runser & Dima L Shepelyansky, 2018. "Capturing the influence of geopolitical ties from Wikipedia with reduced Google matrix," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(8), pages 1-31, August.
    20. Birger Hjørland, 2011. "Evaluation of an information source illustrated by a case study: Effect of screening for breast cancer," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 62(10), pages 1892-1898, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jpubli:v:6:y:2018:i:4:p:44-:d:180596. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.