Using social semantic web technologies in public health: A prototype epidemiological semantic Wiki

Abstract

Public health information systems could play a really important role in the step-up of human life quality. Such systems require a user friendly environment that enables public organizations, health centers and even citizens to acquire knowledge in an organized way. That means that content can be accessed, evaluated, organized and reused with ease by anyone concerned. Social Software (i.e Wikis, Weblogs) as well as Semantic Web technologies could be of major importance in such public health information systems. Social Software technologies support the collaboration of people anytime, anywhere and enable users to choose their own processes. Semantic Web technologies on the other hand enable information structure for easy retrieval, reuse and exchange between different systems and tools. Semantic wikis is a really powerful tool that combines Social Software and Semantic Web technologies. In this article a prototype Epidemiological Semantic Wiki is described. Moreover the functionality of this wiki is illustrated though a use case. © 2010 International Federation for Medical and Biological Engineering.