Collaborative authoring of biomedical terminologies using a semantic Wiki

To be broadly useful, biomedical terminologies need to capture the knowledge and expertise of multiple experts, research groups and end users. Consequently, the construction of such a terminology requires collaboration among multiple participants. This paper summarizes several terminology projects which employ a collaborative authoring mode in development, along with the various tools used by these projects to support collaboration, such as mailing list, issue tracking system, client-side GUI software and Wiki system. We then discuss the essential functional requirements for a collaborative authoring tool in the context of terminology development, and analyze the inherent features of Semantic Wiki that enable it to be a competent tool used in this type of effort. To demonstrate, we describe a prototype system of collaborative authoring for health care terminologies built upon the Semantic Wiki technology. Finally, we discuss the potential issues that might be associated with this open Semantic Wiki platform.