Main Page

Introduction

This site is a space for the collaborative development and articulation of a social-ecological systems (SES) framework. This site is one of several that are attempting to facilitate common ground among social-ecological scholars. In particular, a complementary project is being run out of the Center for the Study of Institutional Diversity at Arizona State University: http://csid.asu.edu/socecolib.

This site is a semantic wiki. This means that it is a wiki, and thus is editable by anyone who has been granted access to the project. Wikis have now become an established method for knowledge management. This is an appropriate platform for the development and articulation of social-ecological concepts, which historically have suffered from a lack of consensus regarding their meanings.

A semantic wiki is essentially a wiki with a data structure behind it. This allows for a wiki to be queried the way a database might be. See this link [1]] for more information on semantic wikis. Go here [2] for information on how to use the software that runs this site.

You can discuss and comment on this site in the Discussion tab at the top of this page. Either start a new discussion or contribute to an existing one.

Structure of the site

There are several categories that are used in this site, instances of which comprise the data the site contains. Three of them have been implemented so far. These are: (1) concepts; (2) definitions; and (3) references. Figure 1 displays the relationship between these three categories, as well as those categories that have not yet been implemented. Definitions define concepts and are found in references. These references are in turn written by authors, and it would be possible to add pages for particular authors.

Figure 1: Semantic structure

Ultimately, it will be possible to add specific cases of social-ecological systems that are described in these references as well. These cases could then be queried based on the data that are ascribed to them. For example, a user could query a set of cases and produce a google maps output that displays the location of each case. Beyond simple querying, this website may be able to facilitate case-based reasoning to compare the different cases, and explore what the implications of their similarities and differences might be for prescriptions to novel cases.

A final category that may be useful is theories. We could then query the wiki to find which cases had supported or refuted which theories. A final step could be to express these theories semantically as well, which would represent an additional level of rigor and formalization over the natural language expression of many social-ecological theories. Ultimately the functionality of this site is in large part a result of what the users can envision for it.

Guide for browsing:

The left-hand sidebar serves as the navigation panel for this site. From it you can direct yourself to the primary pages of the wiki. These are the main page, The Background and Structure page, the concepts page, the definitions page, and the references page. You are currently at the main page.

The Background and Structure page contains several tabs that are designed to aid in the further development of the SES framework. One contains background on the SES framework, another contains a discussion of a basic ontology that could be applied to make the objects and relationships in the framework more clear, and the third contains a bibliography of studies that have empirically applied or other helped to develop the framework.

The concepts page contains the concepts that have so far been added that are relevant to a social-ecological system. While the capabilities of this site as a semantic wiki would enable a complex semantic structure to organize these concepts (such as adding data that states that one concept is a subclass of another), currently there is little formal structure added, as the first goal of this project is simply to populate this site with concepts and the most common definitions of these concepts from the literature.

As an example of the kind of structure that could be added, you can sort the concepts by the first-tier component with which they are associated. To do this, go to the "Browse data" link and click an the concepts tab. You will see a filter labeled "Tier 1 component" which will enable you to sort the concepts by the primary component from the SES framework with which they are associated.

Each concept can be associated with many definitions, and if you click on a concept and then click on the "Definitions" tab, you will see a list of one or more definitions. If you go to the definitions page, you will see a list of such definitions, each labeled with the name of the concept followed by the name of reference from which they came.

Finally, each definition is taken directly from a particular reference. If you go to the references page you will find a list of these references, labeled in a format you might expect to find in an in-text citation in a journal article.

Guide for contributing:

There are four main types of Members on this site. They are:

1. Administrators
2. Full contributors
3. Provisional contributors
4. Readers

The following text lists the rights and obligations of each role. Two distinctions are important to make: (1) between changes to the data on the site, vs. changes to the structure of the site, and (2) regular contributions vs. provisional contributions.

First, adding data to the site means adding an instance to one of the categories described above (e.g., adding a new definition). Generally this is less fundamental than changing the structure of the site, which is illustrated in the above figure. Changing the structure, by adding new categories or properties that relate categories or by altering existing ones, is much more fundamental, and can only be done by administrators. Contributors are welcome to suggest structural changes.

Second, a regular contribution is made directly on the website, and can only be done by a full contributor. A provisional contribution is done by emailing an administrator with a suggestion for a change (usually for an addition of new data), with the administrator then making the change to the website. When making contributions in the form of new definitions, both types of contributions must be accompanied by an email to an administrator that contains the PDF of the reference from which the definitions is taken.

Administrators

Rights:

1. Editing the content of every page on the site
2. Changing the structure of the site
3. Add new data to the site

Obligations:

1. Confer with other administrators before making structural changes, or editing the core pages of the site
2. Monitor the contributions of all other users

Full contributors

Rights:

1. Can make contributions to the definition category through the website
2. Can make provisional contributions to the remaining categories by emailing an administrator with a suggestion

Obligations

1. Must have made 10 successful provisional contributions to any category as a provisional contributor
2. Contributions must be accompanied by a PDF of the reference to facilitate checking, submitted to the administrators

Provisional contributors

Rights:

1. Can make provisional contributions to any category by emailing an administrator

Obligations:

1. Contributions must be accompanied by a PDF of the reference to facilitate checking, submitted to the administrators
2. Must have contacted on administrator and have a formal exchange regarding the nature of the site and their reasons for wanting to contribute

Readers

Rights:

1. Can read the content of the site*

• Indicates a right or obligation that is shared by the roles previously listed.