mikelove

Yale University: yale college and yale university?

2008-07-24T14:54:09.0000Z

Wikipedia tends to classify by the broadest institution, so there are a lot of actors associated with Yale University instead of the drama school. I think it's fine that we start with the lower-precision classification and as data becomes available, replace it with the more specific.

Apple Inc.: What will be the next bullet of Apple Inc.

2008-07-24T14:32:34.0012Z

this is the interesting questions, I also wondering what would be the next bullet of Apple

Apple Inc.: What will be the next bullet of Apple Inc.

2008-07-24T07:38:50.0017Z

Apple have bring 3G iphone to the market, any idea about what's the next bullet of Apple

United States: Removed "Official Language" and Liberty Dollar as form of Currency

2008-07-03T16:55:01.0005Z

Removed "Official Language" as per Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_the_United_States

Removed "Liberty Dollar" as it is not a currency in itself, but rather a unit of currency.

mikelove: Tshirt and data mob

2008-06-30T23:06:05.0000Z

I think the best thing to do is roll back influences if they don't affect the creative work of the influencee. There is a creative aspect to all the influence in the graph...scientists, writers, musicians, artists, etc. I think influence is observed in the works created by the influencee. I think the checking of influences to make sure it's more than "I feel inspired by this historical figure" needs to be done by a community, similar to Wikipedia's high bar for "encyclopedic content".

United States: Liberty Dollar

2008-06-27T16:52:19.0005Z

I don't know that this can be rightfully linked as a form of currency inside the US as it is not recognized by the Federal government.

By the same token, the United States has no official language, although English is the predominant language.

mikelove: Tshirt and data mob

2008-06-23T20:49:52.0000Z

Ae you going to set something uncomplicated up Mike?

Influence: Relationship

2008-06-22T16:52:54.0012Z

Can you explain more?

Influence: Adding influences

2008-06-22T16:52:24.0000Z

There has been some discussion here...

http://freebase.com/discuss/threads/user/mikelove#/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000008611163

...about how to filter only notable people for the applications running on Influence data. We want to allow people to add their influences, but at the same time keep the historical data clean. Wikipedia has it's set of policies around what qualifies as an article. Maybe influence should have an attribute that signals if the person is notable.

Generally, we want influence relationships implying a significant influence on a person's work - not just an interest or an inspiritational figure.

mikelove: Tshirt and data mob

2008-06-22T16:46:09.0012Z

I agree that we do have to filter somehow, and hopefully in a way that is not too complicated. Maybe a 'notable person' attribute.

Influence: Relationship

2008-06-20T22:40:17.0012Z

Is there a topic or a blog for starting a relationship?

mikelove: Tshirt and data mob

2008-06-14T22:16:48.0000Z

Good morning

I just noticed the data mob around the Influence domain initiative, and I find it problematic for application like the influence viewer I wrote.

If half of the person in the graph become "basically unknown" person who feel inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche and alike then it will become quite pain browsing the graph in the search of historical figures and their influneces, since who want for example find me being influenced by Nagarjuna if the user is interested in the influences among Buddhist masters.

I would suggest to introduce some kind of flag attribute indicating which influence node was or is a historical or present figure with some level of publicity to be able to filter for this subgraph most people might be interested in.

The other maybe more clean idea which pops up in my mind would be to declare influence person to be a person who has gained some degree of publicity (or degree of more substantial influence or ...) either now or in the historical context and define influence as a relation between person in general (without having to be an influence node”

just me first ideas, curious what you think about this issue

cheers

martin

mikelove: Tshirt and data mob

2008-06-13T18:09:26.0007Z

Yeah, I agree re: significant influences but I'm not sure I agree about actual teachers/mentors if by that you mean people you've met personally. Take a look at mine and let me know what you think. I've listed a small set of people who I've never met but who have significantly affected my thinking, the way I live, or my creative expression.

Influence: Adding influences

2008-06-12T20:43:56.0005Z

A good way to get started adding influences is to spot missing connections from people already entered. Adding a connection will automatically type the added person as an 'influence node' if they are not typed already.

Martin Dudek's visualization is good for clicking around the graph quickly:

http://goosebumps4all.net/goi/

mikelove: Tshirt and data mob

2008-06-12T20:35:58.0007Z

Sounds good. My only suggestion would be to have people list their actual teachers/mentors or otherwise people that significantly influenced their life work, as opposed to "I really enjoyed reading Jane Doe in college, so I will list her as an influence." What do you think?

mikelove: Tshirt and data mob

2008-06-12T18:39:27.0005Z

Hey, two things.

1) Do you have a Freebase tshirt yet? If not I'd love to send you one. Please let me know your size and postal address by email to kirrily@metaweb.com

2) I'm thinking of doing a data mob around the Influence domain, getting people to enter themselves and who they were influenced by, and then up the tree as far as they can manage. Just wanted to give you a heads-up.

Kirrily Robert: You used to work for realestate.com.au?

2008-06-12T00:54:31.0007Z

I know a bunch of people at REA but what did you want to contact them for? Mostly I knew people who worked in the web development/technology side of things. Drop me an email if you like -- skud@infotrope.net is my personal email addy.

Influence Node: Influences, positive and negative

2008-06-11T20:44:55.0022Z

So in the dataset I first uploaded, I included negative influence as just influence - partly to simplify the project and keep the barrier to entry low enough that it would actually get contributions. There are lots of degrees of influence, but I would err on the side of simplicity so it's easy for people to get going.

I think it's also fair to say David Hume influences Kant, Plato influences Aristotle, or Hegel influences Karl Marx, although the latter in the pair is in many ways rebelling against the core arguments of the former.

Kirrily Robert: You used to work for realestate.com.au?

2008-06-07T19:48:44.0005Z

Neat stuff!

As a work related thing; I don't suppose you'd know any names worth contacting there? My workplace frequently sends out valuers to properties, and getting information ahead of time would be useful to them.

HAT-P-2 b: Wrong name: should be HAT-P-2 b

2008-06-02T16:26:12.0000Z

No, do not delete, merge other topic to this...

HAT-P-2 b: Wrong name: should be HAT-P-2 b

2008-06-02T13:10:57.0005Z

Please see HAT-P-2 b instead

Daniel Libeskind: Merge two instances of Daniel Libeskind

2008-05-27T07:39:12.0012Z

Same person. Merge please.

Ian Collins: influences

2008-05-15T18:21:48.0012Z

no offense with removing the Influence links. they just have to be people, not things. Robert Cook and others are working on a favorite things app...

P.D.Q. Bach: Should be split into two topics

2008-05-05T22:04:19.0005Z

One for the person:

Peter Schickele

One for the Fictional Person:

P. D. Q. Bach

Peer Relationship: Problem Querying for Peers

2008-05-04T23:30:20.0007Z

James,

The thing at the end of a peers property is not a Person, and so that query finds no matches. If you query:

"peers":[{"type":null}]

you will see that the object there is one of these Peer Relationships with which this discussion is associated. To find the people in that relationship, you will need to do a query like:

"peers":[{"peers":[{

"type":"/people/person",

"name":null,

"date_of_birth":null

}]}]

That will find all of the participants in all of the peer relationships. However, as the discussion of spouse relationships on the Person type mentions, you will get Ezra Pound as a participant in each of these relationships, and will probably need to filter him out in whatever view you are creating.

Peer Relationship: Problem Querying for Peers

2008-05-04T22:31:56.0005Z

I get back 200 OK status but no data.

Sample query:

{
  "query" : [
    {
      "id" : null,
      "name" : "Ezra Pound",
      "peers" : [
        {
          "date_of_birth" : null,
          "id" : null,
          "limit" : 5,
          "name" : null,
          "type" : "/people/person"
        }
      ],
      "type" : "/influence/influence_node"
    }
  ]
}

Bernd and Hilla Becher: Should be two people...

2008-05-02T06:26:37.0012Z

and merged with Bernd and Hilla Becher as well. Although I get the impression that they might have acted like one visual artist... should the visual artist be re-typed as an organization, rather than split in two?

Academic Library: Thanks for creating this type!

2008-05-01T18:02:28.0007Z

Yes, I think we shoudl probably model it on how hte public libraries work: Academic Library System (with associated institution), which has associated Academic Libraries.

Academic Library: Thanks for creating this type!

2008-05-01T15:26:38.0000Z

I'd like to see a field for linking it to the affiliated academic institution. A complexity that needs to be addressed is that on many university campuses, there are a number of different libraries, each of which may have its own name. I'd recommend that there be topics for each library on campus and field that links to the overall library system topic page and a field that links to the affiliated academic institution.

I'd do this myself, but I have no clue how to.

Academic Library: Thanks for creating this type!

2008-04-18T18:24:30.0012Z

Thanks so much for creating this type. I've added a couple of topics: the Bodleian Library and Baillieu Library at the University of Melbourne.

Can we help you at all with building this out a bit further? We could add properties for collection size, affiliated academic institution, etc. And then I think we'd probably like to promote it into /library if you'd be interested in that.

Yale University: yale college and yale university?

2008-03-27T22:13:29.0017Z

Or, I suppose you could argue that everyone should be linked to the University itself, but I think that's less useful in the long run (if I'm interested in directors who went to the Yale School of Drama, I'd rather query that than to have to filter Yale Univ. grads by degree [MFA] and field of study [directing, drama, acting, etc.]).

Yale University: yale college and yale university?

2008-03-27T22:10:34.0022Z

It does complicate queries, it's true. Ideally everyone would be linked to the school they graduated from. That said, it's useful to be able to say that someone graduated from Yale University, even if you don't know which school they attended.

Yale University: yale college and yale university?

2008-03-27T21:26:57.0012Z

This is the case, although it complicates queries. Also, many alumni are linked to the university even though they attended Yale College.

Yale University: yale college and yale university?

2008-02-14T23:16:00.0007Z

As near as I can tell, Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University, and should therefore be made a constituent school of Yale, along with Yale Law School, Yale School of Drama, etc., which I've now done.

Yale University: yale college and yale university?

2008-02-14T21:56:01.0012Z

shouldn't these two be merged?

-chris

Influence Node: Influences, positive and negative

2008-02-04T14:15:56.0012Z

This is a completely fascinating and powerful collaborative learning tool, and Mike deserves huge credit for getting the ball rolling.

I'd like to think aloud a bit about 'negative' influences, and see what anyone else thinks on this subject. It seems to me that when we refer to influences in a philosophical context, for example, it's generally assumed that we're talking about positive influences, ie.one or more aspects of a known party-of-the-first point of view that end up being utilised or subsumed or in some other fashion became incorporated into the expressed thought of the party-of-the-second. Correct?

However, negative influences can be equally important, in that critical examination and subsequent rejection on stated or unstated grounds very often plays a vital role in determining the subsequent direction of an influencee's thinking and conclusions. These negative influences can be well known, buried in footnotes, or, sometimes, inferred with some degree of confidence.

So, my question is, do negative influences legitimately belong in Mikes influence type, as conceived by him and as utilized by this type's rapid expansion in use? Or does 'influence' require two explicit types, positive and negative? Any thoughts?

St. Louis: The Dubliner

2007-11-28T08:04:56.0037Z

Hi Glenn,

Perhaps you might like to take a look at the Dining domain here on Freebase. There are already a few restaurants called the Dubliner, but none of them seem to be the one in St Louis. You could add it to the Restaurant type if you wanted.

St. Louis: The Dubliner

2007-11-28T05:08:00.0046Z

THE DUBLINER is an authentic European Gastropub serving high quality Irish inspired food. Traditional Irish ingredients are used in combination with locally produced lamb, chickens, vegetables and fruit. As with the chefs in Ireland, sustainable food sources are at the forefront. The menu is varied both in price and substance.

Owner Eddie Neil says "The Dubliner is a great place for a quick lunch, a snack with a pint or dinner with wine. Have your guests enjoy our hospitality in one of our private party rooms. Sports at The Dublinerﾠareﾠa combination of Irish/World and American events.

Our entertainment consists of original Live Irish Musicﾠ in "The Leinster Room" andﾠTheather Nightsﾠin "The Dublin Room". Play a game of billiards or darts with your friends and have "The Best Pint In Town"!

Influence Node: influence vs. refers to (it would make sense to reverse the link direction)

2007-08-23T10:03:39.0005Z

The concepts of 'school' or 'tradition' own a decisive advantage over the concept of influence, as they do not imply a direction of the link.
Infuence implies that a dead person, say Leonardo da Vinci, actively acts on a living person, say Andy Warhol.
In reality the relation points to the past in all cases. Andy Warhol 'refers to' Leonardo da Vinci instead of being activly 'influenced' by the dead artist.
This distinction between 'influence' and different forms of 'refering to' as well as it's implications have been discussed very strikingly by Michael Baxandall in his 'Excursion against Influence', which can be found in his 1985 book 'Patterns of Intention' pp. 58-61.
Functionally the difference between 'influencing' and 'refering to' is equivalent to the difference between 'bibliometric coupling' and 'co-citation' in the field of Bibliometrics. Whereas 'influence' implies a static actor in the past, modern day 'reference' alters our image of the past actor.
A classic example would be 9/11: By refering to films-scenes where high-rise buildings are burning or destroyed, the terrorists changed our perception of films like 'The Fight Club' or 'Die Hard' forever. By 'refering to' the films they changed our perception of the past. On the other hand it would not make sense to sue one of the directors for 'influencing' the terrorists.

Answers to FF Questions

2007-08-22T21:31:40.0012Z

Hi Dan,

I need to use my own type for Fantasy Football positions for a couple of reasons.

1. Each league will have a different number of sets of positions to choose from, and they may or may not map to a position on the /american_football/football_position type. For example, there are Team Quarterbacks, Team Kickers, and Defensive Units that are FF positions, but not American Football positions. In addition, you have two Quarterback positions which can only be distinguished by ID, since there is no offense or defense property. Also, some leagues use Wide Receiver and Tight Ends as distinct positions, while others may use Receiver as a combination of the two. In any case, the Football Position needs to be distinct from the Fantasy Football position.

2. When enumerating types in scripts, I want to be able to control what returns in queries. I can do that with a private type, but not a public type.

As for teams, NFL_Team uses your /american_football/football_team as its type and is definitely redundant with the /football_roster_position/team field. As I mentioned however, redundancy has cause problems with writing to and reading from this subfield and so I added it to my type for simplicity. At this point, it could be eliminated.

As for stats, my only source is TheHuddle.com, as we discussed, and only for projections. Ideally, the Statistic fields would get populated by an XML pull from NFL.com and the projections would be an aggregate of moderated community submissions. I have no knowledge of an XML feed of NFL stats, but would love to locate one. The structure of your source data will likely dictate the actual stats you'd track, and thus structure of the Statistic instances I'd use to record the data, but they'd certainly map to NFL Week, NFL Season, and Player. You'd also want to keep a record of Opponent and Stadium where the stats were compiled.

As for the aggregation of community projections, that's a worthy project in itself and outside my project's current scope.

Influence Node: School/Tradition from Wikipedia

2007-08-22T16:57:36.0005Z

I tried do adopt the school/tradition field from Wikipedia by creating my own type. I hope this might be usefull and will be used in the genealogy!

Noticed you loading football data...

2007-08-20T05:06:56.0004Z

still trying to get my head around what you're doing here -- you're thinking that fantasy football rosters would be good to store in Freebase? Interesting. Can't say we really anticipated it being used for that kind of data.

Re your schemas - wondering why you're inputing player's teams in your own type when the current team and position field already exists on the football player type? It appears that much of this data is redundant?

Also, if you're defining and loading historical stats - i'd like to work with you on the best way to model that - its pretty complicated to get right. What is your source for data? Thanks,
Dan (danm)