alexander

Music: dates and location of composition

2008-09-06T18:19:09.0012Z

and some more ideas:

to whom the composition was dedicated is often interesting.

who (person, or sometimes entity such as the san francisco opera) commisioned the work is also often interesting.

location, date, and performer of the premeir is also often interesting.

Music: dates and location of composition

2008-09-06T18:14:53.0018Z

can we add dates for when a work was composed (start, end)? i'd like to start building timeline visualizations of this. this is particularly applicable to classical music but could be generally useful. for instance a timeline of brahms's symphonys (it took him ~14 years to write it because he felt so pressured coming after beethoven's 9th).

secondly - place composed (probably non unique) would be interesting for mapping the works composed. for example - dvorak's new world symphony and american string quartet, and mapping liszt's travels. in general there's quite a lot of data on location composed particularly for classical music that we could easily structure.

thirdly - and this is more complicated, at least for classical music, we should capture the catalog ID - which for many composers is an opus, number combination, but for mozart it was K for Ludwig Ritter von Köchel and haydn and bach also had their own thing.

fourthly - we should also capture key for classical compositions.

Jack Lewis: Jack Lewis disambiguation

2008-09-06T16:38:38.0017Z

The link to wiki in this article refers to Lord Jack Lewis, a British chemist born in 1928. I'm guessing that this is a different Jack Lewis than the filmwriter and the musician. Anyway to correct the links and delete the incorrect types from this entry?

John T. Casteen III: Duplicate topic

2008-09-06T09:07:58.0017Z

exactly the same. Pls merge info and delete the latter.

Songwriter: Songs composed

2008-09-06T04:30:39.0012Z

Yes, I see your point, but it looks UGLY. Is there a way, then, of getting rid of the "Songwriter" from the page? If we cannot use it, it is better not to have it there at all. Why keep useless things? Please have a look at Cage, his page could look REALLY good if it was not for these 2 empty boxes.

Philosophy: some thoughts on new philosophy types

2008-09-06T03:57:05.0012Z

Okay. I've shuffled things around such that Philosophical Movement is replaced by School of Thought. Movement was full of junk, though (it was originally just called Philosophy), so the new type needs to be populated. I'm still not completely sure of what it means. It certainly includes Frankurt School, but I'm not sure if it includes Western Marxism -- which seems like a looser grouping. Any thoughts?

Songwriter: Songs composed

2008-09-05T21:47:51.0012Z

The Lyricist type has the property “Lyrics Written.”

Some types, like Songwriter, are only used to classify topics, and have no properties of their own. We generally try to avoid them, but Songwriter was added to the system early on.

As I said in our earlier discussion, the notion of which compositions are songs and which are not is too subjective to easily divide. Many people regard Cage as a cutting-edge composer, and would consider calling his compositions “songs” dismissive. Rather than provoke edit wars, it is simpler to regard all musical compositions equally in Freebase.

alexander: Hey let me know what you think about my assertion modeling kit

2008-09-05T19:00:42.0017Z

http://www.freebase.com/view/user/avic/assertion_modeling_kit

alexander: Hey let me know what you think about my assertion modeling kit

2008-09-05T19:00:42.0017Z

http://www.freebase.com/view/user/avic/assertion_modeling_kit

Songwriter: Songs composed

2008-09-05T17:17:07.0012Z

Good morning, Cris, did you see my 3 wonderful philosophers on the front page today??

Sure, I can do that, but it is not nice to have empty spaces on the page. Look at Cage, please, what is the use of the "Songwriter" "Lyricist" boxes if we cannot put anything in them? It simply does not look good. Cage wrote songs...

Songwriter: Songs composed

2008-09-05T16:11:46.0012Z

He has the Songwriter type, which as I said before is a shorthand for both Composer and Lyricist. Songwriter has no properties of its own.

He also has the Composer type with several “Works Composed” already entered. You can add to that list.

Songwriter: Songs composed

2008-09-05T05:41:45.0012Z

... then why does John Cage have the "Song composer" type without anything on it??

Songwriter: Songs composed

2008-09-05T04:32:42.0012Z

Please use the “Works Composed” property of the Composer type.

Songwriter: Songs composed

2008-09-05T03:52:57.0018Z

Cris, please give us "Songs composed," I need it for John Cage. Thank you

Philosophy: some thoughts on new philosophy types

2008-09-04T23:50:13.0012Z

Fair points. I noticed that X Subject is a fairly standard type (quotation subject, book subject, etc.) so that seems like a useful adition.

If a your idea of the philosophical movement type requires a commitment to a set of beliefs, then it sounds more like an ideology. I guess it would be useful to identify a family of beleifs that a group of thinkers have adopted. I think School of Thought or Philosophical School of Thought would be a better name for what you describe than philosophical movement.

Good luck with the Wikipedia inport!

Philosophy: some thoughts on new philosophy types

2008-09-04T21:37:20.0012Z

All of the types I recently created were designed to reflect the relationships found in the Wikipedia Philosopher infobox. I'm working on importing all of that data, although the semantics have turned out to be very blurry, so I might have to rethink it.

On your points:

- Philosopher is already a profession topic, but a dedicated type is needed simply to hold the relevant properties. Also, not all Philosophers are professional philosophers, so there is a semantic difference between those two assertions.

- Philosophical Subject is intended to be very broad, and it could include things that aren't necessarily "disciplines" within Philosophy.

- Influence Nodes are strictly people, so there is no overlap there. I'm not sure about overlap with Field of Study either. For instance, I think of Philosophy of Mind as a Field of Study, but not as a Movement. A Movement (by which I mean a school, tradition of thought, etc.) should have a set of specific beliefs attached to it.

Philosophy: some thoughts on new philosophy types

2008-09-04T05:24:42.0017Z

I'm all for creating good philosophy types but we need to avoid duplicating types that already exist.

-Philosopher already exists as a career type.

-How does your type philosophical subject differ making a topic as a sub-discipline of philosophy using the subdiscipline property of the feild of study type? (the sub-discipline property is new).

-philosophical movement seems to duplicate some parts of feild of study and some parts of influence node.

I'll think some more about this. Right now I'm working on my statement builder which allows logical modelling of statements. I'll make that domain public soon once it's in better shape.

Lindsay Lohan: Incorrect Wikipedia abstract

2008-09-04T00:28:01.0012Z

Thanks. This is a known issue that should get fixed in the next wikipedia cycle. Basically, Lindsay got her mom's name as a /wikipedia/en key somewhere along the way. This, plus a non-wikipedia derived topic for Dina, caused the topic updater to put the wrong blurb on Lindsay.

I'm patching the underlying data now; it should auto-resolve after the next cycle.

Lindsay Lohan: And Dina Lohan has no description

2008-09-03T23:18:40.0012Z

Cross-posting to Dina Lohan.

Lindsay Lohan: And Dina Lohan has no description

2008-09-03T23:17:30.0012Z

Thanks for noticing - we'll investigate

Lindsay Lohan: Incorrect Wikipedia abstract

2008-09-03T23:16:45.0012Z

Thanks for noticing - we'll investigate.

Lindsay Lohan: And Dina Lohan has no description

2008-09-03T22:22:10.0010Z

I just checked the mother's FB topic, and she has no Wikipedia abstract at all.

Lindsay Lohan: Incorrect Wikipedia abstract

2008-09-03T22:21:01.0005Z

The article from Wikipedia relates to Lindsay's mother, not Lindsay

Philosophy: Philosophical idea

2008-09-03T21:23:10.0012Z

Hi Avi -- thanks for getting involved in this domain. I haven't touched it for months, but you've inspired me to start expanding it out.

I'm not sure if Philosophical Problem is a useful distinction to maintain. Are there any properties it might have that wouldn't apply to Ideas in general? Or is a Problem the same as a Debate or Argument?

Philosophy: Philosophical idea

2008-09-03T21:13:39.0017Z

I created a type Philosophical Problem, do you think this is redundant given philosophical idea? Also, why don't you add a property to philosophical idea linking it to a feild of study. Most of the philosophy subdiciplines have are available as feilds of study. That way you could lable, for example, the chinese room, as relevant to philosophy of mind.

alexander: Arguments and argument mapping

2008-09-03T20:51:40.0012Z

I think the best way to procede with argument mapping would be to develop some basic types for predicates, sentential connectives, quantifiers and so on any then let them be nested to build up bigger propositions. The problem with this is that I don't know if the views in Freebase allow one to show nested links all on the same page.

alexander: Arguments and argument mapping

2008-09-03T20:51:40.0012Z

Hearst Corporation: Hearst Corp vs Hearst Communications

2008-09-03T19:34:58.0012Z

Too many don't get the difference between subsidiaries and parent companies, even here at work. Or between divisions/brands and subsidiaries. Ah, the fun of corporate hierarchies!

Hearst Corporation: Hearst Corp vs Hearst Communications

2008-09-03T17:51:45.0012Z

I say go for it. Create the topic for Hearst Communications, and add it as a subsidiary to Hearst Corp. The WP articles for companies frequently fail to clearly distinguish between companies and subsidiaries, but since the article is primarily about Hearst Corp., I think just creating fresh topic for Hearst Comm. will work fine.

Hearst Corporation: Hearst Corp vs Hearst Communications

2008-09-03T16:33:27.0017Z

This wiki topic is titled Hearst Corporation however the text references Hearst Communications Inc.

Hearst Corp has many subsidiaries that are not directly related to Hearst Communications, like Hearst Broadcasting, The National Magazine Company, etc.

Therefore, I think Hearst Corp and Hearst Communications Inc should be two separate topics.

Craig Payne: Wanderlust

2008-09-02T05:58:28.0015Z

Wanderlust is Craig's 5th album and features 12 new original guitar instrumentals. The title track was written by Sir Paul McCartney and featured on the "Tug Of War" album in 1982.

Samples available on Myspace and at www.craigpaynemusic.com

Ethics: Data on ethics cases / thought experiements

2008-09-02T01:12:53.0018Z

The contemporary ethics literature is full of thought experiments that are used to support various moral claims. As far as I know there is no database or index which catalogues these ethics cases and the uses to which they are put. It would be a big help to philosophy students and moral theorists to have this kind of a data available in a powerfully searchable format.

Darkhorse: [silence] tracks?

2008-09-01T20:31:04.0012Z

See the blurb for the clue: "(Tracks 12 to 22 and 24 to 31 are blank)"

A practice by some musicians to 'hide' unlisted songs at the end of the CD play, particularly annoying when user only has an advance forwards/backwards buttons on the cd-player and there are dozens of silent tracks between the next to last and the "hidden" track.

Darkhorse: [silence] tracks?

2008-08-30T18:29:44.0005Z

How come there are multiple tracks named [silence]?

Conductor: Orchestras conducted

2008-08-30T10:53:22.0011Z

Cris, please, we need "Orchestras conducted." Thank you

Business: Company type

2008-08-29T16:22:47.0012Z

Well, I guess it depends on what we want to use it for. Do we want to use generic terms for multiple legal types, or do we want to be more specific.

For example, PLC is Public Limited Company. "Public limited company" could be used to cover all those types in various countries, or it could be for the specific Plc used in UK.

But unless you are intimately aware of what SA (Societe Anonyme) is, or use the Wiki page to see what approximate equiv is, then chances are no one is going to use this field (at least for "harder" ones). I deal with company names all the time, so I'm familiar with Oyj, AG, KgaA, etc, but I don't know what they translate to.

Either way we're missing values. If we keep the "generic" route, then we (I) should comb through the wiki page and identify the big ones we're missing, like "Limited Partnership with Shares" (for SCA & KgaA, for example). Though I'm not sure if all can be mapped (like KK, which is common in Japan, though I think it is usually seen as Co Ltd).

So I think we need to figure out what direction we want to take, generic or country specific, and I don't think either is an easy answer (either you have a long list of specifics or a hard to determine list of generics).

Business: Company type

2008-08-29T15:20:31.0012Z

Enumerated types like Company Type aren’t locked, they’re just a little harder to add to, in order to discourage accidental proliferation. Additions must be made through the query editor or some other way that isn’t the client. We do encourage you to discuss the proposed additions with the community first, though, to avoid edit wars on high-profile types. What specific instances do you think are conspicuously missing?

Business: Company type

2008-08-29T14:00:35.0017Z

Why is Company Type locked? There are many legal structures of companies, and even state-owned enterprises. But very few are listed here. Is there a particular reason for this? If so, it would be good to have that documented so those of us filling in company information know how ot complete this field. Thanks

Music: Concert Hall

2008-08-28T22:54:42.0001Z

Ok, thank you

Music: Concert Hall

2008-08-28T20:54:28.0012Z

Go ahead and create a type in your own domain, then, as a prototype. We have generally eschewed types in the Commons that have no properties, but it is possible that your type will evolve. I would recommend that you include Structure and Location in your type.

Music: Concert Hall

2008-08-28T20:13:33.0012Z

I am not thinking of any new properties, I only need the list at the moment

Music: Concert Hall

2008-08-28T19:25:00.0012Z

Take a look at Micah’s draft Performance Venue type and Robert’s draft Performance venue as well. A concert hall is a kind of performance venue; what additional properties would it need that these Performance venue types don’t have?

Music: Concert Hall

2008-08-28T17:47:05.0005Z

Cris,

we need the "Concert Hall" Type and a list of concert halls, please. There are practically hundreds of them in the world

Composer: Works composed

2008-08-28T00:07:15.0000Z

Why can't we have "Songwriter" with "Songs composed"? It makes sense and we need it

Composer: Works composed

2008-08-27T20:21:08.0012Z

Currently, Songwriter has no properties of its own. It is a convenience type which includes Composer (with “Works composed”) and Lyricist (with “Lyrics written”), as well as Person (with all its properties).

Composer: Works composed

2008-08-27T19:13:40.0012Z

Alright, I see your point. So what do we have now?

Songwriter with Songs composed and

Composer with Works composed ?

If so, then everything is fine

Composer: Works composed

2008-08-27T18:39:57.0012Z

But Billy Joel has composed classical music. So has Paul McCartney. It doesn’t make sense to shoehorn their classical compositions into a song bucket just because most of their work has been songs.

Composer: Works composed

2008-08-27T17:58:30.0005Z

I did not mean to separate the songs from the works "within" the same composer! I wanted to keep Billy Joel and Schubert separately!!

"Songs composed" = Billy

"Works composed" = Schubert

That's why we need both categories

Composer: Arranger

2008-08-27T17:51:09.0012Z

That's correct, thank you!

Composer: Works composed

2008-08-27T17:41:55.0012Z

I disagree pretty strongly. Artistic judgments, particularly judgments of quality (when does a mere song rise to the level of composition?) are so very subjective as to invite edit wars. We have the Songwriter type with which a Composer can be co-typed if appropriate. But segregating the works—are Schubert’s Lieder songs, or compositions? And what about career songwriters like Billy Joel or Paul McCartney who start writing classical compositions late in life?