Freebase: Discussion about Organization

Laupheim Jewish Community: I'm confused

2009-11-16T08:30:59.0014Z

In my opinion, it would be very useful to include the organization type into the religious organization type (there was a discussion about that in 07/2007 http://www.freebase.com/discuss/threads/guid/9202a8c04000641f80000000054d649c?domain=/religion) and then to delete all duplicate properties, like headquarters/adress, parent organization/is member of, sub-organization/member organization. I would also delete the building property in religious organization, if the organization type is included, because the headquarter property can directly link to the organization's (main) building.

Organization: Dated Headquarter

2009-11-15T11:05:41.0003Z

I just recognized, that it is possible to add dates to the "places lived property" (I did that for my profile a few month ago ;))

Organization: Dated Headquarter

2009-11-14T19:34:35.0013Z

Yes, indeed. Most of the organizations, I would like to add, do not exist anymore. Most of them, like the World Zionist Organization (which still exists) (http://www.freebase.com/view/en/world_zionist_organization), changed their headquarters a few times.

I think (also for future editing) it is much better to have the possibility to add dates to such properties ( another example is person_places_lived), in general. Because otherwise you have to delete data (which might be important for many people) erverytime when e.g. headquaters will change. What do you think?

best regards,

Frank

Laupheim Jewish Community: I'm confused

2009-11-13T21:14:35.0000Z

I'd say the Jewish Community topics should be Religious Organizations. If you need to express some properties not on the Religious Organization or Organization types, speak up -- Religious Organization hasn't been used a whole lot, yet, so might need improvements.

Organization: Dated Headquarter

2009-11-13T21:10:13.0006Z

We could do it, although it would be a major change which would break any apps using this data. Both the Company and Organization types assume "current headquarters" currently -- do you have a strong need for historical headquarters data?

Organization: Dated Headquarter

2009-11-12T16:03:24.0039Z

Is there a possibility to add a date (from until) to the headquarter property?

Laupheim Jewish Community: I'm confused

2009-11-12T11:15:13.0045Z

In general, I think the community decision is that we should delete topics like "History of X" and the like: it's better to link (for example) a book about the history of Microsoft to both the "history" and "Microsoft" topics rather than just to a "history of Microsoft" topic. That makes it much easier to search for all books about Microsoft, and you can still search for books about the history of Microsoft by requiring that both terms be present.

Laupheim Jewish Community: I'm confused

2009-11-12T10:04:54.0021Z

I agree with you that the history of sth. is not the same as the thing itself. I just rename 2 or three “history of the jews in” topics to keep the topic, because the were marked for deletion. (In general I think it is better to keep most of these “sth. of” topics, because they are at least subject of books, study fields etc.). I agree with you also the in the second point. What do you would like recommend to do with the Jewish Community topics?

Frank

Laupheim Jewish Community: I'm confused

2009-11-11T23:08:58.0025Z

OK, I think there are two issues here -- one is whether it's correct to repurpose "History of Jews in X" for "X Jewish Community" topics, and the other is how to model Jewish communities.

I agree with Tom that "History" topics really aren't the same -- the history of the Jews of a place is necessarily different than the religious organization that comprises or serves the Jews of that place, since communities (I'm assuming that this is similar or the same as a kehilla) might split or merge as the population changes, etc. The Jewish Community of Berlin, for example, was formed in 1671, several centuries after the first Jews arrived in Berlin. The other thing here, too, is that the WP keys will remain, and may be used by various entities for reconciliation, which might cause for some unwanted behavior (if someone was trying to assert "History of Jews in Berlin" as a book subject, say, based on a link in a Wikipedia article, but ended up with "Jewish Community of Berlin" instead because we repurposed the topic).
In general, a jurisdiction and an organization can't be the same thing. We talked about this when we created the Religious Jurisdiction type here, in which we determined that the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Francisco (a location that covers a fair chunk of California) and the organization which oversees operations within the diocese should be separate.

Laupheim Jewish Community: I'm confused

2009-11-11T09:45:41.0030Z

Hi,

I think I understand what your are meaning. Maybe it makes more sense for you to type Jewish Communities as religious jurisdictions? (I think, you can type them as both “organization” and “jurisdiction”, but I also agree that this might confuse. I already gave the example of the Jewish Community in Berlin http://www.jg-berlin.org/en/about-us/organisational-structure.html) Is there a possible to change the type from religious organization to jurisdicticion by using an app?

Laupheim Jewish Community: I'm confused

2009-11-11T07:32:49.0010Z

[adding Frank so he sees this thread]

I don't think repurposing topics in this way is a good idea. It's one thing if the Wikipedia definition gradually drifts and Freebase follows along, but to take an existing topic about one thing and use it for something entirely different will just cause confusion.

If a community topic is needed, it shouled be created separately. I also don't understand the typing with Religious Organization. I would have thought that that applied to the rabbis and their heirarchy, not a collection of townfolk who go to a particular temple (or all temples).

Laupheim Jewish Community: I'm confused

2009-11-10T01:03:46.0048Z

I'm not quite sure what to make of this topic. It was originally a Wikipedia topic called "History of the Jews in Laupheim" (which article is still in Wikipedia under that name), but has been renamed, and typed as an Organization. I guess there are two issues here. One is whether repurposing an article imported from Wikipedia such as a "History of X" or "Economy of X", etc. into a topic about the "X" part of the name is desirable, or whether new topics should be created. The other is whether this topic makes sense as a Religious Organization/Organization, which I'm not sure about.