[Data-modeling] Proposed refactoring in the publishing domain

[Jeff Prucher]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com 
> [mailto:data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com] On Behalf Of Faye Li
> Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2007 6:12 PM
> To: Freebase data modeling mailing list
> Cc: 'For discussions about MQL,Freebase API and apps built on 
> Freebase'
> Subject: Re: [Data-modeling] Proposed refactoring in the 
> publishing domain
> 
> Is Written Work going to be a co-type for Published Work as well?

I suppose it could be, although it's theoretically possible that a published
work might not be a written work (say a musical score), but that's
definitely the minority case.

> I'd like to see the Authorship type solve the problem of 
> modeling pen names and pseudonyms. For example, "Quidditch 
> Through the Ages" is published under the author name 
> "Kennilworthy Whisp", and "Fantasic Beasts & Where to Find 
> Them" is published under the author name "Newt Scamander". 
> But of course it was J. K. Rowling who wrote both books and 
> holds the copyright for both.
>
> Ideally (i.e. a "nice to have") it would allow users to 
> specify this information at the edition level -- as writers, 
> completely unaware of data modeling implications, sometimes 
> change their print names between editions. The result is that 
> a book previously published anonymously or under a pseudonym 
> may bear the author's real name in a later edition.

Actually, I think this is essential to solving the pseudonym story. I think
we'll be able to do this using the types crism created for the music domain,
but I'll have to tackle that separately. My favorite use case for this sort
of thing is the fantasy writer who is most well known by his pseudonym
"Robert Jordan", who published several books under another pseudonym early
in his career; once he became well-known, these were re-issued under the
Jordan pseudonym.

Jeff

> 
> Jeff Prucher wrote:
> > There have been several requests made, over the last few months, to 
> > allow for more flexibility of attributing authorship and other 
> > contributions to written works, and also to add various 
> properties to 
> > a number of types in the publishing domain. Toward this end, I've 
> > created a new type, "written work" that will be an included type on 
> > all the various types that represent written works -- book, short 
> > story, poem, short non-fiction, review, and translation.
> >
> > The new type is currently on sandbox. I'd appreciate it if 
> anyone who 
> > is interested could take a look at it and let me know what 
> you think. 
> > Please look before Monday evening (Pacific Time), since 
> sandbox will 
> > be refreshed then.
> > http://sandbox.freebase.com/view/schema/book/written_work
> >
> > I've filled out the contents of the April 2007 issue of the 
> Magazine 
> > of Fantasy and Science Fiction as an example. Click the 
> various items 
> > in the contents property to see the type in action.
> > 
> http://sandbox.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f800000000514f951
> >
> > One feature is to treat authorship (or similar form of creative
> > contribution) as a compound value type which will allow for 
> multiple 
> > types of contribution to be recorded in the same property 
> and for all 
> > the disparate types of works to be listed together on the 
> contributors' pages.
> > Currently, author and editor are treated as separate properties; 
> > having a single property will allow Freebase to reconcile 
> more easily 
> > to other data-sources, which usually store these in the same field. 
> > This will also allow us to record books where the 
> illustrator is tied 
> > to the book itself, rather to individual editions (as in most 
> > children's picture books, but as opposed to, say, an 
> illustrated edition of Huckleberry Finn).
> > See 
> > 
> http://sandbox.freebase.com/view/guid/9202a8c04000641f8000000006c3521e
> > and http://sandbox.freebase.com/view/make_way_for_ducklings 
> for some 
> > further examples.
> >
> > Another of the new type is that a number of other properties can 
> > usefully be shared by all types of written works, rather than being 
> > distributed onto each. These properties are: original 
> language, date 
> > written, copyright date, date of first publication, and online 
> > versions. Others will probably arise, but this seems like a 
> good set to start with.
> >
> > (I'm copying the developers list in case anyone is writing an 
> > application using any of the publishing domain types.)
> >
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Jeff Prucher
> > Type Librarian & Ontologist
> > Metaweb
> >
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> >
> >   
> 
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