[Data-modeling] Should some of the Person attributes be moved to Organism?

[Peter Burns]

I was looking at the recently created type Organism:
http://www.freebase.com/view/filter/biology/organism

It occurs to me that a number of the attributes of Person are more
appropriate for Organism to contain.  Specifically, Buddy the dog is Male,
was born in 1997 in Caroline County, Maryland, etc.

Even in the broadest sense of Organism, these properties make sense.  All
organisms have reproductive mechanisms, so a sex field is appropriate, (the
asexuality of an amoeba and the hermaphrodism of an earthworm are both
interesting data points to capture).  I think it's true that organisms have
a 'birth' date as well.

Furthermore, if these properties are on Organism, then should they be
removed from Person?  If an entity has two types that both contain the same
property, freebase.com will display both, which results in some ugly
duplication.  Example (look for license at the bottom of the sidebar, and in
the 'main' properties listing): http://www.freebase.com/view/ruby_on_rails

On the other hand, at the user group on Wednesday, Jamie cautioned budding
data modelers from creating super-general types like "legal entity,"
(anything that can own property).


-Peter
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