[Data-modeling] influence nodes are not always people

[Dan Milbrath]

How about art movements? Bauhaus was influenced by modernism. 
Dada influenced avante-garde and a variety of other movements. http://www.freebase.com/view/en/dada

We're calling it a node after all - can't it contain more than just people?






----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Cook" <robert at metaweb.com>
To: "Freebase data modeling mailing list" <data-modeling at freebase.com>
Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 6:25:06 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific
Subject: Re: [Data-modeling] influence nodes are not always people


Hmm. I'm not sure I agree that inanimate objects can't influence other things. I'm sure that Stonehenge has influenced architects, yet there is no person (a creator) that we could point to. Indeed, some works are collective and a single person can't really be described as the influence. 


I will agree that it would be hard to influence an inanimate object -- I think there your argument holds up. People or groups of people (such as a musical group) are influenced and that may affect their work, but the work itself can't be influenced on its own. 


R 



On Dec 13, 2008, at 2:26 AM, Iain Sproat wrote: 



-1 
I think person should remain as an included type. 
Inanimate objects and events cannot be influenced, only the people who create or participate in them. 


In your example it is actually Andy Warhol influenced Lou Reed et al of The Velvet Underground, who then presumably influenced Anton Fier et al of The Feelies. 


As another example Ukraine's Orange revolution is often stated as being influenced by Georgia's Rose revolution , but in reality it is Viktor Yushenko and his followers who were influenced by the likes of Givi Targamadze and others. 


It no doubt makes querying slightly more complicated, but taking the people-centric view correctly attributes influences to the people involved. 


On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 6:12 AM, Dan Milbrath < dmilbrath at metaweb.com > wrote: 


see: http://www.freebase.com/type/schema/influence/influence_node 

It seems like we've gone to some length name the influence node type in a pretty general way, so it strikes me as odd that we've asserted that people/person is an included type on it. 

Why not use influence node on other things like musical artists, political events or art movements. For instance, I might want to assert that Andy Warhol influenced Velvet Underground who influenced the Feelies. 

What do people think about removing person as an included type? 

_______________________________________________ 
Data-modeling mailing list 
Data-modeling at freebase.com 
http://lists.freebase.com/mailman/listinfo/data-modeling 

_______________________________________________ 
Data-modeling mailing list 
Data-modeling at freebase.com 
http://lists.freebase.com/mailman/listinfo/data-modeling 


_______________________________________________
Data-modeling mailing list
Data-modeling at freebase.com
http://lists.freebase.com/mailman/listinfo/data-modeling