[Data-modeling] [Developers] Modeling question

[Robert Cook]

I've taken a couple stabs at modeling the abstract product type and  
eventually concluded that it should be very simple.  My latest straw  
man is in my "mobile phones" domain:

http://www.freebase.com/view/schema/user/robert/mobile_phones/product

The idea here is that products have a brand (as opposed to a  
manufacturer or producer) and different kinds of web resources such as  
support webpages and online reviews.  Obviously, this is intended for  
a tangible product and not a service, which I think could be handled  
with the "Product service"/"Service brand" pairing.

My rule of thumb is if a type is very general, then it should be  
simple and have few properties.

My mobile phone type includes the product type:

http://www.freebase.com/view/schema/user/robert/mobile_phones/mobile_phone

R

On Jan 6, 2008, at 9:45 PM, Ed Laurent wrote:

> I guess it's growing on me and Shawn's definition helps quite a bit  
> except I would replace "organization" with "person, company, or  
> other organization". My concern is that the product <-> producer  
> concepts are so general that they should be well thought out and  
> modeled as generally as possible so that they support all relevant  
> co-types now and in the future. For example, are UPC, weight/volume,  
> and cost universal properties of a product? Coca-cola for example  
> has different combinations of ingredients depending on where it is  
> sold. Similarly, my motorcycle model has a different gear ratio when  
> sold in Japan compared to the U.S. Maybe these versions have  
> different UPCs but their differences in weight/volume are  
> insignificant and you might be able to sell each version for the  
> same price. I don't know how many topics in Freebase can/will be  
> considered products but it's probably a bunch. Any problems later on  
> could have big implications.
>
> -Ed
>
>
> On Jan 7, 2008 12:19 AM, Shawn Simister <narphorium at gmail.com> wrote:
> I would define a Product as a tangible object which is sold by an  
> organization under a specific brand name. Therefore corn or people  
> are not products but Corn Flakes and People Magazine are. I know  
> that there are more general definitions of products, but I think  
> they could be accommodated by additional types like Commercial  
> Service, Commodity etc.
>
> Shawn
>
> Ed Laurent wrote:
>>
>> The "Products producer" type with a "Products produced" property  
>> sounds pretty good to me. The "Product" type a little less so.  
>> Would every tangible topic (including people) need to be typed as a  
>> product? What defines a product that separates it from other  
>> tangible topics? I agree that this kind of type could be very  
>> useful and there should be reciprocation between product and  
>> producer but I'm not excited about this approach to doing it.
>>
>> -Ed
>>
>> P.S. This conversation is probably more relevant to the Data  
>> Modeling list so I'm cc'ing it.
>>
>>
>> On Jan 6, 2008 10:05 PM, Daniel E. Renfer < duck at kronkltd.net> wrote:
>> It would probably make sense to have some sort of "products producer"
>> co-type. The producers would have a "products produced" link to the
>> "producer" field of the corresponding "product" type.
>>
>> Not every company produces products, and there are some products that
>> are produced by groups other than companies.
>>
>> Other than that, it sounds like great information to track.
>>
>> Kavitha Srinivas wrote:
>> > For companies, is there any interest in linking companies to their
>> > major products (e.g., Pfizer to its key pharma products) as  
>> listed in
>> > Wikipedia?  I don't mind adding it, but there is no appropriate  
>> slot
>> > to add it.
>> > Key products seems to be important information for a company.
>> > Thanks!
>> > Kavitha
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>>
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