[Data-modeling] [Developers] Modeling question

[Robert Cook]

Topic granularity for products is a very interesting topic.  People  
would like to think of the topics "Coke", "Diet Coke", "Diet Coke 1  
liter bottle" all as type "product" in different circumstances.  This  
could be handled by a "phylogeny" containment pattern, where the  
product type pointed to more specific versions of the product, just as  
the "location" type points to other contained locations.

I like the "edible product" idea, although I suspect there might be a  
more elegant name ;-)  The "beer" type could benefit from your  
suggested properties:

http://www.freebase.com/view/schema/food/beer

Also, ASINs, Netflix IDs, ISBNs and UPC codes are exactly the kind of  
"foreign keys" we would like to get into Freebase.  If anybody has  
access to such keys, we will help get them loaded.

R

On Jan 6, 2008, at 11:04 PM, Daniel E. Renfer wrote:

> I know this adds another layer to the data, but you might want to go  
> even further and break it down to the types or brands of a product  
> and the instances or editions of that brand.
>
> For instance:
>
> <The Coca-Cola Bottling Corporation> produces <Coca-Cola>
> <Coca-Cola> has an edition <Coca-Cola 20 oz. Bottle>
> <Coca-Cola> has an edition <Coca-Cola 2 ltr. Bottle>
>
> <The Coca-Cola Bottling Corporation> produces <Diet Coke>
>
> You could then break it down to regional variance in ingredients,  
> weight, nutritional value, (although this would be a property of the  
> co-type, Edible Products) etc.
>
> I don't know how this would fly for most people, but what about a  
> property to record the ASIN (The key in Amazon's database) of the  
> item as well.
>
> 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 <mailto: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
>>>    <mailto: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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