[Data-modeling] Topics with weighted values for a Topic

[Robert Cook]

On Jul 8, 2008, at 1:55 PM, James Alexander Levy wrote:

> I'm unsure how to design a type schema such that property values can  
> have a weighted value.
>
>
> For instance, suppose I wanted to make my own type for "Economy",  
> and I had a property called "Sectors" - I want to be able to assign  
> a Topic ("Agriculture") along with a percentage of the overall  
> Economy.
>
> Because properties only accept one type, the only way I know how to  
> do this is to make Sector its own type as a compound value with a  
> percentage property and a Topic property, but that would make the  
> whole schema considerably more complex.

Right now CVTs are the only way to represent what you're looking for.   
I'm going through a similar process right now loading dated values  
(eg. the population of a country as of a certain date), and it is  
certainly trickier than a simple property.

We have talked about having "universal" dimensions available for any  
assertion, such as a valid time or time range and provenance.  A  
weight might be possible as well, although the semantics of a weight  
would be different depending on the application.  In other words, you  
would have to distinguish different weights that might be attached to  
a single property, which would require an additional piece of  
metadata.  Think of a really big pile of stacked turtles.

In the nearer term, we hope to make CVTs easier to work with, both in  
the Freebase application, but also via MQL.

R


>
>
> Any advice?
>
>
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