[Data-modeling] Current heads of state

[Alec Flett]

There have been so many discussions about this kind of  
denormalization, I wonder if we could establish some kind of link  
between the "current" and "historical" properties themselves, so that  
we could at least express within the schema "this is the current  
property, that CVT over there is the historical property"

Then we could make gardening tools/bots that could automatically fill  
in the "current" properties when that is missing. We'd of course have  
to indicate stuff like "if the XXX field of the CVT is empty, then  
this one is current" and come up with a way to say "user edits on  
freebase.com trump any bot edits" but that could be done with  
attribution.

Alec


On Jun 24, 2008, at 4:36 PM, Ed Laurent wrote:

> I agree with your options. However, a "Head of state title" type is  
> somewhat appealing to me in that it has utility for this and  
> possibly other queries.
>
> -Ed
>
> On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 6:48 PM, Jeff Prucher <jeff at metaweb.com>  
> wrote:
> That is definitely the problem with this kind of denormalization.  
> That said, how would you propose identifying heads of state using  
> the current model (which does include start/end dates)?  The only  
> ways I can think of to do it are with a boolean "Is Head of State?"  
> property on the "Government office or title" property, or a property- 
> less type called "Head of State" that would be co-typed with the  
> appropriate instances of "Government office or title", neither of  
> which I find particularly appealing.
>
> Jeff
>
> From: data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com [mailto:data-modeling-bounces at freebase.com 
> ] On Behalf Of Ed Laurent
> Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 3:35 PM
> To: Freebase data modeling mailing list
> Subject: Re: [Data-modeling] Current heads of state
>
> I still lean towards a simpler model with start and end dates that  
> can be used to infer whether something is current or not but I also  
> see the value of this denormalization. An empty "current head of  
> state" would be easy to find for the initial data entry. However, I  
> don't think it is any more useful in the long term unless someone  
> keeps on top dynamic topic properties. Even then, the  
> denormalization could make for really clunky data entry unless there  
> was a way to automatically update both the current and historical  
> properties when changes occur. Empty fields and a lack of updating  
> can throw a monkey wrench into either approach.
>
> -Ed
>
> On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 5:53 PM, Jeff Prucher <jeff at metaweb.com>  
> wrote:
> There's a discussion thread started by user joguinn on the /location  
> type
> that I'd like to get more input on. The original thread is here:
> <http://www.freebase.com/discuss/threads/location#/guid/ 
> 9202a8c04000641f8000
> 0000086ea1f8>  (it's the last few comments in the thread "City Parks/ 
> Golf
> Courses").
>
> The request is to include a property for "current head of state" on  
> the type
> Country. This would be a partial denormalization of the Governing  
> Officials
> property on the Governmental Jurisdiction type, but consistent with a
> pattern that we've seen several times lately.  It would also have some
> additional semantic value, since we have no way in the current model  
> to
> assert that any particular office represents the head of state.  The  
> reason
> I'm bringing it up here is that I can imagine this snowballing into  
> a slew
> of "Current X" properties on various location types ("Current Mayor",
> "Current Legislators", "Current Insurance Commissioner", etc.) and  
> I'd like
> to hear what people think about either the proposed property as it  
> stands,
> or the potential proliferation of similar properties.
>
> Thanks,
> Jeff
>
>
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