[Data-modeling] Modeling uncertainty

[Kirrily Robert]

I wonder whether, for events at least, we could have a co-type for  
uncertainly dated events that specify a range of uncertainty.  Jeff  
would kick me for this (if he weren't off having a baby) but call it  
something like "Uncertainly timed event" and have two properties,  
"Degree of uncertainty of start date", and "Degree of uncertainty of  
end date".  These expect a CVT which is an integer and a unit of time,  
eg. 3 days, 6 months, 1000 years.  For "Spring 1985" assuming it were  
the northern hemisphere, you could just put in a date of 1 May 1985  
and allow 6 weeks' uncertainty, or thereabouts.

This would leave you able to put an estimated date in the ordinary  
date fields on event, allowing it to appear neatly in timelines and  
whatnot, but also provide the information about the degree of  
uncertainty.

K.

On 16/02/2009, at 3:09 PM, Scott Blomquist wrote:

> I just encountered a scenario today that would benefit from the same  
> solution as your date example. I found some events whose times I've  
> only been able to pin down so far to "Spring 1985", and I don't  
> think I have any good way to represent that in an event today.
>
> On Mon, Feb 16, 2009 at 10:28 AM, Tom Morris <tfmorris at gmail.com>  
> wrote:
> Is anyone doing work on modeling uncertainty?  I'm specifically
> interested in dates and locations.
>
> Location - If I'm told that something is "near" or "in the vicinity
> of" a location, currently my choices are to either not record the fact
> or to guess at a way to reduce the precision in a way that's still
> accurate.  I could say that something which is "near Boston" is "in
> Massachusetts," but a) that might not be true and b) that's not the
> information that I have.
>
> Dates - The simple case is "circa," but it would also be useful to
> deal with both open and closed ranges (e.g. before 1945, after 1999,
> or September 2008-December 2008).  Currently the only type of range
> that can be encoded is ones which can be made by truncating precision
> (ie 2009 == 1 Jan 2009 - 31 Dec 2009).
>
> Tom
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>
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-- 
Kirrily Robert
Freebase Community Director
kirrily at metaweb.com



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