[Data-modeling] Modeling uncertainty

[Kirrily Robert]

No, it'd be fine in a timeline view!  That's why I suggested it.  You  
put the *estimate* date on /event/event, and it'll show in timeline as  
usual.  But the extra semantics of how uncertain you are are tacked on  
the side, out of the way.  It'd be great for things like eg. "Italian  
Renaissance".  You could just say 1350-1600 or something, and not  
stress about it so much, even though the exact dates are very hotly  
debated.

K.

On 16/02/2009, at 3:35 PM, Gordon Mackenzie wrote:

> How would this effect timeline views? I suspect it wouldn't be a  
> happy result.
>
> That said, I have some Roman Emperors that lack birth dates, and  
> this would give me something to enter to approximate their ages when  
> the almost inevitable assassination/murder/deposing occurred.
>
> ~ Gordon
>
> On Feb 16, 2009, at 3:24 PM, Kirrily Robert wrote:
>
>> 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
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Data-modeling mailing list
>>> Data-modeling at freebase.com
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>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -- 
>>> http://scott.blomqui.st
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Data-modeling mailing list
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>>
>> -- 
>> Kirrily Robert
>> Freebase Community Director
>> kirrily at metaweb.com
>>
>>
>>
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>
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-- 
Kirrily Robert
Freebase Community Director
kirrily at metaweb.com



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