[Data-modeling] Type for groups/sets of people (or any entity?)

[Robert Cook]

On Jul 20, 2009, at 2:07 PM, Tom Morris wrote:

> On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 4:44 PM, Robert Cook<robert at metaweb.com>  
> wrote:
>> So, Kirrily mentioned this type:
>>
>> http://www.freebase.com/type/schema/freebase/list?domain=%2Ffreebase
>>
>> which is intended to be a very generic collection holder.
>
> I got confused by the Socialist reference.  If this isn't
> Socialist-specific (not that I'm Republican or anything :-) ), it
> sounds perfect.

Yes, "Socialist" is simultaneously too clever for itself and off- 
putting to most of America (we named this while amped up on lattes, it  
seems.)  The List type, however, is intended to be very generic.

One extra feature is that if you write-protect the list node itself,  
the whole list is write-protected (although you have to write-protect  
the List Entry mediators as well as you create them.)

>> Some of the properties include:
>>
>> Entities -- the "members" of the list
>> Related type -- The types these members should be.  This helps guide
>> autocomplete and potentially autotyping as items are added.
>> Category -- the kind of list this is "Favorite films", "Jazz  
>> musicians
>> with substance abuse problems", etc.
>
> So presumably we could define categories like Twins or Siblings or
> whatever else was required.
>
> Is the Significance property on List Item used for ordering?  So by
> omitting it we'd get a set instead of a list?

I actually don't know what that's used for.   Standard MQL index  
ordering would apply here on the Entities property as it would  
anywhere else.

I've added property descriptions where I could (Bad, Robert, bad!   
Always describe your properties before you promote them to Commons!)

R