Freebase - need an account?
I finally have an account with Freebase, the web-based database offering open access to data submitted by anyone who cares to. The service is pretty impressive and interesting, and we’re giving some thought to applications for it here at Agency.com.
Essentially, the service holds very structured data and definitions and has a wide range of access methods for creating and amending structures, for submitting, amending and querying data. There are stacks of documents and examples on the website and I think they’ve done a very solid job already.
I have a few referrals going spare if anyone geeky is interested in an account, so email me or request one through the comments form if you’d like to have a look for yourself.
The debate about ownership of data is certainly going to heat up with services like this one, as people contribute data that might be derived from other sources. A friend of mine operates a vertical search engine in property and if they scrape data from estate agents to submit it to Freebase, that will raise some very interesting questions.
And thanks to O’Reilly Radar for telling me about it in the first place.
