Commons

From Freebase

The Commons are schemas, that is types and properties, which have met a certain standard. Commons domains exist at the top level, eg "/foo". The Commons schemas get preferential treatment in the Freebase client UI.

Commons types should not rely on non-Commons types. No type in the commons should include a type from outside the commons, nor should the expected type of any property be a non-commons type. Commons schema are intended to be as stable as possible.

State of the Commons

It was noticed in July 2009 that some of the Commons weren't quite up to the standard expected. There is now a focus on improving the commons and maintaining a high standard. This includes finding responsible admins for each Common, ensuring comprehensive documentation of types and properties and being responsive to user questions and suggestions.

The commons are listed at Category:Commons, and each commons page includes a status briefing and a list of ways you can help.

Promoting types to the Commons

Bases and types which are to be promoted to the commons should follow the guidelines listed in the Commons schema development page. The following is a guideline procedure for promoting schemas to the commons, but is not definitive nor is it rigid:

1. Meet schema guidelines: Please develop the types and properties in your base to the point where the Commons schema development guidelines are met.
2. Peer Review: Ask for comments from the community asking for comments on your schema - post a message to a staff member or expert, or send an email to the data modelling list.
3. Be Responsive: If you wish to be a Commons admin you need to be responsive. The peer review stage is a good time to demonstrate this by amicably discussing comments and acting upon good suggestions.
4. Improve existing Commons: If your base requires additional properties on existing commons types, then please contact the relevant commons admins and discuss your proposals on the discussion boards. Improvements to existing commons types are very much welcome. If your proposal is accepted by the Commons admins, please remind them they need to email the developers list before carrying out any breaking changes!
5. Promotion task: Once all the comments have been addressed, existing commons types improved and debates reached a sufficient conclusion, then file a JIRA task for promotion of new types.
   • This should state the types to be promoted. use the full address e.g. /base/mybase/mytype
   • State the commons each type should be promoted to
   • Propose alterations to existing commons, provide step-by-step detail for complex changes.
   • Mention any required data gardening tasks to align existing data with this new commons.
6. Final review: At this stage an expert or staff member will likely get involved and will do a final review for any outstanding issues. Again, please be responsive and leave comments on the relevant JIRA task. It may be an idea to make the reviewer an admin of your base so they can make any necessary final tweaks.
7. Support for promotion: An email will be sent by the staff member (or they may ask you to do send it) to the data modelling list mentioning the task and the intention to promote the types. Feedback from the community will again be gathered.
8. Comments from developers: An email will be sent by the staff member (or they may ask you to do this) to the developers list. Apps can be broken by various changes so developers should be notified of impending changes. Please provide relevant details and dates of changes. Developers may request that tasks be put on hold while they adapt their code.
9. A staff member will carry out necessary promotions and gardening tasks. This may happen in stages, and feedback may be gathered from the community. The promotion may be adapted to suit various conditions that arise during the course.
10. Commons member. Staff member or an admins of a common may promote you to become an expert or admin of a commons, but this is not guaranteed.

If you spot a base or type which is a good candidate for promotion, please add it to Suggested commons promotions. Do also email the data modellers email list to alert others of this good find. Thanks!

Being a Commons admin

A commons admin is a person responsible for maintaining the schema, documentation and data gardening of a commons. A commons admin has similar access to functionality (like creating new types and properties in a schema) that an admin in any other base has; the main difference is that the commons are highly linked by user bases and apps (particularly the /people and /location commons). A commons admin has a great deal of responsibility. An commons admin is responsible for the following:

• Meeting the requirements of the community
  • Responding to suggestions for changes to the commons schema or documentation
  • Checking data in the commons for common problems or misunderstandings, which may indicate a schema change or better documentation is necessary.
  • Reviewing the existing schema periodically to ensure it is still relevant.
  • Reviewing candidate schemas/types for promotion to the commons.
• Changing the commons
  • Carrying out changes to schema -- see Commons schema development
  • Raising JIRA tasks for high/medium impact changes
  • Notifying the community of changes
• Spotting erroneous data
  • Ensuring errors get gardened.
  • Maintaining complete documentation
  • Responding to questions and help queries about the commons

MQL for the commons

list of commons types:

[{
  "id":   null,
  "name": null,
  "type": "/freebase/domain_profile",
  "category": {
    "id": "/category/commons"
  }
}]​

See the Find something limited to Commons types.