I'm trying to establish a shared repository for semi-structured data...
This could be interpreted in many ways, so I'll try to illustrate with
an example.
Say I'm researching a new topic - for example, the Oil Industry... and
I'm looking to establish a shared resource detailing relevant
information. From the outset, I recognise that a completely free-form
approach isn't appropriate... there are a number of 'key entities' - for
example, Oil Companies; Oil Executives; Oil Fields; Oil Consultancies -
etc. Hence, I know that I will be interested to develop a coherent
profile of all the Oil Companies in a similar format. If I were to
establish the market capitalisation for one oil company, I'd want to
make it clear that this information is 'unknown' for other companies
rather than simply not mention it. Similarly, for CEO; tax status -
etc. When it comes to the directors, perhaps I want to establish "who's
who" style information on them... where I'd collect their educational
backgrounds; URLs for appearances in the press etc.
I imagine that software that supports the development of such flexibly
structured information would be of great value to a wide range of
applications. For example, it would be a fantastic resource for
journalists; with other data, it might serve as a great way for business
oriented research; it could be used to support networking (in a
business/social sense) - and a whole lot of applications I can't imagine
myself, I'm sure.
Is there any existing software that does this sort of thing? A wiki
goes part-way, but I'd want to be able to establish 'type' for pages...
so that, for example, every record of a company has standard fields into
which various statistics can be filled-in... and where URLs to external
data is prompted...
Any ideas?
- [gentoo-user] A question about Wikis... (A bit off topic...) Steve
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