The goal of the open entity project is to construct a verified and rated entity database. An 'Entity' can be nearly anything, though each entity will have several base attributes. Not the least of which is its core classification type; proper, abstract, or generic ( ...potentially more as I think this through a bit more... ).
- Proper: Think proper noun... An individual person ( IE: John Doe ), Official Business ( IE: Acme Inc ), Specific model of an automobile ( IE: Ford Mustang ), etc...
- Generic: The same as above, but without the specificity. Any person, any business, any automobile, etc...
- Abstract: This category is for things that are not tangible or do not fit into the other categories. An idea, an emotion, state of mind, etc...
- Heightened data quality: Data is both user submitted and user verified, the user (or cluster of users) that verify submitted data are rewarded by the protocol.
- Richer entity data: Users are encouraged to share data attributes for entities. Sharing is encouraged in a supplemental manner, this is to say the users may query the system for entities as long as they pay back into the system with supplemental data of some kind ( this may be in the form of; de-duplication processing, new content, verified supplemental attributes, unverified supplemental attributes, or attribute verification / confidence modification ).
- Public and Private attributes: Entities are encouraged to claim their entity within the system, as this will allow them to mark select attributes as private. This will allow users across systems to have a single source for verified entity values, while simultaneously encouraging developers to use the system for identification and authorization.
- Global association store: Associate an entity with other entities that reference it.
Quick example on associations: Lets say that a media organization publishes a news article. That article may then be associated with all entities found within the article. Think of this as a universal backlink index. Allowing users or applications to create associations ( aka links ) between entities via the appropriate attribute.
- Verified: Data that has been added by an official source. For instance, a person can claim their own identity and provide additional details on themselves. Note: Even verified data will be subject to the crowd rating for quality control purposes.
- Unverified: User added entities and attributes. These unverified entities and attributes will have a crowd rated confidence value. Developers can make their own choices about what level of confidence they require.
This is all still just an idea I have, though I believe that it could evolve into something very useful.
If you like the idea and would like to join the project let me know!