Freebase Hackday ’08 – Observations, Questions

I’m here at Freebase’s Hackday ’08 and things are just getting started. I have been interested in the Semantic Web for a couple years now, and though Freebase’s Metaweb technology didn’t originally provide an RDF interface, Freebase now has an RDF endpoint. The Metaweb Query Language (MQL) is much more intuitive to me but I think RDF has a much bigger payoff in the end as a W3C recommendation. I’m looking forward to attending talks on interfacing with Metaweb using RDF..

On another note, the theme of today’s gathering is “Open Government.” I remember hearing a call recently for developers to work on more beneficial, perhaps humanitarian applications. Applications that will make everyday tasks easier to accomplish, and the important things easier to find. Doctor’s appointments, accurate medical information, transparency of gov’t, etc…. talks are starting. Will update soon.

Post-Hackday Update

Instead of going into detail on the different sessions I attended, I should just get straight to the point: Freebase, I like the idea of your mission. I appreciate the open-ended nature of your system and the ease of using the MQL. But I can’t help but feel like you’re in a blind race to beat everyone to the structured-data punch. Where are the killer apps? Your GIX framework for mashing, say, points of architectural interest onto a map of Marin County, is not very new or interesting. I know examples like that are watered-down versions of more complex applications for the sake of demonstration, but really – I have yet to see anything out of Freebase or the use of Freebase that has really blown my mind.

This is by no means a final judgment. I hold out for the day I see a killer application based on Freebase technologies. But I think the Semantic Web revolution will depend on information that contains meaning and utility for our vocational and personal lives. That includes social networks, e-mails, text messages, data on our hard drives…

So I leave with a few questions for the Freebase community: will Freebase’s “bases” technology enable this kind of user-centric information warehousing? Will there be a point (or does it exist already) where I can submit to Freebase a FOAF file of all my friends on MySpace and query it with the MQL? Obviously there are privacy concerns, so is Freebase going to give the average user leverage for maintaining their own data?

All-in-all I had a good time at Freebase. I met some cool people who helped me gain a better understanding of the structure of MQL queries, and technologies available to do work on my own projects (thanks James Levy!). And, who doesn’t love a t-shirt with a rhino holding a flag? Thank you to everyone at Freebase for making the day light-hearted and fun.