Hello Michael, Nicholas et list,
I hope you don't mind me jumping in here with a few comments on selected highlights of
this thread.
>> Taking /music as an example...
I wonder if you have looked at book data? I am working on issues to do with linked (open?)
book data and it would be useful to compare notes.
>> wikipedia tends to conflate... composition
with recording with release...
On the other hand, data does exist that separates these (and more!) entity types out very
clearly, and it's potentially highly *linked* but it's unlikely to be *open*.
See:
http://www.ddex.net/ddex-present - ddex descriptive data schemas, but also note the links
there to IDs for
-names (ISNI)
-compositions (ISWC)
-recordings (ISRC)
-releases (GRid)
These are all industry-standard IDs, and thus pretty stable. Maybe a starting point?
>> ...domains where there's no established
(open) authority (eg the equivalent of musicbrainz for films)...
EIDR?
http://eidr.org/ - " EIDR is operated on a non-profit cost-recovery
basis..." but maybe you get the stability and granularity you pay for? Plus;
"... EIDR is founded on the principle of open participation and welcomes all
ecosystem players (commercial and non-profit) to join the Registry as registrant, lookup
user or even a promoter. The Registry is intended to provide a foundational namespace for
A/V objects that can be leveraged by participant in the eco-system to further their own
business needs and offerings." -
http://eidr.org/resources/
Cheers,
Michael