Dear Wikidata list,
one of our big contributors, Bruno Belhoste in Paris, just gave me a weird question which I feel I cannot answer that fast.
We, FactGrid, are a Wikidata child and so it came that we adopted structures like the father/mother differentiation. Bruno's question is now whether it would not have been wise to just create just a "parent" option instead of the gender fork that splits the lineages. Let me insert his mail:
> Dear Olaf,
>
> I have a question of data modeling in FactGrid concerning family ties.
> We have one property for children (P150) and also one for siblings
> (P203), but two different properties for parents: father (P141) and
> mother (P142). The problem is: how can you get all the members of the
> family of somebody? One have (1) to explore both the matrilinear trees
> and the patrilinear trees at each generation to get all the ancestors
> and (2) to get all the descents of these ancestors. It is very complex.
> It would be much simpler to have only one property including the father
> and the mother.
>
> In case we choose this solution, it would be easy to transform all the
> triples with P141 or P142 into triples with the new property. What do
> you think about that? Have you another solution for querying family links?
>
> All the best,
>
> Bruno
I wonder what people with more data knowledge think about the proposal (which would affect just our site, not Wikidata...) (so: no worries, we can do experimental things without affecting our parent - I hesitate to speak of a father or mother - Wikidata).
Best,
Olaf
Dr. Olaf Simons
Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universität Erfurt
Schloss Friedenstein, Pagenhaus
99867 Gotha
Büro: +49-361-737-1722
Mobil: +49-179-5196880
Privat: Hauptmarkt 17b/ 99867 Gotha