:BaseKB EA 2 and basekb-tools now available (Freebase in RDF!)

  We're proud to announce the immediate availability of :BaseKB Early Access 2

http://basekb.com/dl/earlyaccess.php

    The EA2 release fixes a number of problems in EA1,  most
particularly,  problems that affected name resolution.  EA2 also comes
with the initial release of basekb-tools:

http://code.google.com/p/basekb-tools/

    an open-source package that implements the name resolution
behavior of the proprietary MQL query engine for SPARQL.  Put simply,
basekb-tools takes a readable query like

select ?date {
   graph public:baseKB {
      basekb:en.united_states
basekb:location.dated_location.date_founded ?date .
}
}

and rewrites it it with identifiers that satisfy the unique name assumption

select ?date {
  graph public:baseKB {
    basekb:m.09c7w0 basekb:m.035qyst ?date .
}
}

This "grounding" process is the key innovation that makes :BaseKB the
first correct RDFization of Freebase.  :BaseKB covers the intersection
of Freebase and Wikipedia and, like the Freebase quad dump,  is
available freely under a CC-BY license.

By installing :BaseKB in a triple store and using basekb-tools,  you
can write queries against Freebase using the industry-standard SPARQL
1.1 language.  basekb-tools contains a test suite that confirms the
correctness of of the knowledge base and compatibility with your
triple store.  We believe that this kind of test suite is a practical
answer to pressing problems of Proof and Trust in the semantic web.

":BaseKB is an important milestone for both Freebase and the Semantic
Web," says Ontology2 founder Paul Houle, ":BaseKB opens Freebase to
users of SPARQL and other RDF standards.  The superior quality of
Freebase data solves data quality problems that have,  so far,
frustrated Linked Data applications."

Ontology2 founder Paul Houle will be speaking at the SemTechBiz
converence in San Francisco on June 7.  His talk,  "Linked Data, Free
Pictures, and Markets for Semantic Data" will cover Ookaboo,  :BaseKB
and how they fit into the rapidly emerging semantic-social ecosystem.

http://semtechbizsf2012.semanticweb.com/sessionPop.cfm?confid=65&proposalid=4594

Received on Tuesday, 29 May 2012 19:06:35 UTC