Freebase and Creative Commons

I just got back from SXSW, and there was a really positive response to Freebase from the people I met.

I think that our decision to make Freebase data available via the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-by) license is a big part of the positive reaction -- people are willing to share when they know that the sharing goes both ways.

Freebase invite contest

Now I'm looking for people who have data to share and would like to try out Freebase. So I'm holding a contest - if you want to use Freebase, post a comment and tell me why you are interested. The three best submissions between now and Friday, March 23 will get invites to our alpha test.

Whether you're a regular user, a programmer who wants to use an API, or have an interesting data set that you'd like to share with the world, you've got a chance.

Tantek @ SXSW

Tantek @ SXSW
Originally uploaded by ptufts.

Tantek Celik talked about Microformats at the SXSW Rawks! panel, and also shared some tips for keeping track of all the events at the show. I'm a big fan of microformats, and I want to see more information become both human and machine readable.

Snakes on a Plane at SXSW

James Home at SXSW
Originally uploaded by ptufts.

There was a session at South by Southwest devoted to the internet fan-driven phenomenon known as Snakes on a Plane. James Home of Metaweb talked about his experience putting together a fan-organized premiere of the film in San Francisco.

Snakes on a Plane did something that few other films have achieved. It gave the fans not so much an enduring piece of cinema, so much as a reason to have a big one night party. Some on the panel felt that had Snakes on a Plane stuck to a tight budget - $3M instead of $30M - it could have spawned a niche of such films - financially successful one-night parties.

Maybe the studios will learn from this, and see Snakes on a Plane as a successful experiement working with internet fans - supporting them and learning from them too.

SXSW Rawks!

SXSW Rawks!
Originally uploaded by ptufts.

Min Jung Kim and Glenda Bautista rock on at the SXSW Rawks panel on Friday.

Happy Birthday Freebase.com

Happy Birthday, Freebase.com
Originally uploaded by ptufts.

John Markoff just wrote an article for the New York Times about my company, Metaweb, and our Freebase project: "Startup aims for web database to automate searching", and Tim O'Reilly talks about what it all means on O'Reilly Radar (with the bonus of a few screenshots of the site).

Jon Phillips of Creative Commons has good things to say about our use of the CC Attribution license for the shared data - this is a database we want people to use.

I'm at SXSW Interactive Mar 9 - 14 looking for people who would like to work for us in San Francisco (we're hiring) or develop their own applications that use Freebase. I'm also looking for communities and people with data to share - if you have a catalog of data in any domain and want to share it with the world, let me know.