
How Google DataWiki Differs from FluidDB - klintron
http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2010/12/google-datawiki-fluiddb.php?sms_ss=hackernews&at_xt=4d137b49af99567f%2C0
======
ntoll
I've pasted a copy of the original email I sent to the ReadWriteWeb guy below.
Inevitably some of the interesting stuff was edited out in the article:

<quote>

In a nutshell, FluidDB is an openly writable hosted service for storing,
sharing, searching and annotating data. While this is an accurate description
it doesn't tell the whole story (in the same way as describing Twitter as,
"writing messages to friends in only 140 characters or less" doesn't tell the
whole story).

Perhaps the best thing to do is take a look at a recent (short) presentation I
did that attempts to answer exactly the questions you're asking (what is
FluidDB?, how does it work?, what's different about it? etc...). The slides
and notes are on Slideshare here:

[http://www.slideshare.net/ntoll/fluiddb-in-a-
nutshell-628958...](http://www.slideshare.net/ntoll/fluiddb-in-a-
nutshell-6289580)

With regard to Google's DataWiki, the obvious similarity appears to be that
both accept contributions from everyone (i.e. they're openly writeable).
However, I've just had a look around their site and it appears that it's quite
a different project to FluidDB in several important ways.

If I understand things correctly, each page in the DataWiki represents a
discrete dataset conforming to a pre-defined structure/schema (in FluidDB we
don't impose schema on our users and individual things are represented by
objects rather than entries on a list).

In addition, there doesn't seem to be any way to validate the trustworthiness
or source of the data (in FluidDB the permission system makes sure there is
control over who uses specific tags and namespaces - for example only I can
add data using tags under the "ntoll" namespace).

Also, DataWiki's search seems to be on a per-page basis rather than across all
datasets (in FluidDB it is possible to search for and retrieve anything using
any tag for which you have a "read" permission \- including tags created by
others).

Finally, the DataWiki site says they're a wiki for structured data. FluidDB is
more forgiving about the structure of data - in fact one of its strengths is
how easy it is for the structure of data to evolve and change to reflect
changes in the "real" world.

</quote>

------
warrenwilkinson
Man, why do I keep getting overlooked? Sure I may not have fancy investors, or
google in my name, but my wiki database has demos and online reports =).

<http://www.formlis.com/>

------
bayareaguy
Reminds me of <http://www.caspio.com/>

