Freebase

Business type

Open Business

Service/product description

Freebase, created by Metaweb Technologies, is an open database of the world’s information. It’s built by the community and for the community – free for anyone to query, contribute to, build applications on top of, or integrate into their websites. The information is supplemented by the efforts of a passionate global community of users who are working together to add structured information on everything from philosophy to European railway stations to the chemical properties of common food ingredients.

What does 'openness' mean in this case?

Freebase is a platform that contains data for everyone to use – contribute to, question etc, so openness here is all about giving away data for free in such way that you can not only read/absorb the content but you can also interact with it (change it/contribute to it etc.). Without the contributors no Freebase, you as a contrbutor are essential and part of the brand.