After locating the census record abstracts for record linkage, it occurred to me to look for census records for other countries.
Which fairly quickly put me out at family history sites.
FamilySearch.org looks like one of the better ones.
Pointers to very diverse sets of records which should provide grist for any matching algorithms as well as modeling issues for other information.
I am not familiar with the software in this area but my impression is that a lot of effort has gone into even the free stuff so poor UIs or performing apps need not apply. Topic maps are going to have to offer a real value add to get traction in this area.
If you investigate or are in the family history area, post a note if current software allows merging of family histories together?
There’s an amazing wealth of data there, I agree. And the user interface was quite nice. Certainly stiff competition for anyone who wants to get into this space.
I spent a lot of time searching, but wasn’t able to find any data sets that could be downloaded.
Comment by larsga@garshol.priv.no — May 22, 2011 @ 2:43 am
Lars,
I think this is more of a user interface site and not so much a source for data per se. Am checking with the site owners.
One interesting aspect is the data entry of index entries, with software, guides, “arbitration,” etc.
Might be a model for data entry for topic maps of interest to very active communities.
Comment by Patrick Durusau — May 22, 2011 @ 5:41 pm