Comments on: Help me start a Roger Corman-focused wiki

Question: Help me start a Roger Corman-focused wiki

filthy light thief — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:26:40 -0800

How can I dump data from Wikipedia and IMDb to make a new movie-related wiki, specifically for Roger Corman movies?

I'd like to make a Roger Corman-focused wiki, as he has produced and directed over 400 movies, reusing props, sets, and footage, as well as mentoring a number of directors and actors who are now well renowned. Mapping those re-uses and first appearances seems like something that is better suited for its own wiki, rather than add that information into Wikipedia in some more better charted manner.

Given the scope of the database/wiki, I thought it would be quicker to copy IMDb and Wikipedia information instead of crafting this new wiki by hand, to create the rough bones of something that I would then drastically rework. As there are plenty of Wikipedia clones and sites that liberally reuse IMDb information, I figure there's some easy way to copy that material for my own non-commercial adaptation, but I have no idea where to look for ways to do that.

As a bonus question, I'd like input on what Wiki platforms would be best suited for this endeavor. Thanks!

By: Monsieur Caution

Monsieur Caution — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 19:57:56 -0800

IMDB provides a lot of data as textfiles, which might be easier for you to parse. I am not a lawyer, but perhaps Feist v. Rural applies to your interest in the simple facts about which Corman films appeared when with what cast. IMDB has also done a ton of original things with their data, though, so I'd be careful about what you rely on them for--if you can get the same data from Wikipedia, I'd do that.

Wikipedia provides complete dumps of their information, and the free licensing terms are very generous.

Wikipedia is based on MediaWiki. Your readers are likely to be familiar with it, and I'd suppose that importing some selection of Wikipedia data into it wouldn't be that hard, but I haven't done it.

By: zippy

zippy — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 20:03:46 -0800

You might try using data from Freebase. They have done a lot of the Wikipedia parsing already, as well as joining to other sources, and have Creative Commons terms of use for much of their data (I haven't checked if this is true of movies).

Visual interface and Data schema for film

By: filthy light thief

filthy light thief — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:02:51 -0800

Thanks for these! I'll work on getting data out and into some other wiki/form.