[PROV-AQ] ISSUE-428: should we recommend RDF for provenance; define other mimetypes for other serializations?

Re: http://www.w3.org/2011/prov/track/issues/428

"We mention the rdf mimetype should we mention the other mimetypes in section 4.1?"

This has been a somewhat contentious issue, with differing views expressed 
within the WG, so I've called it out for explicit discussion.

The current revision of PROV-AQ is quite agnostic w.r.t. provenance formats used 
(and even allows for non-PROV provenance), but it does suggest that publishers 
use PROV-O-in-RDF for interoperability:

[[
Most mechanisms described in this note are independent of the provenance format 
used, and may be used to access provenance in any available format. For 
interoperable provenance publication, use of PROV-O represented in a 
standardized RDF format is recommended. Where alternative formats are available, 
selection may be made by content negotiation.
]]
-- http://www.w3.org/TR/2013/WD-prov-aq-20130312/#introduction

The specific text mentioned in the originally raised issue has been removed, but 
the question remains about what provenance formats to specify, if any.


PROPOSE: to accept the the above text.


...

My thoughts:

I think this is probably as close as we can get to addressing the conflicting 
requirements expressed:
- that developers are free to adopt any format that suits their purpose, and
- some common format requirements are needed for interoperable implementations

I suggest that it's OK to leave the interoperability issue incompletely resolved 
at this time, as this is just a NOTE and we don't yet have much real experience 
with widespread provenance deployment.

In my perception, the indications are that the majority of developers interested 
in using provenance data will do so in conjunction with Linked Open Data, so a 
guiding nudge in this direction seems appropriate to do, without attempting to 
predict what will become the preferred application style and format for 
achieving interoperability.

#g

Received on Monday, 11 March 2013 11:13:27 UTC