ISSUE-134: Non-Human Agent vs. Human Agent

Non-Human Agent vs. Human Agent

State:

CLOSED

Product:

prov-dm

Raised by:

Reza B'Far

Opened on:

2011-10-23

Description:

I propose to revisit the previously discussed, but not concluded, topic of "Types" of Agents. I had brought up this topic and the following was suggested as a reference -

http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/trdf/nfs/project/t/tr/trdf/7/7a/ProvenanceVocabularyOverview.png

There are a large set of use-cases (not just in my particular interest of Governance) where, whether the actions of an agent are directly controlled by a human being versus an automated mechanism makes a very significant difference in inferencing over the available instance data. Examples:

1. Human agent modifying a legal document versus the legal document being modified by a system agent that converts data formats.
2. Human agent modifying a setting in a system whose provenance model is important for governing that system versus a system agent doing the same: Example - Provenance of a "License" where Human agent expiring a license by changing/enforcing a date is quite a different event than a system agent changing/enforcing a date (say as a part of a mass/cascade update to a series of records) that causes expiration of a license.

Other use-cases are available if need-be. I actually claim that the number of such use-cases are increasing given the proliferation of pipe-and-filter architectures being deployed within Big Data infrastructures (where either pipes or filters can be Non-Human Agent/Actors). Furthermore, as another evidence, there are other references to UML Use-Case and Sequence Diagrams where the distinction is becoming prevalent.

As a solution, I suggest we take the same approach that the aforementioned URL above has taken.

Related Actions Items:

No related actions

Related emails:

1. Re: use case agent (from p.t.groth@vu.nl on 2012-02-18)
2. Re: use case agent (from Curt.Tilmes@nasa.gov on 2012-02-18)
3. Re: use case agent (from jun.zhao@zoo.ox.ac.uk on 2012-02-18)
4. Re: use case agent (from p.t.groth@vu.nl on 2012-02-18)
5. Re: use case agent (from jun.zhao@zoo.ox.ac.uk on 2012-02-18)
6. Re: use case agent (from ericphb@gmail.com on 2012-02-17)
7. Re: use case agent (from p.t.groth@vu.nl on 2012-02-17)
8. Re: use case agent (from zednis@rpi.edu on 2012-02-17)
9. Re: use case agent (from reza.bfar@oracle.com on 2012-02-17)
10. Re: use case agent (from zednis@rpi.edu on 2012-02-17)
11. Re: use case agent (from zednis@rpi.edu on 2012-02-17)
12. use case agent (from p.t.groth@vu.nl on 2012-02-17)
13. Re: PROV-ISSUE-134: Non-Human Agent vs. Human Agent [Data Model] (from reza.bfar@oracle.com on 2011-11-30)
14. Re: PROV-ISSUE-134: Non-Human Agent vs. Human Agent [Data Model] (from L.Moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk on 2011-11-30)
15. Re: PROV-ISSUE-134: Non-Human Agent vs. Human Agent [Data Model] (from GK@ninebynine.org on 2011-10-25)
16. Re: PROV-ISSUE-134: Non-Human Agent vs. Human Agent [Data Model] (from GK@ninebynine.org on 2011-10-25)
17. PROV-ISSUE-134: Non-Human Agent vs. Human Agent [Data Model] (from sysbot+tracker@w3.org on 2011-10-23)

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