ISSUE-257: rename "Account"/"Bundle"/"AccountEntity" to "Provenance"
TLebo
rename "Account"/"Bundle"/"AccountEntity" to "Provenance"
- State:
- CLOSED
- Product:
- prov-dm
- Raised by:
- Timothy Lebo
- Opened on:
- 2012-02-22
- Description:
- Our latest stab [1] at defining "Account"/"Bundle"/"AccountEntity" is:
"An AccountEntity is an entity that contains a bundle of provenance assertions."
I propose to name this concept "Provenance":
"Provenance is an entity that groups provenance assertions."
(or, to avoid using "provenance" in its own definition: "Provenance is an entity that groups assertions about involvements among Entities and Activities.")
This has a simplicity, naturalness, and even eloquence. When one says "Let me check the provenance", they are saying "Let me look at the assertions made about some thing".
Further, it plainly addresses how one asserts Provenance of Provenance, since Provenance is an Entity.
The fact that Provenance is an Entity also resolves many challenges that I've faced with respect to an "Account"'s specialization. Asserters may choose the level of abstraction they wish, which can be reconciled with those that demand different levels of abstraction. For example, are you querying a particular File on a particular machine to get the provenance, or are you looking at the abstract RDF graph that exists in MANY files (and one of which may have changed). Both are handled and can be used, and coherently associated using specialization.
This also provides an opportunity to extend Provenance to the original notions of Account (which I say we leave for others to do). For example, :what_I_did_yesterday a prov:Provenance; prov:wasAssociatedWith :TBL .
Regards,
Tim
[1] http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/prov/raw-file/default/model/working-copy/towards-wd4.html#section-types-entities-agents - Related Actions Items:
- No related actions
- Related emails:
- Re: PROV-ISSUE-257 (TLebo): rename 'Account'/'Bundle'/'AccountEntity' to 'Provenance' [prov-dm] (from lebot@rpi.edu on 2012-05-15)
- Re: PROV-ISSUE-257 (TLebo): rename 'Account'/'Bundle'/'AccountEntity' to 'Provenance' [prov-dm] (from L.Moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk on 2012-05-15)
- Re: PROV-ISSUE-257 (TLebo): rename 'Account'/'Bundle'/'AccountEntity' to 'Provenance' [prov-dm] (from lebot@rpi.edu on 2012-02-24)
- Re: PROV-ISSUE-257 (TLebo): rename 'Account'/'Bundle'/'AccountEntity' to 'Provenance' [prov-dm] (from l.moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk on 2012-02-22)
- PROV-ISSUE-257 (TLebo): rename 'Account'/'Bundle'/'AccountEntity' to 'Provenance' [prov-dm] (from sysbot+tracker@w3.org on 2012-02-22)
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