prov-dm: section 1
authorLuc Moreau <l.moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:18:00 +0100
changeset 2019 50061aca0a46
parent 2018 9edcff5ce6d2
child 2020 611afcccf091
prov-dm: section 1
model/prov-dm.html
model/prov-n.html
--- a/model/prov-dm.html	Tue Mar 27 10:52:20 2012 +0100
+++ b/model/prov-dm.html	Tue Mar 27 12:18:00 2012 +0100
@@ -240,9 +240,9 @@
 <li> PROV-N, a notation for provenance aimed at human consumption,</li>
 <li> PROV-O, the PROV ontology, an OWL-RL ontology allowing the mapping of PROV to RDF;</li>
 <li> PROV-AQ, the mechanisms for accessing and querying provenance; </li>
-<li> PROV-PRIMER: a primer for the PROV data model,</li>
-<li> PROV-SEM: a formal semantics for the PROV data model.</li>
-<li> PROV-XML: an XML schema for the PROV data model.</li>
+<li> PROV-PRIMER, a primer for the PROV data model,</li>
+<li> PROV-SEM, a formal semantics for the PROV data model.</li>
+<li> PROV-XML, an XML schema for the PROV data model.</li>
 </ul>
 <h4>How to read the PROV Family of Specifications</h4>
 <ul>
@@ -283,7 +283,7 @@
 
 <p> 
 For the purpose of this specification, <dfn>provenance</dfn> is defined as a record that describes the people,
-institutions, entities, and activities, involved in producing,
+institutions, entities, and activities involved in producing,
 influencing, or delivering a piece of data or a thing.
 In particular, the provenance of information is crucial in deciding
 whether information is to be trusted, how it should be integrated with
@@ -314,29 +314,38 @@
 <li> PROV-N (part III): a notation to express instances of that data model for human consumption [[PROV-N]];
 </ul> 
 </li>
-
-<li>PROV-O: a normative serialization of PROV-DM in RDF [[!PROV-O]], specified by means of a mapping to the OWL2 Web Ontology Language [[!OWL2-SYNTAX]];</li>
+<li>PROV-O: the PROV ontology, an OWL-RL ontology allowing the mapping of PROV to RDF [[PROV-O]];</li>
 <li>PROV-AQ: the mechanisms for accessing and querying provenance [[PROV-AQ]];</li>
 <li>PROV-PRIMER: a primer for the PROV approach [[PROV-PRIMER]];</li>
 <li>PROV-SEM: semantics of the PROV-DM data model [[PROV-SEM]];</li>
+<li>PROV-XML: an XML schema for the PROV data model.</li>
 </ul>
 
 
 <p>
-The PROV-DM data model for provenance consists of a set of core
-concepts, and a few common relations, based on these core concepts.  PROV-DM is a domain-agnostic model, but with clear extensibility points allowing further domain-specific and
-application-specific extensions to be defined.</p>
+  PROV-DM is a domain-agnostic model, but with clear extensibility points allowing further domain-specific and
+application-specific extensions to be defined.
+The PROV data model is structued according to six components covering various aspects of provenance:
+<ol>
+<li> component 1: entities and activities, and the time at which they were created, used, or ended;
+<li> component 2: agents bearing responsibility for entities that were generated and actities that happened;
+<li> component 3: derivations between entities;
+<li> component 4: properties to link entities that refer to a same thing;
+<li> component 5: collections of entities, whose provenance can itself be tracked;
+<li> component 6: a simple annotation mechanism.
+</ol>
+</p>
 
 <p>This specification intentionally presents the key concepts of the PROV Data Model, without drilling down into all its subtleties.  Using these key concepts, it becomes possible to write useful provenance assertions very quickly, and publish or embed them along side the data they relate to. </p>
 
-<p>However, if data changes, then it is challenging to express its provenance precisely, like it would be for any other form of metadata. To address this challenge, a <em>refinement</em> is proposed to enrich simple provenance, with extra-descriptions that  help qualify the specific subject of provenance and provenance itself, with attributes and interval, intended to satisfy a comprehensive set of constraints.  These aspects are covered in the companion specification [[PROV-DM-CONSTRAINTS]].
+<p>However, if data changes, then it is challenging to express its provenance precisely, like it would be for any other form of metadata. To address this challenge, a <em>refinement</em> is proposed to enrich simple provenance, with extra-descriptions that  help qualify the specific subject of provenance and provenance itself, with attributes and temporal interval, intended to satisfy a comprehensive set of constraints.  These aspects are covered in the companion specification [[PROV-DM-CONSTRAINTS]].
 </p>
 
 
     <section id="structure-of-this-document"> 
 <h3>Structure of this Document</h3>
 
-<p><a href="#starting-points">Section 2</a> provides  starting points for the PROV Data Model, listing some core types and their relations.</p>
+<p><a href="#starting-points">Section 2</a> provides  starting points for the PROV Data Model, listing a set of types and  relations, which are allows users to make initial provenance descriptions.</p>
 
 <p><a href="#prov-dm-example">Section 3</a> illustrates how PROV-DM can be used
 to express the provenance of a report published on the Web.</p>
@@ -345,8 +354,7 @@
 
 <p><a href="#extensibility-section">Section 5</a> summarizes PROV-DM extensibility points.</p>
 
-<p><a href="#FurtherConsiderations">Section 6</a> introduces constraints that can be applied to the PROV data model 
-and that are covered in the companion specification [[PROV-DM-CONSTRAINTS]].</p>
+<p><a href="#FurtherConsiderations">Section 6</a> introduces the idea that constraints can be applied to the PROV data model to refine provenance descriptions; these are covered in the companion specification [[PROV-DM-CONSTRAINTS]].</p>
 
 
     </section> 
--- a/model/prov-n.html	Tue Mar 27 10:52:20 2012 +0100
+++ b/model/prov-n.html	Tue Mar 27 12:18:00 2012 +0100
@@ -203,9 +203,9 @@
 <li> PROV-N, a notation for provenance aimed at human consumption (this document),</li>
 <li> PROV-O, the PROV ontology, an OWL-RL ontology allowing the mapping of PROV to RDF;</li>
 <li> PROV-AQ, the mechanisms for accessing and querying provenance; </li>
-<li> PROV-PRIMER: a primer for the PROV data model,</li>
-<li> PROV-SEM: a formal semantics for the PROV data model.</li>
-<li> PROV-XML: an XML schema for the PROV data model.</li>
+<li> PROV-PRIMER, a primer for the PROV data model,</li>
+<li> PROV-SEM, a formal semantics for the PROV data model.</li>
+<li> PROV-XML, an XML schema for the PROV data model.</li>
 </ul>
 <h4>How to read the PROV Family of Specifications</h4>
 <ul>