--- a/model/ProvenanceModel.html Tue Nov 29 09:05:15 2011 +0000
+++ b/model/ProvenanceModel.html Tue Nov 29 09:38:05 2011 +0000
@@ -170,8 +170,8 @@
<section id="sotd">
<em>TODO: update this section for next publication.</em>
-This document is part of a set of specifications aiming to define the various aspects that are necessary to achieve the visition on inter-operable interchange of provenance information in heterogeneous environments such as the Web. This document defines the PROV-DM data model for provenance, accompanied with a notation to express instances of that data model for human consumption. Two other documents, to be released shortly, are: 1) a normative serialization of PROV-DM in RDF, specified by means of a mapping to the OWL2 Web Ontology Language; 2)
-the mechanisms for accessing and querying provenance.
+This document is part of a set of specifications aiming to define the various aspects that are necessary to achieve the visition on inter-operable interchange of provenance information in heterogeneous environments such as the Web. This document defines the PROV-DM data model for provenance, accompanied with a notation to express instances of that data model for human consumption. Three other documents are: 1) a normative serialization of PROV-DM in RDF, specified by means of a mapping to the OWL2 Web Ontology Language; 2)
+the mechanisms for accessing and querying provenance; 3) a primer for the provenance data model.
</section>
@@ -239,13 +239,13 @@
<p><a href="#prov-dm-overview">Section 3</a> provides an overview of PROV-DM listing its core types and their relations.</p>
-<p>In <a href="#prov-dm-example">section 4</a>, the PROV-DM is
+<p>In <a href="#prov-dm-example">section 4</a>, PROV-DM is
applied to a short scenario, encoded in PROV-ASM, and illustrated
graphically.</p>
<p><a href="#data-model-concepts">Section 5</a> provides the normative definition of PROV-DM and the notation PROV-ASN.</p>
-<p><a href="#common-relations">Section 6</a> introduces common relations used in PROV-DM, including relations for data collections and common domain-independent shortcuts and abbreviations.</p>
+<p><a href="#common-relations">Section 6</a> introduces common relations used in PROV-DM, including relations for data collections and common domain-independent common relations.</p>
<p><a href="#extensibility-section">Section 7</a> summarizes PROV-DM extensibility points.</p>
@@ -336,12 +336,12 @@
etc.</p>
-<p>An <dfn id="concept-agent">agent</dfn> as a type of entity that takes an active role in an activity such that it can be assigned some degree of responsibility for the activity taking place.
+<p>An <dfn id="concept-agent">agent</dfn> is a type of entity that takes an active role in an activity such that it can be assigned some degree of responsibility for the activity taking place.
This definition intentionally stays away from using concepts such as enabling, causing, initiating, affecting, etc, because any entities also enable, cause, initiate, and affect in some way the activities. So the notion of having some degree of responsibility is really what makes an agent. </p>
-<p> Even software agents can be assigned some responsibility for the effects they have in the world, so for example if one is using a Text Editor and one's laptop crashes then one would say that the Text Editor was responsible for crashing the laptop. If one invokes a service to buy a book, that service can be considered responsible for drawing funds from one's bank to make the purchase (the company that runs the service and the web site would also be responsible, but the point here is that we assign some measure of responsibility to software as well). So when someone models software as an agent for an activity in our model they mean the agent has some responsibility for that activity.
+<p> Even software agents can be assigned some responsibility for the effects they have in the world, so for example if one is using a Text Editor and one's laptop crashes, then one would say that the Text Editor was responsible for crashing the laptop. If one invokes a service to buy a book, that service can be considered responsible for drawing funds from one's bank to make the purchase (the company that runs the service and the web site would also be responsible, but the point here is that we assign some measure of responsibility to software as well). So when someone models software as an agent for an activity in our model, they mean the agent has some responsibility for that activity.
</p>
-<p> In this specification, the qualifier 'identifiable' is implicit whenever a reference is made to an activity or an entity.</p>
+<p> In this specification, the qualifier 'identifiable' is implicit whenever a reference is made to an activity, agent, or an entity.</p>
</section>
@@ -349,7 +349,7 @@
<section id='section-time-event'>
<h4>Time and Event</h4>
-<p>Time is critical in the context of provenance, since it can help corroborate provenance claims. If an entity is claimed to be obtained by transforming another, then the latter must have existed before the former. If it is not the case, then there is something wrong in such a provenance claim. </p>
+<p>Time is critical in the context of provenance, since it can help corroborate provenance claims. For instance, if an entity is claimed to be obtained by transforming another, then the latter must have existed before the former. If it is not the case, then there is something wrong in such a provenance claim. </p>
<p> Time is critical, but we should also recognize that provenance can be used in many different contexts: in a single system, across the Web, or in spatial applications, to name a few. Hence, it is a design objective of PROV-DM to minimize the assumptions about time, so that PROV-DM can be used in varied contexts. </p>
@@ -419,7 +419,7 @@
actual verification of such temporal constraints is also outside the
scope of this specification. </p>
-<p>PROV-DM also allows for time observations to be inserted in
+<p>PROV-DM also allows for time observations to be inserted in specific
provenance records, for each of the recognized <a>event</a> introduced
in this specification. The presence of a time observation for a
given <a>event</a> fixes the mapping of this <a>event</a> to the
@@ -440,7 +440,7 @@
<section>
<h3>PROV-ASN: The Provenance Abstract Syntax Notation</h3>
-<p>This specification defines PROV-DM, a data model for provenance, consisting of provenance records describing how people, entities, and activities, were involved in producing,
+<p>This specification defines PROV-DM, a data model for provenance, consisting of records describing how people, entities, and activities, were involved in producing,
influencing, or delivering a piece of data or a thing in the world.</p>
<p>This specification also relies on a language, PROV-ASN, the Provenance Abstract Syntax Notation, to express
@@ -467,9 +467,6 @@
[[PROV-SEMANTICS]] and its encoding in the OWL2 Web Ontology Language at [[PROV-O]].
</p>
-<div class='note'>TODO: We need to define the BNF notation. We propose to use the same notation as in [[!OWL2-SYNTAX]]
-(see section <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/2009/REC-owl2-syntax-20091027/#BNF_Notation">BNF Notation</a>).
-</div>
@@ -495,9 +492,6 @@
The data model provides the means to associate attribution to assertions.
</p>
-<div class="note">Suggestion: add "should not attempt to define or ensure the
-consistency of the assertions made by the same asserter."</div>
-
<div class="anexample">
An alternative representation of the above file is a set of blocks in a hard disk.
</div>
@@ -518,14 +512,54 @@
<p>
Sometimes, inferences about the world can be made from representations
conformant to the PROV-DM data model. When this is the case, this
-specification defines such inferences. Hence, representations of the
-world can result either from direct assertions by asserters or from
+specification defines such inferences, allowing new provenance records
+to be inferred from existing ones. Hence, representations of the world
+can result either from direct assertions by asserters or from
application of inferences defined by this specification.
</p>
</section>
+ <section>
+<h3>Grammar Notation</h3>
+
+<p>This specification includes a grammar for PROV-ASN expressed using the Extended Backus-Naur Form (EBNF) notation.</p>
+
+<div class="grammar">
+<p font="normal"> Each rule in the grammar defines one symbol, in the form:</p>
+<p>
+<span class="nonterminal">E</span> := <em>expression</em>
+</p>
+
+
+Within the expression on the right-hand side ofa rule, the follwoing expressions are used to match strings of one or more characters:
+<ul>
+<li>
+<span class="nonterminal">E</span>: matches term satisfying rule for symbol E.
+</li>
+
+<li>
+<span class="name">abc</span>: matches a literal string inside the single quotes.
+</li>
+
+
+<li>
+<span class="optional"><em>expression</em></span>: matches <em>expression</em> or nothing; optional <em>expression</em>.
+</li>
+
+<li>
+<span class="plus"><em>expression</em></span>: matches one or more occurrences of <em>expression</em>.
+</li>
+
+<li>
+<span class="star"><em>expression</em></span>: matches zero or more occurrences of <em>expression</em>.
+</li>
+
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+</section>
</section>
<section id="prov-dm-overview">
@@ -3112,6 +3146,7 @@
<section class="appendix">
<h2>Changes Since First Public Working Draft</h2>
<ul>
+<li>11/29/11: Added section 2.4 on grammar notation. </li>
<li>11/28/11: Changed grammar notation. </li>
<li>11/25/11: Updated examples of section 8. </li>
<li>11/25/11: Definition of namespace. Clarification about interpretation of IRI occurrences. </li>