--- a/model/ProvenanceModel.html Wed Aug 03 12:23:27 2011 +0100
+++ b/model/ProvenanceModel.html Wed Aug 03 15:02:43 2011 +0100
@@ -307,17 +307,17 @@
<div class='issue'>Data model vs Language. Misc comments raised at <a href="http://www.w3.org/2011/prov/track/issues/62">ISSUE-62</a></div>
-<p>In the world (whether real or not), there are entities, which can be
+<p>In the world (whether real or not), there are things, which can be
physical, digital, conceptual, or otherwise, and activities involving
-entities. Words such thing or activity should be understood with
+things. Words such thing or activity should be understood with
their informal meaning.</p>
<p>Furthermore, this specification is concerned with <em>characterized
-entities</em>, that is, entities and their situation in
+things</em>, that is, things and their situation in
the world, as perceived by their asserters.</p>
<p>
-In the rest of the document, we are concerned with the representation of such entities; their situation in the world will be represented using sets of attributes.
+In the rest of the document, we are concerned with the representation of such things; their situation in the world will be represented using sets of attributes.
</p>
<p>
@@ -666,11 +666,11 @@
<div class="note">We propose to replace the relation "IVP of" with "complement of". The new term is used in the text below to "test" and see how it fits...</div>
-<p><dfn id="IVP-of">IVP of</dfn> is a relationship between two characterized entities asserted to have compatible characterization over some continuous time interval.<br/>
+<p><dfn id="IVP-of">IVP of</dfn> is a relationship between two characterized things asserted to have compatible characterization over some continuous time interval.<br/>
The rationale for introducing this relationship is that in general, at any given time there will be multiple representations of a characterized thing, which are reflected in assertions possibly made by different asserters. In the example that follows, suppose thing "Royal Society" is represented by two asserters, each using a different set of attributes. If the asserters agree that both representations refer to "The Royal Society", the question of whether any correspondence can be established between the two representations arises naturally. This is particularly relevant when (a) the sets of properties used by the two representations overlap partially, or (b) when one set is subsumed by the other. In both these cases, we have a situation where each of the two asserters has a partial view of "The Royal Society", and establishing a correspondence between them on the shared properties is beneficial, as in case (a) each of the two representation <em>complements</em> the other, and in case (b) one of the two (that with the additional properties) complements the other.
<p/>
-This intuition is made more precise by considering the entities that embody the representation of a characterised thing at a certain point in time. an entity, as defined above, exists only as long as all of its attributes do not change their value. As soon as one attribute, say X changes value, say from v1 to v2, the entity no longer exists and is replaced by a new one in which X=v2. Thus, if we overlap the timelines (or, more generally, the sequences of value-changing events) for the two characterised entities, we can hope two establish correspondences amongst the entities that represent them at various points along that events line. The figure below illustrates this intuition.<p/>
+This intuition is made more precise by considering the entities that embody the representation of a characterised thing at a certain point in time. an entity, as defined above, exists only as long as all of its attributes do not change their value. As soon as one attribute, say X changes value, say from v1 to v2, the entity no longer exists and is replaced by a new one in which X=v2. Thus, if we overlap the timelines (or, more generally, the sequences of value-changing events) for the two characterised things, we can hope two establish correspondences amongst the entities that represent them at various points along that events line. The figure below illustrates this intuition.<p/>
<img src="complement-of.png"/>
@@ -903,6 +903,22 @@
<section id="concept-ProvenanceContainer">
<h3>Provenance Container</h3>
+
+<p>A <dfn id="dfn-ProvenanceContainer">Provenance Container</dfn> is an identifiable wrapper for a set of PIL constructs, including other containers, which allows for additional meta-information pertaining to these constructs to be expressed.</p>
+
+<p>Such meta-information may be authorship, date of creation, justification for assertions, and cryptographic signature. </p>
+
+
+<p>A provenance container construct, noted <b>provenanceContainer(id, statements)</b>:
+<ul>
+<li> contains an identifier <b>id</b>;</li>
+<li> contains a set of provenance constructs <b>statements</b>.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>How meta-information is expressed is beyond the scope of this specification, except for asserters specified in the <a href="#concept-Account">Account</a> construct.</p>
+
+
+
<div class="note"> It should be possible for asserters to annotate the container with a description of the justification for the assertions it contains, as well as additional meta-information, such as authorship of the assertions.</div>
<div class='issue'>Asserter needs to be defined. This is <a href="http://www.w3.org/2011/prov/track/issues/51">ISSUE-51</a>.</div>
@@ -911,10 +927,22 @@
</section>
-<section id="concept-ViewsOrAccount">
-<h3>View Or Account</h3>
+<section id="concept-Account">
+<h3>Account</h3>
-<p> an account is a set of assertions, forming a perspective on the world.</p>
+<p>An <dfn id="dfn-Account">Account</dfn> is a kind of provenance container forming a perspective on the world. </p>
+
+<p>It is expected that an account offers some coherence and consistency from the viewpoint of its asserter, and in that sense is distinct from an arbitrary container. Hence, an account has a mandatory asserter.</p>
+
+
+<p>An account construct, noted <b>account(id, asserter, statements)</b>:
+<ul>
+<li> contains an identifier <b>id</b>;</li>
+<li> refers to an agent <b>asserter</b>;</li>
+<li> contains a set of provenance statements <b>statements</b>.</li>
+</ul>
+</p>
+
</section>
<section id="concept-Collection">