First draft of changes to remove directionality of provenance pingback (previously described as forward provenance)
authorGraham Klyne
Tue, 26 Mar 2013 20:15:18 +0000
changeset 5996 4c62e1f97edd
parent 5979 cd9d155c1be3
child 5997 0dcbb7275a70
First draft of changes to remove directionality of provenance pingback (previously described as forward provenance)
paq/prov-aq.html
--- a/paq/prov-aq.html	Mon Mar 25 16:15:17 2013 +0000
+++ b/paq/prov-aq.html	Tue Mar 26 20:15:18 2013 +0000
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@
             Provenance query mechanisms that may be used for more demanding deployments are described in <a href="#provenance-query-services" class="sectionRef"></a>.
           </li>
           <li>
-            A simple "ping-back" mechanism allowing for discovery of "forward provenance" (i.e. provenance about future entities that are based upon or influenced by a resource) is described in <a href="#forward-provenance" class="sectionRef"></a>.
+            A simple "ping-back" mechanism allowing for discovery of additional provenance that would otherwise be unknown to the publisher of the resource (e.g. provenance about future entities that are based upon or influenced by a resource) is described in <a href="#provenance-pingback" class="sectionRef"></a>.
           </li>
         </ul>
       <p>
@@ -305,13 +305,9 @@
             <dd>
               the URI of a <a class="internalDFN">provenance query service</a>.
             </dd>
-            <dt><a href="#dfn-forward-provenance"><dfn>Forward provenance</dfn></a></dt>
-            <dd>
-              provenance describing how a resource is used after it has been created
-            </dd>
             <dt><a href="#dfn-pingback-uri"><dfn>Pingback-URI</dfn></a></dt>
             <dd>
-              the URI of a provenance pingback service that can receive references to <a class="internalDFN">forward provenance</a>.
+              the URI of a provenance pingback service that can receive references to additional provenance related to an entity.
             </dd>
             <dt><a href="#dfn-accessing"><dfn>Accessing</dfn></a> provenance records</dt>
             <dd>
@@ -939,15 +935,15 @@
 <!-- ==== Section 5 ===================================================================================== -->
 
     <section>
-      <h2>Forward provenance</h2>
+      <h2>Provenance pingback</h2>
       <p class="TODO">
-        REVIEW.  This section describes an "at-risk" feature whose final inclusion in this document is undecided.  Does the use of a "ping-back" for discovering forward provenance fall under the remit of "provenance access and query"?  Is it a useful feature to define?
+        REVIEW.  This section describes an "at-risk" feature whose final inclusion in this document is undecided.  Does the use of a "ping-back" for discovering additional provenance fall under the remit of "provenance access and query"?  Is it a useful feature to define?
       </p>
       <p>
-        This section describes a discovery mechanism for <a href class="internalDFN">forward provenance</a>; i.e. provenance describing how a resource is used after it has been created .
+        This section describes a discovery mechanism for related provenance information that the publisher of a resource does not otherwise know about; e.g. provenance describing how it is used after it has been created.
       </p>
       <p>
-        The mechanisms discussed in previous sections are primarily concerned with access to historical provenance, dealing with questions such as:
+        The mechanisms discussed in previous sections are primarily concerned with the publisher enabling access to known provenance about an entity, answering with questions such as:
       </p>
       <ul>
         <li>what was this resource based upon?</li>
@@ -956,19 +952,20 @@
         <li>when was it made?</li>
       </ul>
       <p>
-        These questions can be turned around to consider a publisher's forward-looking use of a resource, like:
+        These questions can be opened up to consider provenance information created by unrelated third parties, like:
       </p>
       <ul>
         <li>what new resources are based on this resource?</li>
         <li>what has this resource been used for?</li>
         <li>who has used it?</li>
+        <li>what other resources are derived from the same sources as this resource?
         <li><i>etc.</i></li>
       </ul>
       <p>
-        The ability to answer forward-looking questions requires some cooperation among the parties who use a resource; for example, a consumer could report use directly to the publisher, or a search engine could discover and report such downstream resource usage.  To facilitate such cooperation, a publisher of a resource may implement a "ping-back" capability.
+        The ability to answer such broader questions requires some cooperation among the parties who use a resource; for example, a consumer could report use directly to the publisher, or a search engine could discover and report downstream resource usage.  To facilitate such cooperation, a resource publisher may receive "ping-back"s.
       </p>
       <p>
-        A resource may have an associated "ping-back" URI which can be presented with references to provenance about the resource.  The ping-back URI is associated with a resource using mechanisms similar to those used for presenting a <a class="internalDFN">provenance-URI</a>, but using a <code>pingback</code> link relation instead of <code>has_provenance</code>.  A consumer of the resource, or some other system, may perform an HTTP POST operation to the pingback URI, with a request body containing a list of provenance-URIs for provenance records describing uses of the resource.
+        A resource may have an associated "ping-back" URI, which may be presented with references to provenance about the resource.  The ping-back URI is associated with a resource using mechanisms similar to those used for presenting a <a class="internalDFN">provenance-URI</a>, but using a <code>pingback</code> link relation instead of <code>has_provenance</code>.  A consumer of the resource, or some other system, may perform an HTTP POST operation to the pingback URI, with a request body containing a list of provenance-URIs for provenance records describing uses of the resource.
       </p>
       <p>
         For example, consider a resource that is published by <code>acme.example.com</code>, and is subsequently used by <code>wile-e.example.org</code> in the construction of some new entity;  we might see an exchange along the following lines.  We start with <code>wile-e.example.org</code> retrieving a copy of <code>acme.example.org</code>'s resource:
@@ -1007,7 +1004,7 @@
            anchor=http://acme.example.org/super-widget
         -->
       <p>
-        The pingback request supplies a list of <a class="internalDFN">provenance-URI</a>s from which forward provenance may be retrieved.  The pingback service may do as it chooses with these URIs; e.g., it may choose to save them for later use, to retrieve the associated provenance and save that, to publish the URIs along with other provenance information about the original entity to which they relate, or even to ignore them.
+        The pingback request supplies a list of <a class="internalDFN">provenance-URI</a>s from which additional provenance may be retrieved.  The pingback service may do as it chooses with these URIs; e.g., it may choose to save them for later use, to retrieve the associated provenance and save that, to publish the URIs along with other provenance information about the original entity to which they relate, or even to ignore them.
       </p>
       <p>
         The client MAY further supply <code>has_query_service</code> links indicating provenance query services that can describe the target-URI. The anchor MUST be included, and SHOULD be the target-URI of the resource to which this pingback service belongs, or some related resource with relevant provenance.
@@ -1129,9 +1126,6 @@
         The editors acknowledge the contribution and review from members of the W3C Provenance working group for their feedback throughout the development of this specification.
       </p>
       <p>
-        The provenance query service description and forward provenance specifications are substantially based on proposals by Stian Soiland-Reyes (University of Manchester).
-      </p>
-      <p>
         Thanks to Robin Berjon for making our lives easier with his <a href="http://dev.w3.org/2009/dap/ReSpec.js/documentation.html" class="externalRef">ReSpec</a> tool.
       </p>
     </section>
@@ -1187,7 +1181,7 @@
         </tr>
         <tr style="vertical-align: top;">
           <td><code>pingback</code></td>
-          <td>Relates a resource to a provenance pingback service that may receive forward provenance links about the resource.</td>
+          <td>Relates a resource to a provenance pingback service that may receive additional provenance links about the resource.</td>
           <td><a href="#forward-provenance" class="sectionRef"></a></td>
         </tr>