Provenance concepts

Chronicle uses the W3C Provenance Ontology as the basis for provenance modeling. We present here a summary of the concepts used and their corresponding mutations and GraphQL query structure.

Activity

An activity is something that occurs over a period of time and acts upon or with entities; it may include consuming, processing, transforming, modifying, relocating, using, or generating entities. Just as entities cover a broad range of notions, activities can cover a broad range of notions: information processing activities may for example move, copy, or duplicate digital entities; physical activities can include driving a car between two locations or printing a book.

Activities in Chronicle can be subtyped and contain attributes, specified by the domain model. Activities can be recorded using the typed activity mutations or can be left untyped.

Agent

An agent is something that bears some form of responsibility for an activity taking place, for the existence of an entity, or for another agent's activity.

Agents in Chronicle can be subtyped and contain attributes, specified by the domain model agents section. Agents can be recorded using the typed agent mutations or left untyped.

Association

An activity association is an assignment of responsibility to an agent for an activity, indicating that the agent had a role in the activity.

Delegation

Delegation is the assignment of authority and responsibility to an agent (by itself or by another agent) to carry out a specific activity as a delegate or representative, while the agent it acts on behalf of retains some responsibility for the outcome of the delegated work. For example, a student acted on behalf of his supervisor, who acted on behalf of the department chair, who acted on behalf of the university; all those agents are responsible in some way for the activity that took place but we do not say explicitly who bears responsibility and to what degree.

Derivation

A derivation is a transformation of an entity into another, an update of an entity resulting in a new one, or the construction of a new entity based on a pre-existing entity.

Chronicle allows the three standard prov subtypes of derivation: Primary Source, Quotation, and Revision.

Entity

In PROV, things we want to describe the provenance of are called entities and have some fixed aspects. The term "things" encompasses a broad diversity of notions, including digital objects such as a file or web page, physical things such as a mountain, a building, a printed book, or a car, as well as abstract concepts and ideas. An entity is a physical, digital, conceptual, or other kind of thing with some fixed aspects; entities may be real or imaginary.

Entities in Chronicle can be subtyped and contain attributes, specified by the domain model. Entities can be recorded using the typed entity mutations or can be left untyped.

Generation

Generation is the completion of production of a new entity by an activity. This entity did not exist before generation and becomes available for usage after this generation.

Primary Source

A primary source for a topic refers to something produced by some agent with direct experience and knowledge about the topic, at the time of the topic's study, without benefit from hindsight. Because of the directness of primary sources, they "speak for themselves" in ways that cannot be captured through the filter of secondary sources. As such, it is important for secondary sources to reference those primary sources from which they were derived, so that their reliability can be investigated. A primary source relation is a particular case of derivation of secondary materials from their primary sources. It is recognized that the determination of primary sources can be up to interpretation and should be done according to conventions accepted within the application's domain.

Quotation

A quotation is the repeat of (some or all of) an entity, such as text or image, by someone who may or may not be its original author. Quotation is a particular case of derivation.

Revision

A revision is a derivation for which the resulting entity is a revised version of some original. The implication here is that the resulting entity contains substantial content from the original. Revision is a particular case of derivation.

Start and End

Start

Start is when an activity is deemed to have been started by an entity, known as trigger. The activity did not exist before its start. Any usage, generation, or invalidation involving an activity follows the activity's start. A start may refer to a trigger entity that set off the activity, or to an activity, known as starter, that generated the trigger.

End

End is when an activity is deemed to have been ended by an entity, known as trigger. The activity no longer exists after its end. Any usage, generation, or invalidation involving an activity precedes the activity's end. An end may refer to a trigger entity that terminated the activity, or to an activity, known as ender that generated the trigger.

Usage

Usage is the beginning of utilizing an entity by an activity. Before usage, the activity had not begun to utilize this entity and could not have been affected by the entity.