Provenance Information
in the Web of Data
Olaf Hartig
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
http://olafhartig.de/foaf.rdf#olaf

Provenance of a data item: information about the history
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Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 2

Provenance of a data item: information about the history
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Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 3

Provenance of a data item: information about the history
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Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 4

Outline
Towards a model of
Web data provenance
Provenance information
in the Web of data today
Upcoming
tasks
Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 5

Existing Provenance Research
Main research areas: (scientific) workflows, DBMSs
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General focus:
●
data creation
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Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 10

Web data provenance
comprises
two dimensions:
Data Creation • Data Access
Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 11

Basics of the Provenance Model
Provenance graph describes provenance of a data item
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Nodes: provenance elements – pieces of provenance info
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Edges: relate provenance elements to each other
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Subgraphs for related data items possible
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Basics of the Provenance Model
Provenance model defines:
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Types of provenance elements
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Relationships
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Basics of the Provenance Model
Provenance model defines:
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Types of provenance elements
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Relationships
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High level of abstraction (only main element types)
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Basics of the Provenance Model
General differentiation:
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Actors
Executions
Artifacts
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Data Access Dimension
Data Item
Data Accessor
(Non-Human)
contains
Information Resource
Access Time
Data Access
Data Providing Service
(Non-Human)
controls
uses
Service Provider
Data Publisher
(Human)
Relation to
the provided Information
Resource
Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 16

Data Access Dimension cont.
owns
Public Key
Signer
Relation to
the signed Data Integrity Assurance
Digital Signature
signs
Verification Result
(Signed)
Artifact
Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 17

Data Creation Dimension
Provenance
Information
Source Data
Provenance
Creation Time
Information
Creation Guidelines
Data Creator
Data Creation
(Human or Non-human)
{complete,disjoint}
Data Creating Device
(e.g. Sensor) Data Item
Data Creating Service
(e.g. Software Agent) part of
Provenance
responsible for responsible for
Data Creating Entity Information
(e.g. Person, Group, Orga.)
(Encompassing)
Data Item
Relation to
Olaf Hartig created Data
the - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 18

Provenance information
in the Web of data today
Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 19

Provenance-related Vocabularies
DC – Dublin Core Metadata Terms
FOAF – Friend of a Friend
SIOC – Semantically-Interlinked Online Communities
SWP – Semantic Web Publishing vocabulary
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WOT – Web of Trust schema
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OMV – Ontology Metadata Vocabulary
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PML – Proof Markup Language
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Changeset vocabulary
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Ouzo Provenance Ontology
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Provenance-related Vocabularies
DC – Dublin Core Metadata Terms
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Provenance-related Vocabularies
DC – Dublin Core Metadata Terms
dc:creator
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dc:contributor
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dc:source
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dc:created
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dc:modified
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dc:publisher
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dc:provenance
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Provenance-related Vocabularies
DC – Dublin Core Metadata Terms
dc:creator
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dc:contributor
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dc:source
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dc:created
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dc:modified
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dc:publisher – “an entity responsible for making the
●
resource available”
dc:provenance
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Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 23

Provenance-related Vocabularies
DC – Dublin Core Metadata Terms
dc:creator
●
Data Access
dc:contributor
●
Data Providing Service
dc:source
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(Non-Human)
controls
uses
dc:created Publisher Service Provider
●
Data
(Human)
dc:modified
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dc:publisher – “an entity responsible for making the
●
resource available”
dc:provenance
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Main Issues Today
Vocabularies:
●
Partly unsuitable
●
Lack of certain features
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Coverage of provenance model impossible
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Provenance-related Vocabularies
DC – Dublin Core Metadata Terms
Property Occurrences*
dc:creator about 24,284
dc:contributor 476
dc:source about 3,631
dc:created about 82,720
dc:modified about 12,020
dc:provenance 7
*Measured by querying Sindice; Feb. 7, 2009 (by that
time Sindice indexed about 48,99 million documents)
Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 26

Main Issues Today
Vocabularies:
●
Partly unsuitable
●
Lack of certain features
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Coverage of provenance model impossible
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General lack of provenance-related metadata
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on the Web of data
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Possible Reasons
Lack of suitable vocabularies
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Lack of usable tools
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Ignorance / lack of sensitization
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Upcoming
tasks
Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 29

Address the Issues
Let's develop a vocabulary for Web data provenance
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Proposal: refine the presented provenance model
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Integrate existing vocabularies for specific types of
●
provenance elements
Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 30

Address the Issues
Let's develop a vocabulary for Web data provenance
●
Proposal: refine the presented provenance model
●
Integrate existing vocabularies for specific types of
●
provenance elements
Let's develop usable tools for data providers
●
Edit and publish provenance-related metadata
●
Automatic generation if possible
●
Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 31

Address the Issues
Let's develop a vocabulary for Web data provenance
●
Proposal: refine the presented provenance model
●
Integrate existing vocabularies for specific types of
●
provenance elements
Let's develop usable tools for data providers
●
Edit and publish provenance-related metadata
●
Automatic generation if possible
●
Let's raise awareness of data providers
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Probably the hardest task
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Maybe voiD can help
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Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 32

Thank you!
Olaf Hartig
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
http://olafhartig.de/foaf.rdf#olaf

These slides have been created by
Olaf Hartig
http://olafhartig.de
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)
Attribution:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrenalin/3032734/
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http://www.hasslefreeclipart.com
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/dullhunk/428079229/
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/darwinbell/1337963794/
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/alandd/2780700767/
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/simeon_barkas/2872099696/
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/robinh00d/122544491/
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/adrenalin/3032747/
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Olaf Hartig - Provenance Information in the Web of Data 34