This document summarizes provenance research activities at Aberdeen including the Policy Grid project, the Informed Rural Passenger project, enhancing sensor data quality assessment using provenance and linked data, and initial findings from a provenance and linked open data mini-theme. It describes using provenance to track workflows, crowd-sourced data, sensor data, and linked open data. Semantic models are developed to represent sensors, observations, platforms, agents and their relationships.

1. An Overview of Provenance
Research Activities at Aberdeen
David Corsar
Contributions from Edoardo Pignotti
and Chris Baillie
David Corsar – dcorsar@abdn.ac.uk

2. Overview
• Policy Grid
– Provenance and policies in a VRE including enhancing
provenance of workflows with intent
• Informed Rural Passenger
– Provenance in crowd-sensing to support trust assessments
• Sensor Data Quality Assessment
– Enhancing through the use of provenance and linked
sensor data
• Provenance and Linked Open Data eSI mini-theme
– Initial findings
David Corsar – dcorsar@abdn.ac.uk

3. PolicyGrid and the ourSpaces VRE
• Developed as part of the PolicyGrid Digital
Social Research Node
• A collaboration environment for scientists
• A means to share scientific resources across a
diverse community
• Integrates aspects of the Social and Semantic
Web (including provenance)

5. PolicyGrid Provenance Framework
OPM Provenance Ontology (Moreau 2010)
Artifact
ProcessRole CausalRelation
Agent
hasCause
hasEffect
hasRole
hasCause
hasEffect
hasCause
hasEffect
foaf:Personsioc:Post
sioc:creatorOf
sioc:about
Intent Ontology
in:Intent
in:wasInfluencedBy
in:Goal
in:Decision
in:Constraint
in:shaped
in:wasBasedOnin:wasMadeBy
FOAF and SIOC Ontologies
Policy
Obligation
Prohibition
Permission
hasObligation*
hasProhibition*
hasPermission*
hasAddressee*
Policy Ontology
hasAuthority*

6. ourSpaces
Informed Rural
Passenger
Environment OpennessClosed Open
Type of Environment

7. Rural Passenger Information System
• Informed
– About “world-state” – predicted and actual
– About travel options
• Rural
– People using transport infrastructure in
rural areas
– Very little/no existing passenger
information systems
• Passengers (the crowd)
– Consumers: information
– Providers: acting as sensors for real time
journey information, provided via their
mobile phone
• Challenge
– Ensuring information provided to people is
reliable, trustworthy, etc.

8. Addressing the Challenges
• Integrate data from
– Operators/Government
• Access points
• Routes
• Timetables
– Passengers
• Observations
• Social network – implicit and explicit
– others
• Add provenance
– Publisher and date of data
– How observations were made and who by
– How social networks evolve
• Build services using this to reason about
– Trust
– Quality

9. Semantic Modelling
ssn:Platform
“iPhone4”
ssn:SensingDevice
“iPhone4GPS_SD”
ssn:SensingDevice
“iPhone4Camera”
ssn:SensingDevice
“iPhone4Mic”
ssn:Property
“longitude”
ssn:Property
“latitude”
ssn:Property
“altitude”
ssn:Property
“speed”
ssn:SensingDevice
“iPhone4WaterSD”
ssn:SensingDevice
“iPhone4Proximity”
ssn:Measurement
Capability
“iP4LongMC”
ssn:Frequency
“iP4LongFreq”
ssn:onPlatform
ssn:observes
ssn:has
Measurement
Capability
ssn:forPropertyssn:has
Measurement
Property
1^^xsd:int
minSeconds
iPhone modelled as a sensor using
Semantic Sensor Network Ontology
ssn:Sensing
“LocationSensing” ssn:implements

10. Additional Information
foaf:Agent
opm:Agent
“David”
foaf:Agent
opm:Agent
“Ed”
foaf:Agent
opm:Agent
“Pete”
opm:Artifact
FrequentlyTravelWith
“fellowTravellers1”
opm:Process
“Find Frequent Fellow
Passengers”
Support development of models/policies for trust, reliability
assessment based on rich description of the data and its provenance
ssn:Observation
opm:Artifact
“Location1”
ssn:SensingDevice
“iPhone4GPS_SD”
ssn:Sensing
opm:Process
“LocationSensing”
ssn:sensingMethodUsed
opm:wasGeneratedBy
ssn:observedBy
opm:wasControlledBy
foaf:
knows
traveller traveller
opm:wasGeneratedBy

11. Informed Rural
Passenger
Chris Baillie’s
work
Sensor and Reasoning Types
Trust, reliability assessments using
data from people, their social
networks, and associated
provenance
Enhancing sensor data quality
assessment using linked data and
provenance

12. Information Quality
in the Web of Linked Sensor Data
• The Web is an open platform
– Anyone can publish anything
• A quality assessment mechanism is essential
to identify reliable information
• The Web is big
– We are exploring these issues in Web of Linked
Sensor Data

13. Enhance Quality Assessment
Context
Raw Sensor Data
Linked Sensor Data
Provenance of Sensor Data
Quality Assessment
Narrow Scope Quality
Assessment
Discover Additional Quality
Indicators
Improve Accuracy
Enhance Performance
DBPediaSSN
Geonames …
OPM Intent
Policies Past QA

14. ssn:Platform
Arduino
ssn:SensingDevice
TemperatureSensor
ssn:onPlatform
ssn:measurement
Capabilities
Accuracy
ssn:hasMeasurementCapability
ssn:measurement
Capabilities
Frequency
ssn:hasMeasurementCapability
ssn:SensorOutput
Observation123
opm:used
ssn:Observation
Value
"24°C"
ssn:hasValue
owl:Time
"1303294111"
ssn:hasSamplingTime
opm:wasGeneratedBy
opm:Agent
"Chris"
opm:Process
Sensing Process
opm:wasControlledBy
Prototype System

15. eScience Institute mini-theme
Provenance and Linked Open Data
• Programme of visitors, workshops, and events
focusing on issues of provenance and linked
open data
• Outcomes:
– Issues relating to provenance and LOD
– Use cases illustrating issues
– Set of principles for publishing provenance of LOD

16. Principles for Publishing Provenance of
Linked (Open) Data
Record and publish provenance of
resources on the web (whatever format)
For every published web resource,
publish its provenance as Linked Data
Publish links or other data that allow
navigation from a resource to its
provenance, and vice versa.
Publish provenance of the links
between a resource and its
provenance

17. Further Information
• Policy Grid
– http://www.policygrid.org
• Informed Rural Passenger
– http://www.dotrural.ac.uk/irp
• Information Quality & Web Linked Sensor Data
– Chris Baillie: http://www.csd.abdn.ac.uk/~cbaillie
• Provenance and Linked Open Data
– http://www.esi.ac.uk/research-themes/18
– http://wiki.esi.ac.uk
Provenance_and_Linked_Open_Data
David Corsar – dcorsar@abdn.ac.uk