This document defines key terms used in the PROV ontology for describing the provenance of entities and activities on the web. It defines agents as things that bear responsibility, entities as physical or conceptual things, and activities as things that occur over time and involve entities. It then defines relationships between these terms, such as an activity being associated with an agent, an entity being generated by an activity, or one activity being informed by another.
2. prov: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.
prov:Entity
An entity is a physical, digital, conceptual, or other kind of
thing with some fixed aspects; entities may be real or
imaginary.
prov: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.
Key Definitions
3. Key Definitions
Entity to Entity
wasInfluencedBy (broad relation)
wasDerivedFrom
hadPrimarySource
wasQuotedFrom
wasRevisionOf
alternateOf
specializationOf
Entity to Agent
wasInfluencedBy (broad relation)
wasAttributedTo
Entity to Activity
wasInfluencedBy (broad relation)
wasGeneratedBy
wasInvalidatedBy
4. Key Definitions
Agent to Entity
(none)
Agent to Agent
actedOnBehalfOf
Agent to Activity
(none)
5. Key Definitions
Activity to Entity
used
wasEndedBy
wasStartedBy
Activity to Agent
wasAssociatedWith
Activity to Activity
wasInformedBy
6. actedOnBehalfOf
An object property to express the
accountability of an agent towards another
agent. The subordinate agent acted on
behalf of the responsible agent in an actual
activity.
Agent to Agent
7. alternateOf
Two alternate entities present aspects of the
same thing. These aspects may be the same
or different, and the alternate entities may or
may not overlap in time
Entity to Entity
8. hadPrimarySource
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.
Entity to Entity
9. used
A prov:Entity that was used by this
prov:Activity.
For example,
:baking prov:used :spoon, :egg, :oven
Activity to Entity
10. wasAssociatedWith
An prov:Agent that had some (unspecified)
responsibility for the occurrence of this
prov:Activity
Activity to Agent
12. wasDerivedFrom
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.
Entity to Entity
13. wasEndedBy
End is when an activity is deemed to have
ended. An end may refer to an entity, known
as trigger, that terminated the activity
Activity to Entity
14. wasGeneratedBy
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.
Entity to Activity
15. wasInfluencedBy
Because prov:wasInfluencedBy is a broad
relation, its more specific subproperties (e.g.
prov:wasInformedBy, prov:actedOnBehalfOf,
prov:wasEndedBy, etc.) should be used
when applicable.
(Activity, Agent, Entity)
16. wasInformedBy
An activity a2 is dependent on or informed by
another activity a1, by way of some
unspecified entity that is generated by a1 and
used by a2
Activity to Activity
17. wasInvalidatedBy
Invalidation is the start of the destruction,
cessation, or expiry of an existing entity by
an activity. The entity is no longer available
for use (or further invalidation) after
invalidation. Any generation or usage of an
entity precedes its invalidation.
Entity to Activity
18. wasQuotedFrom
An entity is derived from an original entity by
copying, or 'quoting', some or all of it
Entity to Entity
19. wasRevisionOf
A revision is a derivation that revises an
entity into a revised version
Entity to Entity
20. wasStartedBy
Start is when an activity is deemed to have
started. A start may refer to an entity, known
as trigger, that initiated the activity.
Activity to Entity
Editor's Notes
The more specific subproperties of prov:wasDerivedFrom (i.e., prov:wasQuotedFrom, prov:wasRevisionOf, prov:hadPrimarySource) should be used when applicable.
The sub-properties of prov:wasInfluencedBy can be elaborated in more detail using the Qualification Pattern. For example, the binary relation :baking prov:used :spoon can be qualified by asserting :baking prov:qualifiedUsage [ a prov:Usage; prov:entity :spoon; prov:atLocation :kitchen ] . Subproperties of prov:wasInfluencedBy may also be asserted directly without being qualified. prov:wasInfluencedBy should not be used without also using one of its subproperties.