Re: updates to PAQ doc for discussion

Jim,

Thanks for the example - it clarifies the kind of use-case you are considering. 
  If I may paraphrase, I think you are interested here in reconciling different 
accounts to help understand any unexpected differences that may show up - and I 
can see that a fairly "loose" notion of "view" may be needed here.

The use cases I'm (implicitly) considering are more closely related to 
generation and initial interpretation.  A premise I have here is that provenance 
information MUST be easy to generate at the point that provenance is instigated; 
e.g. workflow instrumentation for provenance capture must be lightweight; this 
implies (for me) that provenance information will be commonly expressed using 
local contextual information - in particular, using a local context-URI.  As a 
result, we could end up with provenance about some resource expressed with 
respect to very localized "views", some of which may be more globally 
applicable, and should be interpretable as such.

Specifically, returning to my example of a W3C specification production process, 
the editor for each revision is captured in the version management system.  What 
relationship between each revision and the overall specification allows me to 
infer that the individual revision editors are also editors of the overall 
document?  Does the more general notion of "view" allow this?  I don't see how, 
but I'm not certain.

Consider also a slightly more complex example, where the specification is 
branched in the repository to allow different editors to work on different 
aspects, then subsequently merged.  Each of the branches has its own revision 
history with editors for each revision, and is also a view of the final 
document.  Can I infer the branch editors are all editors of the final document 
without knowing there is a transitive notion of views in play?

#g
--


Myers, Jim wrote:
> I agree that versioning/hierarchical constraints are a major use case.  But:
> 
> There are use cases beyond that: a location on disk and a file coincide for a while, but both have an independent provenance - neither is a more constrained view of the other. 
> 
> If I can generalize that - I think many of the interesting questions provenance will be able to help with arise when a) someone has made an assumption that nothing happened to their favorite entity except via process executions they know about, b) there's another witness who sees the world differently (different entities, different processes of interest), and c) I find an IVP-of style link.  If I've been watching a disk and see lots of misreads in one area, my provenance about that becomes very interesting to you when we realize that your file was recorded in that area at one point.  In that sense, I think the non-hierarchical relationships may be more important in trying to interpret multiple accounts (or for someone trying to assert something synthesized from multiple observers/sensors). If we control the processing, we like to make things nice and hierarchical, if we don't control it, we get non-hierarchical relationships and we need to use them for debugging/resolving w
hat appear to be paradoxes.
> 
> I could see calling out 'versionOf' as a subtype of 'IVP/ViewOf' as a convenience. (Not sure without thinking further how much that helps me as an interpreter of provenance, but I don't know that is causes any trouble either and may make the 80% case clearer...).
> 
>  Jim
> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Graham Klyne [mailto:Graham.Klyne@zoo.ox.ac.uk]
>> Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 4:08 PM
>> To: Myers, Jim
>> Cc: Khalid Belhajjame; Paul Groth; public-prov-wg@w3.org
>> Subject: Re: updates to PAQ doc for discussion
>>
>> Myers, Jim wrote:
>>>> Jim,
>>>>
>>>> In:
>>>> http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/prov/raw-
>>>> file/default/model/ProvenanceModel.html#concept-IVP-of
>>>> (I note the section anchor still retains the old name :)
>>>>
>>>> I see:
>>>> "we say that A is-complement-of B, and B is-complement-of A, in a
>>>> symmetrical fashion"
>>> But the next section says asymmetric is OK too...
>>>
>>>> By my understanding the original IVPof was not symmetrical.
>>> I would use the open world to claim it was - the existence of some
>> properties where A is more immutable than B doesn't stop the opposite
>> from being true as well...
>>
>> I think that depends on how they are derived.  My working assumption has
>> been that one has a dynamic resource, but to meaningfully express
>> provenance about that resource one has to adopt a constrained view.
>>
>> For example, a W3C specification undergoes a number of revisions, but they
>> are all identified with the same latest-version link. This suggests the
>> specification though its lifetime as a dynamic resource, and particular
>> revisions as constrained views of that resource.  Provenance might be
>> applied to either; e.g. if the creator of the overall resource is Tom, then Tom
>> is also the creator of the various revisions, but the most-recent editor is static
>> only for given revisions.
>>
>> This kind of constraining relation seems useful and natural to me - even in an
>> open world - and reasonably easy to reason about to boot.  But I can't see
>> what useful actionable purpose is served by a relationship like
>> complementOf.  For me, the complexity and impenetrability of the
>> description is inicative of a problem here.
>>
>>>> In the example given there, I think it is claiming that, say, views
>>>> M3 and L2 are complementOf, but I'd say they are not in any IVPof
>> relation.
>>> I would have said IVPof fits this too, but I'm not sure that opinion
>>> was shared. I think the broader, potentially symmetric definition is
>>> what we need,
>> regardless of what the answer was.
>>
>> Interesting - almost the opposite of what I just wrote :)
>>
>> What (practical) *use* do you see in the complementOf relation?  Why might
>> a developer of provenance-handling software care about it?
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> #g
>> --
>>
>>
>>>> Myers, Jim wrote:
>>>>> I hadn't interpreted the name change and lifting of the property
>>>> restrictions as changing the definition as you do it below. Is that
>>>> what is being proposed? To limit complementOf to ~peer relations
>>>> versus simply being a drop-in replacement for IVPof with less
>>>> definition of how properties might relate?
>>>>>  Jim
>>>>>
>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>> From: Graham Klyne [mailto:Graham.Klyne@zoo.ox.ac.uk]
>>>>>> Sent: Friday, August 19, 2011 7:22 AM
>>>>>> To: Myers, Jim
>>>>>> Cc: Khalid Belhajjame; Paul Groth; public-prov-wg@w3.org
>>>>>> Subject: Re: updates to PAQ doc for discussion
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I too find the name unhelpful.  But I'm also concerned about the
>>>>>> form of the definition.  I'm not sure "generality" is the right
>>>>>> aspect, though, as in some ways I see IVPof (to use the old name)
>>>>>> as being more general than complementOf.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Why:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Roughly, using SPARQL, I can use IVPof to locate instances of
>>>> complementOf.
>>>>>> But I can't see how to do the other way.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> e.g.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [[
>>>>>> CONSTRUCT
>>>>>>     { ?v1 complementOf ?v2 }
>>>>>> WHERE
>>>>>>     { ?v1 IVPof ?r ; ?v2 IVPof ?r } ]]
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So from this operational perspective, IVPof is more generally
>> applicable.
>>>>>> (But from another perspective, this is possible because IVPof is
>>>>>> more constraining - less general - that complementOf.  Hence my
>>>>>> comment about generality not necessarily being a helpful
>>>>>> criterion.)
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I find that when I think about provenance being related to an
>>>>>> invariant or less variant view of a resource (e.g. see the
>>>>>> discussion at
>>>>>> http://dvcs.w3.org/hg/prov/raw-file/tip/paq/provenance-
>>>>>> access.html#provenance--context-and-resources),
>>>>>> the notion of IVP is useful.  I have not yet found a case where
>>>>>> talking/thinking about complementOf is useful to me.  Fior this
>>>>>> reason, I prefer having IVPof (or viewOf, or some other name) to
>>>> complementOf.
>>>>>> #g
>>>>>> --
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Myers, Jim wrote:
>>>>>>> I'm complaining about the name 'complement' not the generality of
>>>>>>> the definition. Complementary angles are not different
>>>>>>> characterizations of the same angle, they are different angles
>>>>>>> that create a whole. A wine complements food. Some other term
>> with
>>>>>>> the broader definition would be fine. (BTW: I am beginning to
>>>>>>> think that being able to associate a time interval with the
>>>>>>> relationship would be useful...)
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>  Jim
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>>> From: Khalid Belhajjame [mailto:Khalid.Belhajjame@cs.man.ac.uk]
>>>>>>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 17, 2011 1:31 PM
>>>>>>>> To: Myers, Jim
>>>>>>>> Cc: Paul Groth; Graham Klyne; public-prov-wg@w3.org
>>>>>>>> Subject: Re: updates to PAQ doc for discussion
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Hi Jim
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On 16/08/2011 13:45, Myers, Jim wrote:
>>>>>>>>> As for complementOf - since complement means 'counterpart' and
>>>> has
>>>>>>>>> the
>>>>>>>> notion of not being the same thing - being separate and adding to
>>>>>>>> the thing, I don't think it works as a replacement for IVPof -
>>>>>>>> viewOf doesn't capture everything but would be better than
>>>>>>>> complement in that its English meaning does not conflict ...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I am not sure I understand what you mean. Could you please
>>>> elaborate?
>>>>>>>> The way is complement of is defined seems to me more general that
>>>>>>>> IVP of and also more natural. While IVPof requires that all the
>>>>>>>> immutable attributes of one characterization are subset of the
>>>>>>>> immutable attributes of the other characterization,
>>>>>>>> isComplementOf does not pose this constraint, which is
>>>>>>>> plausible: in practice, when we have two characterizations of an
>>>>>>>> entity, these characterizations are likely to use different set
>>>>>>>> of attributes depending on the observer, and the likelihood that
>>>>>>>> the immutable attributes of one are subset of the immutable
>>>>>>>> attributes of the
>>>>>> second is small.
>>>>>>>> Khalid
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>   Jim
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>>>>>> From: Paul Groth [mailto:p.t.groth@vu.nl]
>>>>>>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 1:21 AM
>>>>>>>>>> To: Myers, Jim
>>>>>>>>>> Cc: Graham Klyne; public-prov-wg@w3.org
>>>>>>>>>> Subject: Re: updates to PAQ doc for discussion
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Hi Jim
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I think<link>  elements in PAQ serve a different purpose the
>>>>>>>>>> semantics is here's how you find me (the resource)  in
>>>>>>>>>> provenance
>>>>>>>> information.
>>>>>>>>>> ComplementOf has a much more constrained meaning.
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> Paul
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Aug 16, 2011, at 3:01, "Myers, Jim"<MYERSJ4@rpi.edu>  wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> But, having introduced the definition in this way, other uses
>>>>>>>>>>> are possible.  The example I've started thinking about is that
>>>>>>>>>>> multiple <link>  elements might indicate different URIs
>>>>>>>>>>> denoting different levels of
>>>>>>>>>> invariance.
>>>>>>>>>>> - why aren't these just IVPof relationships? (I'm not arguing
>>>>>>>>>>> against encoding pil relationships as links, just against
>>>>>>>>>>> adding a
>>>> 'target'
>>>>>>>>>>> concept that duplicates other relationships in the model.)
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Jim
>>>>>>>>>>> ________________________________________
>>>>>>>>>>> From: Graham Klyne [graham.klyne@zoo.ox.ac.uk]
>>>>>>>>>>> Sent: Monday, August 15, 2011 5:38 PM
>>>>>>>>>>> To: Myers, Jim
>>>>>>>>>>> Cc: Paul Groth; public-prov-wg@w3.org
>>>>>>>>>>> Subject: Re: updates to PAQ doc for discussion
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> Myers, Jim wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>> In Issue 46 (http://www.w3.org/2011/prov/track/issues/46),
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Luc raised the point that the scenario we had agreed to
>>>>>>>>>>>>> address included a case where the recipient of a resource
>>>>>>>>>>>>> representation had no way to know its URI for the purposes
>>>>>>>>>>>>> of provenance discovery.  After short discussion, my
>>>>>>>>>>>>> response to this issue was to introduce a new link relation
>>>>>>>>>>>>> type (currently called
>>>>>>>>>>>>> "target") to allow this URI to be encoded
>>>>>>>>>> in the header of an HTML document.
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Does this help?
>>>>>>>>>>>> So this is only used inside an HTML entity?
>>>>>>>>>>> That was the compelling use-case, but once defined, other uses
>>>>>>>>>>> are not
>>>>>>>>>> excluded.
>>>>>>>>>>>> ... I.e. it is not a relationship between two entities, but
>>>>>>>>>>>> is a means to embed an identifier in an entity (for HTML)?
>>>>>>>>>>> Interesting take.  Practically, in the HTML use case, I think
>>>>>>>>>>> I'd have to
>>>>>>>> agree.
>>>>>>>>>>> But I think it is still technically a relation in the same way
>>>>>>>>>>> that owl:sameAs is a relation, even though its semantics tell
>>>>>>>>>>> us that the related RDF nodes denote the same thing.  Like all
>>>>>>>>>>> HTML<link> elements, it defines a relation between the
>>>>>>>>>>> resource of which the containing document is a representation
>>>>>>>>>>> and a resource denoted by the given
>>>>>>>>>> URI.  They may both be the same resource.
>>>>>>>>>>> But, having introduced the definition in this way, other uses
>>>>>>>>>>> are possible.  The example I've started thinking about is that
>>>>>>>>>>> multiple <link>  elements might indicate different URIs
>>>>>>>>>>> denoting different levels of invariance.  If the HTML is a
>>>>>>>>>>> document in a source code management system, one such URI
>>>>>>>>>>> might denote a specific version, and another might denote the
>> "current"
>>>>>>>>>>> version, both of which might reasonably
>>>>>>>>>> be the referent for provenance assertions.
>>>>>>>>>>> These other uses are not reasons that the propoal was
>>>>>>>>>>> introduced, but are just consequences of not placing
>>>>>>>>>>> unnecessary constraints on the use of the existing<link>  feature
>> as defined.
>>>>>>>>>>>> An "ID card" mechanism that would allow me to keep my
>>>>>>>>>>>> rdf:resource URL
>>>>>>>>>> on my physical body so you could connect me to my online
>>>>>>>>>> identity is the same type of thing?
>>>>>>>>>>> Hmmm... I suppose you might think of it like that, but I'm
>>>>>>>>>>> wary of adopting that view as it tends to arbitrarily exclude
>>>>>>>>>>> other possibilities that arguably should flow from this use of
>>>>>>>>>>> the<link>
>>>>>> element.
>>>>>>>>>>> #g
>>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>
>>>
> 
> 

Received on Saturday, 20 August 2011 14:15:50 UTC