Re: Roles

 > Now my earlier argument is that the above could also be expressed with
 > :flourAsProduct and :flourAsIngredient as two entities which are
 > prov:complementOf :flour - but that would not as easily relate the
 > entities to properties of their usage/generation.

That (or something very like that) was my assumed mental model.  Is there 
anything in your more detailed proposal that logically disallows this (i.e. 
:flourAsProduct and :flourAsIngredient are also prov:Entities)?

I would be concerned if all this meant that simple provenance assertions could 
not be expressed simply, without the extra scaffolding which might be desired in 
situations when one wants, e.g. to associate specific views of an entity with 
roles in a PE.

#g
--

On 16/09/2011 10:36, Stian Soiland-Reyes wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 09:37, Khalid Belhajjame
> <Khalid.Belhajjame@cs.man.ac.uk>  wrote:
>
>> The Specialization of Entity into Role, or what I think of as
>> "EntityAssumingAGivenRole", allows to get around this, at least in the case
>> of use and generation. It is a sort of "weak" resource, that cannot exists
>> on its own and that make sense only in the context of the entity it
>> represents and the process execution it is connected to.
>
> I agree on this approach. As such the "EntityAssumingAGivenRole" is
> not a first-class citizen of the PROV language, just a glue class to
> express the n-ary relationship in RDF - and we might not need to
> address it in the abstract model.
>
> (If we should include a class for the Role itself is a separate matter
> - personally I believe we should not, as we don't have much general to
> say about the role, but perhaps use cases would prove otherwise)
>
>
>
> So can an EntityAssumingAGivenRole (or perhaps EntityAssumedRole)  be
> thought of as having the inverse property
>
>   :entityAssumingAGivenRole prov:assumedRoleIn :processExecution
>
> with prov:assumedRoleIn being a functional property so that it can
> only be applied for a single process execution? (ie. for each
> PE/role/entity combination a new EAAGR is needed)
>
>
>> From the EntityAssumingAGivenRole - how do we find the actual "role"
> as defined in the formal model - ie. the "RestaurantCustomer" or
> "Researcher"? Subclass or something more explicit like prov:role ?
> (Subclass would more easily allow the "Researcher in Restaurant in
> Manchester" role, but not as easy to look up)
>
>
>
> Note - I am not challenging the proposal, I believe we need something
> like this, but I'm not sure what to call it or the exact semantics
> intended.
>
>
>
> Strawman example with various made-up prov:properties:
>
> # Flour was purchased and used in baking a bread
>
> :myFlour a prov:Entity ;
>      prov:assumedRole :flourAsProduct, :flourAsIngredient .
>
> :flourAsProduct a prov:EntityAssumingAGivenRole ;
>      a shop:PurchasedProduct ;
>      prov:started "2011-02-15 11:15";
>      prov:ended "2011-02-15 11:20";
>      shop:paidInGBP 1.42 ;
>      food:weightInGrams 1000 ;
>      prov:assumedRoleIn :purchase .
>
> :flourAsIngredient a prov:EntityAssumingAGivenRole ;
>      a food:Ingredient ;
>      prov:started "2011-02-15 15:14";
>      prov:ended "2011-02-15 17:28";
>      food:weightInGrams 500 ;
>      prov:wasGeneratedBy :baking ;
>      prov:assumedRoleIn :baking .
>
>
> :purchase a prov:ProcessExecution, shop:Purchase ;
>      prov:started "2011-02-15 11:12" ;
>      prov:ended "2011-02-15 11:20" .
>
> :baking a prov:ProcessExecution, shop:Baking ;
>      prov:used :flourAsIngredient ;
>      prov:started "2011-02-15 15:10";
>      prov:ended "2011-02-15 17:28" .
>
>
> Now my earlier argument is that the above could also be expressed with
> :flourAsProduct and :flourAsIngredient as two entities which are
> prov:complementOf :flour - but that would not as easily relate the
> entities to properties of their usage/generation.
>
> Above the roles were assumed at different times from the overall
> process. The flour was not the first item to be put in the bag of
> purchased items ("Generated as a purchased product") - and the baker
> added other things before the flour was "Used as an ingredient". (Of
> course the flour existed before it was a purchased product, but then
> it was not :myFlour)
>
> This also shows why properties have to be related to the role
> usage/generation, because I purchased ("generated") 1 kg of flour, but
> only used 500g when baking. (Again a case for prov:complementOf and
> pure entities!)
>
>
> Are we perhaps not inviting to lots of confusion with both approaches
> allowed, or is that a powerful flexibility?
>

Received on Saturday, 17 September 2011 07:20:07 UTC