Re: ProvenanceContainer (Re: Workflow Example in Formal Model HTML document)

again, a parallel was made yesterday with an XML document, which defines a namespace and then a data structure (tree-structured 
elements) as its payload. In our case, the payload is a set of expressions and the Container / Document also contains the IDs for 
all accounts used in those expressions.

-Paolo


On 9/29/11 10:26 AM, Luc Moreau wrote:
> It's a good point, inline with mine below (not used to make a
> representation of something in the world),
> and also echoed by James in his response to Satya.
>
> Maybe, the origin of the confusion seems to reside in the term
> "container", which makes us
> think about a container in the world.  I am happy to adopt another term
> if more appropriate
> (e.g. ProvenanceBundle, ProvenanceDocument, ....).  Suggestions?
>
> Luc
>
>
>
> On 09/29/2011 09:04 AM, Paolo Missier wrote:
>> HI,
>>
>> Khalid made what I thought was a very good point yesterday, and which
>> was recorded in the skype chat:
>>
>> "If we assert that provenance container is a subclass of Entity, this
>> means that any bundle of provenance assertions characterize a thing,
>> which is not the case."
>>
>> isn't that a key argument?
>>
>> --Paolo
>>
>>
>> On 9/29/11 6:21 AM, Luc Moreau wrote:
>>> Hi Satya,
>>>
>>> A provenance container is not used to make a representation of
>>> something in the World. It is a construct to bundle assertions together.
>>>
>>> An entity expression *is* an assertion.
>>> A provenance container *is not* an assertion but contains assertions.
>>>
>>> I agree with you that your envelope contains letters. Both envelope
>>> and letters are things, one containing the other. That can be
>>> *represented* using collections and containment relationships.
>>>
>>>
>>> Professor Luc Moreau
>>> Electronics and Computer Science
>>> University of Southampton
>>> Southampton SO17 1BJ
>>> United Kingdom
>>>
>>> On 29 Sep 2011, at 03:11, "Satya
>>> Sahoo"<satya.sahoo@case.edu<mailto:satya.sahoo@case.edu>>   wrote:
>>>
>>> Hi Luc,
>>> We were not able to reach an agreement on how ProvenanceContainer is
>>> not a specialized type of Entity during our ontology call on Monday
>>> due to time constraints.
>>>
>>> To help better understand the differences and similarities, I copied
>>> the two definition from PROV-DM to two documents and tried to compare
>>> them side-by-side. The following are the two definitions:
>>>
>>> ===Entity====
>>> In PROV-DM, an entity expression is a representation of an
>>> identifiable characterized thing.
>>>
>>> ===ProvenanceContainer===
>>> A provenance container is a house-keeping construct of PROV-DM, also
>>> capable of bundling PROV-DM expressions. A provenance container is
>>> not an expression, but can be exploited to return all the provenance
>>> assertions in response to a request for the provenance of something
>>> ([PROV-PAQ]).
>>>
>>> According to the two definitions, a provenance container can be an
>>> "identifiable characterized thing" (not being an expression is not a
>>> conceptual constraint). Also, the ability to return all provenance
>>> assertions in response can be applied to an Agent also - similar to a
>>> software agent returning the current stock market quotes.
>>>
>>> Further, if an Entity "contains" provenance assertions it can still
>>> be an "identifiable characterized thing" thereby satisfying our
>>> current definition of Entity.
>>>
>>> During our ontology telcon today Paolo explained that the primary
>>> difference between Entity and Provenance Container is that Provenance
>>> Container can "contain" provenance assertions while Entity are
>>> assumed not to contain assertions. But, this seems to be an
>>> application-specific requirement.
>>>
>>> For example, for a person writing a 3-page letter the three pages
>>> will be instances of Entity and the envelope containing the three
>>> pages will be a container. But for the postal service personnel, who
>>> deal with thousands of envelopes per day, the envelope is an Entity
>>> (and a sack for transporting the envelopes will be a container).
>>>
>>> Hence, I believe the difference between what thing is a
>>> ProvenanceContainer or an Entity is an application-specific
>>> perspective/requirement and there is no fundamental difference
>>> between the two terms - except that Provenance terms seems to be a
>>> specialized form an Entity in the sense that Provenance Container
>>> contains provenance assertions, while an Entity may or may not
>>> contain provenance assertions.
>>>
>>> Paolo suggested that we should bring up this issue to the WG mailing
>>> list - hence I am cc'ing the mailing list also.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> Best,
>>> Satya
>>>
>>>
>>> On Wed, Sep 28, 2011 at 3:58 AM, Luc
>>> Moreau<<mailto:L.Moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk>L.Moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:L.Moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk>>
>>> wrote:
>>> Hi,
>>> I thought we had already discussed this, but I see location as
>>> subtype of entity.
>>> Same issue as with provenance container.  This is not a subtype of
>>> entity.
>>>
>>> Luc
>>> -- 
>>>
>>> Professor Luc Moreau
>>> Electronics and Computer Science   tel:   +44 23 8059
>>> 4487<tel:%2B44%2023%208059%204487>
>>> University of Southampton          fax:   +44 23 8059
>>> 2865<tel:%2B44%2023%208059%202865>
>>> Southampton SO17 1BJ
>>> email:<mailto:l.moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
>>> l.moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:l.moreau@ecs.soton.ac.uk>
>>> United Kingdom<http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~lavm>
>>> http://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~lavm
>>>
>>>
>>


-- 
-----------  ~oo~  --------------
Paolo Missier - Paolo.Missier@newcastle.ac.uk, pmissier@acm.org
School of Computing Science, Newcastle University,  UK
http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/Paolo.Missier

Received on Thursday, 29 September 2011 09:32:04 UTC