Re: Formal semantics draft

Luc, comment below...

On 22/12/2011 16:40, Luc Moreau wrote:
> Hi James,
>
> Thanks for drafting the semantics, it will help us pin down issues in
> the data model.
>
> I have a few general questions first, about the alignment of the
> semantics and the data model.
>
> As agreed in the call, I am sharing them by email.
>
> 1. PROV-DM identifies three levels
> 1. things in the world
> 2. entities, which are characterized things
> 3. entity records, which are the records we create as part of a provenance record

> It seems that things are not mentioned in your document. I believe they are
> important to define specialization/alternates

My discussions with Paolo about viewOf/specializationOf/complementOf suggest to 
me that there may be no clear formal distinction between things and entities, 
and that the notion of things (aka "Real World Things"?) is mainly a rhetorical 
device to explain the intent of the relationships.

An alternative might be to note that "things" are those "entities" that are not 
themselves views (or specializations) of any other entity.  But I'm not sure 
that such a definition actually has any utility.

#g
--

Received on Tuesday, 3 January 2012 14:32:24 UTC