Provenance XG Final Report

Provenance XG Final Report: "2. What is provenance

Provenance is too broad a term for it to be possible to have one, universal definition - like other related terms such as 'process', 'accountability', 'causality' or 'identity', we can argue about their meanings forever (and philosophers have indeed debated concepts such as identity or causality for thousands of years without converging). Our goal was to develop a working definition reflecting how the W3C Provenance Incubbator Group views provenance in the context of the Web.

To develop this view, we first the activities reported in the rest of this document. That is, we did not start out trying to agree on a definition of provenance but rather the group came to a shared view once we had a common background and context, based on months of discussions.

2.1 A Working Definition of Provenance

Provenance is a very broad topic that has many meanings in different contexts. The W3C Provenance Incubator Group developed a working definition of provenance on the Web:

Provenance of a resource is a record that describes entities and processes involved in producing and delivering or otherwise influencing that resource. Provenance provides a critical foundation for assessing authenticity, enabling trust, and allowing reproducibility. Provenance assertions are a form of contextual metadata and can themselves become important records with their own provenance."