Provenance Information in the Web of Data

This paper discusses provenance of data on the Web and proposes a suitable provenance model, which represents data access, a dimension of provenance that is particularly relevant in the context of Web data.

Abstract

The openness of the Web and the ease to combine linked data from different sources creates new challenges. Systems that consume linked data must evaluate quality and trustworthiness of the data. A common approach for data quality assessment is the analysis of provenance information. For this reason, this paper discusses provenance of data on the Web and proposes a suitable provenance model. While traditional provenance research usually addresses the creation of data, our provenance model also represents data access, a dimension of provenance that is particularly relevant in the context of Web data. Based on our model we identify options to obtain provenance information and we raise open questions concerning the publication of provenance-related metadata for linked data on the Web.