Design Notes

Data Model

• Origins uses models for defining the semantics and structure of how something behaves and is represented in the graph.
• A value is presented as a set of core metadata and optional set of properties. Additional metadata may be supported when a model is applied to the value.
• There are two basic concepts being modeled in Origins, occurrents and continuants.
• An occurrent's identity is defined by it's value (it's attributes), while a continuant retains its identity regardless if it's state and relations change over time. A continuant is logically represented as a series of occurrents.
• In PROV, this corresponds to the Activity and Entity types, respectively. PROV defines Agent as being an Entity or Activity depending on context, but always having a responsibility over the thing it is influencing.

Identifiers

• An uuid uniquely identifies an occurrent
• An id uniquely identifies a continuant

Operations

• An update operation is equivalent to adding an occurrent for an existing continuant. Functionally this means the new occurrent must retain the id.
• From a PROV standpoint, the occurrent is assumed to be derived from one of the previous occurrents.

Dependency Flow

• Change of