The Provenance Markup Language (abbreviated PML; originally called Proof Markup Language) is an interlingua for representing and sharing knowledge about how information published on the Web was asserted from information sources and/or derived from Web information by intelligent agents. The language was initially developed in support of DARPA Agent Markup Language with a goal of explaining how

automated theorem prover Automated theorem proving (also known as ATP or automated deduction) is a subfield of automated reasoning and mathematical logic dealing with proving mathematical theorems by computer programs. Automated reasoning over mathematical proof was a m ...

s (ATP) derive conclusions from a set of

axiom An axiom, postulate, or assumption is a statement that is taken to be true, to serve as a premise or starting point for further reasoning and arguments. The word comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning 'that which is thought worthy or ...

Information Information is an abstract concept that refers to that which has the power to inform. At the most fundamental level information pertains to the interpretation of that which may be sensed. Any natural process that is not completely random, ...

inference Inferences are steps in reasoning, moving from premises to logical consequences; etymologically, the word ''wikt:infer, infer'' means to "carry forward". Inference is theoretically traditionally divided into deductive reasoning, deduction and in ...

steps,

inference rule In the philosophy of logic, a rule of inference, inference rule or transformation rule is a logical form consisting of a function which takes premises, analyzes their syntax, and returns a conclusion (or conclusions). For example, the rule of ...

s, and agents are the three main building blocks of the language. In the context of an inference step, information can play the role of antecedent (also called premise) and conclusion. Information can also play the role of axiom that is basically a conclusion with no antecedents. PML uses the broad philosophical definition of agent as opposed to any other more specific definition of agent. The use of PML in subsequent projects evolved the language in new directions broadening its capability to represent provenance knowledge beyond the realm of ATPs and

automated reasoning In computer science, in particular in knowledge representation and reasoning and metalogic, the area of automated reasoning is dedicated to understanding different aspects of reasoning. The study of automated reasoning helps produce computer prog ...

. The original set of requirements were relaxed to include the following: information originally represented as logical sentences in the

Knowledge Interchange Format Knowledge Interchange Format (KIF) is a computer language designed to enable systems to share and re-use information from knowledge-based systems. KIF is similar to frame languages such as KL-One and LOOM but unlike such language its primary role i ...

were allowed to be information written in any language including the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the ...

; and

inference rules In the philosophy of logic, a rule of inference, inference rule or transformation rule is a logical form consisting of a function which takes premises, analyzes their syntax, and returns a conclusion (or conclusions). For example, the rule of ...

originally defined as patterns over antecedents and conclusions of inference steps were allowed to be underspecified as long as they were identified and named. These relaxations were essential to explain how knowledge is extracted from text through the use of information extraction components. Enhancements were also required to further understand motivation behind the need of automated theorem provers to derive conclusions: new capabilities were added to annotate how information playing the role of

s were attributes as assertions from information sources; and the notion of questions and answers were introduced to the language to explain to a third-party agent why an automated theorem prover was used to prove a theorem (i.e., an answer) from a given set of axioms.

Development history

The first version of PML (PML1) was developed at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...

Knowledge Systems Laboratory Knowledge Systems Laboratory (KSL) was an artificial intelligence research laboratory within the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University until 2007, located in the Gates Computer Science Building, Stanford. Work focused on knowledg ...

in 2003 and was originally co-authored by

Paulo Pinheiro Paulo Pinheiro is a Brazilian American computer scientist working in the areas of provenance and semantic web in support of sciences. Pinheiro has been a research scientist at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute's Tetherless World Constellati ...

, Deborah McGuinness, and Richard Fikes. The second version of PML (PML2) developed in 2007 modularized PML1 into three modules to reduce maintenance and reuse cost:

provenance Provenance (from the French ''provenir'', 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of a historical object. The term was originally mostly used in relation to works of art but is now used in similar senses i ...

, justification, and trust relations. A new version of PML (PML3) based on

World Wide Web Consortium The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working ...

's PROV is under development.

References

{{Reflist

External links

inference-web.org-main page Resources and Information.

PROV-Overview
Markup languages