Dynamic provenance for SPARQL updates using named graphs

Abstract

While the (Semantic) Web currently does have a way to exhibit static provenance information in the W3C PROV standards, the Web does not have a way to describe dynamic changes to data. While some provenance models and annotation techniques originally developed with databases or workflows in mind transfer readily to RDF, RDFS and SPARQL, these techniques do not readily adapt to describing changes in dynamic RDF datasets over time. In this paper we explore how to adapt the dynamic copy-paste provenance model of Buneman et al. to RDF datasets that change over time in response to SPARQL updates, how to represent the resulting provenance records themselves as RDF using named graphs in a manner compatible with W3C PROV, and how the provenance information can be provided as a SPARQL query. The primary contribution is a semantic framework that enables the semantics of SPARQL Update to be used as the basis for a `cut-and-paste' provenance model in a principled manner.