Sourceparties

Sourceparties refers to the entities that originate or contribute primary data or content within a data-sharing ecosystem. They are the sources of original information, as opposed to downstream consumers who transform, aggregate, or analyze the data. The term is used in data provenance, journalism, and supply-chain contexts to denote the actors responsible for initial claims, measurements, or records.

In data provenance, sourceparties provide raw data or initial observations; provenance systems track associations between sourceparties and data elements, enabling attribution, trust, and auditability. In journalism, sourceparties include interviewees and document authors; in supply chains, manufacturers and suppliers who generate the initial product data or batch records.

Provenance metadata accompanies data to document who produced it, when, under what conditions, and any transformations applied. Standards and models for provenance—such as the W3C PROV family—are commonly used to express relationships among sourceparties, data, and derivatives. Access controls and privacy policies influence how much detail about sourceparties is disclosed.

Governance considerations include data quality, multi-party accountability, and resolving competing attributions. Legal agreements and data-sharing policies govern rights to use, credit, and liability. Technical practices such as signing, versioning, and cryptographic verification help preserve the integrity and traceability of sourceparties.

Related topics include data provenance, data lineage, PROV, provenance metadata, and trust frameworks.