Widelyfrom

Widelyfrom is a term used in information theory and data provenance to describe a property of content that aggregates input from a broad and diverse set of sources. It signals breadth of origin rather than depth of a single source and is often used in analyses of data fusion, knowledge graphs, and digital content ecosystems.

The term emerged in scholarly discussions on data provenance in the early 2020s, combining widely (broadly) and from (origin). It was proposed to capture the notion of distributed influence across many sources.

A dataset, document, or piece of content is described as widelyfrom when its inputs, references, or influences come from a large number of distinct sources, typically across domains, languages, or geographies. The degree of widelyfrom can be quantified by metrics such as the number of unique source domains, geographic dispersion, and cross-domain counts, often represented in a provenance graph.

Widelyfrom is used to assess diversity of influence and resilience of information. In content analysis, a widelyfrom item may indicate broad relevance or, conversely, potential complexity in traceability.

Examples: A research article citing 150 journals across 30 countries is described as widelyfrom. A news aggregator that compiles content from thousands of independent outlets across continents can also be labeled widelyfrom.

See also: data provenance, source diversity, cross-domain data fusion, information diversity, provenance graphs.