representationsource

Representationsource is a term used in knowledge representation and data governance to denote the origin and provenance of a representation—the encoded form of information as it exists within a system. It links a representation to its source, including how it was produced, by whom or what, and under which conditions.

As a metadata construct, a representationsource typically includes: source type such as raw data, sensor, human annotation, or model-generated; provenance lineage showing the sequence of transformations; timestamp and version; confidence scores; and access or usage rights.

In data models and ontologies, Representationsource is modeled as an entity or as properties attached to the representation. This supports traceability, auditing, and reproducibility, and can aid explainability in AI systems by allowing examination of the origin and history of a given representation.

Applications include data integration, data quality assessment, regulatory compliance, scientific reproducibility, and explainable artificial intelligence.

Challenges involve capturing complete provenance, protecting privacy, managing performance overhead, and standardizing metadata schemas across systems.

Example: a temperature reading from a field sensor may carry a representationsource record that includes sensor ID, calibration version, generation timestamp, and the processing steps that yielded the final encoded value.

See also data provenance, data lineage, metadata, and explainable AI.