Live Provenance
Esxpration, Demonstration and Support
The Provenance Exploration and Demonstration Support (PEDS) Platform, powered by the Sail Cargo Provence Creator App enables us to establish and explore the provenance of an entity involved in any particular transaction of interest transaction right back to its first transaction in which it was involved, marking that entity's “creation". This trace provides the Historical Entity-Provenance Chain for that entity: a time-ordered sequence of the complete set of transaction records involving the specific entity. In a similar way, we can establish and explore the Historical Agent-Provenance Chain for any agent, acting in sender and/or receiver roles, from the most recent transaction in which they played a role, right back to their earliest transaction recorded in the Ecosystem.
Entity-provenance and agent-provenance chains interact at every transaction in their establishment. Thus we can trace and explore, in any way one wishes, provenance threads (paths through the provenance terrain), involving both persons (agents) and objects (entities) of interest to us. Within the Provenance Tapestry, these threads are woven together, to form the core structure that underpins the investigation, validation and establishment of historical provenance in accord with the general definition of provenance given above.
Fundamentally, historical provenance search, is anchored in the past. It enables us to explore agent and entity provenance threads in the provenance tapestry and authenticating the information about “what actually happened” that is found there.
In this way we improve our appreciation of the provenance of agents and entities that were the focus of our search explorations. However, in this historical context, there is no opportunity for anticipating and improving the actual provenance of these entities and agents, or of the transactions in which they were involved.
So, within the PEDS platform actualised in the Provenance Creator App: enables to investigate the Live provenance relating to, and anchored on any particular transaction of interest , the search may be continued through the material referenced in the transaction record at this location in the provenance tapestry. This material includes:
> Stories relating to the particular entities and agents engaged in the transaction
> Stories expressed as interpretive material in various kinds of media that address “How” and “Why” for a particular transaction.
> Stories relating to the enactment of the transaction in the first place and its consequences.
In this way, live provenance is enhanced for all agents and entites (products/services) in the ecosystem, as are the values of the products/services involved. This generated added value is distributed throughout the ecosystem, where it can also supports, and funds social innovations ensuring that ecosystem operates in a sustainable and flourishing local context.
Customised versions of the Provenance Creator App and Platform may be built for use by participants in a particular Ecosystem, enhancing its sustainability and offering possibilities for social innovation through providing bottom-up support for all Agents involved in creation, safe direct trading and provenance building for products and services (e.g., bespoke product makers/growers, client-finding designing and distribution hubs, specialist retailers (shops, restaurants, community markets etc), and end-users (purchasers).
Here, Live provenance is effected in Transactions all along the supply chain to the end users (usually customers of local specialist retailers) who purchase Entities (top-quality bespoke single-origin products) with Live provenance certification, confirmed by a QR code on their packaging.Scanning these QR codes enables the live provenance of the products in the ecosystem to be explored and enhanced, together with that of the individual creators.