• The purpose of this page is to explain how dynamic knowledge data is placed on the dynamic web - i.e. how assertions get from a user to the site knowledge store at which they are based.

• Each assertion begins its life within the global knowledge base at one site knowledge store. All such information is entered and retrieved through pages located at that site using a regular browser in the usual way. From there the value of any assertion may be incorporated into pages as part of their download procedure and copies may be sent to other sites.

Dynamic Web Knowledge Entry Forms and Equivalent APIs

• All information on the dynamic web is entered through a standard dynamic web knowledge entry form that may be included within any web page or by a web application using an equivalent API. The standard for the entry form is necessary so that such forms can be recognized by the dynamic web server-side software such that it knows how to convert each value into an assertion for addition to the local site knowledge store. The equivalent API is essential for portability of web applications.

• The form/API must also include "subject selection criteria " and "knowledge selection criteria including the URI of the property that identifies the type of information being entered. It is up to the designer of each form to ensure that these are adequately presented to the user.

• The way in which the subject URI is determined is a matter for the page designer to decide. In most cases the end user of an entry form would not be expected to know the URI. Instead the "subject selection criteria " would be specified as an expression using values are entered into particular cells within the form.

• The property cited as predicate for an assertion may be a particular variant or version of another, more widely used, property. In such a case it will be defined as sub-type of this 'other' property. In this, and any other case, the user must be able to use the predicate URI of an assertion to access the definition of meaning as understood by its creator at the time it was created. For practical reasons this property should be one that is represented in the local site's subset of the global ontology. To cope in circumstances where this property resource cannot be found locally there must be a facility through which the subscriber cited in any contract can ask the publisher to supply full details of the property cited in that contract.

• Support for multiple versions of a property can be found in RDFS through property sub-typing which allows different sites to create their own subtle variants as required. Anyone in possession of the URI for one version of a property can obtain its sub-types (versions) and decide whether the differences are significant for a specific purpose.

Server-Side Processing

• When a dynamic web knowledge entry form is uploaded, the generic dynamic web server-side software will be called to convert each entered value into the object of an assertion. In doing this the necessary content is derived as follows:
  • The subject URI is derived from the subject selection criteria by search of the site knowledge store.
  • The predicate URI is copied from that cited for the cell concerned as specified in the form definition.
  • The object component is copied from the value entered into the dynamic web knowledge entry form.
  • The context of origin URI is either copied from that cited for the cell concerned as specified in the form definition or it defaults to the site URL.
  • Provenance:
    • The time period is either copied from that cited for the cell concerned as specified in the form definition or defaults to the current time-stamp with no end specified. Where the form definition specifies one or more cells these contain a pair of values which are either:
      • "from time-stamp to time-stamp",
      • "from time-stamp for duration",
      • "from time-stamp with no end specified",
      • "to time-stamp with no start specified",
      • "for duration ending at time-stamp".
    • The ultimate source URI is either copied from that cited for the cell concerned as specified in the form definition or defaults to the site URL.
    • The confidence level URI is either copied from that cited for the cell concerned as specified in the form definition or defaults to null.
    • The site of entry (URL) is always that of the site at which the upload is performed.
    • The time of entry (time-stamp) is always the date and time at which the upload occurs.