What would be the most useful way to display data provenance on an open data site? Overarching statements on the site seem to be limited in that amongst many datasets, at least some will likely have data gaps or problems. In other cases, an open data site might be displaying data from many sources, with varying quality or trust.
Is putting provenance information in the metadata of each dataset sufficient or would some graphical notation (e.g., Sir Tim Berners-Lee's 5 star data) be helpful? If either is true, which aspects of provenance are most important to validate?
Notes:
- The W3C provides a description of provenance.
- @Igelkott asked about how to validate the authenticity of open data, but this question is focused on how to clearly display verified data.
- Disclaimer: I am the Evangelist for Data.gov.