Provenance Based Retrieval: File Retrieval System Using History of Moving and Editing in User Experience

Most of traditional retrieval keys are the place (folder), name and content of desired files. If a user does not remember these keys, it is difficult for him or her to access desired files. In order to solve this problem, we propose a file retrieval system that is based on provenance. In this paper, provenance means the history of the file's moving and editing that a user has experienced. By recording how and from where a user gets the file, the system enables the user to query, for example, "which files did I get from my teacher yesterday?", "which files did I download from the web page of my college last month?", and "which files did I edit by MS Word last week?" We present a model of provenance and describe how to use provenance as the keys of retrieval and how the system is constructed.