BoDi (Born-Digital) Ontology

A computational procedure, formula, or set of rules designed to perform a specific task or solve a particular problem.

An error condition, unexpected event, or abnormal situation that occurs during the execution of digital preservation processes. Exceptions are important for system monitoring, quality control, and troubleshooting automated workflows.

Represents the physical allocation of a digital file’s data on a storage medium. It captures the material trace of a digital document at the level of bit distribution across clusters or sectors of the device.

A computer program, application, or digital tool that performs specific functions. Software entities are characterized by their functionality, version information, and technical specifications.

• premis:SoftwareAgent ^c
• rico:Mechanism ^c

A modular, reusable part of a software system that provides specific functionality and can be combined with other components to create larger applications.

A collection of mechanisms that performs an Activity together to provide a solution for a specific task.

Technical Description of the Instantiation generated by humans, by artificial intelligence (AI), or through a hybrid approach (AI-generated and human-revised).

• Has Technical Description Type ^op
• Is Technical Description Of ^op
• Revised by ^op
• Confidence score ^dp
• Has human validation ^dp

• Has revised ^op
• Has technical description ^op
• Is Technical Description Type Of ^op

The type of Technical Description, e.g. a description note on the file format.

The actual value or content of technical metadata associated with a digital resource. For example, in 'cp:revision = 1', the value '1' represents the TechnicalMetadata instance, while 'cp:revision' is the Technical Metadata Type. These values describe specific technical characteristics such as format parameters, creation settings, and other measurable attributes.

• Has technical metadata type ^op
• is Technical Metadata Of ^op

• Has Technical Metadata ^op
• Is Technical Metadata Type Of ^op

The type, property, or category that defines what kind of technical metadata is being described. For example, in 'cp:revision = 1', 'cp:revision' represents the TechnicalMetadataType that categorizes the metadata as revision information. This classification enables systematic organization of different kind of metadata like version identifiers, format specifications, encoding parameters, and preservation characteristics.

Group of Technical Metadata Types

• rico:Instantiation ^c
• rico:RecordResource ^c

• Has revised ^op
• Is or was supervisor of ^op

• Has or had supervisor ^op
• Revised by ^op

• Software Stack ^c
• rico:Mechanism ^c

• Exception ^c
• Technical Description ^c
• Technical metadata ^c
• Technical Metadata Type Set ^c

• Entity ^c
• rico:Thing ^c

• Has file cluster position ^op
• Has hash code ^op
• Has same hash code as ^op
• Has Technical Metadata ^op
• Hierarchy depth ^dp

• Has same hash code as ^op
• Is file cluster position of ^op
• Is Hash Code Of ^op
• is Technical Metadata Of ^op

• Algorithm ^c
• Software ^c
• Software component ^c

• Entity ^c
• rico:Thing ^c

• File cluster position ^c
• rico:Activity ^c
• rico:Agent ^c
• rico:Concept ^c
• rico:Extent ^c
• rico:Instantiation ^c
• rico:RecordResource ^c
• rico:Type ^c

• Technical Description Type ^c
• Technical Metadata Type ^c

Indicates that a resource was created, produced, or brought into existence by a specific Agent or Activity. This property establishes a creation relationship between any resource and the agent or activity responsible for its generation, whether through automated processes, human intervention, or hybrid approaches.

Links a logical instantiation of a digital resource to its corresponding physical allocation on the storage medium.

Indicates that an Agent or Activity has created, produced, or brought into existence a specific resource. This property represents the inverse relationship of 'generatedBy', allowing navigation from agents and activities to their generated outputs.

Associates an instantiation with its cryptographic hash code or checksum value. This property is crucial for digital preservation workflows, enabling integrity verification, duplicate detection, and authenticity validation of digital resources over time.

Indicates that an activity is or was supervised, managed, or overseen by a specific Agent. This property captures both current and historical supervisory relationships, essential for tracking accountability and governance in digital preservation workflows.

Connects an Agent to the AI-generated Technical Description that they have revised.

Establishes that two digital instantiations have identical hash codes, indicating they are likely exact digital copies or duplicates.

Indicates that a Software contains or includes a specific Software Component as one of its constituent parts. This property helps model the hierarchical structure of complex software environments.

Indicates that a software stack includes a specific Mechanism as one of its constituent elements. This property allows for modeling the various components (Software, Algorithms, Software Components) that together form a complete technological stack responsible for some Activity.

Connects an Entity to the Storage Location in which it is located.

Links an instantiation to its technical description, which provides detailed information about the technical characteristics, structure, format, or implementation details of the resource.

Connects a Technical Description to a Technical Description Type that defines it.

Associates an Instantiation with technical metadata that describes its technical properties, format specifications, creation parameters, or other characteristics.

Connects a Technical Metadata to its Type

Associates a physical file cluster position with the logical instantiation whose data it stores on the medium.

Associates a cryptographic hash code or checksum value with the instantiation it identifies. This property supports digital preservation workflows by linking the integrity marker back to the corresponding digital resource, ensuring traceability, verification, and authenticity validation.

Indicates that an Agent supervises, manages, or oversees a specific Activity. This property reflects the Agent’s role in providing oversight and guidance, and it is essential for documenting responsibility, authority, and governance within digital preservation workflows.

Indicates that a Software Component is part of a Software as one of its constituent elements. This property supports the representation of hierarchical structures within complex software environments, linking individual components to the encompassing Software.

Indicates that a Mechanism is part of a software stack as one of its constituent elements. This property links individual components (Software, Algorithms, Software Components) to the broader technological stack of which they form a part, supporting the modeling of composite systems responsible for carrying out an Activity.

Connects a Storage Location to the Entity located in it.

Links a technical description to the Instantiation it refers to.

Connects a Technical Description Type to a Technical Description it defines.

Associates a Technical Metadata to the Instantiation it refers to.

Connects a Technical Metadata Type to its related Technical Metadata

Connects an AI-generated Technical Description to the Agent that revised it.

• Has Software Component ^op
• Has stack element ^op

• Has Technical Description Type ^op
• Has technical metadata type ^op

• Is software component of ^op
• Is stack element of ^op

• Is Technical Description Type Of ^op
• Is Technical Metadata Type Of ^op

• Generated by ^op
• Has file cluster position ^op
• Has generated ^op
• Has hash code ^op
• Has revised ^op
• Has Storage Location ^op
• Has technical description ^op
• Has Technical Metadata ^op
• Is file cluster position of ^op
• Is Hash Code Of ^op
• is Storage Location Of ^op
• Is Technical Description Of ^op
• is Technical Metadata Of ^op
• Revised by ^op
• rico:hasOrHadPart ^op
• rico:hasOrHadType ^op
• rico:isInstantiationAssociatedWithInstantiation ^op
• rico:isOrWasPartOf ^op
• rico:isOrWasTypeOf ^op

A numerical value between 0 and 10 indicating the confidence level or reliability of AI-generated text. Higher values indicate greater confidence in the accuracy or quality of the generated content, supporting quality assessment and validation workflows.

Contains the error message or description associated with an exception that occurred during processing. This property is essential for logging, debugging, and understanding failures in automated workflows.

Provides a URI reference to official documentation, specifications, manuals, or other authoritative sources that describe the resource.

Indicates whether AI-generated text has been reviewed, verified, or validated by human experts. This property is crucial for quality assurance in systems that combine automated processing with human oversight.

Specifies the numerical depth level of a resource within a directory or organizational hierarchy, with level 0 representing the root.

Indication of whether or not the resource has been anonymized.

Count of Records with identical content - files sharing the same hash code indicate byte-for-byte identical content.