w3c
Specify 'business process' or 'service goal' in DPV-Tech
It is quite common in commercial practices to categorise technologies as per their use or usefulness towards some 'goals' which are typically business processes. For example, see https://www.appsruntheworld.com/customers-database/categories which has 'purposes' of using that technology towards things such as 'file transfer', 'call management', 'CRM', and so on. These should be reflected in DPV-Tech so that it is more useful and practical.
Edit 2023-11-04: overlap with #121 on specifying dpv:Process as a new concept.
Process should suffice here. In addition hasPurpose and Purpose also work over Technology. AI Act and its Capability provide further distinction between technological operation (capability) and use of technology to achieve a goal (Purpose). So this issue can be closed.
The concept Capability should be useful here e.g. what is the technology capable of? File transfer, analytics, call management, etc. And then the purpose is what that capability is used to achieve e.g. Service Optimisation.
In meeting MAY-08 we discussed this with options such as intent or function. On (me) testing out these terms (they are okay), the issue that came up was that it is quite likely that people will simply use dpv:hasPurpose to describe what the technology is being used for. Linguistically, this is correct, but semantically this means any concept used with this becomes an instance of dpv:Purpose e.g. Encryption will become a purpose. To avoid this, I think we can provide a generic property tech:usedFor that expresses what the technology is being used for (function, purpose, or something else).
Discussed this with Georg using the following use-case: CompanyX provides an email communications (capability) service called MailX through which CompanyY can send newsletters or announcements (purposes). Through DPV, we want to represent information for both the technology/service as well as its use.
The CompanyX graph describes the information that it provides regarding MailX. The new property tech:hasIntendedUse describes what the technology/service is intended to be used for (which is different than its capability). Here intended use can refer to any use, whether a high-level purpose as in the DPV taxonomy, or a technical action such as encryption. It can also be a more detailed description such as a complete dpv:Process with rules.
:MailX a dpv:Service ;
tech:hasProvider :CompanyX ; # entity providing this
tech:hasCapability tech:EmailCommunication ; # what it can do
dpv:hasPersonalData pd:EmailAddress ; # what data is requires
dpv:hasProcessing dpv:Collect, dpv:Store ; # what it does with the data
tech:hasIntendedUse dpv:Marketing ; # what is its intended uses
tech:hasProvisionMethod tech:SaaS . # how it is provided
The CompanyY graph describes two things - first the reasons why it plans to use MailX for, and second the processing activities where MailX is being used. By recording what it plans to use MailX for, it can be compared whether the intended use is compatible with what CompanyX developed the technology for and the difference of Marketing and Customer Care. When using this technology in specific activities, the property isImplementedUsingService is used to indicate use of a service.
:MailX a dpv:Service ;
tech:hasProvider :CompanyX ; # entity providing this
tech:hasCustomer :Company Y ; # entity using this
tech:hasCapability tech:EmailCommunication ; # what it can do
tech:hasIntendedUse dpv:CustomerCare ; # what it is planned to be used for - note the difference
tech:hasProvisionMethod tech:SaaS . # how it is provided
:ProcessA a dpv:Process ;
dpv:hasPurpose dpv:CommunicationForCustomerCare ;
dpv:hasDataSubject dpv:Customer ;
dpv:hasPersonalData pd:EmailAddress ;
dpv:hasProcessing dpv:Share ;
dpv:hasProcessor :CompanyX ;
dpv:isImplementedUsingService :MailX .