Provenance is a public-interest evidence project for turning large document collections into source-linked context that can be reviewed, challenged, and audited.
The project starts from records: documents, media, citations, and the exact regions of evidence that support a piece of context. It is designed to help readers understand where information came from and how it was reviewed.
Provenance is not a place to publish unsupported conclusions. Submissions can be incomplete, disputed, or wrong, so the system keeps uncertainty visible and preserves the review trail around changes.
Work begins with source material. Contributors identify useful evidence, select exact document regions, and describe visible text or possible meanings without treating the submission as settled fact.
Reviewers can approve, reject, request changes, or escalate work. Contestations give disputed records a path for correction. These decisions are preserved so later readers can understand why a record changed.
Relationship maps and timelines should be built from supported evidence context, not from unreviewed claims alone. When something is unresolved, Provenance should keep that limitation visible.
Method in practice
- Find source material and make the evidence easy to inspect.
- Anchor contributions to exact document regions, visible text, and source context.
- Review, challenge, and correct submissions before they become higher-confidence context.
- Use audit history to explain what changed and why.