§ Terminology Governance Guide

Specification Status: v0.8 Draft

Latest Draft:

https://github.com/henkvancann/terminology-governance-guide

Editors:

Contributors:

Participate:

In the Guide: It’s mainly a summary of activities and decisions of CTWG in 2024; editor: Henk van Cann

Template improvements:

GitHub repo

Commit history

§ Status of This Memo

The document structure is based on Spec-Up-T.

The home Github repository from which this Guide is currently generated is https://github.com/trustoverip/ctwg-terminology-governance-guide.

This document is a guide for spec authors (content authors and terminology authors) and a description of how the tooling is designed a supposed to work. The normative section is aimed at developers of the specification template mentioned above.

This specification is subject to the OWF Contributor License Agreement 1.0 - Copyright available at https://www.openwebfoundation.org/the-agreements/the-owf-1-0-agreements-granted-claims/owf-contributor-license-agreement-1-0-copyright.

If source code is included in the specification, that code is subject to the Apache 2.0 license unless otherwise marked. In the case of any conflict or confusion within this specification between the OWF Contributor License and the designated source code license, the terms of the OWF Contributor License shall apply.

These terms are inherited from the Concepts and Terminology Working Group at the Trust over IP Foundation. Working Group Home

§ Terms of Use

These materials are made available under and are subject to the OWF CLA 1.0 - Copyright & Patent license. Any source code is made available under the Apache 2.0 license.

THESE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS.” The Trust Over IP Foundation, established as the Joint Development Foundation Projects, LLC, Trust Over IP Foundation Series (“ToIP”), and its members and contributors (each of ToIP, its members and contributors, a “ToIP Party”) expressly disclaim any warranties (express, implied, or otherwise), including implied warranties of merchantability, non-infringement, fitness for a particular purpose, or title, related to the materials. The entire risk as to implementing or otherwise using the materials is assumed by the implementer and user. IN NO EVENT WILL ANY ToIP PARTY BE LIABLE TO ANY OTHER PARTY FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY FORM OF INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER FROM ANY CAUSES OF ACTION OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THESE MATERIALS, ANY DELIVERABLE OR THE ToIP GOVERNING AGREEMENT, WHETHER BASED ON BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

§ RFC 2119

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a large open international community of network designers, operators, vendors, and researchers concerned with the evolution of the Internet architecture and to ensure maximal efficiency in operation. IETF has been operating since the advent of the Internet using a Request for Comments (RFC) to convey “current best practice” to those organizations seeking its guidance for conformance purposes.

The IETF uses RFC 2119 to define keywords for use in RFC documents; these keywords are used to signify applicability requirements. ToIP has adapted the IETF RFC 2119 for use in the Terminology Specification Guide, and therefore its applicable use in ToIP-compliant governance frameworks.

The RFC 2119 keyword definitions and interpretation have been adopted. Those users who follow these guidelines SHOULD incorporate the following phrase near the beginning of their document: The key words “MUST”, “MUST NOT”, “REQUIRED”, “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “RECOMMENDED”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119.

RFC 2119 defines these keywords as follows:

Requirements include any combination of Machine-Testable Requirements and Human-Auditable Requirements. Unless otherwise stated, all Requirements MUST be expressed as defined in RFC 2119.

An implementation which does not include a particular option MUST be prepared to interoperate with other implementations which include the option, recognizing the potential for reduced functionality. As well, implementations which include a particular option MUST be prepared to interoperate with implementations which do not include the option and the subsequent lack of function the feature provides.

| TBW a table of contents |

§ Foreword

This publicly available specification was approved by the ToIP Foundation Steering Committee on [dd month yyyy must match date in subtitle above]. The ToIP permalink for this document is:

[permalink for this deliverable: see instructions on this wiki page]

The mission of the Trust over IP (ToIP) Foundation is to define a complete architecture for Internet-scale digital trust that combines cryptographic assurance at the machine layer with human accountability at the business, legal, and social layers. Founded in May 2020 as a non-profit hosted by the Linux Foundation, the ToIP Foundation has over 400 organizational and 100 individual members from around the world.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

This document was prepared by the ToIP Concepts and Terminology Working Group.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to https://github.com/trustoverip/specification/issues

THESE MATERIALS ARE PROVIDED “AS IS.” The Trust Over IP Foundation, established as the Joint Development Foundation Projects, LLC, Trust Over IP Foundation Series (“ToIP”), and its members and contributors (each of ToIP, its members and contributors, a “ToIP Party”) expressly disclaim any warranties (express, implied, or otherwise), including implied warranties of merchantability, non-infringement, fitness for a particular purpose, or title, related to the materials. The entire risk as to implementing or otherwise using the materials is assumed by the implementer and user. IN NO EVENT WILL ANY ToIP PARTY BE LIABLE TO ANY OTHER PARTY FOR LOST PROFITS OR ANY FORM OF INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER FROM ANY CAUSES OF ACTION OF ANY KIND WITH RESPECT TO THESE MATERIALS, ANY DELIVERABLE OR THE ToIP GOVERNING AGREEMENT, WHETHER BASED ON BREACH OF CONTRACT, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER OR NOT THE OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

§ Executive Summary

This guide is a governance manual of our concepts & terminology for groups/scopes within ToIP and ToIP.

§ Conclusion

Governing terminology is akin to herding cats — seemingly impossible. We tried our best.

§ Introduction

The Terminology Governance Guide is a 2024 guide of assimilated expertise within Trust-over-IP about Concepts and Terminology. Its objective is to offer a comprehensive description of various data stores, tools, and processes to manage terminology consistently and reproducibly—the process intends to keep track of who did what in which role.

The Spec-Up-T builders described the roles in the documentation of Spec-Up-T.

This guide has a brief history in the annex.

§ Scope

This guide uses open-source technology as much as possible and sticks to best-of-breed tools:

In 2024 we phased out:

In 2024 we postponed:

§ Roadmap

How do TEv2, Spec-Up, and KERISSE relate? The goal is unification, and we prevent reinventing tools already in place.

The issue of unification is currently open, but this guide might solve it with further designs. A sequence-numbered roadmap to unification (presuming that that’s the goal) can be found below.

We plan to unify KERISSE with Spec-Up-T and its governance. This step means the github wiki-based source management of term definitions will be dropped. Like the CTWG Main Glossary, there will be a KERI glossary that xrefs to the Main ToIP glossary for all general and SSI terminology.

§ Terminology design aids

This chapter addresses the hard work needed when designing terminologies.

In the process of designing term definitions and trying to achieve consensus over them, an often-heard remark is:

"Please let me just write my document and add some glossary items and we’re done.

Let’s skip all the academic hassle about meaning, concepts, artifacts and what have we. Let’s get some work done!”

§ Do not proceed if you want to skip the nerdy stuff

The reason why we can’t skip terminology design is devastatingly fundamental:

If communication and understanding each other were easy, we could leave the hard part out.

But we must remember the terminology design if we want to convey a (new) concept and make sense to others.

WARNING

Since we’ve just told you, you can only knowingly neglect the duty of designing proper terminology.

Do not proceed with this chapter if you’re a sender; only send or broadcast.

You need to understand first to be understood.

§ One-word solution (trailer)

WARNING

Hold your breath for the magic word, the solution for everything in terminology design!

But first, we have to make a small but significant detour! And that is:

Why are we doing this?!

§ Who benefits

Who are we doing this for, what can this person do with it, and what is the unique result?

Will you be faster and better at writing texts? Will you be better understood by a larger audience?

The brief answer is yes. Just imprint this paragraph for more backing:

§ Why are we doing this?

Authors and curators of texts can follow this guideline for terminology design in order to create their terminology, invent smart criteria to distinguish their concepts from others, thereby identifying their own concepts clearer, understand their peers better, and finally be understood better and quicker by others.

Oops, the magic word is in there! Have you been able to locate it? No? Keep going!

§ Reality check

Most term definitions in the world do not comply with the distinguishing-criteria rule, and that’s the uniqueness of this guide: it’s easy to follow and the result is an immensely improved terminology.

This guide won’t be as comprehensive as the TNO Terminology Design. However, we offer the best of both worlds, resulting in simplicity and speed and about eighty percent the right way how it should be done.

Before we share the all-encompassing solution in just one word, we’ll lay out the step-by-step process to get your terminology done.

§ Iterate through concepts

The idea is that anyone willing to explain some concepts by (first) understanding the perception of the receiving party will go through this loop for every term that is unclear, conflates, or is otherwise not fully understood.

NOTE

At least one clear, generally applicable criterion should come from this step-by-step per term.

flowchart TD A[A:I am writing, but I need to explain something! Help!];B{B:Terms understood?};C[/C:Glossary/]; D{D:Text with criteria understood?}; E[E:Term definition incl. criteria]; F[/F:Text with terms/]; A --> |1: Identify concepts| B B --> |Yes, known term. Use ... | C B --> |2: No, I'll write criteria| D D --> |3: No, I'll adjust the criteria| D D --> |4: Yes, understood! Now a term can be defined| E E --> |4: Replace criteria by term | F E --> |Add term def to ...| C

Tada! Our matching guidelines are:

  1. Start writing your objectives and ideas, and identify the concepts behind the terms you use (why-what is it?)
  2. Write the concept in a specific way: formulate criteria (why-how-what is good?) when you expect confusion to arise
  3. As long as the target group does not understand a term, replace it with your criteria (why-how?)
  4. As soon as it’s understood, define the term with those criteria and replace it with the term in the text. (why-how?)

§ Example: Health Care intake

Although we inevitably introduce some unexplained terms with an example, here’s an example:

§ Step 1

In the digital identity field, you might want to write a vision document on how Self-Sovereign Identity could work in Health Care. One of the concepts/mechanisms within healthcare is to be sure who(the knee) will be operated on next. You write how that’s going to work out with terms covering this reassurance: validation and verification. The concept concluded successfully, which we call authentication.

§ Step 2

“Validation” and “Verification” of a visitor at the desk of the outpatient clinic are terms that might conflate with the “authentication” that needs to be successfully fulfilled: “Is this person really who he/she says he/she is?!”

You decide to distinguish validation and verification with a criterium for verification:

It must be “an automatic digital process” to be “verification”.

The criterium is simple: must be an automatic digital process.

This distinguishing criterion is handy because validation can also be something a person does!

Decryption on a computer is verification; checking a passport by the desk officer is not.

§ Step 3

Although you wrote ‘authentication is partly done by an automatic digital process called verification’, your team members are confused by the word ‘digital’. One brought forward that ‘computerized’ instead of digital is clearer, and the team agreed unanimously.

For the sake of the team members who weren’t present at the meeting, you leave the criteria in the text:

‘authentication is partly done by an automatic computerized process called verification.’

§ Step 4

Everyone understands the criteria and the term covering the concept behind it. You could now put the term definition, including its criteria, in your Terminology Engine and Glossary and replace the criteria in the text with only the term used:

‘authentication is partly done by verification.’

The term definition looks like this:

[[def: verification]]
 ~ 
 A data item or statement may be cryptographically securely attributable to its source (party at the source end) by any recipient verifier (party at the destination end). The process must be automatic and computerized.

End of example.

In this process and iteration, you could look for over-arching or adjacent term definitions (with criteria!) that match your concept. If this is the case, you could adopt a term definition, with or without an extra note. That’s when consensus building comes in as a spin-off of your terminology design.

§ The magic word

What could the magic word be? No worries! Ladies and gentlemen (drum roll), the magic word in designing all your terms, defining them in a reproducible way so that anyone could identify your concepts, understand your ideas better, and apply the word by themself (drums hold!): Criteria!

A least one well-formulated criterium is what we need per term definition, or should we say we need minimally one in order to distinguish whether something is

WARNING

Ah, happily, you’re still here. We need to share a question at this stage. Remember, we’re trying to offer a simple and speedy guideline to create great terminology for your project.

Why is it so d.mn difficult to get people to write proper criteria? If the “magic word” ‘criteria’ delivers the promise, why all the fuzz? Why are nearly all definitions in the digital world without proper criteria??

Because

§ The why and how of all steps

In the next paragraph, we’ll revisit the guidelines with reasons and further instructions.

§ 1. Start writing your objectives and ideas, and identify the concepts behind the terms you use

flowchart TD A[A:I am writing, Help Terminology!];B{B:Terms understood?} A --> |1: Identify concepts| B

§ why writing your objectives and ideas down

If you want to guide the process of being understood and getting support, it’s good to have a reference.

§ What is “identifying a concept”?

An identifier points to something, in this case, to a concept. Identification is the process of clearly describing what the concept is and defining the term that points to it.

§ 2. Write the concept in a specific way: formulate criteria when you expect confusion to arise

flowchart TD B{B:Terms understood?}; D{D:Text with criteria understood?}; B --> |2: No, I'll write criteria| D

§ why criteria?

Another person should be able to apply wording to a particular concept and decide whether something falls in or out of the criteria. Example: if someone defines a stool with the criterium “all furniture to comfortably sit on with exactly three legs from seat to each non-fixed contact point of the leg on the floor,” then anyone could (dis)qualify various instances of something to sit on that looks like a stool to many. Although you might not fully agree that a 4-legged stool is no stool according to this definition with this criterium, the fact is that it’s the generally applicable criterium that we were looking for.

§ Stools IN the criterium

Stools

§ Stools OUTSIDE the criterium

Not Stools

NOTE

Communication, understanding, and learning will skyrocket with clear criteria, invest time in them, and earn time back further down the road.

Example: moving stools

If a group of people had to move every stool, but only stools, from a furniture warehouse into a giant lorry without clear criteria on what a stool is and isn’t, you would leave stools behind and for sure bring back half a truck of furniture upon unloading.

§ how to formulate criteria

Using text, you can formulate criteria. You could add examples to a criterium of edge cases/corner cases: what falls just in the criterium and outside?

§ What are good criteria?

Criteria that are deterministic and clearly distinguish something.

§ 3. As long as the target group does not understand a term: replace it with your criteria

flowchart TD D{D:Text with criteria understood?} D --> |3: No, I'll adjust criteria | D

§ why replace terms by criteria?

Criteria can be independently applied; terms have an alleged meaning, and interpretations of terms might point to distinctive concepts. Example: move the stools into the van might be interpreted as “break out the fixed stools in the cantina and bring the remnants to the van.”

§ How to replace terms with criteria?

Replace the term with the sentence criteria it might consist of.

Example: move the stools into the van -> move into the van all furniture to comfortably sit on with exactly 3 legs from seat to each non-fixed contact point of the leg on the floor

§ 4. As soon as it’s understood, define the term with those criteria and replace the criteria in the text with the term.

flowchart TD D{D:Text with criteria understood?}; E[E:Term definition incl. criteria]; F[/F:Text with terms/] D --> |4: Yes, a term can be defined| E E --> |4: Replace criteria by term | F

§ why put back terms

Once you’ve identified a concept for all stakeholders, repeating lengthy criteria descriptions in a text makes no sense. Maintenance of the criteria is also easier with a single point of definition.

§ how to put back terms

Be sure to create a Terminology definition with the criteria and identify this concept with the term intended.

For example:

[[def: stool, stools]]
 ~ furniture to comfortably sit on with exactly three legs from the seat to each non-fixed contact point of the leg on the floor

AND then change the concept criteria in the text with the concept term:

move the [[ref: stools]] into the van.

§ Next time

You might come across a concept that has already been identified and defined with a term + criteria:

flowchart TD A[A:I am writing, but I need to explain something! Help!];B{B:Terms understood?};C[/C:Glossary/] A --> |1: Identify concepts| B B --> |Yes, known term. Use ... | C

§ Wrap up

Isn’t the magic word “Criteria” a bit cruel? It might snatch average human beings in the heart of their weakness: understanding others. Yet “mutual understanding” is needed to formulate suitable criteria.

§ Move forward

Note that Terminology building is concise and extensive work. Beyond the basic terms, often defined as noun or noun phrases (e.g., “validation” and “peer to peer validation”) we come across these challenges:

§ Two for the road

  1. How could we incentivize people to do the hard work of proper terminology design?

Ideas are welcome.

  1. Never forget the magic word: Criteria!

§ Further reading

See more here:

§ How to write definitions in your terminology

  1. Repeat the objectives or goals of a specific community
  2. Discuss and communicate towards consensus about a particular concept or term
  3. Define the scope or mental model together
  4. Write criteria for which is inside or outside the reach of a specific term

This process is essential for mutual understanding.

§ How to write criteria

  1. Criteria must make sense for all roles involved in the community

For example, a criterium like “A self-addressing identifier is automatically a self-sovereign identifier, but not the other way around.” might not resonate with a Reader.

  1. Criteria should be deterministic, either to be in or out of the definition
abbrev
a shorthand in capitals for a term. It may contain special characters. It may not contain spaces.
Criterium for not being an abbreviation: If the word is not in uppercase, in our context, the word is more likely to be an alias for the term.
  1. Formulate edge cases: What is just included in a definition and excluded from a definition?!

E.g., X.509 could be an abbreviation, and ‘EU ID’ is not an abbreviation

NOTE

A writer needs to do a lot of adding-criteria work before we discuss anything, like reusing definitions in another mental model. It just makes no sense to refer / link to a non-deterministic definition of somebody else, for this inherently introduces confusion: we think we are talking about the same thing, but most probably, we’re not!

Some good news is that an editor can achieve enhancement in the written version of concepts and terminology in parallel with other activities:

§ Towards automatic processing in github actions

Currently, we allow for four types of source management tools of terminologies in the ToIP context. Check them out here: | TBW Link to the chapter |.

This example uses the github.com wiki of the target repository, but the other source management options could adopt the same guidelines for designing and editing terminology in the ToIP context.

Here are a few practical rules from the originator ToIP to get these wiki terms through their equivalent github actions script, please:

  1. beware all new wiki items you create, lead to new .md files. Because we’d like to know about new definitions, flaunt them in discussions or social media: throw links!
  2. introduce lowercase names with spaces (they will convert into lowercase names with dashes between the words)
  3. start with ## Definition header; example
  4. start with uppercase abbreviations with only the “## See” header; example
  5. don’t delete items (i.e., .md files), but make clear they are depreciated and/or link to the new concept/term
  6. don’t change or update the name of an item single-handedly, for it might change the concept/meaning for other people and create dead links for those who read - or link to the term. Please open an issue or a PR to discuss first.
  7. any other immediate updates and amendments are welcome; the revisions are available for us to (partially) revert if something unwanted or unexpected happens.

Have fun CRU-ing!
'* CRU=Create Read Update

§ A glossary “reads” this

| TBW, this section is draft and incomplete|

Whereas the wiki source management tool (or input tool) of terminology, there is no way to add metadata to the terminology.

Some ToIP groups use workarounds to add metadata and extra functionality to their wiki terminology based on the combination of labeling content and additional metadata. E.g., the WebofTrust-harboured engine KERISSE regularly scrapes the the WOT-terms wiki into KERISSE, we add features and metadata through a Google Sheet, we connect relevant matching terms from related glossaries. Finally, we index it for the KERI Suite Search Engine (KERISSE).

| TBW |

§ Roles

This section is informative.

A precise specification of roles in and outside an average ToIP “group” might clarify people’s different viewpoints when looking at concepts and terminology.

  1. minimalistic use cases for them
  2. then, the necessary consecutive steps to fulfill the use case
TODO

Have a look at the diagram and role descriptions in the Spec-Up-T documentation first!

§ Role: Reader

It uses the Github.io website, reads concepts in text and terminology in glossaries (for example, generated by Spec-Up), and has its tailor-made contextual glossary that generates pop-ups here and there in the text offered.

§ Role: Curator

Uses an IDE and git and browser extensions to check logical consistency & meaning of term definitions in a particular context and uses browser extensions to harvest a personal collection of term definitions based on those recommended by the specification authors.

§ Role: Specification CONTENT author, describing concepts

Focuses on content and concepts of the group they belong to.

WARNING

Whenever they change terminology, he should be aware that it’s the responsibility of the terminology author to make changes to defs and refs!

This role uses an IDE, git, and a browser extension to edit Spec-Up markdown files for their specific context (mental model) in a version-managed environment, authenticated, to write the concept and specification and offer this as a PR. They use browser extensions to check the technical consistency of the text’s links and harvest a personal collection of term definitions.

§ Role: Specification TERMINOLOGY author, covering concepts

It focuses on term definitions covering concepts of the group to which they belong.

NOTE

They maintain a consistent set of definitions and references throughout the specification.

This role uses an IDE, git, and a browser extension to edit Spec-Up markdown files for their specific context (mental model) in a version-managed environment, authenticated, to write the concept and specification and offer this as a PR. They use browser extensions to check the technical consistency of the links in the text and harvest a personal collection of term definitions. Specification author terms that cover those concepts.

§ Role: ToIP glossary maintainer

This role uses a source management tool. Reads and compares concepts in text and terminology in glossaries (for example, generated by Spec-Up) to use within their “own” over-arching ToIP glossary. They build as much consensus around terms and concepts as possible and promote using the ToIP glossary as reference material.

§ Questions and use cases

| TBW in 2025 and onwards|

How are the following roles supported (applies to either KERISSE or TEv2)?

  1. Authors of technical documents that need to reference glossaries/glossary entries
  2. Authors of glossary terms
  3. Curators of glossaries (manage changes, toolsets, etc.)
  4. Glossary Tech developers
  5. Instructors and educators for organizations create and use glossaries and glossary terms for ToIP-related documentation.

§ Tools Landscape

People like to understand the components and structure of ToIP’s concepts, machinery for terminology, and governance.

§ git and github

§ Why?
§ How?

Every role that changes stuff (Create, Update, or Delete) must be on github, and the users sign off their results.

This way:

§ Github landscape

Every group within ToIP that uses Spec-Up has a setup that is more or less like the following. Only WOT-terms combines wiki source management and publication in KERISSE (Still Docusaurus-based, looking into a Spec-Up variant as of Feb 2024).

Infrastructure Terminology Engine ToIP
Platform Git branch Software
github.com repo main or ‘own choice’ Spec-Up
VsCode
Node.js / NPM
github.io pages gh-pages user.github.io/repo
github actions
kerific
github.com wiki master github.com/user/repo/wiki
github actions

§ Flow of Writing a Specification in Spec-Up

flowchart TD A[Write Spec] --> B[Need to explain term] B -->|Can't find!|C[Define] B -->|Pick|D[Reference] C -->E{Scope?} D -->|Grab link|K{Internal?} K -->|Yes|A K -->|No|F{Add context?} E -->|Local|I[spec.md] E -->|Central|H[wiki] F -->|Local|G[spec.md] G --> A F --> |No|A H --> |External|J[Reference] I --> |Internal ref|J[Reference] J --> A

§ Glossary Flow: Ingest - Curation - Output

Glossary Flow: Ingest - Curation - Output

By: Darrell O’Donnell, Jan 2024

§ Combining central, external, and internal references to definitions

| TBW : ToIP’s position on KERISSE (a superset of terms and concepts documentation) and TEv2? |

ToIP might need both, particularly to onramp organizations that are leveraging ToIP.

What are the components of the following glossary/term/concept toolsets?

What features exist in both, and what is unique in each toolset? If there is overlap, how are they different (e.g., how does an author craft a link from a word in a source document to a term in a specified glossary), and how could they be combined?

What is the future of the KERISSE suite and TEv2?

| TBW |

§ Writing

In case of a specification, it is important to ask yourself, “Is what I write implementable?” Follow it step by step. Check all the MUSTs and SHOULDs in the normative section.

§ Readability

§ Review and cooperation

Keep stuff in place where it was/is during the review period. When the review period is over, you could

§ Style guide for ToIP terminology

A term that is intended to be generic SHOULD be lowercase in the glossary and in the specs and other documents that use that term. A term SHOULD only be uppercase if it is a proper noun. The only exception is an acronym. For example, the following terms are all generic nouns:

§ Transform spaces to dashes

| TBW : see guideline ToIP by Daniel Hardman for the wiki markdown-files|

§ Forms

Terminology can be defined in various forms: nouns, verbs, adjectives/adverbs, and relations(hips).

§ Example

Noun: Verifier Verb: Verify Adjective: verified (signature) Relationships: verifying

Authors are free to choose any form of a term. It’s a way to express their objectives and concepts and give meaning. Even multiple forms are welcome, which means that in your scope, you COULD define the noun, the verb, and a relationship. E.g., verifier, verify and verifying.

§ Acronyms

The following terms are proper nouns or acronyms:

§ Special characters

Notice that the Acrynom X.509 has a special character (.). You SHOULD use special characters only if it’s crucial for the meaning of the term.

So, for example, not this: security@hub4issuer but stick to the guidelines above and define, for example, security-at-hub-for-issuer.

§ Constants, variables, and terms in coding

Sometimes, acronyms in code are (partly) in lowercase (e.g., vLEI, eID, ind) for various reasons. One needs to explain those acronyms in terms of concepts and terminology; we allow them to do so in their original case.

§ Authors partly comply and have freedom of choice

§ Comply with

See the Roles section for the various sub roles of an author.

§ Terminology

proper noun
| TBW |

§ Source Management Use Cases

Input knowledge level: You know how to create, read, and update term definitions in relation to your concept or mental model. Here are some guidelines: edit wiki term definitions

§ What is this about?

This section is about the source management of terms and definitions: the latest single source of truth about them in a certain scope. The elementary part is the {term}.md file that contains (spec-up extended) markdown. We offer various ways of managing these source files while maintaining their overall integrity.

§ What can I do with it?

Source management culminates in the latest version of any glossary in which the term is accessible (linkable) with a permanent URL, and we have a history available that referred to this term at what time in the past.

:::info You can reference this glossary in your own write-ups and add to the general consensus about terms at the same time. :::

§ Why source management?

We want to offer multiple ways to edit term definitions. So it is not wiki or markdown or github frontend but wiki and markdown and github frontend? The end result is always a git(hub) tracked directory with separate .md files of a spec-up-based specification. The use cases are described below. The term definitions themselves use the spec-up markdown extensions syntax: def, ref and xref.

Example given:

[[def: access control]]: 
~ The process of granting or denying specific [[ref: request]]s for obtaining 
and using information and related information [[xref: processing]] services.

§ Why not simply use a Content Management System like WordPress??!

Just to name a few reasons:

  1. user management in the github ecosystem instead of centralized technological island creation
  2. Spec-up static website generation; we don’t want the introduction of databases
  3. Continuous Development Continuous Integration (CDCI) versus staging by hand
  4. Business rules and Permanent linking made possible via Github Actions

§ For who is source management of terminology relevant?

The roles involved in the use cases are editor, production repo master and curator. One person could have more than one role.

All roles have a github user account, because we need to know

He/she who has write user rights on the target repo (TrustoverIP main glossary) can directly edit and commit the latest version. Other roles will have to adapt to those results. For example merge conflicts might arise and then need to be solved.

Further guidelines:

§ How it works

Github Actions will pick up, and process changes as they occur and trigger staging of chancing to the production server.

This is the process diagram:

Terms-dir-circular

There are two main options we have use cases for:

§ 1. Wiki

Go to the wiki of your project repo on github.com (which is controlled by Master). The wiki offers edit functionality.

DEEP DIVE: This is what happens if you can straight away save the wiki pages you edit: The terms-definitions directory will be exported to a clone of the target repo wiki by the production repo master. The wiki (sub) repo of a github repo allows for different user-right settings than the repo itself.

GitHub allows the Master to configure access permissions for wikis independently of the main repository settings. Here’s how the permission settings can differ:

By default, a repository’s wiki inherits the permissions from the repository itself. This means that if someone has write access to your repository, they can also edit the wiki. However, GitHub provides an option to modify these permissions specifically for the wiki. Under the “Settings” tab for the repository, the Master will find a section for the wiki where he/she can choose to either:

a. Inherit permissions from the repository, meaning those with write access to the repository can edit the wiki. b. Allow everyone with a GitHub account to edit the wiki, which makes the wiki more open, regardless of their access to the repository itself.

This flexibility allows project maintainers to either keep their wikis as collaborative spaces open to the wider GitHub community or restrict them to be consistent with the access controls applied to the source code in the repository. It’s worth noting that these settings can be changed at any time by the repository owner (Master) or users with admin access to the repository.

§ CRUD

Now, editors can use the wiki of the target repo to define the CRU term. We describe separate use cases for Create, Read, and Update (CRU). Delete (D) is very rare because the history of terms should be kept available.

Curators could add markdown comments to the sources of the wiki.

NOTE

NB: Editing the target github wiki repo on your local machine is possible, but it is a rather strange way to manage sources of your terms definitions. But it can be done if you have the user rights: push the wiki repo to the target wiki repo. We advise you to choose one of the other source management options because it’s more direct.

NOTE

After this source editing has been saved, our solution also overwrites the repo file /spec/splitted-dir/{term}.md (if present) for syncing purposes.

§ 2. Github edit

Editors go to the term definition they want to use for C R U on the github.com user site of the target repo (which is controlled by Master).

This way, editors can edit (after having forked the target repo to their own user account) the term definition and offer a PR to Master. After the PR is made, the curator can comment on the changes proposed and make them live and viewable on the editor’s user account.

NOTE

After this source editing has been saved, our solution also overwrites the wiki repo file /{term}.md (if present) for syncing purposes.

§ 3. Terminal - text file edit

This way, editors can edit the target repo (after having cloned it to their own user account). He/she uses a text editor to write changes in the separate .md file of the term and definitions directory. He/she uses git on the command line to add, commit, and push files to their own github user account version of the target repo. From the target repo, he/she creates a PR by hand for the curator and the Master to assess and eventually accept or decline. After the PR is made, the curator can comment on the changes proposed and make them live and viewable on the editor’s user account.

NOTE

After this source editing have been saved our solution also overwrites the wiki repo file /{term}.md (if present) for syncing purposes.

§ 4. IDE

An integrated Development Environment, e.g., Visual Studio Code - text file edit.

This way, editors can edit the target repo (after having cloned it to their own user account). He/she uses an IDE to write changes in the separate .md file of the term and definitions directory. He/she uses the IDE git functionality to finally create a PR on the target repo for the curator and the Master to assess and eventually accept or decline. After the PR is made, the curator can comment on the changes proposed and make them live and viewable on the editor’s user account.

§ Source management of terminology wrapped up

The input is a per-term-splitted directory of term md files The process: four options to make changes The end result two options to get the results accepted in the target repo and final spec-up html output: Via 1. Wiki and via 2,3,4: PR.

All methods have full git tracing of who did what and when.

NOTE

After this source editing have been saved our solution also overwrites the wiki repo file /{term}.md (if present) for syncing purposes.

§ How it works in use cases

The rest of this chapter outlines the use cases for managing term definitions in a spec-up-based specification, focusing on the roles of editors, production repo masters, and curators.

We focus only on terms and definitions. We use the term target repo for the production repo, controlled by the role master.

§ Roles in the use cases

§ Editing Options

§ 1. Wiki Editing

§ Create ©
§ Update (U)
§ Read ®

§ 2. GitHub Edit (via GitHub UI)

§ Create and Update (C/U)
§ Read ®

§ 3. Terminal - Text File Edit

§ Create and Update (C/U)

§ 4. IDE - Visual Studio Code Text File Edit

§ Create and Update (C/U)

§ Master and Curator Actions

§ Update (U) by Master

§ Delete (D) by Master

§ Curator Review

§ Notes

§ User manual defs, refs and xrefs

§ Background

To simplify the job of tech spec construction and editing, the Technology Stack WG has adopted the Spec-Up spec editing tool, which was originally a DIF open-source project (here).

TrustoverIP invests in improving this tool. It’s currently at Blockchainbird’s Spec-Up-T repository only but will eventually move to ToIP.

This document also contains a normative section that has served as a design for the coding project since the start of 2024.

§ Objective

To offer authors and curators a hands-up guide to handle Spec-up’s syntax correctly and efficiently with regard to defs, refs and xrefs. Thereby respecting the golden rule:

“Try (x)ref before def”

(why?)

§ Characteristics

Why bother? Because it’s going to be a mess soon if you don’t. Terminology has a life cycle. Some concepts and their specific terminology are long-lived. They reside in their field and are related to other concepts. Other terminologies are contemporary. Terminology can have broad applications or, conversely, have a specific small niche. Nevertheless, they all share these characteristics:

  1. The sources (definitions or defs) need to be managed because its content is burdened with reputation
  2. References (or refs and xrefs) need to be managed in the digital world where creating copies is easy, and every copy for no reason whatsoever might cause confusion
  3. Different roles and responsibilities work with and work on terminology. We got to keep track of who did what in which role.

§ Governance of own repo

The governance of def & refs in the own repo has to be strict: It has to be kept sound by humans. So check your refs to see if you changed the def.
Source

§ ToIP glossary

In the ToIP Technology Architecture Specification, it’s a long-desired feature to add an integrated glossary. Our objective is to offer a framework to offer this in a sustainably consistent way. The Concept & Terminology work group (CTWG) should begin publishing the ToIP Glossary as its own standalone Spec-Up specification, where every entry is properly formatted, and people are able to include terms from the ToIP Glossary (without having to copy those 400+ terms over into its own glossary).

Process check:

You should visually check each def created in a local Spec-Up document against any def that exists in any of the remotely referenced document URLs listed in the local document (see the title list description in your specs.json).

To find the list, look for external_specs:

 "external_specs": [
 {
 "TP": "https://trustoverip.github.io/ctwg-main-glossary/"
 }
 ...
§ Why “try ref before def”

These are the advantages of trying ref before def:

Keep reading for an important caveat to these advantages! (No, bring me there now)

Decide whether you’d like to adopt as is, adopt with a comment, or define yourself. See flow diagram

§ Functionality

For an author, there are three main relevant functionalities.

  1. Spec-Up already has a basic glossary feature: def tags for defining glossary entries and ref tags for marking up terms in the spec that refer to def-tagged terms. Def tags only reference def tags in the same Spec-Up document.
  2. An xref supports remote refs.
NOTE

March 2024 - The feature “xref” is constructed but not yet operational

  1. We have functionality that detects dangling refs and defs. In other words, code that checks to see that: a. any ref tag defined in the spec has a corresponding def tag for the glossary entry, and
    b. every def tag defining a glossary entry has at least one ref tag pointing to it.

Supported consistency pre-cautions and reporting:

NOTE

March 2024 - The feature “checks” is being constructed step-by-step but not yet fully operational.

Each def in a local Spec-Up document has exactly the same def* existing in any of the remotely referenced document URLs listed in the local document (see the title list description in your specs.json). This is also a recommended visual check performed by authors. (Why?)

Each ref has an existing def. Each xref has an existing def in the title glossary.

It checks each ref and xref created in reference doctags against any def that you’re about to remove from a local file.

It signals each ref and xref created in reference doctags against any def that you’re about to change in a local file.

When a local Spec-Up document includes a certain glossary from another remote Spec-Up document, this can be considered as a statement: “We think we might be on the same page as the people that maintain this glossary.”

It’s important to make explicit that somebody in a certain role added context to a remotely referenced term definition. Or he/she has chosen to refrain from that.

§ Title (formerly “Doctag”)

§ External linking (ref)

We need the capability for all ToIP specs to use remote refs to reference a common ToIP Glossary in addition to their own internal glossary. So far, an incentivization under TSWG spec authors would be fine with that capability: they can use any term already defined in the ToIP Glossary without having to repeat it in their glossary, and they can add any term specific to their spec.

[[ref: group#phrase]]

phrase MUST be one of term in any of group’s glossary.

For example, a specification that includes a ref tag that looks like this: toip#term would reference a def tag defined in the ToIP Glossary. Similarly, a ref that looks like hxwg#term would reference a defined term in the (theoretical) HXWG glossary.

With this remote reference feature, all ToIP specifications (and any other deliverable written with Spec-Up) would be able to include linked glossary terms (including hover pop-up definitions), both from within its own glossary and from any referenced glossary in another document that also uses Spec-Up.

Mind you, this process touches on group dynamics, consensus building, and communication.

§ Dangers of bluntly referencing and copying

It’s important to note that team members in various roles should feel free to define a term as they wish, after studying what’s available. This is an important caveat for referencing terms.

§ Add context and metadata

NOTE

March 2024 - The feature “context metadata” is in the design phase, so it is not operational

Adopting a term from a related scope (under the ToIP umbrella) or externally has the possibility for the author, curator, and maybe even other team members to add context to the definition adopted. The following metadata will be (automatically as much as possible) registered:

This metadata can be added:

You could add or remove:

The order in which these changes take place to a terminology definition, referencing, and/or comments will be registered.

Mind you: the adopter of a term can’t delete nor alter the original definition present in another scope.

§ Local versus Remote references

Technically, the only difference between a local ref and a remote ref is that the former are always within the same Spec-Up document — they look like:

[[ref: term]]

The latter allows the author to reference a def in a different Spec-Up document. They look something like:

NOTE

March 2024 - The feature “xref” is under testing, so it is not fully operational yet

[[xref: title, term]] is a short unique tag assigned to the remote Spec-Up document containing the def for the term being referenced. So, any Spec-Up document that uses remote refs would need to include a doctag section that looks something like this:

In specs.json:

 "external_specs": [
 {
 "<title>": "<URL>"
 }

example

 "external_specs": [
 {
 "PE": "https://identity.foundation/presentation-exchange"
 },
 {
 "TP": "https://trustoverip.github.io/ctwg-main-glossary/"
 }
 ...

§ Adopt, add context, or define

NOTE

March 2024 - The feature “context metadata” is in the design phase, so it is not operational

Check the flow diagram of writing terminology (references) in a specification here.

§ How do we adopt the term “as is”?

Local preferable [[xref: term]]

Or remote reference

[[xref: title, term]]

Where term is either a term, abbreviation, or alias.

§ How do you adopt a term with added or updated context?
NOTE

March 2024 - The feature “adopt a term with context and metadata” is in the design phase, so it is not operational

Add: [[def: term or abbreviation or alias]] with in the text part of the definition

[[xref: title, term]]

Reference:

[[ref: term]]

Example Where KE is the title (doctag) of the KERI spec in spec-up format and TP is the title of the ToIP overall glossary in spec-up.


[[def: verification]]

~ Verification in Healthcare is in between the strict [[xref: KE, verification]]
 and the more loose ToIP definition [[xref: TP, verification]]. However, we have the same criteria as KERI
 because our system will be KERI-based.
§ How do you stop adding context to an adopted term?
NOTE

March 2024 - The feature “adopt a term with context and metadata” is in the design phase, so it is not operational.

Remove the local def and change.

[[ref: term]] into [[xref: term]]

Now, the term is again externally referenced as “as is.”

§ Form phrase macros

By: Rieks Joosten, July 1 2014

How to deal with singular/plural forms, here’s my 2 cents: TL;DR: In order to support different forms of terms, I suggest to follow the ideas from TEv2: Allow a definition syntax that supports what TEv2 calls form phrase macros. For example, [[def: actor{ss} ]], or [[def: part{yies}]] Consider making the mapping between form phrase macros and the strings they represent configurable. For example, {ss} maps to the set of strings: “”, “s”, “'s”, “s’”. When converting a document, make a list of the definitions, and replace every term therein with the string that results from resolving the form phrase macros therein (if any) and regularizing the results. This would result in actor. Regularization is a mechanism that facilitates the machine’s handling of texts, similar to how titles of Wiki pages are converted into the corresponding parts of their URLs. Regularization would turn [[def: Term 1, Term One]] into [[def: term-1, term-one]]. When converting a REF or XREF, use the regularized version of the term used in the (X)REF to look for the definition.

§ Elaboration Form phrase macros

Here is some elaboration/background: I think the issue is broader: it’s not just singular/plural forms (of nouns), e.g., “actor”, “actors”, “party”, “parties”, but also their possessive forms “actor’s”, “actors’”, “party’s”, “parties”. It’s also various conjugation forms of verbs, e.g., “define”, “defines”, “defined”, “defining”, or “identify”, “identifies”, “identified”, and “identifying”. To come to grips with this broader issue, TEv2 introduces “form phrases”, i.e., one of the (multiple) forms in which concepts can be referred to. For example, the form phrases “actor”, “actors”, “actor’s”, etc. all refer to the same concept. That’s why they can be specified in (the formPhrases field of) the curated text that documents that concept. To reduce the work for creating such form phrases (and indeed, also to prevent typing mistakes!), TEv2 also introduces “form phrase macros”, i.e., little strings, such as “{ss}” or “{yies}” that can be included in a form phrase, and represent a particular kind of variations. For example, “actor{ss}” is shorthand for “actor”, “actors”, “actor’s” and “actors’”. Similarly, “part{yies}” is short for “party,” “party’s,” and “parties.” A number of such form phrase macros are predefined, but you can override this set of macros with a set of your own, which is useful if texts are written in other languages (French, Dutch) or if you want or need to do your own. When generating the machine-readable glossaries (MRGs, the authoritative sources of terminologies/definitions as far as TEv2 is concerned), all form phrases as specified in the curated texts are converted into a canonical form (a regularized text), and their macros are expanded. Thus, an MRG entry only contains regularized form phrases, which helps with easy processing. TEv2 includes a TermRef Resolution Tool (TRRT) that converts termrefs into so-called ‘renderable refs’.

TermRefs are identified by a regex (called the TRRT interpreter) that is expected to populate particular variables, one of which is called show text, which contains the text that will be rendered. Another is called term; it contains the default name for the concept being referenced. The TRRT finds all texts that satisfy the regex and will replace them in the end with a character sequence that we call a ‘renderable ref’ (see point c) The variables (named capturing groups) are then used to find the MRG that contains the term being referenced (there is a default MRG in case such variables are empty). From the selected or default MRG, a single entry needs to be found that corresponds with the termref. This is done by using the term variable (which often is empty) or, when it is empty, by using the showtext variable (which always exists) as a starting point. These texts are first processed into some canonical form, called a regularized text, so that they can be used to compare with entries in the formPhrases field of MRG entries. When a match is found, that MRG entry will be selected to create the renderable ref.

A ‘renderable ref’ is created by executing a handlebars template, which can access all fields in the MRG entry, as well as all named capturing groups as populated by the regex. This means that it is fully up to those who run the tool to determine what the renderable ref looks like. The TEv2 MVP has an interpreter for Spec-Up term references, meaning it can find constructs of the form [[ref: {showtext}]] and [[ref: {showtext}, {term}]] as valid references. It can also find constructs of the form [[xref: {scopetag}, {showtext}]]. All that is needed is a proper regex that finds occurrences of such syntax and populates the appropriate named capturing groups. The modification to also support syntaxes such as [[xref: {scopetag}:{vsntag}, {showtext}]] are trivial.

Source Rieks Joosten July 1 2024

§ Normative section

Have a look at it here and be informed that Spec-Up is a longer running open source project that originated in DIF. ToIP will invest in improvements to it in 2024. And offers these improvements as PRs to the DIF repo.

Here, we focus on the informative aspects of the technical specification: what it is, why we are programming it, and how to use it.

It is possible to include references to terms from external spec-up generated specifications. To include a source you would like to pull references from, include an external_specs array in your spec config. The value should be a key/value object where the key is used in the external reference below, and the value should be the URL of the external spec.

To include an external term reference within your spec, use the following format [[xref: {title}, {term}]] where {title} is the title given to the spec in the specs.json configuration file and {term} is the term being used.

For example, using the PE spec given in this example:

{
  "specs": [
 {
      ...
      "external_specs": [
 {"PE": "https://identity.foundation/presentation-exchange"}
 ]
 }
 ]
}

§ Internal definition (def)

definitions (defs)

NOTE

The feature “abbreviation” is under construction!

[[def: term { | abbrev}, {alias}, {alias}, ... ]]
~ Lorem Ipsum

Define a term in a ToIP definition style: lowercase.

Optionally, an alias could be referenced. If you do so, the reference MUST end with the definition of term. Test by simply clicking the link.

An abbrev could be defined and referenced. If you do so, a separate definition of abbrev must be present in the document itself.

NOTE

March 2024 - This feature “abbrev” is in the design phase, so not operational

§ Don’t do this
[[def: term (abbrev)]] and  
[[ref: phrase]]

But do this

NOTE

March 2024 - This feature “abbrev” is in the design phase, so not operational

[[def: term | abbrev]]

How do you add an abbreviation after the term? Two ways possible:

  1. in the markdown, but NOT in the reference to the term: ref:
  2. There will be post-markdown processing available to proportionally add the abbreviation

§ Internal linking (ref)

[[ref: phrase]]

phrase MUST be one of term, abbrev or alias.

Three ways of offering references (refs) to definitions (defs) by the author of a text:

  1. explicitly created by the author

  2. extra by default, after n occurrences or below a header of a certain level

  3. MUST be done in the source by hand

  4. MUST be done by code; we’ll add a data attribute to the resulting HTML that indicates the origin of the link.

| TBW, where is the registry to ensure the uniqueness of doctags and the prevention of duplicitous doctags? |

§ System feature Consistency

Have a look at it here and be informed that Spec-Up is a longer running open source project that originated in DIF. ToIP will invest in improvements to it in 2024. And offers these improvements as PRs to the DIF repo.

The tool will perform

§ External Consistency

We like the reuse of existing terminology laid out in definitions and glossaries. If applied correctly, reuse will increase consensus within TrustoverIP.

Given this positive effect, we encourage people to look at what’s there already before defining and writing their own definition.

How do we know which known glossary to use? Maybe any glossary we have previously created a cross-reference from should be included? There is already tooling available to include existing glossaries and give a unified overview of them in KERISSE. This listing can be adjusted to “ToIP only”.

§ No effective system without governance

The governance rules that we have to put in place (at least with the ToIP community) should be:

  1. If the spec authors want to use a term with its definition term as defined in the ToIP Glossary, the spec authors MUST insert a remote ref to that term in their spec and MUST NOT copy the term (or worse, redefine it) in their internal spec glossary.

  2. If the spec authors want to use a term defined in the ToIP Glossary but modify its definition, they COULD raise an issue and/or a pull request to the ToIP Glossary, making the case for their proposed change. If that change is resolved to their satisfaction, they can proceed as per rule #1 above.

  3. If the spec authors want to use a new term that does not exist in the ToIP Glossary to their liking, they have two choices:

Of course, this set of rules only works within a coherent community willing to follow them. We can’t control the use of terminology outside of the ToIP community.

§ System feature functionality

The front-end functionality of the resulting github.io page can and must be altered to comply with various Reader allowances:

| TBW |

§ System feature layout

The front-end layout and pdf layout of the resulting GitHub.io page can and must be altered to comply with various style-guide rules of external parties like IETF or ISO.

| TBW |

Guide normative~ What is the criterium something being a Guide versus a Specification? A Specification has enough normative statements to be directly implementatable.

normative ~ A theory is “normative” if it, in some sense, tells you what you should do - what action you should take.Also see KERISSE

phrase
Something is a phrase when it’s either a term, an abbreviation or an alias in the context of this guide.
term
The ToIP notation of a terminology item, that requires a definiton, that could have an abbreviation and zero or more aliasses. A term is supposed to be uniquely defined in a certain scope, but can have many exactly the same instances in a broader community.
The term also serves as a key in the source management tool of ToIP terminology sources and to make a comparison among terms.
Criterium: only if a certain word or phrase in ToIP notation and first placed in the definition tag, then it’s a term in the scope of this guide. Only a term can have just one abbreviation.
Also see term.
abbrev
a shorthand in capitals for a term. It may contain special characters. It may not contain spaces.
Criterium for not being an abbreviation: If the word is not in uppercase, in our context the word is more likely to be an alias for the term.
alias
Any notation of a terminology item, that is an alternative for a term being defined. The alias also serves as a comparison among term definitions.
An alias is typically a means to one-on-one relate specific wording to a term already defined. For example :
doctag
A short unique tag assigned to the remote Spec-Up document containing the def for the term being referenced. So any Spec-Up document that uses remote refs would need to include a doctag section

§ Audiences and languages

We have audiences that need to be addressed in their own language along three axes:

  1. Level of Understanding: we currently use three levels of understanding
  2. Languages: e.g., Switzerland has four languages
  3. Jargon: language specific to the field of expertise

§ Design principle

We stick to one language in the most specific (or most elaborate definition of a term) for the source.

Jargon needs a separate term definition to specify the term that covers a known concept for an inner circle but is unknown to the outside world.

We use AI tools to translate to more general language for a lower level of understanding in the line of work or the mental model.

We use AI tools to translate to a different language from the source language. E.g. English -> German & French & Italian. Why?: because it’s a lot of work to maintain term definitions in four languages by hand and have every single term definition still cover the same concept.

We always generate a link to the original, most elaborate source in the base language. Why?: to back your AI-generated translations with the human-curated source.

§ The projected directory structure

flowchart LR A[Terms Definitions] -->|meta data| L(Sheet) A -->|language| C[EN-lvl1] A -->|language| D[EN-lvl2] A -->|language| E[EN-lvl3] C --> F(watcher.md) C --> G(KERI.md) C --> H(autonomous-identifier.md)

§ Normative addendum - Spec-up improvements

This normative section is also called the “Spec-Up-T”.

§ Background

To simplify the job of tech spec construction and editing, the CTWG has adopted the Spec-Up document rendering tool which is originally a DIF open source project (repo).

§ Objective

Spec-Up-T enhances Spec-Up for Terminology and Glossary design and implementation. In 2025 we plan to reverse engineer Spec-Up-T enhancements into the original DIF Spec-Up. A joint effort to do so is in the making. | TBW : link |

Based on use cases of certain roles we technically specify improvements in a normative way. This way we were able to implement them right away and manage the process in github issues.

In each topical section (header level 3 in this chapter) there’ll be various sub-topics (header level 4)

§ Documentation of Spec-Up-T

Read or reference the docusaurus website.

§ refs

One def and 1 to many refs may be present in a spec-up source document.

§ features

For an terminology author there are mainly three relevant functionalities.

  1. Spec-Up already has a basic glossary feature: def tags for defining glossary entries and ref tags for marking up terms in the spec that refer to def-tagged terms. Def tags only reference def tags in the same Spec-Up document.

§ Internal definition (def)

definitions (defs)

[[def: term { | abbrev}, {alias}, {alias}, ... ]]
~ Lorem Ipsum ...

A term SHOULD be defined as a ToIP definition style : lower case with dashes for spaces.

An alias COULD be referenced. If you do so, the reference MUST end up at the definition of term This is already operational in the current version of Spec-Up and implemented with nested spans

::: ISSUE https://github.com/henkvancann/terminology-governance-guide/issues/1 :::

Check defs of aliases https://github.com/decentralized-identity/spec-up/blob/master/single-file-test/spec.md#term-references |TBW: replace T link | and the working refs here https://identity.foundation/spec-up/#term-references

abbrev COULD be defined and referenced. If you do so a seperate definition of abbrev MUST be present in the document itself:

[[def: abbrev]]
~ [the term the abbrev refers to]

Example of the duplet:

[[def: KEL]]
~ [[ref: key event log]]

[[def: key event log | KEL, Key-event log ]]
~ Lorem Ipsum ...

§ Don’t do this

[[def: term (abbrev)]] and  
[[ref: phrase]]

but do this

[[def: term | abbrev]]

How to add an abbreviation after the term? Two ways possible:

  1. in the markdown, but NOT in the reference to the term: ref: There will be post-markdown processing available to proportionally add abbreviation

§ Internal linking (ref)

[[ref: phrase]]

phrase MUST be one of term, abbrev or alias

Three ways of offering references (refs) to definitions (defs) by the author of a text:

  1. explicitly created by author

  2. extra by default, after n occurrences or below a header of certain level

  3. MUST be done in the source by hand

  4. MUST be done by code, we’ll add a data-attribute to the resulting hrml that indicates the origin of the link.

| TBW where is the registry to ensure uniqueness of doctags and prevention of duplicious doctags? |

§ Abbrev not yet implement

As of Nov 2024 Abbrev is not yet implemented. However, we leave the design in tact in this governance guide.

§ System feature Consistency

Consistency and rules for def:s and ref:s leads to github.io page with all kinds of working internal and external links and clear rules for writers.

§ Consistency pre-caution

Each def in a local Spec-Up document that has exactly the same def* existing in any of the remotely referenced document URLs listed in the local document (see the title list description in your specs.json).

Each ref has an existing def. Each def has at least one ref or xref.

Spec-Up code that detects dangling refs and defs. In other words, code that checks to see that: a. any ref tag defined in the spec has a corresponding def tag for the glossary entry, and
b. every def tag defining a glossary entry has at least one ref tag pointing to it.

§ Domain checks

Local references

The most important domain check between a local ref and def is that they’re always pointing back and forth in the same Spec-Up document — they look like: [[def: term, alias, ..., alias ]]

[[ref: phrase]] where phrase is one of term or optional aliases.

Basic domain checks

  1. characterset
  2. spaces and
  3. Uppercase versus lowercase
  4. Form Phrases | TBW |

Domain checks Spe-Up or github actions

  1. No abbrevs in the text of a term either in “()” or after “;”
  2. The system must warn for double aliases in one def
  3. The system must warn for double abbrevs in one def
  4. No duplicity in wording in term, abbrev and alias(ses)
  5. If term and abbrev are the same, discard abbrev
  6. If alias and term are the same, discard alias
  7. If abbrev and alias are the same, discard alias
§ What is ‘the same’

When there is a collision, meaning an exact match of two terms using the terminology governance guidelines and Spec-Up-T rendering plus form-phrases (noy yet implemented) we consider them the same.

Example “Root of trust” -> root-of-trust “Root-of-Trust” -> root-of-trust Conclusion “Root of trust” and “Root-of-Trust” are the same

§ Business rules

NOTE

If the Terminology author believe a certain term only makes specific sense in the scope of their particular spec, they can define it with a def tag in their own internal spec glossary and then ref it there.

Parser checks Spe-Up or github actions

  1. The system must warn for double aliases in more than one def
  2. The system must warn for double abbrevs in more than one def
  3. The system must report broken internal links, refs that don’t match term, abbrev nor aliasses.

§ xrefs

We have capability for all Spec-Up-T-based specs to use xrefs to reference a common ToIP Glossary in addition to their own internal glossary. The common glossary will be referenced with title.

NOTE

TSWG spec authors would like to use any term already defined in the ToIP Glossary without having to repeat it in their glossary, and they can add any term specific to their spec.

§ Features

§ Feature Title and title collections

It is possible to include references to terms from external spec-up generated specifications. To include a source you would like to pull references from include an external_specs array in your spec config. The value should be a key/value object where the key is used in the external reference below and the value is the URL of the external spec.

To include an external term reference within your spec use the following format [[xref: {title}, {term}]] where {title} is the title given to the spec in the specs.json configuration file and {term} is the term being used.

For example using the PE spec given in this example:

{
  "specs": [
    {
      ...
      "external_specs": [
        {"PE": "https://identity.foundation/presentation-exchange"}
      ]
    }
  ]
}
§ How to adopt a term “as is”?

Local preferable [[ref: term]]

Or remote reference

[[xref: title, term]]

Where term is either a term, abbreviation or alias.

§ Consistency pre-caution

Each xref has an existing def in the title glossary.

Spec-Up code that detects dangling refs and defs in the collection of titles. In other words, code that checks to see that: a. any ref tag defined in a spec has a corresponding def tag for the glossary entry somewhere in the collection of titles, and
b. every def tag defining a glossary entry in any of the titles including the local one. has at least one ref tag in any of the titles pointing to it.

§ Domain checks

see refs for applicable initial domain constraints; plus the following.

Remote references

[[xref: title, term]] is a short unique tag assigned to the remote Spec-Up document containing the def for the term being referenced. So any Spec-Up document that uses remote refs would need to include a doctag section that looks something like this:

In specs.json:

      "external_specs": [
        {
          "<title>": "<URL>"
        }

example

      "external_specs": [
        {
          "PE": "https://identity.foundation/presentation-exchange"
        }

§ Business rules

NOTE

If the spec authors want to use a term with its definition term as defined in the ToIP Glossary, the spec authors MUST insert a remote ref to that term in their spec and MUST NOT copy the term (or worse, redefine it) in their internal spec glossary.

NOTE

If the spec authors want to use a term defined in the ToIP Glossary but modify its definition, they COULD submit raise an issue and/or a pull request to the ToIP Glossary making the case for their proposed change. If that change is resolved to their satsifaction, they can proceed as per rule #1 above.

NOTE

If the spec authors want to use a new term that does not exist in the ToIP Glossary to their liking, and they believe the term should apply “ToIP community-wide”, they can submit a PR to have it added to the ToIP Glossary. If accepted, they can then follow rule #1 above.

WARNING

Of course, this set of rules only works within an coherent community willing to follow them. We can’t control the use of terminology outside of the ToIP community.

It should check each ref and xref created in reference title against any def that you’re about to remove from a local file.

It should signal each ref and xref created in reference title against any def that you’re about to change in a local file.

§ Add context to adoption of a term

Adopting a term from a related scope (under the ToIP umbrella) or external SHOULD always be accompagnied with a possibility for the author, curator and maybe even other team members to add context to the definition adopted.

§ Features context and metadata

The following metadata MUST be registered:

This metadata SHOULD be added:

You COULD add or remove:

§ How to adopt a term with added or updated context?

Add: [[def: term or abbreviation or alias]] with in the text part of the definition

[[xref: title, term]]

Reference:

[[ref: term]]

Example Where mnenomic KE is the title of KERI spec in spec-up format and mnenomic TP (title) of the ToIP overall glossary in spec-up.


[[def: verification]]

~ Verification in Healthcare is in between the strict [[xref: KE, verification]]
 and the more loose ToIP definition [[xref: TP, verification]]. However we have the same criteria as KERI
  because our system will be KERI-based.

§ Consistency pre-caution

§ Business rules

The order in which these changes take place to a terminology definition, referencing and/or commenting SHOULD be registered.

Mind you: the adopter of a term SHOULD NOT delete, nor alter the original definition, present in another scope.

§ How to stop adding context to an adopted term?

Remove the local def and change

[[ref: term]] into [[xref: term]]

Now the term is again externally referenced “as is”.

§ Authentication and roles

It’s important to make explicit that somebody in a certain role added context to a remotely referenced term definition. Or he/she has chosen to refrain from that.

[[ref: title#phrase]]

phrase MUST be one of term in any of title’s glossary.

For example, a specification that includes a ref tag that looks like this: [[xref : TP, term]] would reference a def tag defined in the ToIP Glossary. Similarly, a ref that looks like [[xref: hxwg, term]] would reference a defined term in the (theoretical) HXWG glossary.

With the remote reference feature, all ToIP specifications (and any other deliverable written with Spec-Up) would be able to include linked glossary terms (including hover pop-up definitions), both from within its own glossary and from any referenced glossary in another document that also uses Spec-Up.

WARNING

Mind you, this process touches group dynamics, consensus building and communication.

§ System feature functionality

The front-end functionality of the resulting github.io page can and should be altered to comply with various Reader allowances:

Terminology author allowances:

§ System feature layout

The front-end layout and pdf layout of the resulting github.io page can and must be altered to comply with various style-guide rules of external parties like IETF or ISO.

Not yet designed.

| TBW 2025|

§ Integration

This is an informative section

Spec-Up, Spec-Up Glossary tool, TEv2, and the KERISSE-engine plus kerific tooling are gradually going to be integrated for the sake of concept & terminology management in ToIP.

This section might be why we anticipate this Governance Guide on future development the way we’ve done in the previous sections.

§ Concerns

We share some concerns raised over the first months of 2024.

§ Spec-Up and Specification Template

The current copy-and-paste strategy is leading to merging horror and “unrelated histories.”

flowchart TD DIF --> |SpecUp_Daniel_Buchner| SpecUp_60ae636 SpecUp_60ae636 --> |PR accepted| SpecUp_d392aa1 SpecUp_d392aa1 --> |commit| SpecUp_e63f252 SpecUp_e63f252 --> |commit| SpecUp_985a65b SpecUp_60ae636 --> |copy Specification Template| ToIP_SpecUp_60ae636 ToIP_SpecUp_60ae636 --> |PR accepted| SpecUp_445a7db SpecUp_445a7db --> |PR accepted| SpecUp_7667ec3 SpecUp_7667ec3 --> |copy | Spec_kerific SpecUp_7667ec3 --> |copy |keri-spec SpecUp_7667ec3 --> |copy | acdc-spec SpecUp_445a7db --> |copy | cesr-spec ToIP_SpecUp_60ae636 --> |copy| trp-spec ToIP_SpecUp_60ae636 --> |copy| tas-spec style DIF fill:#ffc; style SpecUp_60ae636 fill:#ffc; style SpecUp_d392aa1 fill:#ffc; style SpecUp_e63f252 fill:#ffc; style SpecUp_985a65b fill:#ffc;

How should we work to stay in tune with each other and easily accept improvements?

flowchart TD DIF --> |SpecUp_Daniel_Buchner| SpecUp_60ae636 SpecUp_60ae636 --> |PR accepted| SpecUp_d392aa1 SpecUp_d392aa1 --> |commit| SpecUp_e63f252 SpecUp_d392aa1 --> |pull| ToIP_SpecUp_60ae636 SpecUp_e63f252 --> |commit| SpecUp_985a65b SpecUp_60ae636 --> |Fork Specification Template| ToIP_SpecUp_60ae636 ToIP_SpecUp_60ae636 --> |PR accepted| SpecUp_445a7db SpecUp_445a7db --> |fetch+merge| SpecUp_d392aa1 SpecUp_445a7db --> |PR accepted| SpecUp_7667ec3 SpecUp_7667ec3 --> |Fork | Spec_kerific SpecUp_7667ec3 --> |Fork |keri-spec SpecUp_7667ec3 --> |Fork | acdc-spec SpecUp_445a7db --> |Fork | cesr-spec ToIP_SpecUp_60ae636 --> |Fork| trp-spec ToIP_SpecUp_60ae636 --> |Fork| tas-spec SpecUp_985a65b --> |fetch+merge| SpecUp_7667ec3 SpecUp_7667ec3 --> |pull| SpecUp_985a65b style DIF fill:#ffc; style SpecUp_60ae636 fill:#ffc; style SpecUp_d392aa1 fill:#ffc; style SpecUp_e63f252 fill:#ffc; style SpecUp_985a65b fill:#ffc;

Noticed the differences?

  1. Through forking instead of copying we keep git histories compatible
  2. Through fetch+merge (or pull when no conflicts are expected), we not only keep DIF and ToIP synced, but also it is very straightforward to update all the gh-pages-based specification websites that use the Specification Template to:
    • sync functionality and data
    • offer PRs from any of those installs

§ Roadmap to TEv2

As a TEv2 creator and frontman, we share Rieks Joosten’s viewpoint on this proposal for using Spec-Up refs and defs.

He explained that the same features being discussed here were also added to TEv2.

There is always tension between adding a lot of features and taking a long time or keeping things very minimal. He pointed out that creating glossaries based on cherry-picking glossary entries based on personal preferences can be problematic because it doesn’t actually establish shared understanding and criteria for defining terms.
The larger the group involved and the more varied their cultural backgrounds, the more problematic that can become. However, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start with tools that are actually working right now. Riek’s personal preference is to use terminology that expresses the author’s intentions clearly. For example, reading the Spec-Up documentation was challenging for Rieks because it was difficult to understand it without more context.

Rieks would like to have several more sessions on TEv2 so we can still look at how we can use it for our terminology. He’s not opposed to enhancing Spec-Up for these features but, at the same time, keeping TEv2 tooling in progress.

Rieks Joosten concluded that we need to see what tools are actually needed by both authors and readers to help them comprehend the terms they use. He can also explore how TEv2 tooling can be used to produce Spec-Up definitions.

Rieks Joosten was in favor of proceeding with changes to Spec-Up but also continuing the work on TEv2 to tackle larger issues of terminology management.

§ TEv2 Explanation

§ Current structure
flowchart LR A[A:Root];B[B:ScopeDir];C[/C:SAF/]; D[D:GlossaryDir]; E[E:CurTextDir] A -->|install| B B -->|config| C B -->|populate| D B -->|populate| E

§ Docusaurus example CURRENT

flowchart LR A[A:Root];B[B:/docs];C[/C:saf.yaml/]; D[D:glossaries]; E[E:terms] A -->|install| B B -->|create| C B -->|populate| D B -->|populate| E

§ SpecUp example CURRENT

flowchart LR A[A:Root];B[B:/spec];C[/C:saf.yaml/]; D[D:glossaries]; E[E:terms] A -->|install| B B -->|create| C B -->|populate| D B -->|populate| E
§ Internal Scope

internal-scope-terminology

§ External Scopes and internal scope

external-scope-terminology

§ Full architecture

tev2-architecture

§ Always archive, never delete

Darrell O’Donnell clarified that technical maintainers will not delete any ToIP repos but will only archive them.

| TBW |

§ Annex

§ Comparison Spec-Up 2023 and TEv2 by Rieks Joosten, Jan 2024

This specification has used the following insights to write the Guidelines, most notably in the Roles section and the Normative section.

§ Spec-Up

I have had a look at the latest spec-up draft, specifically one relating to terminology. The text tells you about its features, but (as often), you need to see the source of that text (in RAW format) to figure out how to do things if you’re new to this. Here’s my understanding: Spec-up term definition syntax is as follows:

<text that is used as the description/definition of ‘term’>

where is the term that is being defined. The documentation doesn’t say what it can(not) be, e.g., whether or not it may contain spaces or special characters and

appears to be a (single) line of text, which also isn’t further specified.

If you want to specify aliases (what TEv2 calls ‘form phrases’), you say:

<text that is used as the description/definition of ‘term’ (and its aliases)>

Where and are as before, and <alias> are the aliases, which are also not further specified, but the example shows they can contain spaces (so the, and the closing ]] are the delimiters for the term list.

§ TEv2 definitions appear in different forms:

As a set of (curated) text files (markdown), one for each term. They contain (YAML) frontmatter in which there are fields for (a) the term, (b) the aliases (called ‘form phrases’), and © the text line (called ‘glossaryTexts’). In their body, they contain more documentation related to the term. As an entry in a machine-readable glossary (YAML), every entry basically consists of not only the frontmatter of the curated text file but also some other fields that (third-party) tools can use to find the curated text file or a rendered version thereof. As a set of Wiki files that will (soon?) be ingestable (turned into curated text files).

Spec-up use of term references within markdown:

Where is the defined term or one of its aliases. TEv2 use of term references can be done in different forms:

Where is a defined term or form phrase. However, if is not a defined term or form phrase, you can still make it refer to a defined term using the syntax:

TEv2 has additional syntax for using terms that refer to stuff other than concepts (such as mental models, e.g., in other scopes, e.g., parties, in particular versions of terminology, e.g., tag

Also, TEv2 has mechanisms where users can define/configure their own syntax for term references, as well as mechanisms for specifying what a termref (when found) should be converted into. Spec-up glossaries are a rendered version of the list of spec-up definitions, which requires them to all be specified in that same location. When a user clicks on a termref (in the rendered version), it is taken to the location where the term is defined. I haven’t seen any documentation of whether/how that would work with multiple files. TEv2 glossaries come in two forms: machine-readable glossaries (MRGs) and human-readable glossaries (HRGs). TEv2 sees an HRG as a rendered reference to a particular MRG, so (like TermRefs) users can specify a so-called ‘MRG-Ref’ in their markdown, and when that is processed, an HRG is generated at that location from the designated MRG in a format, and using contents that the user specifies. Here is an example of various HRGs generated on a single page.

§ Discussion

Spec-up is quite different from TEv2. Most notably, By design, spec-up is (very) simple to use and has the basic features you need when writing (simple) specifications. When things become more complex, or you want to explicitly position a spec in a context where other specs also live, my guess is that you run into its limitations. But then, that’s not what spec-up was designed to do. TEv2, on the other hand, is not simple when viewed from a single-context perspective. But you can use and build on the terminologies of others. Another source of perceived complexity may be caused by its flexibility, e.g., it allows users to specify syntaxes (for TermRefs and MRGRefs), as well as the (html, markdown, or other constructs) that they can be converted into.

So, the basic question seems to be whether or not there is an actual need for spec-up and/or TEv2 within ToIP, which I think we can ponder by understanding what we can and cannot do.

tno-terminology-design.github.io

Glossary Generation Demo | TNO Terminology Design

This page is evidence that an HRG can be generated for every MRG that is available within the scope. It also shows that HRGs can be generated in different formats.

Regarding the roles (specification author, curator, end-user/reader), some thoughts:

Authors come in different flavors. An author who writes specs has different capabilities (e.g., being precise and so) than an author who writes learning stuff (things for Muggles and so on). Darrell can do git and markdown, but I recall that Nicky (and others) thought that to be too cumbersome. The minimalistic use cases would differ for the different author sub-roles, so we should give some thought to which sub-roles exist within ToIP.

When we were talking about the ‘term communities,’ we also had the role of ‘contributor,’ which is the role a person performs as (s)he helps draft criteria (for definitions), mental models, and other stuff that we envisaged could be needed in a particular WG, TF (scope). Do we still think that way?

Apart from having the minimalistic use cases, I think it would be helpful if, for every activity or product from the CTWG, we knew who would actually be using it and what they would need to be able to do with that so that we can make sure that they can use it and do with it what they need to. And IMHO, that is far from trivial; we should give that some attention.

§ Brief history of the guide

In 2021, TrustoverIP published the Specification for Creating and Using Terms

In the years to follow, the guide to creating Term wikis has been established. It gives extensive instructions on how to create wikis, use markdown and hyperlinks, etc.

As the number of implementations grew, maintenance of the wikis became out of sync, the number of broken links increased, and duplicate definitions of terms and deviations from the structure and governance offered.

Darrell O’Donnell: As I am deep in a rabbit hole looking at definitions, a thought occurred to me. We may end up with “over-defined” terms - meaning the definition exists in multiple places. Have you considered that case? I believe that a ToIP Master: ToIP Specification conflict should be avoided. If a spec needs a different term than is in the Master glossary, then the conflict should be resolved: adjust Master Glossary, or create a new term in Spec BUT where we end up looking at terms that are managed even further afield, this gets really hard. Just curious if this is a condition you’ve thought of. I see the following possibilities:

  • multiple def: in a single document (this is just sloppy work - but easy to do, for me at least)
  • duplicated def: - say in Spec and ToIP Master Glossary
NOTE

Check quickly out how we take on these concerns

Some of these developments are part of the natural evolution of concepts and terminologies within an umbrella organization like ToIP. Others could be more streamlined.

This specification intends to offer a Guide. A Guide has little or no normative statements as it describes advice on how to create a specific terminology by sticking to guidance and certain rules to know how to write or adopt definitions, how to reference them, and where to store and manage them:

  • reuse the specification template and how to do this in a sustainable manner
  • reuse the ToIP over-arching glossary where possible
  • avoid breaking links in the future
  • use the full power of def, refs, and aliases in individual documents based on Spec-Up (which is behind the specification template as of 202?)
  • be able to generate your documents in a few leading style guides like ToIP, ISO, etc.
  • Last but not least, any group with a certain scope will need to source manage their own definitions or views on the definition, which means that we need to earmark creation and updates with time & author.

§ Historical perspective

§ Past Practise Terminology Governance

Past Practise Terminology Governance

§ Current Practise Terminology Governance

Current Practise Terminology Governance

§ Future Practise Terminology Governance

Future Practise Terminology Governance?

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