Responsibility Infrastructure Protocol.
The protocol-level architecture through which Responsibility Infrastructure separates responsibility records, evidence, verification, recognition, standing, registry, resolution and reliance.
- Scope
- Wider RI protocol architecture
- Relationship
- Operates within the Responsibility Infrastructure Standard
- Interoperability
- Uses a separately defined public interoperability layer
- Technology model
- Implementation-neutral at the normative boundary
The protocol is broader than interoperable exchange.
The Responsibility Infrastructure Protocol describes the protocol-level relationships through which responsibility information can move from recorded facts and evidence to verified claims, recognised standing, resolution and external reliance.
It is distinct from the Responsibility Interoperability Protocol. The interoperability protocol defines the common exchange behaviour required between independent parties; the RI Protocol addresses the wider protocol architecture in which that exchange may be used.
Separate functions before connecting them.
Responsibility Infrastructure treats recording, verification, recognition, standing, registry, resolution and reliance as distinguishable functions. A record may exist without being verified; verification does not itself create recognition; historical recognition is not automatically current standing; and resolved standing does not remove the relying party's own authority or judgement.
- Responsibility record
- Preserves the responsibility facts and material lifecycle events relevant to a claim.
- Verification
- Determines what the available evidence supports without collapsing evidence into recognition.
- Recognition
- Determines the effect of a verified responsibility record within an applicable recognition regime.
- Standing
- Expresses the current condition that a relying party may need to resolve at the point of reliance.
- Registry
- Preserves and publishes recognised standing and its history where the applicable regime requires it.
- Resolution
- Determines which current standing corresponds to a particular reliance request.
- Reliance
- Allows an external party or system to use resolved standing within its own authority and decision context.
Standard and Protocol perform different jobs.
The Responsibility Infrastructure Standard defines the normative conditions governing the wider architecture. The Responsibility Infrastructure Protocol describes the protocol-level relationships through which those conditions are expressed and used.
A claim of conformance must identify the applicable publication, role, scope and version. Compatibility with the public interoperability layer does not by itself establish conformance with the wider RI Standard or Protocol.
Interoperability has its own Standard and Protocol.
The proposed Responsibility Interoperability Standard defines the minimum common responsibility semantics that independent parties need to preserve. The proposed Responsibility Interoperability Protocol defines the exchange behaviour needed to carry those semantics across independent organisational and system boundaries.
Those interoperability publications form the public common boundary. They do not replace the Responsibility Infrastructure Standard or Responsibility Infrastructure Protocol.