{ "model": { "rank": 4456, "code": "thing-merchant", "model_id": "vr.tr.merchant", "name": "merchant", "purpose": "a businessperson engaged in retail trade", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Society, people and institutions", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "SOC", "domain": "SOC.PER", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/merchant/", "tier": 2, "score": 75, "payload": { "layer": "wordnet", "aliases": [ "ticket agent", "booking clerk", "art dealer", "barterer", "bibliopole", "bibliopolist", "bookdealer", "book seller", "butcher", "chandler", "chapman", "cheapjack", "cheesemonger", "cleaner", "dry cleaner", "clothier", "haberdasher", "cosmetician", "costermonger", "crier", "cutler", "draper", "fence", "fishmonger", "florist", "flower girl", "fruiterer", "grain merchant", "greengrocer", "grocer", "horse trader", "hosier", "huckster", "cheap-jack", "ironmonger", "jeweler", "jeweller", "licensee", "linendraper", "mercer" ], "aliasCount": 109, "merged": 75, "knownIn": 0, "facets": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert", "mobility": "not-applicable", "scale": "not-applicable", "affordances": [ "observable" ] }, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "noun.person", "senseRank": 0, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "oewn:2024", "synset": "oewn-10329563-n", "ili": "i91316", "license": "CC BY 4.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-09T20:15:55Z", "providers": [ "Codex" ], "breadth": "recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read", "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "seconds": 22.6, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a087cf-258e-76e2-b519-cc6d85a5b3f3\n--------\nuser\nDescribe what is already known about one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: merchant\nSense to describe: a businessperson engaged in retail trade\nDomain code: SOC.PER\nAlso known as: (none)\n\n\nContext for this batch of 695 things:\n", "usd": 0, "recall": true }, "codex": { "seconds": 61, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.4\n--------\nworkdir: R:\\02_PROJECTS\\02_Meta_Models_Platforms\\Ver.cy\\current\\thing-registry-backlog\nmodel: gpt-6-astra\nprovider: openai\napproval: never\nsandbox: read-only\nreasoning effort: none\nreasoning summaries: none\nsession id: 01a087cf-258e-7f12-863a-c3cd43a2872a\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: merchant\nRegistry id: vr.tr.merchant\nPlane / domain: SOC / SOC.PER\nRegistry definition: a businessperson engaged in retail trade\nNames folded into th" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-MERCHANT", "registryId": "vr.tr.merchant", "name": "merchant", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "SOC.PER" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/merchant/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.merchant", "name": "merchant", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to recognise a merchant as a person acting in retail trade, assess their trading capacity and responsibilities, and determine which commercial actions they may undertake.", "definition": "A merchant, in the retail sense, is a businessperson who operates a business selling goods principally to final consumers for personal or household use.", "scope_statement": "This model owns the merchant role held by a businessperson engaged in retail trade, including its relationship to the person, retail enterprise, goods, customers and trading authority; it follows the registry's retail sense rather than broader historical, wholesale or payment-processing senses.", "in_scope": [ "The person's merchant role and evidence of participation in retail trade", "Ownership, employment, agency and decision-making relationships with a retail enterprise", "Merchandise selection, sourcing, pricing and retail sale responsibilities", "Customer commitments, returns, complaints and transaction accountability", "Competence, applicable permissions and current capacity to trade" ], "out_of_scope": [ "The person's full biography and personal identity record", "The retail organisation's complete governance and financial model", "Product specifications, manufacture and product-level safety assessments", "Wholesale-only trading, brokerage and financial securities dealing", "Payment-provider merchant accounts and merchant-of-record entities as independent concepts", "Job advertisements and employment contracts as documents" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "The referent is a person holding a commercial role; a shop, company or payment account alone does not satisfy this model.", "The role involves retail trade directed toward final-use customers; wholesale-only activity falls outside the supplied definition.", "Evidence must distinguish conducting retail business from merely processing sales as a cashier or assisting customers as a sales employee.", "Purchasing goods as a customer does not establish a merchant role; the person must participate on the business side of retail selling.", "An isolated disposal of personal possessions is insufficient by itself; the business character of the activity must be established." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Retail business relationship", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Person to retail enterprise or sole-trading activity, with relationship type and effective dates", "why_it_matters": "Separates the role holder from the organisation and identifies the business through which the person trades." }, { "name": "Commercial capacity", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Owner-operator, partner, employed operator, authorised agent, other, unresolved; multiple values possible", "why_it_matters": "Identifies how the person participates without assuming every merchant owns the enterprise." }, { "name": "Retail participation", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Retail-only, mixed retail and wholesale, wholesale-only, unresolved", "why_it_matters": "Tests whether the role fits the registry's retail definition." }, { "name": "Merchandise remit", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Goods categories the person is responsible for selecting, sourcing or selling", "why_it_matters": "Connects responsibilities and possible restrictions to the actual merchandise." }, { "name": "Trading channels", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Shop, market stall, mobile selling, own online store, online marketplace, other; multiple values possible", "why_it_matters": "Locates where the person operates and which customer and fulfilment processes apply." }, { "name": "Decision authority", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Permitted commercial actions linked to authorising party, conditions, limits and validity period", "why_it_matters": "Prevents the agent from treating role membership as unlimited authority to commit the business." }, { "name": "Trading status", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Preparing, active, temporarily inactive, suspended, ceased, unknown; dated and scoped to a business or channel", "why_it_matters": "Distinguishes historical role membership from current capacity to trade." }, { "name": "Applicable permission standing", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Required and verified, required but unverified, expired, suspended, not applicable, unresolved; per activity and jurisdiction", "why_it_matters": "Supports action decisions without inventing a universal merchant licence." } ], "affordances": [ "Assess whether evidence supports classifying a person's activity as the registered merchant role.", "Identify the enterprise and principal represented in a proposed retail transaction.", "Check whether sourcing, pricing, selling or refunding falls within the person's recorded authority.", "Route merchandise, fulfilment and customer issues to the responsible person or enterprise.", "Identify missing competence or permission evidence before undertaking a restricted activity.", "Update the merchant role's operational status while preserving its historical relationships." ] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "retail-role-boundary", "name": "Retail role boundary", "description": "Establishes who holds the role and why their activity counts as retail business.", "rationale": "Merchant is easily confused with a retail company, a sales employee or a payment-system label.", "layers": [ { "id": "role-holder-and-business", "name": "Role holder and business", "description": "Connects the person to the business activity through which the role is exercised.", "findings": [ { "id": "merchant-capacity", "name": "Merchant capacity", "description": "Record the capacity in which the person conducts retail business, keeping the person, role and enterprise distinct.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which person holds this role, and through which enterprise or sole-trading activity?", "kind": "definition", "id": "merchant-capacity-q01" }, { "text": "What evidence establishes their capacity as a businessperson rather than only a sales assistant or cashier?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "merchant-capacity-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "retail-business-test", "name": "Retail business test", "description": "Examines the customer orientation and business character of the selling activity.", "findings": [ { "id": "qualifying-retail-activity", "name": "Qualifying retail activity", "description": "Record evidence of retail participation and distinguish it from wholesale-only trade or occasional personal sales.", "questions": [ { "text": "What evidence shows that the activity serves final-use customers?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "qualifying-retail-activity-q01" }, { "text": "What makes these sales business activity rather than disposal of the person's own possessions?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "qualifying-retail-activity-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "merchandise-and-supply", "name": "Merchandise and supply", "description": "Captures the merchant's responsibilities for the goods offered and the arrangements through which they are obtained.", "rationale": "A merchant's ability to sell depends on merchandise remit, supply arrangements and access to saleable stock.", "layers": [ { "id": "assortment-responsibility", "name": "Assortment responsibility", "description": "Identifies the goods and selection decisions within the merchant's remit.", "findings": [ { "id": "goods-selection-remit", "name": "Goods selection remit", "description": "Record which merchandise the person may select or offer and where another party controls the assortment.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which goods categories does this merchant handle?", "kind": "definition", "id": "goods-selection-remit-q01" }, { "text": "May the merchant add or remove products, or must another party approve assortment changes?", "kind": "action", "id": "goods-selection-remit-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "sourcing-and-stock-access", "name": "Sourcing and stock access", "description": "Connects supplier relationships and inventory arrangements to the person's selling responsibilities.", "findings": [ { "id": "supply-and-possession-arrangements", "name": "Supply and possession arrangements", "description": "Record sourcing responsibility, ownership or consignment arrangements, and access to goods without assuming physical possession.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who supplies and owns the goods, and what evidence establishes the merchant's right to offer them?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "supply-and-possession-arrangements-q01" }, { "text": "Who must confirm availability and resolve shortages before the merchant promises delivery?", "kind": "action", "id": "supply-and-possession-arrangements-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "retail-transactions-and-customers", "name": "Retail transactions and customers", "description": "Defines the person's responsibilities when making offers, concluding sales and addressing customer outcomes.", "rationale": "Retail participation becomes actionable through specific commitments about price, payment, delivery and remedies.", "layers": [ { "id": "offers-and-sales", "name": "Offers and sales", "description": "Identifies who controls commercial terms and who becomes bound by a sale.", "findings": [ { "id": "transaction-commitments", "name": "Transaction commitments", "description": "Record the merchant's pricing and sale responsibilities while identifying the contracting seller separately.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which person or entity is the contracting seller for sales conducted by this merchant?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "transaction-commitments-q01" }, { "text": "Which prices, discounts, payment terms and delivery promises may this merchant approve?", "kind": "action", "id": "transaction-commitments-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "fulfilment-and-remedies", "name": "Fulfilment and remedies", "description": "Allocates responsibility for completing sales and responding when customer commitments are unmet.", "findings": [ { "id": "customer-resolution-remit", "name": "Customer resolution remit", "description": "Record how the merchant handles fulfilment failures, returns and complaints, including escalation and refund limits.", "questions": [ { "text": "Who is responsible for delivery failures, damaged goods, returns and customer complaints in each trading channel?", "kind": "definition", "id": "customer-resolution-remit-q01" }, { "text": "Which remedies may the merchant authorise, and which require escalation?", "kind": "action", "id": "customer-resolution-remit-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "authority-and-trading-permissions", "name": "Authority and trading permissions", "description": "Separates delegated business authority from externally imposed requirements for particular retail activities.", "rationale": "Being called a merchant does not establish permission to bind an enterprise or sell every category of goods.", "layers": [ { "id": "business-mandate", "name": "Business mandate", "description": "Records the source, scope and limits of authority exercised for the retail business.", "findings": [ { "id": "delegated-commercial-authority", "name": "Delegated commercial authority", "description": "Identify who grants the merchant authority and the actions, financial limits and dates it covers.", "questions": [ { "text": "What ownership, partnership, employment or agency evidence supports the person's commercial authority?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "delegated-commercial-authority-q01" }, { "text": "What approval limits apply to purchases, supplier agreements, credit sales and refunds?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "delegated-commercial-authority-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "jurisdiction-and-restricted-trade", "name": "Jurisdiction and restricted trade", "description": "Frames permission checks around actual goods, locations, channels and responsible holders.", "findings": [ { "id": "applicable-permission-evidence", "name": "Applicable permission evidence", "description": "Record verified requirements and their holders separately for the person, enterprise or premises; unresolved applicability remains explicit.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which authoritative sources establish applicable permissions for the goods, location and selling channel?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "applicable-permission-evidence-q01" }, { "text": "Must each applicable permission be held by this person, the enterprise or the premises operator?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "applicable-permission-evidence-q02" }, { "text": "Does the available evidence support proceeding with the proposed sale, or is a permission check still unresolved?", "kind": "action", "id": "applicable-permission-evidence-q03" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "competence-and-operating-state", "name": "Competence and operating state", "description": "Assesses readiness to perform assigned retail tasks and whether the role remains operational.", "rationale": "A historical title or business relationship alone does not establish current competence or capacity to trade.", "layers": [ { "id": "retail-task-competence", "name": "Retail task competence", "description": "Connects demonstrated capabilities and any required qualifications to the merchant's actual responsibilities.", "findings": [ { "id": "competence-evidence", "name": "Competence evidence", "description": "Record evidence relevant to merchandise knowledge, pricing, stock handling, payment handling and customer resolution without presuming a universal qualification.", "questions": [ { "text": "What evidence demonstrates competence for the retail tasks assigned to this merchant?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "competence-evidence-q01" }, { "text": "Which assigned tasks require training, supervision or a verified qualification before the person performs them?", "kind": "action", "id": "competence-evidence-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "current-trading-capacity", "name": "Current trading capacity", "description": "Tracks whether the person can presently exercise the role for a particular business and channel.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-status-and-constraints", "name": "Role status and constraints", "description": "Record dated operational status and constraints such as ended mandates, unavailable stock or suspended permissions.", "questions": [ { "text": "What dated evidence shows that the merchant is currently active for this business and channel?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "role-status-and-constraints-q01" }, { "text": "Which current constraints prevent accepting orders or fulfilling existing customer commitments?", "kind": "action", "id": "role-status-and-constraints-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "evidence-and-external-alignment", "name": "Evidence and external alignment", "description": "What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.", "rationale": "A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.", "layers": [ { "id": "reported-evidence", "name": "Reported evidence", "description": "Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.", "findings": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes", "name": "Check these first", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "This describes a person's economic role, not a particular person, legal entity or job advertisement.", "Check occupation-code applicability against actual duties, especially for larger-business owners and online traders.", "No universal qualification, licence or numerical performance range is asserted; these require a specified jurisdiction, product category and business context." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes-q01", "text": "Which of these check these first hold for the sense of merchant this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-kinds", "name": "Kinds and varieties", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Independent shopkeeper", "Market-stall merchant", "Itinerant merchant", "Online retail merchant", "Franchise retail operator" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-kinds-q01", "text": "Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of merchant this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-identifiers", "name": "Identifiers and schemes", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "scheme": "ISCO-08 - International Standard Classification of Occupations, International Labour Organization", "value_or_pattern": "5221 - Shop keepers", "note": "Relevant to merchants operating small retail shops; classification depends on actual duties and business scale, so this is not an exact identifier for every retail merchant." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-identifiers-q01", "text": "Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of merchant this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-real-world-use", "name": "Real-world use", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Selecting merchandise and sourcing goods from suppliers", "Setting retail prices and managing trading margins", "Managing stock, replenishment and product availability", "Organising sales, payments, returns and customer service", "Managing the retail business's cash flow and supplier relationships" ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of merchant this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards", "name": "Failure modes and hazards", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Unsold or obsolete inventory ties up working capital and may require markdowns.", "Stockouts and unreliable suppliers cause lost sales.", "Inadequate margins or cash-flow management can make the business insolvent.", "Theft, payment fraud and inventory discrepancies cause financial losses.", "Unsafe, counterfeit or misrepresented merchandise can harm customers and expose the business to liability." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of merchant this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-regional-variation", "name": "Regional variation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "Business registration, taxation, trading permissions and product-specific licensing depend on jurisdiction and merchandise.", "Retail activity may take place through formal shops, markets, itinerant trading or online channels, with different local rules.", "The word merchant can also include wholesale traders or denote a payment-accepting business; those broader senses are outside this definition." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of merchant this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-neighbours", "name": "Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ { "name": "Retail salesperson", "difference": "Sells goods to customers but need not operate the business or bear its commercial risk." }, { "name": "Retail manager", "difference": "Manages retail operations, often as an employee; being a manager does not establish ownership or independent trading." }, { "name": "Wholesaler", "difference": "Sells principally to businesses or other organisations rather than final consumers for personal or household use." }, { "name": "Retail business", "difference": "Is the enterprise through which trading occurs; the merchant in this sense is the businessperson." }, { "name": "Broker", "difference": "Arranges transactions between other parties, typically for a fee, rather than selling merchandise on the merchant's own account." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of merchant this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Which ISCO, SOC or ESCO classifications best match this registry's retail-businessperson sense, and where do they separate owner-operators from employed retail managers?", "What evidence threshold should distinguish a merchant from an occasional seller, a sales employee or an intermediary under the registry definition?", "Does this entry include retail services and digital goods, or is its intended merchandise scope narrower?", "How should mixed retail and wholesale activity be represented without expanding the entry into a wholesale-only merchant model?", "Which jurisdictions and merchandise categories should be researched first to establish actual licensing, registration and qualification requirements and their correct holders?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 17, "questions": 28 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "occupation or role", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched.", "facetsInferred": false, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a merchant, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "a businessperson engaged in retail trade", "characteristics": { "substance": "social", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: ticket agent, booking clerk, art dealer, barterer, bibliopole, bibliopolist, bookdealer, book seller, butcher, chandler, chapman, cheapjack.", "75 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a merchant, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "a social arrangement between people", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Not recognisable by appearance, and guessing from dress or setting is how an agent gets this wrong. Recognised by qualification, licence or engagement." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "ticket agent", "booking clerk", "art dealer", "barterer", "bibliopole", "bibliopolist", "bookdealer", "book seller", "butcher", "chandler", "chapman", "cheapjack" ] } ], "standing": "75 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one merchant from another, and a merchant from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a merchant sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a merchant from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a merchant passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a merchant between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a merchant, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a merchant is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "people-and-responsibility", "name": "People, roles and responsibility", "description": "Who stands in what relation to a merchant.", "rationale": "Social things are defined by the relations people hold to them, and those relations change without the thing changing.", "layers": [ { "id": "roles-and-parties", "name": "Roles and parties", "description": "The roles that exist around a merchant and who fills them.", "findings": [ { "id": "role-assignments", "name": "Role assignments and their validity", "description": "Who holds which role over a merchant, from when, and on whose authority.", "questions": [ { "id": "role-assignments-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a role over a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a role over a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "role-assignments-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a role over a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "ownership-and-accountability", "name": "Ownership and accountability", "description": "Who answers for a merchant and who may decide about it.", "findings": [ { "id": "accountability", "name": "Accountability and decision rights", "description": "Where responsibility for a merchant sits when something goes wrong.", "questions": [ { "id": "accountability-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes responsibility for a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about responsibility for a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "accountability-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once responsibility for a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "competence-and-licence", "name": "Competence, qualification and licence", "description": "What someone must be able to do, and be permitted to do, as merchant.", "rationale": "The permission is jurisdictional and the competence is not, and conflating them is how an agent concludes someone may practise when they may not.", "layers": [ { "id": "competences", "name": "Competences and qualifications", "description": "Skills and credentials the role assumes.", "findings": [ { "id": "qualification-record", "name": "Qualifications and how they are evidenced", "description": "What counts as qualified, and what proves it.", "questions": [ { "id": "qualification-record-q01", "text": "What competences and qualifications does merchant require, and how is each evidenced?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "qualification-record-q02", "text": "Which qualifications transfer between jurisdictions and which do not?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "licensing", "name": "Licensing and the right to practise", "description": "Who grants permission, where it holds, and when it lapses.", "findings": [ { "id": "licence-record", "name": "Licence, issuer and validity", "description": "The permission, its issuer, its territory and its expiry.", "questions": [ { "id": "licence-record-q01", "text": "Who licenses merchant, in which territory, and for how long?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "licence-record-q02", "text": "What may an unlicensed person not do, and what must an agent refuse to assume?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "tasks-and-accountability", "name": "Tasks, employment and accountability", "description": "What merchant actually does and who answers for it.", "rationale": "A role is filled by people under an arrangement, and the arrangement decides liability, supervision and who may instruct whom.", "layers": [ { "id": "tasks", "name": "Tasks and typical duties", "description": "The work itself, and how it differs by setting.", "findings": [ { "id": "duty-record", "name": "Duties and setting", "description": "What the role does and where the work varies.", "questions": [ { "id": "duty-record-q01", "text": "What tasks define merchant, and how do they differ between settings or seniority?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "duty-record-q02", "text": "Which tasks may only be done by this role, and which are shared with neighbouring roles?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "accountability", "name": "Employment and accountability", "description": "The relation under which the work is done and where responsibility sits.", "findings": [ { "id": "responsibility", "name": "Responsibility and supervision", "description": "Who instructs, who supervises, who is liable.", "questions": [ { "id": "responsibility-q01", "text": "Under what arrangement does someone act as merchant, and who supervises or is liable?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "responsibility-q02", "text": "When something goes wrong, what does the model need to have recorded to answer who was responsible?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a merchant came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a merchant and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a merchant is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a merchant, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a merchant, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a merchant is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }