{ "model": { "rank": 1262, "code": "thing-q4412", "model_id": "vr.tr.west-africa", "name": "West Africa", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to identify West Africa under an explicit regional convention, assess claims about its changing conditions, and determine when regional comparisons or actions are justified.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Information and virtual systems", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "INF", "domain": "INF.KNW", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q4412/", "tier": 2, "score": 162, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [], "aliasCount": 0, "merged": 0, "knownIn": 162, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q4412", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4412", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-07T11:05:35Z", "providers": [ "Codex" ], "breadth": "recalled by Codex without web access - no source was read", "missingProviders": [], "pass": 2, "cost": { "grok": { "seconds": 22.3, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.3\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: 01a07b8a-61a0-7310-9503-2a751f589f5b\n--------\nuser\nDescribe what is already known about one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: West Africa\nSense to describe: (none recorded)\nDomain code: INF.KNW\nAlso known as: (none)\n\n\nContext for this batch of 210 things:\n# Batch 001: 1001 regi", "usd": 0, "recall": true }, "codex": { "seconds": 74.4, "error": "Reading additional input from stdin...\nOpenAI Codex v0.153.3\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: 01a07b8a-6195-7582-88fb-c604b3ddbc4e\n--------\nuser\nYou are drafting a Vercy meta-model for one registered thing. Answer as JSON only, no prose around it.\n\nThing: West Africa\nRegistry id: vr.tr.west-africa\nPlane / domain: INF / INF.KNW\nRegistry definition: (none recorded)\nNames folded into this entry: (none)\n\n\n" } } }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q4412", "registryId": "vr.tr.west-africa", "name": "West Africa", "version": "0.1.0-research.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "INF.KNW" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q4412/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.west-africa", "name": "West Africa", "purpose": "Enable an AI agent to identify West Africa under an explicit regional convention, assess claims about its changing conditions, and determine when regional comparisons or actions are justified.", "definition": "West Africa is a conventionally delimited region of western Africa whose geographic, historical and cultural boundaries vary, with the United Nations statistical grouping called Western Africa providing one explicit country-and-area classification.", "scope_statement": "This model owns West Africa as a named geographic region and an object of knowledge associated with vr.tr.west-africa, including its competing delimitations, internal variation and regional relationships; the INF / INF.KNW assignment describes its registry placement rather than establishing that it is a discipline.", "in_scope": [ "Geographic and institutional conventions used to delimit West Africa", "Relationships among coastal, inland, Sahelian and other subregional settings", "Regional patterns of settlement, language, mobility and historical connection", "Cross-border environmental, economic and infrastructure relationships", "Evidence and conditions governing the use of West Africa as an analytical or operational unit" ], "out_of_scope": [ "Complete national or local models of countries and settlements located within the region", "The whole African continent or the whole Sahel", "Internal governance and procedures of ECOWAS or other regional organisations", "Exhaustive accounts of individual peoples, languages, religions or historical states", "Detailed specifications of individual ecosystems, commodities, infrastructure assets or armed conflicts" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "A claim about West Africa must identify a geographic referent or regional convention; a shared label alone does not establish identical coverage.", "West Africa and ECOWAS must be distinguished by comparing the selected geographic coverage with the organisation's membership at the relevant date.", "West Africa and the Sahel must be distinguished by identifying whether the claim concerns a regional delimitation or an environmental and social zone that crosses regional boundaries.", "A West African regional claim must account for variation between coastal and inland settings rather than treating one country's conditions as representative.", "A knowledge resource about West Africa is evidence about the region, while the region itself remains the referent of this model." ], "characteristics": [ { "name": "Regional delimitation convention", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Named statistical, geographic, historical or operational convention, with version or date", "why_it_matters": "Determines what a claim or proposed action includes when it refers to West Africa." }, { "name": "Included geographic units", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Countries, territories or subnational areas linked to the selected convention; inclusion may be partial or disputed", "why_it_matters": "Makes differences between regional definitions explicit and prevents silent changes in coverage." }, { "name": "Environmental and livelihood setting", "kind": "category", "unit_or_values": "Source-defined coastal, forest, savanna, Sahelian, riverine or other relevant settings; multiple assignments permitted", "why_it_matters": "Supports assessment of internal differences in exposure, production and settlement." }, { "name": "Population distribution", "kind": "measurement", "unit_or_values": "Persons, persons per square kilometre or population shares, with year and geographic coverage", "why_it_matters": "Prevents regional totals or averages from concealing concentrations and gaps in coverage." }, { "name": "Cross-border connectivity", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Documented migration routes, trade corridors, transport links, shared waters and energy connections", "why_it_matters": "Identifies dependencies that make regional analysis useful." }, { "name": "Institutional coverage", "kind": "relation", "unit_or_values": "Organisation or agreement linked to participating jurisdictions, effective dates and applicable functions", "why_it_matters": "Separates geographic inclusion from the authority to coordinate or implement an action." }, { "name": "Regional evidence coverage", "kind": "state", "unit_or_values": "Comparable, partially comparable, incompatible or unknown, assessed for a specified claim and period", "why_it_matters": "Determines whether evidence supports a regional conclusion or requires a narrower statement." } ], "affordances": [ "Resolve a reference to West Africa into a named delimitation and identify ambiguous inclusions.", "Compare regional indicators after aligning geographic coverage, dates and measurement definitions.", "Trace cross-border dependencies among coastal gateways, inland populations, shared waters and regional networks.", "Identify which regional institutions and national authorities are relevant to a proposed action.", "Separate region-wide evidence from findings that apply only to particular countries, corridors or environmental zones.", "Flag unsupported generalisations and formulate research questions for missing parts of the region." ] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "regional-identity-and-extent", "name": "Regional identity and extent", "description": "Establishes which West Africa a reference denotes and how that coverage relates to other regional labels.", "rationale": "An agent cannot recognise the region consistently or compare claims without resolving competing delimitations.", "layers": [ { "id": "delimitation-conventions", "name": "Delimitation conventions", "description": "Records the authority, purpose and geographic coverage of a chosen definition.", "findings": [ { "id": "explicit-west-africa-referent", "name": "Explicit West Africa referent", "description": "Recognition requires a named convention or a documented operational boundary, with unresolved inclusions retained as uncertainty.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which authority or analytical purpose defines West Africa for this use?", "kind": "definition", "id": "explicit-west-africa-referent-q01" }, { "text": "Which countries, territories, islands or partial areas does that definition include or exclude?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "explicit-west-africa-referent-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "overlapping-regional-labels", "name": "Overlapping regional labels", "description": "Separates West Africa from institutional groupings and adjacent or intersecting geographic zones.", "findings": [ { "id": "geography-zone-and-membership", "name": "Geography, zone and membership", "description": "References to ECOWAS, the Sahel, the Gulf of Guinea or other neighbouring concepts require explicit relationships to the selected West Africa boundary.", "questions": [ { "text": "Where does the selected West Africa extent overlap with, extend beyond or fall short of the other named region or grouping?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "geography-zone-and-membership-q01" }, { "text": "Which dated geographic or membership source supports that relationship?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "geography-zone-and-membership-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "environment-and-seasonal-conditions", "name": "Environment and seasonal conditions", "description": "Organises environmental differences and connected water systems relevant to interpreting West African conditions.", "rationale": "Regional judgements must distinguish local environmental settings and seasonal dependencies rather than assigning one condition to the entire region.", "layers": [ { "id": "coastal-inland-and-sahelian-settings", "name": "Coastal, inland and Sahelian settings", "description": "Locates evidence within source-defined environmental zones and seasonal periods.", "findings": [ { "id": "environmental-context-of-regional-claims", "name": "Environmental context of regional claims", "description": "Statements about rainfall, vegetation, heat or livelihoods need spatial and seasonal qualification before regional interpretation.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which coastal, inland or Sahelian areas and which seasons does the observation actually cover?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "environmental-context-of-regional-claims-q01" }, { "text": "What spatial resolution, observation period and uncertainty support the reported environmental pattern?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "environmental-context-of-regional-claims-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "shared-waters-and-coasts", "name": "Shared waters and coasts", "description": "Connects river basins and coastal processes to the jurisdictions and populations affected.", "findings": [ { "id": "water-system-regional-dependencies", "name": "Water-system regional dependencies", "description": "Analysis of systems such as the Niger and Senegal river basins must distinguish hydrological boundaries from the chosen regional boundary and locate relevant upstream and downstream dependencies.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which parts of the relevant basin or coastal system lie within the selected West Africa extent, and which dependencies extend beyond it?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "water-system-regional-dependencies-q01" }, { "text": "What evidence and coordination arrangements are needed before recommending an intervention with downstream or coastal effects?", "kind": "action", "id": "water-system-regional-dependencies-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "peoples-settlements-and-historical-connections", "name": "Peoples, settlements and historical connections", "description": "Supports regional interpretation of social diversity, settlement and historical relationships without treating West Africa as one society.", "rationale": "Regional recognition depends partly on connections among places and populations, but those connections do not justify uniform cultural claims.", "layers": [ { "id": "language-and-settlement-patterns", "name": "Language and settlement patterns", "description": "Distinguishes community language use, administrative language categories and settlement distributions.", "findings": [ { "id": "social-patterns-beyond-national-labels", "name": "Social patterns beyond national labels", "description": "An agent should locate language and population evidence at its actual scale and avoid treating national administrative categories as complete descriptions of communities.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the evidence describe official language status, reported language use, community identification or another distinct measure?", "kind": "definition", "id": "social-patterns-beyond-national-labels-q01" }, { "text": "Which settlements and cross-border populations are represented or absent in the underlying observations?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "social-patterns-beyond-national-labels-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "historical-geographies-and-mobility", "name": "Historical geographies and mobility", "description": "Places historical networks and population movement within their own periods and geographic extents.", "findings": [ { "id": "period-specific-regional-connections", "name": "Period-specific regional connections", "description": "Historical analysis should distinguish trans-Saharan, Atlantic and intra-regional connections and avoid projecting present-day boundaries onto earlier periods.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which period and documented network make West Africa a useful frame for this historical claim?", "kind": "definition", "id": "period-specific-regional-connections-q01" }, { "text": "Which present-day boundaries or labels would distort the historical extent of the people, polity or route being described?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "period-specific-regional-connections-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "regional-flows-and-institutions", "name": "Regional flows and institutions", "description": "Relates economic and mobility connections to the organisations and jurisdictions able to influence them.", "rationale": "Geographic proximity alone does not establish operational integration or an institution's authority over the whole region.", "layers": [ { "id": "coastal-gateways-and-inland-corridors", "name": "Coastal gateways and inland corridors", "description": "Examines links among ports, border crossings, inland markets and connected infrastructure.", "findings": [ { "id": "corridor-specific-dependence", "name": "Corridor-specific dependence", "description": "Regional connectivity should be assessed through documented routes and flows, including the dates and conditions under which those routes function.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which coastal gateways and inland corridors serve the places under assessment, according to observed flows?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "corridor-specific-dependence-q01" }, { "text": "Which border, transport or infrastructure dependencies must be checked before selecting a route or coordinating a regional operation?", "kind": "action", "id": "corridor-specific-dependence-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "dated-institutional-authority", "name": "Dated institutional authority", "description": "Records the temporal and functional scope of regional agreements and organisations.", "findings": [ { "id": "membership-is-not-regional-coverage", "name": "Membership and regional coverage", "description": "An agent must establish an institution's applicable membership, mandate and implementation arrangements for the relevant date before attributing region-wide authority to it.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which dated official records establish the relevant ECOWAS or other institutional membership and applicable agreement?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "membership-is-not-regional-coverage-q01" }, { "text": "Which institution and national authorities can authorise or implement the proposed action in each affected jurisdiction?", "kind": "action", "id": "membership-is-not-regional-coverage-q02" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "regional-evidence-and-judgement", "name": "Regional evidence and judgement", "description": "Determines when observations can support conclusions about West Africa and when conclusions must remain local or provisional.", "rationale": "Changing coverage, uneven observation and incompatible national measures can produce misleading regional assessments.", "layers": [ { "id": "comparable-regional-measures", "name": "Comparable regional measures", "description": "Checks the construction and interpretation of indicators aggregated across the selected region.", "findings": [ { "id": "consistent-west-africa-denominators", "name": "Consistent West Africa denominators", "description": "Regional totals, rates and trends require compatible definitions, explicit inclusion lists and a treatment of missing observations.", "questions": [ { "text": "Do the compared values use the same West Africa extent, reference period, denominator and measurement definition?", "kind": "measurement", "id": "consistent-west-africa-denominators-q01" }, { "text": "Which included areas lack observations, and how does their absence limit the regional estimate?", "kind": "provenance", "id": "consistent-west-africa-denominators-q02" } ] } ] }, { "id": "spatially-qualified-decisions", "name": "Spatially qualified decisions", "description": "Links assessments of changing conditions to the actual locations and decision contexts supported by evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "limits-of-region-wide-action", "name": "Limits of region-wide action", "description": "A finding about a particular Sahelian area, coastal city or transport corridor should support a wider West African decision only when the wider applicability is established.", "questions": [ { "text": "What evidence supports extending this local or subregional finding to the other parts of West Africa affected by the decision?", "kind": "boundary", "id": "limits-of-region-wide-action-q01" }, { "text": "Should the proposed action apply region-wide, be limited to identified places or await additional evidence?", "kind": "action", "id": "limits-of-region-wide-action-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 description assumes the geographic sense; the supplied INF.KNW domain and discipline-oriented batch context should be checked against the registry entry.", "Any quantitative profile requires an explicit regional boundary and reference date.", "This is recall-based and does not claim consultation of sources or verification of current organizational memberships." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-confidence-notes-q01", "text": "Which of these check these first hold for the sense of West Africa 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": "United Nations M49", "value_or_pattern": "011", "note": "Identifies the statistical subregion Western Africa; it does not establish a universally binding geographic boundary." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-identifiers-q01", "text": "Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of West Africa this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] }, { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation", "name": "Standards and regulation", "description": "Recalled without web access and unsourced; every item is a lead to verify.", "evidence": [ "The United Nations Statistics Division's M49 classification defines Western Africa for statistical grouping; it is not a regional government or regulatory jurisdiction." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-standards-and-regulation-q01", "text": "Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of West Africa 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": [ "Grouping countries and areas for international statistical reporting.", "Framing research on regional history, languages, societies and environments.", "Organizing regional development, humanitarian and public-health programmes.", "Comparing trade, migration and transport connections across neighbouring countries." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-real-world-use-q01", "text": "Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of West Africa 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": [ "Treating West Africa as a discipline because of its registry domain rather than identifying it as a geographic region.", "Equating the geographic region with the membership of a regional organization.", "Reporting population, area or economic totals without specifying the territorial grouping and reference year.", "Treating the region as culturally, linguistically or environmentally homogeneous." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-failure-modes-and-hazards-q01", "text": "Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of West Africa 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": [ "The Sahelian north, savanna interiors and humid southern coastal zones have substantially different environmental conditions.", "Anglophone, Francophone and Lusophone institutional traditions coexist with numerous African languages and cross-border cultural regions.", "Historical and cultural accounts can draw regional boundaries differently from the United Nations statistical classification." ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-regional-variation-q01", "text": "Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of West Africa 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": "Africa", "difference": "Africa is the continent; West Africa is a region within it." }, { "name": "Economic Community of West African States", "difference": "ECOWAS is a treaty-based organization with formally determined membership; West Africa is a geographic region." }, { "name": "Sahel", "difference": "The Sahel is a semiarid belt south of the Sahara that overlaps West Africa and extends farther east." }, { "name": "West African studies", "difference": "West African studies is an interdisciplinary field of inquiry; West Africa is its geographic subject." } ], "questions": [ { "id": "evidence-neighbours-q01", "text": "Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of West Africa this model covers, and on what evidence?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Which delimitation should be the registry's default for West Africa, and how should alternative treatments of islands and territories be represented?", "Does INF / INF.KNW intentionally classify the regional knowledge concept, or does the registry need an explicit relationship to a geographic-place model?", "Does an existing world model already cover West Africa or an equivalent regional concept, requiring reuse rather than a separate publication?", "Which dated authoritative sources establish institutional coverage, and what update process will keep membership and agreement claims current?", "Which sources provide sufficiently comparable environmental, population, language and connectivity evidence across the selected region, and where must conclusions remain unresolved?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 11, "findings": 17, "questions": 27 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "discipline or field of knowledge", "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. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "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 West Africa, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Enable an AI agent to identify West Africa under an explicit regional convention, assess claims about its changing conditions, and determine when regional comparisons or actions are justified.", "characteristics": { "substance": "information", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "read and interpreted" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Described in 162 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "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 West Africa, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "content that has to be carried by something else", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "read it and act on what it says" ], "howItIsRecognised": [], "relatedModels": [], "standing": "Described in 162 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one West Africa from another, and a West Africa 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa 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 West Africa 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa 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 West Africa from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a West Africa, 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa 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 West Africa 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 West Africa between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a West Africa, 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa 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 West Africa, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a West Africa 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "content-and-access", "name": "Content, encoding and access", "description": "What a West Africa says, how it is encoded and who may read it.", "rationale": "An informational thing carries content that can be copied, versioned and withheld, none of which its physical carrier explains.", "layers": [ { "id": "content-and-encoding", "name": "Content and encoding", "description": "The content itself, its format and its language.", "findings": [ { "id": "content-and-format", "name": "Content, format and language", "description": "What a West Africa contains and in what form it is held.", "questions": [ { "id": "content-and-format-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the content of a West Africa, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the content of a West Africa, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "content-and-format-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the content of a West Africa is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "access-and-rights", "name": "Access, rights and retention", "description": "Who may read, copy or change it, and for how long it is kept.", "findings": [ { "id": "access-rules", "name": "Access rules and retention", "description": "The permissions attached to a West Africa and the period it survives.", "questions": [ { "id": "access-rules-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes access to a West Africa, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about access to a West Africa, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "access-rules-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once access to a West Africa is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "subject-and-method", "name": "Subject matter and method", "description": "What West Africa studies and how it establishes anything.", "rationale": "A field is identified by its questions and its methods, and those are what distinguish it from the fields next to it.", "layers": [ { "id": "subject", "name": "Subject matter", "description": "The questions it takes as its own.", "findings": [ { "id": "subject-record", "name": "Questions and objects of study", "description": "What it is about, stated so a neighbouring field can be told apart.", "questions": [ { "id": "subject-record-q01", "text": "What questions and objects does West Africa take as its own?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "subject-record-q02", "text": "Which questions does it share with a neighbouring field, and who claims them?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "method", "name": "Method and evidence", "description": "How claims are established and what counts as evidence.", "findings": [ { "id": "method-record", "name": "Methods and standards of evidence", "description": "The methods used and what they are taken to establish.", "questions": [ { "id": "method-record-q01", "text": "By what methods does West Africa establish claims, and what counts as sufficient evidence?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "method-record-q02", "text": "What kind of claim can this field not settle, and where should an agent look instead?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "institutions-and-classification", "name": "Institutions and classification", "description": "Where West Africa is practised and how catalogues place it.", "rationale": "The institutional footprint is the evidence that a field exists as a field rather than as a topic.", "layers": [ { "id": "institutions", "name": "Institutional markers", "description": "Societies, journals, degrees and departments.", "findings": [ { "id": "institution-record", "name": "Bodies and venues", "description": "Where the field organises itself.", "questions": [ { "id": "institution-record-q01", "text": "Which societies, journals or degrees mark West Africa as an established field?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "id": "institution-record-q02", "text": "What would show that it is emerging or dissolving rather than established?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification", "name": "Classification schemes", "description": "Where library and research classifications put it.", "findings": [ { "id": "classification-record", "name": "Codes and their disagreements", "description": "The classification codes that place it, and where they differ.", "questions": [ { "id": "classification-record-q01", "text": "Which classification schemes place West Africa, under what codes?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "classification-record-q02", "text": "Where do those schemes disagree about its scope?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a West Africa 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 West Africa and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a West Africa, 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa 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 West Africa is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a West Africa, 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 West Africa, 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 West Africa 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 } } } }