DRPF Glossary Cheat Sheet

Early reviewers of the DRPF proposal pointed out that it includes a bewildering mishmash of terminology from various fields. By its nature, this discussion bridges multiple areas of activity, and the terms have been selected to represent their meaning from their respective disciplines.

Before we normalize the DRPF nomenclature so that its understandable across various audiences, we'll define some terms that appear to be tripping some readers up.

NOTE: This glossary is for understanding the overall DRFP concept... a full ontology and associated vocabulary is coming soon.

Apex Domain
The top-most domain registered within the domain hierarchy under the Top Level Domain (TLD) registry. This is the same as Organizational Domain, Registered Domain, or Root Domain, etc., etc., because only one term for the same thing apparently isnt enough.
Assertion
A statement thats made, regardless of its veracity (i.e. don't trust the assertion unless you can verify it or the organization that asserted it).
Brand
A marketing construct that's designed to be customer-facing (e.g. LVMH is the corporate owner of separate brands such as Sephora, Tag Heuer, and Tiffany & Co, each of which is served by separate domains).
Domain Administrator
The organization responsible for operating the domain which may be within the company that owns the brands related to the domain, or could be operated by a 3rd party vendor. Basically, whoever has control over the domain (or subdomain).
Domain Policy
Building on the more general "policy" definition below, a "domain policy" describes a set of statements published by the domain administrator intended for the consumption of "relying parties."
Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN)
This is a well-known term of art across the Internet, though it does bear repeating that an FQDN is any domain, whether it be a "registered domain," or "subdomain." The focus here is on the specified FQDN, and not a range of subdomains or other wildcard constructs.
Ontology
A set of defined terms that are used to describe how subjects are related to each other within a specified classification system. It's similar to a taxonomy, but isn't necessarily hierarchical in structure. For example, one subject can be related to other subjects in various ways depending on the context. See "Semantic Ontology" for more.
Organizational Domain
The top-most domain registered within the domain hierarchy under the Top Level Domain (TLD) registry. This is the same as "Apex Domain," Registered Domain," or "Root Domain", because only one term for the same thing apparently isn't enough.
Policy
Granted that it is an over-used term, in this context the term refers to the set of statements that define how the publisher of the policy would like "Relying Parties" (see below for a definition of this term) to interact with them.
Policy Assertion Record
A DNS resource record that identifies a policy has been published for a specific domain. It is considered only an "assertion" given that it's self-published by the domain administrator that "asserts" the policy. In addition to including a limited set of simple statements, it can also include a URL pointing to a more complete "policy document" (see below).
Policy Document
A file that contains the full set of statements that make up the "policy" published for a given domain (or set of related domains as directed).
Registered Domain
The top-most domain registered within the domain hierarchy under the Top Level Domain (TLD) registry. This is the same as "Apex Domain," "Organizational Domain," or "Root Domain", because only one term for the same thing apparently isn't enough.
Relying Party
The entity that is expected to discover and obey the policies published by a domain.
Root Domain
The top-most domain registered within the domain hierarchy under the Top Level Domain (TLD) registry. This is the same as "Organizational Domain" or "Apex Domain", because only one term for the same thing apparently isn't enough.
Semantic Ontology
The addition of contextual meaning that enables the ontology to convey multi-dimensional relationships. There is no one overriding set of defined relationship terms (i.e. "semantics"), as an ever-growing set of "vocabularies" (see below) can be added to define an ever-increasing set of relationships.
Schema vs. Schema.org
It's important to separate the general concept of a "schema" defining structured data from the specific "Schema.org" defined ontology.
Vocabularies
The set of terms that are defined as part of an ontology. Essentially, these are what give the system its semantic power.

NOTE: Please feel free to suggest any additional terms that it would help to define here, as well as any suggestions for improving the terms used within the DRPF. Now is a great time, before it is officially formalized, to select les mots justes... being mindful that we don't want to get stuck in an endless "this should be called that" debate.