Specification ID: CC-RSRP-SPEC-01
Version: 0.1 Candidate
Date: 19 September 2026
Standing: INTERNAL — CANDIDATE SPECIFICATION FOR HOSTILE REVIEW. NOT ADMITTED. NOT PUBLIC. NOT MACHINE-READABLE.
Purpose
The Representation Standing Role Profile (RSRP) is a small cross-domain semantic pattern for declaring the role under which a representation/evidence item is relied upon relative to a specific subject and proposition/aspect.
It prevents implicit promotion among:
REFERENCE · DESIGNED · IMPLEMENTED · OBSERVED.
Scope
RSRP defines four role identifiers, contextual role-assignment semantics, minimum qualifiers, anti-collapse invariants and interoperability guidance.
It does not define truth, authority, institutional acceptance, provenance, observation, epistemic state, conformance, workflow/lifecycle, digital twins, architecture language or execution admissibility.
Standing Role Assignment
A Standing Role Assignment states that a representation/evidence entity is being treated in a declared role relative to a declared subject and proposition/aspect, within applicable scope/context/time and provenance.
Roles are contextual, non-exclusive and may conflict or be superseded.
Roles
REFERENCE
A representation used as source, baseline, comparison, standard or pattern.
Does not imply accepted design, implementation, conformance, observation or non-authoritativeness.
DESIGNED
A representation expressing intended arrangement, behaviour, structure, requirement or target state.
Does not imply institutional acceptance, implementation, conformance or runtime behaviour.
IMPLEMENTED
Evidence/representation supporting that a declared subject/aspect has been realised, configured, deployed, constructed or instantiated.
Does not imply conformance, current operation, correct behaviour, observation or fitness.
OBSERVED
Evidence supporting a bounded proposition about what was detected, measured, recorded or otherwise evidenced under declared observation context/time.
Does not imply objective truth, accepted interpretation, direct observation where inference is involved, current state outside the interval or conformance.
Mandatory qualifiers
Every material assignment identifies:
- role
- subject
- proposition/aspect
- provenance/evidence reference
When material also identify:
- purpose
- context/boundary
- effective/observation time.
Linked but separate concerns
RSRP may reference but does not define:
- acceptance/standing authority;
- epistemic mode;
- conformance;
- conflict/disagreement;
- confidence/qualification;
- supersession;
- external authority.
Core invariants
- Role is contextual, not intrinsic.
- Roles are non-exclusive.
- Role ≠ epistemic mode.
- Role ≠ acceptance/authority.
- Role ≠ conformance.
- Role ≠ truth.
- Roles are not a mandatory lifecycle.
- REFERENCE ≠ DESIGNED.
- DESIGNED ≠ IMPLEMENTED.
- IMPLEMENTED ≠ OBSERVED.
- OBSERVED ≠ accepted interpretation.
- OBSERVED ≠ current outside temporal scope.
- REFERENCE does not mean non-authoritative.
- IMPLEMENTED is subject/aspect/environment relative.
- Conflicting assignments/evidence may coexist.
- Later assignments do not erase history.
- Conformance identifies its target/constraint separately.
- Availability/boundary crossing does not promote role/standing.
Interoperability
PROV-O: reuse provenance, derivation, revision, attribution, generation/use and qualified provenance.
SOSA/SSN: reuse observation/result/feature/property/procedure/time semantics where applicable. RSRP OBSERVED is a standing role, not a replacement Observation class.
SHACL: reuse validation/conformance semantics where required. IMPLEMENTED/OBSERVED do not imply conformance.
Domain vocabularies: reuse BIM/IFC, software, digital-twin, regulatory, architecture and sector semantics. RSRP overlays standing role only.
Examples
Software: protocol reference → accepted design → deployed implementation → runtime trace.
Building: code/reference → approved design → as-built evidence → inspection/sensor evidence.
Health: population guideline → patient care plan → administered treatment → patient outcome measurement.
Cybersecurity: framework → target control design → configured control → runtime/log/test evidence.
Digital twin: twin may be DESIGNED/IMPLEMENTED relative to itself; predicted physical state is not directly OBSERVED physical state without evidence.
Regulation: regulation may have REFERENCE role in a mapping while independently carrying legal authority.
Conflict: configuration evidence supports IMPLEMENTED(active); runtime evidence supports OBSERVED(inactive). Preserve both and the conflict.
AI design: generated proposal does not gain accepted DESIGNED standing merely because it contains design content.
Adoption
A consumer adopts RSRP when it uses role meanings consistently, binds assignments to subject + proposition/aspect, preserves provenance, avoids prohibited promotions, preserves relevant time/context and does not claim RSRP establishes truth, authority or conformance.
Candidate conformance
A future implementation could claim profile conformance only if:
- required qualifiers are representable;
- roles are contextual/non-exclusive;
- historical/conflicting assignments can be preserved;
- role/epistemic/authority/conformance remain separable;
- provenance is reconstructable;
- role semantics are not weakened.
No Commons conformance programme currently exists.
Hostile specification review
- DESIGNED implies accepted? NO — PASS.
- OBSERVED can hide inference? NO; epistemic mode separate — PASS.
- One entity multiple roles? YES — PASS.
- Role can independently be authoritative? YES — PASS.
- IMPLEMENTED implies conformance? NO — PASS.
- Conflicting observations? PRESERVE — PASS.
- Sequential lifecycle required? NO — PASS.
- Competes with PROV/SOSA/SHACL? NO — PASS.
- Boundary crossing promotes standing? NO — PASS.
- Arqua dependency required? NO — PASS.
Hostile specification result: PASS.
Remaining risks
- focused generic role-vocabulary prior-art still required;
- “standing” may be confused with legal/institutional standing;
- design-content vs accepted DESIGNED role needs clear communication;
- OBSERVED may be mistaken for direct sensory observation;
- formal representation undecided;
- IP/publication review incomplete.
Naming
Preferred internal name remains:
Representation Standing Role Profile (RSRP).
Alternatives to test:
- Representation Role Profile;
- Representation Reliance Role Profile;
- Evidence & Representation Role Profile.
Admission checklist
Decision
CC-RSRP-SPEC-01 v0.1 CANDIDATE — SPECIFICATION HOSTILE REVIEW PASS.
RSRP is coherent enough for an admission decision package, but admission remains blocked by prior-art, naming, IP/publication and governance review.
No publication, namespace, schema or implementation is authorised.