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identity-canon/research/social-community-graphs/schema-org-person-organization-membership.md
tegwick 1c1b5c9bc6 Complete IDENTITY-WP-0003 corpus backfill and model refinement
Backfill all 23 research source notes with terminology extracts, modeling
assumptions, conflicts, canonical mappings, and references. Refresh terminology
artifacts, refine the conceptual model with explicit scenario paths, reconcile
canon surfaces and open questions, and mark the workplan finished.
2026-06-21 20:22:20 +02:00

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# Schema.org Person Organization Membership
## Source Type
Semantic vocabulary. Schema.org types and properties for Person, Organization,
membership, and role-like affiliations.
## Domain
Structured data about people and organizations, SEO/social graphs, and
membership representation on the web.
## Why This Source Matters
Schema.org distinguishes persons, organizations, membership, employee roles,
and affiliation properties — widely used for web-scale person/org modeling.
## Key Concepts
- **Person**: living human; properties include `name`, `email`, `identifier`,
`sameAs`, `affiliation`, `worksFor`, `memberOf`.
- **Organization**: business, club, or other collective; `member`, `employee`,
`department`, `subOrganization`, `parentOrganization`.
- **OrganizationRole**: intermediate type linking person to organization with
`roleName`, `startDate`, `endDate`.
- **member / memberOf**: reciprocal membership between Person and Organization.
- **employee / worksFor**: employment relationship properties.
- **affiliation**: organization a person is affiliated with (looser than member).
- **sameAs**: URL of related entity — often used for weak equivalence/synonymity.
- **identifier**: PropertyValue or Text for external IDs.
- **SportsTeam / PerformingGroup**: specialized Organization subtypes.
- **ProgramMembership**: membership in a program with tier/benefits.
## Relevant Terminology
| Term | Source meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Person | Human being in structured data. |
| Organization | Collective entity (company, club, NGO). |
| memberOf | Person belongs to Organization. |
| member | Organization has Person as member. |
| employee | Person employed by Organization. |
| worksFor | Inverse employment link. |
| affiliation | Looser org association for Person. |
| sameAs | Related/equivalent resource URL (weak linking). |
| OrganizationRole | Named role with temporal bounds. |
| subOrganization | Org hierarchy child. |
| identifier | External ID for entity. |
## Modeling Assumptions
- **Person means human** in schema.org intent.
- **Membership and employment are properties**, not reified relationship objects
(except OrganizationRole).
- **sameAs is informal equivalence** between web resources, not verified identity.
- **Organizations can nest** via subOrganization/parentOrganization.
- **Roles can be typed** via OrganizationRole with dates.
- **No authentication or authorization** semantics.
- **Properties are multi-valued**; one person can have many memberships.
## Identity-Canon Implications
- Schema.org **Person** maps to **Natural Person**.
- **Organization** maps to **Organization** collective actor.
- **memberOf / member** map to **Membership Relationship**.
- **employee / worksFor** map to **Affiliation Relationship** or employment
specialization of Membership.
- **affiliation** maps to **Affiliation Relationship** (looser).
- **OrganizationRole** maps to **Role** relationship with temporal bounds.
- **subOrganization** maps to structural relationship between Organization
actors (child/parent).
- **sameAs** maps to **weak Synonymity Assertion** between web resources —
high conflation risk if treated as strong link.
- **identifier** maps to **Identifier** PropertyValue.
- Supports S03 (sub-orgs), S07 (informal groups as Organization subtypes), S08.
## Terminology Conflicts
- **Person vs. Profile**: schema.org Person is often used for public profile page.
- **member vs. employee**: overlapping employment semantics; not always distinct.
- **sameAs vs. Synonymity**: sameAs is SEO linking, not identity proofing.
- **Organization vs. Community**: SportsTeam/PerformingGroup blur social vs. org.
- **Role vs. OrganizationRole**: roleName may be job title or permission label.
## Candidate Canonical Mappings
| Schema.org concept | Candidate canonical concept |
| --- | --- |
| Person | Natural Person |
| Organization | Organization |
| memberOf / member | Membership Relationship |
| employee / worksFor | Affiliation or employment Membership |
| affiliation | Affiliation Relationship |
| OrganizationRole | Role + Membership with temporal bounds |
| subOrganization | Organization hierarchy Relationship |
| sameAs | Weak Synonymity Assertion (caution) |
| identifier | Identifier |
| ProgramMembership | Membership Relationship (program scope) |
## Open Questions
- Should sameAs ever promote beyond weak Synonymity without additional evidence?
- Does OrganizationRole warrant a canonical temporal Relationship subtype?
- How should ProgramMembership map vs. Community membership?
- Should subOrganization be a distinct Relationship type or Organization attribute?
## References
- Schema.org Person — https://schema.org/Person
- Schema.org Organization — https://schema.org/Organization
- Schema.org OrganizationRole — https://schema.org/OrganizationRole
- Schema.org sameAs — https://schema.org/sameAs