Appearance
SOM glossary
Version 260703 159 termsThe SOM working group's glossary: what a term means, as the group agreed it. The schema reference says what the contract enforces; read the two together. This is the glossary published with SOM 1.0, version 260703, and it carries the group's own note that it was written before the 1.0 schema and lags it in places. Where the glossary and the schema disagree, the schema is right. The last column shows where each term appears in 1.0, and marks the known differences.
Status, as the working group records it:
- CONFIRMED: ratified. That the group agreed an idea does not by itself mean a schema field enforces it.
- PROPOSED: a direction, not locked.
- OPEN: unresolved.
- DEPRECATED: being retired.
- BANNED: must not be used.
Each definition here is the entry's opening definition. Full entries carry more: see also, history and discussion. They are in the SOM glossary.
Core
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asset | CONFIRMED | A discrete piece of media or editorial work classified by editorial position: primary, secondary, or tertiary. | assets |
| Asset-to-Telling Transition | PROPOSED | The cross-point where a completed asset meets an outlet. | — |
| Story | OPEN | The happening. | — |
| Story Context | CONFIRMED | Representation of a story's state at a point in time on the bus. | story-context |
| Story Context Element | CONFIRMED | Collective name for all 16 metadata sections attached to a story context. | — |
| Story Object | OPEN | The full persistent entity representing a story across its entire lifecycle. | — |
| story_id | CONFIRMED | Primary identifier for a story. | story_id |
| Telling | CONFIRMED | The runtime cross-point where a completed Asset meets an outlet (Destination). | telling-event |
Architecture
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archive Service | OPEN | Long-term storage subsystem for SOM story objects. | — |
| Bus | CONFIRMED | The message transport layer over which SOM messages flow. | — |
| Chain Hash | PROPOSED | Cryptographic chain linking successive versions of a story object for tamper-evident audit. | — |
| Conformance Profiles (P0-P7) | OPEN | Eight-level conformance tiers defining what a SOM participant must implement. | — |
| Content-Addressable Hashing | OPEN | Proposed standard for hashing content to enable deduplication and integrity verification. | — |
| derived_from | PROPOSED | Editorial child-to-parent lineage link (a journalist made this from that). | asset.derived_from. Ships in the 1.0 schema, on assets. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| has_derivative | PROPOSED | The inverse edge of derived_from: from a parent asset, find the editorial children that declared they were made from it. | — |
| Enum case convention | CONFIRMED | Enum VALUES use UPPER_SNAKE_CASE (WG decision 13). | Two sets of values in the 1.0 schema are lower case: system_type on the envelope and severity on skill.warning.raised. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| Extensible Enum Dictionaries | OPEN | Proposal to replace hardcoded enums with extensible dictionaries supporting i18n. | — |
| History / History Entry | CONFIRMED | Version tracking on envelope and versioned sections. | modification_header.history, relation._history |
| Hybrid Playlists | OPEN | SOM-aware playlists bridging iNews/MOS rundowns with SOM story context. 4-phase integration plan. | — |
| JSON Schema Validation | OPEN | No JSON Schema validation file currently exists for section event payload wrappers. | — |
| MOS Bridge | CONFIRMED | Integration layer connecting SOM to MOS (Media Object Server) protocol used by iNews and other NRCS. message_type includes runorder.context and runorder.items. | — |
| Ontology Layer | CONFIRMED | Subject-predicate-object relationship layer for traceability, federation and compliance propagation. | — |
| produced_by | PROPOSED | Proposed field distinguishing human authorship from Skill authorship on tellings/secondary sources. | asset.produced_by. Ships in the 1.0 schema, on assets. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| Resource (abstract class) | PROPOSED | A thin polymorphic identity superclass carrying a resolvable identity (id + domain), sitting above identity-bearing entities so Story and Party become siblings under it. | — |
| Skills Firing Rule | PROPOSED | The formula: (asset category × outlet/path) → skills. | — |
| Story Archaeology | CONFIRMED | Workstream stress-testing the schema against real scenarios. | — |
| Subsystem | CONFIRMED | Named schema component. | — |
| Three-Layer Model | PROPOSED | The converged structural shape: Story (the happening) / Assets (editorial objects classified primary/secondary/tertiary) / Tellings (created at runtime when asset meets outlet). | — |
| Umbrella | PROPOSED | Working term for the constellation of schema components: Stories, Skills, Treatments, Ontology. | — |
| Version Meta | CONFIRMED | Per-section versioning metadata pattern. | — |
| Version Negotiation | OPEN | Mechanism by which systems determine compatible schema versions via system.health messages. | — |
| Working Principles (Six) | CONFIRMED | (1) Bus-only coordination, (2) Publisher-asserted state, (3) Coordination not consumption, (4) Single-story scope, (5) Default no, (6) Governed vocabulary growth. | — |
Context
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collaboration | CONFIRMED | Versioned story context section tracking active editors and lock state. | collaboration |
| headline | CONFIRMED | Human-readable story headline on the story context. | headline |
| Lifecycle | CONFIRMED | Current state of a story in its editorial journey. | lifecycle |
| lock_status | CONFIRMED | Whether a story is locked for editing. | collaboration.lock_status |
| Phase Owner | CONFIRMED | Structured object within lifecycle identifying who/what system is responsible for the current phase. | lifecycle.phase_owner |
| Planning | CONFIRMED | Versioned story context section covering pitching and assignment. | — |
| Premise | CONFIRMED | Versioned story-context section tracking the editorial hypothesis AND its verdict. | premise |
| Priority | CONFIRMED | Versioned story context section indicating editorial urgency. | priority |
| provider_type | OPEN | Was an enum on sources[] classifying the information provider. | — |
| Relation | CONFIRMED | Link between two stories (relations[]). | relations |
| relation_type | CONFIRMED | Field on relations[] classifying the link between two stories. | relation.relation_type |
| sequence_number | CONFIRMED | Monotonically increasing integer on story context for ordering and deduplication. | sequence_number |
| skills_config | CONFIRMED | Versioned story context section defining active skills. | skills_config |
| Slug | CONFIRMED | Short human-readable story identifier (max 128 chars). | slug. The 1.0 schema sets no maximum length on slug. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| Source (editorial) | CONFIRMED | Where the story information came from. | — |
| Story Owner | CONFIRMED | The system/entity with current authoritative editorial control of a story (story_owner). | story_owner |
| story_meaning | CONFIRMED | AI-optimized compact summary structured as 5W1H kernel. | story_meaning |
| story_type | CONFIRMED | Editorial state of a story. | story_type |
| verification_status | OPEN | Was an enum on sources[] recording editorial verification state. | — |
Editorial
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| acquisition_state | CONFIRMED | Enum on a primary-source asset tracking capture progress, split out from asset.status. | asset.acquisition_state |
| Captured (flag) / CAPTURED | PROPOSED | acquisition_state value indicating primary-source material has been acquired and fixed. | asset.acquisition_state |
| Compliance Flag | CONFIRMED | A regulatory or standards flag raised against a story or asset. | compliance |
| credibility | CONFIRMED | Enum recording the trust standing of a source or claim. | editorial_source_entry.credibility |
| Editorial Derivative | PROPOSED | A derivative produced by analytical or creative editorial work. | — |
| Editorial Gate | CONFIRMED | An approval checkpoint in the story workflow. | editorial_gates |
| Editorial Profile | PROPOSED | The combination of editorial standards, compliance posture, and gate configuration that a newsroom applies. | — |
| Editorial Standards | CONFIRMED | Versioned story context section defining the standards framework. | — |
| editorial_source | CONFIRMED | Proposed rename for editorial source references inside story context (sources[]). | editorial_source. Ships in 1.0 as editorial_source[]; sources is refused. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| evidential_position | CONFIRMED | Enum on Asset classifying evidential standing: PRIMARY, SECONDARY, TERTIARY. Settled criterion (WG decision 22): PRIMARY = raw material, no journalist; SECONDARY = a live relay OR a single journalist account (one voice); TERTIARY = a composed piece woven from more than one voice. | asset.evidential_position |
| Framing Treatment | CONFIRMED | The single treatment model in v0.3 (decision 5): one framing_treatment with one registry, capturing the editorial framing applied at composition (angle, tone, audience adaptation). | asset.framing_treatment |
| government_approval | CONFIRMED | Publication gate for jurisdictions requiring government approval. | government_approval |
| In-progress (flag) / CAPTURING | PROPOSED | acquisition_state value indicating primary-source material is still being acquired. | asset.acquisition_state |
| Mode (source theory) | PROPOSED | How source material came into being: relic or tradition. | — |
| Position (source theory) | PROPOSED | Where a source sits in the evidential chain: primary, secondary, or tertiary. | — |
| Primary Source | PROPOSED | Material that is evidence of what happened. | — |
| Programme Treatment | DEPRECATED | Show identity (Newsround, Newsnight, Six O Clock News) is folded into the single framing_treatment with one registry, rather than a separate first-class object. | — |
| Provenance (source theory) | PROPOSED | Metadata axis: who made it, under what editorial standards, with what intent. | — |
| Relic (Uberrest) | PROPOSED | Material that is not a mass-media account: either raw capture where no one is giving an account (a silent bystander clip of an explosion, CCTV, dashcam or drone footage of an incident), or an account that was not made for a mass audience and we obtained it (a leaked memo, a court transcript). | — |
| Secondary Source | PROPOSED | A single voice mediating the material. | — |
| Sponsored Content | OPEN | Flag on story.context for paid/sponsored content. | — |
| standards_clearance | CONFIRMED | Per-asset clearance object: status CLEARED / BLOCKED / PENDING, plus blocked_by[] and last_reviewed. | asset.standards_clearance |
| Tertiary Source | PROPOSED | A composed piece woven from more than one voice. | — |
| Tradition | PROPOSED | A mass-media account: someone is giving an account (talking, narrating, authoring) AND it was made to reach a public / mass audience. | — |
| Treatment | DEPRECATED | The ambiguous umbrella term is retired in favour of the single framing_treatment model. | — |
| media_range | CONFIRMED | Object on a compliance flag (compliance[].media_range) that pins a restriction to a specific stretch of media (sub-asset compliance). | compliance_flag.media_range |
Asset
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| asset_type | CONFIRMED | Governed enum categorising the media kind of an asset. | asset.asset_type |
| TRANSCRIPT | PROPOSED | A transcript is a type of Asset in its own right (a value of asset_type), added 29 June and intended to lock 30 June. | asset.asset_type. TRANSCRIPT is an asset_type value in the 1.0 schema. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| Computational Derivative | DEPRECATED | A derivative produced by technical transformation. | — |
| Content | OPEN | The actual media substance within or referenced by an asset. | — |
| Content Atoms / News Atom | PROPOSED | Sentence-level content units proposed by AP. Bounded payload shape for granular story body decomposition. | — |
| content_format | CONFIRMED | Identifier string on content_refs[] specifying the body shape contract. | content_ref.content_format |
| content_ref | DEPRECATED | Legacy singular URI reference to externally-hosted content. | content_ref (refused) |
| content_refs[] | PROPOSED | Reference to externally-hosted content. | content_refs. Ships in the 1.0 schema. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| delivery_spec | CONFIRMED | Technical delivery requirements for an asset, nested within the asset object. | asset.delivery_spec |
| usage[] | CONFIRMED | Thin Asset-side index of where an asset is used: entries { link_id, destination_id, state }. Holds the committed (pre-Telling) state only. | asset.usage |
| media_refs[] | CONFIRMED | Array on the asset carrying the media reference (the TAMS media-source leg). | asset.media_refs |
| flow_id | DEPRECATED | Flow-level media reference (tams:flow/...). | — |
| authenticity_credential | PROPOSED | Object on the asset: {present, standard, claim, validated_by}. Records C2PA / authenticity present or absent, openly. | asset.authenticity_credential. Ships in 1.0 and is normative. (SOM 1.0 migration note §1) |
| voice_count | PROPOSED | Integer on the asset. | Withdrawn at 1.0 and refused; a candidate for 1.1. (SOM 1.0 open register §1) |
Identity
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Actor | OPEN | An entity (human or system) that performs actions in SOM. Needs one agreed Actor type. | actor |
| Asymmetric Obligation | CONFIRMED | Identity compliance model for bus participants. | — |
| broadcaster_id | DEPRECATED | Identifier for the organisation owning a story. | broadcaster_id (refused) |
| Federated Identity | OPEN | Identity continuity model across SOM and adjacent standards (TAMS, MXL, DMF). | — |
| newsroom_id | CONFIRMED | Replacement for broadcaster_id; covers wire services, digital-only newsrooms, agencies. | newsroom_id |
| Party | PROPOSED | A typed, resolvable actor. | — |
| Person / Organization / Group | PROPOSED | The three subtypes of Party: a human (Person), an organisation (Organization), or a group. | — |
| Role (Party) | PROPOSED | Relationship descriptor bridging a Party to other Resources via a typed role (contributes_to, verified_by, escalated_by). | — |
| URI | CONFIRMED | Human-readable wrapper around UUIDs. | — |
| UUID / UUIDv7 | CONFIRMED | Unique identifier format throughout SOM. UUIDv7 = time-ordered. | — |
| UUID Registry | PROPOSED | REST API for UUID persistence and discovery. | — |
Distribution
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delivery | CONFIRMED | Downstream record of publishing an asset to a destination, with delivery metadata. | — |
| Derivative Telling | PROPOSED | A telling that results when a derivative asset meets an outlet. | — |
| Destination | CONFIRMED | A first-class endpoint where content is published (a particular channel, URL, or slot). | — |
| Destination Precondition | CONFIRMED | Resolved by decision 3: not a precondition. | — |
| Editorial Version / Treatment | DEPRECATED | Editorial Version is retired; how a story is told for a particular audience or show is covered by the Asset plus framing_treatment. | — |
| instance_lifecycle | DEPRECATED | Lifecycle object within the deprecated instances[]. | — |
| instance_status | DEPRECATED | Enum on the deprecated instances[]. | — |
| instances[] | DEPRECATED | The instances[] array in v0.2. | instances (refused) |
| link | CONFIRMED | The connection between an Asset and a Destination. | link-event |
| On-Air Model | CONFIRMED | How on-air is represented on a Telling: immutable, event-stamped exposure_start and exposure_end record actual air; a mutable scheduled_start records intended air. | exposure_start, exposure_end, scheduled_start |
| Platform | CONFIRMED | Distribution destination category. 7 values: LINEAR, WEB_CMS, SOCIAL, OTT, MOBILE, RADIO, PODCAST. Platform ≠ publication path. | — |
| Publication Path | PROPOSED | A named route by which content reaches a destination (config identity, own lifecycle). | — |
| Rundown Context | CONFIRMED | Nested object carrying MOS rundown metadata (show, segment, position) for LINEAR. Previously nested on instances[]; with instances[] deprecated (WG decision 3) it relinks to the LINEAR Destination / Telling. | — |
| Treated Outlet | PROPOSED | A tertiary source with treatment applied. | — |
Skill
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI Enrichment | CONFIRMED | A machine-generated annotation on a story context (ai_enrichments[]). | ai_enrichments (refused). Removed before 1.0: ai_enrichments is refused. AI outputs are assets with authorship provenance, and claims are assertions[]. (SOM 1.0 migration note) |
| Asset Suggestion | PROPOSED | Proposed block enabling skills to produce graphic assets (banners, lower-thirds) not just text. | — |
| content_type | CONFIRMED | Enum on skill.suggestion.created selecting the output format (UPPER_SNAKE per WG decision 13): PROSE, HEADLINE, BANNER, SOCIAL_POST, ARTICLE, and extensible. | In 1.0, content_type is a free string on skill.warning.raised; skill.suggestion.created has no 1.0 schema. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| enrichment_type | CONFIRMED | Enum categorising AI annotation kind: SUMMARY, SOCIAL_POST, ANALYSIS, ARTICLE, PROMPTER (5 values). | Not in the 1.0 schema. SUMMARY, SOCIAL_POST, ANALYSIS, ARTICLE and PROMPTER are asset_type values in 1.0. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| AI_TRANSCRIPTION | DEPRECATED | Was a proposed enrichment_type value for an AI-made transcript. | — |
| assertions[] | PROPOSED | The record the ai_enrichments[] construct narrows to: a claim-about-a-thing, renamed off the ai_ prefix (a human fact-checker produces verdicts too). | assertions. Ships in the 1.0 schema. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| provenance (authorship) | PROPOSED | The structured sub-object recording who or what authored an output, carried on the Asset (and on an assertion). | asset.provenance. Ships in the 1.0 schema, on assets and assertions. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| FACT_CHECK | PROPOSED | A value of assertion_type for a per-claim fact-check verdict. | assertion.assertion_type. Ships in the 1.0 schema as an assertion_type value. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| instance_ref | DEPRECATED | Optional field on skill outputs that scoped output to a specific publication path. | instance_ref (refused) |
| outcome | CONFIRMED | Enum on skill.run.completed recording the result: COMPLETED, SKIPPED, or FAILED. | — |
| representation_type | PROPOSED | Proposed enum distinguishing story representations from other enrichment kinds. | — |
| Skill | CONFIRMED | Automated capability operating on story context producing suggestions, warnings, or enrichments. | — |
| Skill Priority Resolution | OPEN | Proposed three-axis deterministic priority model for resolving conflicts when multiple skills fire on the same story context. | — |
| Skill Run | CONFIRMED | Audit record of what a skill DID. Single-message lookup. | — |
| Skill Suggestion | CONFIRMED | Skill output proposing content. | — |
| Skill Warning | CONFIRMED | Skill output flagging a problem. | skill-warning |
| SkillRunCompleted | CONFIRMED | Message type (skill.run.completed) carrying the audit record of a skill execution. | — |
| SkillSuggestionCreated | CONFIRMED | Message type (skill.suggestion.created) carrying skill output proposals. v0.2.1 adds variants[], content_type (A3), instance_ref (A4), and deferred asset_suggestion (A2). | — |
| SkillWarningRaised | CONFIRMED | Message type (skill.warning.raised) carrying problem flags. | skill-warning |
| Variant | CONFIRMED | One of multiple alternative outputs from a skill. | — |
Envelope
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| _actors | CONFIRMED | Key-value map on the envelope (_actors) providing short-key lookups for actor identities. | _actors |
| @context | CONFIRMED | JSON-LD context field on the envelope. | @context |
| causation_id | CONFIRMED | UUID identifying the specific message that directly caused this message. | causation_id |
| correlation_id | CONFIRMED | UUID grouping all messages in the same logical operation. | correlation_id |
| Extensions | CONFIRMED | Namespaced area on the envelope for vendor-specific data. | extensions |
| Message Envelope | CONFIRMED | Top-level wrapper around every bus message. | Envelope |
| message_id | CONFIRMED | UUIDv7 unique to each bus message. | message_id |
| message_type | CONFIRMED | Enum on envelope selecting payload shape. 20 values. | message_type. The 1.0 envelope accepts any lower-case dotted message_type; the seven 1.0 schemas define payloads for ten of them. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| modification_header | CONFIRMED | Envelope section on story.context messages only. | modification_header |
| originating_system | CONFIRMED | Proposed rename for the source block on the message envelope identifying which system sent the message. | originating_system. Ships in 1.0, required on every envelope. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| Signature | CONFIRMED | Cryptographic signature on the envelope. | signature (refused). Refused by the 1.0 envelope schema. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| som_version | CONFIRMED | Schema version string on every envelope. | som_version |
| Source (system) | CONFIRMED | The system that originated a message. | source (refused). source is refused on the 1.0 envelope; the system is named in originating_system. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| system_type | CONFIRMED | Enum on source block classifying the originating system. 14 values (UPPER_SNAKE per WG decision 13): NCS, MOS_DEVICE, GRAPHICS, AUTOMATION, WIRE_SERVICE, AI_AGENT, COMPLIANCE_ENGINE, EDITORIAL_DASHBOARD, ARCHIVE, PROMPTER, CAMERA, AUDIO, SKILL_WORKER, CUSTOM. | originating_system.system_type. In the 1.0 schema the values are lower case: ncs, mos_device, graphics and so on. (SOM 1.0 schema) |
| Topic | CONFIRMED | Hierarchical dot-separated routing key for bus pub/sub filtering. | topic |
External
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| BBC Storyline Ontology | OPEN | BBC-developed ontology for story structures. | — |
| C2PA | OPEN | Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity. | — |
| Flow (TAMS) | CONFIRMED | Sequence of media units on a timeline that form a concrete representation of a Source (TAMS). | — |
| media_source | CONFIRMED | The TAMS media-origination concept (a Source plus a time range). media_source is the concept; the actual field is media_refs[] on the asset, now re-keyed to the TAMS Source URI + time range (25 June TAMS WG, folding into the 30 June lock). | asset.media_refs |
| has_media_source / is_media_source | PROPOSED | The inverse pair linking an asset to its TAMS media: has_media_source (this clip's footage is that Source) and is_media_source (this footage is used by these clips). | — |
| Source (TAMS) | CONFIRMED | Abstract identifier and descriptor for media essence on a timeline, independent of technical representation. | asset.media_refs.source, source |
| TAMS time model | CONFIRMED | How SOM carries TAMS time (25 June TAMS WG, folding into the 30 June lock). | — |
BANNED
| Term | Status | Definition | In SOM 1.0 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instance | BANNED | MUST NOT be used to name any SOM concept. | — |
Generated from the SOM 1.0 schemas at upstream commit 7297fef, the pack this bus validates against. Quoted SOM text is © the SOM authors, CC BY 4.0, with two changes: working-group decision numbers are shown without their #, and attributions to named working-group members are left out. How to read this reference: SOM 1.0 schema.