3 Terminology

Terminology used within this specification:

Administrator/Analyst

The administrator/analyst is responsible for designing, configuring, or modifying the registry, its rules, schemas, workflows, or policies.

Asserter

An entity that asserts a claim. The asserter provides information or statements that are to be recorded, verified, or trusted.

Applicant

An entity (person, organization, or system) that requests the registration of claims in a registry. The applicant is not yet registered, they are in the process of applying.

Automation

A background, database-level process that moves or transforms data within the registry system (e.g., copying, synchronizing, recalculating fields) without direct human intervention.

Claim

An attribute or statement asserted by an entity about itself or another entity.

Entity

A thing with distinct and independent existence, such as a person, organization, or device.If a claim is made about an entity, it is described as a subject.

Operator

A registrar or staff of a registrar that processes, reviews, and handles the applicant’s submission. The operator carries out the procedural and system steps.

Registrar

An entity (or authority) authorized by the registry governance to receive, validate, and record claims submitted by applicants.

Registry

A paper-based or electronic database (centralized or decentralized) where claims are stored and can be consulted.

Rules engine

A tool transforming business rules relating to a registry, defined by a human analyst, into machine-readable statements.

Trigger

A record-level automation. When a trigger event occurs on a record (e.g., insert, update, delete), this trigger logic runs a specified action (validation, notification, field update) automatically.

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GovStack Common Terminology

Also see the list of Common Terminology of GovStack overall.