Title: AN INVENTORY OF TERMS AND SOME CATEGORISATION

An Inventory of Terms and some Categorisation

Introduction:

Using the Wiki

This section proposes an inventory of the different terms associated with the key Identity concepts that have been introduced in the previous section (Identity and Identity Management). This inventory is presented as a tree-like categorisation. 

As indicated previously, this tree-like categorisation is not supposed to be perfect, but rather is a means to represent the different terms in a way that is easily understood by the user (including the non-expert), and easily further detailed. Importantly, the initial purpose of this inventory of terms is not to provide a final, formal and “approved” list or categorisation of “official” terms for FIDIS (this is something that can only be achieved at the end of the FIDIS project), but rather to create a structure that will be used to help the FIDIS network define a common vocabulary, and indeed to have a first tentative attempt at identifying the appropriate issues. 

As the FIDIS “project” advances and the members develop a better shared-understanding of the Identity domain, this inventory of terms and the categorisation will progressively become enriched and refined by the FIDIS community. 

The process of inventory and categorisation is conducted via the use of a Wiki of Identity terms, created specifically for this purpose.  

A more in-depth description of the construction process has been detailed in a previous section. In this section, the initial results of this categorisation are presented. The categories presented in the next chapter represent a snapshot of the categories actually present in the Internal FIDIS Wiki for Identity definition, at the time of the writing of this document. This Wiki, which is currently only accessible by the members of the consortium, can be accessed at the following URL: 

http://internal.fidis.net/178.0.html?tx_a1wiki_pi1[keyword]=t2.1%20definition

The definition of the terms

This Wiki has also started to collate, from the different members of the FIDIS consortium, the ‘specification’ for each of the terms that have been identified. 

This specification consists of definitions, illustrations and references, as well as an indication of the different relationships connecting one term with another.  

It should be noted that this specification provides a variety of perspectives for a better understanding of the meaning of the terms, and includes the information related to the contributors of this specification. This detail is important to note for several reasons: it provides some incentive for the people to contribute (acknowledging their work); it reinforces the perception of a collaborative nature of the specification and it provides additional means (social navigation) to connect this term with other related terms (via the information of the contributor).