§ 2.4 Organization, Group, and Initiative Schema

NISTIR 8278, SWID documentation, and the UCF all have schema identifiers for content contributors as organizations. However, in further research, we have found that there is a slight difference between organizations, groups, and initiatives that have all created content. Here are the working definitions we are using to differentiate between them on this standard:

• Organization: A legal entity with both a headquarters and online domain with a particular purpose, especially a business, society, association, etc.

• Group: A formalized collection of people acting in accord with each other without forming a legal entity in and of itself. A Group can be a stand-alone group, or it can be a part of an Organization.

• Initiative: A formalized collection of people acting in accord with each other without forming a legal entity in and of itself brought together for a specific purpose and a limited timeframe. An Initiative is always a a part of an Organization or a part of a Group.

As such, the standard is designed to allow the same structure for all three described above.

§ 2.4 Organization, Group, and Initiative

The defining characteristics of an organization, group, or initiative are shown below. Some of this information will be automatically verified and updated through a collaboration with Clearbit.

Property	Expected Type	Description	Clearbit
AdditionalDomains	Thing	Additional domain names used by an Organization.	Yes
CoreMetaData	Thing	Metadata documenting the ID and core information about a JSON Thing.
description	Text	This describes a Thing or Property.	Yes
domain	String	Legally registered internet domain name of Organization.
email	Email or Null	Electronic Mail address.
EmailAddresses	Thing	A collection of EmailAddress.
founded	Integer or Null	The year an Organization was founded.	Yes
id	Integer	A unique and persistent identifier for the record.
Locations	Thing	A collection of addresses.	Yes
legal_name	String	The name of the item.	Yes
NonStandardNames	Thing	Additional legal names used by an item.
organization_type	Integer	This differentiates between a 1 - Organization, 2- Group, 3- Initiative.
OrganizationCategory	Thing	The category an Organization belongs to which includes additional characteristics.	Yes
parent_id	Integer	ID of the associated parent for this record.	Yes
phone_number	TelephoneNumber	The main phone number registered to an Organization.
PhoneNumbers	Thing	A collection of phone numbers.	Yes
PostalAddress	Thing or Null	The address to which physical mail and packages are delivered.	Yes
SocialAddresses	Thing or Null	The various Internet locations that help disambiguate a person, such as their FaceBook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter Address.	Yes

§ 2.4.1 AdditionalDomains

Additional domain names used by an organization, group, or initiative.

Property	Expected Type	Description
id	Integer	A unique and persistent identifier for the record.
domain	String	Legally registered internet domain name of Organization
organization_fk	Integer	Organization foreign key

§ 2.4.2 EmailAddresses

A collection of email addresses.

Property	Expected Type	Description
email	Email or Null	Electronic Mail address.
id	Integer	A unique and persistent identifier for the record.
organization_fk	Integer	Organization foreign key

§ 2.4.3 Locations

A collection of addresses.

Property	Expected Type	Description
address1	String	The first part of a postal address such as the building number and street name
address2	String or Null	The second part of a postal address, usually denoting a suite.
city	String	The city the address is located in.
state	String	The state/province for the address.
postal_code	String	The postal/zip code for the address.
country	String	The country the address is located in.
id	Integer	A unique and persistent identifier for the record.
country_code	String	This is a geographical code that represent countries.
organization_fk	Integer	Organization foreign key

§ 2.4.4 OrganizationCategory

The category an Organization belongs to which includes additional characteristics.

Property	Expected Type	Description
industry	String or Null	This is the industry an Organization belongs to.
industry_group	String or Null	A group of Organization industries.
naics_code	Integer or Null	This is the North American Industry Classification System code assigned to an Organization.
sector	String or Null	A distinct area an Organization operates in.
sic_code	Integer or Null	This is the Standard Industrial Classification code assigned to an Organization.
sub_industry	String or Null	A subset of Organization industries.
Tags	Thing	These are keywords that describes an item.
unspsc_code	Integer or Null	The United Nations Standard Products and Services code of an Organization.

§ 2.4.5 PhoneNumbers

A collection of phone numbers.

Property	Expected Type	Description
id	Integer	A unique and persistent identifier for the record.
organization_fk	Integer	Organization foreign key.
phone_number	TelephoneNumber	The main phone number registered to an Organization.