Edoxen

Body Vocabulary

A BodyVocabularyEntry maps a free-form bodyType string (e.g., “CIML Meeting”, “Plenary”) to a short canonical value (e.g., plenary). Bodies declare their vocabulary on the collection metadata; consumers look up the canonical type via the parent collection’s vocabulary.

This is the mechanism that lets organisations use their own terminology while mapping to the Edoxen canonical enum — declared once per dataset, not repeated on every entity.

metadata:
  title: 22nd CIML meetings (2025–2028)
  body_vocabulary:
    - { body_type: "International Conference",  canonical_type: plenary }
    - { body_type: "CIML Meeting",              canonical_type: governing }
    - { body_type: "Technical Committee",       canonical_type: working }
    - { body_type: "Project Group",             canonical_type: working }

meetings:
  - body_type: "CIML Meeting"    # ← type: governing inherited from vocabulary
    identifier: { prefix: CIML, number: '2025-09' }
  - body_type: "Technical Committee"
    identifier: { prefix: TC48, number: '2025' }

BodyVocabularyEntry fields

Field Type Description
body_type String The organisation-specific label (the key).
canonical_type String The Edoxen canonical type it maps to (e.g., plenary, governing, working, advisory).
definition String Optional description of what the body_type means in the org’s context.

How resolution works

  1. A Meeting sets body_type: "CIML Meeting".
  2. The consumer looks up the parent collection’s body_vocabulary[].
  3. Finds the entry with body_type: "CIML Meeting" → canonical_type: governing.
  4. The Meeting’s effective type is governing.

If no vocabulary entry matches, the gem returns the body_type string itself (permissive mode). Strict mode is a v3.x concern.

Where it’s declared

body_vocabulary lives on the collection metadata:

Collection Field
MeetingCollectionMetadata body_vocabulary: BodyVocabularyEntry[0..*]
DecisionMetadata (planned for a future release)

Canonical type values

The canonical MeetingType enum has been shortened to abstract function-based values:

Canonical type Captures
plenary Full-body decision meeting
governing Manages between plenaries
working Does the work
advisory Recommends, no decisions

Plus body-specific terms may still appear in the enum (for backward compatibility): working_group, task_group, ad_hoc, joint, general_assembly, committee, subcommittee, conference, workshop, seminar, webinar, hearing, markup, board_meeting, annual_general_meeting, other.

See also