ICN Concept Map

Status: v0 — canonical source for concept terminology. Parent doc: brief-v0.md

This document maps every canonical ICN system concept to:

Canonical — the stable internal term used in architecture, code, and technical writing.
Public (English default) — the plain-language label used on public-facing surfaces by default.
Short description — a one-line gloss suitable for tooltips, subtitles, and helper text.
Localization notes — guidance for organizations, federations, and translators building local terminology packs.

The rule: the canonical term is the system's semantic anchor. The public label is what shows on default English surfaces. Local institutions may override the visible label as long as the underlying canonical meaning is preserved.

Closure-loop stations (ordered)

These nine concepts constitute the ICN institutional closure loop. They are rendered visually by the ClosureLoop component and referenced by number across pages.

01. Identity

Canonical: identity
Public: Who you are
Short: Cryptographic identity held by the member — not a platform account.
Localization notes: The word "identity" is loaded across cultures and legal systems. Local packs may prefer "recognized person," "named participant," or a term rooted in the local institutional tradition. The underlying meaning is a self-held cryptographic anchor distinct from platform accounts.
Color token: --accent-teal
Loop position: 01

02. Standing

Canonical: standing
Public: Your recognized status
Short: Provable participation inside a scope. The institution can verify it directly.
Localization notes: "Standing" has institutional weight in English but no universal equivalent. Local packs often prefer "recognized status," "member in good standing," "active steward," "confirmed participant," or role-specific terms. Avoid "rank" and "reputation" — both distort the meaning.
Color token: --accent-teal
Loop position: 02

03. Authority

Canonical: authority
Public: What you are allowed to do
Short: Derived from scope rules and the decisions members have made under them.
Localization notes: Do not translate "authority" as "power" or "permission." The meaning is the action-space granted by the scope's rules and the decisions its members have made. Local packs often prefer "mandate," "authorization," or scope-specific language like "charter permissions."
Color token: --accent-teal
Loop position: 03

04. Governance

Canonical: governance
Public: How group decisions are made
Short: Proposals, deliberation, and decisions the institution will honor.
Localization notes: "Governance" has strong institutional resonance in English but can translate as "administration" or "management" in other languages, which distorts the meaning. The underlying meaning is the collective process by which members decide. Local packs may prefer "decision-making," "assembly process," or culturally specific terms for collective deliberation.
Color token: --accent-amber
Loop position: 04

05. Policy

Canonical: policy
Public: The rules this follows
Short: Shared rules produced by decisions, shaping what can happen next.
Localization notes: "Policy" in English can read as bureaucratic. The meaning is the binding rules an institution has adopted through its governance. Local packs may prefer "rules," "bylaws," "charter provisions," or "operating rules."
Color token: --accent-amber
Loop position: 05

06. Accounting

Canonical: accounting
Public: How resources and obligations are tracked
Short: Obligations, treasury, patronage, mutual-credit positions — governed social accounting.
Localization notes: Do not translate as "finance" or "bookkeeping" on public surfaces. The meaning is relational social accounting of obligations and resources between named parties, not commercial finance. Local packs may prefer "resource ledger," "collective books," "mutual obligations."
Color token: --accent-blue
Loop position: 06

07. Execution

Canonical: execution
Public: What actually happens
Short: Where accepted decisions translate into real operational effect.
Localization notes: "Execution" can read as cold or bureaucratic. The meaning is the step where an accepted decision becomes an operational fact. Local packs may prefer "action," "effect," "carrying out," "implementation."
Color token: --accent-amber
Loop position: 07

08. Receipts and Provenance

Canonical: provenance
Public: History and proof
Short: The chain from authority to outcome — durable, auditable institutional memory.
Localization notes: "Provenance" is precise but rare outside English. The meaning is the verifiable chain from decision to outcome that an institution can show its members. Local packs may prefer "history and proof," "institutional memory," "audit trail," or "the record."
Color token: --accent-green
Loop position: 08

09. Member Experience

Canonical: member_experience
Public: What people can do and see
Short: Where all of the above becomes something a person can see, use, and live in.
Localization notes: "Member experience" sounds product-y in English. The meaning is the surface through which an ordinary participant interacts with the institution. Local packs may prefer "what members see," "the member-facing layer," or simply "the interface."
Color token: --accent-amber
Icon slug: member_experience — a rounded surface frame with a simplified person silhouette inside. Communicates "the member inhabits the context of the surface" without reading as a phone mockup or duplicating the standalone identity person icon.
Loop position: 09 (convergence)

Scope concepts

Concepts describing where and on behalf of whom action is taken.

Scope

Canonical: scope
Public: Where you are acting
Short: A distinct institutional entity the system recognizes — a member, a cooperative, a community, a federation, or a commons.
Localization notes: "Scope" is a technical term in English but can be translated as "context" or "institutional frame." Some cultures may not distinguish between "self" and "group" scopes the same way; helper text matters.

Cooperative

Canonical: cooperative
Public: A cooperative
Short: A scoped institution owned and governed by its members.
Localization notes: The word "cooperative" has strong legal-structural meaning in some jurisdictions and cultural meaning in others. Local packs should use the local legal term when relevant (e.g., cooperativa, Genossenschaft, 协同社).

Community

Canonical: community
Public: A community
Short: A scoped institution of people organized around shared rules and purpose, not necessarily an economic coop.
Localization notes: "Community" is broad in English; local packs should narrow it to the institutional form being described (neighborhood association, civic body, mutual aid network, etc.).

Federation

Canonical: federation
Public: How groups work together
Short: A coordinating scope that connects distinct cooperatives and communities without dissolving them.
Localization notes: "Federation" has different meanings in different legal traditions. The ICN meaning is a voluntary coordinating scope with its own governance that does not subsume its member institutions. Local packs should be careful not to translate it as "union," "alliance," or "merger" unless those words carry the same meaning locally.

Commons

Canonical: commons
Public: Shared resources
Short: A scoped domain of shared resources governed by the institutions that participate in it.
Localization notes: "Commons" is a specific English-language tradition (Hardin, Ostrom). Local packs should use equivalent local traditions where they exist — ejido, agora, 公共资源, allmenning. Avoid translations that sound like "public goods" in a government-provision sense.

Economic concepts

Agreement

Canonical: agreement
Public: A formal relationship
Short: A recorded understanding between scopes or members, with standing inside the system.
Localization notes: Translate carefully — "agreement" should not collapse into "contract" in the commercial sense unless that is what is meant.

Allocation

Canonical: allocation
Public: What has been assigned
Short: A decision to direct resources, obligations, or authority to a specific party.
Localization notes: "Allocation" is technical. Local packs may prefer "assignment," "grant," or "distribution."

Obligation

Canonical: obligation
Public: What is owed or required
Short: A structured claim one party has on another within the system's rules.
Localization notes: Avoid "debt" as a default translation — it loads commercial connotations. Local packs may prefer "duty," "commitment," "owing."

Settlement

Canonical: settlement
Public: How accounts are resolved
Short: The process of discharging obligations between parties.
Localization notes: "Settlement" is a precise accounting term in English and a loaded colonial term in other contexts. Local packs should strongly consider alternatives — "resolution," "clearing," "balancing."

Attestation

Canonical: attestation
Public: A verified claim
Short: A signed statement by one party that another party can rely on.
Localization notes: "Attestation" is formal. Local packs may prefer "witnessed statement," "verified claim," "confirmation."

Membership concepts

Role

Canonical: role
Public: Your function in this context
Short: A named bundle of authority and responsibility within a scope.
Localization notes: Local packs typically have strong culturally specific role names (steward, elder, facilitator, delegate). Use them.

Membership

Canonical: membership
Public: Your place in the group
Short: Recognized participation in a scope.
Localization notes: "Membership" is institutionally loaded. Local packs may prefer "belonging," "participation," "standing" (careful — distinct from the canonical standing).

Resource

Canonical: resource
Public: Something shared, used, or governed
Short: A tangible or intangible asset the institution tracks and allocates.
Localization notes: Broad term; local packs should specify the resource type when possible (compute, storage, capital, labor-time, etc.).

How this map is used

Public pages default to the Public label. Helper text draws from the Short description.
Canonical terms appear when precision matters — technical docs, developer surfaces, the architecture page. Always paired with the Public label on first use.
Future localization packs override the Public label per scope or region. The canonical term is the stable anchor; the visible label is the render.
Color tokens are reinforcement, not meaning. The label is the source of truth. Color is a hint.

v1 expansion targets

Icon slug for each concept (once the symbol family exists)
Locale file path and translation status
Example local labels for at least three real organizational traditions (worker co-op, agricultural federation, mutual aid network)
Semantic relationship graph between concepts (e.g., standing depends on identity, authority derives from governance operating on policy)
Machine-readable version as website/src/data/concepts.ts for runtime consumption

Related artifacts

brief-v0.md — the full design language brief
accessibility.md — accessibility rules that apply to every concept's visual treatment