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VE-002 — Where You Are Acting / Scope Model

Truth label

repo-grounded public explainer for the scope model. A rendering of the live `ScopeModel.astro` component is implemented / current UI. Concrete cross-scope flows (e.g. a live federation between two real cooperatives) carry their own labels — typically future-state / roadmap.

Source anchors

Audience

Public website visitor. Member trying to orient themselves. Organizer learning what "scope" means in ICN. Grant reviewer comparing ICN to platform models.

Core question

"Where am I acting when I act in ICN?"

One-sentence message

Scope is context of action, not hierarchy — every ICN action belongs to one or more of five co-equal scopes at once: commons, federation, community, cooperative, self.

Must show

  • The five scopes: commons, federation, community, cooperative, self.
  • A vertical rail with five nodes (the current implementation) — visually communicating "you are always inside all of these at once."
  • Each scope's one-line gloss from the concept map.
  • A footer line explaining that a single decision can touch several scopes at once and the receipt it produces is tagged with every scope it passed through.
  • The icon from the canonical symbol family for each scope (per ScopeModel.astro).
  • Reading order top-to-bottom: widest shared context (commons) to most personal (self). Documented in the figcaption as not a hierarchy.

Must avoid

  • Any depiction of the scopes as a ladder, pyramid, or rank.
  • Any implication that the federation scope is a sovereign center.
  • Crypto / DAO / token framing for "commons."
  • "Account" or "wallet" framing for "self."
  • NYCN, Summit, or any specific federation depicted as the canonical example.
  • Treating "community" and "cooperative" as the same thing — they are co-equal but distinct.

Canonical copy

From `ScopeModel.astro`. Do not paraphrase.

# Scope Gloss
— Commons Shared resources governed by the institutions that use them.
— Federation How distinct institutions coordinate without merging.
— Community A group of members with shared rules, purpose, and standing.
— Cooperative A scoped institution owned and governed by its members.
— Self The individual member — the identity that holds standing in each scope above.

Intro:

Scope is context of action, not hierarchy. Every ICN action belongs to one or more scopes at once.

Footer:

Read top to bottom: widest shared context down to the most personal. A single decision can touch several scopes at once — that is the point. The receipt it produces is tagged with every scope it passed through.

Visual grammar

  • Extends the canonical ScopeModel.astro. Any new variant — homepage figure, doc explainer, deck slide — derives from that component.
  • Single vertical rail (teal accent) with five nodes where the rail touches each scope card.
  • Each card: framed icon, label, one-line gloss.
  • Mobile-first; the rail layout is unchanged across viewports.
  • Token-grounded.

Accessibility requirements

  • aria-label on the figure: "ICN's five scopes of institutional action, from the most shared context to the most personal."
  • The rail and nodes are decorative; aria-hidden="true".
  • Each scope readable as label + gloss alone.
  • Icons paired with text labels and aria-hidden="true".
  • Grayscale-safe.
  • WCAG 2.2 AA contrast on labels and glosses, both themes.
  • No motion required; hover transition does not gate meaning.

Review checklist

Run VISUAL_REVIEW_CHECKLIST.md. Per-brief notes:

  • §5 substrate honesty — a depiction of cross-scope federation in production is future-state / roadmap until live multi-coop federation exists; the model itself is repo-grounded public explainer.
  • §7 scope / package boundary — verify no NYCN / Summit copy in any variant.
  • §8 visual grammar — verify the new variant extends ScopeModel.astro and reuses the rail metaphor.

Status

gate-open. Brief gate satisfied. Source-asset variants beyond the existing ScopeModel.astro may be built when needed.

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