Data stewardship & decision rights

OPDA distributes semantic authority across bounded-context Working Groups while keeping cross-domain agreements, independent assurance and corporate ratification distinct. Stewardship supports those decisions; it does not replace them.

Status — constitutional facts and a proposed standards operating model

The General Assembly, Executive Committee and Board powers described here come from OPDA's Constitution and Articles. The Domain Working Group, Interoperability Working Group, Standards Secretariat and lifecycle decision rights are proposed in ADR-0068 and are not yet operative. This page replaces an earlier overlay-centric stewardship design; it does not ratify the new one.

The organising principle

Meaning stays close to the people who use it

Each Domain Working Group determines meaning inside its bounded context. The Interoperability Working Group agrees the small common boundary, context map, cross-domain mappings and shared conventions. It helps domains interoperate without forcing them to use one universal definition for different business purposes. The Category 8 mapping method defines the separate human review and evidence record.

flowchart LR E["`**Evidence + feedback** participants · organisations`"]:::data D["`**Domain Working Groups** meaning in each bounded context`"]:::service I["`**Interoperability Working Group** common boundary · mappings shared conventions`"]:::service T["`**Technical Review** integrity · tests · compatibility`"]:::process C["`**Compliance & Risk** law · privacy · security · IPR`"]:::process R["`**Executive Committee / Board** residual risk · ratification`"]:::success S["`**OPDA Standard** immutable versioned release`"]:::infra E --> D D <--> I D --> T I --> T T --> C --> R --> S

Proposed allocation of decision rights. Domain groups own local meaning; Interoperability owns agreements at the boundaries; independent functions check the result; authorised OPDA governance ratifies the exact release.

Decision-rights matrix

Actor	Decides or verifies	Does not do
Domain Working Group	Consensus on concepts, relationships, definitions, constraints and vocabularies inside its chartered bounded context.	Ratify an OPDA Standard or redefine another domain's internal meaning.
Interoperability Working Group	Common-boundary ontology, context map, mappings and shared cross-domain conventions.	Act as a central ontology committee controlling every domain.
Technical Review	Architecture, identifiers, provenance, deterministic generation, conformance, compatibility and release completeness.	Decide that a business definition is true merely because it validates.
Compliance and Risk	Privacy, security, law, competition, IPR, accessibility and evidence-handling controls.	Rewrite domain meaning; a substantiated block stays open until remedied or explicitly accepted by authorised governance.
Executive Committee / Board	Charters groups, appoints accountable roles, accepts residual organisational risk, and ratifies or withdraws standards.	Silently delegate authority; every delegation names its scope, holder and duration.
General Assembly	Constitutional changes, member and reserve powers under the governing documents.	Routine approval of individual ontology terms or release candidates.

Operational roles support the decision-makers

Role	Responsibility	Limit
Chair	Runs a fair process, calls consensus and records the reasons.	Cannot substitute personal preference for group consensus.
Editor / modelling lead	Turns evidence and adjudicated feedback into candidates and publishes exact diffs.	Has no unilateral semantic or ratification authority.
Standards Secretariat	Maintains charters, rosters, notices, issues, dispositions, stage records, review windows, manifests and appeals.	Verifies record completeness; does not approve the content.
Steward / issue owner	Triages evidence and feedback, keeps records complete, coordinates review and follows decisions through.	Does not own domain meaning merely by holding the stewardship role.
AI agents and councils	Extract, compare, draft, challenge and test under a frozen work order.	Cannot accept feedback, close an issue, establish consensus, approve risk or advance maturity.

One person may hold several operational roles while OPDA is small. Every stage transition still needs an independent human reviewer who did not author the candidate. Conflicts of interest must be declared, and the person withdraws from the affected consensus call, review or ratification.

Authority begins with a public charter

Before a Working Group advances a standards-track deliverable, its charter identifies:

mission, bounded-context scope, exclusions, deliverables and success criteria;
Chair, editor, secretariat contact and accountable Executive Committee sponsor;
participant eligibility and materially affected stakeholder categories;
dependencies and hand-offs to other domain groups and Interoperability;
communication channels, meeting cadence, decision method and escalation route;
confidentiality, contribution, copyright, patent and permitted-AI terms; and
the gates for intermediate and final deliverables.

Participation and corporate authority are different

Invited members and non-members may submit evidence, discuss candidates, review drafts and raise objections. That participation is essential, but it does not create corporate membership or a corporate vote. Participants disclose their name, affiliation and material interests; several people from one organisation do not become several independent stakeholder interests.

Working-group consensus

Consensus first: substantial active support and no unresolved sustained objection after legitimate views have been considered.
Silence is abstention: lack of a reply is never counted as approval.
Default call: 10 working days, with the exact proposal, diff, evidence, risks and deadline.
Independent support: unless the charter is stronger, at least three organisations across two materially affected stakeholder categories.
Asynchronous inclusion: a meeting-originated proposal gets at least five working days for confirmation.
Voting is exceptional: after consensus fails, one vote per represented organisation and a two-thirds threshold; risk and legal blocks cannot be voted away.

Formal objections and appeals

A Formal Objection states the proposal, substantial harm, supporting evidence and, where possible, a remedy. It is routed to the body with the relevant authority and receives a reasoned response at the same visibility. A participant may appeal within 10 working days to independent reviewers appointed by the Executive Committee or Board. A candidate does not advance while a blocking objection remains unresolved unless the authorised appeal body expressly overrules it with reasons.

Responsibility through the lifecycle

Activity	Accountable	Independent check	Record owner
Evidence screening	Evidence owner / appointed intake role	Compliance and Risk where sensitive	Secretariat
Candidate authoring	Editor / modelling lead	Non-author reviewer	Editor + Secretariat
Domain meaning	Domain Working Group	Affected contexts	Secretariat
Common boundary and mappings	Interoperability Working Group	Affected Domain Working Groups	Secretariat
Technical and risk gates	Technical Review / Compliance and Risk	Independent non-authors	Secretariat
Standards ratification	Executive Committee / Board or recorded delegate	Complete release pack	Secretariat

Constitutional baseline

General Assembly: the overall member decision-making body; constitutional amendments require the notice and voting route in the governing documents.
Directors: hold general management authority and may delegate powers under the Articles.
Member reserve power: members may direct the directors by special resolution as provided by Article 5.
Decision retention: Board and Executive Committee decision records use the Articles' 10-year baseline.

Sources: OPDA Constitution 2026 and Articles of Association 2026.

Before this model becomes operative

Executive Committee or Board acceptance of ADR-0068, with a named sponsor and Standards Secretariat.
Approved Domain Working Group and Interoperability Working Group charters.
A canonical issue/disposition register and stage register.
Contribution and intellectual-property terms.
Consensus, objection, appeal and ratification templates.