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Governance

This page is a draft!

The CEOS Common Dictionary operates on a balance of Agility (quick development and community contribution) and Authority (trusted, stable definitions backed by domain experts).

Following the decisions made at WGISS-60 (see p. 50), this document outlines the governance model and lifecycle of contributions.

Roles and Responsibilities​

Our governance model relies on three tiers of participation to ensure broad community involvement while maintaining high scientific standards.

1. Contributors​

  • Who: The global Earth Observation (EO) community, including members from the public, private, and academic sectors.
  • Responsibilities:
    • Propose new terms.
    • Suggest edits or alternate definitions for existing terms.
    • Participate in community discussions on GitHub Issues.
  • How to join: Anyone can contribute by opening a Pull Request (PR) or Issue in the GitHub repository. Please refer to our Contribution Guidelines for step-by-step instructions.

2. Moderators​

  • Who: Trusted technical experts and glossary maintainers managing daily repository operations. Moderator is approved by any one of the Steering Group members.
  • Responsibilities:
    • Review incoming edits for relevance, formatting, clarity, and adherence to dictionary principles (e.g., ensuring no circular definitions).
    • Approve and merge simple, non-controversial changes ("Agile" workflow).
    • Tag terms appropriately (e.g., base, core, controversial, to be discussed).
    • Flag foundational changes or controversial terms for review by the CEOS Expert Groups.

3. Distributed Steering Group (CEOS Expert Groups)​

  • Who: Chairs, Vice-Chairs, or nominated Leads from existing CEOS Working Groups and Virtual Constellations (e.g., WGCV, WGClimate, WGISS).
  • Responsibilities:
    • Provide the ultimate authority and veto rights on terms assigned to their specific domain.
    • Review foundational and controversial changes during the Pre-Release Cycle.
    • Set the strategic direction for terminology within their expertise.

Terminology Rules & Tagging​

To maintain a clean and usable dictionary, the following technical rules apply:

  • No Circular Definitions: Terms must utilize parent-child relationships.
  • Base Terms: Terms with no parents are considered Base Terms.
  • Multiple Definitions: A single term may have multiple definitions to reflect different domain usages. The first definition listed is considered the primary/most widely used definition.
  • Tags: Each term carries two tags — a term class (base, core, controversial, high-impact) and a discussion status (to be defined, to be discussed, to be approved, approved). See the Contribution Guide for details.

Workflow and Approval Process​

To balance rapid updates with authoritative oversight, changes are processed through two distinct tracks:

The Agile Track (Daily Operations)​

Simple additions, formatting fixes, or non-controversial updates are handled continuously.

  1. A Contributor opens a PR.
  2. A Moderator reviews the PR against styling and structural guidelines.
  3. If the change is straightforward, the Moderator merges it directly to the live site.

The Authority Track (Pre-Release Cycle)​

Foundational terms (e.g., Data, Resolution, In-situ) or highly debated definitions require domain expert consensus.

  1. Collation: Over a 6-to-12-month period, Moderators collate proposed foundational changes into a "Pre-release" branch.
  2. Assignment: Proposed terms are assigned to the relevant CEOS Expert Group based on domain (e.g., radiometric calibration terms go to WGCV).
  3. Review: The designated CEOS Points of Contact review the Pre-release package. They may approve the changes, request modifications, or exercise veto rights.
  4. Release: Once consensus is reached among the Expert Groups, the Pre-release is officially merged into the main dictionary as a new authoritative version.

Conflict Resolution​

In cases where consensus on a term cannot be reached between different EO domains, the dictionary embraces complexity rather than forcing false agreement. The term will be tagged as controversial, and multiple definitions will be clearly documented alongside context explaining the differing domain perspectives.