commerce-canon/research/social-community-graphs/schema-org-person-organization-membership.md

# Schema.org Person Organization Membership

## Source Type

Semantic vocabulary. Schema.org types and properties for Person, Organization,
membership, and role-like affiliations.

## Domain

Structured data about people and organizations, SEO/social graphs, and
membership representation on the web.

## Why This Source Matters

Schema.org distinguishes persons, organizations, membership, employee roles,
and affiliation properties — widely used for web-scale person/org modeling.

## Key Concepts

- **Person**: living human; properties include `name`, `email`, `identifier`,
  `sameAs`, `affiliation`, `worksFor`, `memberOf`.
- **Organization**: business, club, or other collective; `member`, `employee`,
  `department`, `subOrganization`, `parentOrganization`.
- **OrganizationRole**: intermediate type linking person to organization with
  `roleName`, `startDate`, `endDate`.
- **member / memberOf**: reciprocal membership between Person and Organization.
- **employee / worksFor**: employment relationship properties.
- **affiliation**: organization a person is affiliated with (looser than member).
- **sameAs**: URL of related entity — often used for weak equivalence/synonymity.
- **identifier**: PropertyValue or Text for external IDs.
- **SportsTeam / PerformingGroup**: specialized Organization subtypes.
- **ProgramMembership**: membership in a program with tier/benefits.

## Relevant Terminology

| Term | Source meaning |
| --- | --- |
| Person | Human being in structured data. |
| Organization | Collective entity (company, club, NGO). |
| memberOf | Person belongs to Organization. |
| member | Organization has Person as member. |
| employee | Person employed by Organization. |
| worksFor | Inverse employment link. |
| affiliation | Looser org association for Person. |
| sameAs | Related/equivalent resource URL (weak linking). |
| OrganizationRole | Named role with temporal bounds. |
| subOrganization | Org hierarchy child. |
| identifier | External ID for entity. |

## Modeling Assumptions

- **Person means human** in schema.org intent.
- **Membership and employment are properties**, not reified relationship objects
  (except OrganizationRole).
- **sameAs is informal equivalence** between web resources, not verified identity.
- **Organizations can nest** via subOrganization/parentOrganization.
- **Roles can be typed** via OrganizationRole with dates.
- **No authentication or authorization** semantics.
- **Properties are multi-valued**; one person can have many memberships.

## Identity-Canon Implications

- Schema.org **Person** maps to **Natural Person**.
- **Organization** maps to **Organization** collective actor.
- **memberOf / member** map to **Membership Relationship**.
- **employee / worksFor** map to **Affiliation Relationship** or employment
  specialization of Membership.
- **affiliation** maps to **Affiliation Relationship** (looser).
- **OrganizationRole** maps to **Role** relationship with temporal bounds.
- **subOrganization** maps to structural relationship between Organization
  actors (child/parent).
- **sameAs** maps to **weak Synonymity Assertion** between web resources —
  high conflation risk if treated as strong link.
- **identifier** maps to **Identifier** PropertyValue.
- Supports S03 (sub-orgs), S07 (informal groups as Organization subtypes), S08.

## Terminology Conflicts

- **Person vs. Profile**: schema.org Person is often used for public profile page.
- **member vs. employee**: overlapping employment semantics; not always distinct.
- **sameAs vs. Synonymity**: sameAs is SEO linking, not identity proofing.
- **Organization vs. Community**: SportsTeam/PerformingGroup blur social vs. org.
- **Role vs. OrganizationRole**: roleName may be job title or permission label.

## Candidate Canonical Mappings

| Schema.org concept | Candidate canonical concept |
| --- | --- |
| Person | Natural Person |
| Organization | Organization |
| memberOf / member | Membership Relationship |
| employee / worksFor | Affiliation or employment Membership |
| affiliation | Affiliation Relationship |
| OrganizationRole | Role + Membership with temporal bounds |
| subOrganization | Organization hierarchy Relationship |
| sameAs | Weak Synonymity Assertion (caution) |
| identifier | Identifier |
| ProgramMembership | Membership Relationship (program scope) |

## Open Questions

- Should sameAs ever promote beyond weak Synonymity without additional evidence?
- Does OrganizationRole warrant a canonical temporal Relationship subtype?
- How should ProgramMembership map vs. Community membership?
- Should subOrganization be a distinct Relationship type or Organization attribute?

## References

- Schema.org Person — https://schema.org/Person
- Schema.org Organization — https://schema.org/Organization
- Schema.org OrganizationRole — https://schema.org/OrganizationRole
- Schema.org sameAs — https://schema.org/sameAs