Core Domain Ontology

The Core Domain Ontology (CDO) specifies a protocol for a canonical semantic substrate.

Browse the CDO here.

CDO defines the requirements by which meaning is anchored, interpreted, and compared across heterogeneous systems, institutions, and domains, without requiring shared vocabularies, shared ontologies, or uniform institutional models. CDO governs:

• the canonical partitioning of meaning into socio-institutional domains;
• the explicit typing of constructs as Action, Object, Event, or Concept;
• the stabilization of semantic interpretation through closed canonical structures; and
• the anchoring of meaning through placement rather than pairwise translation.

CDO applies to any system, model, ontology, or vocabulary whose semantic commitments must be made legible, comparable, or interoperable across institutional or contextual boundaries.

CDO is concerned solely with semantic interpretation and contextual anchoring. It does not govern execution, authority, evidence, enforcement, or outcomes. Those concerns are explicitly outside the scope of this protocol.

The absence of shared vocabulary, shared ontology, or direct semantic agreement SHALL NOT be interpreted as semantic failure. Divergence is expected and permitted; anchoring is required.

CDO is domain-independent and intended to function across organizational, technical, sectoral, and jurisdictional boundaries without imposing uniform models or centralized control.