ONP-3400

Open News Protocol (ONP): Geolocation

Abstract

This document defines the Geolocation Extension: org.onp.geolocation. It declares where a story's subject matter is — the places an Article is about — not where it may be accessed, which remains entirely the concern of the Rights Companion's territory_restrictions (ONP-2400 Section 4.7). It reuses GeoJSON for precise geometry rather than inventing a coordinate format, and it supports multiple locations per Object, since a single story frequently concerns more than one place — including, fittingly, the four-municipality fusie-onderzoek example this series has carried since ONP-0000.

Status of This Document

This document is part of the ONP Extension series (ONP-3000-3999). It is directly implementable. It is a Working Draft.

Normative Language

The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 [RFC2119] [RFC8174], per the interpretation established in ONP-0000.

1. Introduction

Local and regional journalism is fundamentally about place, and nothing published so far in this series lets a News Object say, structurally, where its story happens. onp:metadata.tags (ONP-1005) could carry a place name as a free-text keyword, but cannot carry coordinates, cannot distinguish a story's primary location from one merely mentioned in passing, and offers no basis for map-based discovery or radius search. This document adds that, deliberately scoped to subject-matter location only — a different concern from access restriction, which ONP-2400 already owns.

2. Scope

2.1 In Scope

• locations: an array of place entries, each with a name and OPTIONAL GeoJSON geometry;
• geo_scope: a declared significance scope (local/regional/ national/international);
• the one Claim Domain this Extension declares;
• the explicit boundary against Rights' territory_restrictions.

2.2 Out of Scope

This document does NOT define:

• access or redistribution territory restrictions — that remains entirely ONP-2400 Section 4.7's concern; this Extension never restricts who may view content, only describes what the content is about (Section 4.8);
• any content delivery, CDN routing, or geo-blocking mechanism — ONP declares, it does not enforce, consistent with every other declarative Companion and Extension in this series;
• precise geolocation of individual people (a source's location, a commenter's location) — a materially different and more sensitive concern than a story's subject-matter location, addressed, where it matters, by the same protective posture ONP-2600 (Sources) already establishes, not by this document (Section 4.9).

3. Terminology

This document introduces no new general terms beyond its namespace and Claim Domain registration (Section 4).

4. Requirements

4.1 Extension Namespace Declaration

This Extension's fields MUST be carried under onp:extensions.org.onp.geolocation.

4.2 Companion-vs-Extension Classification

Does "Geolocation" have independent identity and an independent
lifecycle, separable from the Object it describes?

- A story's subject-matter location is inherently a property of
  that story; it has no standalone existence a reader would
  reference independently of the Article it describes.
- NO -> Extension, consistent with every other document published
  in this series so far.

4.3 Content Schema

locations and geo_scope are both OPTIONAL, under the single Claim Domain geographic-subject-matter (Section 4.7).

4.4 Location Entries

1. locations, if present, MUST be an array of objects, each with a REQUIRED name (string, human-readable place name) and an OPTIONAL geometry.
2. Each entry MAY include a role: "primary" (the story's main subject location) or "mentioned" (referenced but not the central subject). Absence of role MUST be treated as "mentioned" — the lower-emphasis default, so that a Node does not overstate a location's importance to the story based on an unstated field.
3. An Object MAY declare more than one "primary" location — a story may genuinely concern several places at once (Section 7.1).

4.5 Geometry (GeoJSON Reuse)

geometry, if present, MUST be a valid GeoJSON geometry object (RFC 7946) — most commonly a Point, but any GeoJSON geometry type MAY be used where appropriate (e.g. a Polygon for a municipal boundary). This document does not define its own coordinate format, consistent with Principle P3.

4.6 Geographic Scope

geo_scope, if present, MUST be one of "local", "regional", "national", or "international", describing the story's overall geographic significance rather than any single location's own scale.

4.7 Claim Domain

This Extension declares one Claim Domain: geographic-subject-matter. It MUST be registered in ONP-0002 alongside this document's publication (Section 10.3).

4.8 Boundary Against Rights' Territory Restrictions

locations and geo_scope MUST NOT be interpreted as access or redistribution restrictions. A story's subject-matter location and its access restrictions are independent axes: an Article about Purmerend MAY be freely accessible worldwide, and an Article about an international topic MAY still carry a Rights Object restricting access to one territory. A Node MUST NOT infer one from the other.

4.9 Not for Individual Location Tracking

This Extension MUST NOT be used to encode a specific individual's personal location (a source's home address, a commenter's IP-derived location). Where a story's reporting process itself involves location-sensitive information about a protected source, ONP-2600 Section 4.6's guidance — including the recommendation to avoid creating a structured, distributable record at all for the most sensitive cases — applies with at least equal force here.

5. Object Model

{
  "onp:extensions": {
    "org.onp.geolocation": {
      "locations": [
        {
          "name": "string, REQUIRED",
          "geometry": "GeoJSON geometry object, OPTIONAL",
          "role": "'primary' | 'mentioned', OPTIONAL, default 'mentioned'"
        }
      ],
      "geo_scope": "'local' | 'regional' | 'national' | 'international', OPTIONAL"
    }
  }
}

6. Processing Model

6.1 Consumption

A map-based news display or a hyperlocal aggregator MAY use locations to place a story geographically or filter by proximity, and MAY use role: "primary" entries preferentially over "mentioned" ones when a single representative location is needed for display purposes.

6.2 Interoperability

A Node without this Extension implemented simply does not see structured location data — onp:metadata.tags (ONP-1005) remains available as a free-text fallback if a publisher also populated a place name there. This Extension is Companion-agnostic, consistent with every other Extension published so far.

7. Examples

7.1 The Running Fusie-Onderzoek Example, Finally Geolocated

{
  "onp:extensions": {
    "org.onp.geolocation": {
      "locations": [
        { "name": "Purmerend", "role": "primary",
          "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [4.9583, 52.5050] } },
        { "name": "Landsmeer", "role": "primary",
          "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [4.9167, 52.4167] } },
        { "name": "Wormerland", "role": "primary",
          "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [4.9167, 52.5000] } },
        { "name": "Oostzaan", "role": "primary",
          "geometry": { "type": "Point", "coordinates": [4.8833, 52.4500] } }
      ],
      "geo_scope": "regional"
    }
  }
}

Four "primary" locations, reflecting that the fusieonderzoek genuinely concerns all four municipalities equally, not one principal subject with three passing mentions.

7.2 Boundary Illustrated

Article: subject-matter location = Purmerend (locations, this doc)
Rights Object (referenced via rights_ref): no territory_restrictions
  declared -> accessible without geographic limitation

These are independent: the story being ABOUT Purmerend says nothing
about who may READ it, per Section 4.8.

8. Security Considerations

Like every declarative field in this series, locations and geo_scope are publisher-asserted and not independently verified. This document introduces no new risk beyond the general limitation already accepted throughout: a Node treats these as claims, not independently confirmed facts.

9. Privacy Considerations

The primary privacy consideration is the boundary Section 4.9 already states as a requirement: this Extension describes a story's subject matter, never an individual's personal location. Publishers SHOULD take particular care that a "primary" location entry with precise geometry does not inadvertently pinpoint a private individual's specific address or location when the story concerns a person rather than a place — the same category of concern ONP-2600 already addresses for source identity, now extended to geographic precision specifically.

10. References

10.1 Normative References

• [RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119.
• [RFC8174] Leiba, B., "Ambiguity of Uppercase vs Lowercase in RFC 2119 Key Words", BCP 14, RFC 8174.
• [RFC7946] Butler, H., et al., "The GeoJSON Format", RFC 7946 — the geometry format reused in Section 4.5.
• ONP-0001, Architecture — Section 4.4, the decision test applied in Section 4.2.
• ONP-0003, Design Principles — Principle P3 (Ordinary Technology), motivating GeoJSON reuse.
• ONP-1005, Core Metadata — tags, the free-text fallback noted in Section 6.2; this Extension is additive to it, not a replacement.
• ONP-2400, Rights — Section 4.7 (territory_restrictions), the access-restriction concept this document explicitly does not duplicate (Section 4.8).
• ONP-2600, Sources — Section 4.6, the protective guidance Section 4.9 and Section 9 extend to geographic precision.
• ONP-3000, Extension Framework — Section 4.1 (namespace registration), Section 4.3 (Claim Domain declaration).

10.2 Informative References

• None beyond the normative set.

10.3 Registry Registration

As part of this document's publication, org.onp.geolocation and geographic-subject-matter are registered in ONP-0002.

Appendix A: Full Schema Reference

{
  "onp:extensions": {
    "org.onp.geolocation": {
      "locations": [
        {
          "name": "string, REQUIRED",
          "geometry": "GeoJSON geometry object, OPTIONAL",
          "role": "enum, OPTIONAL, default 'mentioned'"
        }
      ],
      "geo_scope": "enum, OPTIONAL"
    }
  }
}

Appendix B: Geolocation Extension Checklist

[ ] Fields carried under onp:extensions.org.onp.geolocation
[ ] Each locations[] entry has a name
[ ] geometry, if present, is valid GeoJSON (RFC 7946)
[ ] role, if absent, is treated as "mentioned," not "primary"
[ ] No access/territory restriction has been encoded here — that
    belongs to ONP-2400's rights_ref/territory_restrictions instead
[ ] No individual person's personal location has been encoded here
    (Section 4.9)

End of Document