Seednote
Community
A collective that is neither its members nor an organization
A continuing collective of people, described by the semantic class rsm:Community, for which no registered naming kind yet exists.
RSM ID Learning Center2 min read
A community is a social referent: a group of people who recognize one another as a continuing collective, often without any single legal form. It may have its own identity, distinct from each of its members and from any organization that serves it. The RSM model can describe it with the semantic class rsm:Community, but Document 08's minimum kind profile has no community kind, so how a community is named is still an open registry question.
That gap affects names, not identity. An RID encodes no kind, so a community can have an RID today; only a registered RRN would need a registered kind. Communities can also administer Semantic Spaces of their own and may be entitled to steward knowledge that issuance confers no right to disclose (§4.6, §8.5).
Example
Cedar Valley Growers, 451.358VPJMD1B17MKZ4 (Growers), is the valley's community of growers. Anika joins it in 2032; others leave. The cooperative serves it, and many people belong to both. The community persists while it is recognized as the same continuing community, and membership remains a relationship between each person and the community.
A common misconception
“A community is just its membership list, or the organization that runs its meetings.” Neither. A list changes every season, and an organization serving a community is a different referent with its own identity; using either as the community's identity would also expose members through the community's records.
Related concepts
How organizations and communities differ through change is followed in An Organization Through Change. Semantic classes versus naming kinds are separated in Subject and resource and the RRN Seednote. Stewardship versus issuance is argued in Why identity is not ownership.
In the specification
Resources, including communities: Document 08 §2.1. Community-administered spaces: §4.6. Stewardship: §8.5. The kind registry: §18.3.