Responsibility must survive the boundary.
Responsibility Infrastructure provides a common framework for recording, communicating and verifying responsibility information across organisations, systems and technologies.
Origin
Responsibility Infrastructure originated in technical research by Raphael A. La Touche and La Touche-related organisations. Their contributions are attributed in the publication records.
The problem is structural
Organisations can connect systems while responsibility still fragments across messages, approvals, meetings, logs and disconnected records. Activity may be visible while the responsibility relationship itself becomes difficult to reconstruct.
The response
Responsibility Infrastructure defines ways to represent responsibility, preserve supporting evidence and communicate its recorded state across organisational and system boundaries.
The architecture distinguishes evidence verification from recognition, registry publication, resolution and decisions about reliance. Each function retains its own scope.
Independent interoperability
Different organisations and technology providers can implement published interoperability requirements using their own systems. Conformance depends on the applicable published requirements, rather than a particular supplier's product.
Common information and exchange behaviour are defined at the shared boundary; organisations retain their own systems, duties and authority.
Separation of functions
Responsibility records, evidence verification, Recognition, Registry publication, Resolution and Reliance are distinct functions. A record does not itself establish authority or a right to rely on its contents.