MERITOCRAT.ORG

Primary-Source Explanation

What Is the Meritocratic Provenance System (MPS)?

The Meritocratic Provenance System is a proposed framework for documenting contribution, establishing provenance, incorporating measurable performance, and connecting documented contribution with attributable economic value.

What does MPS do?

MPS is designed to answer a fundamental question: when many people, organizations, datasets, ideas, or processes contribute to an economically valuable outcome, how can those contributions be documented and evaluated?

The framework uses provenance records to establish the history of contribution and independently measurable performance information to evaluate how those contributions relate to outcomes.

What is the core principle behind MPS?

MPS begins with the proposition that economic systems should be capable of recognizing documented contribution.

Provenance establishes who contributed. Performance measurement provides evidence about outcomes. Contribution analysis provides a framework for examining how individual and collaborative inputs relate to those outcomes.

What are the principal functions of MPS?

Function 1

Contribution Documentation

Creates records describing participants, contributions, authorship, development history, and relevant relationships between contributors and assets.

Function 2

Provenance

Establishes an auditable history describing where an asset or contribution originated and how the asset or contribution developed over time.

Function 3

Performance Measurement

Associates contributions with independently observable performance information relevant to the domain in which the asset operates.

Function 4

Contribution Attribution

Provides a framework for analyzing the relationship between documented contributions and measurable outcomes.

Relationship to PBS

How are MPS and PBS different?