The Common Core Board of Directors
Over the past decade, the Common Core Ontologies (CCO) have become a widely used semantic foundation for U.S. Government and research organizations. The suite is currently deployed across multiple organizations and supports large-scale data integration and analysis in operational environments.
Prior to 2023, CCO was developed and maintained at CUBRC, Inc. by Ron Rudnicki, Mark Jensen, and Alex Cox, who oversaw successive releases aligned to evolving stakeholder requirements. Through sustained technical leadership, CCO remained a stable and widely referenced foundation for ontology development aligned to Basic Formal Ontology (BFO).
As adoption expanded, including its role within the DoD-IC Ontology Foundry and broader standards initiatives, a formal governance structure was established to support long-term stewardship and transparent development. Both BFO and CCO have been directed for use within these communities as baseline standards for ontology development.
CCO releases are now overseen by the Common Core Board of Directors, composed of representatives from stakeholder organizations involved in CCO development and application. The Board is supported by a Common Core Developer Group that works to implement updates, coordinate technical decisions, and respond to community needs.
The Board is charged with ensuring that CCO remains openly available, well-maintained, responsive to user requirements and technological change, and independent of undue influence from any single project or organization.
The Board’s responsibilities include:
- Securing sustainable funding for CCO maintenance and development
- Supporting efforts toward IEEE mid-level ontology standardization
- Maintaining a structured and transparent release process
- Expanding documentation and developer guidance
- Encouraging academic research and robust, reusable domain ontology development aligned with CCO
- Organizing community events, working groups, and forums
- Coordinating with the Industrial Ontology Foundry, the Open Biomedical and Biological Ontology Foundry, and the DoD-IC Ontology Foundry
- Ensuring responsiveness to stakeholder and end-user needs
