This glossary defines the key terms used across BigGeo’s platform and legal agreements — including Variants, Datascape, Marketplace, licensing, and access controls — to ensure customers and partners have a clear, consistent reference point.
Core Product Objects Variant: A transactable, policy-bound offer derived from one dataset. Includes plan type, boundaries, pricing, licensing, delivery method, refresh schedule, access limits, and sampling options.
Dataset / Source: The underlying spatial data (raw or enriched) from which one or more Variants are created.
Order Snapshot: An immutable copy of relevant Variant settings at purchase (such as license rights, delivery method, and access controls).
Entitlement / Entitlement Mask: The specific areas or records a buyer is licensed to access, based on boundary options and the Order Snapshot.
Named Boundary Catalog (NBC): A versioned geographic catalog (countries, provinces/states, counties, postal areas, grids) used to define available boundary options.
Variant Attributes Plan Type: Commerce options such as Share or Sell, plus billing cadence (for example, one-time, monthly, or yearly).
Boundary Options: The geographic scope a Variant exposes: entire dataset, pre-bundled sets, or a menu where customers choose their own boundaries.
Pricing Method: How geography is charged: fixed price (per dataset, bundle, or boundary) or usage-based (per point, polygon, or record).
Access Guardrails & Allowed Channels: Where a Variant can appear (Marketplace, Private Link, Embed, etc.) and which actions are permitted (Preview, Request, Contact, Buy Now). The more restrictive rule applies when settings overlap.
Licensing Scope: Defines rights after access (personal use, internal only, commercial use, redistribution) along with optional limits (derivatives, AI training, field of use, attribution).
Delivery: Where and how buyers receive data: Datascape viewer, API, export/download, or webhooks.
Standards-aligned Policy Terms PEP (Policy Enforcement Point): The enforcement gateway for requests across API, Datascape, Marketplace, and Export. Authenticates the call, requests a decision, and enforces outcomes (such as boundary limits, sampling, metering, or logging).
PDP (Policy Decision Point): The decision service evaluates a request against Variant settings, purchase information, and channel context, then returns an Access Plan (permit/deny plus usage terms).
PAP (Policy Administration Point): The interface where policies are authored and managed.
PIP (Policy Information Point): External information used in decisions, such as purchase records, organizational policies, license flags, or usage state.
Access Plan: The contract returned by the PDP: permit/deny plus specific obligations (for example, boundary restrictions, column masking, time limits, or usage metering).
