The JSON vCon - Contact Center Extension

Introduction This document adds a number of new parameters to the Party Object and the Dialog Object defined as part of the JSON vCon schema in . The vCon parameters defined in this document have been determined to be need and are specific to the contact center uses of vCon. The general framework and requirements for defining an extension to the JSON vCon schema are defined in .

Conventions and Definitions The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "NOT RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in BCP 14 when, and only when, they appear in all capitals, as shown here.

Terminology

analysis - analysis, transformations, summary, sentiment, or translation typically of the dialog data
conversation - an exchange of communication using text, audio or video medium between at least one human and one or more bots or humans
de-identification - removal of all information that could identify a party in a conversation. This includes PII as well as audio and video recordings. Voice recordings might be re-vocalized with a different speaker.
dialog - the captured conversation in its original form (e.g. text, audio or video)
encrypted form - encrypted JWE document with the JWS signed vCon form contained in the ciphertext
file - a data block either included or referenced in a vCon
object - JSON object containing key and value pairs
parameter - JSON key and value pair
party - an observer or participant to the conversation, either passive or active
payload - the contents or bytes that make up a file
PII - Personal Identifiable Information
PII masked - may include voice recordings, but PII is removed from transcripts and recordings (audio and video).
vCon - container for conversational information
vCon instance - a vCon populated with data for a specific conversation
vCon instance version - a single version of an instance of a conversation, which may be modified to redact or append additional information forming a subsequent vCon instance version
vCon syntax version - the version for the data syntax used for form a vCon
signed form - JWS signed document with the unsigned vCon form contained in the payload

JSON Notation This document uses the same JSON notation that is used in . For the ease of documentation, the convention for JSON notation used in this document is copied from section 2.2 of .

"String" - a JSON string type
"A[]" and array of values of type A.

All parameters are assumed to be mandatory unless other wise noted. Objects or arrays with no or null values MAY be excluded from the vCon.

vCon JSON Object This vCon extension adds a new extensions parameter name value token. The string token "CC" should be included in the extensions array of the vCon Object. It is not required that consumers of vCons with the CC extension content support this extension. It does not change the semantics or remove any parameters form the core vCon schema. There is no need to list the CC extension name in the must_support parameter.

Party Object This vCon extension adds the following new parameters to the Party Object in support of Contact Center use cases.

role The role that the participant played in the conversation. In a call center there are roles: such as: agents, customer, supervisor and specialist. In conferences there are roles: host, cohost, speaker, panelist, participant and other roles. The role parameter provides the ability to label the role that the part played in the conversation.

role: "String" (optional)

The following values for the role parameter MAY be used:

"agent"
"customer"
"supervisor"
"sme" (for subject mater expert)
"thirdparty"

Other values for the role parameter MAY also be used.

contact_list In a contact center scenario, the conversation with this party may be part of a larger effort of contacting a group of parties, individually or perhaps in groups. It is sometimes useful to reference the list from which this party was included. The contact_list may be used as a label for foreign key reference to the contact list that this party was on.

contact_list "String" (optional)

Dialog Object This vCon extension adds the following new parameters to the Dialog Object in support of Contact Center use cases.

campaign In a contact center scenario, a dialog may be initiated as part of a campaign or set of dialogs initiated with a common goal or focus or to be handled or treated in a specific way. The campaign parameter is string that may be used as a label or foreign key in reference to an external specification for how the communication is to be initiated, handled or treated. In some case it may be appropriate to attached the campaign data as an Attachment Object.

campaign: "String" (optional)

interaction_type

interaction_type "String" (optional)

TODO: add enumerated values from JDR

interaction_id TODO: Is this different from RFC7989 session ID (session_id in core)? In a contact center scenario, interactions with a party are often labeled with an identifier. In some case the interaction is contained in a single dialog. In others there may be multiple dialogs (e.g. messages or calls) that are all part of a single interaction. There may also be many interactions for a single conversation or vCon. The interaction parameter is used as a label or foreign key in reference to the interaction ID.

interaction_id "String" (optional)

skill A contact center may service multiple purposes or customers. In this scenario it is important to label the conversation segment or dialog. The agent or automata which services the dialog are required to have a specific skill. To facilitate this in a vCon dialog, the skill parameter is provided. The string values of the skill parameter are contact center specific.

skill "String" (optional)

Security Considerations Security considerations are covered in the document. This extension to vCon adds no additional security concerns.

IANA Considerations

vCon JSON Registry Additions

vCon Extensions Names Registry The following extension name is added to the vCon Extensions Names Registry.

Extension Name	Extension Description	Change Controller	Specification Document(s):
CC	Contact Center	IESG	RFC XXXX

Parties Object Parameter Names Registry The following defines additional values for the vCon Parties Object Parameter Names Registry.

Parameter Name	Parameter Description	Change Controller	Specification Document(s)
role	agent party role	IESG	RFC XXXX
contact_list	contact_list including this party	IESG	RFC XXXX

Dialog Object Parameter Names Registry The following defines the initial values for the vCon Dialog Object Parameter Names Registry.

Parameter Name	Parameter Description	Change Controller	Specification Document(s)
campaign	campaign to which dialog is part of	IESG	RFC XXXX
interaction_type	dialog interaction type	IESG	RFC XXXX
interaction_id	dialog interaction id	IESG	RFC XXXX
skill	required skill	IESG	RFC XXXX

Contact Center Use Cases TODO: insert draft-rosenberg-vcon-cc-usecases here

Example vCons TODO

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Thomas McCarthy-Howe for inventing the concept of a vCon and the many discussions that we had while this concept was developed into reality.
Thank you to Jonathan Rosenberg and Andrew Siciliano for their input to the vCon container requirements in the form of I-D: draft-rosenberg-vcon-cc-usecases.
Thank you to Rohan Mahy for his help in exploring the CDDL schema and CBOR format for vCon.
The examples in this document were generated using the command line interface (CLI) from the py-vcon python open source project.
Thank you to Steve Lasker for formatting and spelling edits.