I study how rights, incentives, and system architecture can be represented clearly through standards-style protocols, schemas, and reference models.
This profile serves as an index and entry point for my protocol-oriented research, including RFC-style specifications, schema drafts, registry artifacts, and supporting reference tools.
Primary development and canonical artifacts are maintained in the SJellen/protocols repository, with transparent versioning and explicit scope.
The Universal Sports Graph (USG) is an emerging protocol for representing sports broadcast rights as structured, interoperable data.
USG defines a neutral, machine-readable layer for:
- rights registration
- access authorization
- settlement and auditability
The goal is to clarify incentives across leagues, platforms, distributors, and audiences by making rights computable.
- The Universal Sports Graph — Blueprint Edition (DOI-backed whitepaper)
- RFC 0001 — The Universal Sports Graph
Core rights graph, access surface, and clearinghouse model. - RFC 0002 — USG Entitlement Token Profile
Standards-track specification defining tokenized access, required claims, validation rules, security properties, and interoperability expectations. - RFC 0003 — USG Registry Architecture
Standards-track specification defining canonical registry object models, identifier semantics, lifecycle rules, canonical JSON and digest requirements, index structures, federation rules, and validation requirements.
Together, RFCs 0001–0003 define the minimum viable USG protocol stack:
rights graph → access enforcement → authoritative data substrate.
- Registry object schemas
- Event, league, team, venue, broadcaster, and rights-bundle definitions
- Entitlement token and settlement record schemas
- Deterministic index files and registry metadata
- Validation and integrity-check tooling (illustrative, non-production)
- Governance and compliance RFCs
- Settlement and clearinghouse extensions
- Registry federation and multi-authority models
- Reference implementations and validation tooling
Whitepapers exploring rights structures, incentives, and system design across multiple sectors.
Selected works:
- The Universal Sports Graph — Blueprint Edition
- The Sports Spin-Off
- The Content Layer
- The Shadow Subscription
Archive:
https://scottjellen.com/whitepapers
Concise research briefs derived from larger papers and protocol work, focused on clarifying structure, incentives, or implementation patterns.
Archive:
https://scottjellen.com/briefs
- clarity over scale
- versioning over polish
- publish early, refine in public
- treat systems as structures: rights → access → incentives → outcomes
For questions, critique, or research discussion:
https://scottjellen.com/contact
Portfolio: https://scottjellen.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sjellen/