Before the New Year, I put up a poll asking what the word "endpoint" meant to people. Overall there were 68 responses. The following table summarizes them:

While other is the largest category, some of the answers, could be grouped broadly with ones I gave to slightly shift the answers:

The rest of the "others" chose multiple of the preceding choices, gave something independent of all of them, or were non-responsive. So, the word "endpoint" doesn't seem to have a clear consensus on meaning. For my purposes, that might be good since it would seem to indicate that the meaning is fairly maleable.

I want it to mean, in the context of Kynetx, "a participant in an event network." That response got few votes because it's not a common usage and I asked people associated with Kynetx like our employees to not vote for fear of skewing the results.

So, I'd like to ask for your help one more time, please read the following two descriptions. They are identical except that in one I use "endpoint" and in the other I use "agent." Then take the poll to give me your feedback.

As we've discussed, to be useful, an event has to be observed and communicated. In Kynetx, events are generated by endpoints. An endpoint that generates an event may be observing the some activity directly and reporting salient state changes or it might just be reporting or transforming event data from another source.

Endpoints are responsible for

1. maintaining state to link separate interactions with the event processor together in meaningful ways to create context,
2. raising relevant events to the event processor, and
3. responding to directives from the event processor.

Not every endpoint will do all three. Some endpoints will not be entity specific and thus won't play a role in context. Some endpoints may just raise events. Others may only take directives. All endpoints will at least raise an event or respond to directives.

Here's the second:

As we've discussed, to be useful, an event has to be observed and communicated. In Kynetx, events are generated by agents. An agent that generates an event may be observing the some activity directly and reporting salient state changes or it might just be reporting or transforming event data from another source.

Agents are responsible for

1. maintaining state to link separate interactions with the event processor together in meaningful ways to create context,
2. raising relevant events to the event processor, and
3. responding to directives from the event processor.

Not every agent will do all three. Some agents will not be entity specific and thus won't play a role in context. Some agents may just raise events. Others may only take directives. All agents will at least raise an event or respond to directives.

Please take this poll to say which you like best (again, Kynetx employees, please abstain):