D9 · Governance & stewardship

Owned by none of them.

Phosra stewards Draft 4 in the open, then hands the wheel to a nine-seat Trust Committee at ratification. One org, one vote. Royalty-free. No founder veto.

Draft — charter not yet ratified

Charter principles

Five commitments, written before there's anything to capture.

Charter terms, not marketing — easiest to guarantee while the registry is empty.

01 / neutrality

Vendor-neutral

No company controls the rules, registry, or marks.

02 / license

Royalty-free

No fees, no NDA, no patent toll.

03 / voting

One org, one vote

Hyperscaler and nonprofit weigh the same.

04 / seats

Civil-society seats reserved

Three of nine seats for advocates and researchers.

05 / process

Transparent RFC process

Every change drafted and debated in public.

The full text lives in the
charter & bylaws →

Read the charter

The governance machine · D9

How control moves, who holds it, and how the standard changes.

Three pictures: handover, seats, and the path to normative text.

Fig · D9.1 — Stewardship handover
YOU ARE HERE v1 — active Phosra stewards Draft 4 · now Ratification charter adopted Q3 2026 · target v2 Trust Committee steers 9 seats · one vote each Transfer to a foundation held · not executed
YOU ARE HERE v1 — active Phosra stewards · Draft 4 · now
Ratification charter adopted · Q3 2026 · target
v2 Trust Committee steers · 9 seats · one vote each
Transfer to a foundation · held · not executed
(a) Stewardship handover — founder steward is a phase, not a position. Transfer written down, deliberately held.
Fig · D9.2 — Trust Committee composition
Civil society reserved Civil society reserved Civil society reserved Safety app 1 vote Implementer 1 vote Platform 1 vote Policy 1 vote Academic 1 vote Steward 1 vote
ROW 1 · CIVIL SOCIETY — RESERVED
Civil societyreserved
Civil societyreserved
Civil societyreserved
Safety app1 vote
Implementer1 vote
Platform1 vote
Policy1 vote
Academic1 vote
Steward1 vote
Nine seats · one org, one vote · three reserved for civil society.
(b) Nine seats · one org, one vote · three reserved for civil society. Steward holds one seat — no casting vote.
Fig · D9.3 — Change pipeline
minor changes skip Council Draft 01 Public RFC 02 Working Group 03 Council vote 04 Ratified 05
Draft01
Public RFC02
Working Group03
minor changes skip Council
Council vote04
Ratified05
Substantive changes need a Council vote; minor changes take the fast path.
(c) Draft to normative text. Substantive changes need a Council vote; minor changes take the fast path.

Working groups

Four groups do the actual drafting. All four have seats open.

Committee sets direction; working groups write the text. Where parental-control builders shape the standard.

WG-1

Rules

The 123-category taxonomy and signal meanings.

Seats open
WG-2

Trust Framework

The envelope, Trust List, and routing rules.

Seats open
WG-3

Conformance

The MUST / MUST-NEVER suite and test vectors.

Seats open
WG-4

Accreditation

Tier criteria and the audit bar.

Seats open

Versioning

Predictable change, on purpose.

  • semver

    Semantic versions

    MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH. Breaking changes are MAJOR, never silent.

  • N−1

    Deprecation policy

    Deprecated fields stay valid one MAJOR version, with a published sunset.

  • diff

    Public changelog

    Every version ships a machine-readable diff. Nothing changes off the record.

Conformance marks

Earned, not issued.

  • test

    Earned by passing

    A mark means you passed the public suite — not a paid badge.

  • revoke

    Revocable

    Marks lapse on failed re-test or a MUST-NEVER breach. Recorded on the Trust List.

  • tier

    Tiered, transparent

    Tiers and criteria published — anyone can audit who holds what.

Charter & bylaws (PDF) → See the conformance contract →

Committee forming

A seat at the table is open.

Most shapeable now — before ratification, while seats are open. Help write the rules you'll build to.

Join the coalition Read the charter