
# The ODGS Coalition: A Manifesto for Sovereign Governance

**Status:** Open Invitation
**Version:** 1.0 (Coalition Draft)

---

## 1. The Collaborative Mission
The Open Data Governance Standard (ODGS) is not a product; it is a **shared initiative** to bridge the gap between **Administrative Law** and **Computer Science**.

We believe that High-Risk AI Systems in Public Administration require "Administrative Recusal"—a mechanism where the machine cannot overrule the law, and the law can be mathematically enforced.

**Who This Is For:**
*   **Legal Scholars:** To define the "Legislative Plane" (The Semantic Truth) independent of code.
*   **Public Administrators:** To ensure sovereignty and auditability (EU AI Act Article 12).
*   **Technologists:** To build the "Interceptor" (The Enforcement Mechanism) that respects these definitions.

**Our Goal:**
To build a **Coalition of the Willing**—a network of academic, regulatory, and technical partners working together to define a vendor-neutral standard for 21st-century governance.

---

## 2. A Call for Coalition
We invite experts from **Academia, Government, and Standards Bodies** to join this working group. This is a neutral ground for research and implementation.

**Key Research Areas:**
*   **Semantic Interoperability:** How can different agencies share a common "Ontology Graph"?
*   **Automated Compliance:** How can we map ISO 42001 controls directly to runtime interceptors?
*   **Sovereign Architecture:** How can we guarantee "Data Sovereignty" in a cloud-native world?

*(We are actively seeking input from thought leaders in Digital Administrative Law and Information Systems to refine these questions.)*

---

## 3. Governance by Consensus
This initiative operates on a model of **Academic Peer Review** and **Regulatory Consensus**.

*   **No Single Owner:** The protocol is common property, released under Apache 2.0.
*   **RFC Process:** Changes to the standard are proposed as "Requests for Comments" (RFCs), open for debate by all coalition members.
*   **Lazy Consensus:** We move forward when there are no substantial objections from the working group, prioritizing "Rough Consensus and Running Code".

---

## 4. Conflict of Interest & Neutrality
To serve as a Reference Standard for the public sector, this coalition maintains strict neutrality:

1.  **Vendor Neutrality:** The standard shall not favor any specific vendor, cloud provider, or proprietary tool.
2.  **Sovereignty First:** All architectural decisions must prioritize the user's ability to retain full control over their data and definitions.
3.  **Transparency:** All discussions and decisions are public and open to scrutiny.

---

## 5. Join the Conversation
We are building this standard in the open.

*   **For Academics:** Contribute to the `2_INFORMATIVE_REFERENCE/architecture/` to align them with legal theory.
*   **For Regulators:** Review the `2_INFORMATIVE_REFERENCE/architecture/technical_annex.md` to assess compliance viability.
*   **For Developers:** Help refine the Reference Implementation in `src/`.

*Ideally suited for collaboration with NEN Standards Committee 381 525 and similar ISO working groups.*

---
[< Back to README.md](/README.md)
