openengineer/rfc/rfc-0005.md

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# RFC-0005: Stewardship
**Status:** Proposed
**Phase:** The Bedrock Phase
## Abstract
This RFC proposes stewardship — the obligation to maintain and improve engineering knowledge for future practitioners — as the governing principle for the standard.
## Motivation
Knowledge governed by ownership is hoarded, restricted, or lost when the owner departs. Knowledge governed by stewardship is maintained, extended, and transmitted.
## Observation
The most durable knowledge systems — open-source software, professional engineering bodies, craft guilds — are governed by stewardship rather than ownership.
## Engineering Principle
Standard documents are stewarded, not owned. Contributions are evaluated on value to future practitioners, not contributor status.
## Reasoning
Stewardship aligns with the standard's purpose: preserving engineering context across generations. Stewardship creates an obligation to preserve and improve. It includes the obligation to identify and flag context that has become obsolete or incorrect.
## Relationship to Existing Concepts
Stewardship is defined in OE-0009. It is the transmit discipline, paired with inheritance (OE-0010, the receive discipline).