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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).