1.5 KiB
OE-0009: Stewardship
Status: Draft Depends on: OE-0008 (Decisions) Phase: The Bedrock Phase
Overview
We do not own engineering. We steward it.
That single word changes the tone of the entire project. Stewardship replaces ownership as the operative relationship between an engineer and engineering knowledge.
Definition
Stewardship is the responsibility to maintain, preserve, and improve engineering knowledge for future inheritors. A steward does not possess the knowledge — they hold it in trust, maintaining it and passing it forward in better condition than they received it.
Stewardship over Ownership
Ownership implies the right to control, restrict, or dispose of something. Stewardship implies the responsibility to care for, maintain, and transmit something. Open Engineer adopts stewardship as its governing principle because engineering knowledge is not the property of any individual, organization, or generation. It is an inheritance.
Relationship to Inheritance
Stewardship and inheritance are two sides of the same coin. One generation inherits; that same generation stewards. The next generation inherits what was stewarded. The cycle continues.
See also: OE-0010 (Inheritance).
Implications
- Open Engineer documents are stewarded, not owned.
- Contributions are accepted based on their value to future engineers, not the status of the contributor.
- The standard's primary obligation is to clarity and preservation, not to any individual or organization's preferences.