It holds trust.
Releases, the signing trust root and transparent reporting: the things a commons needs to be checkable rather than taken on faith.
ABOUT · STEWARDSHIP · IN FORMATION
A steward,
not an owner.
Holding trust for the commons,
and handing it on.
The SAGE Foundation is the steward of the mission: it holds the releases, the signing trust and the reporting while the commons and its networks are built, and it is designed to hand them on rather than own them.
What that meansIn formationPrivate by defaultOpen to build onHand it on
WHAT IT IS
Stewardship,
with limits.
A steward is only useful if you can see the edges of the job. These are ours: hold the trust, publish what is signed, stay out of everything else.
It does not hold you.
Your questions, photos and notes stay on your device. The Foundation is not designed to read private knowledge and does not license it.
It does not hold the commons.
The commons belongs to the people who contribute to it, item by item. The Foundation stewards the channel and publishes what it signs.
WHO OWNS WHAT
Clear lines.
Written down.
Ownership and licence, part by part. The commons is not a company asset, the standard is not ours, and your knowledge is not something the project acquires by being used.
| Part | Whose it is · licence |
|---|---|
| Your private knowledge | Yours, on your LanternNot licensed to the project. Running the software grants nothing. |
| The device in your hands | YoursOpen licences for the design, firmware and application are published with each release as they are signed off. |
| The shared commons | Each contributor, item by itemEach item records its own licence beside its source. |
| SAGE — papers and protocol | The founder, who wrote the papersPapers published openly; licence terms published as they are signed off. |
| The radio standard | MeshCore’s communityWe build above it, contribute upstream, and do not fork it. |
| Signed releases and packs | Signed by the FoundationVerifiable by anyone, offline, without an account. |
| The name and the marks | The Foundation, in formationHeld as a trademark so compatible work stays possible. |
Licence terms are published with each release as they are signed off; the specific licence files ship alongside each release.
THE PEOPLE BEHIND IT
Small team.
Open door.
The Foundation is being built by the people who wrote the work and the people who show up to help. This list grows as they do.
Dhillon Kannabhiran — Founder
Founded SAGE and wrote its papers. Holds the mission’s long-term home while the Foundation is in formation, and answers dhillon@sage.ngo.
Contributors — by their work
People who write knowledge packs, translate pages, test devices, run repeaters or host gateways are credited with what they contribute. Attribution travels with the material.
Your name here
Maintainers, reviewers and community operators are wanted. If you would like to help hold this, write to us and we will find the right part for you.
Where this stands: the Foundation is an initiative in formation — not a registered entity, no funds held on anyone’s behalf, and nothing here is a live service. The public commons, its review process and the public-domain policy on the device are still being built, and this page will change as they are. Two prototype Lanterns run local AI and voice today; signed knowledge packs verify offline.
OPEN, IN PRACTICE
Open where it
matters.
Open is the intent: hardware, firmware, the application and its specifications published under open licences as they are signed off, and the name held as a trademark so nobody can close the design. The trade is deliberate: someone may sell a unit they build, and nobody can make the design proprietary.
A COMMONS IS HELD IN THE OPEN.
Hold it
with us.
Funding, hardware, translations, review, a gateway on your roof — there is more than one way to steward this.
Talk to the Foundation Read the distinction