The core stays published.
The five-layer Epistemic Maturity Model and the AI Decision Authority Model remain openly published regardless of how the standard evolves or how WEKID's market position changes.
The WEKID Pledge
The open torch, by design
Open standards should outlast their stewards. The WEKID Pledge defines the structural commitments intended to keep the core standard published, contribution open, conformance criteria public, and stewardship capable of moving to a neutral body as adoption grows.
Why the pledge exists
Goodwill is not a governance mechanism.
Every generation of open projects and standards has shown the same lesson: commercial sponsors and open standards can thrive together, but openness is durable only when the governing structure makes it durable. Single ownership creates a failure mode because strategies, incentives, and market positions can change.
Structural commitments
What WEKID pledges to preserve
Contribution stays open.
The evidence corpus, calibration profiles, public comment, and RFC process remain open to structured community contribution, with public and attributed recognition where appropriate.
Stewardship is designed to leave.
As adoption grows, stewardship of the core is intended to move to a neutral body so the standard can outlast any single organization, including WEKID LLC and its founder.
Certification verifies; it never gatekeeps.
Conformance criteria remain openly published. Certification verifies understanding and implementation quality; it is not intended to become a mechanism for closing access to the framework itself.
Why structure matters
Openness should survive commercial evolution.
When one company owns a standard, openness can become a strategy rather than a permanent property. The WEKID Pledge is intended to put the opposite principle in writing from the start: the standard should remain readable, implementable, reviewable, and improvable even as its steward, ecosystem, and commercial model evolve.
How the pledge connects to the standard
Principle backed by published governance
The Pledge sits around the normative standard rather than replacing it. The numbered Standards define requirements; RFCs provide the public change path; community contribution supplies evidence and domain expertise; and published conformance criteria keep implementation claims reviewable.
WEKID-STD-001The normative core: Epistemic Maturity, the Trust Bridge, AI Decision Authority, gating, conformance, and governance.
WEKID-STD-002The normative companion for sector calibration and authority alignment.
RFC GovernanceThe governed path for proposed changes, public comment, review, decision, and versioned release.
CommunityThe participation surface for evidence, research, working groups, implementation, and standards contribution.
The commitment