Governance¶
ARD is governed by a deliberately lightweight structure with four commitments: direction stays with organizations actually shipping ARD, technical control stays with people chosen for expertise, no single company can capture the specification, and participation is never bought.
Two bodies share the work. The Oversight Board decides what ARD should become. The Maintainers decide how, and own the technical calls. Both operate by consensus where possible.
Oversight Board¶
Mandate. Sets overall direction, scope, and priorities, and approves new major versions.
Composition. Four to seven members, at most one per company. Each member is nominated by their company. Spots are held for key adoption-driving platform companies and for independent individuals.
Eligibility. A company must have a committed product or offering that implements or supports ARD — demonstrated commitment, not just interest.
No payments. A seat is earned through product commitment, not financial contribution. ARD accepts no money for participation, and no seat, vote, or influence is available for purchase.
Maintainers¶
Mandate. Owns the specification's day-to-day evolution: reviewing and merging changes, maintaining reference endpoints, and resolving technical questions.
Composition. Five to seven members, all selected for technical expertise and demonstrated time commitment — the capacity to review submissions, not only the standing to approve them.
Independence. At least two members are members at large, not employed by any company holding a board seat. This is what keeps technical control from tracking commercial representation.
Decisions. Specification changes are agreed by majority vote of the Maintainers.
How the two relate¶
The Board sets direction; the Maintainers exercise technical judgment within it. A member of one body may sit on the other only where the independence rule above still holds.
Anyone can contribute. Contribution is open to all, through issues and pull requests in the specification repository — membership of either body is not a precondition for proposing or shaping a change.
Membership¶
Oversight Board
| Company | Representative |
|---|---|
| Todd Segal | |
| Hugging Face | Shaun Smith |
| Microsoft | Dhruv Chand |
| Amazon | Jeffrey Damick |
Maintainers
| Member | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| R.V. Guha (Chair) | Member at large |
| Nick Cooper | Member at large |
| Junjie Bu | |
| Shaun Smith | Hugging Face |
| Dhruv Chand | Microsoft |
Still to be decided¶
The structure above is settled. The following are open, and will be decided by the Board and the Maintainers once they are seated:
- Term lengths and rotation for both bodies.
- How members at large are nominated and confirmed.
- Quorum, and tie-breaking or fallback voting when consensus fails.
- The process by which a company joins the Board after the initial cohort.
Neutral host¶
Whether to sit ARD under a neutral host — W3C, an AI foundation, or similar — is a decision for roughly twelve months out, not now. The structure above stands on its own in the interim.