Governance
Open standard, shared stewardship
A standard is only trusted if it is neutral. This is how the Human Seal is stewarded, and how you can help shape it.
How it is stewarded
- The Human Gate standard is open and royalty-free. Anyone can implement it. There is nothing to buy to keep a human in charge.
- The Human Seal is a controlled mark, so that where it appears, it means something.
- HumanGate International is being founded as the neutral steward, and founding members are invited. Register your interest.
- The standard is founded and incubated by FLOCORE, which is also its first reference implementation. This is the C2PA and PCI pattern: a founder stands it up, then opens governance.
For clarity: HumanGate International is not yet incorporated and has no members. Until it is, its founder, Floris Olivier, acts as interim custodian of the Human Gate standard and the Human Seal mark, on its behalf and not as a personal or commercial asset. The standard is open and royalty-free. The mark is licensed on published terms to anyone who meets the conformance requirements. The custodian also owns FLOCORE, the reference implementation, and FLOCORE takes the same terms as everyone else. When HumanGate International is formed, the standard, the mark and this domain pass to it.
Why join now: founding members take part in drafting the constitution and in the first working groups, and are named at launch.
How neutrality gets built
- Incorporate HumanGate International as a neutral body, separate from any one vendor.
- Recruit several credible co-founders, ideally rivals, with equal-share governance.
- Split the specification body from the adoption and evangelism arm.
- Require independent conformance and continuous re-audit, never self-declaration.
- Publish the register and police misuse of the mark.
These are the moves that made C2PA, FIDO, PCI, UL and Fair Trade credible. We are following them in order, and we will report progress here.
Why the standard does not depend on our word
The deepest answer to the neutrality question is that you do not have to take the steward's word for any receipt. Every Human Seal is verifiable offline against a published key, so you rely on that key publication rather than on a promise. The standard is open. So even while neutrality is being built, the mechanism is already checkable by anyone.
Who we need as founding members
Every durable mark in this playbook, C2PA, FIDO, PCI, was founded by several credible, often rival, parties with equal say, not by one company alone. HumanGate International needs that now. If you are one of the following, this is your seat at the table before the rules are fixed.
Insurers and brokers
You need a way to price AI-agent risk. A signed, verifiable record of who approved what is exactly the evidence an underwriter can act on. Help set the terms a policy can rely on.
Assurance and audit firms
Independent conformance review is the whole point, self-declaration does not count. If you audit for a living, this is a practice area on day one, and you help write the rules you will apply.
Platforms and vendors shipping agents
Your customers are already asking how they keep a human in charge. Carry the mark, and help decide what any vendor has to prove to carry it.
Universities and research groups
Human oversight of autonomous systems is a live research question. Sit on the technical committee and shape a standard while it is still being written, not after.
Recognise your organisation in one of these? Founding members take part in drafting the constitution and the first working groups, and are named at launch, before the terms are set for everyone who joins after.
Human Seal