A specification and manifesto for legible cyberinfrastructure.
This repository defines principles and normative requirements for describing, operating, and governing digital infrastructure as bounded, inspectable systems (“boxes”) rather than mythic, opaque abstractions (“clouds”).
The goal is not to reject abstraction, but to constrain it so that claims about capability, security, intelligence, and neutrality survive audit, regulation, and democratic contestation.
- A normative specification (RFC-style) defining requirements for infrastructure legibility
- A public manifesto articulating the ethical and civic rationale
- A versioned reference intended for builders, auditors, policymakers, researchers, and institutions
This project treats infrastructure claims as engineering claims, not branding.
. ├── RFC-0001-Boxes-Not-Clouds.md # Normative specification (authoritative) ├── MANIFESTO.md # Readable companion text ├── CHANGELOG.md # Version history and revision policy ├── SIGNATORIES.md # Endorsers (guarded, non-authoritative) └── SOURCES.md # Informative references
The RFC document is the authoritative source. Other documents are informative unless explicitly stated otherwise.
- RFC: 0001
- Version: 1.0.0
- Status: Proposed
- Initial publication: 2026-01-05
Revisions follow semantic versioning and are logged publicly.
This specification applies to infrastructure and services that materially shape:
- Data access and retention
- Decision-making affecting rights or life chances
- Long-term user dependency or lock-in
Examples include (but are not limited to): cloud platforms, AI services, financial and employment systems, health and education infrastructure.
This project does not:
- Define implementation details
- Mandate specific technologies
- Replace existing standards bodies
- Provide legal advice
It establishes constraints on representation, governance, and accountability, not architectures.
- Builders: Use as a design and disclosure checklist
- Auditors and regulators: Use as a gap-analysis reference
- Researchers: Cite the RFC and track revisions
- Institutions: Adopt as a baseline transparency commitment
This repository is not open to casual pull requests.
Proposed changes should:
- Open an issue describing the problem and rationale
- Reference empirical evidence or architectural change
- Preserve backward compatibility unless a major version bump is justified
CC by 4.0
We describe systems in terms that survive court, regulation, and negotiation.
If poetry fails under specificity, we revise the poetry or the product.
This work is archived on Zenodo.
Please cite the latest version using the Zenodo concept DOI, or cite version v1.0.1 for a fixed reference.
Example (v1.0.1): Alex Frigino (2026). Boxes Not Clouds v1.0.1. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18247977
Boxes, not clouds.