Decentralized Deliberation Stack (DDS)

Semantic & Data Protocol

A W3C Community Group working draft defining common schemas and three open interfaces — Plan, Collect, Analyze — so that deliberation data written by one tool can be read by any other without bilateral integration. DDS separates the process of deliberation from the platforms hosting it: any conforming planning tool, collection tool, or analyzer can participate against the same shared data stream. Built on AT Protocol for transport, identity, and machine-enforceable schemas (required), with optional permanent archival (Arweave / Filecoin / Logos Storage) and optional on-chain anchoring (Ethereum) for verifiability.

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Details

License Mixed / no single licence — specification work follows the W3C Community Group contribution process; website and proof-of-concept software are MPL-2.0 unless otherwise stated. See the project's licence map. https://github.com/dds-wg/dds
Dev Status 📝 Draft
Owner W3C Decentralized Deliberation Stack (DDS) Community Group; coordinated through the dds-wg GitHub organization. Governance stated as independent of any single company or institution; no public organization members listed on GitHub
Owner - List
  • World Wide Web Consortium
Governing Body W3C Community Group (Decentralized Deliberation Stack CG; governance stated as independent of any single company or institution)
Country International (W3C Community Group; contributor locations not published)
Start Year 2026
Stack TypeScript (monorepo); specification is language-agnostic. Depends on AT Protocol Lexicon for machine-enforceable schemas
Funding Unknown — no funder or sponsor disclosed on the site, GitHub organization, or community files
Last Investigated Jul 31, 2026

Topology view

This tool in the centre and the things it is directly related to. Each line names the kind of relationship.

Topology view: Decentralized Deliberation Stack (DDS)This tool in the centre and the things it is directly related to. Each line names the kind of relationship.Decentraliz…Deliberatio…Arweave (Based on, Composes with)ArweaveEthereum (Based on)EthereumFileCoin (Based on, Composes with)FileCoinATproto (Conforms to)ATprotoWorld Wide Web Consortium (Developed by, Hosted at)World WideWeb Consorti…
  • Arweave (Tool): Based on, Composes with
  • Ethereum (Tool): Based on
  • FileCoin (Tool): Based on, Composes with
  • ATproto (Tool): Conforms to
  • World Wide Web Consortium (Organization): Developed by, Hosted at

Open in Graph Explorer

Use Case Domains

Platform Evolution & Sovereignty

Affordances

Interoperable formats Slow deliberation

Semantic & Data Protocol Attributes

Owner - List
  • World Wide Web Consortium
Origins Collective intelligence / civic deliberation — motivated by tool siloing (results from one deliberation tool cannot feed another without custom integration), unverifiable platform-held results, and data loss when a provider disappears
Database N/A — defines schemas, not storage. Data resides on AT Protocol Personal Data Servers, which participants may self-host, with optional archival to Arweave, Filecoin, or Logos Storage
Query Language N/A — no query language defined; data is read from the AT Protocol data stream using ATproto's own mechanisms
Data Formats AT Protocol Lexicon schemas for deliberation artifacts across the Plan / Collect / Analyze lifecycle; every record cryptographically signed at origin
Collaborative Live Editing N/A — deliberation rounds are asynchronous by design; analysis from one round triggers the next
Rich Text Editing N/A — specification defines data schemas, not editing surfaces
Mobile Support N/A — specification; client support is up to implementing tools
Web Support Yes — reference tooling and website are web-based; AT Protocol is a web-native substrate
Native Apps N/A — specification; no reference client
Terms Free / open specification; no fees. Every layer can be self-hosted, including the AT Protocol Personal Data Server
Funds Unknown — no figures published
Based On AT Protocol (required — federated transport, identity, and Lexicon schemas); Arweave / Filecoin / Logos Storage (optional permanent archive); Ethereum (optional on-chain verification and identity). Composes with external voting protocols including Vocdoni, Freedom Tool and CarbonVote rather than defining voting itself
Semantic Web Compatibility Partial — schemas are expressed as AT Protocol Lexicons rather than RDF, OWL, or SHACL. Machine-enforceable and interoperable within the ATproto ecosystem, but not RDF-native and not SPARQL-queryable
Protocol Maturity / Standardization W3C Community Group working draft — incubation stage, with the stated goal of maturing into a standard. A Community Group Report is not a W3C Recommendation and carries no W3C endorsement. No reference implementation shipped; SDK announced as forthcoming
Vocabulary / Ontology Type Deliberation process / Collective decision-making — a domain-specific vocabulary covering consultation design (rounds, modules, eligibility, feedback loops), participant input (opinions, votes, comments), and analysis outputs (clusters, consensus, outliers). Not a general-purpose vocabulary
Usage Pattern Embedded in other protocols and applications — DDS is a shared layer that deliberation tools implement, not a standalone product. Three loosely coupled interfaces let independent teams supply planning tools, collection tools (wikisurvey, demographics survey, importers, social media APIs, live conversation capture), and analyzers (opinion mapping, topic mapping, dimensionality reduction, LLM-based sensemaking) that compose without bilateral integration

Relationships

How this tool connects to other tools and organizations, from relationships reviewed by the OpenHaven data steward. They describe how projects connect, not how good they are.

Based on
Conforms to
Developed by
  • World Wide Web Consortium
Hosted at
  • World Wide Web Consortium
Composes with