About the OpenERS Foundation

Provisional period statement. Live at v1.0.0-rc.1.

What this page is

The OpenERS Foundation is the governance body for the OpenERS standard. This page exists so that anyone evaluating OpenERS — a procurement officer, a regulator, a DPO, an FRS planning officer — can understand who currently stewards the standard, what artefacts the Foundation publishes, and what status the Foundation itself currently occupies.

Current status: Provisional

This is the same shape PEPPOL adopted during its formation years (technical artefacts operating under named interim stewardship before OpenPEPPOL AISBL was incorporated in Belgium in 2012) and the shape eIDAS-adjacent national trust frameworks adopt before the formal legal entity exists.

The provisional period is named and time-bounded. Per ADR-004 §“Transition trigger,” the provisional model ends when any one of the following occurs:

• A non-Point-Systems organisation seeks Statutory Issuer designation under the Foundation's Statutory Authority Registry
• A second OpenERS implementation seeks conformance attestation
• A regulator (ICO, NCSC, Cabinet Office Digital, sectoral) formally engages with the Foundation as a governance body
• 24 months have elapsed since the first Trust List publication (forcing-function deadline)

What the Foundation currently publishes

Three signed artefacts are live during the provisional period:

1. The Foundation Trust List — published as a signed foundation-trust-list record per docs/20-foundation-trust-list.md in the spec. Names the DIDs of OpenERS-conformant participants with their trust state. Verifiers consult this list as part of every record verification. Signed by the Foundation DID (did:web:openers.org.uk).
2. The Statutory Authority Registry — interpretive records of statutory instruments (e.g., the Fire Safety (Residential Evacuation Plans) (England) Regulations 2025; Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 ss.7-8) signed by the Foundation during the provisional period. These are foundation-attested interpretations; transition to issuer-attested when the named statutory issuer (HSE, MHCLG, Home Office, ICO, etc.) co-signs.
3. The conformance test suite — fixtures at conformance/v1/categories/<category>/ in the spec repo, exercising the load-bearing categories that an implementation must pass to claim “OpenERS v1.0.0-rc.1 baseline conformance.”

Point Systems' stewardship — conflict-of-interest declaration

Per ADR-003 — Foundation / Implementation / Operator Separation, the three roles (Foundation as governance body, Implementation as software, Operator as deployer) are functionally distinct and must remain organisationally separable. During the provisional period, Point Systems Ltd wears all three hats: it is the de facto Foundation steward, the author of the Point Network reference implementation, and an operator of one OpenERS deployment.

This is a real conflict of interest. It is named and managed by:

• Public declaration (this page). Anyone evaluating OpenERS knows the current concentration before they assess it.
• Conformance test suite as a public artefact. Any implementation can run the suite; conformance is not gated on Point Systems' approval as a vendor.
• Architecturally separable hats. Decisions are authored with explicit role attribution (Foundation decisions, Implementation decisions, Operator decisions are different acts even when the same person makes them). Foundation revenue cannot depend on Point Systems' implementation revenue.
• Transition triggers (see “Current status” above). The provisional period is not permanent and the conditions for ending it are specific.

A buyer or regulator engaging with OpenERS during the provisional period should understand that Foundation decisions made today will be reviewed against the eventual incorporated Foundation's governance, and that any decision flagged today as “Foundation-attested” should be readable as “Point Systems acting in Foundation steward capacity, with disclosed conflict of interest.”

What is NOT operational yet

• Foundation legal entity. Incorporation work is the Foundation Formation Working Group's responsibility (per ADR-004 action item). Likely UK Charitable Incorporated Organisation, with Company Limited by Guarantee as fallback if charitable status is not granted.
• Foundation membership voting. During provisional stewardship, decisions are made by Point Systems with consultation. Democratic governance among Foundation members begins post-incorporation.
• Trademark protection. The OpenERS name is currently unregistered. Trademark application is part of the incorporation work.
• IP transfer to the Foundation. Spec content currently sits in Point Systems custody; transfer to the incorporated Foundation will be a paperwork act at incorporation.
• Foundation revenue model. Membership/levy on operators is the intended steady-state per the PEPPOL precedent. During provisional stewardship, Foundation operations are funded by Point Systems as an in-kind contribution, to be regularised on incorporation.

Quarterly publication cadence

Per ADR-004, the Foundation Trust List, Statutory Authority Registry, and this conflict-of-interest declaration are republished every quarter, even if unchanged. The absence of a quarterly publication is itself a credibility signal. The first quarterly publication after this v1.0.0-rc.1 statement is due 2026-08-15 (90 days from the Trust List's valid_from).

Contact and engagement

For procurement, integration, or governance engagement during the provisional period, contact Point Systems Ltd in its Foundation steward capacity. Engagement with the named transition-trigger paths (non-Point-Systems statutory issuer designation, second implementation conformance attestation, regulator engagement) is specifically welcomed — those paths are how the provisional period ends.

Related artefacts

• ADR-003 — Foundation / Implementation / Operator Separation
• ADR-004 — Provisional Foundation Operating Model
• ADR-005 — Trust State Lifecycle and Revocation Discipline
• docs/10-governance.md — Foundation governance technical detail
• docs/16-statutory-authority-registry.md — Statutory Authority Registry operating model
• docs/20-foundation-trust-list.md — Foundation Trust List normative spec