Desirable Properties ChallengeDP Challenge
Today's web: physical, internet, and application layers above the cityMeta-Layer under construction with scaffolding and cranesCompleted Meta-Layer coordination dome with trust, context, presence, and governance
Physical Infrastructure
Internet Infrastructure
Websites & Applications

META-LAYER

Trust · Context · Presence · Governance

The Desirable Properties Challenge

Help define the foundational properties of a trustworthy Meta-Layer for the Internet.

A global collaboration to build a human-aligned, decentralized, AI-assisted coordination layer that supports trust, agency, accountability, and human flourishing.

Join a Workgroup →Discuss & PatchPatch on Gov Hub

Move, scroll, or touch to reveal the coordination layer

A luminous digital road forks above a glowing web, with one path narrowing into an AI gate and the other opening into shared human-centered layers.

Featured Pathway

AI & Human Agency

AI may become the primary interface between people and the digital world. What properties would ensure that humans and communities retain agency over context, judgment, memory, identity, and digital space?

Explore a pro-human pathway through the Desirable Properties – and help identify what may still be missing.

Explore AI & Human Agency →Read: A Fork in the Web →

AI is one doorway into the project, not its boundary.

Workshop series

Fork in the Web workshops

Will AI Mediate Reality, or Help Us Build a Human-Centered Internet?

4 online sessions · ≈8 hours total with pre-read & questions · attend or watch

A FORK IN THE WEB

Earn the series badge – complete all 4 sessions + questions

Optional PEARL badge enhancement

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Join the workshop series →

What Are Desirable Properties?

Desirable Properties provide the shared design criteria for a Meta-Layer that supports trust, agency, safety, accountability, contextual integrity, collective intelligence, and human flourishing.

The challenge is to continually refine, test, and operationalize these properties through governance, implementation, and real-world experimentation. Read the full framing on About.

Current DP Challenge

Version 0.77 is open for review. View full timeline →

23canonical DPs

24active workgroups

Recent activity

View full activity feed →

Browse the DPs

Illustration for Desirable Property DP23: Universal Participation & Linguistic Interoperability
DP23active

Universal Participation & Linguistic Interoperability

The Meta-Layer should enable universal participation and linguistic interoperability–preserving original expression, enabling understanding across languages, making machine interpretation visible and contestable, and showing how participation influences shared understanding and action.

View campaign →

Missing Something?

The current DPs are not assumed to be complete.

Have we missed a property?

Help identify:

  • Candidate DPs
  • Missing requirements
  • Emerging challenges
  • New implementation opportunities
Submit Candidate DPDP Discovery workgroup

Three Ways to Get Involved

Pick a path – or do all three.

  • Join a Workgroup

    Help steward one or more Desirable Properties toward Version 1.0.

    Browse DP workgroups →

  • Discuss & Patch

    Chapter comments are live on book.desirableproperties.org. Passage-level patching on the book is coming soon.

    Open the book →

  • Patch a Draft on Gov Hub

    Select a passage in any DP draft and submit a specific text revision today.

    Open Gov Hub →

More ways to contributeChallenge timelineAbout the ChallengeOn-chain provenance