About
A permanent, neutral custodian
The Tiro Foundation exists to preserve endangered cultural and linguistic memory — not as a platform that owns what it records, but as one node among many possible custodians: a person, a village, a library, or TIRO itself.
Custodial Paradigm
Custody is not ownership. Recording a memory does not grant the right to reinterpret, monetize, or erase it. TIRO's systems are built to be witnesses before they are interpreters — pointing back to the human source rather than synthesizing themselves into an authority over it.
Governance
TIRO's governance is still forming. The following states the standard TIRO intends to meet — it is not a record of appointed roles or completed procedures.
Ethics oversight
Sensitive collections are intended to be reviewed by an ethics board before publication, not after the fact.
Regional stewards
Local stewards are intended to hold context and authority over material from their own communities.
Transparency and appeals
Takedown and appeal processes are intended to be documented and available to contributors and subjects alike.
For the full statement of principles, read the founding manifesto. For the archive itself, visit the Memory Project.