Writing

Long-form pieces on how public-sector data capabilities should be designed: registries, citizen identifiers, AI deployment policy, and data that crosses jurisdictions. Each piece is written for practitioners and senior officials, at the depth of a policy paper.

Available now

The Deontic Architecture®: synopsis

Synopsis · Rev 0.1 · 19 October 2026 · PDF, 4 pages

A reference architecture that keeps the duty owed to a person attached to the records that describe them, and to everything derived from those records. A credit score, a risk flag or an eligibility result is a new fact about a person that was never collected from them, so the privacy duties on the original record do not follow it. The synopsis sets out where that duty is lost, the five constructs the architecture adds to close the gaps, its three conformance levels, and what it does not claim. It also introduces Ligavar, the implementation now in design.

Read the synopsis of The Deontic Architecture (PDF, 62 KB)

In preparation

Architectural Distinctions in Government AI Deployment

AI policy · Data architecture

An examination of the meaningful distinctions between categories of AI application in government (decision support, automated determination and generative functions) and the different architectural and governance conditions each requires.

The Unique Citizen Identifier Problem

Citizen identifier · Governance

A treatment of the persistent temptation to solve service delivery coordination problems with a single unique identifier for each person in a jurisdiction, and its architectural, governance and political dimensions.

Giving Effect to Data Sovereignty in the New World Order

Indigenous governance · Data sovereignty

A practice-oriented examination of what it means to give operational content to data sovereignty principles, distinguishing between sovereignty as a policy position and sovereignty as an architectural requirement.

Threshold-Crossing Methodology in Information Architecture

Methodology · Policy design

A methodological piece describing the diagnostic approach the practice uses to characterise institutional information problems, and the notion of an architectural threshold.

Pieces appear here when they are ready for sustained reading; the practice does not publish working drafts. To hear when one is published, write to deane.stillar@dsarchitek.ca.

THE DEONTIC ARCHITECTURE is a registered trademark of Deane Stillar, used under licence by DSarchitek Inc. LIGAVAR is a registered trademark of DSarchitek Inc.