BIX
The Bayanihan Information Exchange is an open format for the work volunteer groups do. Any app that speaks BIX can read and write the same records, so a group can change apps, or run its own server, without losing its history.
Where it comes from
- HL7® FHIR®, the standard health care uses to share records, gives BIX its pattern: resources, references, lifecycles, extensions, bundles and a REST API. FHIR® is the registered trademark of HL7 and is used with the permission of HL7. BIX is not affiliated with or endorsed by HL7.
- Civic Interconnect's CAE and CEP give it a classification of civic things and a way to export confirmed work.
- Blockchain's cryptography, without a blockchain: signed records and, later, hash chains and public anchoring, so records can be checked without anything that can't be deleted.
The records
| Resources | For |
|---|---|
Organization, Person, Role, Position | Who: groups (registered or informal), people, their roles, and positions with seats and terms |
Initiative, Team | What the group is doing: plans, programs, projects and sessions, and the teams that run them |
Task | One step someone can take: claim it, be asked, help out, mark it done |
Need, Offer | Asks and commitments: goods, a venue, a skill, people |
Decision, Vote | Deciding together, counted by the rules engine |
Goal, Report | Shared aims many groups enroll in, and reports derived from the work, never typed in |
Provenance | Who did what, who confirmed it, and the group's signature |
ShareLink, Consent, SharingPolicy, Endpoint | Sharing, consent, privacy defaults, and where a group's records live |
Rules every BIX server follows
- Every change follows a lifecycle. A transition that isn't allowed is refused, never quietly merged.
- A suggestion from an AI model or a stranger is a draft until a person commits it. Models never commit and never vote.
- Done is the record: finished work counts at once and is signed by the group's server or hub. Money and work with the people served still need a second person to confirm.
- People served are counts, small numbers are hidden in public, and everything about a person can be downloaded by that person.
Status
BIX is at v0.1, a draft shaped with the groups taking part in the pilot. The JSON Schemas, the full specification and the change log will be published with the first open-source release.