The Sondage Standard is the set of commitments, principles, and arguments that govern the work of legacy collection, analysis, and preservation. It is neither policy nor branding. It is the non-negotiable ground underneath every Sondage Season, every credentialed practitioner, and every archive accessioned. Four pages extend from this one, and readers serious about the project are encouraged to follow each in turn.

The Authentication Horizon and the Commingled Archive

The Authentication Horizon names the moment at which synthetic biography begins filling the archive of ordinary lives at scale, before any standard of provenance exists to constrain it. The record it produces creates the Commingled Archive. This argument, and its consequences for conscious legacy in the synthetic age, is the reason for each of our foundational commitments.

The Three Foundational Commitments

Sondage holds three commitments as non-negotiable. Human Authorship refuses AI in the collection and interpretation of a primary source. Embodied Provenance binds every recording to a certified chain of human custody. Non-Custodial Sovereignty retains no Sondage ownership of the Fellow's archive.

The Founder of Sondage

Stephen Mucher founded Sondage after a formation in oral history and Geragogy that ran from Appalachian churches through administrative leadership at Berkeley and UCLA to the Pacific Crest Trail. The founder's page traces that lineage.

The Sondage Review

The Sondage Review collects ongoing essays from the Founder and the appointed Guild, organized around the questions the Sondage Standard keeps needing to answer as the synthetic era develops.