Village Governance CourseSovereign deliberation records & agentic governance
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Free self-paced course · CC BY 4.0

Governance risk begins with the record.

This course equips boards, trustees, committees, and governance teams to understand why non-sovereign deliberation records create governance, legal, cultural, and operational risk — and how a sovereign-record architecture changes the organisation's risk posture. Didactic modules are completed individually; group exercises are reserved for collective judgment.

Begin Module 1 → New here? Take the 5-minute primer first See the course map

Offered freely, in good faith

This course is shared freely and in good faith — no paywall, no obligation. In the spirit of koha — a gift offered in reciprocity — if it proves valuable to you or your board, a contribution toward its continued development and running costs is gratefully received, in whatever measure reflects the benefit you've realised.

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Your progress

Progress is saved on this device as you complete each module. No account required.

Course completion

0 of 9 modules complete (0%)

Course map

Eight didactic modules plus a capstone. Each module combines teaching notes, external reading, discussion topics at the end of every subsection, a short self-check quiz, and — where relevant — an interactive case simulation that mirrors the real deliberation tools.

Module 1Why the governance record matters Module 2What indigenous data sovereignty adds Module 3The governance risk of non-sovereign records Module 4How sovereign records work Module 5Village as a sovereign governance environment Module 6Agentic governance & the limits of automation Module 7Deliberation records as immutable memory Module 8Risk assessment & organisational migration CapstoneRisk, architecture & action — group exercises

How the course works

Before Module 1 — the ideas in five minutes

An optional primer. It establishes the vocabulary and the mental model the course relies on, so the terminology is already familiar when the modules begin.

Take the 5-minute primer →

Two layers

  • Self-paced modules — short, board-level teaching units completed individually.
  • Facilitated group exercises — collective workshop activities applying the concepts to your own governance setting.

What you'll leave with

  • Board-level language for sovereign vs non-sovereign deliberation risk.
  • A working grasp of immutable provenance, policy-carrying records, and proof chains.
  • A method for evaluating your records, AI workflows, and platform dependencies.
  • A pilot hypothesis you can take to your board.

The group exercises can be run inside a licensed Village course environment, where participants use the actual sovereign-deliberation tools the course describes.

Resources

Supporting materials for self-paced learners and facilitators.

Facilitator guideHow to run the course & the capstone session Worksheets & templatesPrintable templates for every group exercise GlossaryKey terms, including te reo Māori vocabulary

Sector lenses

Optional overlays that ground the core modules in a specific governance setting. Complete the eight modules, then apply the lens that fits.

Boards & corporate governanceBoard packs, minutes, dissent, delegated authority Health & care governanceEthics panels, sensitive data, clinical governance Public sector & CrownInquiries, official information, statutory records Iwi, rūnanga & Māori governanceCollective authority, taonga, Te Tiriti, kāhui consensus

For boards ready to act

This course explains why the record matters. Village Board is where a board keeps one — every resolution, minute and deliberation as a sovereign, provable record on infrastructure it controls.

Explore Village Board → See the live demos →