This template guides Working Circles in creating Lens Exploration Briefs for the #RevisitingSSI project. Briefs help the community understand your lens, why it matters, and how it may inform the 2026 SSI Principles.

1. Territory / Focus Summary

Purpose: Establish what your lens examines and why it matters.

Required Elements

  • Opening Frame (1–2 paragraphs): Begin with an engaging narrative, concrete example, or philosophical grounding that introduces the lens’s core concerns.
  • Labeled Central Insight or Question (bolded): For example:
    • The core insight: …
    • Central question: …
  • Concrete Grounding: Provide specific mechanisms, scenarios, or lived experiences showing how your lens manifests.
  • Depth: Use 4–7 paragraphs. Avoid superficial overviews.

Quality Indicators

  • Reader can visualize concrete scenarios.
  • Central insight is explicitly labeled.
  • Territory shows depth and contextual grounding.

2. Relationship to Other Lenses

Purpose: Clarify how your lens connects to, builds upon, or differs from other lenses.

Key Elements

  • Distinctions from nearby lenses.
  • Complementary relationships.
  • Integration notes revealing how insights constrain or inform other lenses.

Depth

1–2 developed paragraphs.

3. Why This Lens Matters for SSI

Purpose: Connect your lens to SSI architecture and practice.

Required Elements

  • The architectural gap: What current SSI approaches miss.
  • Concrete SSI examples: Wallets, verification patterns, governance models, real harms.
  • Design implications: Why this requires architectural consideration, not only policy.

Avoid abstract claims without examples.

4. Key Harms, Risks, or Questions

Purpose: Identify concrete risks that arise when the lens is ignored.

Requirements

  • 3–6 major harms or risks.
  • Each with enough narrative to understand operation and impact.
  • At least one extended scenario.

Build on Section 3 without duplicating it.

5. Constructive Directions, Requirements, or Mitigations

Purpose: Offer strategic pathways forward.

Requirements

  • 3–8 strategic directions, each with meaningful development.
  • Can include rights, governance patterns, design principles, regulatory considerations.
  • Should relate clearly to identified harms.

Frame as provocations, not final solutions.

6. How This Lens Might Inform the 2026 SSI Principles

Purpose: Propose refinements or additions to SSI principles.

Required Elements

  • 2–3 draft principles with concrete wording.
  • Connection to harms identified earlier.
  • Rationale grounded in lens theory and evidence.

Format Example

Principle: [Name]

[Principle text]

Addresses harms: …

Rationale: …

7. Selected Resources

Purpose: Provide foundational literature.

Requirements

  • Minimum 4 resources (aim for 5–6).
  • All citations must have working URLs.
  • Order from foundational theory → SSI literature → applied work.
  • Include short abstracts where available.

Format

* _**Title**_ (Year). [type]. _Author(s)._ Publication details. Available from: <URL>.

  > **BRIEF:** Why this matters.

  > **SHORT ABSTRACT:** 2–4 sentences.

8. Open Questions & Questions for the Broader Community (Optional)

Open Questions

Purpose: Identify unresolved issues your Circle is actively grappling with.

  • 2–5 questions grounded within the lens.
  • Represent genuine uncertainty.

Questions for the Broader Community

Purpose: Identify questions requiring cross-lens or community-wide discussion.

  • 2–4 questions needing broader deliberation.

General Guidelines

  • Tone: Professional, accessible, interdisciplinary.
  • Length: 1500–3000 words typically.
  • Audience: SSI-literate participants from diverse fields.
  • Integration: Reference related lenses explicitly in Section 2.
  • Version Control: Update version number when making substantial edits.