Data is Soil
Putting the framework into practice

“Data is Soil”: Playbook

A practical course on Indigenous Data Sovereignty and AI, co-developed by the GainForest Indigenous and Local Data Council.

Thirteen short lessons. The first seven build the framework for Indigenous data sovereignty, local-first technology, and community-governed AI; the last six walk through the Data Council and GainForest stack that put the framework into practice. Each lesson has a reading, an exercise, and a knowledge check.

  • Tell when a dataset is being treated as oil, and when it's being treated as soil.
  • Draft a boundary statement and a code-of-conduct rule a community could actually hold a vendor to.
  • Turn refusal into enforceable deny rules, safe responses, logs, and stop conditions.
  • Walk through local-first technology, the Data Council, stablecoin payments, drone mapping, and three real GainForest tools, Bumicerts, Taina, AudioMoth, and apply the framework to each.
Begin Lesson 01: Soil over oilPrintable handouts
The curriculum

13 lessons, in order.

The first seven lessons build the framework. The last six walk through the Data Council and GainForest stack that put the framework into practice. Walk them in order on your first time through.

Part I

The framework

  1. 01Soil over oilNaming the frame you already use
  2. 02Sovereignty is processWhy 'national' doesn't mean 'sovereign'
  3. 03Boundaries before the scrapeFive fields that turn consent into a practice
  4. 04A code of conduct for AI agentsSix pillars a community can write together
  5. 05The right to remain unmodeledRefusal as a complete answer
  6. 06CARE principlesCollective benefit before open data
  7. 07Local-first technologySmall models, held close
Part II

The practice

  1. 08Data CouncilTurning governance into a standing body
  2. 09Bumicerts on ATProtoThree components of a verifiable claim
  3. 10TainaConstitutional AI co-designed with communities
  4. 11AudioMoth deploymentTending the data garden, in the field
  5. 12Paying with stablecoinsWhen the rail must fit the village
  6. 13Drone mappingLow-cost drones, RGB maps, and a river that changes
Course resources

Everything beyond the lessons.

The handouts you'll bring into the room, the reminders before you teach, and the reading list the lessons draw on. Each lives on its own page so you can bookmark and share them.