Foundation Charter

Activity Travel Protocol Foundation · Track 4 Session 1 · April 2026 · Apache 2.0

Preamble

The Activity Travel Protocol is an open protocol standard for the global travel industry. It enables the discovery, configuration, negotiation, booking, fulfilment, and disruption management of complex travel activities and experience packages across multiple suppliers, jurisdictions, and AI agents. It is a runtime platform — a Travel Operating System — that manages the full lifecycle of a booking as a first-class runtime entity, with policy enforcement, trust chain construction, duty of care tracking, and AI agent participation built into the protocol itself. The Activity Travel Protocol was created by Tom Sato, CEO of MyAuberge K.K., Chino, Nagano, Japan, drawing on experience operating accommodation and activity packages in the Japanese market and as a former Microsoft Windows and SDK engineer. The protocol is designed to be scale-neutral, jurisdiction-aware, and AI-native from its foundations. This Charter establishes the Activity Travel Protocol Foundation as the independent governing body for the protocol. The Foundation holds the protocol, its intellectual property, its online presence, and its standards process in trust for the global travel and technology communities. MyAuberge K.K. is the Founding Member of the Foundation and the primary commercial operator of managed services on top of the protocol. These are structurally distinct and formally separated identities.

1 Name and Legal Form

1.1 Full name

Activity Travel Protocol Foundation (一般社団法人アクティビティトラベルプロトコールファウンデーション)

1.2 Short form

The Foundation. Not abbreviated to ATPF in formal documents.

1.3 Legal form and jurisdiction

The Foundation is constituted as a general incorporated association (一般社団法人) under Japanese law. This jurisdiction reflects the founding context: the protocol was created in Japan, the Founding Member is a Japanese entity, and Japan is a primary target market for the first commercial deployments of the protocol. Incorporation is the intended long-term structure. Pending formal incorporation, this Charter constitutes the governing document of the Foundation as an unincorporated association. The Foundation will seek formal incorporation before the first external Founding Member is admitted or before v1.0 public launch, whichever comes first. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | T4-OQ-1 RESOLVED — Legal entity jurisdiction: Japan | | (一般社団法人) | | | | Rationale: operationally simple for a solo founder, home jurisdiction | | of Founding Member, domestically credible. Defers formal | | incorporation to the milestone event (first external member or v1.0 | | launch), whichever is first. This Charter is the operative governance | | document in the interim. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

1.4 Registered address

Chino-shi, Nagano-ken, Japan. (Full registered address to be set at incorporation.)

1.5 Contact

hello@activitytravel.org

2 Purpose and Scope

2.1 Mission

The Foundation's mission is to develop, maintain, and promote the Activity Travel Protocol as a free, open, and independently governed standard for the global travel industry, enabling AI-native booking, fulfilment, and disruption management across multiple suppliers and jurisdictions.

2.2 Founding principles

• Open and free. The protocol specification, SDK, and conformance test suite are published under the Apache 2.0 licence. No party may relicense, enclose, or impose proprietary restrictions on the protocol.
• Independent governance. Protocol decisions are made by the Technical Steering Committee, not by any commercial operator. No single organisation — including MyAuberge K.K. — has unilateral authority over the protocol.
• Consumer protection first. Duty of care, safety, and traveller rights are foundational design requirements, not optional extensions. The protocol shall not be amended in ways that weaken these protections.
• AI-native by design. AI agent participation is a first-class protocol requirement, not an add-on. Authority scopes, human escalation, and the CONFIRMATION hard cap are core protocol constructs and shall not be removed.
• Scale-neutral. The protocol defines signal infrastructure and authority models without prescribing human-facing implementation. A single ryokan and a global OTA operate the same protocol semantics.
• Jurisdiction-aware. The protocol provides conformance infrastructure for multi-jurisdiction compliance. It does not prescribe or replace local law; it makes compliance addressable.

2.3 What the Foundation does

• Publishes and maintains the Activity Travel Protocol specification (Layers 1--4).
• Holds and manages the activitytravel.pro and activitytravel.org domains and associated online presence.
• Holds the activity-travel-protocol GitHub organisation and all repositories within it.
• Manages the Technical Steering Committee and the protocol amendment process.
• Publishes and maintains the SDK, llms.txt, Prompt Library, and reference application catalogue under Apache 2.0.
• Operates the interoperability test suite and the ATP-compatible certification mark.
• Manages membership, working groups, and community processes.
• Engages with regulators, standards bodies, and industry organisations on behalf of the protocol.

2.4 What the Foundation does not do

• The Foundation does not operate commercial services, managed infrastructure, or IaaS products.
• The Foundation does not endorse or recommend any commercial operator, including MyAuberge K.K.
• The Foundation does not hold equity in any commercial entity.
• The Foundation does not enter commercial contracts with end customers.

3 Intellectual Property

3.1 IP assignment

MyAuberge K.K. hereby assigns to the Foundation all intellectual property rights in the Activity Travel Protocol specification (Layers 1--4), the SDK, the llms.txt surface and Prompt Library, the interoperability test suite, the reference application catalogue, and all associated documentation as they existed at the date of this Charter. This assignment is irrevocable. No party may reclaim assigned IP, and the Foundation may not transfer protocol IP to any single commercial entity.

3.2 Licence

All Foundation-held protocol artefacts are published under the Apache 2.0 licence. Contributions accepted into Foundation repositories under the Contributor Licence Agreement (Track 4 Session 2) transfer copyright to the Foundation and are re-published under Apache 2.0. The Foundation shall not relicense the protocol under a more restrictive licence.

3.3 Trademarks

"Activity Travel Protocol", "ATP-compatible", and the Foundation's name and logo are trademarks held by the Foundation. The ATP-compatible certification mark may be used only by implementations that have passed the interoperability test suite and have been approved by the Foundation. MyAuberge K.K. may not use the Foundation's name or marks in a manner that implies Foundation endorsement of MyAuberge's commercial services.

3.4 Ownership separation (summary)

Activity Travel Protocol MyAuberge K.K. owns Foundation owns
Protocol specification (Layers MyAuberge webapp 1--4) (booking.myauberge.jp) activitytravel.pro — Managed ATP IaaS service specification site
activitytravel.org — landing page Nvidia AI Grid infrastructure and blog operation GitHub org: MyAuberge brand and commercial activity-travel-protocol relationships SDK (Apache 2.0 licence) Japan market expertise and regulatory position llms.txt and Prompt Library "Built by the team that founded ATP" narrative Interoperability test suite Revenue from IaaS customers Reference application catalogue MyAuberge-specific marketing content ATP-compatible certification mark
Technical Steering Committee and
governance process

4 Membership

4.1 Membership model

The Foundation operates a two-tier membership model. Founding Member status carries full governance rights. Community Members participate in the protocol community without governance rights. Founding Member Community MemberCurrent holder MyAuberge K.K. Any individual, organisation, or AI project Admission Designated in this Self-registration via Charter Foundation site TSC voting rights Yes — full voting No member
TSC seat Yes — guaranteed seat No Protocol amendment Yes No (may raise GitHub proposal issues) Working group Yes — all working Yes — open working participation groups groups only CLA required Yes Yes (for code contributions) IaaS pricing Negotiated separately Standard pricing benefit with MyAuberge
Foundation page Yes — Founding Member Community page listing listing logo and bio
Future expansion Additional Founding Open registration Members by TSC unanimous vote

4.2 Founding Member

MyAuberge K.K. is the sole Founding Member of the Foundation at the date of this Charter. Tom Sato, CEO of MyAuberge K.K., serves as Founding Maintainer and initial sole member of the Technical Steering Committee. Additional Founding Members may be admitted by unanimous vote of the Technical Steering Committee. An additional Founding Member must be an organisation (not an individual) and must make a material contribution to the protocol — in the form of specification work, reference implementation, tooling, or governance participation — as a condition of admission. Candidates identified in Track 4 Session 6 include organisations from the Japan Tourism Agency, JATA, OCTO member organisations, and academic institutions. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Membership model decision — CLOSED | | | | Two tiers: Founding Member (full governance rights, TSC seat) and | | Community Members (community participation, no governance). | | Additional Founding Members admitted by TSC unanimous vote. Partner | | and Contributor tiers deferred to Track 4 Session 6 review. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

4.3 Community Members

Community membership is open to any individual, organisation, or AI project that registers via the Foundation website and agrees to the Foundation's Code of Conduct. Community Members may:

• Participate in open working groups and public consultation processes.
• Raise issues and feature requests in Foundation repositories.
• Submit pull requests (subject to the Contributor Licence Agreement).
• Be listed on the Foundation's community page.

4.4 Code of Conduct

All members and contributors are subject to the Foundation's Code of Conduct. The Code of Conduct will be published as a separate document (CONDUCT.md) in the Foundation's primary repository. The Foundation adopts the Contributor Covenant v2.1 as its baseline, with travel-industry-specific additions regarding consumer protection and duty of care obligations.

5 Technical Steering Committee

5.1 Purpose

The Technical Steering Committee (TSC) is the supreme decision-making body of the Foundation. It is responsible for the technical direction of the protocol, the amendment process, and the admission of additional Founding Members.

5.2 Initial composition

At the date of this Charter, the TSC consists of a single member:

• Tom Sato — Founding Maintainer, MyAuberge K.K., Chino, Nagano, Japan. Tom Sato serves as TSC Chair by default during the sole-member period. The sole-member period ends when the first additional Founding Member is admitted. At that point the TSC expands to include a representative of the incoming Founding Member, and the TSC elects a Chair from among its members. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | TSC composition decision — CLOSED | | | | Tom Sato as sole TSC member until first external Founding Member | | joins (then TSC expands by one seat per admitted Founding Member). No | | reserved seats; structure accommodates future members naturally. Full | | TSC Charter to be produced in Track 4 Session 5. | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

5.3 TSC responsibilities

• Approve protocol amendments (see Section 6).
• Approve new Founding Members (unanimous vote required).
• Approve the Foundation's governance documents and policies.
• Approve the ATP-compatible certification mark programme (Track 4 Session 7).
• Approve partner membership terms (Track 4 Session 8).
• Oversee the interoperability test suite and conformance programme.
• Appoint and oversee working group chairs.

5.4 Decision-making during sole-member period

During the sole-member period, the TSC Chair (Tom Sato) has full decision-making authority in all TSC matters. All decisions shall be recorded as TSC decisions in the Foundation's decision log (decisions.md in the protocol-docs repository). This maintains the governance record that incoming TSC members and community members can inspect.

5.5 Decision-making after expansion

Once the TSC has two or more members, the following rules apply:

• Ordinary decisions: simple majority of TSC members present at a quorate meeting.
• Protocol amendments: two-thirds majority of all TSC members (not just those present).
• Admission of new Founding Members: unanimous vote of all TSC members.
• Amendment to this Charter: two-thirds majority of all TSC members.
• Quorum: a majority of TSC members. A full voting model, meeting procedures, tie-breaking rules, and member term lengths will be specified in the TSC Charter (Track 4 Session 5 deliverable: ATP_TSC_Charter_v1.md).

6 Protocol Amendment Process

6.1 Amendment principles

The Activity Travel Protocol is a living specification. Amendments are expected and governed. The amendment process is designed to be transparent, deliberate, and resistant to capture by any single commercial interest.

6.2 Amendment categories

6.3 Amendment process

1. Any Community Member may raise a GitHub issue proposing a protocol amendment.
2. The TSC Chair assigns the issue to the appropriate working group or takes it directly.
3. A Protocol Amendment (PA-xx) is drafted and published for community comment. Minimum comment period: 14 days for NORMATIVE amendments.
4. The TSC votes on the amendment at its next scheduled meeting.
5. Approved amendments are merged into the specification and recorded in the amendment log.

6.4 Consumer protection amendments

No amendment may weaken the following protocol protections:

• The CONFIRMATION hard cap at authority Level 1 or below (DR-v6-D5). AI agents shall not confirm bookings autonomously above this level.
• Duty of care tracking and the IN_JOURNEY phase model.
• The Security Kernel's non-bypassable execution guarantee.
• Human escalation requirement for irreversible decisions at HEM-16 and above. Any amendment that proposes to modify these protections requires a unanimous TSC vote and a 30-day public comment period.

7 Working Groups

The TSC may establish working groups to manage specific areas of protocol work. Working groups report to the TSC and may include Community Members. Working group output is advisory until ratified by TSC vote. Initial working groups anticipated from Track 3 and Track 4 work:

8 Relationship with MyAuberge K.K.

8.1 The Red Hat model

MyAuberge K.K. is the Founding Member of the Foundation and the primary commercial operator of managed services on top of the Activity Travel Protocol. This relationship is modelled on the Red Hat model: Red Hat built a substantial commercial business (acquired by IBM for US$34 billion) selling enterprise support and managed infrastructure for Linux --- a protocol and operating system it did not own and could not control. MyAuberge K.K. competes on execution quality, Japan market expertise, managed infrastructure, and Nvidia AI Grid integration — not on protocol control. The protocol's openness and the Foundation's independence are the source of MyAuberge's commercial credibility, not threats to it. Adopters choose MyAuberge IaaS knowing that the exit ramp to any other conformant implementation exists.

8.2 Conflict of interest provisions

The following provisions apply specifically to manage the conflict of interest arising from MyAuberge K.K.'s dual role as Founding Member and commercial operator:

• Protocol amendments that directly affect pricing, data access, or competitive dynamics for IaaS operators require a 30-day public comment period, regardless of amendment category.
• MyAuberge K.K. shall not use data from Booking Objects processed through its IaaS platform to influence TSC decisions.
• MyAuberge K.K. shall publish its position on any contested protocol amendment separately from its TSC vote, disclosing its commercial interest.
• The Foundation's governance documents shall be publicly accessible at all times, enabling the community to inspect all TSC decisions and their rationale.

8.3 Founding narrative

The Foundation celebrates the MyAuberge origin story. The protocol was created by Tom Sato from lived experience operating in the Japanese travel market and from a career building developer platforms at Microsoft. This origin gives the protocol its authenticity and practical grounding. The Foundation's About page will carry this founding narrative prominently. The distinction is: the creator's identity gives the protocol authenticity; the Foundation's independence gives it credibility. Both are true simultaneously.

9 Financial Model

During the sole-member period, the Foundation's operational costs are funded by MyAuberge K.K. as Founding Member. No separate Foundation revenue stream is required at this stage. As the Foundation grows, the following revenue sources may be developed:

• Founding Member and Partner Member fees (to be defined in Track 4 Sessions 6 and 8).
• ATP-compatible certification mark fees (Track 4 Session 7).
• Grants from standards bodies, academic institutions, or government programmes. The Foundation shall not distribute surplus to members. All surplus shall be reinvested in protocol development, tooling, and community operations.

10 Track 4 — Foundation and Governance Programme

This Charter is the deliverable of Track 4 Session 1. The full Track 4 programme is: 1 Foundation Charter ATP_FoundationCharter_v1.docx COMPLETE --- this document 2 Contributor ATP_CLA_v1.md — Apache 2.0 NEXT --- Licence Agreement baseline blocks OSS launch 3 Site Re-signing activitytravel.pro and .org → High priority Foundation identity
4 MyAuberge ATP_CommercialPosition_v1.docx Needed Commercial pre-launch Position
5 Technical Steering ATP_TSC_Charter_v1.md Needed for Committee Charter v1.0 6 Founding Member Outreach plan + invitation High leverage Outreach document
7 Interop ATP_CertificationModel_v1.docx Post v1.0 Certification
Programme
8 Partner Membership Google Cloud and Nvidia Post v1.0 positioning one-pagers

11 Decisions Recorded This Session

---

DECISION GOV-1 --- Governance separation — Activity Travel Protocol Foundation (CLOSED)

The Activity Travel Protocol is governed by the Activity Travel Protocol Foundation, an independent standards body. MyAuberge K.K. is the Founding Member and primary contributor. Commercial services on top of the protocol are operated by MyAuberge. These are formally separated identities. Protocol governance and commercial operation are structurally independent. This is the Red Hat model applied to the Activity Travel Protocol. CLOSED.

DECISION GOV-2 --- IaaS business model — Red Hat framing (CLOSED)

MyAuberge K.K. operates managed ATP runtime as a commercial service (Nvidia AI Grid + NIM infrastructure). The protocol is free and Foundation-governed. MyAuberge competes on execution quality, Japan market expertise, managed infrastructure, and Nvidia AI Grid integration --- not on protocol control. CLOSED.

DECISION GOV-3 --- Site re-signing — MyAuberge K.K. → Activity Travel Protocol Foundation

activitytravel.pro and activitytravel.org to be re-signed as Foundation property. Track 4 Session 3 is the formal execution session. Founding narrative (Tom Sato / MyAuberge origin) preserved on About page.

DECISION T4-S1-1 --- Legal entity jurisdiction — Japan (一般社団法人)

T4-OQ-1 RESOLVED. Foundation constituted as a 一般社団法人 under Japanese law. Formal incorporation targeted before first external Founding Member admission or v1.0 public launch, whichever is first. This Charter is the operative governance document in the interim.

DECISION T4-S1-2 --- Membership model — two tiers

Two-tier model: Founding Member (full governance rights, TSC seat, guaranteed by Charter) and Community Members (open registration, no governance rights). Additional Founding Members admitted by TSC unanimous vote. Partner and Contributor tiers deferred to Track 4 Session 6 review.

DECISION T4-S1-3 --- TSC initial composition — Tom Sato as sole member pending first external Founding Member

Tom Sato serves as sole TSC member and TSC Chair during the sole-member period. TSC expands by one seat per admitted Founding Member. No reserved seats. Full TSC Charter in Track 4 Session 5.

12 Open Questions

ID Question Target T4-OQ-2 Blog author attribution after site Track 4 Session 3 re-signing: 'Tom Sato — Founding
Maintainer' → 'Tom Sato — Founder, Activity Travel Protocol Foundation'? T4-OQ-3 Google Cloud positioning document: Track 4 Sessions 4/8 Track 3 or Track 4 deliverable?
Required before Google Maps contact
outreach.
T4-OQ-4 Founding member incentives for future Track 4 Session 6 external members: TSC seat, Foundation page logo, preferred IaaS pricing from MyAuberge?
IaaS-1 Per-Booking-Object IaaS price point: Track 3 Session 3 / requires modelling Nvidia AI Grid Track 4 Session 4 infrastructure costs.
IaaS-2 Does MyAuberge operate IaaS directly, Track 4 Sessions 4/8 or in partnership with Google Cloud as infrastructure layer?

13 Ratification

This Charter is ratified by the Founding Member of the Activity Travel Protocol Foundation. +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | Founding Member | Founding Maintainer / TSC | | | Chair | | MyAuberge K.K. | | | | Tom Sato | | Tom Sato, CEO | | | | Activity Travel Protocol | | Chino, Nagano, Japan | Foundation | | | | | April 2026 | April 2026 | +-----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ Activity Travel Protocol Foundation · Foundation Charter v1.0 · April 2026 · Apache 2.0