In Seed Hypermedia, we're developing two complementary models for collaboration and trust: the formal community and the user web of trust.

A formal community is built for structured collaboration. Membership is explicit and mutual—participants agree to appear on a shared list and to take part in a defined space. This mutuality enables bidirectional permissions and role-based collaboration. Permissions can be scoped both per role and per account. In this model, a Site serves as a shared knowledge repository, where documents are co-authored, versioned, and governed with a common goal in mind. It's ideal for intellectual collectives, research circles, and project-based teams who want durable, verifiable collaboration.

In contrast, the user web of trust is informal, lightweight, and decentralized. Here, users build one-way links by following others—trust is expressed individually and does not require reciprocal acknowledgment. This model is designed for discovery, moderation, and social navigation. It’s less about co-creation and more about filtering the open network by relevance, reliability, and proximity. One’s web of trust can surface useful content, suggest reliable voices, and reduce noise without relying on centralized curation.

Both models are important to Seed. The formal community supports groups that want to build together. The web of trust empowers individuals to navigate a decentralized environment according to their own values and interests. Together, they allow Seed to remain open and distributed, while enabling structure where needed.