What the Contact Initiative Is

The Contact Initiative is a national framework proposed by the Department of Technology Initiative — an advocacy effort for dedicated federal, state, county, and municipal technology departments that do not yet exist, but which this work argues should. It unites three companion proposals that share one architecture while serving distinct populations:

• School Contact — K–12 students, parents, and educators.
• College Contact — community and teaching colleges.
• University Contact — research and doctoral universities.

All three are built on the same four pillars: persistent identity, institution-attested (not self-declared) role verification, federated authorization, and infrastructure ready for machine-intelligence (MI) tools to act safely on a person’s behalf.

Why “MI” Instead of “AI”

Throughout our materials we use Machine Intelligence (MI) rather than Artificial Intelligence (AI) wherever possible. MI describes machine-based capability that operates strictly within a human-governed structure of identity, authorization, and accountability — able to act only after a person or institution is verified, and only within limits a human governance body has set and can revoke at any time.

What This Framework Is Not

Neither this site nor the underlying white paper claims that a national system currently exists, that any government body has adopted it, or that implementation alone would guarantee legal compliance. Everything published here is offered as a starting point for research, stakeholder consultation, and pilot design.