The Seven Layer Model Blog

Insight is a writing series on Digital Public Infrastructure and the legal architecture required for Digital Public Functions to remain lawful, attributable, and contestable as Digital Public Services scale. Topics include institutional mandate, canonical registries, service orchestration, execution and fulfilment, public interfaces and rights, and oversight and remedy.

Editorial photo of seven translucent layers with one layer shifted out of alignment, symbolising governance drift in Digital Public Infrastructure.

The DPI trap: when governance guidance becomes a platform launch

Digital Public Infrastructure keeps working even when legality, evidence, and remedy are missing. That is the trap. This essay explains governance drift and boundary drift, then sets out sequencing gates that keep DPI distinct from digital public services and digital public goods, using the Seven Layer Model as a practical test.

Ott Sarv

Sep 29, 20256 min read