XAIX Trust Infrastructure Optimization (TIO) Framework – v1.1

Purpose

In today’s digital world, it’s easy to appear online — but harder to be trusted.
People and systems alike now ask not just what you say, but how your identity and information are structured.
That structure is what inspires trust.

The XAIX TIO Framework provides a clear, flexible model for designing that structure.
It helps individuals, teams, and organizations align their digital presence with credibility, clarity, and consistency —
so they can be not just seen, but truly trusted.

Core Philosophy

• Trust is not random — it can be thoughtfully designed
  
• Being seen is important, but being believed is essential
  
• Structure supports credibility
  
• Visibility and trust can work together, when designed with intention
  
• What we can control — signals, structure, alignment — matters deeply

Why Now?

The internet began as a way to share information, ideas, and research — grounded in openness and connection.
As it has grown, so too has the need to distinguish appearance from substance, and strategy from sincerity.
TIO is a framework to help reconnect visibility with credibility, and to guide organizations toward sustainable trust.

What is TIO?

Trust Infrastructure Optimization (TIO)
> A thoughtful strategy for helping search engines, AI systems, and people better understand and trust who you are —
> by aligning what you control (your information, structure, and consistency) with what you represent.

TIO does not replace SEO or marketing.
It complements them — helping ensure that what’s visible is also structurally trustworthy.

What is TIM?

Trust Infrastructure Management (TIM)
> The set of activities that help make TIO a reality — day to day.

These actions form a reliable foundation that supports trustworthiness at every layer.

The 3 Pillars of TIM

1. Foundational Trust (FT)

Strengthen the base of trust — not only through technical mechanisms,
but also through structured systems and processes that establish authenticity.

Foundational Trust rests on two core dimensions:

• Systemic Technical Reliability:
  The structured mechanisms that ensure safe, verifiable delivery and consistency of your information online.

• Institutional or Verified Recognition:
  Trust is also reinforced by systems that confirm identity or legitimacy through official — or officially comparable — verification processes.
  These include steps that demonstrate your digital presence is tied to a real, accountable entity.

2. Declared Trust (DT)

Clearly express who you are, what you do, and how you wish to be understood — with clarity and care.

Declared Trust involves presenting your identity, values, and capabilities in a way that is understandable to both people and machines.

TIO encourages that this declaration originate from a single authoritative source —
a website or channel under your direct control — rather than being fragmented across multiple origins.

3. Consistent Trust (CT)

Keep all your public information aligned — across platforms, over time, and across teams — to reduce confusion and build confidence.

Supporting consistency means managing the harmony between your declared identity and the public-facing content associated with you.
The greater the alignment, the stronger the signal of reliability.

Information Trust Tiers

To help distinguish what type of information supports trust and how it should be interpreted, TIO introduces a three-tier model:

• Primary Information
  The original source of structured meaning, fully owned or directly authorized.
  This is the only authoritative place where identity and intent are formally defined.

• Secondary Information
  Channels under your control that support and reinforce primary declarations (e.g., official social accounts).
  These should stay structurally aligned with your primary source.

• Tertiary Information
  Information created or maintained by others — such as reviews, listings, or third-party summaries.
  Even if accurate, they are not authoritative and should not be confused with your own declared meaning.

The distinction is not just about accuracy — it’s about control.
Only what you can manage and define can serve as a true declaration of trust.

This tiered model also conceptually aligns with the three trust layers defined in TIM:

• Primary Information aligns with Declared Trust (DT), as it represents the authoritative source of identity and intent — directly managed and intentionally structured.
• Secondary Information aligns with Consistent Trust (CT), as it includes managed channels that must remain structurally in sync with the primary source.
• Tertiary Information does not directly correspond to any TIM layer, as it reflects external references beyond the scope of direct management or formal declaration.

Additionally, both Primary and Secondary Information rely on a foundation of Foundational Trust (FT) — the infrastructural and institutional credibility that makes trust declarations technically verifiable and contextually meaningful.

This alignment reinforces the idea that trust is not just a matter of accuracy or popularity, but of control, structure, and intentional alignment.

On Structured Absence and Declared Non-Connection

In today’s information-saturated environment, silence is often misinterpreted.

TIO operates on the principle that only what is explicitly declared from a primary source is considered trustworthy.
This includes not only what you say — but also what you choose not to do.

For individuals or organizations who prefer not to participate in certain channels (e.g., social media, review sites),
it is critical to declare that absence structurally, from within your Primary Information.

Example declaration:

“We do not operate any social media accounts.”
“We do not appear on third-party review sites.”
“Any information outside our official domain is not authorized.”

This type of negative declaration — when issued from a verifiable, authoritative source —
prevents third-party information from being mistaken as Primary, and maintains the integrity of your trust structure.

Sometimes, those who wish to say the least must still define the most.
Declaring absence is not exclusion — it’s authorship.

Implementation Note: Declared Absence in JSON-LD

In TIO, structuring your declared absence does not require complex configuration — it simply means intentionally limiting what appears in your structured data.

Specifically:

• If you do not maintain any external channels (e.g., social media or review platforms), simply omit the sameAs field entirely from your JSON-LD.
• This absence is not an oversight — it is a structural signal indicating that no external profiles are part of your declared trust surface.
• You may also include a visible statement on your website clarifying your boundaries, such as:

<p>We do not participate in social media or review sites. Any information outside this domain is not authorized.</p>

You can also present this message in plain text anywhere on your website.

This minimalist approach is fully aligned with TIO’s principles: trust is defined not by what is inferred, but by what is explicitly declared — or deliberately left undeclared.

By omitting sameAs, you are not hiding information. You are asserting a boundary — and declaring it through structure.

Structured absence is not omission. It is authorship by design.

How to Use TIO

• As a guide to build long-term credibility online
  
• As a design mindset for aligning structure with mission
  
• As a tool for evaluating readiness to be trusted — not just seen
  
• As a way to support AI, search, and users in understanding your trustworthiness

On Authenticity

TIO focuses on structuring how trust is presented.
While it does not judge internal operations, it works best when the signals reflect real values and behavior.
Trust that is both visible and sincere has the greatest chance to last — with people and with systems.

Version & License

• Version: 1.0

• First published: June 21, 2025

• Version: 1.1

• Updated: June 24, 2025

Change Log (v1.1 – June 24, 2025)

• Revised descriptions for Foundational Trust (FT), Declared Trust (DT), and Consistent Trust (CT) to clarify scope of responsibility and target areas.
• Added a new section titled “Information Trust Tiers” as a supplementary framework to help contextualize the levels of trust maturity across the layers.
• Introduced the concept of Declared Absence through a new section, “On Structured Absence and Declared Non-Connection,”
  outlining how the intentional omission of connections (e.g., social media or review sites) can serve as a trust signal when declared from a primary source.
• Added implementation guidance on structured absence using JSON-LD, including the practice of omitting the sameAs field to signal non-participation.

This framework was created and authored by Tomoki Uemura, founder of XAIX.
Author contact: uemura@xaix.jp
General inquiries: tio@xaix.jp
Repository: https://github.com/xaixjp/tio-framework

Use and reference are welcome with attribution to the official repository.
Commercial reuse requires written permission.

© 2025 XAIX – All rights reserved.