Developing Protective Computing — an engineering discipline for safety-critical, vulnerability-aware software.
CrisisCore Systems is the home of work on the Overton Framework and related systems, focused on designing software that remains safe, meaningful, and reversible under real-world conditions of instability, crisis, and human vulnerability.
A formal architecture and theory proposing Protective Computing as a discipline.
🔗 Zenodo preprint (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18688516
Overton, K. (2026). The Overton Framework: Protective Computing in Conditions of Human Vulnerability (v1.3).
Published and under review at ACM Journal on Responsible Computing.
A privacy-first, offline-capable application implementing principles from Protective Computing.
🔗 https://github.com/CrisisCore-Systems/PainTracker
Measurement constructs for the Protective Legitimacy Score (PLS), and companion documentation for empirical evaluation.
🔗 https://zenodo.org/record/18688516/files/overton-framework-protective-computing-companion-v0.2.pdf
| Project | Purpose | Status |
|---|---|---|
| PainTracker | Reference example implementation | 🟢 Active |
| Protective Controls Checklist | Engineering checklist | ⚙️ In progress |
| PLS Measurement Suite | Metrics & quantification | 📊 In planning |
Contributions are welcome. Please open issues or PRs aligned with Protective Computing principles and reference the overall framework.
Protective Computing applies when:
- Connectivity cannot be assumed
- Users are under stress or crisis
- Safety and autonomy matter
- Exposure must be minimized
It prioritizes:
✔ Local authority
✔ Minimal unnecessary exposure
✔ Reversibility
✔ Cognitive load preservation
✔ Coercion resistance
- ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3251-8621
- Zenodo DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18688516
- ACM Submission ID: JRC-2026-0016
- Framework documentation: CC-BY-4.0
- Code: MIT / permissive