OAIS 12 Step Program

PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 1, 2026

Organization for Acronym and Initialism Safety Announces Strategic Procurement of SUPERPRESERVATION™ from Artefactual Systems

Geneva, Switzerland - April 1, 2026

The Organization for Acronym and Initialism Safety (OAIS), a founding member of the Nomenclature and Abbreviation Treaty Organization (NATO), today announced it has completed procurement of Artefactual Systems' SUPERPRESERVATION™ platform following a rigorous RFP (Redundant Formulation Protocol) process.

The acquisition marks a significant milestone in OAIS's ongoing mission to monitor, contain, and, where possible, safely decommission the world's growing stockpile of acronyms and initialisms. OAIS conducted a comprehensive SWOT (Systematic Wordcount Overload Triage) analysis before selecting SUPERPRESERVATION™ as its preferred solution.

"We evaluated several vendors against our KPI (Key Proliferation Indicators) framework," said OAIS Director of Operations Dr. Helena Voss. "Artefactual's platform was the only solution capable of preserving acronyms in a state of simultaneous expansion and collapse, which, frankly, is the state most of them are already in."

The procurement follows a twelve-month EIA (Excessive Initialism Assessment) conducted across OAIS member departments, which found that acronym density in organizational communications had reached what researchers termed "critical semantic mass." Internal documents were found to contain passages where no reader, including the original author, could reconstruct the intended meaning.

NATO Endorsement

NATO Secretary General Per-Anders Lindström welcomed the announcement, noting that several other member organizations are now considering similar procurements.

"We are encouraged by OAIS's leadership on this issue," said Lindström. "I can confirm that the International Council on Abbreviations (ICA), the Department for Proliferation Control (DPC), and the Nomenclature Institute for Semantic Transparency (NIST) are all in early-stage discussions with Artefactual Systems regarding their own deployments."

Lindström added that the procurement would be a standing agenda item at NATO's weekly member check-ins, where representatives greet one another with the customary "How ARE you?" — a reference to each member's Acronym Reduction Efforts, a core pillar of the NATO charter.

"It's more than a greeting," Lindström explained. "It's an accountability mechanism. When someone asks how ARE you, they expect a substantive status report."

Addressing Acronym Accumulation

OAIS acknowledged that the procurement itself introduces new terminology into an already saturated environment, a paradox the organization has long grappled with.

"We are deeply aware of the irony," said Dr. Voss. "Many of our staff have personal experience with Acronym Accumulation. Several have completed the AA twelve-step programme, which begins with the admission: 'I am powerless over my initialisms, and my communications have become unmanageable.'"

The AA programme, which OAIS offers to all staff as part of its EAP (Employee Abbreviation Programme), has shown promising results. Graduates report a 40% reduction in unprompted acronym generation, though relapse rates remain high, particularly during procurement cycles and annual reporting periods.

"The hardest step is Step 9: making direct amends to everyone who has had to read your documents," Dr. Voss added.

Technical Details

SUPERPRESERVATION™ will be deployed within OAIS's existing ICT (Initialism Containment and Tracking) infrastructure. The SLA (Standard Lexical Agreement) with Artefactual includes 24/7 support, quarterly TLA (Three-Letter Acronym) audits, and an annual ROI (Rate of Initialisms) review.

Full deployment is expected by EOY (End of Yearning).

About OAIS

The Organization for Acronym and Initialism Safety was established in 1987 to address the growing international crisis of abbreviation proliferation. As a founding member of NATO (Nomenclature and Abbreviation Treaty Organization), OAIS works to promote responsible acronym use, support recovery from Acronym Accumulation, and ensure that future generations can still parse a sentence. OAIS is headquartered in Geneva and maintains regional offices in Washington, D.C., London, and a PO Box in The Hague that no one can find because its address was abbreviated.

About Artefactual Systems

Artefactual Systems is a commercial open source company best known for Archivematica, AtoM (Access to Memory), and Enduro. In April, 2026, Artefactual expanded its product line with the launch of SUPERPRESERVATION™, which preserves digital objects in a state of quantum superposition, ensuring they are simultaneously preserved and not preserved until observed. For more information, visit artefactual.com.

Media Contact

OAIS Office of PRA (Public Relations and Acronyms)

press@oais-not-that-one.org

NATO reminds all readers that if you or someone you know is struggling with Acronym Accumulation, help is available. Text HELP (Habitual Epistolary Lettering Problem) to your nearest NATO member organization. You are not alone. You are not your TLAs.