A National Architecture for Connected Information

1. LAYER 01Authoritative RecordsOrganizations, businesses, locations, products, services, people, places, offers, events, articles and other structured entities.
2. LAYER 02Identity and GovernanceUnique identities, ownership, claims, verification, permissions, provenance, moderation, version history and audit trails.
3. LAYER 03Knowledge and RelationshipsConnections among businesses, locations, categories, services, communities, counties, states, content and other entities.
4. LAYER 04Data Access and ServicesAPIs, search, structured data, publishing services and controlled distribution.
5. LAYER 05Geographic OrganizationUSA → state → county → city → community → business.
6. LAYER 06Distribution SurfacesInformation, storefronts, reviews, savings, happenings, featured content, promotions, advertising, browsing, organization and activity flows.
7. LAYER 07Search, AI and AgentsHuman discovery, machine-readable information, AI visibility, agent access and future authorized actions.

These assets exist at different stages. Not every strategic domain is developed, not every existing listing has been converted into an authoritative Business Record, and not every marketplace is currently integrated with the shared-record system. The opportunity is to progressively connect the strongest assets through a common architecture.

• One authoritative organization record
• Multiple controlled locations
• Independent surface eligibility
• Independent publishing decisions
• Source and provenance retention
• Role-based permissions
• Moderation and approval workflows
• Version history and auditability
• Privacy-aware data handling
• Geographic and jurisdictional controls
• Clear separation of editorial and paid placement
• No duplicate records created merely to appear on another surface