Locus
The OpenData.org consortium

What and where is this location, with proof.

Locus is a geo-analytics engine on a durable location spine. One location in, N attributed findings out: every figure carries its source, authority class, and vintage, the way a plat carries its bearings. Content rides as cargo, in each source's own words, attributed.

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Survey the plat: hover or tab through the drawing to read its annotations.

Fig. 1 · Situs address
sourceNational Address Database (US DOT)
authority classregistry
vintagerelease 23

Plate I

A string becomes a place.

Addresses arrive as strings people typed. Locus reads them the way a surveyor reads a deed: deterministically, against the record, refusing to guess.

  1. 01 · received

    "412 alder crt,, riverbnd OR"

    The string as it actually arrives: abbreviated, doubled commas, a guess at the spelling. Locus takes it as it is.

  2. 02 · canonicalized

    UScountryORregion97405postcodeRIVERBENDcityALDER CTroad412house

    Parsed into the canonical key, deterministically. A string that could mean two places returns the full candidate set, disclosed as one.

  3. 03 · minted
    44°02′09″ N
    123°05′44″ W

    A durable identity at a real point on the spine: the same answer tomorrow, continuity over change, every lineage event on the record.

Plate II

Every fact, annotated.

Four reference layers and an address registry read one lot. Each figure is annotated with its papers: who published it, what authority they hold, and which vintage it came from.

CITY LIMITN 03°41′ W · 148.0′S 84°12′ E · 236.5′LOT 7412iiiiiiivv

  1. Situs address

    412 Alder Ct, Riverbend OR

    [National Address Database (US DOT) | registry | release 23]

  2. Parcel

    Lot 7 · parcel 19-03-27-4-11

    [parcel registry | licensed aggregate | r3]

  3. Containment

    Riverbend city limits · tract 0219.04

    [US Census Bureau | registry | census_cb_2024_500k]

  4. Flood overlay

    zone X · outside the mapped floodplain

    [FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer | registry | 20260716]

  5. Delivery point

    deliverable · ZIP 97405-2214

    [United States Postal Service | licensed pass-through | delivery-point cycle]

A representative reading from the sample corpus. When sources disagree, you get every reading, attributed, in its source's own words.

Plate III

The folio.

The deliverable: attributed figures typeset for reading. Sections in a fixed order, every row carrying its papers, and empty fields absent rather than blank.

Parcel foliosample corpus

412 Alder Ct, Riverbend OR

resolved · premise grain · one candidate, zero ambiguity

Identity and situs
situs address412 Alder Ct [NAD | registry | release 23]
parcel number19-03-27-4-11 [parcel registry | licensed aggregate | r3]
countyChandler County [US Census | registry | census_cb_2024_500k]
Use and valuation
use descriptionsingle family residential [parcel registry | licensed aggregate | r3]
total parcel value$412,600 [parcel registry | licensed aggregate | r3]
year built1968 [parcel registry | licensed aggregate | r3]
Geography and overlays
census tract0219.04 [US Census | registry | census_cb_2024_500k]
flood overlayzone X [FEMA NFHL | registry | 20260716]
delivery pointdeliverable [USPS | licensed pass-through | delivery-point cycle]

Every figure that renders carries its papers; absent data reads as absent.

Sections, typeset for reading

The folio organizes what the sources published: identity, use and valuation, geography. The complete record stays reachable behind every section.

Attributed, figure by figure

Each row carries [source | authority class | vintage]: the full papers behind every figure, ready for audit.

Honest about absence

A county that publishes no year built produces no year built row. Every figure that renders is real, sourced, and dated.

Read the docs
Legend

Everything Locus does is one of seven activities.

Identify

Mint and keep a durable location_id. Continuity over change, with every lineage event on the record.

Resolve

Any reasonable key to that identity, deterministically, at memory speed.

Situate

Where it is: position, containment, overlay membership against reference layers.

Designate

What it is called: address forms, units, aliases, per the assigning authority.

Relate

How it hooks into reference fabrics: parcel linkage, external ids, hierarchy.

Attest

Who said each of the above, derived from what, since when, and why it won.

Deliver

Source records and layer readings on demand: a courier with a manifest for every record.

Source-faithful cargo

Every content column a source publishes rides along, complete and attributed, in the source's own words.

Plate IV

Membership in a working consortium.

OpenData.org is a consortium: member institutions sustain the shared reference fabric and get its full weight in return.

Layer access as released

Every reference layer the consortium onboards, the moment its release gate opens: one catalog, the same for every member.

The attributed-answer contract

Every figure carries its source, authority class, and vintage: full papers on every answer, guaranteed by contract.

Governance participation

Members sit in the layer-onboarding and vintage-promotion decisions: which sources join the fabric, and when a new vintage starts serving.

Vintage-change briefings

When a layer moves vintages, members receive the change briefing before the switch: what moved, what stayed, what to re-check.

Partner support

An engineering contact who answers with the same precision the API does, straight from the contract.

How membership works
Member organizations
Meridian Trust BankCascadia MutualHARBORLINE INSURANCETerravest Capitalbluepeak lendingSTATELINE CREDIT UNION

Representative members of the OpenData.org consortium.