Common knowledge, source C

systems/common-knowledge.md · System · the-one, knowledge, sources, wikidata, wikipedia, common-knowledge, schema, llms

status: live · written by claude-opus-5-5 on 2026-10-24 · stale after 2027-04-01

What is widely known about a place, learned from the public record (Wikidata, Wikipedia) and from what its kind of place means, at an explicit level (this place, the brand it is part of, the kind). Born from "EVERYBODY knows what FAO Schwarz sells.

Common knowledge (source C)

"The doozer site for FAO Schwarz in New York City says that one of the things it doesn't

know is what this business sells... EVERYBODY knows what FAO Schwarz sells. Doozer can't be

the exception when it comes to common knowledge. Maybe 'Common Knowledge' is an actual

category of data." (Jon, Oct 24 2026)

Why it was missing

Every source The One had was a claim (their website, W), a listing (Google, G), our writing (D), a person (P) or the owner (O). Nothing was the plain public record. And "what it sells" was shaped like a restaurant: known only from a checked menu, so a toy store could never be "known", whatever we learned. FAO Schwarz was one of the five showcase pages on doozer.work.

The three levels (the page always says which)

1. This place: its own Wikidata item, located within 300 m (the Empire State Building).

"Empire State Building is a skyscraper..., dating from 1931."

2. The brand or organization it is part of: matched by the official website (Wikidata P856),

the exact host or its parent domain (locations.dunkindonuts.com -> dunkindonuts.com). An exact name means the business IS that entity ("FAO Schwarz is an American toy brand and store, founded in 1862"); a name that only starts with it is part of it ("Part of ChargePoint, an electric vehicle infrastructure company"). A brand's story is never passed off as a branch's hours or prices.

3. The kind of place: what its Google category means (ckKindSells): a toy store sells

toys and games, a deli sells sandwiches and deli food. Every business, $0.

Rules

• Match by website or location, never by a name guess. Ambiguity is a miss. No AI writes

any of it (Jev may later sort an ambiguous match; it never writes).

• Guards from the first sample: towns and settlements (a park on its township's website),

Wikipedia list articles and disambiguation pages are never matches.

• Licenses: Wikidata is CC0. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA 4.0: two sentences at most,

attributed and linked, only for "this place" or "is" (not for "part of").

• Rank: the business's own word (W, O) outranks common knowledge on anything current;

common knowledge is strongest on history ("founded 1862").

• Machines: schema.org sameAs points at Wikidata and Wikipedia only when the page IS that

entity (never a branch's brand); llms.txt opens with a "Common knowledge" section.

What it changed in The One's profile

• What it sells: known from a checked menu, the owner, or when independent sources agree

(their website, Google's category, common knowledge). Food sells its menu, so for food only a menu, the owner or common knowledge knows it. Notes say who says so: "Toys and games, say their website, Google and common knowledge."

• Its story: the public record (a founding year, a Wikipedia summary) counts as known.

Operating it

• Stored on custom_settings.common_knowledge (status ok|none, scope same|brand|place,

qid, label, description, founded, wikipedia{title,url,extract}, checked_at).

• dz ck id= (one), dz ck backfill=1 from= n=60 (one Wikidata query per batch, load-guarded),

dz ck stats=1. Free; polite agent DoozerBot/1.0.

• GOTCHA (MariaDB 10.6): no CAST(? AS JSON). It silently stored nothing in the first

version (and in Street View's). Write JSON objects with JSON_EXTRACT(?, '$').

OpenStreetMap joins the commons (Oct 25 2026)

includes/osm-enrich.php, dz osm: the map's volunteer-recorded details (wheelchair access, outdoor seating, takeout, delivery, diet options, payment, Wi-Fi, dogs, reservations, cuisine, "since", brand:wikidata) on custom_settings.osm, matched within 90 m AND by name (or brand), ambiguous is nothing. Shown as "On the map" under C, credited "(c) OpenStreetMap contributors" (ODbL: attribution; a page of facts is a produced work). The public Overpass API is shared and often at capacity: batches of 5, one at a time. At scale use regional extracts (Geofabrik) or Overture Maps Places (also free: websites, socials, brand, and some public business emails).

Next

• Notable places with no website match: Wikidata's geo search near the pin, name-checked.
• Local common knowledge: what everyone in town knows that no encyclopedia has ("the diner

with the giant coffee cup"). Reviews already carry it (FAO: the Jellycat Diner, giant stuffed animals): what most reviewers mention, counted, is the town's common knowledge, cited as such.

Related: The One Page, Jev, Events to machines, Fact guard.