03 · Retrieval, Evidence & Consensus

Canonical Source

The version of a fact a system treats as authoritative.

Industry Term

Full explanation

A canonical source is the source a brand identifies, or that a system treats, as the authoritative version of a particular fact, claim, or description, used when other representations conflict.

Why this matters

If a company has five different descriptions across five places, something has to decide which one is true. A brand that has not made that decision has left it to the system.

Where this sits

Canonical Source belongs to Retrieval, Evidence & Consensus, one of the seven layers of the Aingworth Glossary. Information exists, then it is retrieved, then sources are selected, then they corroborate one another, then consensus emerges. This is where Aingworth's Consensus Over Rankings thesis lives.

Related terms

Signal Consistency Whether the evidence around a brand tells the same story everywhere. Entity Consistency Being represented the same way as an entity across the ecosystem. Information Provenance The traceable origin and history of a claim.
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