How the network works

Northlandiz is what a visitor sees. The Local Internet is the shared infrastructure beneath it, and beneath four other configured surfaces.

1. Step 1

   One canonical record

   A business, offer, event, guide or article is stored exactly once. Correcting a phone number corrects it on every surface at the same moment.

2. Step 2

   Geography is layered

   Containment is factual — a city sits in one county, in one state. Regions sit on top and may overlap freely, which is how the Northland spans Minnesota and Wisconsin.

3. Step 3

   Surfaces are configuration

   A surface is a row: brand, scope expression, permitted content types, editorial rules, ranking. An eleventh surface needs no new code and no new database.

4. Step 4

   Publication is a pointer

   Publishing writes a small entry linking a record to a surface, with its own status, ranking and placement. It never copies the record.

5. Step 5

   National placement is gated

   Local eligibility never cascades upward. An item reaches The USA Informed only through editorial nomination and review.