Methodology
How evidence becomes civic intelligence.
The method governs source selection, geography, time, transformation, uncertainty and how each result is represented in a product.
The evidence chain
Clarity without severing provenance.
01
Acquire
Identify authoritative sources, preserve originals and record publication context.
02
Resolve
Align geographies, dates, schemas and definitions with explicit transformations.
03
Publish
Expose values with source, time, method, confidence and known limitations.
The Social Infrastructure Database
One registry, built to be checked.
VTCo integrates the public civic record into the Social Infrastructure Database (SID). This page covers the method; the record itself, what it holds and the scale it integrates, lives on the SID page.
Collection
Everything in the SID comes from official publications, and every publication used is itself registered
in the database. Each metric links back to its source, so any figure can be independently cited. Sources
not published in tabular form are transcribed under controlled, supervised LLM processes, and every
automated step passes human review before it enters the record.
Reconciliation
Source tables are transformed through strictly defined, versioned processes into one standardized schema,
and related metrics are compared and their discrepancies reconciled. Metrics available at one geographic
level are aggregated to every level, with summary statistics pre-computed at each.
Publication
The fully reconciled SID is published as a governed database, available through free public apps,
professional APIs and institutional data tools.
500+ government sources integrated
57,936 dissemination areas covered, 2021 Census
1B+ geo-relations connecting the record
Figures as published July 2026.
Publication standard
What should travel with every figure.
Authority Who produced the underlying record and under what mandate.
Time When it was published and which period the value describes.
Geography The spatial unit, boundary vintage and any crosswalk applied.
Transformation
Calculations, normalization, joins or derived values. The number of transformations between source and
published value is itself recorded.
Known issues Missing records, disputes, uncertainty and material limitations.