Foundation 02 · Structured relationships

Describe the link.
Do not invent the fact.

Structured data is most useful when it expresses a relationship a reader could also find, understand, and inspect in the page itself. Markup can organize a documented claim; it cannot cure an unsupported one.

Learning boundary. This lesson does not provide schema eligibility, rich-result guidance, search-engine policy advice, or implementation certification. Valid JSON-LD does not require any system to use, display, rank, cite, infer, or trust a statement.

Learning objective

Write relationships that preserve their evidence and limits.

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to define a subject, relation, object, source, date, scope boundary, and update rule before expressing that relationship in a machine-readable form.

01 · Subject

Which named thing is making the statement?

Use a stable identifier or canonical record. Avoid ambiguous references such as “we,” “the platform,” or “the leading system” when a specific entity is required.

02 · Relation

What precise link is being expressed?

Choose a relationship that the visible page can explain: author of, part of, same as, cites, about, or a similarly bounded connection. Do not substitute a relation for evidence.

03 · Object

What is on the other side of the link?

Point to a stable source or record whenever possible. If the target is a proposal, working category, or unverified claim, write that status visibly rather than disguising it as settled fact.

04 · Context

What date, source, and limit travel with it?

Record freshness, source scope, and any caveat needed to prevent overreading. A graph relationship without temporal or editorial context can outlive the statement it was meant to describe.

Practice lab

Model a public case study without promoting it into proof.

A site wants to add JSON-LD stating that a report is “about AI safety,” authored by an organization, and based on an internal review. The report contains a thoughtful framework but no measured results, independent assessment, or complete source set.

  1. List the relations that can be expressed directly from the visible report and authorship record.
  2. Identify which phrases should remain visible framework language rather than structured factual claims.
  3. Link the report to its evidence register and correction route.
  4. Write the update rule for a new source, a changed author, or a discovered limitation.

Source shelf

Read the data model and keep a human-readable counterpart.

  1. W3C JSON-LD 1.1Examine how context and identifiers let JSON express a linked-data graph. The standard describes the syntax and processing model, not whether a particular claim is correct or useful.
  2. Schema.org: Getting StartedUse schema vocabulary as a way to describe a documented thing. Do not treat a vocabulary term as evidence that an unverified statement is accurate, current, or accepted by a consumer.

Continue the pathway

Next: publish the
discovery record.