The Polymath · Sources

Why Source Provenance Is Governance Infrastructure

The Polymath

From RN Collins, selected work

The article, the sources and the image credits behind this post, each linked to the original.

The articleRead RN's full article in The Polymath polymath-rn-collins.beehiiv.com

Research cited

  1. HHS Office of Research Integrity, FY 2021 Annual Report, "Correcting the Scientific Record," page 8 ori.hhs.gov
  2. Federal Rules of Evidence, Rule 901 (Cornell LII copy of the rule and Advisory Committee notes; U.S. Courts rules page confirmed live) law.cornell.edu
  3. NIST AI Risk Management Framework 1.0 (NIST AI 100-1, January 2023), page 16 nvlpubs.nist.gov
  4. NIST AI 600-1, Generative AI Profile nvlpubs.nist.gov

Other sources

  1. W3C, PROV-DM: The PROV Data Model, W3C Recommendation 30 April 2013 w3.org
  2. C2PA Technical Specification 2.4 (April 2026), section 1.2 Scope spec.c2pa.org
  3. 36 CFR 1220.32 (eCFR current text) ecfr.gov
  4. National Archives, Records Management Basics archives.gov
  5. NIST AI RMF Playbook, Govern airc.nist.gov
  6. GAO-25-107721, Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government (May 2025) gao.gov
  7. RN Collins's own series articles: Why Human Review Requires Authority, Context and Time (labeled Article One of Twelve) and Why Evidence Systems, Not Model Intelligence, Are the Missing Layer (Article Four of Twelve) polymath-rn-collins.beehiiv.com

Images, slide by slide

Slide 1
Illustrative photo: a wooden library card-catalog cabinet with one drawer pulled open and index cards visible, the subject catalog of the University of Graz library, 2005Photo: Marcus Gossler, CC BY-SA 3.0Photo record
Slide 2a
Illustrative photo: tied cardboard boxes of War Office records, numbered, on green repository shelving at The National Archives in Kew, 2008Photo: The National Archives (UK)Photo record
Slide 2b
Illustrative photo: an orange interoffice mail envelope with a ruled route list and a few handwritten address entries, lying beside a dark hardcover presentation folder embossed MANUFACTURERS HANOVER, bank stationery from the 1980s photographed in 2024Photo: Jonathan Schilling, CC BY-SA 4.0Photo record
Slide 3
A printed errata slip, a ruled-border leaflet headed NOTE AUX LECTEURS from the French publisher Les Editions Altaya, slipped into volumes 1 to 5 of a DVD collection to correct an error on the sleeves, photographed in 2021Photo: Psychoslave, CC BY-SA 3.0Photo record
Slide 4
Illustrative photo: a 1927 registered airmail envelope from Novosibirsk to Riga covered in round postmarks, a registry label and a railway-station handstampSource: Soviet Union Post, 1927Photo record
Slide 5a
Illustrative photo: three red leather-bound county record books stacked on a courthouse table, gilt spines reading "Record of ... Lawrence County", photographed at the Lawrence County Courthouse in Missouri in 2015Photo: LWYang, CC BY 2.0Photo record
Slide 5b
Illustrative photo: an old illustrated book lying open on the glass bed of a book scanner under a gray scanning head, in the digitization lab of the University of Liège library, 2016Photo: Sam.Donvil, CC BY-SA 4.0Photo record
Slide 5c
Illustrative photo: a transparent gray and green correction-tape dispenser, with its toothed gears and spools visible and the JINUO Max name on the case, lying on a white ground, photographed in 2023Photo: Wiki Farazi, CC0Photo record
Slide 6
Illustrative photo: a black and red self-inking office dating stamp with the word EINGEGANGEN (received) and a date window set to 12 Jan 2009, on a dark groundPhoto: smial, Free Art LicensePhoto record
Slide 7
Illustrative photo: a handwritten laboratory notebook lying open on a table in a public exhibit at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (the lab book is dated March 6, 1941; photographed 2011), with the corner of a magazine beside itPhoto: Daderot, public domainPhoto record
Slide 8
Illustrative photo: a long empty vaulted passage in the Strasbourg railway station, north corridor, with security cameras mounted along the stone ceiling, 2019Photo: Gzen92, CC BY-SA 4.0Photo record
Slide 9a
Illustrative photo: the empty research room of the National Archives of Bangladesh, with reading tables and chairs set out under a coffered concrete ceiling, 2025Photo: Tausheef Hassan AuntuPhoto record
Slide 9b
Illustrative photo: the Berlin head office of DIN, the German Institute for Standardization, a long gray office building with the DIN sign on its facade, seen from the street in 2008Photo: Standardizer, CC BY-SA 4.0Photo record
Slide 10a
Illustrative photo: wooden card-index drawers with brass label holders, some open, with index cards inside, in the Mundaneum archives in Mons, Belgium, 2016Photo: Romaine, CC BY-SA 4.0Photo record
Slide 10b
Illustrative photo: a tall wooden wall of small mail cubbyholes behind the front desk of the Read House hotel, original to 1926, photographed in 2018Photo: Dennis Rhea, CC BY-SA 4.0Photo record

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