MeaningGraph articles Plain-language guides to concepts in the MeaningGraph registry. 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z https://meaninggraph.io/articles/ Asset maintenance example: connect tasks, observations and evidence https://meaninggraph.io/articles/asset-maintenance-task-observation-example/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Follow a fictional projector maintenance job to distinguish asset identity, project work, observed lamp hours and document revision evidence. Event, reservation and time zone: model a Repair Day clearly https://meaninggraph.io/articles/event-reservation-place-time-zone-example/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Model a fictional Repair Day with distinct event, reservation, venue, address, team and time-zone records, plus practical schedule checks. One person, two customers, and an awkward invoice https://meaninggraph.io/articles/customer-is-a-role/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Buying is a relationship. Treating it as an identity makes everyday transactions unexpectedly confusing. Purchase order, invoice and payment: follow one projector https://meaninggraph.io/articles/purchase-order-invoice-payment-example/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Follow a fictional projector purchase through an order, invoice, payment and outstanding obligation, keeping every record explainable. The company changed its name. Did the customer change? https://meaninggraph.io/articles/organization-beyond-the-name/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Names, brands, branches, and representatives tell different stories about organizational identity. The invoice that arrived before the money https://meaninggraph.io/articles/invoice-is-not-a-receipt/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z An invoice can explain a charge without proving payment. Follow one through customers, currencies, dates and a misleading green badge. The missing letters beside 1,200 https://meaninggraph.io/articles/currency-is-part-of-the-number/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Two identical numbers, two currencies, and a dashboard that accidentally invents a total. Follow the units before following the money. The order that became two invoices https://meaninggraph.io/articles/order-to-invoice/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z A fictional furniture order follows a branching route through supply, billing and payment—and exposes the danger of one giant status. The parcel that went to the other Paris https://meaninggraph.io/articles/city-is-not-a-name/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z A city name looks like a destination until two places answer to it. The projector in the wrong column https://meaninggraph.io/articles/asset-owner-location-and-value/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z One fictional projector links an owner, a borrower, a city and a dated value. None of those connections can stand in for the others. The promise behind the unpaid balance https://meaninggraph.io/articles/payment-obligation-before-and-after-the-invoice/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z An invoice, two allocated payments and an outstanding EUR500: follow the obligation without confusing documents with commitments. The shared inbox that accidentally became a person https://meaninggraph.io/articles/contact-is-not-identity/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z An address tells you where a message might go. It does not always tell you who is there. The workshop that happened twice, then never https://meaninggraph.io/articles/event-has-more-than-a-timestamp/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Schedules, occurrences, cancellations, and retries describe different things even when they share a time field. What are music sales per capita in Chinook? https://meaninggraph.io/articles/music-sales-per-capita-in-chinook/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Chinook music sales are the sample store's revenue. Music sales per capita divides that total by population, in US dollars per million people. What is a billing country? https://meaninggraph.io/articles/what-is-a-billing-country/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Billing country is the country an invoice is billed to. Shipping country is where goods are sent. They answer different questions. What is a country (ISO 3166 country codes)? https://meaninggraph.io/articles/what-is-a-country/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z A country here is a place with an ISO 3166-1 code: one value, with a name, aliases, and alpha-2, alpha-3, and numeric codes. What is per capita? https://meaninggraph.io/articles/what-is-per-capita/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Per capita means for each person: divide a total by the population of the same place, then scale it per person, per 1,000, or per 100,000. What is population? https://meaninggraph.io/articles/what-is-population/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Population is how many people live in a country at a stated time. The year and the source belong with the count. What is revenue? https://meaninggraph.io/articles/what-is-revenue/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z Revenue here sums sales invoice totals for a period, before costs. Billed sales and money collected are different facts. When “due today” has two clocks https://meaninggraph.io/articles/time-zones-and-due-today/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z A Dublin clock repeats 01:30, while a date-only deadline waits for a business rule. Follow the missing context behind “due today.” When Alex appears three times in the same company https://meaninggraph.io/articles/person-beyond-the-row/ 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z 2026-10-25T00:00:00Z A human can occupy several roles without becoming several people—or collapsing into one ambiguous record.