Stabilized Node Watch: A Specification for Longitudinal Observational Infrastructure to Detect Composition-Layer Drift on Stabilized Public-Knowledge Nodes (v1.0)

Stabilized Node Watch addresses a monitoring gap between publication-based knowledge institutions and ephemeral composition-layer answers.

A stabilized node has:

• extensive reference coverage;
• a consensus core;
• a documented contestation envelope;
• high cross-domain citation density.

The program separates:

• surface drift: directly observed change in outputs;
• mechanism attribution: graded causal inference.

Its dual baselines are:

• IOB — Initial Observational Baseline: the output distribution when a node enters the catalog;
• RCM — Reference Commitment Model: an independently curated model of the node’s core commitments and legitimate disputes.

The proposed workflow includes:

• node and control selection;
• fixed query batteries;
• multi-session and cross-surface captures;
• proposition extraction;
• six drift dimensions;
• composite scoring;
• hierarchical statistical analysis;
• changepoint detection;
• public diff visualization;
• versioned federation.

Federated implementations may be Core, Extended, Experimental, or Non-comparable while preserving local curatorial independence.

The specification treats observation as a potential tax on unaccountable enclosure: making silent surface change publicly legible may alter incentives even before formal regulation.