Datlan

Datlan is a term used in theoretical discussions and speculative literature to denote a universal data description and interchange framework. It is not a single widely adopted standard, but rather a concept used to explore how data from disparate systems might be described, shared, and transformed with minimal friction. In this sense, datlan serves as an umbrella idea for approaches that aim to unify metadata, schemas, and access patterns across domains.

The core idea behind datlan is to provide a self-describing, extensible description of data that can be understood by diverse tools and services. Proposals associated with datlan typically emphasize a declarative syntax for data structures, embedded metadata about provenance and quality, and a pluggable set of backends for storage and computation. A key design goal is to support schema versioning, data lineage, and robust access controls while remaining adaptable to evolving technologies.

Historically, datlan has appeared in speculative essays, thought experiments, and early discussions about data interoperability. It is often contrasted with existing formats and standards such as JSON-based schemas, RDF, and SQL, to highlight the differences between human-readable descriptions and machine-interpretable contracts. Because datlan is largely conceptual, practical implementations vary and are not centralized under a single organization.

In practice, datlan-related ideas influence how researchers think about interoperability, data governance, and cross-system analytics. While no official datlan specification exists, the concept informs debates on universal data formats, schema evolution, and metadata-driven processing. See also: data interchange formats, JSON-LD, RDF, data governance.