Detailswhat

Detailswhat is a concept used in information design and data science to define the minimal set of attributes required to describe the essential nature of an observed event or item. It concentrates on what happened and who or what was involved, rather than on how or why it occurred.

Definition and scope: A detailswhat specification identifies the smallest practical collection of fields that yield unambiguous interpretation within a given analysis context. It aims to balance completeness with data economy, avoiding attributes that do not improve analytical value. The exact composition is context-dependent and may evolve with changing analytical needs.

Origin and usage: The term appears in discussions about telemetry, logging, and data governance, where teams seek stable, comparable event representations across systems. It is not universally standardized and is most common in niche communities and speculative literature.

Typical components: Core fields often include event type or object, timestamp, subject (the primary entity), and a limited set of contextual identifiers such as location or system ID. The precise set is guided by the analysis tasks and privacy considerations. Example: an e-commerce page view might record event_type=page_view, time=2025-12-29T12:00:00Z, user_id=abc123, page=/product/123.

Relation to other concepts: detailswhat complements broader metadata strategies by specifying essential elements, informing data schemas, and helping to prevent overcollection. It supports consistent logging practices while allowing flexibility for domain-specific needs.

See also: metadata, data schema, event logging, data governance, data granularity.