eventsan

eventsan is the name given to an open, community-driven specification and ecosystem for representing, exchanging, and analyzing data about events. It aims to provide a common data model and interoperable interfaces that can be adopted by event management platforms, venue systems, and analytics tools. By standardizing event records, schedules, attendees, resources, and outcomes, eventsan seeks to reduce data silos and improve insight across planning, execution, and post-event review.

Origin and development: The concept emerged in the early 2020s from collaborations among event organizers, software developers, and data scientists seeking to improve interoperability. A core specification and reference implementations have been maintained by a nonprofit foundation and a growing community of contributors. The project emphasizes openness, versioning, and backward compatibility.

Data model and interfaces: eventsan represents events with fields such as id, type, start_time, end_time, location, participants, resources, and outcomes. It supports extensibility through schemas and extensions, and can be serialized using JSON-LD, RDF, or traditional JSON. Exchange is enabled via RESTful APIs and GraphQL endpoints, with optional push and pull updates. Interoperability with calendar formats like iCal and ICS is provided through adapters.

Features and use cases: The specification includes privacy controls, audit trails, and role-based access. Use cases span event planning, venue operations, attendee analytics, health and safety compliance, and sustainability reporting. Several open-source tools offer reference implementations, while commercial platforms experiment with proprietary enhancements.

Reception and challenges: eventsan has been praised for promoting data interoperability and lifecycle visibility, but critics warn of fragmentation risks if too many extensions emerge or adoption remains inconsistent. Success depends on active governance, clear versioning, and alignment with existing standards where practical.

See also: data standard, event management, JSON-LD, ICS calendar formats.