itimet

Itimet is a framework and terminology used to describe a cohesive approach to representing time-based data and events across software systems. It aims to unify time stamps, time zones, and temporal relationships within a single interoperable model, helping applications align events, schedules, and histories.

The term was coined in the early 2010s by researchers focusing on time metadata interoperability. The name blends time and metadata, signaling its core object: metadata about temporal aspects of data and events.

The Itimet data model centers on core entities such as Event, TemporalContext, and TimeInterval. Serializations commonly use JSON-LD, with optional bindings to iCalendar formats. Itimet specifications describe APIs for creating, querying, and aligning time-based records across systems, including time zone handling and temporal relations such as before, after, and overlapping.

Itimet finds use in personal productivity platforms to synchronize calendars, in research data repositories to annotate experiments with precise timing, and in IoT and event-driven architectures to timestamp sensor readings consistently.

Adoption remains limited, with several open-source projects implementing lightweight itimet layers. Critics cite added complexity and a need for broader ecosystem tooling to achieve true cross-application interoperability. Proponents argue that standardization helps reduce ambiguity in timing-sensitive workflows.

See also time-stamping, temporal databases, metadata standards, JSON-LD, and iCalendar.