netformet
Netformet is a proposed open standard for embedding machine-readable metadata about data formats, schemas, and processing requirements in network communications to improve interoperability and data handling. The concept targets how data elements carry their own format descriptors across diverse systems, enabling more reliable parsing, validation, and transformation.
The term combines network, format, and metadata, reflecting its aim to standardize how format information travels
Technical overview: Netformet envisions a metadata envelope that can be attached to messages, streams, or files.
Adoption and challenges: Potential benefits include easier data transformation, protocol-agnostic interoperability, and automated capability negotiation. Challenges