schemaorgs

Schemaorgs is a term used to describe a class of actors or organizations that curate, maintain, and govern structured data schemas across systems. The term combines "schema" with "orgs" and is used primarily in discussions of data interoperability and governance. There is no formal global body named "Schemaorgs"; it is a descriptive concept rather than an official designation.

Typical activities of schemaorgs include establishing schema design principles, maintaining a registry of schemas, versioning and deprecation policies, mapping between schemas, promoting best practices for data interoperability, validating data against schemas, and coordinating cross-domain schema initiatives.

Relation to schema.org: Schemaorgs draw inspiration from schema.org's approach to centralized, web-scale vocabularies but are not limited to a single vocabulary. They often operate or convene across domains to ensure compatibility between schemas and data representations. In practice, organizations may function as schemaorgs by maintaining internal or industry-specific schemas and by contributing to public registries.

Challenges and criticism: governance disagreements, version fragmentation, compatibility issues, and concerns about centralization of control. Adoption depends on clear governance, tooling, and incentives to share schemas.

See also: schema.org, data governance, schema registry, ontology, interoperability.