schemaversies

Schemaversies are alternative versions of a schema, the abstract structure used to organize data, information, or knowledge. A schemaversie describes how entities, attributes, and relationships are arranged in a particular domain or context. A core schema may be adapted by creating one or more schemaversies to reflect domain specifics, language, platform requirements, or interoperability constraints. The term is used in Dutch-language discussions of information architecture and data modeling, and the concept appears in many fields under different names.

Origins and scope: The word combines schema with versies (versions). Schemaversies are not separate data models by themselves; rather, they are curated variants of a base schema that preserve core semantics while changing fields, data types, or constraints. They enable tailoring of a model without abandoning the underlying design.

Applications: In data integration and governance, multiple organizations may maintain different schemaversies of the same core model; mapping and alignment work is needed to exchange data. In software engineering, API schemas or JSON schemas may include domain-specific variants. In digital humanities and knowledge graphs, scholarly taxonomies are implemented as schemaversies to accommodate differing datasets or languages.

Examples: A product schema might have a basic set of fields (id, name, price) and a hardware variant adding weight and power consumption, while a media variant adds duration and format. A multilingual site might maintain language-specific schemaversies with localized labels rather than structural changes.

Governance: Schemaversies are managed through version control, documentation, and compatibility policies. Changes may trigger deprecation timelines or migration tooling. See also: schema versioning, ontology alignment, data modeling, and JSON Schema.