◆ Semantic Web Catalogue

Problem thread

Rigour against developer taste

What does a data format have to look like before ordinary web developers will use it?

issue
serialization
also usability
status
largely settled
steps
10, 1998–2015
threads
all problem threads

RDF's first official syntax was written in XML, and the formats that followed show developers repeatedly choosing what felt familiar. RSS dropped RDF within months, microformats used plain HTML class names, and RDFa put RDF into HTML attributes. JSON-LD, whose lead editor said he kept RDF out of sight on purpose, became the form most developers meet, while many APIs stayed with plain JSON and GraphQL.

Lineage

  1. 10 Feb 1998
    precedent standard ★ seminal
    XML

    The W3C's markup language for structured documents and data, a Recommendation from February 1998, which RDF's first syntax was written in. [src]

  2. 22 Feb 1999
    proposes standard ★ seminal
    RDF

    The 1999 Recommendation defines RDF's model together with a syntax in XML, later known as RDF/XML. [src]

  3. Mar 1999
    workaround standard ★ seminal
    RSS

    Netscape's RSS 0.90 (March 1999) was based on an early RDF draft; RSS 0.91 (July 1999) removed the RDF elements. RSS 1.0 brought RDF back in 2000, but the widely used 2.0 line stayed plain XML. [src]

  4. 2005
    proposes standard ★ seminal
    Microformats

    Mark up people, events and reviews with ordinary HTML class names. The principles: solve a specific problem, start simple, design for humans first and machines second. [src]

  5. Jul 2006
    workaround concept
    JSON web APIs

    JSON, specified in RFC 4627 in July 2006 as a lightweight data-interchange format, becomes the everyday format of web APIs, each defining its own fields with no shared vocabulary and no global identifiers. [src1][src2]

  6. 14 Oct 2008
    proposes standard
    RDFa

    Embeds RDF statements in HTML attributes, so a web page can carry the full RDF model. [src]

  7. 16 Jan 2014
    settles standard ★ seminal
    JSON-LD

    Lets ordinary JSON be read as Linked Data by adding a context that maps its keys to URIs. [src]

  8. 21 Jan 2014
    critiques writing ★ seminal
    JSON-LD and Why I Hate the Semantic Web
    ↳ critiques RDF

    JSON-LD's lead editor writes that better Web APIs, not the Semantic Web, motivated it; that he made a point of not mentioning RDF in the JSON-LD specification; and that RDF's data model fails developers on lists and blank nodes. [src]

  9. 25 Feb 2014
    settles standard
    Turtle

    A compact, natural text form for writing RDF by hand, widely used long before it became a W3C Recommendation in 2014. [src]

  10. 14 Sep 2015
    workaround standard
    GraphQL

    A query language for web APIs in which a client asks for exactly the JSON it needs. There are no shared vocabularies or global identifiers. [src1][src2]

Recent signals

Dated events that show the problem moving, newest last.

  1. 28 Apr 2026

    The JSON-LD Working Group publishes a first draft of CBOR-LD, a compact binary form of JSON-LD. CBOR-LD[src]

Open now

Under each question, the answers people have put forward or built. The catalogue gives no odds on them.

  • Can Linked Data keep its rigour when most developers never see the RDF underneath? [src]
    JSON-LD's design hides RDF by intent; its lead editor argued that this is what made it usable.
    • Contexts carry the meaning while developers see JSON. JSON-LD
      A JSON-LD context maps plain JSON keys to vocabulary terms, so data keeps its RDF meaning without developers writing RDF.[src]
    • Compact encodings keep the meaning for constrained devices. CBOR-LD
      CBOR-LD uses the same contexts to compress JSON-LD into a binary form.[src]

Decision points

Dated moments when a decision or a deadline can change the outcome.

  1. 31 Jan 2028
    JSON-LD Working Group charter ends charter

    The W3C group maintaining JSON-LD and drafting CBOR-LD is chartered until this date.[src]

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