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Government & Public Sector

19 standards in this subject area

Asset Description Metadata Schema

(ADMS)

Describes reusable interoperability assets like schemas, code lists, and data models across borders.

Application Profile active European Commission / SEMIC Updated February 1, 2024

Australian Government Locator Service

(AGLS)

A Dublin Core profile that mandated metadata for Australian government services and information.

Application Profile historical National Archives of Australia Updated June 28, 2010

Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata

(CSDGM)

The US federal standard for documenting geospatial data, mandated for all federal agency datasets.

Element Set / Metadata Schema active Federal Geographic Data Committee Updated June 1, 1998

CSV on the Web

(CSVW)

A W3C standard for annotating CSV files with datatypes, relationships, and conversion rules.

Technical Specification active World Wide Web Consortium Updated December 17, 2015

Data Catalog Vocabulary

(DCAT)

A W3C vocabulary for describing datasets and data services in federated catalogs on the web.

Ontology active World Wide Web Consortium Updated August 22, 2024

Data Documentation Initiative

(DDI)

Documents surveys, questionnaires, and statistical data across the full research data lifecycle.

Element Set / Metadata Schema active DDI Alliance Est. 1995

Data Package

Lightweight JSON-based specifications for packaging, describing, and validating tabular datasets.

Technical Specification active Open Knowledge Foundation Updated June 26, 2024

Data Privacy Vocabulary

(DPV)

Provides structured concepts for describing personal data processing, privacy rights, and legal bases.

Ontology active W3C Data Privacy Vocabularies and Controls Community Group Updated February 25, 2026

DCAT Application Profile for Data Portals in Europe

(DCAT-AP)

A European application profile that standardizes dataset descriptions across government data portals.

Application Profile active European Commission / SEMIC Updated October 27, 2025

DCMI Government Application Profile

(DC-Gov)

A Dublin Core profile adding security, access rights, and legislative tracking for government records.

Application Profile active Dublin Core Metadata Initiative Updated September 17, 2001

European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations

(ESCO)

Maps 3,000 occupations and 13,000 skills across 28 languages for the European labour market.

Vocabulary / Thesaurus active European Commission Updated July 25, 2024

EuroVoc

(EuroVoc)

Multilingual thesaurus covering all EU policy areas in 24 official languages and beyond.

Vocabulary / Thesaurus active Publications Office of the European Union Est. 1984

General Transit Feed Specification

(GTFS)

The dominant open standard for publishing public transit schedules, routes, and real-time service information.

Exchange Format active MobilityData Est. 2005

GeoDCAT-AP

(GeoDCAT-AP)

Bridges geospatial metadata standards and open data catalogs across European data portals.

Application Profile active European Commission / SEMIC Updated February 12, 2026

ISO 19115 Geographic Information -- Metadata

(ISO 19115)

The foundational international schema for describing geographic datasets and spatial services.

Element Set / Metadata Schema active International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Updated January 1, 2020

North American Profile of ISO 19115:2003 - Geographic Information - Metadata

(NAP)

Adapts ISO 19115 geospatial metadata for United States and Canadian data infrastructure needs.

Application Profile active Federal Geographic Data Committee / INCITS L1 Updated July 26, 2007

RDF Data Cube Vocabulary

Publishes multi-dimensional statistical and aggregate data as linked data using RDF and SDMX concepts.

Ontology active World Wide Web Consortium Updated January 16, 2014

The Organization Ontology

(ORG)

A core ontology for publishing organizational structures, membership, and hierarchy as linked data.

Ontology active World Wide Web Consortium Updated January 16, 2014

United Nations Standard Products and Services Code

(UNSPSC)

A hierarchical eight-digit coding system for classifying products and services in global procurement.

Encoding Scheme / Value Vocabulary active United Nations Development Programme Updated August 14, 2023