PROPOSED JSON-LD Working Group Charter

The mission of the JSON-LD Working Group is to maintain and extend the family of JSON-LD 1.1 Recommendations and related Working Group Notes.

Join the JSON-LD Working Group.

This proposed charter is available on GitHub. Feel free to raise issues.

Charter Status See the group status page and detailed change history.
Start date 19 January 2023
End date 30 March 2026
Chairs Benjamin Young (Digital Bazaar)
Team Contacts Pierre-Antoine Champin (0.1 FTE)
Meeting Schedule Teleconferences: On an as-needed basis, at least every quarter.
Face-to-face: we will meet during the W3C's annual Technical Plenary week; additional face-to-face meetings may be scheduled by consent of the participants, usually no more than 3 per year.

Motivation and Background

JSON-LD (JavaScript Object Notation for Linked Data) is a method of encoding linked data using JSON. The encoding is used used mostly for search engine optimization activities but also for applications such as biomedical informatics, and representing provenance information.

Scope

The Working Group will extend the recommendations defining the JSON-LD specifications (i.e., JSON-LD 1.1, JSON-LD 1.1 API, JSON-LD 1.1 Framing) with the features introduced by RDF-star in addition to open Errata and requested features as noted on the groups Project Management Page. These specifications together provide a JSON format for Linked Open Data to interoperate at web-scale, in a method which is familiar to and usable by web-focused software engineers.

It will also develop new Recommendation Track deliverables, based on work incubated by the JSON for Linking Data Community Group, specifying the use of JSON-LD algorithms with similar formats (YAML, CBOR, and more).

The Working group is expected to coordinate with the JSON for Linking Data Community Group on consensus-based proposals related to content changes for the JSON-LD Working Group Deliverables. The Chairs of this group may choose to reject proposals that are incompatible with this Charter.

In Scope

In addition to Errata and synchronization with the RDF-star Working Group, the following features tracked on the Project Management Page are in-scope for updates to the core JSON-LD specifications:

Out of Scope

The following features are out of scope, and will not be addressed by this Working Group.

  • RDF Dataset Normalization.
  • Linked Data Signatures.

Deliverables

Updated document status is available on the group publication status page.

Draft state indicates the state of the deliverable at the time of the charter approval.

Normative Specifications

The Working Group will deliver the following W3C normative specifications:

JSON-LD 1.2
Latest publication: 07 May 2020
Draft State: W3C Recommendation
Reference Draft: https://www.w3.org/TR/2020/REC-json-ld11-20200716/
Associated Call for Exclusion 5 March 2020, ended on 4 May 2020
Produced under Working Group Charter: https://www.w3.org/2018/03/jsonld-wg-charter.html
JSON-LD 1.2 Processing Algorithms and API
Latest publication: 07 May 2020
Draft State: W3C Recommendation
Reference Draft: https://www.w3.org/TR/2020/REC-json-ld11-api-20200716/
Associated Call for Exclusion 5 March 2020, ended on 4 May 2020
Produced under Working Group Charter: https://www.w3.org/2018/03/jsonld-wg-charter.html
JSON-LD 1.2 Framing
Latest publication: 07 May 2020
Draft State: W3C Recommendation
Reference Draft: https://www.w3.org/TR/2020/REC-json-ld11-framing-20200716/
Associated Call for Exclusion 12 December 2019, ended on 10 February 2020
Produced under Working Group Charter: https://www.w3.org/2018/03/jsonld-wg-charter.html

The Working Group will also deliver the following W3C normative specifications:

CBOR-LD

CBOR is a compact binary data serialization and messaging format. This specification defines CBOR-LD, a CBOR-based format to serialize Linked Data. The encoding is designed to leverage the existing JSON-LD ecosystem, to provide a compact serialization format for those seeking efficient encoding schemes for Linked Data.

Input documents:
  • CBOR-LD, Final Community Group Report (2024-xx-xx), adopted from the JSON for Linking Data Community Group
  • JSON-LD 1.1. in CBOR, Editor's Draft (2022-12-06), adopted from previous JSON-LD Working Group

Expected completion: CR in Q4 2024

YAML-LD

This document defines YAML-LD, a set of conventions built on top of YAML, which outlines how to serialize Linked Data as YAML based on JSON-LD syntax, semantics, and APIs.

Input document: YAML-LD, Final Community Group Report (2023-12-06), adopted from the JSON for Linking Data Community Group

Expected completion: CR in Q4 2024

Other Deliverables

Other non-normative documents may be created and/or maintained such as:

  • Application profile of JSON-LD to enable efficient streaming parsers.
  • Test suites and implementation reports for the specifications.
  • Best practices for use and implementation of JSON-LD 1.1.
  • Best practices for supporting multiple languages in JSON, based on JSON-LD value objects

Timeline

  • September 2022: First teleconference
  • Q4 2024
    • FPWD of CBOR-LD
    • FPWD of YAML-LD
  • Q2 2025
    • FPWD of JSON-LD 1.2
    • FPWD of JSON-LD 1.2 API
    • FPWD of JSON-LD 1.2 Framing
    • Candidate Recommendation of CBOR-LD
    • Candidate Recommendation of YAML-LD
  • Q3 2025
    • Recommendation of CBOR-LD
    • Recommendation of YAML-LD
  • Q4 2025
    • Candidate Recommendation of JSON-LD 1.2
    • Candidate Recommendation of JSON-LD 1.2 API
    • Candidate Recommendation of JSON-LD 1.2 Framing
  • Q1 2026
    • Recommendation of JSON-LD 1.2
    • Recommendation of JSON-LD 1.2 API
    • Recommendation of JSON-LD 1.2 Framing

Success Criteria

In order to advance to Proposed Recommendation, each normative specification is expected to have at least two independent interoperable implementations of every feature defined in the specification, where interoperability can be verified by passing open test suites.

There should be testing plans for each specification, starting from the earliest drafts.

To promote interoperability, all changes made to specifications in Candidate Recommendation or to features that have deployed implementations should have tests.

Each specification should contain sections detailing all known security and privacy implications for implementers, Web authors, and end users.

This Working Group expects to follow the TAG Web Platform Design Principles.

Coordination

For all specifications, this Working Group will seek horizontal review for accessibility, internationalization, privacy, and security with the relevant Working and Interest Groups, and with the TAG. Invitation for review must be issued during each major standards-track document transition, including FPWD. The Working Group is encouraged to engage collaboratively with the horizontal review groups throughout development of each specification. The Working Group is advised to seek a review at least 3 months before first entering CR and is encouraged to proactively notify the horizontal review groups when major changes occur in a specification following a review.

Additional technical coordination with the following Groups will be made, per the W3C Process Document:

W3C Groups

JSON for Linking Data Community Group
As mentioned in the scope section, the Working group is expected to coordinate with this Community Group on consensus-based proposals related to content changes for the JSON-LD Working Group Deliverables. The Chairs of this group may choose to reject proposals that are incompatible with this Charter.
Verifiable Credentials Working Group
Coordination on named graph indexing and other concerns regarding support for normalization and digital signatures.
RDF Dataset Canonicalization and Hash Working Group
The work of this Group will include defining RDF Dataset Canonicalization algorithms.
RDF-Star Working Group
The work of this Group will the ability to concisely represent and query statements about statements.
Credentials Community Group
Coordination on various concerns regarding the usage of JSON-LD in Verifiable Credentials.
Schema.org Community Group
The Schema.org CG will be regularly solicited for reviews and comments throughout the advancement of the JSON-LD 1.1 Recommendation.
Decentralized Identifiers Working Group
Coordination on various concerns regarding the JSON-LD encoding of DID Documents.
Web of Things Working Group
Coordination of various topics concerning the use of JSON-LD by the WoT Thing Description.
RDF-DEV CG
Coordination on various aspects of future RDF core specifications.
RDF JavaScript Libraries CG
Coordination on various opportunities for JSON-LD support in RDF.js related libraries and community projects.

Participation

To be successful, this Working Group is expected to have 6 or more active participants for its duration, including representatives from the key implementors of this specification, and active Editors and Test Leads for each specification. The Chairs, specification Editors, and Test Leads are expected to contribute half of a working day per week towards the Working Group. There is no minimum requirement for other Participants.

The group encourages questions, comments and issues on its public mailing lists and document repositories, as described in Communication.

The group also welcomes non-Members to contribute technical submissions for consideration upon their agreement to the terms of the W3C Patent Policy.

Participants in the group are required (by the W3C Process) to follow the W3C Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Communication

Technical discussions for this Working Group are conducted in public: the meeting minutes from teleconference and face-to-face meetings will be archived for public review, and technical discussions and issue tracking will be conducted in a manner that can be both read and written to by the general public. Working Drafts and Editor's Drafts of specifications will be developed in public repositories and may permit direct public contribution requests. The meetings themselves are not open to public participation, however.

Information about the group (including details about deliverables, issues, actions, status, participants, and meetings) will be available from the JSON-LD Working Group home page.

Most JSON-LD Working Group teleconferences will focus on discussion of particular specifications, and will be conducted on an as-needed basis.

This group primarily conducts its technical work on GitHub issues. The public is invited to review, discuss and contribute to this work.

The group may use a Member-confidential mailing list for administrative purposes and, at the discretion of the Chairs and members of the group, for member-only discussions in special cases when a participant requests such a discussion.

Decision Policy

This group will seek to make decisions through consensus and due process, per the W3C Process Document (section 5.2.1, Consensus). Typically, an editor or other participant makes an initial proposal, which is then refined in discussion with members of the group and other reviewers, and consensus emerges with little formal voting being required.

However, if a decision is necessary for timely progress and consensus is not achieved after careful consideration of the range of views presented, the Chairs may call for a group vote and record a decision along with any objections.

To afford asynchronous decisions and organizational deliberation, any resolution (including publication decisions) taken in a face-to-face meeting or teleconference will be considered provisional. A call for consensus (CfC) will be issued for all resolutions (for example, via email, GitHub issue or web-based survey), with a response period of 10 working days, depending on the chair's evaluation of the group consensus on the issue. If no objections are raised by the end of the response period, the resolution will be considered to have consensus as a resolution of the Working Group.

All decisions made by the group should be considered resolved unless and until new information becomes available or unless reopened at the discretion of the Chairs or the Director.

This charter is written in accordance with the W3C Process Document (Section 5.2.3, Deciding by Vote) and includes no voting procedures beyond what the Process Document requires.

Patent Policy

This Working Group operates under the W3C Patent Policy (Version of 15 September 2020). To promote the widest adoption of Web standards, W3C seeks to issue Web specifications that can be implemented, according to this policy, on a Royalty-Free basis. For more information about disclosure obligations for this group, please see the licensing information.

Licensing

This Working Group will use the W3C Software and Document license for all its deliverables.

About this Charter

This charter has been created according to section 3.4 of the Process Document. In the event of a conflict between this document or the provisions of any charter and the W3C Process, the W3C Process shall take precedence.

Charter History

The following table lists details of all changes from the initial charter, per the W3C Process Document (section 4.3, Advisory Committee Review of a Charter):

Charter Period Start Date End Date Changes
Initial Charter 15 June 2018 15 June 2020 none
Maintenance WG Charter 12 August 2020 31 August 2022 New Charter approved on 12 August 2020
Change of staff contact 23 June 2021 31 August 2022
Extension 1 September 2022 30 November 2022
Rechartered 19 January 2023 31 January 2025

Switch to Patent Policy 2020. Added RCH and RDF-Star to coordination section
Change of staff contact 09 February 2023 31 January 2025
Rechartered LINK TBD TBD 30 March 2026 Add new deliverable

Change log

Changes to this document are documented in this section.

  • 2024-01-17: Benjamin Young re-appointed as the group chair.