Has anyone ever considered a federated or open-source alternative to Open Graph or Schema..org?
-
I've been thinking lately about how much of the web's metadata—like link previews, rich snippets, and structured content—relies on centralized standards like:
Open Graph (by Meta)
OpenGraph - Preview Social Media Share and Generate Metatags
OpenGraph is the easiest way to preview and generate open graph meta tags for any website.
OpenGraph (www.opengraph.xyz)
Open Graph protocol
The Open Graph protocol enables any web page to become a rich object in a social graph.
(ogp.me)
What is Open Graph and how can I use it for my website?
It can take a lot of time to build content and maintain a website. How can we make sure our content stands out when getting shared on social feeds around the internet? What is Open Graph? Why do I need it? What happens if I don’t have it? Starting w...
freeCodeCamp.org (www.freecodecamp.org)
and
Schema.org (by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Yandex)
These formats are widely used for things like link previews in social media, product listings in search engines, event markup, and more.
Open Graph lets websites control how their content appears when shared (e.g., title, description, preview image), and Schema.org provides a broader vocabulary for marking up structured data like reviews, articles, events, etc.
But both are effectively governed by large, centralized entities.
This makes me wonder:
Has anyone ever proposed, or worked on, a federated or community-governed alternative to these standards?
Something open-source and consensus-driven that better fits the ethos of the Fediverse?
I imagine such a system could:
Empower smaller platforms and content creators.
Improve interoperability across decentralized platforms.
Prevent a few big players from shaping metadata standards to suit themselves.
I’d love to attempt something like this, but I currently lack the time, energy, and technical skill.
Still, I wanted to throw the idea out there in case it sparks interest, or someone knows of prior attempts.
Would love to hear your thoughts, links or brainstorms.
-
I've been thinking lately about how much of the web's metadata—like link previews, rich snippets, and structured content—relies on centralized standards like:
Open Graph (by Meta)
OpenGraph - Preview Social Media Share and Generate Metatags
OpenGraph is the easiest way to preview and generate open graph meta tags for any website.
OpenGraph (www.opengraph.xyz)
Open Graph protocol
The Open Graph protocol enables any web page to become a rich object in a social graph.
(ogp.me)
What is Open Graph and how can I use it for my website?
It can take a lot of time to build content and maintain a website. How can we make sure our content stands out when getting shared on social feeds around the internet? What is Open Graph? Why do I need it? What happens if I don’t have it? Starting w...
freeCodeCamp.org (www.freecodecamp.org)
and
Schema.org (by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo!, and Yandex)
These formats are widely used for things like link previews in social media, product listings in search engines, event markup, and more.
Open Graph lets websites control how their content appears when shared (e.g., title, description, preview image), and Schema.org provides a broader vocabulary for marking up structured data like reviews, articles, events, etc.
But both are effectively governed by large, centralized entities.
This makes me wonder:
Has anyone ever proposed, or worked on, a federated or community-governed alternative to these standards?
Something open-source and consensus-driven that better fits the ethos of the Fediverse?
I imagine such a system could:
Empower smaller platforms and content creators.
Improve interoperability across decentralized platforms.
Prevent a few big players from shaping metadata standards to suit themselves.
I’d love to attempt something like this, but I currently lack the time, energy, and technical skill.
Still, I wanted to throw the idea out there in case it sparks interest, or someone knows of prior attempts.
Would love to hear your thoughts, links or brainstorms.
What exactly would a federated alternative to this look like for you? It's a block of metadata.
