{"id":38306,"date":"2026-07-22T00:32:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:32:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartdatamodels.org\/?p=38306"},"modified":"2026-07-22T00:32:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:32:07","slug":"introducing-the-smart-data-models-candidates-repository","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartdatamodels.org\/index.php\/introducing-the-smart-data-models-candidates-repository\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing the Smart Data Models Candidates Repository"},"content":{"rendered":"

The <\/strong>Smart Data Models now has a Candidates repository<\/a> \u2014 a low-friction entry point where any existing standard, ontology or open dataset can be translated into the SDM shape (JSON Schema + NGSI-LD context + examples) before<\/em> anyone commits to the full contribution process. The first entry, translated from the EDINT Infrastructure Ontology, is live today \u2014 and it needs your help to move forward.<\/p>\n

What is the Candidates repository?<\/h2>\n

Until now, turning an external standard into a Smart Data Model meant going almost straight to the Incubated repository<\/a>, where a contributor actively develops the model to the point of passing our full validation suite and preparing it for official publication. That’s the right process once someone is committed to doing the work \u2014 but it leaves no room for a lighter step: “here is a standard that looks like it maps well onto NGSI-LD \u2014 does anyone want to develop this further?”<\/p>\n

The Candidates repository fills that gap. It maps existing standards \u2014 ontologies, open data schemas, sector vocabularies \u2014 into the SDM format (JSON Schema, JSON-LD context, key-value and NGSI-LD normalized examples) as a starting point, organized standard-first:<\/p>\n

standards\/<standard-slug>\/\r\n  standard-metadata.yaml\r\n  models\/<EntityName>\/\r\n    schema.json\r\n    context.jsonld\r\n    examples\/\r\n      example.json\r\n      example-normalized.jsonld\r\n<\/pre>\n
A candidate is not<\/strong> a finished data model. It’s a proposal: a structurally valid, plausible translation that any user of Smart Data Models can pick up, test against real payloads, comment on, correct, or use as the basis for a full contribution to Incubated.<\/p>\n
The first example: the EDINT Infrastructure Ontology<\/h2>\n
The first entry, edint-infraestructura<\/code>, translates the EDINT Infrastructure Ontology<\/a> \u2014 a formal OWL vocabulary developed under the EU-funded EDINT (Espacio de Datos para las Infraestructuras Urbanas Inteligentes) project for describing a municipality’s public and private facilities: educational, cultural, social and sports centers, health centers, on-street and off-street parking, and shared-bicycle stations, together with the sensors, observations, management roles and organizations involved in operating them.<\/p>\n
Eleven candidate models were generated: Facility<\/code>, Parking<\/code>, BikeSharingStation<\/code>, ObservationPoint<\/code>, AccessSensor<\/code>, CountingSensor<\/code>, AccessObservation<\/code>, CountingObservation<\/code>, Violation<\/code>, ManagementRole<\/code> and Organization<\/code>. Every schema is valid JSON Schema (Draft 2020-12) and every example validates against its own schema \u2014 but that’s where “finished” stops. In the spirit of being upfront about what a Candidate actually is, here’s exactly where this one stands:<\/p>\n