Many citizen or community science projects measure and collect data in some automated way. These projects usually want to share their data, but no obvious exchange format exists that:
- Is easy to get started with (i.e. does not require learning a ton of new protocols, plough through a lot of different standards documents, etc.)
- Is flexible (i.e. can store any measurement, not just the ones that were known at design time)
- Can express enough context to make the data usable (i.e. where was something measured, using what sensor, using what processing, etc.).
Over the years, the Meet je stad project has been looking for a system to store their data in, and allow exchanging that data with other projects. The result of this work is CSDIF, a system (API/format) for citizen and community science projects to interchange data and corresponding metadata.
In 2025, an initial CSDIF-001-RFC document has been formulated, which builds on top of the OGC SensorThings API and OGC SensorML specification, adding additional restrictions and guidelines to improve interoperability. This RFC is a literal request for comments, it is not a finished specification, but a rough proposal with the invitation to share feedback.
Early 2026, a first proof of concept was developed, using two different approaches, intended to collect experiences and answer open questions. This process is still ongoing, but an overview of and the first experiences with the PoC are already published in the draft CSDIF-002-POC document.
CSDIF is currently being developed by Meet Je Stad Amersfoort and SMAL Zeist, but we are open to additional collaborators.
Documents published
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CSDIF-001-RFC is the initial rationale and proposal for CSDIF.
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CSDIF-002-POC gives an overview of the first proof-of-concept and documents the first experiences with that PoC.
Feedback and discussion
We welcome your input in our matrix/Element channel: #csdif:matrix.org, or at info@csdif.info.
In particular, we are curious:
- If you are making measurements, could the proposed system fit your usecases?
- If you are collecting or aggregating data from others, would the proposed system provide enough metadata?
- Would you consider adopting this standard in your applications?
Announcements
To be notified about future updates to the RFC document or other relevant steps in the project, you can subscribe to our newsletter on its own page.
Future plans
In 2026, we intend to use the built prototype to gather more experience with the system and apply it to different usecases, experiments, metadata, etc. From that experience, open questions can be answered and the initial RFC can be turned into a more defined specification.