Call for Participation in Semantic Construction Product Data Community Group
The Semantic Construction Product Data Community Group has been launched:
Product information in the construction industry today is highly fragmented—scattered across Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), BIM models (e.g., IFC), Product Data Templates (PDTs), CE markings, technical sheets, and sustainability labels. To support new regulatory and digital demands, this group seeks to develop shared ontologies and linked data patterns that unify such fragmented data.
The mission of this Community Group is therefore to define, structure, and promote future open semantic standards for digital construction product data, enabling interoperability, transparency, and automation across the construction sector.
Objectives
- Develop shared ontologies and data models (using OWL/RDF) for construction products
- Align with existing classification systems and standards such as IFC, eClass, CEN/ISO
- Create SHACL-based validation patterns for scenarios such as EPD compliance or CPR alignment
- Provide guidance for data providers via reference implementations and example datasets
- Enable use cases tied to DPPs, sustainability reporting, lifecycle analysis, and public procurement
Participation
The group welcomes in particular participants with these interests and skills:
- Architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals
- Semantic web and knowledge graph developers
- Standards bodies and regulatory authorities
- Open data and digital transformation advocates
- Researchers working in BIM, LCA, EPDs, DPPs, and related fields
Deliverables
- Construction product ontology and linked data vocabulary
- SHACL validation patterns for compliance and reasoning
- Mappings to existing industrial standards (e.g., IFC, ISO 23386, ISO 22057)
- Use-case guides, RDF example datasets, and reference implementations
- Summary report or W3C Community Gropu Report
In order to join the group, you will need a W3C account. Please note, however, that W3C Membership is not required to join a Community Group.
This is a community initiative. This group was originally proposed on 2025-06-03 by Baran Bacak. The following people supported its creation: Victor Lu, Jakob Deich, Baran Bacak, Selin Kalender Miran and Sinan Erbay. W3C’s hosting of this group does not imply endorsement of the activities.
The group must now choose a chair. Read more about how to get started in a new group and good practice for running a group.
We invite you to share news of this new group on social media and other channels.
If you believe that there is an issue with this group that requires the attention of the W3C staff, please email us at site-comments@w3.org
Thank you,
W3C Community Development Team
