Who we are
We exist so that every record stays understandable, trustworthy and usable wherever it goes. SDC keeps meaning, provenance and governance intact wherever data goes.
What we are
We are
The open data substrate that binds meaning into the data itself, beneath whatever action or AI layer runs on top.
We are not
A governance dashboard, an AI product, or a platform you rent.
Where it came from
SDC began with a question in public health: how can surveillance reliably follow a patient across every point of care, and identify notifiable cases, especially emergencies, as quickly as possible?
Answering it meant binding meaning to the data itself, so a record stays understandable wherever it goes. That turned out to be a general property, not a healthcare one. Health is where we found the truth; the substrate serves any domain that needs its data to mean the same thing after it crosses a boundary.
The receipts
We don't claim what we can't prove. That is a discipline, not a slogan, which is why the next thing on this page is the proof. Six claims, each backed by open code, an open specification or a published paper you can verify yourself.
Permanence
An identifier is fixed at publication and the model version is namespaced, so an instance still validates against its exact component years later.
Determinism
The engine returns PERMIT, DENY or INDETERMINATE with a tamper-evident receipt, before an agent acts, not a dashboard after the fact.
Ownership
The reference model is W3C XML Schema 1.1, the engines are Apache-2.0, and every output is in open standards: RDF, SHACL, JSON-LD.
Air-gapped
Identifiers are minted offline and the meaning is carried in the record, so it validates with no external service in the loop.
Economics
Deterministic, CPU-bound validation, modeled against inference-based governance across scale. A modeling study, not a measurement.
Composition
SDC components align under the Basic Formal Ontology as generically dependent continuants through a bridge module, and interoperate without re-mapping.
Why we build
We commit to creating technology that respects human dignity, safeguards knowledge, and advances the public good through ethical innovation.
Three founders, decades of collaboration, one hundred percent founder-owned.
The specification, the validator and the papers are all open. Start there, and bring us the hard questions afterwards.