Who we are
What we are
the open data substrate that binds meaning into the data itself, beneath whatever action or AI layer runs on top.
a governance dashboard, an AI product, or a platform you rent.
We are the default substrate everyone else builds on.
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.
How we speak
We don't claim what we can't prove.
A discipline, not a slogan, which is why the next thing on this page is the proof.
The receipts
Six of them, generalized. Each is backed by open code, an open standard, or a published paper you can verify yourself.
An identifier is fixed at publication and the model version is namespaced, so an instance still validates against its exact component years later.
Verify →The engine returns PERMIT, DENY, or INDETERMINATE with a tamper-evident receipt, before an agent acts, not a dashboard after the fact.
Verify →The reference model is W3C XML Schema 1.1, the engines are Apache-2.0, and every output is an open standard: RDF, SHACL, JSON-LD.
Verify →Identifiers are minted offline and the meaning is carried in the record, so it validates with no external service in the loop.
Verify →Deterministic, CPU-bound validation, modeled against inference-based governance across scale. A modeling study, not a measurement.
Read the paper →SDC components align under the Basic Formal Ontology as generically dependent continuants through a bridge module, and interoperate without re-mapping.
Verify →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.