Community and FAQ

Reference

Schema.org is a collaborative, community driven effort. This section collects the background documents that explain how the project operates, who is involved, and how to participate.

In this section

• About describes what schema.org is, its founding sponsors, and its goals.
• How we work explains the governance model, the W3C Community Group process, and how changes are proposed and adopted.
• FAQ answers frequently asked questions about the vocabulary, its relationship to search engines, and how to use it.
• Terms sets out the terms of service for the vocabulary and the website.
• Feedback explains how to report issues and suggest improvements.
• Kickoff is the historical record of the project launch.

How the project works in brief

Schema.org was launched in 2011 by Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Yandex. It is run as a W3C Community Group, which means the vocabulary evolves through open proposals and public discussion rather than a single controlling vendor. Anyone can propose a new type, a new property, or a change to an existing one. Proposals are discussed, refined, and either adopted into a release or held in the pending area for further review.

The vocabulary is published as a set of versioned releases. Each release adds, deprecates, or refines terms. Stable terms live in the core vocabulary, experimental terms live in the pending area, and retired terms move to the attic.