What is the GS1 Web Vocabulary?
Properties, classes and code lists from across GS1 standards are expressed in a Linked Data form as an extension to schema.org. First published in 2014, it sources many terms from the GDSN data model and some from GS1 Global Product Classification (GPC), although it only represents a small subset of each of these sources. The overwhelming majority of terms in the GS1 Web Vocabulary are exactly the same as used in other GS1 standards. For example netContent, functionalName and productName are all exactly the same term in the Web Vocabulary, in GDSN and wherever else they're used in data exchanges based on GS1 standards.
This means that terms used in data models, whether developed at GS1 or elsewhere, have a stable reference for their definition, with a persistent, resolvable URL for each term. Where possible, relationships are declared to equivalent or near-equivalent terms in other vocabularies, notably schema.org.
GS1 link types are defined as properties within the GS1 Web Vocabulary.
What is it for?
The GS1 Web Vocabulary is designed to be used seamlessly in combination with GS1 Digital Link URIs. Not only can GS1 Digital Link URIs be used with GS1-Conformant resolvers to redirect to various kinds of information and services, including master data; GS1 Digital Link URIs can also be used within Linked Data (e.g. within JSON-LD formatted data) as the RDF Subject of various factual claims (or sometimes as the RDF Object or Value of various claims). For example, a Linked Data dataset could express facts about a product identified by a GTIN (using a GS1 Digital Link URI based on GS1 Application Identifier (01)) - or a batch of product identified by GTIN+Batch/Lot (using a GS1 Digital Link URI based on GS1 Application Identifiers (01)+(10) ) or even an individual serialised instance of a product (using a GS1 Digital Link URI based on GS1 Application Identifiers (01)+(21) ).
It can also be used to express facts about an organisation (using a GS1 Digital Link URI based on GS1 Application Identifier (417)) or about a location (using a GS1 Digital Link URI based on GS1 Application Identifier (414)). For example, a block of Linked Data in JSON-LD could use the gs1:manufacturer property to link a product (modelled as a gs1:Product, using a GS1 Digital Link URI with /01/ in its URI path information) to its manufacturer (modelled as a gs1:Organization, using a GS1 Digital Link URI with /417/ in its URI path information).
Namespace
The namespace for the GS1 Web Vocabulary is https://ref.gs1.org/voc/ Current and archive versions of the GS1 Web Vocabulary, published in JSON-LD and Turtle formats, are linked from the namespace URL. A JSON file containing the current set of ratified link types is also published.
The recommended CURIE prefix as an abbreviation for the namespace is gs1:
Change management
Change management of the GS1 Web Vocabulary is under GSMP and follows a specific process.