Witness our first attempt at it: The standardization of firearms, followed by successes in standardizing railroads, telegraph signals, and then manufacturing in general (Henry Ford being the most prominent example). Standardizing data is the next logical step, and it escapes me why this has not been undertaken before now. We've made half-hearted stabs at the concept, but .. what we need is a Data Revolution, like the Industrial Revolution was.
I would have thought that as the internet matures
standardization would naturally develop.
Although this can conjure up images of the tower
of Babel, it would seem a logical step.