Introduction

At Formata, we're building a world where data is more secure, easily governed, and readily available - one with efficient and user-friendly access to high-quality data through a unified, interoperable, and functional format called Stof.

What

Stof (docs) is efficient, governable, and accessible data that is much simpler to use, offering fine-grained control and sandboxed manipulation between computer systems without the need for additional application code, servers, and dependencies.

Why

The logic and cost involved in deciphering, unifying, and validating data entering and leaving computer systems are growing exponentially, becoming a bottleneck and limiting factor for next-generation federated applications and AI.

Stof drastically decreases the amount of application code it takes to do this by moving this logic into the data layer, creating a standard interface that can be used by all systems today for cheaper and higher-quality access to data, while improving application-level security, developer experience, and data governance.

How

At the foundation of Stof is a proven, time-tested strategy for organizing and unifying large quantities of diverse data. Instead of adding a new standard, Stof is designed to work seamlessly with other data formats and standards, offering a drop-in replacement or addition to existing technologies.

In addition to its data organization capabilities, Stof introduces a functional interface for manipulating, analyzing, and governing the data it contains, becoming a sandboxed execution environment anywhere and at any time. Treating code as data is vital as systems become more decentralized, data becomes larger and more protected, and engineers become more concerned with data and business logic than with source code.

Team

Having more than ten years of engineering experience in data interchange for graphics and intricate data formats, as well as developing languages and tools for data modeling, I am well-prepared to connect applications with the extensive and varied data they depend on to function effectively.

In working at top companies like Siemens and Lockheed Martin (as well as startup companies) and spending the majority of my career in Research and Development, I have the drive and experience required to bring new projects, tools, and products to market. I have a deep passion for working with other motivated individuals to challenge the status quo and make big things happen, and that's exactly the kind of community we're building around Stof.

Progress

Stof exists and is ready to be used today, however, we have a long way to go. Currently, Stof is most usable in Rust (and with the CLI), with limited usability in TypeScript via WebAssembly. Stof needs to work everywhere, with every data format!

As with any embedded language, the system interface is the biggest question mark. However, this can take many forms in Stof, with WASI and our own system libraries being top of mind. Libraries and formats will not travel with Stof over the wire or be saved, so we'll need to develop ways of making these libraries portable and usable from a variety of environments.

Even though there are some challenges to overcome, Stof has proven to be feasible and valuable, opening up new doors and capabilities in engineering and computer science, particularly with AI, code-as-data, governance, classification, unification, and validation.

Your Help

The only way we can make this happen is together. With your sponsorship, contribution, and/or community support, we'll take large strides toward a world where data is more secure, easily governed, and readily available - one with efficient and user-friendly access to high-quality data that is simple and native to the federated and decentralized world we are quickly moving towards.

Thank you for supporting our vision. Please contact us at info@stof.dev if you have any questions, feedback, or want to get more deeply involved. Take a look at our website and docs for more information and examples.