GS1 — Identifiers, the Web Vocabulary & Digital Link

The standard already in every barcode

GS1 is the organisation behind the barcode. Its identifier system is the most widely deployed standard on this list — every retail product you've ever scanned carries a GS1 key:

• Identification keys — GTIN (Global Trade Item Number — the product), GLN (Global Location Number — a place/party), SSCC (Serial Shipping Container Code — a logistics unit), and more. These are the stable identifiers half of the standards story, at planet scale.
• GS1 Web Vocabulary (gs1:) — a linked-data vocabulary, designed as a schema.org extension, so product master data can be published as structured data the web understands.
• GS1 Digital Link — the big idea: turn a GTIN into a resolvable URL. A QR code on the pack becomes a web address that resolves to different data for different audiences (consumer info, instructions, batch/expiry, authentication). The barcode becomes a front door to linked data.
• EPCIS — a GS1 standard for sharing supply-chain events (the what / when / where / why of an object moving through a chain), key to traceability and recalls.
• Where it's used — retail, logistics, and increasingly healthcare (UDI — Unique Device Identification for medical devices).

Use Case Example: A grocer puts a GS1 Digital Link QR on a package. A shopper's scan resolves to allergen and recipe info; the warehouse system resolves the same identifier to batch and expiry; a recall later targets exactly the affected GTIN + batch via EPCIS events — one identifier, many resolutions.

GS1 Digital Link gives every physical product a web address. Today a barcode is a dumb number a till looks up in a private database. Digital Link is like giving that can of beans its own URL: scan it and you arrive at a page that knows who's asking — a shopper sees ingredients, the warehouse sees the batch, a regulator sees provenance. Same door, different rooms behind it.

From GTIN to resolvable, audience-aware data

One identifier, expressed as a Digital Link URL, resolves to linked data described with the GS1 / schema.org vocabulary.

FIBO and GS1 field guide: finance vs commerce

FIBO and GS1 are both open-ish standards in the broad commercial world, but they solve different problems:

A bank asks, 'who ultimately controls this counterparty?' That is FIBO. A retailer asks, 'which exact product and lot moved through which depot?' That is GS1. Both are standards, but one models legal/financial meaning; the other anchors physical product identity and movement.