SIGMA Project Status Report

As of: 2026-05-02 19:26:18 +06 (+0600) Repository: sigma-standards/sigma-index Primary source of truth: RESEARCH_PROJECT_PLAN_Global_Standards_Index.md Execution roadmap: docs/superpowers/plans/2026-05-02-roadmap-to-100-percent-global-standards-index.md Project owner and lead curator: Mohammad Ariful Islam Public contact path: https://github.com/sigma-standards/sigma-index/issues

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1. Executive Summary

SIGMA is now a working public MVP for a unified global standards index. The project has moved from a small landing-page-and-seed-data repository into a reproducible data engineering pipeline with release artifacts, rendered GitHub Pages documentation, public search, quality gates, and a growing set of source-backed priority ingestors.

Current release baseline:

The project should be considered about 22 percent complete against the full 100 percent global vision and about 70 percent complete against the public MVP layer. That distinction matters: SIGMA already has visible public value, but the complete project still requires deeper source expansion, richer metadata, broader relationship modeling, and formal publication packages.

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2. Journey Accomplishments So Far

2.1 Infrastructure and Publication

Completed accomplishments:

1. Established a reproducible repository structure for raw, reference, processed, staging, relationship, report, and publication layers.
2. Added deterministic validation through make validate.
3. Added release artifact generation through make release.
4. Added GitHub Pages static-site generation through scripts/build_static_site.py.
5. Added rendered project documentation so public links no longer open as raw Markdown.
6. Added public search through Pagefind plus a JSON fallback search index.
7. Added progress and owner/contact signals to the public site.
8. Added a quality gate report in docs/QUALITY_GATE.md.
9. Added a project knowledge graph in docs/PROJECT_KNOWLEDGE_GRAPH.md.
10. Incorporated external feedback into docs/SIGMA_GAP_ANALYSIS_AND_ENHANCEMENT_PLAN.md.

2.2 Data and Source Coverage

Completed or active data families:

2.3 Documentation and Governance

The repository now has:

1. A research plan for the full project vision.
2. A roadmap to 100 percent completion.
3. A machine-readable research task matrix.
4. A schema document for the 22-field master entry contract.
5. Contributing and code-of-conduct documents.
6. A project knowledge graph.
7. A friend-reviewed gap analysis incorporated into the working roadmap.
8. A public GitHub Issues contact path.

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3. Previous Experience and Lessons Learned

3.1 What Worked Well

The strongest pattern has been small, source-backed ingestion slices. Each successful slice followed the same shape:

1. Confirm the source family belongs in the roadmap.
2. Store official source evidence in data/reference/.
3. Write a deterministic processor or stager.
4. Write tests around the expected rows and schema behavior.
5. Generate either data/processed/ rows or data/staging/ candidates.
6. Update data/reference/research_tasks.csv.
7. Update data/reference/source_registry.csv.
8. Update public documentation.
9. Run validation and publish locally and remotely.

This pattern avoided overreaching while still steadily expanding the project.

3.2 Main Challenges

3.3 Best Practices Established

1. Staging before promotion: broad harvesters write to data/staging/ until a curator approves promotion.
2. Reference before processed: every promoted record should trace back to a source row or source family.
3. Validation before publication: make validate and tests run before release or push.
4. Generated artifacts stay generated: dist/ and public/ are rebuilt, not treated as hand-edited source.
5. Small ingestors beat giant scrapers: one clear source family at a time keeps quality high.
6. Official URLs are mandatory: every new row must include a durable source link where possible.
7. Task matrix stays current: every phase change updates research_tasks.csv.
8. Source registry stays current: every new source family updates source_registry.csv.
9. Docs move with data: README, index page, roadmap, and knowledge graph are updated alongside pipelines.
10. Local and remote remain aligned: each accepted change is committed and pushed.

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4. Current State by Roadmap Phase

Phase 0 - Infrastructure Hardening

Status: active and largely operational.

Completed:

1. Reproducible validation.
2. Release artifact build.
3. Static public site.
4. Rendered project references.
5. Public search.
6. Quality gate.
7. Owner/contact placement.

Remaining:

1. Add live URL health summaries to the public site.
2. Add duplicate/adoption reports by source family.
3. Add release notes automation.
4. Add versioned release tags and archival package workflow.

Phase 1 - Free Bulk Source Completion

Status: strong foundation, still needs refresh and enrichment.

Completed:

1. ISO seed metadata.
2. IETF RFC metadata.
3. ILO metadata.
4. Wikidata standards-body reference data.
5. Google Sheet sync path.

Remaining:

1. Refresh ISO, IETF, and ILO from official current exports.
2. Add richer relationship edges: replacements, updates, committees, classifications, and national adoptions.
3. Improve why_it_matters, mandate notes, and sub-domain normalization for bulk rows.

Phase 2 - Human Rights, Humanitarian, Health, Labour, Education, and Development

Status: high-impact priority layer started.

Completed or active:

1. WHO/Sphere/WASH priority records.
2. Codex priority records.
3. Humanitarian standards expansion.
4. WHO IRIS staging.
5. UN/OHCHR treaty staging.

Remaining:

1. Promote reviewed UN treaty candidates into processed records.
2. Harden WHO IRIS filters and promote only normative standards/guidelines.
3. Expand Codex into a fuller catalogue.
4. Add IPPC ISPMs, WOAH codes/manuals, FAOLEX staging, and education/development frameworks.

Important official resources:

1. WHO IRIS: https://iris.who.int/
2. WHO publications: https://www.who.int/publications
3. Codex standards list: https://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/codex-texts/list-standards/
4. UN Treaty Collection: https://treaties.un.org/
5. OHCHR core instruments: https://www.ohchr.org/en/core-international-human-rights-instruments-and-their-monitoring-bodies

Phase 3 - Environment, Climate, and Natural Systems

Status: early but important source-backed work has begun through IAEA.

Completed or active:

1. IAEA Safety Standards priority records.

Remaining:

1. Expand IAEA beyond the priority slice.
2. Add climate and environment frameworks.
3. Add biodiversity, disaster risk, geospatial, water, and environmental management standards.

Important official resources:

1. IAEA Safety Standards: https://www.iaea.org/resources/safety-standards
2. UNFCCC: https://unfccc.int/
3. IPCC: https://www.ipcc.ch/
4. Convention on Biological Diversity: https://www.cbd.int/

Phase 4 - Finance, Trade, and Economic Governance

Status: first sustainability reporting slice is active.

Completed or active:

1. GRI/SASB sustainability reporting records.

Remaining:

1. Add ISSB.
2. Add ESRS.
3. Add GHG Protocol.
4. Add WTO agreements and trade-related standards.
5. Add financial market, accounting, audit, and anti-corruption frameworks.

Important official resources:

1. GRI Standards: https://www.globalreporting.org/standards/
2. SASB Standards: https://sasb.ifrs.org/standards/
3. ISSB/IFRS sustainability standards: https://www.ifrs.org/issued-standards/ifrs-sustainability-standards-navigator/
4. WTO legal texts: https://www.wto.org/english/docs_e/legal_e/legal_e.htm

Phase 5 - ICT, Digital, AI, and Cybersecurity

Status: strongest expansion area after the initial seed layer.

Completed or active:

1. NIST cybersecurity and AI priority records.
2. W3C web standards.
3. ITU telecommunications.
4. ETSI ICT standards.
5. OASIS, Ecma, and GS1 priority records.

Remaining:

1. Expand NIST beyond the priority slice.
2. Add IANA registry relationships.
3. Add IEEE priority metadata where lawful open metadata is available.
4. Add 3GPP and additional ETSI release metadata.
5. Add AI governance and data protection frameworks.

Important official resources:

1. NIST CSRC: https://csrc.nist.gov/publications
2. W3C standards: https://www.w3.org/TR/
3. ITU Recommendations: https://www.itu.int/rec/
4. ETSI standards search: https://www.etsi.org/standards
5. OASIS standards: https://www.oasis-open.org/standards/
6. Ecma standards: https://ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/
7. GS1 standards: https://www.gs1.org/standards

Phase 6 - Transport, Energy, Manufacturing, and Built Environment

Status: priority slices started for electrotechnical and space standards.

Completed or active:

1. IEC priority metadata.
2. CCSDS and ECSS space standards.

Remaining:

1. Expand IEC coverage from priority rows toward a larger catalogue.
2. Add ICAO aviation standards.
3. Add IMO maritime instruments.
4. Add ASTM, ASME, CEN, CENELEC, building, fire, transport, and manufacturing standards metadata.

Important official resources:

1. IEC standards: https://webstore.iec.ch/
2. CCSDS publications: https://public.ccsds.org/Publications/
3. ECSS standards: https://ecss.nl/standards/
4. ICAO: https://www.icao.int/
5. IMO: https://www.imo.org/

Phase 7 - Society, Culture, Sports, Legal, and Specialised Domains

Status: culture and heritage plus sports priority work are active.

Current and planned high-impact slices:

1. Culture and heritage standards.
2. Sports and recreation standards.

Recommended execution order:

1. Expand culture and heritage beyond the first UNESCO, ICOMOS, ICOM, and ICCROM priority records.
2. Expand sports and recreation beyond the first WADA, IOC, IFAB, World Athletics, CAS, FIBA, and ITF priority records.

Important official resources:

1. UNESCO conventions: https://www.unesco.org/en/legal-affairs/conventions
2. ICOMOS doctrinal texts: https://www.icomos.org/en/resources/charters-and-texts
3. ICOM Code of Ethics: https://icom.museum/en/resources/standards-guidelines/code-of-ethics/
4. WADA Code: https://www.wada-ama.org/en/what-we-do/world-anti-doping-code
5. Olympic Charter: https://olympics.com/ioc/olympic-charter
6. IFAB Laws of the Game: https://www.theifab.com/laws/latest/

Phase 8 - National Standards Bodies and Regional Networks

Status: initial registry slice active.

Completed or active:

1. First national standards body registry slice.

Remaining:

1. Expand toward all ISO national member bodies.
2. Add regional networks such as ARSO, ASEAN, COPANT, CEN, CENELEC, and Gulf/MENA/Pacific networks.
3. Add relationships among national bodies, ISO membership, and regional bodies.

Important official resources:

1. ISO members: https://www.iso.org/members.html
2. CEN: https://www.cencenelec.eu/
3. ARSO: https://www.arso-oran.org/
4. COPANT: https://copant.org/

Phase 9 - Verification, Publication, and Community Launch

Status: quality gate active; formal launch packaging remains.

Completed or active:

1. Static Pages publication.
2. Search layer.
3. Release artifacts.
4. Deterministic quality gate.

Remaining:

1. Add HDX publication package.
2. Add Zenodo archival DOI workflow.
3. Add release notes and versioning.
4. Add contributor issue templates for new source families and record corrections.
5. Add public quality dashboard and URL-health reporting.

Important resources:

1. HDX: https://data.humdata.org/
2. Zenodo GitHub integration: https://help.zenodo.org/docs/github/

Phase 19 - Enhanced Integration Roadmap

Status: planned.

Remaining:

1. Hybrid tabular plus graph architecture.
2. Knowledge graph exports.
3. GraphRAG-ready query layer.
4. Scheduled source refresh automation.
5. Multilingual labels and summaries.
6. API and faceted browsing.
7. Sustainability, governance, and partnership model.

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5. Recommended Next Execution Steps

Step 1 - Phase 7A Culture and Heritage Expansion

Deliverables:

1. Expand data/reference/culture_priority_sources.csv.
2. Expand data/processed/culture_heritage_standards.csv.
3. Add more ICOMOS doctrinal texts and ICCROM publication families.
4. Add relationship edges to humanitarian response, education, indigenous rights, environment, and disaster risk.
5. Keep README, index, roadmap, knowledge graph, and gap analysis synchronized.

Candidate records:

1. Burra Charter.
2. Valletta Principles.
3. Historic Urban Landscape Recommendation.
4. Additional ICCROM conservation and collections-care resources.
5. Additional UNESCO cultural property and restitution instruments.

Step 2 - Phase 7B Sports and Recreation Expansion

Deliverables:

1. Expand data/reference/sports_priority_sources.csv.
2. Expand data/processed/sports_recreation_standards.csv.
3. Add UNESCO anti-doping treaty and FIFA legal instruments.
4. Add sports safeguarding and athlete-rights frameworks.
5. Add relationship edges to health, law, human rights, safety, and event management.

Candidate records:

1. UNESCO International Convention Against Doping in Sport.
2. FIFA Statutes and legal instruments.
3. ISO TC 83 sports equipment domain tagging.
4. ICC cricket playing conditions.
5. International safeguarding frameworks.

Step 3 - Promote UN Treaty Staging

Tasks:

1. Review data/staging/un_treaty_candidates.csv.
2. Confirm official treaty status URLs and entry-into-force metadata.
3. Promote high-confidence records into data/processed/.
4. Add treaty-protocol and treaty-body relationship edges.

Step 4 - Harden WHO IRIS Staging

Tasks:

1. Add stricter normative metadata filters.
2. Add tests preventing general reports from entering release data.
3. Promote only curator-approved WHO guidelines, classifications, and technical standards.

Step 5 - Expand Phase 5 and Phase 6 Catalogues

Tasks:

1. Expand IEC beyond priority metadata.
2. Expand ETSI/3GPP-related references.
3. Expand ITU beyond the initial recommendations.
4. Add IEEE metadata where public metadata is lawful and stable.
5. Add ICAO and IMO priority records.

Step 6 - Build Publication Packages

Tasks:

1. Add HDX dataset metadata and upload checklist.
2. Add Zenodo citation metadata.
3. Add release notes template.
4. Add version tag checklist.
5. Add public quality dashboard links.

Step 7 - Enrichment and Quality Upgrade

Tasks:

1. Prioritize top standards for why_it_matters enrichment.
2. Add mandate notes and regulatory references.
3. Normalize sub-domain labels.
4. Add URL health reports.
5. Add duplicate/adoption detection.
6. Add relationship edge expansion.

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6. Operational Checklist for Every Future Slice

For each source family:

1. Confirm it is in the research plan or add it to the roadmap.
2. Use official source URLs only.
3. Add a reference CSV first.
4. Write or update tests before implementation where behavior changes.
5. Generate processed rows only for curated, standards-relevant records.
6. Put broad or noisy metadata in data/staging/.
7. Run the source-specific make target.
8. Run .venv/bin/python -m pytest -q.
9. Run make validate.
10. Run make pagefind-search when public search or site surfaces change.
11. Run git diff --check.
12. Commit with a clear message.
13. Push to origin/main.
14. Verify GitHub Actions and Pages deployment.

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7. Definition of Success for the Next Milestone

The next milestone should be considered complete when:

1. Phase 7A culture and heritage records are expanded beyond the first priority slice.
2. Phase 7B sports and recreation records are expanded beyond the first priority slice.
3. UN treaty candidates have a promotion pathway.
4. WHO IRIS staging has stricter filters.
5. The public site shows the current report, roadmap, task matrix, knowledge graph, gap analysis, and quality gate as rendered HTML.
6. Local main and origin/main remain synchronized.

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8. Closing Note

The project has already crossed the most difficult early threshold: it is no longer just an idea or a static list. It is a living, validated, searchable standards-index pipeline. The next stage is about depth, trust, and polish: more authoritative sources, richer explanations, cleaner relationships, visible quality evidence, and formal publication channels.

The safest path to 100 percent is not one giant scrape. It is steady, source-backed, tested expansion by domain and phase.