The layman's version of XML

Simple XML is about as simple as it gets. These two characters are all you need: <> Beyond that, you, your family, group or experiment can define the meaning of behind the tags:

<Parent>  Text or number about </parent>
<child> Number, a series of numbers, or text or image pointer </child>

Once someone agrees to use a format like this, then our browsers can parse it out and store it, without much further ado. The simplicity of basic XML defeats any purpose behind aggregate standards. Groups can build up ad hoc definition of the tags for the current project. The widgets and data figure each other out.