Data format management is necessary as the amount of information and number of people creating it grows.
This is especially the case as the information with which users are working is difficult to generate, store, costly to acquire, or to be shared.
For instance, when browsing the web it is not important which kind of computer is responsible for hosting a site, only that the information it publishes is in a format that is readable by the viewing browser.
In this instance the data format of the published information has more to do with defining compatibilities than the underlying hardware or operating system.
Several initiatives have been established to record those data formats commonly used and the software available to read them, for example the Pronom project at the UK National Archives.