1. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having stored thereon instructions for exchanging a data stream of information that varies over time using a message format, wherein the message format comprises: a version field that indicates a version of a structure of the message format; one or more resources fields that each identifies a resource to be imported into the data stream exchanging the data stream; one or more records that represent time-variant data samples being exchanged in the message; one or more descriptor fields, wherein each descriptor field corresponds to at least one respective record of the one or more records and contains metadata describing data contained within the at least one record; and a description field having a human-readable string formatted in Universal Character Set and Transformation Format (UTF) to describe a time-variant stream from which the time-variant data samples are derived, wherein the description field is configured to enable later analysis of the exchange of the data stream.