The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): An
Overview
Daniel Dardailler
W3C Deputy Director for Europe
Sophia-Antipolis - FRANCE
mailto:danield@w3.org
This talk is available on the Web, and linked from http://www.w3.org/Talks. Please
take advantage of the links in the Web version to find more information.
Abstract
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is
the organization responsible for the specification of (X)HTML, XML, CSS, RDF, and many other technologies. The talk
will give an overview of W3C to help participants to understand what W3C does
and how they can get involved and benefit.
W3C is a membership organization with about 500 Members, many
companies but also other kinds of institutions. Membership benefits include
participation in specification development and decisions and access to all
member-only information. The W3C is lead by its Director, Tim Berners-Lee, the
inventor of the WWW and creator of HTML, HTTP, and URIs. Tim is assisted by a
Team of about 60 people, technical
experts as well as communication, administration, and system specialists.
Specifications are developed in working groups, followed by W3C-internal and
public review, implementation experience, and formal approval by the
membership.
The goal of W3C is leading the Web to its full potential. This of
course starts with technical leadership in finding consensus on technologies.
But it also includes a commitment to universality, with respect to people's
language, culture, abilities, and preferences. To further improve the quality
of specifications and implementations, a Quality Assurance Activity has
recently been launched.
W3C is a truely worldwide organization. The Team is based at three Hosts:
MIT/LCS (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Laboratory for Computer
Science) in the USA, INRIA (Institut National
de Recherche en Informatique et Automatiqe) in France, and Keio University in
Japan. Ten Offices in
Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia support outreach efforts. W3C
specifications are being translated by voluneers
into many languages.
Goals of this Talk
At the end of this talk, you should understand better:
- What W3C is doing, and why
- How you can benefit from W3C
- How you can contribute to W3C
What do you know about the W3C?
- What does 'W3C' stand for?
- How many Members does the W3C have?
- Who is the Director of the W3C?
- Where is the W3C?
- What are the W3C's main products?
Answers
- W3C = World Wide Web
Consortium
- More than 500 companies and institutions are W3C Members
- Tim Berners-Lee
, inventor of the WWW including HTML,
HTTP, and URIs, is the Director of the W3C since 1994.
- The W3C is on the Web at http://www.w3.org.
(It is hosted by MIT, INRIA, and Keio University, with 10 Offices supporting
outreach efforts.)
- W3C mainly produces specifications called Recommendations. Examples: (X)HTML, XML, CSS, RDF, XSLT, XML Schema,
VoiceXML, XForms
The Web Community
In general:
- People using the WWW
- People and companies creating content/applications for the WWW
- People and companies creating software for the WWW
- People and organizations creating and coordinating standardization for
the WWW
At W3C:
- Employees from over 500 Member companies and institutions and many
other people
- About 65 Team Members:
Technical staff, management, communication, administration, system
support, Fellows
- 3 Host sites: MIT/LCS (Massachusetts
Institute of Technology, Laboratory
for Computer Science) in the USA, INRIA (Institut
National de Recherche en Informatique et Automatiqe) in France, and Keio
University in Japan.
- 10 Offices in Asia
(Hong Kong, Israel), Europe, Africa (Marocco), and Australia support
outreach efforts. Office in Korea being discussed.
The W3C: Leading the Web to its Full Potential
This sentence is very difficult to translate. But it is not so difficult
to explain.
Do you think the WWW is very powerful and convenient?
Do you think the WWW can become better? We think that it can become a lot
better!
We are in particular commited to:
- Universal access:
- Technology that works independent of language or culture
(Internationalization Activity)
- Technology that works independent of abilities and physical
limitations of users (WAI Domain)
- Technology that works independent of material resources (Device
Independence Activity)
- Semantic Web:
- Easier user access to the resources on the Web
- See second talk: Web Architecture: From URIs to the Semantic
Web
- Web of Trust:
- Content labeling and filtering (PICS)
- Privacy (P3P)
- XML Signatures, XML Encription
See also W3C in 7
points.
W3C's Open Consensus Process
- Working Group is chartered
- Working Drafts are published regularly
- Last Call requests comments from other Working Groups and the
public
- Candidate Recommendation requests implementation experience
- Proposed Recommendation requests formal comments by the W3C Members
- Recommendation indicates community consensus (Web standard)
Quality Assurance
- Implementation quality for different W3C Recommendations varies
widely
- Quality Assurance Activity launched August 2001
- Coordination of test suites, validation tools, specification
publication process,...
- Raising awareness and increasing outreach efforts
How can you benefit from the W3C?
How can you contribute to the W3C?
W3C Member Benefits
- Information: Full access to all member-only material (Web site,
unpublished working drafts, working group mailing list archives) for all
employees
- Identification: Participation in Press Releases, W3C Members Logo,...
- Involvement: Participation in Working Groups, delegating Fellows to
W3C
- Influence: Comment on Activity and Working Group proposals, Proposed
Recommendations, and general W3C policy through Advisory Committee
Representative
Benefits are the same for all Members. There are two different Member
categories, with a different price tag depending on profit and gross
revenue.
Conclusions
- The Web will become much more useful than it already is.
- You can help W3C to make it more useful.
- You can benefit from the work of W3C.