Leuven ZIG Meeting, July 2000

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Overview of the W3C
Leuven ZIG Meeting, July 2000
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W3C Was established in 1994

• To develop common protocols for the web,
• promote its evolution, and
• improve interoperability.
• Motto

"lead the Web to its full potential"
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What is the W3C?

• Two Views
• The W3C View
• The cynical view

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"lead the Web to its full potential AND
W3C View

• ensure that the web remains a robust, scalable,
  and adaptive infrastructure
• make the web accessible to as many users as
  possible
• promote technologies that bridge differences in
  culture, education, ability, material resources,
  and physical limitations.

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Cynical View
W3C is an invention of Microsoft, Netscape, and
IBM, to enable them to bring products to market
more quickly.
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An international industry consortium jointly
hosted by institutions in

• (MIT)
• (INRIA)
• (Keio University, Japan)

• the US
• Europe
• Asia

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424 members (as of June 23)

• commercial companies
• academic institutions
• consortiums
• government agencies

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commercial companies

• hardware,
• software,
• and telecommunications companies
• content providers
• and corporate users.

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• Adobe Systems Inc.
• America Online, Inc.
• American Express
• Andromedia
• Apple Computer, Inc.
• ATT
• Autodesk, Inc.
• Baltimore Technologies
• The Boeing Company
• University of Bologna
• University of Bristol
• Bull S.A.
• Cardiff Software
• CERN
• Cisco Systems
• CiTEC
• CITIBANK, N.A.

• CNRS
• Coalition for Networked Information
• Compaq Computer Corporation
• Concur Technologies
• Corel Corporation
• Data Channel
• Data Research Associates, Inc.
• Eastman Kodak Company
• Federal Geographic Data Committee
• France Telecom
• Fretwell-Downing
• Fulcrum Technologies, Inc.
• GE Information Services, Inc.
• George Washington University
• Graphic Communications Association
• The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

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• Hewlett Packard Company
• HiT Software
• Hitachi, Ltd.
• HitchHiker Software GmbH
• Honda Motor Co., Ltd
• Hong Kong Jockey Club
• HTML Writers Guild, Inc.
• IBM Corporation
• IBM Taiwan Corporation
• IEEE Computer Society
• Intel Corporation
• DOI Foundation
• Japan Broadcasting Corporation
• Keio University
• Library of Congress

• Lotus
• Lucent Technologies
• MIT
• Merrill Lynch
• Metropolitan Police Service
• Microsoft Corporation
• Microstar Software Ltd.
• Microsystems Software, Inc.
• MindQuake Interactive, Inc.
• MITRE Corporation
• Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
• Motorola
• NASA Ames Research Center
• NSA
• National Univ of Singapore

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• NBC Internet
• NCR
• NEC Corporation
• Network Solutions
• University of New South Wales
• Nokia
• OCLC
• Open Text Corporation
• SilverPlatter Information Inc.
• Stack Overflow AG
• Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• EPA
• Web3D Consortium
• webMethods, Inc.
• WinStar
• Xerox Corporation
• ZOT Group

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Membership

• 50,000. (full)
• 5,000. (affiliate)
• government agencies
• non-profit
• limited revenue

(no difference in privileges)
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Services and Products

• Primary service
• a vendor neutral forum
• Primary product
• Recommendations

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W3C Recommendations
HTML 4.01
XML
CSS
RDF
XHTML
(XML) Namespaces
SMIL
DOM
PICS
Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines
Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
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Stages of a Recomendation

• Working Draft
• in development (42)
• last call (15)
• Candidate Recommendation (3)
• Proposed Recommendation (1)
• Recommendation (22)

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Organizational Elements

• Staff. About 60. The Team
• Advisory Committee/Board
• Working Groups

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Domains

• User Interface
• Technology and Society
• Architecture
• Web Accessibility Initiative

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User Interface

• Premise
• As web information continues to grow, both in
  volume and variety, it will be used by a greater
  diversity of people, and simplicity and
  interoperability will take on even greater
  importance.
• Focus
• formats/languages that will present information
  to users with more accuracy and a higher level
  of control

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User Interface DomainActivities

• HTML
• Style sheets
• Graphics
• Internationalization (character sets)
• Document Object Model
• Mobile Access
• Synchronized Multimedia
• Voice Browsers

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Domains

• User Interface
• Technology and Society
• Architecture
• Web Accessibility Initiative

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Technology and Society

• trying to understand the social impact of the
  web ..
• Looks at Ethical and Legal issues...
• electronic commerce
• privacy
• from an international perspective, (seeking)
  to understand these issues in light of new
  technology, both by changing the technology and
  by educating users about technology's benefits,
  costs, and limits."

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Technology and Society (continued)

• Educate public and policy makers about web
  capabilities and how these affect and are
  affected by proposed policies.
• support a diverse range of public policy options
  without cultural fragmentation or domination.

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Technology and Society DomainActivities

• Metadata
• RDF
• Digital Signature Initiative
• various privacy and security-related initiatives.

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Domains

• User Interface
• Technology and Society
• Architecture
• Web Accessibility Initiative

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Architecture

• HTTP
• XML
• naming and addressing
• web characterization

But Mostly
XML
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XML

• XML Schema
• XML Linking
• Namespaces
• XML Core
• Canonical XML
• XML Information Set
• XML Query language

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Domains

• User Interface
• Technology and Society
• Architecture
• Web Accessibility Initiative

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Web Accessibility Initiative

• promote web-usability and accessibility with
  respect to various
• constraints
• and disabilities

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Constraints

• noisy surroundings
• poor illumination
• eyes, ears, or hands busy (e.g.driving to work)
• loud environment
• early version of browser, voice browser,
  different operating system
• text-only screen, small screen, slow Internet
  connection.

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Disabilities

• inability to see, hear, move, process certain
  types of information
• difficulty reading or comprehending text
• inability to use a keyboard or mouse
• lack of fluency of the language in which a
  document is written

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Guidelines Produced by WAI

• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• User Agent Accessibility guidelines
• Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines

W3C Recommendation May 1999
W3C Candidate Recommendation Jan 2000
W3C Recommendation Feb 1999
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• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
• how to make web content accessible to people
  with disabilities.
• User Agent Accessibility guidelines
• Designing user agents accessible to people with
  disabilities -- graphical desktop browsers,
  multi-media players, text/voice browsers,
  plug-ins, other assistive technologies.
• Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines
• How to design authoring tools that produce
  accessible web content, and create accessible
  authoring interfaces.

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W3c in 7 Pointshttp//www.w3.org/Consortium/Point
s/

• Universal Access
• Semantic Web
• Trust
• Interoperability
• Evolvability
• Decentralization
• Cooler Multimedia!

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Universal Access

• Internationalization
• Mobile Access
• TVWeb
• Voice Browser
• Web Accessibility Initiative

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Semantic Web

• RDF
• XML
• digital signatures

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Trust

• digital signatures
• annotation mechanisms
• group authoring
• versioning

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Improved Multimedia

• Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) language
• Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language
  (SMIL).
• To achieve
• interactivity
• richer media
• resizable images
• quality sound, video, 3D effects
• animation?

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IETF and W3C

• Open. Meetings attended by anyone who wishes to
  participate.
• Effective for collection of ideas, and
  providing criticism, from a wide community.
• Domain Internet protocols

• Assigns defined groups of committed experts to
  solve specific tasks.
• effective at producing specifications likely to
  meet the needs of mem-bers and the community.
• Domain architecture of the Web