World Wide Web Consortium Launches W3C European Interop Tour
Presentations in Paris, Vienna, Dublin and Brussels bring news of Web Technologies, expand W3C Office Regions
http://www.w3.org/ -- 21 May 2002 -- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) launches a series of one-day events across Europe starting today in Paris, France, and ending on 3 June 2002 in Brussels, Belgium. During this "W3C Interop Tour," W3C Team and invited speakers will give presentations on how W3C technologies fit together to form the technical foundation for the ever-evolving Web. In addition, during the Interop Tour, W3C will launch three new regional W3C Offices, with the goal of expanding the impact of W3C in Europe.
Bringing the W3C Message of Interoperability
W3C has published over 40 Recommendations, covering a range of Web technologies. These include multimedia (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language, or SMIL), privacy (Platform for Privacy Preferences, or P3P), XML, metadata (Resource Description Framework, or RDF), mathematics, and Scalable Vector Graphics. The goal of the Interop Tour is to explain and show how these technologies interoperate and complement each other, and how developers may build new applications that take full advantage of them.
W3C Interop Events Scheduled for Four Regions
The timetable and locations of the events are as follows:
- 21 May: Paris, France, Maison de La Chimie (announcement also available on the host site in French)
- 28 May: Vienna, Austria, Crowne Plaza Vienna (announcement also available on the Office site in German)
- 30 May: Dublin, Ireland, Central Hotel Dublin (announcement also available on the Office site)
- 3 June: Brussels, Belgium, Diamant Building Congress Center (announcement also available on the Office site in Dutch and English)
Each event consists of a series of talks about various W3C Recommendations followed by examples of usage. These presentations are done by three to four W3C Team members and an invited speaker representing the local community. All events are open to the public.
The events themselves have been organized by INRIA, the European Host of W3C, and three of the European W3C Offices (Benelux, Germany and Austria, United Kingdom and Ireland).
Improving W3C Presence in Europe Through Regionalization
Since 1998, W3C Offices have been extending the reach of the Consortium beyond the U.S., France, and Japan (where W3C primarily resides); there are twelve W3C Offices today. Some W3C Offices focus on a single country, while others ensure the presence of W3C in several neighboring countries due to similarities in language, culture, frequent contacts, etc. The European regionalization program began in 2002, with funding from the European Commission's QUESTION-HOW project. As a result of this program:
- the W3C United Kingdom Office has now become the W3C Office for the United Kingdom and Ireland
- the W3C Office in Germany has now become the W3C Office for Germany and Austria
- the W3C Office in the Netherlands has now become the W3C Benelux Office (ie, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg)
The W3C Interop tour is the first public event for these three regional Offices.
About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]
The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run by the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, nearly 500 organizations are Members of the Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/
- Contact America --
- Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
- Contact Europe --
- Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94
- Contact Asia --
- Saeko Takeuchi <saeko@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170