W3C

2007

Last Call: SVG Print 1.2 Language, Primer

21 December 2007

The SVG Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of SVG Print 1.2, Part 2: Language and SVG Print 1.2, Part 1: Primer. The former defines features of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Language that are specifically for printing environments; the latter provides guidelines on how to use the print specification with SVG 1.2 Tiny and SVG 1.2 Full modules. Comments on both specifications are welcome through 08 February. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of DCCI 1.0 (Candidate Recommendation); first draft of Delivery Context Ontology available

21 December 2007

The Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group has published the Candidate Recommendation of Delivery Context: Client Interfaces (DCCI) 1.0. This document defines platform and language neutral programming interfaces that provide Web applications access to a hierarchy of dynamic properties representing device capabilities, configurations, user preferences and environmental conditions. In addition, the Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Delivery Context Ontology, which provides a formal model for the delivery context which other specifications can reference normatively. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Last Call: Selectors API; New Draft of DOM Level 3 Events

21 December 2007

The Web API Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of Selectors API. Selectors, which are widely used in CSS, are patterns that match against elements in a tree structure. The Selectors API specification defines methods for retrieving Element nodes from the Document Object Model (DOM) by matching against a group of selectors. Comments are welcome through 06 January 2008. The Working Group has also published a Working Draft of DOM Level 3 Events, a generic platform- and language-neutral event system which allows registration of event handlers, describes event flow through a tree structure, and provides basic contextual information for each event. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Device Description Repository Core Vocabulary

21 December 2007

The Mobile Web Initiative Device Description Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Device Description Repository Core Vocabulary. This document describes the Device Description Repository Core Vocabulary for Content Adaptation, that is, the properties that are considered essential for adaptation of content in the mobile Web. Its intended use is to define a baseline vocabulary for implementations of the Device Description Repository (DDR). Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.

Public Virtual Seminar on Web Issues to be Organized by W3C Spain Office

20 December 2007

On 23 January 2008, the W3C Spain Office will hold a virtual seminar where W3C staff will discuss the latest news in Web topics such as e-Government, Video on the Web, and Mobile Web in developing countries; see the program for the full list of topics and speakers. The public is invited to participate over the Internet in the seminar, which will take place in English from 15:00 to 18:00 (CET); see the participation instructions. The seminar, hosted by UPM, will also be broadcast online. Learn more about the W3C Spain Office.

Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Drafts: Format, Best Practices, Primer

19 December 2007

The Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Working Group has published three documents: First Public Working Drafts of EXI Best Practices and EXI Primer, as well as a Working Draft of EXI Format 1.0. EXI is a very compact representation for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Information Set that is intended to simultaneously optimize performance and the utilization of computational resources. Using a relatively simple algorithm, which is amenable to fast and compact implementation, and a small set of data types, it reliably produces efficient encodings of XML event streams. The primer and best practices documents complement the format specification. The best practices document also presents information suitable for the general reader interested in EXI's intended role in the expanding Web. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Cool URIs for the Semantic Web (First Public Draft)

17 December 2007

The Semantic Web Education and Outreach Interest Group has released a first Working Draft of a document explaining the effective use of URIs to enable the growth of the Semantic Web. URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers) — more simply called "Web addresses" — are at the heart of the Web and also of the Semantic Web. Cool URIs for the Semantic Web discusses two strategies for choosing URIs for the Semantic Web, gives pointers to several Web sites that use these solutions, and briefly discusses why several other alternatives are less effective. Comments on this draft are requested by 21 January, to be integrated into a final document at the end of the Group's charter. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Note: Device Description Repository Requirements 1.0

17 December 2007

The Mobile Web Initiative Device Description Working Group has published the Group Note of Device Description Repository Requirements 1.0. This document describes the use cases for a Device Description Repository (DDR). Each use case is analyzed in order to determine the behavior expected of a DDR in order to realize it. These expected behaviors are captured as high-level requirements, which when normalized across all use cases, lead to a discrete set of DDR requirements. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.

Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0; MathML for CSS profile; XML Entity definitions

14 December 2007

The Math Working Group has published three Working Drafts: Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0, A MathML for CSS profile, and the First Public Working Draft of XML Entity definitions for Characters. The first defines the Mathematical Markup Language (MathML), an XML application for describing mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content, for publication on the Web. The second describes a profile of MathML 3.0 that admits formatting with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). The third defines several sets of names which are assigned to Unicode characters. Learn more about the Math Activity.

Industry Leaders Discuss Better Integration of Video on the Web

12 December 2007

Video on the Web is hot! That is why Adobe, Apple, Canon, CBS Interactive, Cisco, Comcast, Disney, Hitachi, Motorola, Mozilla, Nokia, Opera, RealNetworks, Samsung, Sony, Sun, Turner Broadcasting, Web3D Consortium, YouTube, and other industry leaders have chosen to meet in San Jose (California) at the W3C Video on the Web Workshop on 12-13 December 2007 to discuss the video landscape. More and more people are publishing high-quality video, social networks are sprouting up around Web-delivered media, and IPTV (Internet-based delivery of television programming) is maturing rapidly. These and other changes pose challenges to the underlying technologies and standards to support the platform-independent creation, authoring, encoding/decoding, and description of video. To ensure the success of video as a "first class citizen" of the Web, W3C has invited the community to explore how to build a solid architectural foundation that enables people to create, navigate, search, and distribute video, and to manage digital rights; see the full agenda. W3C thanks Cisco for hosting the Workshop and to all the participants who sent position papers.

W3C Invites Implementations of Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0; updates SSML 1.1 draft

12 December 2007

The Voice Browser Working Group has published the Candidate Recommendation of Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0. Implementation feedback is welcome through 11 April 2008; please see the PLS 1.0 Implementation Report Plan for more information. PLS provides the basis for describing pronunciation information for use in speech recognition and speech synthesis, for use in tuning applications, e.g. for proper names that have irregular pronunciations. The Working Group has also updated Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1. Changes from the previous draft include addition of new "type" attribute with value of "ruby", change of references to "pronunciation alphabet" to be "pronunciation scheme", and modified attribute's names of audio element. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

"Emergency Information Interoperability Framework" Focus of Incubator Group

11 December 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Emergency Information Interoperability Framework Incubator Group, sponsored by W3C Members NICTA, Google, SICS, and IBM. The mission of this Incubator Group is to review and analyze the current state-of-the-art in vocabularies used in emergency management functions and to investigate the path forward via an emergency management systems information interoperability framework. Read about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies.

W3C Invites Implementations of EMMA: Extensible MultiModal Annotation markup language (Candidate Recommendation)

11 December 2007

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published the Candidate Recommendation of EMMA: Extensible MultiModal Annotation markup language. Implementation feedback is welcome through 14 April 2008. EMMA is a data exchange format for the interface between input processors and interaction management systems within the Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces, and defines the means to annotate application specific data with information such as confidence scores, time stamps, input mode, alternative recognition hypotheses, and partial recognition results. Visit the Multimodal Interaction home page.

Last Call: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 Working Draft

11 December 2007

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released a second Last Call Working Draft of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, and Working Drafts of Understanding WCAG 2.0 and Techniques for WCAG 2.0. Following WCAG makes Web content more accessible to the vast majority of users, including people with disabilities and older users, using many different devices including a wide variety of assistive technologies. Comments are requested by 1 February 2008. Read the WCAG Overview, Call for Review, and about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

W3C Talks in December

06 December 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

Steve Bratt Delivers Three Talks and Receives Honor in Beijing

30 November 2007

Steve Bratt, W3C CEO On 28 November, W3C Chief Executive Officer Steve Bratt delivered two talks — a keynote entitled "The World Wide Web Needs World Wide Standards" and an overview of W3C's standards work — at the 2007 Open Standards International Conference in Beijing, China. Today he gave an invited lecture on "Now and Future Web Technologies" at Beihang University in Beijing, China, where he was appointed Guest Professor by University President Li Wei and Professor and Executive Vice President Huai Jinpeng. Read also about the W3C Office in Beijing.

XProc: An XML Pipeline Language

29 November 2007

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published a Working Draft of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language. This specification describes the syntax and semantics of XProc, a language for describing XML pipelines. Pipelines are made up of simple steps which perform atomic operations on XML documents and constructs similar to conditionals, loops and exception handlers which control which steps are executed. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of XForms 1.1 (Candidate Recommendation)

29 November 2007

The Forms Working Group has published the Candidate Recommendation of XForms 1.1. XForms is an XML application that represents the next generation of forms for the Web. An XForms-based Web form gathers and processes XML data using an architecture that separates presentation, purpose and content. XForms is not a free-standing document type, but is intended to be integrated into other markup languages, such as XHTML, ODF, or SVG. The Working Group invites implementation experience of this technology from the community; see also the group's wiki for tracking XForms 1.1 implementations. Learn more about the XForms Activity.

W3C Opens Emotion Markup Language Incubator Group

29 November 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the reopening of the Emotion Markup Language Incubator Group (XG). The mission of this new instance of the XG is to propose a specification draft for an Emotion Markup Language, to document it in a way accessible to non-experts, and to illustrate its use in conjunction with a number of existing markups. Note that this document would not be a standards-track document until W3C charters a Working Group to develop it as a W3C Recommendation. The XG is sponsored by W3C Members DFKI; Deutsche Telekom T-Com; Image, Video and Multimedia Systems Lab; Loquendo, S.p.A.; Chinese Academy of Sciences; and SRI International. W3C Members may use this form to join the group. Read the final report of the original Emotion XG and the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies.

Summary of Workshop on Advanced Requirements for the Multimodal Framework

28 November 2007

photo of MMI Workshop W3C has published a summary and full minutes of the Workshop on W3C's Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces , organized by the Multimodal Interaction Working Group in Fujisawa, Japan on 16-17 November. Participants from 17 organizations generated a list of requirements on the current MMI Architecture. The Working Group will review the list as a basis for improvements to the Multimodal Framework. Visit the Multimodal Interaction home page.

Access Control for Cross-site Requests

26 November 2007

The Web Application Formats Working Group has published a Working Draft of Access Control for Cross-site Requests. This document introduces an "opt-in policy" mechanism whereby people managing a resource can declare whether other sites can retrieve it. The document also defines a mechanism based on the same policy to allow a resource to opt-in to requests using an HTTP method other than GET. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

CURIE Syntax 1.0

26 November 2007

The XHTML2 Working Group has published a Working Draft of CURIE Syntax 1.0. The aim of this document is to outline an abbreviated syntax for expressing Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs). The proposed technology does not target the XHTML Family Markup Languages exclusively. The target audience for this document is designers of technology (e.g., markup languages), not the users of that technology. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

W3C Seeks Community Support for HTML Design Principles (First Public Working Draft)

26 November 2007

The HTML Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of HTML Design Principles. This document describes the set of guiding principles used by the HTML Working Group for the development of HTML5, expected to define the fifth major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web. These design principles are an attempt to capture consensus on design approach in the areas of compatibility, utility, interoperability, and universal access. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

W3C MobileOK To Help Make Web Sites Mobile Friendly

13 November 2007

Today, W3C provides new means for people to create and find mobile friendly content. W3C invites Web authors to run the alpha release of the W3C mobileOK checker and make their content work on a broad range of mobile devices. The checker runs the tests defined in the W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Candidate Recommendation. Read the press release and testimonials, and come see W3C at Mobile Internet World in Boston, Massachusetts (USA). (Permalink)

W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Advances to Candidate Recommendation

13 November 2007

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has published the Candidate Recommendation of W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0. This document defines the tests that provide the basis for making a claim of W3C mobileOK Basic conformance and are based on W3C Mobile Web Best Practices. You are invited to use the alpha version of the W3C mobileOK Checker to test your content. Read the press release and learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.

Web Services Policy 1.5 Notes: Primer; Guidelines for Policy Assertion Authors

13 November 2007

The Web Services Policy Working Group has published two Group Notes: Web Services Policy 1.5 - Primer and Web Services Policy 1.5 - Guidelines for Policy Assertion Authors. The former introduces the Web Services Policy language with examples. The latter explains how to use the relevant specifications to maximize interoperability. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Three SPARQL Proposed Recommendations: SPARQL Query Language for RDF; Query Results XML Format; Protocol for RDF

13 November 2007

The RDF Data Access Working Group has published three SPARQL Proposed Recommendations: SPARQL Query Language for RDF, SPARQL Query Results XML Format, and SPARQL Protocol for RDF. The first specification defines the syntax and semantics of the SPARQL query language for RDF. SPARQL can be used to express queries across diverse data sources, whether the data is stored natively as RDF or viewed as RDF via middleware. The results of SPARQL queries can be results sets or RDF graphs; the second specification defines an XML format for the variable binding and boolean results formats. The third specification uses WSDL 2.0 to describe an HTTP protocol for conveying SPARQL queries to an SPARQL query processing service and returning the query results to the party that made the request. Comments are welcome through 10 December. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Community Convenes at TPAC 2007 to Discuss Web Future

07 November 2007

Boston Skyline Authors of the next version of HTML mix it up with Semantic Web developers, security experts, Web accessibility advocates, and the media on the banks of the Charles River in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA). Over 400 experts from around the world will participate in a compelling Plenary Day Program (TPAC) where they will address issues shaping the future of the Web. The program includes a panel on the growing relationships between W3C and the at-large developer community, the challenges HTML5 and XHTML2 propose to solve, and W3C's emerging vision of what's needed for video on the Web. The day culminates with a talk by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee: "Cracks and Mortar", a review of the Web to date and a close look at the gaps for signs of both wear and opportunity. Press are invited to the event; see the press release and contact w3t-pr@w3.org.

DIAL Part 0: Primer

02 November 2007

The Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of DIAL Part 0: Primer. This document provides an introduction to, and the benefits of, DIAL (the Device Independent Authoring Language). It summarizes the concept of device independence, the scenarios in which it could be used, and the considerations in order to achieve that goal. It then describes the role of DIAL in ensuring the delivery of content suitable for the user, device and inherent circumstances in which it was requested. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Web Security: First Draft of "Web Security Context"; Last Call of "Web Security Experience, Indicators and Trust"

01 November 2007

The Web Security Context Working Group has published two documents: the First Public Working Draft of Web Security Context: Experience, Indicators, and Trust, which defines guidelines and requirements for the presentation and communication of Web security context information to end-users; ceremonies for secure data entry; and good practices for Web Site authors. The second is a Last Call Working Draft of Web Security Experience, Indicators and Trust: Scope and Use Cases, which helps explain what the group aims to achieve, what technologies may be used and how technical proposals will be evaluated. Last Call comments are welcome through 30 November. See also the companion to the Last Call draft, Web User Interaction: Threat Trees, a W3C Group Note. Learn more about the Security Activity.

Notes: Device Description Ecosystem 1.0, Landscape 1.0

01 November 2007

The Mobile Web Initiative Device Description Working Group has published two Group Notes: Device Description Ecosystem 1.0 and Device Description Landscape 1.0. The first describes the business models surrounding the creation, maintenance and use of device descriptions. It identifies the main actors in the current model, explores their motivations for participating, identifies the costs associated with participation and the benefits that accrue to participants. The second describes what efforts the W3C and other organizations are doing in order to provide accurate device descriptions, part of making it easier to author for the Mobile Web. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.

Best Practices for XML Internationalization

01 November 2007

The Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Working Group has published the Working Draft of Best Practices for XML Internationalization. This document provides a set of guidelines for developing XML documents and schemas that are internationalized properly. Following the best practices describes here allow both the developer of XML applications, as well as the author of XML content to create material in different languages. Learn more about the Internationalization Activity.

XML Schema Patterns for Databinding: Working Drafts

31 October 2007

The XML Schema Patterns for Databinding Working Group published updated Working Drafts of Basic XML Schema Patterns for Databinding Version 1.0 and Advanced XML Schema Patterns for Databinding Version 1.0. The patterns can describe XML 1.0 representations of commonly used data structures independent of any particular programming language, database or modelling environment. Contribute to the test suite, and read the interoperability report and about Web services.

W3C Talks in November

31 October 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

  • Tim Berners-Lee presents at Mobile Internet World on 14 November in Boston, MA, USA.
  • Steven Pemberton presents at the Service Oriented Computing Platform Seminar on 15 November in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
  • Dominique Hazaël-Massieux presents at ParisWeb on 16 November in Paris, France.
  • On behalf of the W3C China Office, Ivan Herman presents at 首届中国语义万维网研讨会 (The First China Semantic Web Symposium) on 19 November in Beijing, China, and at Zheijiang University on 22 November in Hangzhou, China.
  • On behalf of the W3C China Office, Steve Bratt presents at the Open Standards International Conference on 28 November in Beijing, China.

Incubator Group Reports: Geospatial Vocabulary and Geospatial Ontologies

31 October 2007

The Geospatial Incubator Group published theirs reports on Geospatial Vocabulary and Geospatial Ontologies. The first document define a basic ontology and OWL vocabulary for representation of geospatial properties for Web resources. The second gives an overview and description of geospatial foundation ontologies to represent geospatial concepts and properties on the Web. Use cases for this work are described in the charter of the XG. Both publications are part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment.

Note: POWDER: Use Cases and Requirements

31 October 2007

The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group has published the Group Note of POWDER: Use Cases and Requirements. This document sets out the use cases and requirements that have motivated the development of the Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER). The use cases address social and commercial needs to provide information about groups of Web resources, such as those available from a Web site, to aid the annotation and/or personalization of content for end users in varying delivery contexts. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources

31 October 2007

The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources. The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) facilitates the publication of descriptions of multiple resources such as all those available from a Web site. This document describes how sets of resources may be defined, either for use in Description Resources or in other contexts. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Three RIF Working Drafts: Basic Logic Dialect, RDF and OWL Compatibility, and Core Design (Placeholder)

31 October 2007

The Rule Interchange Format Working Group has published three documents: RIF Basic Logic Dialect , RIF RDF and OWL Compatibility, and RIF Core Design - Placeholder; the first two are First Public Working Drafts. Basic Logic Dialect specifies a basic format that allows logic rules to be exchanged between rule-based systems. Rules interchanged using the Rule Interchange Format RIF may depend on or be used in combination with RDF data and/or RDF Schema or OWL data models. RIF RDF and OWL Compatibility specifies compatibility of RIF with the Semantic Web languages RDF and RDFS; in the future the document will address OWL as well. Finally, the Placeholder document resets expectations about the core RIF design. The Working Group has decided that that the design previously published as RIF Core is better considered as the basis for Logic Rules, rather than all kinds of rules. In the future, a new Core may be published, but for now, interested parties should refer to the Basic Logic Dialect. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

UAAG 2.0 Requirements: Working Draft

31 October 2007

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Requirements, which defines planned new work on the second generation of UAAG. UAAG provides guidance on designing Web browsers, media players, assistive technologies, and other 'user agents' to be accessible and to increase accessibility of Web content for people with disabilities. UAAG is part of a series of accessibility guidelines described in Essential Components of Web Accessibility. Read the UAAG Overview and about WAI.

W3C Opens Brazil Office

30 October 2007

photo of the W3C Brazil Office W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the W3C Brazil Office, hosted by the NIC.br (Brazilian Network Information Center) institute, in São Paulo, Brazil. Vagner Diniz is Office Manager. W3C looks forward to increasing interaction with the Portuguese-speaking community through this Office, its first in South America. The IT landscape in Brazil aligns with exciting current trends at W3C such as mobile Web, Web applications and video on the Web. Read the press release and visit the Offices home page.

XForms 1.0 Third Edition Is a W3C Recommendation

29 October 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released XForms 1.0 Third Edition as a Recommendation. The document responds to implementor feedback, brings the XForms 1.0 Recommendation up to date with second edition errata and reflects clarifications already implemented in XForms processors. XForms separates presentation and content, minimizes the need for scripting and round-trips to the server, and offers device independence. Visit the forms home page.

XMLHttpRequest Object for Ajax: Working Draft

26 October 2007

The Web API Working Group released an updated Working Draft of The XMLHttpRequest Object. The core component of Ajax, the XMLHttpRequest object is an interface that allows scripts to perform HTTP client functions, such as submitting form data or loading data from a remote Web site. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

W3C Names Shadi Abou-Zahra WAI International Program Office Activity Lead

26 October 2007

photo of Shadi Abou-Zahra W3C has named Shadi Abou-Zahra to the position of WAI International Program Office Activity Lead. The Activity's groups are responsible for education and outreach, coordination with research, general discussion on Web accessibility, coordination with the WAI Technical Activity, and WAI liaisons with other organizations including standards organizations. Shadi joined W3C in 2003. He coordinates WAI outreach in Europe, accessibility evaluation techniques, and worked on the WAI-TIES Project, and currently with the WAI-AGE Project. Shadi will continue to lead development of the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) and chair the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG). W3C wishes to thank Judy Brewer who led the Activity, and continues her roles as Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative, and WAI Technical Activity Lead. Read more about WAI.

RDFa Primer: Working Draft

26 October 2007

The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group and the XHTML2 Working Group jointly published an updated Working Draft of the RDFa Primer 1.0. The primer is an introduction to RDFa, a method for embedding structured data in XHTML. Among changes in this draft are the term "chaining," previously called striping, and a new instanceof attribute. Visit the XHTML2 and Semantic Web home pages.

Content Transformation Landscape 1.0: Working Draft

25 October 2007

The Content Transformation Task Force of the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group released the First Public Working Draft of Content Transformation Landscape 1.0. This document identifies some issues surrounding the use of transforming proxies in the delivery of Web content. Discussion of these issues is expected to influence the (future) requirements document for Content Transformation Guidelines. Read about the Mobile Web Initiative.

Tim Berners-Lee and One Web at Mobile Internet World

23 October 2007

photo of Tim Berners-Lee Tim Berners-Lee (W3C) presents "Escaping the Walled Garden: Growing the Mobile Web with Open Standards" at Mobile Internet World, 13-15 November in Boston, MA, USA. W3C's Mobile Web Initiative holds a pre-conference Developers Summit on 13 November with initiative sponsors including Google, MobileAware, mTLD, Nokia, Opera Software, France Telecom Group and Vodafone to discuss the "One Web" vision and mobile standards. W3C hosts a media and analyst luncheon with the speakers on 14 November. Read the media advisory and about the Mobile Web Initiative.

XML Signature and Encryption Workshop Report

23 October 2007

The report of the Workshop on Next Steps for XML Signature and XML Encryption is available. The report shows strong interest in additional work on XML security at W3C. A basic signature profile, the referencing and transform models, updating the set of supported cryptographic algorithms, and revisiting XML canonicalization were seen as highest priority among the several topics identified by the participants. The Workshop was held in September in Mountain View, CA, USA, hosted by VeriSign and chaired by Frederick Hirsch (Nokia) and Thomas Roessler (W3C). Read about W3C Workshops and about the Security Activity.

Progress Events 1.0: Working Draft

23 October 2007

The Web API Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Progress Events 1.0. These five events and their interfaces are used for data transfer in Ajax Web applications as described in XHR and for media access events. When additional data is downloaded on demand, scripts can monitor progress, construct loading bars, and take action once data has been transferred. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Selectors API: Working Draft

19 October 2007

The Web API Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Selectors API. Widely used in CSS, selectors are patterns that match against elements in a tree structure. These methods are defined to retrieve element nodes from the DOM by matching against a group of selectors, and simplify the process of acquiring specific elements, especially compared with more verbose techniques used in the past. Visit the Web API home page.

Behavioral Extensions to CSS: Working Draft

19 October 2007

The CSS Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Behavioral Extensions to CSS. Behavioral extensions provide a way to link to binding technologies such as XBL from CSS style sheets. Bindings thus can be selected using the CSS cascade and can transparently benefit from the user style sheet mechanism, media selection, and alternate style sheets. Visit the CSS home page.

CSS Snapshot 2007: Working Draft

19 October 2007

The CSS Working Group released the First Public Working Draft of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Snapshot 2007. All stable specifications that have been implemented for the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language at all Levels are given in this single document as a guide for authors. The snapshot is not a guide to what features are implemented. The group expects it to be a future Working Group Note. Visit the CSS home page.

Last Call: CSS Mobile Profile

19 October 2007

The CSS Working Group released a Working Draft of CSS Mobile Profile 2.0. Comments are welcome through 15 November. This subset of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 2.1 is a baseline for implementations of CSS on constrained devices like mobile phones, written with WICD Mobile 1.0 to ensure interoperability and for alignment with OMA's Wireless CSS Specification 1.1. Visit the CSS home page.

RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing

19 October 2007

The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group and the XHTML2 Working Group jointly have published the First Public Working Draft of RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing. RDFa attributes can be used with languages such as HTML and XHTML to express structured data. RDFa allows terms from multiple independently-developed vocabularies to be freely intermixed. This document has parsing rules for those creating an RDFa parser as well as guidelines for users in organizations who wish to use RDFa. For those who would like start using RDFa, the RDFa Primer is an introduction to its use and shows real-world examples. Visit the Semantic Web and XHTML2 home pages.

WAI-ARIA for Accessible Rich Web Applications: Working Drafts

19 October 2007

The Protocols and Formats Working Group published updated Working Drafts of the WAI-ARIA Roadmap, WAI-ARIA Roles, and WAI-ARIA States and Properties. The WAI-ARIA Suite of documents addresses the accessibility to people with disabilities of dynamic Web content built with Ajax and DHTML. WAI-ARIA includes technologies to map controls, Ajax live regions, and events to accessibility APIs, including custom controls used for rich Internet applications. It also describes new navigation techniques to mark common Web structures as menus, primary content, secondary content, banner information and other types of Web structures. Implementation of WAI-ARIA in languages such as HTML 4, HTML 5 and XHTML is in active development. Read the WAI-ARIA Overview and about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Quality Assurance Activity Completes Its Work, QA Becomes the Q&A Weblog

19 October 2007

We thank the thousands of people who participated in the QA Activity which has completed its work and closed as of 18 October 2007. However, we anticipate further developing the dialog with the community; we welcome your comments on the Q&A Weblog. W3C will continue to maintain and develop tools, the most popular resources on w3.org. We congratulate and thank Daniel Dardailler, Dominique Hazaël-Massieux and Karl Dubost of W3C who led the Activity, Lofton Henderson (OASIS), Lynne Rosenthal (NIST), Patrick Curran (Sun Microsystems), and Karl Dubost and Olivier Théreaux (W3C) who served as Chairs. Read the QA Activity Statement and visit the Q&A Weblog.

Language Bindings for DOM Specifications: Working Draft

17 October 2007

The Web API Working Group released the First Public Working Draft of Language Bindings for DOM Specifications. The draft specifies the IDL language for use by W3C specifications that define DOM interfaces and specifies conformance requirements for their ECMAScript and Java bindings. This guide for implementors of DOM specifications is also a reference for new ones, written to ensure conforming implementations of DOM interfaces are interoperable. Read about rich Web clients.

Video on the Web: Call for Participation

17 October 2007

Position papers are due 21 November for the Workshop on Video on the Web on 12-13 December 2007 in San Jose, California, USA, hosted by Cisco Systems. The Workshop goal is to help make video a first class Web citizen. Attendees will discuss topics such as the impact of video on the Web, user experience, search, accessibility, parental control, video production, description, digital rights, adaptation, mobile access, Web architecture, scalability, formats and delivery. Read about W3C Workshops.

W3C Technical Plenary Week Upcoming in Cambridge, USA

16 October 2007

photo of Boston W3C holds Technical Plenary Week on 5-10 November in Cambridge, MA, USA. A record 39 W3C Working Groups plus the Advisory Committee and Advisory Board hold face-to-face meetings and network about the future of the Web. For the first time, members of the media are invited to join Plenary Day on Wednesday, 7 November, when program includes the developer community, discussion of HTML5 and XHTML2, and video on the Web. Read the media advisory. W3C thanks platinum sponsors BEA, Cisco, IBM and Nokia for their generous support of this meeting. Registration is required. Join W3C and attend the next Technical Plenary planned for October 2008 in France (tentative).

Widgets 1.0: Working Draft

16 October 2007

The Web Application Formats Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Widgets 1.0. Written for users to run in their Web browser environment, widgets are small applications that display and update remote data, for example, clocks, stock tickers, news casters, weather forecasters and games. The group is specifying widgets' packaging format, their configuration and processing model, launching by the user agent, version control, DOM APIs and events including communication between widgets, digital signing, accessibility, and discovery within HTML documents. Read about Rich Web Clients.

Mobile Ajax: Workshop Report

12 October 2007

photo of Workshop on Mobile Ajax The report of the Workshop on Mobile Ajax co-sponsored by W3C and the OpenAjax Alliance is available. Among areas the Workshop identified as needing attention are JavaScript access to device APIs, offline/disconnected operation, widgets, mashups and security. The Workshop was held in Mountain View, CA, USA, hosted by Microsoft. Read about W3C Workshops and about the Mobile Web Initiative.

Last Call: XHTML Role Attribute Module

05 October 2007

The XHTML2 Working Group released a Last Call Working Draft of XHTML Role Attribute Module. With the role attribute, authors can annotate XML languages with machine-readable semantic information about the purpose of elements. Use cases include accessibility, device adaptation, server-side processing and complex data description. The attribute can be integrated into any markup language based on XHTML Modularization. Visit the XHTML2 home page.

Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) 3.0: Working Draft

05 October 2007

The Math Working Group published an updated Working Draft of Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0. MathML is an XML application for describing mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content. The goal of MathML is to enable mathematics to be served, received, and processed on the World Wide Web, just as HTML has enabled this functionality for text. Version 3 adds features such as support for bidirectional text and elementary math. Learn more about the Math Activity.

Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group Renewed

04 October 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group. Daniel Appelquist (Vodafone) and Jo Rabin (mTLD) chair the group which is chartered to produce guidelines, checklists and best practice statements to enable the reach of the Web to be easily extended onto mobile devices. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Read about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.

Policy Languages Interest Group Launched

03 October 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Policy Languages Interest Group (PLING), chaired by Marco Casassa-Mont (HP Labs) and Renato Iannella (NICTA). The group is chartered to discuss interoperability, requirements and related needs for integrating and computing the results when different policy languages used together, for example, OASIS XACML (eXtensible Access Control Markup Language), IETF Common Policy, and P3P (W3C Platform for Privacy Preferences). Participation is open to W3C Members and the public. Read about the Privacy Activity.

Web Experts Gather for Fundamentos Web 2007

03 October 2007

photo of Fundamentos Web and TimBL video link The W3C Spain Office is pleased to present noted Web standards experts at the third edition of Fundamentos Web 2007 (Web Foundations 2007) on 3-5 October in Gijón, Asturias, Spain. Presenters include Arthur Barstow (Nokia), Dan Brickley (Joost), Tantek Çelik (Tantek.com), Fernando Claver (PC ACTUAL), Hannah Donovan (Last.fm), Jeremy Keith (Clearleft), Eduardo Manchón Aguilar (Panoramio), Matt May (Adobe), Charles McCathieNevile (Opera), Ismael Nafría (Prisacom), George Oates (Yahoo!), Allan Sandfeld (Change Networks), Mike Schroepfer (Mozilla), Doug Stamper (Microsoft), Jeffrey Veen (Google) and Tim Berners-Lee (by video link), Bert Bos and Rigo Wenning (W3C).

Enabling Read Access: Working Draft

01 October 2007

The Web Application Formats Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Enabling Read Access for Web Resources. Sandbox restrictions on cross-site access to browsers can be relaxed selectively with this mechanism. An HTTP header or XML processing instruction or both can indicate that read access is allowed. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

W3C Talks in October

01 October 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

Service Modeling Language (SML): Working Drafts

28 September 2007

The Service Modeling Language (SML) Working Group released updated Working Drafts of Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 and its Service Modeling Language Interchange Format Version 1.1. SML is used to model complex services and systems including their structure, constraints, policies and best practices. Based on XML Schema and Schematron, SML allows inter-document references and user-defined constraints. Read more about XML.

POWDER Description Resources, Datatypes and Vocabulary: Working Drafts

28 September 2007

The POWDER Working Group published First Public Working Drafts of Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Description Resources and Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Web Description Resources (WDR) Vocabulary and Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Web Description Resources Datatypes (WDRD). POWDER is a way to attach small, easily-produced annotations to large collections of Web content. Web resources can then be retrieved, personalized and delivered in a variety of delivery contexts to meet both social needs for content labels and commercial requirements for content adaptation. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Last Call: W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0

28 September 2007

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has released a third Last Call Working Draft of W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0. Comments are welcome through 19 October. These tests provide the basis for making a claim to be W3C mobileOK Basic compliant and are based upon W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices. Read about the Mobile Web Initiative.

Last Call: Web Services Policy Primer and Guidelines for Authors

28 September 2007

The Web Services Policy Working Group released two Last Call Working Drafts. Comments are welcome through 19 October. The Web Services Policy 1.5 - Primer introduces the policy language and policy attachment mechanisms. The Web Services Policy 1.5 - Guidelines for Policy Assertion Authors provide best practices for creating policy assertions. Both are companions to the Web Services Policy 1.5 Framework and Attachment specifications. Read about Web services.

Mobile Ajax: W3C and OpenAjax Alliance Joint Workshop

25 September 2007

photo of Workshop on Mobile Ajax The Workshop on Mobile Ajax co-sponsored by W3C and the OpenAjax Alliance will be held 28 September in Mountain View, CA, USA, hosted by Microsoft. Attendees will explore use cases for mobile Ajax to help shape its use in mobile Web browsers. Topics may include user experience, application development, support in today's devices and browsers, and whether needs exist for standardization and best practices. Results will be linked from the Workshop page in October. Read the media advisory and about the Mobile Web Initiative and W3C Workshops.

POWDER Description Resources and Vocabulary: Working Drafts

25 September 2007

The POWDER Working Group published First Public Working Drafts of Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Description Resources and Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Web Description Resources (WDR) Vocabulary. POWDER is a way to attach small, easily-produced annotations to large collections of Web content. Web resources can then be retrieved, personalized and delivered in a variety of delivery contexts to meet both social needs for content labels and commercial requirements for content adaptation. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Update to SPARQL Candidate Recommendation: XML Results Format

25 September 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of SPARQL Query Results XML Format to Candidate Recommendation. The SPARQL Query Language for RDF offers developers and end users a way to write and consume search results across a wide range of information and provides a means of integration over disparate sources. With this format, SPARQL variable binding and boolean results can be expressed in XML. Read about the RDF Data Access Working Group and visit the Semantic Web home page.

A MathML for CSS Profile: Working Draft

24 September 2007

The Math Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of A MathML for CSS profile. This subset of MathML 3.0 can be used to capture the structure of mathematical formulas in a way particularly suitable for further CSS formatting. Coordinated with ongoing work on CSS Level 3, the profile is expected to facilitate adoption of MathML in Web browsers and CSS formatters. Visit the Math home page.

Last Call: XML Pipeline Language

20 September 2007

The XML Processing Model Working Group published a Last Call Working Draft of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language. Comments are welcome through 24 October. Used to control and organize the flow of documents, the XProc language standardizes interactions, inputs and outputs for transformations for the large group of specifications such as XSLT, XML Schema, XInclude and Canonical XML that operate on and produce XML documents. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Last Call: MTOM Policy Assertion

18 September 2007

The XML Protocol Working Group released a First Public and Last Call Working Draft of MTOM Serialization Policy Assertion 1.1. Comments are welcome through 15 October. Indicating endpoint support for the serialization of SOAP messages, this domain-specific policy assertion can be specified within a policy alternative and can be attached to a WSDL description. MTOM optimizes hop-by-hop exchanges between SOAP nodes. Read about Web services.

Grid Positioning: CSS3 Working Draft

12 September 2007

The CSS Working Group released the First Public Working Draft of the CSS Grid Positioning Module for Level 3 of the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language. It applies the traditional grid systems used in books and newspapers to online content and complements the different approach defined in the CSS Advanced Layout Module. Grids may be explicitly authored or implied and combined with Media Queries. Visit the CSS home page.

Note: Web Applications and User Interfaces

12 September 2007

The Web Application Formats Working Group has published Declarative Formats for Applications and User Interfaces as a Working Group Note. The note recommends that the Working Group stop formal work on this deliverable and includes some potential options if W3C Members choose to do related work. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

GRDDL Standard Provides Bridge from Web Documents to the Semantic Web

11 September 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released GRDDL and GRDDL Test Cases as Recommendations. GRDDL enables authors to extract data from their documents automatically, enabling them to reuse their data and enrich it by connecting to the Semantic Web. Give the W3C GRDDL Service a try! Read the GRDDL Primer, the press release and testimonials, and about the Semantic Web.

OWL Group to Refine and Extend Web Ontology Language

06 September 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the OWL Working Group. Ian Horrocks (Oxford University) and Alan Ruttenberg (ScienceCommons) chair the group which is chartered to produce a W3C Recommendation for an extended Web Ontology Language (OWL), adding a small set of extensions and defining profiles identified by users and tool implementers. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Read about Semantic Web.

Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1: Working Draft

05 September 2007

The Voice Browser Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1. Changes from the previous draft include the usage of XML 1.1 and IRIs, and the specification of voice selection and language speaking control. Version 1.1 improves on W3C's SSML 1.0 Recommendation by adding support for more conventions and practices of the world's languages. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Web Services Addressing Working Group Completes Work and Closes

05 September 2007

W3C is pleased to announce that the Web Services Addressing Working Group has successfully completed its work: the Web Services Addressing 1.0 Core, SOAP Binding and Metadata Recommendations and a Working Group Note, SOAP 1.1 Request Optional Response HTTP Binding. The core properties allow uniform addressing of Web services and messages, independent of the underlying transport. Read about Web services.

Web Services Addressing Metadata Is a W3C Recommendation

04 September 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Web Services Addressing 1.0 - Metadata as a Recommendation. The specification is used to indicate support for Web Services Addressing 1.0 using Web Services Policy 1.5 and defines how to express WS-Addressing properties in WSDL. Read about the Web Services Addressing Working Group and about Web services.

Web Services Policy 1.5 Is a W3C Recommendation

04 September 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Web Services Policy 1.5 - Framework and Web Services Policy 1.5 - Attachment as Recommendations. The framework defines a model for expressing the nature of Web services in order to convey conditions for their interaction. Attachment defines how to associate policies, for example within WSDL or UDDI, with subjects to which they apply. Read the press release, the testimonials and about the Web Services Policy Working Group and Web services.

SAWSDL Working Group Completes Work and Closes

04 September 2007

W3C is pleased to announce that the Semantic Annotations for WSDL Working Group has successfully completed its work: the W3C Recommendation Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema (SAWSDL) and its companion Usage Guide. With SAWSDL, semantic annotations can be added to Web Services Description Language (WSDL) components for use in classifying, discovering, matching, composing and invoking Web services. Read about Web services.

Note: POWDER Use Cases and Requirements

04 September 2007

The POWDER Working Group has released POWDER: Use Cases and Requirements as a Working Group Note. The document will guide the development of a way to attach small, easily-produced annotations to large collections of Web content. Web resources can then be retrieved, personalized and delivered in a variety of delivery contexts to meet both social needs for content labels and commercial requirements for content adaptation. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Last Call: XML Schema 1.1 Structures

04 September 2007

The XML Schema Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of XML Schema 1.1 Part 1: Structures. Comments are welcome through 8 November. XML schemas define shared markup vocabularies, the structure of XML documents which use those vocabularies, and provide hooks to associate semantics with them. Simplifications and changes in this draft are to sections on rules for checking validity, "all" groups, the PSVI, conformance, fallback for lax validation, particles and wildcards, among other revisions. Visit the XML home page.

W3C Talks in September

01 September 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

SVG Open 2007 Conference and Exhibition

31 August 2007

SVG Open 2007, the 5th International Conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, will be held 4-7 September at Keio University, Japan, on the Mita Campus in Tokyo. Over 40 presentations will be delivered, from SVG experts all over the world, tackling topics such as mobile SVG, Web mapping, geo-location based services and much more. The conference schedule and confirmed keynote speakers are now available. The conference language is English; translation facilities will be available to encourage English-Japanese communication. On-site registration will be also available at the registration desk during the conference. Please also note that g-Contents WORLD 2007 will be a joint event of SVG Open 2007 Conference.

Last Call: XQuery Update Facility

29 August 2007

The XML Query Working Group published a Last Call Working Draft of the XQuery Update Facility 1.0. Comments are welcome through 31 October. XML Query can perform searches, queries and joins over collections of XDM instances such as documents or databases. The update facility provides expressions to create, modify and delete nodes within those instances. The specification's Requirements and Use Cases were also published as updated Working Drafts. Visit the XML home page.

Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema Is a W3C Recommendation

28 August 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema (SAWSDL) as a Recommendation. With these attributes, semantic annotations can be added to Web Services Description Language (WSDL) components for use in classifying, discovering, matching, composing and invoking Web services. The companion Usage Guide is a Working Group Note that shows through examples how to associate semantic annotations with a Web service. Read about the SAWSDL Working Group and about Web services.

Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces: Call for Participation

28 August 2007

Position papers are due 5 October for the Workshop on W3C's Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces on 16-17 November 2007 in Fujisawa, Japan, hosted by W3C/Keio. Attendees will discuss the support and integration of user interface components such as speech, GUI and handwriting recognition from multiple vendors, to help the Multimodal Interaction Working Group make the Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces specification more useful in current and emerging markets. Read about multimodal interaction and about W3C Workshops.

Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces: Advance Notice of Workshop

27 August 2007

W3C plans a Workshop on W3C's Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces on 16-17 November 2007 in Fujisawa, Japan, hosted by W3C/Keio. Attendees will discuss the support and integration of user interface components such as speech, GUI and handwriting recognition from multiple vendors, to help the Multimodal Interaction Working Group make the Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces specification more useful in current and emerging markets. A Call for Participation is expected shortly. Read about multimodal interaction and about W3C Workshops.

Incubator Group Report: Image Annotation

16 August 2007

The Multimedia Semantics Incubator Group published their report on Image Annotation on the Semantic Web. The report describes the use of RDF and OWL to create, store, exchange and process information about images. The previously published Multimedia Vocabularies on the Semantic Web discusses a number of individual vocabularies that are relevant for image annotation. Both publications are part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment.

Web Services Policy Primer and Guidelines for Authors: Working Drafts

10 August 2007

The Web Services Policy Working Group released two updated Working Drafts. The Primer introduces the policy language and policy attachment mechanisms. The Guidelines for Policy Assertion Authors provide best practices for creating policy assertions. Both are companions to the Web Services Policy 1.5 Framework and Attachment specifications. Read about Web services.

Box Model and Advanced Layout: CSS3 Working Drafts

09 August 2007

The CSS Working Group released two updated Working Drafts for the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language Level 3. The CSS basic box model describes the basic layout of textual documents in visual media. The CSS3 Advanced Layout Module defines visual order independent of document order, position and alignment of user interface widgets, and page and window grids. Visit the CSS home page.

New W3C Markup Validator Unveiled

08 August 2007

W3C Markup Validator W3C's most popular service just got better, prettier, faster, and smarter. The W3C Markup Validator has a new user interface and a validation engine with improved accuracy and performance. Among new features are an automatic cleanup option using HTML Tidy, and checking of HTML fragments. Driven by W3C as an open-source software project, the markup validator is made by Web professionals for Web professionals, and aims to be a major step in any Web development quality process. Read the change log for a list of all changes and new features.

Service Modeling Language (SML): Working Drafts

07 August 2007

The Service Modeling Language (SML) Working Group released the First Public Working Drafts of the Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 and its Interchange Format. SML is used to model complex services and systems including their structure, constraints, policies and best practices. Based on XML Schema and Schematron, SML allows inter-document references and user-defined constraints. Read more about XML.

Distributed Web Applications: Workshop Report

06 August 2007

Dave Raggett and Kevin Smith, Workshop co-Chairs The report of the Workshop on Declarative Models of Distributed Web Applications is available. The report recommends that W3C create requirements for declarative modeling of Web applications, and a gap analysis that identifies where existing standards are insufficient. The Workshop was hosted in Dublin by MobileAware with the support of the Irish State Development Agency, Enterprise Ireland. Read about W3C Workshops and about the Ubiquitous Web.

Patent Advisory Group Recommends W3C Stop Work on Remote Events for XML (REX 1.0)

03 August 2007

A Patent Advisory Group (PAG) for the WebAPI and SVG Working Groups has published its report, which suggests that W3C stop work on Remote Events for XML (REX) 1.0. W3C launched the PAG when France Telecom excluded patent claims from the W3C Royalty-Free Licensing Commitment. W3C continues work on a future, differently scoped version of REX in the Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group. W3C appreciates the cooperation from the patent holder, France Telecom, in helping the PAG reach their conclusion.

Web Services Addressing Metadata Is a Proposed Recommendation

31 July 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Web Services Addressing 1.0 - Metadata to Proposed Recommendation. The specification is used to indicate support for the Web Services Addressing 1.0 mechanisms using the Web Services Policy 1.5 framework and defines how to express WS-Addressing properties in WSDL. Comments are welcome through 30 August. Read about the Web Services Addressing Working Group and about Web services.

W3C Talks in August

31 July 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

Open Mobile Web Test Suite: Call for Contributions

30 July 2007

The Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group is launching an Open Mobile Web Test Suite built by the community for the community to describe support for technologies in mobile Web browsers available today. Mobile Web developers can submit test cases (as described in the submissions guidelines) illustrating authoring practices. Submissions will contribute to a better understanding of the current limitations of user agents, which helps pave the way to better mobile Web browsers tomorrow. Read the Call for Contributions and about the Mobile Web Initiative.

Device Independent Authoring Language (DIAL): Working Draft

27 July 2007

The Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Device Independent Authoring Language (DIAL). DIAL describes data, styling, layout, and interaction independently, making Web content adaptable for a wide variety of platforms including the thousands of mobile devices in use and devices to come. Read more about the Working Group and the Ubiquitous Web.

ElementTraversal for DOM Navigation: Working Draft

27 July 2007

The Web API Working Group released the First Public Working Draft of ElementTraversal Specification. The ElementTraversal interface defines four properties that scripts can use to navigate DOM Elements and also provides the property childElementCount for preprocessing. The specification was originally part of SVG Tiny 1.2. Read about rich Web clients.

Efficient XML Interchange Measurements: Working Draft

25 July 2007

The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange Measurements Note. An analysis of the expected performance characteristics of a potential Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) encoding format, the draft covers the "compactness," "processing efficiency" and "roundtrip support" properties and outlines plans for future updates. Visit the XML home page.

Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect): Call for Implementations

25 July 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0 and Delivery Context: XPath Access Functions 1.0 to Candidate Recommendations. Implementation feedback is welcome. DISelect supports the creation of Web sites that can be used from diverse devices. Based on the evaluation and conditional processing of XML information sets, DISelect is used for Web content selection and filtering. The XPath functions are used to access the > Delivery Context associated with a request for content. Read about Ubiquitous Web applications.

XForms 1.0 Third Edition Is a Proposed Edited Recommendation

25 July 2007

The Forms Working Group published a Proposed Edited Recommendation for XForms 1.0 Third Edition. The document responds to implementor feedback, brings the XForms 1.0 Recommendation up to date with second edition errata and reflects clarifications already implemented in XForms processors. Comments are welcome through 31 August. XForms separates presentation and content, minimizes the need for scripting and round-trips to the server, and offers device independence. Visit the forms home page.

Incubator Group Report: Multimedia Semantics

25 July 2007

The W3C Multimedia Semantics Incubator Group, which includes thirty seven representatives from organizations in Europe and North America, published its final report. The report describes multimedia metadata formats and relevant vocabularies for developers of Semantic Web applications. This publication is part of the W3C experimental Incubator Activity that develops new, potentially foundational technologies and Web-based applications in a rapid time frame.

Compound Document Formats: Call for Implementations

20 July 2007

The Compound Document Formats Working Group has released four Candidate Recommendations: Compound Document by Reference Framework 1.0, WICD Core 1.0, WICD Full 1.0, and WICD Mobile 1.0. Implementor feedback is welcome through 1 December. A preliminary implementation report is available, and a test suite is under development. The Web Integration Compound Document (WICD, pronounced "wicked") is a device independent Compound Document profile based on XHTML, CSS and SVG. The drafts describe presentation, linking and navigation behavior when multiple documents are combined. Read more about Rich Web Clients.

Access to Relational Databases: Call for Participation

20 July 2007

Position papers are due 10 September for the Workshop on RDF Access to Relational Databases to be held 25-26 October in Cambridge, MA, USA, hosted by Novartis. Workshop attendees from the Semantic Web and relational database communities will examine commonalities, distinctions and next steps for expressing relational data in RDF. Read about W3C Workshops and about the Semantic Web.

Versioning XML Languages Using XML Schema 1.1

20 July 2007

The XML Schema Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Guide to Versioning XML Languages using XML Schema 1.1. XML Schema 1.1 introduces new features that make it easier to define XML languages which are flexible enough to tolerate later revision in a forward-compatible way. Written for application and schema developers, the guide shows the new mechanisms and illustrates several techniques. Visit the XML home page.

Note: WSDL Element Identifiers

20 July 2007

The Web Services Policy Working Group has published WSDL 1.1 Element Identifiers as a Working Group Note. These fragment identifiers and IRI-references, designed to be easy for authors to understand and compare, are for use in Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1 documents. Read about Web services.

XBL 2.0 Primer: An Introduction for Developers

20 July 2007

The Web Application Formats Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of XBL 2.0 Primer: An Introduction for Developers. This practical guide to using the XML Binding Language introduces both basic and advanced concepts and describes best practices. XBL extends the appearance and behavior of elements in Web formats such as HTML. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

CSS 2.1 Is a Candidate Recommendation

19 July 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) 2.1 to Candidate Recommendation. Implementation feedback is welcome through 20 December. CSS is one of the Web's most widely implemented languages. By separating the presentation of style from the content of documents, CSS simplifies Web authoring and site maintenance. CSS 2.1 is derived from and is intended to replace CSS Level 2. A snapshot of usage, the specification brings the language in line with implementations, fixes errata and adds a few highly requested features including the inline-block value for the display property, the color orange and the values pre-wrap and pre-line for the white-space property. Visit the CSS home page.

Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format: Working Draft

16 July 2007

The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0. EXI is a very compact representation for the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) Information Set that is intended to simultaneously optimize performance and the utilization of computational resources. Using a relatively simple algorithm and a small set of data types, it reliably produces efficient encodings of XML event streams. Learn more about XML.

GRDDL Is a Proposed Recommendation

16 July 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of GRDDL and GRDDL Test Cases to Proposed Recommendations. Comments are welcome through 24 August. Linking microformats to the Semantic Web, the GRDDL mechanism is used to extract RDF statements from XHTML and XML content using programs such as XSLT. Read about the Semantic Web.

Last Call: Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 3.0)

13 July 2007

The SYMM Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 3.0). This the third version of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL, pronounced "smile"), an XML-based language that allows authors to write interactive multimedia presentations. This version will extend the functionality of SMIL 2.1, facilitate the reuse of SMIL syntax and semantics in other XML-based languages, and define new SMIL profiles. Comments are welcome through 14 September. Learn more about the Synchronized Multimedia Activity.

XHTML Basic 1.1 Is a Candidate Recommendation

13 July 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XHTML™ Basic 1.1 to Candidate Recommendation. The specification adds four new features for small devices which are the language's primary users. Version 1.1 is intended to be the convergence of the XHTML Basic 1.0 W3C Recommendation for mobile devices, released in coordination with the WAP Forum in 2000, and the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) XHTML Mobile profile. Implementation feedback is welcome through 31 August. Visit the HTML home page.

W3C Names Dominique Hazaël-Massieux Mobile Web Activity Lead

12 July 2007

photo of Dominique Hazaël-Massieux W3C has named Dominique Hazaël-Massieux to the position of Mobile Web Initiative Activity Lead. The W3C Mobile Web Initiative is a joint effort by vendors, providers, manufacturers and mobile operators to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Dominique first joined W3C as Webmaster, did early work on GRDDL, contributed to QA at W3C, served as Team Contact for the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group, serves as co-Chair of the MWI Test Suites Working Group, and works on mobileOK. W3C wishes to thank Philipp Hoschka who previously led the Activity and continues his roles as W3C Deputy Director for Europe and Ubiquitous Web Domain Leader. Read more about W3C.

Incubator Group Report: Emotion Markup Language

10 July 2007

The W3C Emotion Incubator Group, which includes representatives from sixteen institutions in eleven countries on three continents, published its final report. The report contains scope, requirements and use cases for a general-purpose Emotion Markup Language. This publication is part of the W3C experimental Incubator Activity that develops new, potentially foundational technologies and Web-based applications in a rapid time frame.

The Days of Web Standards, 15 July, Tokyo, Japan

10 July 2007

W3C is pleased to participate in Web標準の日々 (The Days of Web Standards 2007), one of the largest Web-related events in Japan. Web developers and designers will gather on 15 July in Tokyo to discuss the usefulness and pleasure in using Web standards and how they are popular. Members of the W3C staff, Karl Dubost, Tatsuya Hagino, Olivier Thereaux present and Yasuyuki Hirakawa runs a booth. Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

POWDER: Grouping Sets of Resources

09 July 2007

The POWDER Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources. POWDER is a way to attach small, easily-produced annotations to large collections of Web content. Web resources can then be retrieved, personalized and delivered in a variety of delivery contexts to meet both social needs for content labels and commercial requirements for content adaptation. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Last Call: Delivery Context: Client Interfaces (DCCI) 1.0

09 July 2007

The Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Delivery Context: Client Interfaces (DCCI) 1.0. DCCI (formerly DCI) provides access to device properties including capabilities, configuration, user preferences and environmental conditions such as remaining battery life, signal strength, ambient brightness, location, and display orientation. Comments are welcome through 27 July. This draft has one normative change to show DCCI inheriting from the DOM Element interface. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

W3C Cosponsors Extreme Markup Languages, Montréal, Canada, 7-10 August

07 July 2007

W3C is pleased to participate as a cosponsor at Extreme Markup Languages to be held 7-10 August in Montréal, Québec, Canada. Among the participants representing W3C are Chris Lilley, Liam Quin, Felix Sasaki and C. M. Sperberg-McQueen. A W3C Members-only discount is available. Read more about XML.

XML Pipeline Language: Working Draft

07 July 2007

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published a Working Draft of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language . Used to control and organize the flow of documents, the XProc language standardizes interactions, inputs and outputs for transformations for the large group of specifications such as XSLT, XML Schema, XInclude and Canonical XML that operate on and produce XML documents. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity

Web Services Policy 1.5: Proposed Recommendations

07 July 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Web Services Policy 1.5 to Proposed Recommendation. The Policy Framework model expresses the nature of Web services in order to convey conditions for their interaction. Attachment defines how to associate policies, for example within WSDL or UDDI, with subjects to which they apply. Comments are welcome through 17 August. Read about the Web Services Policy Working Group and Web services.

Widgets 1.0 Requirements: Working Draft

05 July 2007

The Web Application Formats Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Widgets 1.0 Requirements. These design goals are the requirements for device-independent standards for scripting, digitally signing, securing, packaging and deploying client-side Web applications (widgets). Also known as gadgets or modules, widgets are small programs like clocks, stock tickers, news casters, games and weather forecasters that display and update remote data and run on the Web browser environment. Read about Rich Web Clients.

Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema: Proposed Recommendation

05 July 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema (SAWSDL) to Proposed Recommendation. With these attributes, semantic annotations can be added to Web Services Description Language (WSDL) components for use in classifying, discovering, matching, composing, and invoking Web services. Comments are welcome through 17 August. Read about the SAWSDL Working Group and about Web services.

W3C Talks in July

03 July 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

  • Addison Phillips presents at the 10th Open Metadata Forum on 11 July in New York City, USA.
  • Karl Dubost, Tatsuya Hagino, Olivier Thereaux present and Yasuyuki Hirakawa runs a booth at Web標準の日々 (The Days of Web Standards 2007) on 15 July in Tokyo, Japan.
  • Philipp Hoschka presents at the W3C Webinar (Webcast, in German) on 17 July.
  • On behalf of the W3C Germany and Austria Office, Felix Sasaki presents a lecture organized by Zentrums für Medien und Interaktivität, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, on 20 July in Gießen, Germany.
  • Dan Connolly presents at XML Summer School on 25 July in Oxford, United Kingdom.

Note: SOAP 1.2 Part 3: One-Way MEP

03 July 2007

The XML Protocol Working Group has published SOAP 1.2 Part 3: One-Way MEP as a Working Group Note. SOAP Version 1.2 Part 2 provides a request-response Message Exchange Pattern (MEP) and a response-only MEP. SOAP Version 1.2 Part 3 provides a one-way MEP. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Planet i18n: Blogs on Web Internationalization

29 June 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of Planet i18n. This community service created by the Internationalization Core Working Group brings together a variety of blog posts that discuss internationalization topics. You can subscribe to the RSS feed. If you own a blog with a focus on internationalization and want to be added, please contact Richard Ishida (W3C). Read more on the Internationalization home page.

German Webinar on Mobile Web

28 June 2007

Join us for a free W3C Webinar in German, where you will learn how to make your Web content mobile-friendly. Philipp Hoschka will show how you can benefit from the expertise collected through the documents and tools provided by the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group. The Webinar will be held Tuesday, 17 July at 11:00am Berlin time. Attendance is free but registration is required. Visit the Mobile Web Initiative home page.

Best Practices for XML Internationalization

28 June 2007

The Internationalization Tag Set Working Group published an updated Working Draft of Best Practices for XML Internationalization. These guidelines explain how XML application developers and XML content authors can create formats and content that enable use by speakers of a variety of languages and that facilitate the translation and localization process. The best practices are a complement to the International Tag Set Recommendation. Visit the Internationalization home page.

GRDDL Primer: Working Group Note

28 June 2007

The GRDDL Working Group published GRDDL Primer as a Working Group Note. Linking microformats to the Semantic Web, the GRDDL mechanism is used to extract RDF statements from XHTML and XML content using programs such as XSLT. The primer contains detailed illustrations of GRDDL techniques. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 2.0 Is a Recommendation

27 June 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0 Part 0: Primer, Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0 Part 1: Core Language and Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0 Part 2: Adjuncts as Recommendations. "In addition to the rigorous interoperability testing, we're pleased to have given developers the HTTP binding, which provides simple Web-friendly access to a service," said Jonathan Marsh (WSO2), Working Group co-Chair. WSDL models and describes modular Web services and is used to document distributed systems and to automate communication between applications. WSDL SOAP 1.1 Binding, Additional MEPs and RDF Mapping have been published as Working Group Notes. Read the testimonials and press release and about Web services.

Fundamentos Web 2007: Registration Open

27 June 2007

The W3C Spain Office is pleased to present Tantek Çelik, Jeffrey Veen, Tim Berners-Lee (by video link), and other noted Web standards experts at the third edition of Fundamentos Web 2007 (Web Foundations 2007) on 3-5 October in Gijón, Asturias, Spain. Well-known representatives from Microsoft, Opera, Mozilla, Nokia, Konqueror, Flickr, Last FM, and W3C will present at the event. Registration for the conference, which sold out for the second time last year, is open and offers discounts for unemployed people as well as for W3C Members.

Last Call: Web Services Addressing Metadata

27 June 2007

The Web Services Addressing Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of Web Services Addressing 1.0 - Metadata to prepare the specification for consideration as a Proposed Recommendation. The specification is used to indicate support for the Web Services Addressing 1.0 mechanisms using the Web Services Policy 1.5 framework and defines how to express WS-Addressing properties in the WSDL. Comments are welcome through 11 July. Read about Web services.

Canonical XML 1.1 Is a Candidate Recommendation

21 June 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Canonical XML 1.1 to Candidate Recommendation. The canonical XML method is used to determine whether an application has changed a document and whether two XML documents are identical, allowing for low-level changes in syntax permitted by XML 1.0. When the canonical forms are identical the originals are logically equivalent within the application's context. Version 1.1 addresses inheritance of attributes when canonicalizing document subsets, to not inherit xml:id, and to treat xml:base URI path processing properly. Implementation feedback and comments are welcome through 30 September. Visit the XML Core home page.

Workshop on XML Signature and Encryption: Call for Participation

20 June 2007

Position papers are due 14 August for the Workshop on Next Steps for XML Signature and XML Encryption to be held 25-26 September in Mountain View, California, USA, hosted by VeriSign. Attendees will discuss next steps for the XML Signature and XML Encryption specifications and share their experiences implementing and developing these standards. Topics may include interoperability and robustness, performance, legal requirements for digital signature formats, and the impact of the evolving XML environment. The Workshop is expected to give its recommendations to the XML Security Specifications Maintenance Working Group. The Workshop is free free and open to all, however, submission of position papers is required of all participants. Visit the Security home page and read about W3C Workshops.

Voice Recommendations Approved for Speech-Driven Web Applications

19 June 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 2.1 as a W3C Recommendation, confirming the standard for voice-driven Web applications. Used daily in millions of telephone calls, VoiceXML enables rapid development of audio dialogs. Version 2.1 extends the language with eight commonly implemented features including dynamic access to grammars and scripts. Completely interoperable, VoiceXML 2.0 applications will work under VoiceXML 2.1 without modification. VoiceXML and the Recommendation for Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition (SISR) Version 1.0 approved in April are critical pieces of W3C Speech Interface Framework. Read the testimonials and press release and visit the Voice Browser home page.

W3C Names Daniel Dardailler Director of International Relations and Offices

18 June 2007

photo of Daniel Dardailler W3C has named Daniel Dardailler to the new position of Director of International Relations and Offices. Daniel oversees W3C Offices and liaisons for international bodies such as UN organizations, the Internet Governance Forum, ISOC, ISO, and ICANN. Daniel will continue his role as Associate Chair for Europe. W3C named Klaus Birkenbihl to the new position of Offices Coordinator. Visit the Offices home page and read about International Relations and the W3C management team.

Enabling Read Access: Working Draft

18 June 2007

The Web Application Formats (WAF) Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Enabling Read Access for Web Resources. Sandbox restrictions on cross-site access to browsers can be relaxed selectively with this mechanism. An HTTP header or XML processing instruction or both can indicate that read access is allowed. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

XMLHttpRequest Object for Ajax: Working Draft

18 June 2007

Documenting changes since Last Call, the Web API Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of The XMLHttpRequest Object. The core component of Ajax, the XMLHttpRequest object is an interface that allows scripts to perform HTTP client functions, such as submitting form data or loading data from a remote Web site. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Serializing SPARQL Query Results in JSON

18 June 2007

The RDF Data Access Working Group has updated the Serializing SPARQL Query Results in JSON Working Group Note for the simplified SPARQL Query Results XML Format, removing two attributes. JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), a lightweight data-interchange format, is used as an alternative to XML vocabulary to serialize the results of SPARQL query forms. SPARQL offers developers and end users a way to write and consume search results across a wide range of information and provides a means of integration over disparate sources. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

SPARQL Query Language for RDF Is a Candidate Recommendation

14 June 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of SPARQL Query Language for RDF to Candidate Recommendation. With SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle"), developers and end users can consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal, technical, business or scientific data, social networks, or data about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL supports extensible value testing and constrained queries, both when data is stored as RDF natively or viewed as RDF via middleware. Results can be displayed in results sets or as RDF graphs. Implementation feedback is invited through 12 August. SPARQL Query Results XML Format is a Last Call Working Draft with comments welcome through 5 July. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Tim Berners-Lee Appointed Member of the Order of Merit by Queen Elizabeth II

13 June 2007

Tim Berners-Lee Queen Elizabeth II, Head of State of the United Kingdom, appointed Sir Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the World Wide Web, to be a member of the Order of Merit. Founded in 1902, the Order of Merit is an honor conferred by the sovereign of the United Kingdom to individuals for "exceptionally meritorious service," usually in the arts, learning, literature and sciences. Twenty four individuals plus foreign recipients may hold the honor at one time. "Awards such as this are for public service, a service which in this case has been largely carried out by the W3C. All those involved in Consortium activity should feel recognized by this acknowledgment of the importance of W3C's work," said Berners-Lee. Read the announcement, about Tim Berners-Lee and about W3C.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects New Advisory Board

12 June 2007

The W3C Advisory Committee has filled four open seats on the W3C Advisory Board. Created in 1998, the Advisory Board provides guidance to the Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution. Beginning 1 July, the nine Advisory Board participants are Jean-François Abramatic (ILOG), Ann Bassetti (The Boeing Company), Jim Bell (HP), Don Deutsch (Oracle), Eduardo Gutentag (Sun Microsystems), Steve Holbrook (IBM), Ken Laskey (MITRE), Ora Lassila (Nokia) and Arun Ranganathan (AOL). Steve Zilles continues as interim Advisory Board Chair. Read more about the Advisory Board.

Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1: Working Drafts

11 June 2007

The Voice Browser Working Group released updated Working Drafts of Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1 and its Requirements. Version 1.1 improves on W3C's SSML 1.0 Recommendation by adding support for more conventions and practices of the world's languages including Asian, Eastern European, and Middle Eastern languages. Both documents follow discussions from the three W3C Workshops on extending SSML. See the January 2007 press release and visit the Voice Browser home page.

Web of Services for Enterprise Computing: Workshop Report

08 June 2007

Photo of the Workshop The Web of Services for Enterprise Computing Workshop Report is now available, recommending next steps for the ways Web services and Web standards can meet enterprise software requirements. In February, Web services and SOA experts met to improve enterprise support. Read the results of the Workshop on Web of Services for Enterprise Computing hosted by MITRE, about Workshops and about Web services.

Internationalization Best Practices: Right-to-Left Scripts

06 June 2007

The Internationalization Core Working Group published an updated Working Draft of Internationalization Best Practices: Handling Right-to-left Scripts in XHTML and HTML Content. This advice is for authors who use XHTML or HTML markup and CSS to create and/or localize Web content in languages that use right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew. The document was previously titled Authoring Techniques for XHTML & HTML Internationalization: Handling Bidirectional Text 1.0. Visit the Internationalization home page.

CSS3 Multi-Column Layout: Working Draft

06 June 2007

The CSS Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Multi-Column Layout, a module of Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3). Style sheet authors can allow content to flow from one column to another, specify column width, and allow the number of columns to vary, all depending on available space. More flexible than table markup, columns styled in CSS can more easily be presented on a variety of output devices including speech synthesizers and small mobile devices. Visit the CSS home page.

CSS3 Media Queries: Candidate Recommendation

06 June 2007

The CSS Working Group released an updated Candidate Recommendation for editorial changes to Media Queries, a module of Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3). Built on the mechanism outlined in HTML, a registry of media types is proposed to describe to what type of devices a style sheet applies, and expressions to limit a style sheet's scope. Presentations can then be tailored to a specific range of output devices without changing the content. Visit the CSS home page.

Workshop on Distributed Web Applications

05 June 2007

Dave Raggett and Kevin Smith, Workshop co-Chairs The W3C Workshop on Declarative Models of Distributed Web Applications is underway 5-6 June in Dublin, Ireland. "Attendees will discuss how developers can focus on applications and end-user experience, leaving the details for how they are to be realized to tools that deal with the capabilities and shortcomings of each device," said Dave Raggett, W3C Fellow. Declarative techniques promise to reduce the cost of building Web applications for home, office and mobile environments. The Workshop is looking at the role of XML and Semantic Web technologies in achieving that goal, along with the challenges for dealing with security and privacy. The Workshop is hosted by MobileAware with the support of the Irish State Development Agency, Enterprise Ireland. Read the press release, about W3C Workshops and about the Ubiquitous Web.

Web Services Policy 1.5: Updated Candidate Recommendations

05 June 2007

The Web Services Policy Working Group published updated Candidate Recommendations for Web Services Policy 1.5 documenting their progress. The Policy Framework model expresses the nature of Web services in order to convey conditions for their interaction. Attachment defines how to associate policies, for example within WSDL or UDDI, with subjects to which they apply. The Primer is an updated Working Draft. Candidate Recommendation feedback is welcome through 30 June. Read about Web services.

Semantic Web Case Studies and Use Cases Published

05 June 2007

The SWEO Interest Group is pleased to announce the first set of Case Studies and Use Cases giving some examples of how the Semantic Web of machine readable data is used today. Applications are presented in areas ranging from automotive to health care, and from B2B systems to geographical information systems. The SWEO Interest Group will continue to publish new Case Studies and Use Cases in the future; an RSS feed for new submissions is available. A short overview is also available in Open Document Format, PDF, and HTML formats. Read about the Semantic Web.

SVG Open 2007 Deadline Extension

05 June 2007

SVG Open 2007, the 5th International Conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, will be held 4-7 September at Keio University, Japan, on the Mita Campus in Tokyo. The submission deadline for paper abstracts has been extended to 10 June. Proposals for courses or exhibitions may be submitted online. SVG Open is your chance to discuss SVG development experience, products, workflows and strategies. The conference language is English; translation facilities will be available to encourage English-Japanese communication. Read about SVG.

WAI-ARIA for Accessible Rich Web Applications: Working Drafts

01 June 2007

The Protocols and Formats Working Group published updated Working Drafts of WAI-ARIA Roles and WAI-ARIA States and Properties. WAI-ARIA attributes provide information about objects that extends what is available from markup. This allows people with disabilities using assistive technologies such as screen readers to access rich Web content built with Ajax and DHTML. This release provides better alignment to accessibility APIs and provides more explanatory material. Read the WAI-ARIA Overview and about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit, 11-13 June

01 June 2007

W3C is pleased to participate as a partner in the Gartner Application Architecture, Development & Integration Summit to be held 11-13 June in Nashville, TN, USA. Steve Bratt, W3C CEO, will speak on increasing interoperability through Web standards at 16:30-17:30 on 12 June, and W3C will participate in the summit Standards Corner running throughout show floor hours. A W3C Members-only discount is available. The conference features 6 tracks and over 60 sessions on SOA, Web services, application development and integration. Read about W3C Member benefits and more about Web services.

W3C Talks in June

31 May 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

EXI Performance Testing Framework Available for Download

30 May 2007

The Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Working Group testing framework for evaluating properties of alternate XML formats is now available for download. It can be used to measure processing efficiency and compactness, and includes support for in-memory and network testing. The download includes over 100 documents ranging from a few bytes to several megabytes and covering over 20 different schemas, taken from the over ten thousand samples used by the Working Group for their own measurements. Results and analysis from this framework for eight candidate binary XML formats are to be published by the EXI Working Group in July. Visit the XML home page.

Note: POWDER Use Cases and Requirements

25 May 2007

The POWDER Working Group has released the first publication of POWDER: Use Cases and Requirements as a Working Group Note. The document will guide the development of a way to attach small, easily-produced annotations to large collections of Web content. Web resources can then be retrieved, personalized and delivered in a variety of delivery contexts to meet both social needs for content labels and commercial requirements for content adaptation. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Secure Browsing: Working Draft

25 May 2007

The Web Security Context Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Web Security Experience, Indicators and Trust: Scope and Use Cases. The group's work is to enable a secure and usable interface so Web users can make safe trust decisions on the Web. This draft evaluates the use of today's security features and elaborates on the scope of the group's technical work. Read about the Security Activity.

Last Call: W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0

25 May 2007

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has released a second Last Call Working Draft of W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0. Comments are welcome through 22 June. These tests provide the basis for making a claim to be W3C mobileOK Basic compliant and are based upon W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices. Read about the Mobile Web Initiative.

Workshop on Mobile Ajax: Call for Participation

23 May 2007

Position papers are due 15 August for the Workshop on Mobile Ajax co-sponsored by W3C and the OpenAjax Alliance to be held 28 September in the San Francisco Bay area, USA. Attendees will explore use cases for mobile Ajax to help shape its use in mobile Web browsers. Topics might include user experience, application development, support in today's devices and browsers, and whether needs exist for standardization and best practices. The Workshop is free and open to all but position papers are required. Read about the Mobile Web Initiative and about W3C Workshops.

Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 2.0 Is a Proposed Recommendation

23 May 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0 to Proposed Recommendation in three parts: Part 0: Primer, Part 1: Core Language and Part 2: Adjuncts. Comments are welcome through 20 June. WSDL models and describes modular Web services and is used to document distributed systems and to automate communication between applications. WSDL Additional MEPs, RDF Mapping and SOAP 1.1 Binding are updated Working Drafts. Read about Web services.

Last Call: XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Full-Text 1.0, Requirements, Use Cases

18 May 2007

The XSL Working Group and XML Query Working Group have published three Last Call Working Drafts: XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Full-Text 1.0, XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Full-Text 1.0 Requirements, and XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Full-Text 1.0 Use Cases. Full-Text 1.0 technology extends XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 with full-text search capabilities. Comments are welcome through 2007-06-22. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Working Drafts

17 May 2007

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released updated Working Drafts of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, Understanding WCAG 2.0 and Techniques for WCAG 2.0. See the call for review for additional information. The group also published an updated WCAG 2.0 Quick Reference, a customizable list of WCAG 2.0 requirements and techniques. Following WCAG makes Web content more accessible to the vast majority of users, including people with disabilities and older users, using many different devices including assistive technologies. Comments are welcome through 28 June. Visit the Web Accessibility Initiative home page.

XML Protocol Working Group Renewed

17 May 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the XML Protocol Working Group. Chris Ferris (IBM) chairs the group which is chartered to to maintain and develop as needed the SOAP Version 1.2, XML-binary Optimized Packaging (XOP), SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism (MTOM) W3C Recommendations. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Read about Web services.

Health Care, Life Sciences and the Semantic Web: Publication

16 May 2007

The Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group (HCLSIG) has reached a significant milestone with their publication of the article "Advancing Translational Research with the Semantic Web." This joint work of the Interest Group was published in BMC Bioinformatics, a peer-reviewed open access journal that plays a central role in the bioinformatics community. The authors illustrate the value of Semantic Web technologies to neuroscience researchers and biomedicine and report on several projects by members of the Interest Group. Read about the Semantic Web.

Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages Published

16 May 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the publication of Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages as a Unicode Technical Report and a W3C Note. Major changes since the previous version encompass the alignment with Unicode 5.0 and the discussion of white space handling. The guidelines are published jointly by the Unicode Technical Committee and the W3C Internationalization Core Working Group. Visit the W3C Internationalization home page.

Last Call: Web Services Addressing Metadata

16 May 2007

The Web Services Addressing Working Group has released a third Last Call Working Draft of Web Services Addressing 1.0 - Metadata to prepare the specification for consideration as a Candidate Recommendation. Used to indicate support for the Web Services Addressing 1.0 mechanisms using the Web Services Policy 1.5 framework and defining how to express WS-Addressing properties in the Web Services Description Language (WSDL), this new version refines the Web Services Policy assertions. Comments are welcome through 8 June. Read about Web services.

SKOS Use Cases and Requirements: Working Draft

16 May 2007

The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of SKOS Use Cases and Requirements. Knowledge organization systems, such as taxonomies, thesauri or subject heading lists, play a fundamental role in information structuring and access. These use cases and fundamental or secondary requirements will be used to guide the design of SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organisation System), a model for representing such vocabularies. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C and WSRI Workshop to Explore Transparency in eGovernment

15 May 2007

Toward More Transparent Government: Workshop on eGovernment and the Web will be held 18-19 June in Washington, D.C., USA, at the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Attendees, invited speakers and panelists will discuss how the Web works for citizens and governments and how it can best achieve their goals. Co-sponsored by W3C and the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI), the Workshop is free and open to all but registration is required. The deadline was extended to 22 May for position papers which are strongly encouraged. Read the press release, the report of the first W3C eGovernment symposium, and about Workshops.

W3C Opens Southern Africa Office

14 May 2007

Pretoria W3C is pleased to announce the opening of the W3C Southern Africa Office. The Office is hosted at the Meraka Institute, a unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. Quentin Williams is Office Manager. Daniel Dardailler and Stephane Boyera are among those who attended the opening ceremonies on 14 May. Visit the Offices home page.

RDF Access to Relational Databases: Advance Notice of Workshop

14 May 2007

W3C plans a Workshop on RDF Access to Relational Databases on 25-26 October in Cambridge, MA, USA, hosted by Novartis. Workshop attendees from the Semantic Web and relational database communities will examine commonalities, distinctions and next steps for expressing relational data in RDF. A Call for Participation is expected in late May or June. Read about W3C Workshops.

W3C Invites Public Discussion of Current, Future Work at WWW2007

08 May 2007

We invite you to attend the W3C Track of the Sixteen International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2007), to be held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, from 9-11 May. Chaired by Marie-Claire Forgue, the W3C track will cover recent achievements and future work plans of W3C Activities. Read the press release.

W3C Welcomes Members at Advisory Committee Meeting

07 May 2007

photo of AC meeting W3C holds its semiannual Advisory Committee Meeting on 6-8 May in Banff/Calgary, Alberta, Canada. W3C Member organizations participate in two days of discussions and strategic planning about W3C Activities and future work. Learn How to Become a W3C Member and join W3C at the next Advisory Committee Meeting to be held with Technical Plenary Week on 4-10 November in Cambridge, MA, USA.

mobileOK Scheme: Working Draft

04 May 2007

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group released an updated Working Draft of the W3C mobileOK Scheme 1.0. mobileOK marks are machine-readable labels that indicate Web content and delivery pass the Mobile Web Best Practices test suite. Designed to create an effective user experience, mobileOK is written for content authors, tools developers and content providers. Read about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, a joint effort by authoring tool vendors, content providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators.

Generated Content for Paged Media: CSS3 Working Draft

04 May 2007

The CSS Working Group has released an updated Working Draft for Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3). Generated Content for Paged Media describes features such as cross-references, footnotes, headers and footers often used in printed publications. CSS is the Web's most widely-implemented language for style, used to render structured documents like HTML and XML on screen, on paper and in speech. Visit the CSS home page.

W3C Names Technology and Society Domain Leader, Policy Director

04 May 2007

Ralph Swick and Daniel Weitzner W3C has named Ralph Swick Technology and Society Domain Leader and Daniel J. Weitzner to the new position Technology and Society Policy Director. Ralph, who was Technology and Society Technical Director since 1997, will oversee the T&S Activities, currently Privacy, Security, and Semantic Web. Danny will lead W3C public policy strategy efforts, continue to co-chair the Patents and Standards Interest Group, and direct and perform outside research, funded through grants to MIT's DIG and the WSRI. Read about T&S, W3C's work at the intersection of Web technology and public policy, and about W3C.

GRDDL Advances to W3C Candidate Recommendation

03 May 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of GRDDL to Candidate Recommendation and the publication of GRDDL Test Cases as a Last Call Working Draft. Implementation feedback and comments are welcome through 31 May. Linking microformats to the Semantic Web, the GRDDL mechanism is used to extract RDF statements from XHTML and XML content using programs such as XSLT. Read about the Semantic Web.

Last Call: CC/PP 2.0 to Guide Content Adapation

02 May 2007

The Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group released Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies 2.0 as a Last Call Working Draft. Comments are welcome through 15 June. A CC/PP profile describes a device's capabilities and user preferences and is used to guide content adaptation. Version 2.0 is an update to the CC/PP 1.0 Recommendation for alignment with RDF and OMA UAProf 2.0. This Recommendation is one of the areas of convergence between W3C and OMA. Read about ubiquitous Web applications.

SVG 1.2 Primers, Language and Filters: Working Drafts

02 May 2007

The SVG Working Group published five Working Drafts for version 1.2 of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), three extending the language to add raster effects like drop shadows. First Public Working Drafts include SVG Filter Requirements, Primer and Language. Previously part of SVG 1.1 but published here as an independent module, SVG Filters are used to process images before they are displayed. These filter effects are defined in XML for SVG and can be used in other environments such as HTML styled with CSS, or XSL:FO. Updated Working Drafts, SVG Print 1.2 Primer and Language extend the language for multiple page and color management support. SVG provides interactive vector graphics, text, images, animation and graphical applications in XML. Visit the SVG home page.

SVG Tiny 1.2 Test Fest

02 May 2007

The SVG Working Group will hold a test fest on the first day of its face to face meeting in Zurich, Switzerland on 5 June. The beta SVG Tiny 1.2 test suite will be run against available SVG Tiny 1.2 implementations to create an initial implementation report. Implementors are invited to attend or to send their implementations in for testing. For further details please mail the SVG Working Group. Visit the SVG home page.

SOAP Version 1.2 Second Edition Is a W3C Recommendation

27 April 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released four SOAP 1.2 Second Editions as W3C Recommendations: Part 0: Primer, Part 1: Messaging Framework, Part 2: Adjuncts, and Specification Assertions and Test Collection. SOAP Version 1.2 provides the definition of the XML-based information that can be used for exchanging structured and typed information between peers in a decentralized, distributed environment. The second edition incorporates corrections for the known errata in the first edition. Visit the XML Protocol home page.

SML Group Launched to Standardize Multi-Document Models

27 April 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Service Modeling Language (SML) Working Group. John Arwe (IBM) and Pratul Dublish (Microsoft) chair the group which is chartered to produce W3C Recommendations for SML, adding extensions to the W3C XML Schema language for inter-document references and user-defined constraints. The first face-to-face meeting will be 11-13 June in Redmond, Washington, USA, hosted by Microsoft. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Read about XML.

Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0: Working Draft

27 April 2007

The Math Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0. MathML is an XML application for describing mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content. The goal of MathML is to enable mathematics to be served, received, and processed on the World Wide Web, just as HTML has enabled this functionality for text. Learn more about the Math Activity.

A MathML for CSS profile: Working Draft

27 April 2007

The Math Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of A MathML for CSS profile. This subset of MathML 3.0 can be used to capture the structure of mathematical formulas in a way particularly suitable for further CSS formatting. Coordinated with ongoing work on CSS Level 3, the profile is expected to facilitate adoption of MathML in Web browsers and CSS formatters. Visit the Math home page.

Best Practices for XML Internationalization

27 April 2007

The Internationalization Tag Set Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Best Practices for XML Internationalization. These best practices are a complement to the International Tag Set W3C Recommendation and are written for designers and developers of XML applications, XML content authors as well as users and translators. Visit the Internationalization home page.

W3C Talks in May

27 April 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

  • José Manuel Alonso presents at SOA for eGovernment on 1 May in McLean, Virginia, USA.
  • Steven Pemberton gives a keynote at ApacheCon on 2 May in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
  • Richard Ishida gives a keynote and presents at SOFTEC on 5-6 May in Lahore, Pakistan.
  • Michael Cooper gives a keynote at the International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (W4A) on 8 May in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
  • Olle Olsson presents at TelekomDagarna on 9 May in Stockholm, Sweden.
  • Marie-Claire Forgue runs a booth at the 16th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2007) on 9-11 May in Banff, Alberta, Canada.
  • Over 35 people present at the W3C Track @ WWW2007 on 9-11 May in Banff, Canada on topics including, "Making Mobile Browsing Better," "Rich Web Applications," "The Future of the Web Page," "Advances in Semantic Web," "Security and Usability on the Web," "Web of Services for Enterprise Computing," "A Multimodal Web to Expand Universal Access," "Architectural Integration," and "Query, Interchange and Access with XML!"
  • Michael Sperberg-McQueen gives a tutorial at XTech 2007: The ubiquitous Web on 14 May in Paris, France.
  • Richard Ishida presents at @media07 on 24 May in San Francisco, California, USA.
  • José Manuel Alonso presents at the 13th GCC eGovernment and eServices Forum on 28 May in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

VoiceXML 2.1 Is a Proposed Recommendation

25 April 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 2.1 to Proposed Recommendation. Comments are welcome through 25 May. Fully backwards-compatible with VoiceXML 2.0, version 2.1 standardizes eight additional features implemented by VoiceXML platforms: data, disconnect, grammar, foreach, mark, property, script, and transfer. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

W3C Launches Southern Africa Office

24 April 2007

Pretoria W3C is pleased to announce the opening of the W3C Southern Africa Office. The Office is hosted at the Meraka Institute, a unit of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. Quentin Williams is Office Manager. Daniel Dardailler and Stephane Boyera are among those attending the opening ceremonies on 14 May. Read the press release and about the Southern Africa Office opening and W3C Offices.

Semantic Web Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Published

24 April 2007

The SWEO Interest Group is pleased to announce the first release of the Semantic Web Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). These answers to questions covering Semantic Web standards and their usage are an evolving document that will continue to be updated over time. A Wiki site where the community can contribute to the further evolution of the FAQ and an RSS 1.0 feed to track changes are available. Read about the Semantic Web.

Authoring Tool Accessibility: Techniques Working Draft

23 April 2007

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published a Working Draft of Implementation Techniques for Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. These techniques, sample strategies and resources are an aid for developers who wish to satisfy the checkpoints in Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 (ATAG). ATAG helps developers design tools and authoring interfaces that are accessible to users including those with disabilities, and that produce accessible Web content. Resulting content can be read by a broader range of readers. Learn more about the WAI Technical Activity

Progress Events 1.0: Working Draft

20 April 2007

The Web API Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Progress Events 1.0. Five events and their interfaces are defined for use in XHR (AJAX) Web applications. When additional data is downloaded on demand, scripts can monitor progress, construct loading bars, and take action once data has been transferred. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

W3C Track Announced at WWW 2007 Conference

17 April 2007

The Consortium welcomes the public to meet the W3C Staff and Members, who will present recent achievements and future work plans through the W3C Track at the WWW2007 conference, to be held in Banff, Alberta, Canada, from 9 to 11 May 2007. Chaired by Marie-Claire Forgue, the nine sessions cover recent achievements and future work plans of W3C Activities. Read the press release.

Note: Internationalization Best Practices: Specifying Language in XHTML & HTML Content

12 April 2007

The Internationalization Core Working Group has published Internationalization Best Practices: Specifying Language in XHTML & HTML Content as a Working Group Note. Part of a series and written for HTML content authors working with XHTML 1.0, HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, and CSS, the document is an aid to specifying the language of content for an international audience. Learn more about the Internationalization Activity

Last Call: Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema

10 April 2007

The SAWSDL Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema. With these attributes, semantic annotations can be added to Web Services Description Language (WSDL) components for use in classifying, discovering, matching, composing, and invoking Web services. Comments on changes since Candidate Recommendation are welcome through 1 May. Read about Web services.

Toward More Transparent Government: Call for Participation

10 April 2007

Position papers are due 2 May for Toward More Transparent Government: Workshop on eGovernment and the Web co-sponsored by the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) to be held 18-19 June 2007 in Washington, D.C., USA, hosted by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Attendees will help to find ways of facilitating the deployment of Web standards across eGovernment sites. The goal of the Workshop is to help shape ongoing research in the development of Web technology and public policy, in order to realize the potential of the Web for access to, and use of, government information. Read about W3C Workshops.

Last Call: EMMA

09 April 2007

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of EMMA. The Extensible MultiModal Annotation language (EMMA) is a data exchange format for interaction management systems. Part of the W3C Multimodal Interaction Framework, the specification describes markup for describing user input together with annotations such as confidence scores, timestamps and input medium. Comments are welcome through 30 April. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

Voice Browser Patent Advisory Group Recommends that CCXML Advance

06 April 2007

A Patent Advisory Group (PAG) for the Voice Browser Working Group has concluded in a public report that the Working Group should continue to advance the CCXML specification along the W3C Recommendation Track. The conclusion follows an assertion from Nortel that the company does not believe that US patent number 6,701,366 includes any essential claims, as defined of the W3C Patent Policy. Nortel excluded the claims of that patent from its Royalty-Free licensing commitment when it joined the Voice Browser Working Group in June 2005. W3C appreciates communications from Nortel that helped the PAG reach their conclusion. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

Note: GRDDL Use Cases: Extracting RDF Data From XML Documents

06 April 2007

The GRDDL Working Group has published GRDDL Use Cases: Scenarios of extracting RDF data from XML documents as a Working Group Note. With important applications such as connecting microformats to the Semantic Web, Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages (GRDDL) is a mechanism to extract RDF statements from suitable XHTML and XML content using programs such XSLT transformations. Learn more about the Semantic Web

Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition (SISR) Is a W3C Recommendation

05 April 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition (SISR) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. Part of a powerful trend towards Web access via interactive voice response, SISR tags are used to extract meaning from speech recognition. SISR defines the syntax and semantics of tag content in the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification (SRGS) for output as serialized XML or ECMAScript variables. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

XML Pipeline Language: Working Draft

05 April 2007

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published a Working Draft of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language . Used to control and organize the flow of documents, the XProc language standardizes interactions, inputs and outputs for transformations for the large group of specifications such as XSLT, XML Schema, XInclude and Canonical XML that operate on and produce XML documents. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity

W3C Sets New Standard for Internationalized Web Content

03 April 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. Creators of XML content can use the ITS set of elements and attributes to prepare schemas and documents for localization and to internationalize them for a global audience. "Working with document formats internationally becomes much easier, whether you are creating a new schema or working with an established one," said Richard Ishida (W3C). Implementations provided for DTDs, XML Schema and Relax NG, can be used with new or existing vocabularies like XHTML, DocBook, and OpenDocument. Read the press release and visit Internationalization home page.

Web Services Policy 1.5: Candidate Recommendations

30 March 2007

The Web Services Policy Working Group has published updated Candidate Recommendations for Web Services Policy 1.5 documenting their progress. The Policy Framework model expresses the nature of Web services in order to convey conditions for their interaction. Attachment defines how to associate policies, for example within WSDL or UDDI, with subjects to which they apply. The group published updated Working Drafts of the Primer, Guidelines and Element Identifiers as well. Candidate Recommendation feedback is welcome through 30 June. Read about Web services.

RDFa Use Cases: Working Draft

30 March 2007

The XHTML2 Working Group and the Semantic Web Deployment Working Group jointly have published the First Public Working Draft of RDFa Use Cases: Scenarios for Embedding RDF in HTML. RDFa expresses metadata in XHTML-compatible constructs and extensions, enabling a new world of user functionality. Written for readers somewhat familiar with HTML, RDF and N3 notation, these scenarios consider publishers, tool builders and users. Read about HTML and the Semantic Web.

Rule Interchange Format Core Design: Working Draft

30 March 2007

The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of RIF Core Design. The document specifies the core design for a format that allows rules to be translated between rule languages and thus transferred between rule systems. The group invites comments through 27 April. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

W3C Launches Voice Browser Working Group

30 March 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Voice Browser Working Group to enable users to speak and listen to Web applications. Jim Larson (Invited Expert) and Scott McGlashan (HP) chair the group which is chartered to standardize languages for capturing and producing speech and for managing the dialog between users and computers. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Read the about the Voice Browser Activity.

W3C Launches Multimodal Interaction Working Group

30 March 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Multimodal Interaction Working Group to enable users to use their preferred modes of interaction with the Web. Deborah Dahl (Invited Expert) chairs the group which is chartered to develop open standards to adapt to device, user and environmental conditions, and to allow multiple modes of Web interaction including GUI, speech, vision, pen, gestures and haptic interfaces. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Read the about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

HTML Mail Workshop: Call for Participation

30 March 2007

Position papers are due 21 April for the W3C HTML Mail Workshop to be held 24 May in Paris, France, hosted by the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications de Paris. Attendees will discuss authoring, rendering, interoperability and security aspects of HTML in email as well as non-technical topics. Read about W3C Workshops and about HTML.

Ubiquitous Web to Simplify Development for Networked Devices

30 March 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity. W3C Fellow Dave Raggett chairs the group which is chartered to advance the creation of distributed applications for network appliances. The first face-to-face meeting of the Ubiquitous Web Applications (UWA) Working Group will be 7-8 June 2007 in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by MobileAware, following the associated W3C Workshop on Declarative Models of Distributed Web Applications. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. The UWA Working Group will take on the deliverables of the Device Independence Working Group which is now closed. Read about the Ubiquitous Web.

Toward More Transparent Government: Advance Notice of Workshop

30 March 2007

W3C plans a Workshop Toward More Transparent Government co-sponsored by the Web Science Research Initiative (WSRI) on 18-19 June 2007 in Washington, D.C., USA, hosted by the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Attendees will help to find ways of facilitating the deployment of Web standards across eGovernment sites, to help shape ongoing research in the development of Web technology and public policy, in order to realize the potential of the Web for access to, and use of, government information. A Call for Participation is expected in a few weeks. See the European W3C Symposium on eGovernment Report for information about the previous W3C eGovernment event. Read about W3C Workshops.

W3C Talks in April

30 March 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

GRDDL Test Cases: Working Draft

28 March 2007

The GRDDL Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of GRDDL Test Cases. The test cases demonstrate the expected behavior of a GRDDL-aware agent. With important applications such as connecting microformats to the Semantic Web, GRDDL is a mechanism to extract RDF statements from suitable XHTML and XML content using programs such as XSLT transformations. GRDDL allows powerful mashups at very low cost. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Last Call: SPARQL Query Language for RDF

27 March 2007

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a third Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Language for RDF. SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources. Comments are due by 18 April. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Last Call: Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 2.0

27 March 2007

The Web Services Description Working Group released three Last Call Working Drafts for the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0: Part 0: Primer, Part 1: Core Language and Part 2: Adjuncts. Comments are welcome through 15 April on this brief Last Call for changes since Candidate Recommendation review. WSDL RDF Mapping and SOAP 1.1 Binding are updated Working Drafts. WSDL 2.0 models and describes modular Web services and is used to document distributed systems and to automate communication between applications. Read about Web services.

Notes: XML Query Requirements and Use Cases

23 March 2007

The XML Query Working Group published two Working Group Notes, XML Query (XQuery) Requirements and XML Query Use Cases. The documents are a record of the development of XQuery and its associated specifications. Part of the XML family, the Recommendations are used for data mining, document transformation, and enterprise computing. Visit the XML home page.

XQuery Scripting Extension and Version 1.1 Requirements: Working Drafts

23 March 2007

Responding to requests from Working Group participants and the wider community, the XML Query Working Group released two First Public Working Drafts. XQuery Scripting Extension 1.0 Requirements describes goals and requirements for making XQuery 1.0 functional as a scripting language. XML Query (XQuery) 1.1 Requirements describes compatibility and functionality requirements for extending XML Query 1.0. Visit the XML home page.

HTTP Vocabulary in RDF: Working Draft

23 March 2007

The WAI ERT Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of HTTP Vocabulary in RDF. With these terms, HTTP headers exchanged between clients and servers can be recorded in RDF format. Terms include vocabulary for the HTTPS scheme as well as other extensions to the core specification. Visit the WAI ERT home page.

Last Call: EARL 1.0 Schema

23 March 2007

The WAI ERT Working Group released a Last Call Working Draft of EARL 1.0 Schema. Comments are welcome through 20 April. The Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) is a format to exchange, combine, and analyze results from different evaluation tools and checkers. EARL is introduced in the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) Overview. Visit the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) home page.

EGovernment and the Web: Workshop Report

20 March 2007

photo of Workshop panel discussion The European W3C Symposium on eGovernment Report has been published. Participants discussed specific government and citizens' needs related to eGovernment services, to identify aspects that put Web interoperability at risk and find how governments can deliver better and more efficient services through computer technologies. Held 1-2 February (press release), in Gijón, Asturias, Spain, the symposium was organized by the W3C Spanish Office and Fundación CTIC, and supported by the Principality of Asturias Government.

XML Binding Language (XBL) 2.0: Call for Implementations

16 March 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XML Binding Language (XBL) 2.0 to Candidate Recommendation. XBL extends the appearance and behavior of elements in Web formats such as HTML. Elements may be mapped to script, event handlers, CSS, and more complex content models. Content can be re-ordered and wrapped so that for instance, complex CSS styles can be applied to simple HTML or XHTML markup. XBL can be used to implement new DOM interfaces and, with other specifications, to implement arbitrary tag sets as widgets. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

RDFa Primer: Working Draft

13 March 2007

The XHTML2 Working Group and the Semantic Web Deployment Working Group jointly have published an updated Working Draft of the RDFa Primer 1.0. RDFa expresses metadata in XHTML-compatible constructs and extensions, enabling a new world of user functionality. Changes include new syntax for striping and use of the class attribute to declare rdf:type. Read about HTML and the Semantic Web.

W3C Launches New HTML Working Group

07 March 2007

W3C is pleased to invite participation in the new HTML Working Group, chartered to create the next HTML standard with the active participation of browser vendors, software developers, and content designers. "It's time to revisit the standard and see what we can do to meet the current community needs, and to do so effectively with commitments from browser manufacturers in a visible and open way," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. At the same time, W3C is chartering the Forms Working Group, the XHTML2 Working Group, and rechartering the Hypertext Coordination Group. Read the press release and visit the HTML Working Group home page, the Forms Working Group home page, and the XHTML2 Working Group home page.

CURIE: Working Draft for Compact URIs

07 March 2007

The XHTML2 Working Group published the First Public Working Draft of CURIE Syntax 1.0. Written for markup language designers, the draft specifies the syntax and usage of CURIEs which are abbreviated or "compact URIs." Read about the HTML Activity.

Working Draft: CSS3 Text

06 March 2007

The CSS Working Group has released a Working Draft of CSS Text Level 3. Formerly titled the CSS3 Text Effects Module, the draft is part of the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language Level 3 and addresses white space, line breaks, word boundaries, text wrapping, alignment, justification and spacing. Visit the CSS home page.

Incubator Group to Focus on Uncertain Knowledge

05 March 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Uncertainty Reasoning for the World Wide Web Incubator Group to better define the challenge of working with incomplete knowledge. The group expects to identify the elements of uncertainty, produce use cases, and create the fundamentals of a way to represent and reason when truth or falsehood is inapplicable or unknown. The group is sponsored by W3C Members Image, Video and Multimedia Systems Lab, McDonald Bradley, MITRE, National ICT Australia (NICTA), the University of Amsterdam and the University of Bristol. W3C Members may use this form to join the group. Read about the Incubator Activity.

Incubator Group to Analyze Semantic Web Services

05 March 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the SWS Testbed Incubator Group sponsored by W3C Members Wright State University, Stanford University, DERI University of Innsbruck, and the National University of Galway, Ireland. The mission of this XG is to develop a standard methodology for evaluating Semantic Web Services based upon a standard set of problems and develop a public repository of such problems. W3C Members may use this form to join the group. Read about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies.

Secure Browsing: Working Draft

02 March 2007

The Web Security Context Working Group released the First Public Working Draft of Web Security Experience, Indicators and Trust: Scope and Use Cases. The draft describes what technologies may be used and how proposals will be evaluated to produce the group's technical work to enable a secure and usable interface so Web users can make safe trust decisions on the Web. Read about the Security Activity.

Last Call: GRDDL Links Microformats and Semantic Web

02 March 2007

The GRDDL Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of GRDDL. Comments are welcome through 30 March. With important applications such as connecting microformats to the Semantic Web, GRDDL is a mechanism to extract RDF statements from suitable XHTML and XML content using programs such as XSLT transformations. GRDDL allows powerful mash-ups at very low cost. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

W3C Talks in March

02 March 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

  • Martín Álvarez gave a lecture at Creación de sitios Web mediante Hojas de Estilo. Usabilidad y Accesibilidad on 1 March in Mieres, Spain.
  • Klaus Birkenbihl and Ivan Herman present at ZKI Frühjahrstreffen on 6 March in Dortmund, Germany.
  • Shawn Henry participates in a panel at SXSW Interactive on 10 March in Austin, Texas, USA.
  • Ivan Herman presents at Infotech for Pharma & Biotech Europe on 14 March in London, UK.
  • Olle Olsson presents at Software Innovation on 18 March in Lisboa, Portugal.
  • Shadi Abou-Zahra presents at the Technology & Persons with Disabilities Conference on 21 March in Los Angeles, California, USA.
  • Olle Olsson presents at GIT 2007 Forum för Geografisk IT on 22 March in Jönköping, Sweden.
  • Máté Pataki and Éva Megyaszai present at Magyarországi Web Konferencia on 31 March in Budapest, Hungary.

Tim Berners-Lee Speaks on Future of the Web to US Congress

01 March 2007

Tim Berners-Lee Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director, testified on the future of the World Wide Web before the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, Committee on Energy & Commerce, U.S. House of Representatives, on 1 March. Chairman Edward Markey invited Berners-Lee as the sole witness for the first in a series on the Digital Future of the United States. The testimony and details of the hearing and archived Webcast (WMP) are available.

Workshop on Declarative Models of Distributed Web Applications: Call for Participation

01 March 2007

Position papers are due 17 April for the W3C Workshop on Declarative Models of Distributed Web Applications to be held 5-6 June in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by MobileAware with the support of the Irish State Development Agency, Enterprise Ireland. Attendees will discuss the potential for declarative techniques as a basis for reducing the costs of building Web applications for the home, office and mobile environments to meet the demand for greater interactivity and access to device capabilities. Read about W3C Workshops and about the Ubiquitous Web.

Web of Services for Enterprise Computing: Workshop

28 February 2007

Photo of Workshop underway The Workshop on Web of Services for Enterprise Computing is being held in Bedford, MA, USA, hosted by MITRE. Participants are discussing how to facilitate the processing of business transactions and interactions with systems that pre-date the Web, and how to address the need to interconnect intranet and/or extranet services using Web technologies. Read about Workshops and W3C Activities.

Web Services Policy 1.5: Call for Implementations

28 February 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Web Services Policy 1.5 to Candidate Recommendation. The Policy Framework defines a model for expressing the nature of Web services in order to convey conditions for their interaction. Attachment defines how to associate policies, for example within WSDL or UDDI, with subjects to which they apply. Candidate Recommendation feedback is welcome through 30 June. Read about Web services.

W3C Launches Security Specifications Working Group

28 February 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the XML Security Specifications Maintenance Working Group. Frederick Hirsch (Nokia) chairs the group which is chartered to perform maintenance work on Recommendations from the XML Signature and XML Encryption families of security specifications. The group is also tasked to suggest a charter for possibly broader future work. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Read the about the Security Activity.

Last Call: XMLHttpRequest Object for AJAX

27 February 2007

The Web API Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of The XMLHttpRequest Object. Comments are welcome through 2 April. The core component of AJAX, the XMLHttpRequest object is an interface that allows scripts to perform HTTP client functions, such as submitting form data or loading data from a remote Web site. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Internationalization Tag Set Is a Proposed Recommendation

26 February 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Version 1.0 to Proposed Recommendation. Comments are welcome through 26 March. Organized by data categories, the ITS set of elements and attributes supports the internationalization and localization of schemas and documents. Implementations are provided for DTDs, XML Schema and Relax NG, and can be used with new or existing vocabularies like XHTML, DocBook and OpenDocument. Visit the Internationalization home page.

French Webinar on Mobile Web

26 February 2007

Join us for a free W3C Webinar in French, where you will learn how to make your Web content mobile-friendly. Cédric Kiss (W3C) will present the work of the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group, including best practices, techniques, the mobileOK mark and a demonstration of the best practices checker. The Webinar will be held on Tuesday 27 February at 14:00 UTC. Attendance is free but registration is required. Visit the Mobile Web Initiative home page.

Last Call: XForms 1.1

22 February 2007

The XForms Working Group released a Last Call Working Draft of XForms 1.1, a foundation for the next generation of forms for the Web. Comments are welcome through 5 April. XForms 1.1 adds to version 1.0: several new submission capabilities, action handlers, utility functions, user interface improvements, and helpful datatypes as well as a more powerful action processing facility, including conditional, iterated and background execution, the ability to manipulate data arbitrarily and access to event context information. Visit the XForms home page.

W3C Launches POWDER Working Group for Retrieving Metadata

22 February 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of a new Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group in the Semantic Web Activity. Phil Archer (ICRA) will chair the group which is chartered through 31 March 2008 to develop a way for structured metadata, called "Description Resources," to be authenticated, applied to groups of Web resources, and retrieved independently of the resources. The group's first teleconference is 9 March. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Draft: State Chart XML (SCXML)

21 February 2007

The Voice Browser Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of State Chart XML (SCXML): State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction. SCXML is an execution environment based on UML Harel State Tables and CCXML. SCXML is a candidate for the control language within VoiceXML 3.0, CCXML 2.0, and the authoring language under development by the Multimodal Interaction Working Group. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Incubator Group Report: W3C Content Labels

20 February 2007

The W3C Content Label Incubator Group (WCL XG) published its final report, W3C Content Labels. The Incubator Report defines a data model for Content Labels through which identified parties can make assertions about the properties of a resource, or groups of resources. This publication is part of the W3C experimental Incubator Activity (see February 2006 press release) and is the first Incubator Group Report published by W3C.

Internationalization Activity Renewed, Architecture Group Launched

20 February 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the renewal of the Internationalization (I18n) Activity and the launch of a new Internationalization Architecture Working Group chaired by François Yergeau (Invited Expert). The group is chartered to work on the Character Model Resource Identifiers and Normalization and on Language Tags and Locale Identifiers. The Internationalization Core Working Group is chaired by Addison Phillips (Yahoo!) and is rechartered to propose and coordinate technology to enable universal and worldwide access to the Web. The charter of the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Working Group chaired by Yves Savourel (Enlaso) and the Internationalization Interest Group chaired by Martin Dürst (Invited Expert) have been extended. The Internationalization Guidelines, Education & Outreach (GEO) Working Group has closed and its work moved to the Core group. Participation in I18n is open to W3C Members. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Distributed Web Applications: Advance Notice of Workshop

16 February 2007

W3C plans a Workshop on Declarative Models of Distributed Web Applications on 5-6 June 2007, hosted by MobileAware with the support of the Irish State Development Agency, Enterprise Ireland. Attendees will discuss application modeling, security and usability for distributed applications running on network devices. A Call for Participation and more information is expected in March. Read about W3C Workshops.

XML Events 2: Working Draft

16 February 2007

The HTML Working Group released a Working Draft of XML Events 2: An Events Syntax for XML. To associate behaviors with markup, language designers can incorporate the module in this specification to integrate event listeners and handlers with DOM Level 2 event interfaces. Version 2.0 adds new functionality for conditional handling of events, and adds explicit elements for handlers. It also has an updated XML schema and DTD and incorporates all known errors in the XML Events Recommendation of 2003. Visit the HTML home page.

XHTML 1.1 Second Edition: Working Draft

16 February 2007

The HTML Working Group released the second edition of XHTML™ 1.1 - Module-based XHTML as a Working Draft in preparation for Proposed Edited Recommendation. XHTML 1.1 is a reformulation of XHTML 1.0 Strict based on XHTML modules. Not a new version, the second edition incorporates all known corrections and adds a new description in XML schemas. Visit the HTML home page.

Enabling Read Access: Working Draft

15 February 2007

The Web Application Formats (WAF) Working Group released an updated Working Draft of Enabling Read Access for Web Resources. Sandbox restrictions on cross-site access to browsers can be relaxed with this mechanism. An HTTP header or XML processing instruction or both can indicate that read access is allowed. The document was formerly titled Authorizing Read Access to XML Content Using the <?access-control?> Processing Instruction 1.0. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Tim Berners-Lee Keynotes 3GSM World Congress

12 February 2007

Tim Berners-Lee Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the Web, opened the 3GSM World Congress on Monday 12 February in Barcelona, Spain with a keynote address at the Mobile Innovation Forum. Berners-Lee spoke on the role of innovation and openness in the Web's success, and how the W3C Mobile Web Initiative brings mobile telephony into convergence with the Web and aids in bridging the digital divide.

Widgets 1.0 Requirements: Working Draft

09 February 2007

The Web Application Formats Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Widgets 1.0 Requirements. These design goals are the requirements for device-independent standards for scripting, digitally signing, securing, packaging and deploying client-side Web applications (widgets). Also known as gadgets or modules, widgets are small programs like clocks, stock tickers, news casters, games and weather forecasters that display and update remote data and run on the Web browser environment. Read about Rich Web Clients.

Paged Media, Behavioral Extensions: CSS3 Working Drafts

06 February 2007

The CSS Working Group has released two updated Working Drafts for Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3). Generated Content for Paged Media describes features such as cross-references, footnotes, headers and footers often used in printed publications. Behavioral Extensions to CSS allow bindings like XBL to be linked from CSS style sheets, so bindings can be used with user and alternate style sheets and media selection. Visit the CSS home page.

Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition (SISR) Is a Proposed Recommendation

06 February 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition (SISR) Version 1.0 to Proposed Recommendation. SISR tags are used to extract meaning from speech recognition. SISR defines the syntax and semantics of tag content in the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification (SRGS) for output as serialized XML or ECMAScript variables. Comments are welcome through 5 March. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

W3C Offices Meet Face to Face

06 February 2007

Group photo of meeting participants W3C's Offices held their annual meeting on 5-6 February in Sophia Antipolis, France. Representatives of W3C's sixteen world Offices met at INRIA to discuss W3C Membership issues, Office events and new staff, outreach, and plans for the future. W3C Offices work with their regional Web communities to promote W3C technologies in local languages, broaden W3C's geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C Activities. Visit the Offices home page.

Last Call: Web Services Addressing Metadata

02 February 2007

Based on feedback received during Candidate Recommendation, the Web Services Addressing Working Group has released Web Services Addressing 1.0 - Metadata as a Last Call Working Draft. Comments are welcome through 23 February. The proposed WSDL extension element and WSDL SOAP module have been removed, and Web Services Policy assertions have been introduced into the specification. The document was formerly titled "Web Services Addressing 1.0 - WSDL Binding." Read about Web services.

WSDL Element Identifiers: Working Draft

31 January 2007

The Web Services Policy Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of WSDL 1.1 Element Identifiers and plans to publish the document as a Working Group Note. These fragment identifiers and IRI-references, designed to be easy for authors to understand and compare, are for use in Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1 documents. Read about Web services.

WebCGM 2.0 Is a W3C Recommendation and OASIS Standard

30 January 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium and OASIS today jointly released WebCGM 2.0 as a Recommendation and Standard. Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) is an ISO standard used to interchange two dimensional vector and mixed vector-raster graphics for technical illustration, documentation and data visualization. WebCGM is a profile of CGM that adds Web linking and is optimized for Web applications used in defense, aviation, architecture, and transportation industries. Already widely implemented, version 2.0 adds DOM access to WebCGM objects and an XML Companion File (XCF) for external data, and extends graphical and intelligent content. Read the press release and about WebCGM.

W3C Talks in February

30 January 2007

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

Last Call: W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0

30 January 2007

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0. Comments are welcome through 6 March. These tests provide the basis for making a claim to be W3C mobileOK Basic compliant and are based upon W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices. Read about the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group.

Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema Is a Candidate Recommendation

26 January 2007

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema to Candidate Recommendation. With these attributes, semantic annotations can be added to Web Services Description Language (WSDL) components for use in classifying, discovering, matching, composing, and invoking Web services. Feedback is welcome through 1 March. The group also released an updated Working Draft of the companion Usage Guide. Read about Web services.

XQuery, XSLT 2 and XPath 2 Are W3C Recommendations

22 January 2007

The World Wide Web Consortium has published eight new standards in the XML family for data mining, document transformation, and enterprise computing from Web services to databases. "Over 1,000 comments from developers helped ensure a resilient and implementable set of database technologies," said Jim Melton (Oracle). XSLT transforms documents into different markup or formats. XML Query can perform searches, queries and joins over collections of documents. Using XPath expressions, XSLT 2 and XQuery can operate on XML documents, XML databases, relational databases, search engines and object repositories. Read the press release and testimonials and visit the XML home page.

Last Call: Voice Browser Call Control

19 January 2007

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Working Draft of Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0. Comments are welcome through 7 February. CCXML, the Call Control eXtensible Markup Language, provides telephony call control support for VoiceXML and other dialog systems. CCXML can provide a complete telephony service application with Web server application logic and documents to declare and perform call control actions, and can control one or more dialog applications that perform user media interactions. Visit the voice browser home page.

Last Call: XML Binding Language (XBL) 2.0

19 January 2007

The Web Application Formats Working Group has released a second Last Call Working Draft of XML Binding Language (XBL) 2.0, a technology for extending the appearance and behavior of elements in Web formats such as HTML. Comments are welcome through 9 February. With XBL, elements may be mapped to script, event handlers, CSS, and more complex content models. Content can be re-ordered and wrapped so that, for instance, complex CSS styles can be applied to simple HTML or XHTML markup. XBL can be used to implement new DOM interfaces, and, with other specifications, to implement arbitrary tag sets as widgets. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects TAG Participants

17 January 2007

The W3C Advisory Committee has elected Rhys Lewis (Volantis Systems), David Orchard (BEA), and Norm Walsh (Sun Microsystems) to the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). Continuing TAG participants are Dan Connolly (W3C), Noah Mendelsohn (IBM), T. V. Raman (Google), Henry Thompson (University of Edinburgh), appointed co-Chair Stuart Williams (HP), and co-Chair Tim Berners-Lee. The mission of the TAG is to build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary, to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG, and to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C.

European Symposium to Study EGovernment and the Web

16 January 2007

The European W3C Symposium on eGovernment is 1-2 February 2007, in Gijón, Asturias, Spain. Attendees will meet to discuss eGovernment services, identify aspects that put Web interoperability at risk and find how governments can deliver better and more efficient services through computer technologies. "We hope that participants at the symposium provide us with critical information to help us develop new technologies that meet citizens' needs and goals," said Ralph Swick (W3C). Registration is free and open to the public. Read the press release.

W3C Expands Support for Speech Synthesis of World Languages

10 January 2007

W3C took steps today to broaden support for the world's languages in voice applications on the Web. This First Public Working Draft of Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) 1.1 incorporates important features and feedback from SSML Workshops held in Beijing, China and Heraklion, Greece. On 13-14 January 2007, W3C conducts a third Workshop on SSML, hosted by Bhrigus Software and the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) in India. Read the press release and learn more about the Voice Activity.

Content Selection Primer 1.0 Updated

10 January 2007

The Device Independence Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Content Selection Primer 1.0. The Primer provides the reader with the basic knowledge required to make effective use of the Content Selection for Device Independence Specification, illustrating how to use features of that language in a variety of scenarios. Learn more about the Device Independence Activity.

Mobile Web May Help Bridge the Digital Divide: Workshop Report

06 January 2007

W3C has published a report from the Workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries, held in Bangalore, India in December 2006. Workshop participants discussed the needs and challenges facing people in developing economies who use a mobile phone as the primary and often sole platform for accessing the Web. Participants included mobile handset manufacturers, browser developers, software companies, local Indian companies and universities, and organizations working on information technology projects in rural communities in India and Africa. The report presents their findings and proposed next steps. You are invited to join the public forum for discussions about the future: public-mwi-ec@w3.org (archive). Learn more about W3C's Mobile Web Initiative.