W3C is delighted to announce its latest online training course: Introduction to SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). The 5-week online course will be lead by David Dailey of Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania, who is writing an SVG Primer. People taking the course will:

• create SVG documents;
• learn how to add border effects, linear and radial gradients;
• add animation using SMIL;
• use scripting to transform and manipulate images; and
• make graphics interactive and responsive to user input.

The only pre-requisite for the course is that participants have some familiarity with HTML/XML and the ability to edit source code directly. Participants will have access to lectures and assignments guided by W3C experts on this topic. There will also be opportunities to discuss and share experiences with your peers who are faced with the same challenges of Web design.

Registration is now open. The Early bird rate of 95 Euros is available until 1 October. After that date, the rate is 125 Euros. Full details of the course (audience, content, timing, weekly commitment) is available in the Introduction to SVG: Course Description.

The Internationalization Core Working Group has just published 6 new articles and updated a further 5 articles and a tutorial to help HTML and CSS authors understand how to work with character encodings on the Web. For instance, there are articles that explore how to choose an encoding, how to declare it in various flavours of HTML and XHTML, what you need to know about the byte-order mark and normalization, and when to use (or not use) character escapes. For more iI18n news and RSS feeds, visit the Internationalization home page.

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification. DOM Events is designed with two main goals. The first goal is the design of an event system which allows registration of event listeners and describes event flow through a tree structure. Additionally, the specification will provide standard modules of events for user interface control and document mutation notifications, including defined contextual information for each of these event modules. The second goal of DOM Events is to provide a common subset of the current event systems used in existing browsers. This is intended to foster interoperability of existing scripts and content. Comments are welcome through 18 October. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

The Geolocation Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Geolocation API Specification. The Geolocation API defines a high-level interface to location information associated only with the device hosting the implementation, such as latitude and longitude. The API itself is agnostic of the underlying location information sources. Common sources of location information include Global Positioning System (GPS) and location inferred from network signals such as IP address, RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses, and GSM/CDMA cell IDs, as well as user input. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of XMLHttpRequest Level 2. The XMLHttpRequest Level 2 specification enhances the XMLHttpRequest object with new features, such as cross-origin requests, progress events, and the handling of byte streams for both sending and receiving. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of The Widget Interface. This specification defines an application programming interface (API) for widgets that provides, amongst other things, functionality for accessing a widget's metadata and persistently storing data. Comments are welcome through 28 September. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has updated a Group Note of Device API Access Control Use Cases and Requirements. This document examines the question of managing sensitive information that can become available through device APIs (e.g., position information). The approach taken in this document is to simplify the possible interactions by considering three related use cases: (1) browser web pages and untrusted widgets (2) trusted widgets and applications, and (3) delegated authority. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

The XML Security Working Group has published five working drafts today. XML Signature 2.0, Canonical XML 2.0 and the XML Signature Streamable Profile of XPath 1.0 are part of an ongoing effort to rework XML Signature and Canonical XML in order to address issues around performance, streaming, robustness, and attack surface. The Working Group has also published updated Working Drafts for its XML Signature Best Practices and XML Security Relax NG Schemas Working Group Notes. Learn more about XML Security.

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Working Draft of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0. Voice XML is used to create interactive media dialogs that feature synthesized speech, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, telephony, mixed initiative conversations, and recording and presentation of a variety of media formats including digitized audio, and digitized video. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.