W3C and eGov
Daniel Dardailler
W3C Director for Europe
http://www.w3.org/2005/03/dd-metis/all.htm
W3C Exec Summary
The International Web Standard Development Organization
(SDO)
creator of HTML, XML, HTTP, Web Services, Semantic Web technologies, WAI
Guidelines, etc.
- Mission: Lead the Web to its full
potential
- Goals: Interoperability, Universality,
Functionalities
- How: Industry driven + Government Grants,
Neutral/nonforprofit, consensus based, Open participation, open
results
- ~360 members (120 in Europe), ~70 staff (25 in Europe)
- Based at MIT, ERCIM (Europe) and Keio University
(Japan) + 14 Offices
- Liaisons with 40+ other standards
bodies, Accountable to the global Public
Web technologies
- Work
- 4 Domains, 20+ Activities, 50+ Groups
- Results: 80+ Web Standards, from http, HTML and XML to Web Services
and Semantic Web
How does W3C work ?
- Provide a neutral forum for meeting
- Technically expert from industry doing specification
editing
- Achieve consensus
- Reference open source code where appropriate
End results: Working Drafts and Recommendations
Benefits of Web Standard Harmonization for eGovernment
- Create a unified market demand / drive development up
- Better authoring tools and more interoperable user agents
- Reuse of training and education materials/technical assistance
- Guarantee of vendor independence (both software/hardware)
- Guarantee of universality (across language, culture, disability)
- Guarantee of durability
How do we address fragmentation ?
- Increase participation from regional groups in specification
development
- Increase officialness of W3C standards
- Adding a new process for Authorized translations
- Foster local support/outreach vs. duplication of technical
work
- Explain the responsibility: continued evolution means continued
obligation
- Focusing on the importance of Harmonization
Public Resources