Policies shaping the Web in Europe
Gilles Kahn
W3C10 Europe
3 June 2004
Policies shaping the Web in Europe
Eric Velleman (Bartimeus) - Web Accessibility
perspective
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin (Internet Rights Forum) - Internet Policy: Overcoming Contradictions
Peter Brown (European Parliament) - Policies shaping the
Web in EuropeStandards, the Public Sector and the Web
Moderator: Gilles Kahn (INRIA)
Web Accessibility perspective
eInclusion, Europe and WAI, Netherlands best-practice and
harmonization
![Eric Velleman photo](https://www.w3.org/2005/04/Eric_Villeman.jpeg)
Eric Velleman, Director, Bartimeus Accessibility Foundation
Demographics for Accessibility
- Total 730 M people in Europe in 2005
- 80 mobiles/100p
- Domain names: 52,914,393
- 37 M persons with disability, excluding RSI and cognitive
disability.
- By 2020: 25% population over 60 (largest increase in 75+)
Source: Internet World
Stats
People use the Web
|
People on the Internet (xM) |
Asia |
302 |
Europe |
259 |
North America |
221 |
What are they all looking for?
![graph showing what different audiences are looking for on the Internet](lookingfor.jpg)
Shopping online
![bar graph showing home shopping line increasing each year](homeshopping.png)
2004 Netherlands:
- 174 Euros per inhabitant
- Increased participation of elderly and disabled
- 30% of shopping was outside own country
- Total for Europe: 67,7 Billion Euros
But is it accessible??
Online government
- 93% of EU member states have a website
- 90% of all countries online offer information, databanks, legislation
online
- 30% offers online services
But are they accessible??
Google WAI impact *)
- 142,000,000 for guidelines web
- 14,100,000 for guidelines web accessibility
- 7,270,000 Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines
- 5,700,000 for Web Accessibility
Initiative
- 215,000 for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines
- 144,000 for Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines
Note: Google estimates
Note: relative inpact of UAAG and ATAG, althought smaller in number can be
greater.
Useful content
Reasons for not using the Internet: lack of content
![Reasons for not using the Internet: lack of content](useful-content.jpg)
The archive.org
![WAI Website, then and now](archive.png)
Why Use W3C Accessibility Guidelines (and Valid Code)
Lessons learnt in the Netherlands
Accessibility is good news (1/2)
- No need for text only sites, everyone gets the full experience of your
site including images and multimedia
- Easily changable 'Look-and-feel‘
- Up to 60% decr.pagesize possible *)
- Optimized for Search engines
- Futureproof: Conforms to standards
*) Actual decrease in size of main website of
ministry of Health Netherlands.
IBM saved up to 50 percent with their main graphic site.…
Accessibility is good news (2/2)
- Works better in old and future browsers
- Ready for possible legislation and certification
- More ready for your mobile devices
- One site for multiple platforms is easier
- Faster loading time
- Sites available in case of calamities
Web Accessibility Harmonization in Europe
Logos Related to Web Accessibility
![T-shirt showing various accessibility-related logos](tshirt.png)
Google: 778,000 hits for quality mark web
accessibility
European Answers for an Inclusive Future
Adoption and harmonization of W3C/WAI standards
European information Society i2010
- Promoting a borderless EU information space
- Internet, tv and telephone over the same infrastructure
- Action plan for general framework for the digital services economy
(guidelines and best-practice–3jrs)
- Stimulating innovation by investment in research
- Doubling IST funding for FP7
- Making the European Information Society as inclusive and accessible as
possible
Source: Speech: i2010: How to make Europe’s
Information Society competitive. Viviane Reding. Brussels, 22 February
2005
EC eAccessibility for 2005
Objective: achieving an information Society for all
- Three pillars:
- Accessibility requirements in public procurement
- Certification and assessment (self declaration, 3rd party,
voluntary, mandatory, etc.)
- Explore legal measures
- Instruments:
- Harmonisation (voluntary)
- Help self-regulation
- Review situation in 2006
- Possibly other measures including legislation.
Source: Results of online consultation: Mrs.
Viviane Reding
EC eAccessibility for 2005
- Complementary actions:
- Foster standardisation/ Increase skills/ Design for all/ Raise
awareness/ Benchmark and monitor/ Research and technological
development
- Web accessibility: Need to assess and certify accessibility of
public web sites
- Member states websites accessible by end of 2001/2003 ?
Source: Results of online consultation: Mrs.
Viviane Reding and Source: 25 September 2001agreed by European Parliament
The WAB Cluster
![WAB Cluster](wab.jpg)
![Information Society Technologies](infosoctech.jpg)
FP6/IST project (2003-2006) on eInclusion:
- WAB Cluster - Web Accessibility Benchmarking (WAB) Cluster, with a
close coordination with WAI. The cluster goal is to define a unified web
evaluation methodology (UWEM) for conformance to the WCAG guidelines.
- European Internet Accessibility Observatory (EIAO), in relation to
the 2002 Council's request for obtaining comparable data across
Member States;
- Supporting the creation of an eAccessibility Mark (Support-EAM), in
relation with the 2002 Council's request to investigate such a
labelling - the project has triggered a CEN Workshop for discussing
the approaches;
- Benchmarking Tools for the Web (BenToWeb)
Example of a Quality Mark and evaluation scheme Netherlands
Quality Mark drempelvrij.nl
![Quality Mark drempelvrij.nl logos](qmark.png)
- Priority 1
- Ensuring representation from all stakeholders
- TV attention, and umbrella orgs advertising
Identifying experts: Accessible builders/design companies
![table of accessible builders](access1.png)
Organizations: Mediamaal, Ministerie van VWS,
Media Design B.V., Web2design, A&M ImpacT, PDF Informatie Architectuur,
Lostboys, Sogeti
Identifying Experts: Accessible Web sites/best practice
![table of accessible sites](access2.png)
Organizations: Ministerie WVS-Brancherapporten,
MSN Nederland, NebasNsg, Nutsbedrijven Maastricht, NV Nederlandse Spoorwegen,
OBT: bibliotheek voor Midden-Brabant, Oogfonds, Postbus 51, Provincie
Fryslân, Provincie Gelderland, Provincie Limburg
Identify best practice examples
![Thumbnails of some Web pages](examples.png)
Summary of years of evaluation and raising awareness
Current state in most countries
Percentage of total Dutch Web sites
![Pie chart showing portion of accessible Web sites of all Dutch Web sites](pie1.png)
Percentage of government sites
![Pie chart showing portion of accessible Web sites of Dutch government Web sites](pie2.png)
Percentage of accessible Web sites
In the Netherlands:
- 1.000.000 websites
- 33 accessible
- Of 1000 websites researched, 2 valid code (education necessary)
Conformance: the magic tool
![Bar graph showing increase in implementation of checkpoints over time](checkpoints.png)
Dutch situation:
- 2 checkpoints: designers ‘please the test’
- 4 government websites had the Quality Mark (less than 0,4 percent of
the total. Dec.2004)
- Monitor 2004 shows 2 of the 100 sites accessible
Action: Results of ‘WAI’ campaign in the Netherlands
- Awareness (85% population, 67% companies)
- 33% of participants are accessible
- 101 paying participants for quality mark
- Participants include multinational companies
- Significant increase in accessibility of websites
- 350 Declarations of Intent
- List of preferred suppliers
- Increasing demand for usability testing protocols
General conclusions (1/2)
- Positive role of WAI has been and is important
- Accessibility recommended by Council and Parliament not yet
achieved.
- Need for methodologies to evaluate (and repair) public web sites.
- Cluster all efforts for accessible web sites around the W3C/WAI
- Harmonize standards for web accessibility in Europe.
- Awareness has considerably increased since 1997/9.
- Accessibility claims do not always show really accessible sites.
General conclusions (2/2)
- Accessibility has ROI
- Experienced designers and appropriate training are necessary.
- There is a need for accessibility support in web authoring and CMS
tools to ease the development of accessible web sites.
- There is a need for official translations and formal recognition of the
WAI guidelines as standard for use in national legislation (by
Standardisation organisations with W3C)
- We need a mechanism to follow up, monitor and respond to requests and
complaints from citizens with disabilities.
- We need research on different certification models (Wab cluster)
Brochure
![Amalgam of shots of brochure](brochure.png)
Internet Policy: Overcoming Contradictions
![Isabele Falque-Pierrotin photo](https://www.w3.org/2005/04/Isabelle_Falque-Pierrotin.jpeg)
Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, Chair – Internet Rights Forum
Outline
- A Bit of
History
- The Rise of Regulatory Initiatives
- Co-Regulation and the Internet Rights Forum
- A Universal Approach to Complex Social Issues?
A Bit of History
From a small community to the digital avatar of our globalized
societies
- Originally a community of specialists, expanding fast
- 130 websites in 1993
- 23,500 in 1995
- 230,000 in 1996 (MIT)
- 1996 : Trouble ahead as Net usage booms (The end of innocence?)
- France: Gubler case fires regulatory concerns
- USA: Communication Decency Act as a failed attempt to regulate the
Internet
Outline
- A Bit of History
- The Rise of
Regulatory Initiatives
- Co-Regulation and the Internet Rights Forum
- A Universal Approach to Complex Social Issues?
The Rise of Regulatory Initiatives
From strict self-regulation …
- Climax in 1997?
- FTC strongly endorses self-regulation on data protection …
- … but finally notices a lack of uniformity in data protection
practices
- Limits : self-regulation sometimes fails to satisfy objectives of
common interest
- FTC finally asked Congress for new laws
- Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998
The Rise of Regulatory Initiatives
… to governmental intervention
- From 1998 onwards: an upsurge in legislation
- USA: DMCA (1998), COPPA (1998), Can Spam Act (2003), …
- EU: More than 15 directives in a few years
- France: Laws on electronic signature and cryptography (2000), data
retention (2001), electronic voting (2004), e-commerce (2004), data
protection (2004), …
- Limits: Governmental intervention having little impact of some major
issues
- Spamming
- Copyright enforcement issues …
Outline
- A Bit of History
- The Rise of Regulatory Initiatives
- Co-Regulation and the
Internet Rights Forum
- A Universal Approach to Complex Social Issues?
Co-Regulation and the Internet Rights Forum
Co-regulation : 3 beliefs
- Internet as global social space / marketplace needs a form of
regulation
- Complexity of the Internet challenges traditional modes of regulation,
notably by the State
- A principle of shared responsibility
Co-Regulation and the Internet Rights Forum
The Internet Rights Forum
- A dedicated para-governmental organization, open to membership
- Organizes a permanent dialogue between all members of the Internet
community on an equal basis
- 16 policy recommendations (IP, e-voting, child protection,
tele-working…) adopted by consensus
- To the Government as well as to business and users
- Legislation, codes of conduct, technical recommendations
Co-Regulation and the Internet Rights Forum
![Co-regulations between civil society, public authorities and companies](coregulation-triangle.png)
Outline
- A Bit of History
- The Rise of Regulatory Initiatives
- Co-Regulation and the Internet Rights Forum
- A Universal Approach
to Complex Social Issues?
A Universal Approach to Complex Social Issues?
Co-regulation stands out internationally
- The Internet Rights Forum launched the European Internet Co-regulation
Network (EICN) in 2003
- Work by international organizations frequently refers to this
regulatory strategy: WSIS-ITU, EC, Council of Europe…
- Europe a leader of the co-regulatory approach?
A Universal Approach to Complex Social Issues?
Co-regulation calls for cultural changes
- From the Governments
- Accept open dialogue with other stakeholders
- From the private sector
- Commit into real dialogue with all parties involved
- From the civil society / internet users
- Organize themselves to participate constructively
Conclusion
Internet Policy:
Regulation through Open Dialogue
Policies shaping the Web in EuropeStandards, the Public Sector and the
Web
![Peter Brown photo](https://www.w3.org/2005/04/Peter_Brown.jpeg)
Peter F Brown, Chair, CEN eGovernment Focus Group
Personal Introduction
Official of the European Parliament…
- 2000-2004, Head of service responsible for interoperability and
information architecture
…on secondment to the Austrian Government,…
- Advisor on pan-European eServices and preparation of Austrian
Presidency of EU Council in 2006
Chair of “eGovernment Focus Group”…
- Established by European standards body, CEN
…and individual member of OASIS
- Co-editor of SOA-RM Specification
- Member of eGovernment TC
The “Teenage Web”
The difficult years ahead
“Who am I? What am I?” - identity
“Nobody understands me...” - semantics
“Nobody cares” - trust
Battles with authority and desire/need for independence -
governance
Identity of Web resources
What is a resource? What is a representation?
Problem of conceptual layers
- A “document”
- A “service”
- A “person”
Everything needs identity, but be clear what every “thing”
is...
Taking ownership: value of "Namespaces" to delineate "Unformation
Spaces"
Electronic Identity
Separating concepts of:
- “online identity”
- Electronic ID
Personal data and citizenship
New contribution: “citizen-centred architecture”
- Protecting personal data
- Offering citizens choice
- Federating identity management
- From "DigitalMe" to "Digital I"
"Nobody understands me" - Semantics
Dealing with misunderstandings: concerns about terminology
- Structured domain knowledge vs AI: “I mean this” not “I think
you mean that”
- Semantic interoperability – issue of domain governance - think:
"assets"
- Building bridges between IT/R&D and users
“Semantic Web” or semantic web?
- Who else is involved?
- Keep up the good work of liaisons
Trust
Managing identity
Dealing with abuse
- Recourse and responsibility
Building a web of trust
- “I know who you are, but do you know who I am?”
Governance
Interoperability doesn't just happen
- Domain-based governance and standards
- Acting in loco parentis: is someone responsible?
Not something to fear something to embrace
- Public sector can provide a reference anchor
US and Europe
- We do things differently - reflection of different values?
- Doesn't mean one is right/wrong
- Need to work together
Thank you and Good Luck!
Next Session
Questions and Answers
Thank you all for making this a great celebration.
We look forward to seeing you at the W3C Twentieth Anniversary
Celebration.
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