W3C Overview

Daniel Dardailler

Director International Relations

May 2009

http://www.w3.org/2009/05/dd-w3c

What is the World Wide Web Consortium?

Mission
Structure
People
Process
Standards

Leading the Web to its Full Potential

Founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994, W3C is:

Providing the Vision to Lead
Engineering the Open Standards that Make the Web Work ...

From a Web of Documents ...
Toward One Web ...
- ... of Creators and Consumers
- ... of Data and Services
- ... on Everything
- ... for Everyone

Organization: International Web Standards Body

Expanding base of international operations

3 Hosts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology | European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics | Keio University (map)
16 Offices: Australia | Benelux/Bénélux | Brasil | 中国 | Suomi | Deutschland und Österreich | Ελλάδα | Magyarország | भारत | ישראל | Italia | 한국 | المغرب | España | Southern Africa | Sverige | United Kingdom and Ireland | (map)

People: International Leadership and Cooperation

Expanding base of the world's leading technology organizations and technologists

400 W3C Members
Adivsory Committee, Advisory Board, Technical Architecture Group
65 Member-neutral, globally-distributed Technical Staff
Accountable to the Global Public

Who are W3C's Members?

"Third-class companies make products; second-class companies develop technology; first-class companies set standards."

W3C's Members includes ...
- most of the world's leading IT companies
- other large and small companies
- academic and research institutions
- gov't, non-profit and standards organizations

... which are ...
- developing Web-based products
- using Web technologies
- conducting research on the Web
- developing specifications built upon W3C's work

* popular saying in Chinese business and government, from "China’s Post-WTO Technology Policy: Standards, Software and the Changing Nature of Techno-Nationalism", by Richard P. Suttmeier and Yao Xiangkui.
Full-fee Members (27 May 2007)

Why Do People Participate in W3C?

Leadership
- Introduce ideas through submissions, workshops, Incubator Groups
- Influence standards through Working Group participation, review, implementation

Early insight into market trends
- Access world's foremost Web technologists from Member & Team
- Plan for emerging technologies & markets through Member-confidential access

Promoting image as innovator
- Participate in international media activities, press releases, testimonials (e.g., MWI)
- Display your logo on W3C site (250K visits/day) and W3C logo on your site

(Membership / Benefits)

Process: Developing Standards

Process: Clear, effective, thorough => Coordination, consensus, interoperability
- Member-neutrality: All Members have equal rights
- Engineer dependencies (within W3C, and with 40+ Liaisons with SDOs)
Incubator Activity
- Quicker, lighter process for innovative efforts led by Members
Consistent architectural framework:
- Architecture of the World Wide Web, v1
Industry-leading Patent Policy
- Royalty-free licensing commitment

(Views of the Process: Life of Working Group, Recommendation Track)

W3C Engineers the Foundation of the Web

Over 100 Web Standards to date (list / translations)
- Including: HTML, XML, CSS, SOAP, SVG, Mobile Web BP, Voice XML, RDF, OWL, WCAG and more
Domains
- Interaction (Philippe Le Hégaret)
- Technology and Society (Ralph Swick)
- Ubiquitous Web (Philipp Hoschka)
- Web Accessibility Initiative (Judy Brewer)
- Communications (Ian Jacobs)
- Systems (Ted Guild)

Building Community. Engineering Web Standards.

24 Activities... 65 Working, Interest and Coordination Groups; and 7 Incubator Groups

Summary

2006 Tech Plenary meeting, participants, from the back of room

Potentially large changes coming in the Web and the Consortium
- Interesting times
You can contribute to change and positive growth, and build value for you, your organization and the world
- Leading, understand, implement
We are here to help you contribute and realize value
...http://www.w3.org/