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The W3C Internationalization (I18n) Activity works with W3C working groups and liaises with other organizations to make it possible to use Web technologies with different languages, scripts, and cultures. From this page you can find articles and other resources about Web internationalization, and information about the groups that make up the Activity. Read also about opportunities to participate and fund work via the new Sponsorship Program.
What the W3C Internationalization Activity does
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Updated article: Bidi space loss
The following changes were made:
- intended audience corrected
- examples changed
- heading structure changed
- some reordering of sections
- updated text from CSS spec (from Text module now)
- further reading updated
- general editorial improvements to remaining text
See the updated article.
See the github commit diffs.
Updated article: Who uses Unicode?
This article was completely rewritten to bring it up to date and to reflect the widespread adoption of Unicode on the Web and elsewhere.
Translators should note that links to the following translations have been removed: German, Spanish, Hungarian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Swedish, Ukrainian. If you want to update a translation or provide a new translation, please contact us for the new source text.
For review: What is Ruby?
A new article, What is Ruby? is out for wide review. We are looking for comments by 10 February.
This new article will replace an older page, simply called Ruby, with more complete and up to date information. Other articles in preparation will address how to use markup and styling in HTML and CSS.
Please send any comments as github issues by clicking on the link “Leave a comment” at the bottom of the article. (This will add some useful information to your comment.) You may find that some links in the article won’t work, because this is a copy of the article which will eventually be published on the W3C site. There is no need to report those.
Putting Linguistic Linked Data Standards in Action: Webinar on the FREME Framework
![](https://www.w3.org/International/multilingualweb/images/mlw-logo.png)
FREME is a project that is developing a Framework for multilingual and semantic enrichment of digital content. A key aspect of the framework is that it puts standards and best practices in the area of linguistic linked data and multilingual content processing in action. We will introduce the framework in a dedicated webinar on 22 February, 4 p.m. CET. If you are interested in participating please contact Nieves Sande and Felix Sasaki for further logistics.
Unicode Tutorial Workshop in Oman (Feb 14-16, 2016)
This tutorial workshop, sponsored by the Unicode Consortium and organized by the German University of Technology in Muscat, Oman, is a three-day event designed to familiarize the audience with the Unicode Standard and the concepts of internationalization. It is the first Unicode event to be held in the Middle East.
The workshop program includes an introduction to Writing Systems & Unicode, plus presentations on Arabic Typography, web best practices, mobile internationalization, and more.
The workshop website provides full information about the event. Early bird registration lasts until January 31, 2016, but register early to ensure a place.
Updated article: Using character escapes in markup and CSS
The article was updated to using HTML5 markup, and to use HTML5 terminology for character references. Various links and parts of the content were also updated.
German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian and Ukrainian translators are invited to update their translations.
Video published: Linguistic Linked Data and the LIDER project explained
![](https://www.w3.org/International/multilingualweb/images/mlw-logo.png)
This video explains what Linguistic Linked Data is and summarizes the outcomes of the LIDER project. This includes best practices for working with Linguist Linked Data, a reference architecture and a roadmap for future activities around Linguistic Linked Data. The video has been produced by the LIDER project and has been published during the European Data Forum 2015 event.
New First Public Working Draft: Internationalization Best Practices for Spec Developers
The Internationalization Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Internationalization Best Practices for Spec Developers.
This document provides a checklist of internationalization-related considerations when developing a specification. Most checklist items point to detailed supporting information in other documents. Where such information does not yet exist, it can be given a temporary home in this document. The dynamic page Internationalization Techniques: Developing specifications is automatically generated from this document.
The current version is still a very early draft, and it is expected that the information will change regularly as new content is added and existing content is modified in the light of experience and discussion.
Updated Candidate Recommendation: Encoding
The Encoding Candidate Recommendation has been updated to take into account changes made to the editor’s draft since its initial publication as a Candidate Recommendation. These changes are largely due to issues discovered during implementation. This is a snapshot of the WHATWG document, as of 29 September 2015 and no changes have been made from the original in the body of the document other than to align with W3C house styles.
If you wish to make comments regarding this document, please raise them as github issues against the latest editor’s draft. Only send comments by email to www-international@w3.org if you are unable to raise issues on github. All comments are welcome.
The utf-8 encoding is the most appropriate encoding for interchange of Unicode, the universal coded character set. Therefore for new protocols and formats, as well as existing formats deployed in new contexts, this specification requires (and defines) the utf-8 encoding.
The other (legacy) encodings have been defined to some extent in the past. However, user agents have not always implemented them in the same way, have not always used the same labels, and often differ in dealing with undefined and former proprietary areas of encodings. This specification addresses those gaps so that new user agents do not have to reverse engineer encoding implementations and existing user agents can converge.
Proposed Update UTR #50, Unicode Vertical Text Layout
![](https://www.w3.org/International/icons/unicode-logo.png)
A Proposed Update of UTR #50 is now available for public review and comment. The UTR is being reissued with a set of data updated to the character repertoire of Unicode Version 8.0. In this revision, four characters are added to the arrows tailoring set. For details on the proposed changes in the data, please refer to the Modifications section in the UTR.
For information about how to discuss this Public Review Issue and how to supply formal feedback, please see the PRI #309 page.
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