W3C

[At the occasion of April Fools’ Day] W3C today re-introduced the popular BLINK feature as part of the open web platform, thus mitigating the community critique about the removal of the early version.

Using state-of-the-art W3C technology, Web authors now can be sure to get the readers’ attention that their important information deserves, and web users to never miss important information again.

The new feature gives back full editing control to web authors while ensuring an inclusive user experience for all. More information is available in the press release.

The Accessibility Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has published new Developer Modules in the Curricula on Web Accessibility. This curricula provides a framework for creating courses on digital accessibility, for including accessibility in other courses, and for reviewing existing and proposed courses. The March 2021 publication includes: updated guidance in the Curricula overview page, updated Foundation Modules, and new Developer Modules. The new modules focus on accessible markup and coding techniques, primarily for teaching front-end developers. The next modules will cover designing and authoring accessible digital content.

W3C has published XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0 (Second Edition) as a W3C Recommendation. This specification defines the syntax and semantics of XSLT 2.0, a language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents. This Second Edition incorporates errata and clarifications, without new features.

W3C has published a 3.0 version of the XSLT language as a W3C Recommendation, on 8 June 2017, which includes powerful additions, so as to enable transformations to be performed in streaming mode, where neither the source document nor the result document is ever held in memory in its entirety. Another important aim of 3.0 was to improve the modularity of large stylesheets, allowing stylesheets to be developed from independently-developed components with a high level of software engineering robustness (packages).

The Second Screen Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Open Screen Protocol. The Open Screen Protocol is a suite of network protocols that allow user agents to implement the Presentation API and the Remote Playback API in an interoperable fashion.

The Web Real-Time Communications Working Group invites implementations of a Candidate Recommendation of WebRTC Priority Control API. This API defines a control surface for manipulating the network control bits (DSCP bits) of outgoing WebRTC packets, and the queueing priority of outgoing WebRTC packets under congestion.

Comments are welcome by 30 April 2021.

The Decentralized Identifier Working Group invites implementations of a Candidate Recommendation of Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0.

This document defines Decentralized identifiers (DIDs), a new type of identifier that enables verifiable, decentralized digital identity. A DID identifies any subject (e.g., a person, organization, thing, data model, abstract entity, etc.) that the controller of the DID decides that it identifies. In contrast to typical, federated identifiers, DIDs have been designed so that they may be decoupled from centralized registries, identity providers, and certificate authorities. DIDs are URIs that associate a DID subject with a DID document allowing trustable interactions associated with that subject. Each DID document can express cryptographic material, verification methods, or services, which provide a set of mechanisms enabling a DID controller to prove control of the DID.

The Working Group has also published a separate Use Cases and Requirement document that provides some background for the usage of this technology.

Candidate Recommendation means that the Working Group considers the technical design to be complete, and is seeking implementation feedback on the document. The group is keen to get comments and implementation experiences on this specification as issues raised in the documents’ Github repository.

The group expects to satisfy the implementation goals (i.e., at least two, independent implementations for each of the test cases) by 18 April 2021.

The Web Real-Time Communications Working Group has published WebRTC 1.0: Real-Time Communication Between Browsers as a W3C Recommendation. This document defines a set of JavaScript APIs to allow media and generic application data to be exchanged with another browser or device implementing the appropriate set of real-time protocols defined in IETF.

WebRTC already serves as a cornerstone of online communication and collaboration services. The WebRTC framework provides the building blocks from which web and app developers can seamlessly add video chat and peer-to-peer data exchange to a range of applications. Billions of users can interact now that WebRTC makes live video chat easier than ever on the Web. To learn more about this timely achievement and what the future holds for WebRTC, please, read our press release.