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Based on its Goal of Universal Access, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is committed to make the Web accessible to people around the world by promoting technologies that take into account the vast differences of language, script, and culture of users on all continents.
The W3C Internationalization (I18N) Activity was created in October 1995, and a workshop was held in May 1996. In February 1998, the I18N Working Group (I18N WG) and the I18N Interest Group (I18N IG) were created, initially with a duration of one year. The charters of both groups have been extended regularly, and currently end March 2002. The I18N WG and IG have been concentrating on reviewing other W3C specifications in development, and on the Character Model for the World Wide Web.
Based on feedback from W3C Members, we have decided to strengthen our internationalization work, in particular in the direction of guidelines and outreach. To define the exact shape of this effort, to allow for a wide variety of input on the Internationalization Activity, and to get more people involved, we are organizing a one-day workshop. The workshop is taking place on Friday, 1st February 2002 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington DC, USA. It is co-located with the 20th International Unicode Conference (Monday-Thursday 28-31 January 2002).
Our current understanding is that the main area we should work on, in addition to reviewing specifications, is creating guidelines. There is a need for guidelines for XML formats, document creators, webmasters, tools developers, etc., and requests from those communities for W3C to produce them. These guidelines would be in addition to the Character Model, which provides "guidelines for W3C specifications".
We expect several groups to contribute to the workshop:
The goal of the workshop is to reevaluate the I18N Activity and to prepare the rechartering of the I18N Activity and WG(s)/IG(s) by surveying the problems and showcasing existing solutions, raising awareness of the issues, and providing a forum for discussion.
There are a variety of actions that could be undertaken by the W3C in following up from this workshop; these include creating a new Working Group and/or Interest Group.
The program of the workshop will be published on the web with public access. This will include position statements and associated material.
In addition, a report on the discussions at the workshop will be made public after the meeting. Invited experts are required bona fide to stick to the confidentiality agreement. This policy may be later modified on request of the participants. If sufficient interest can be confirmed, W3C will initiate a new Working Group and/or Interest Group.
To participate in the workshop, you have to do three things:
Both registration and submission of a position statement are required for every participant, including invited speakers, experts, and W3C staff!
The workshop is an open event. Everybody interested in participating in W3C's internationalization work is welcome. However, space is limited to 45 participants. Therefore, if you plan to attend, please use the online registration form to register and send in your position statement as soon as possible.
Preference will be given on the basis of (a) quality of position statements, and (2) employees of W3C Member Organizations. There is an a-priori limit of two persons from each W3C member organization, and of one person from external organizations. (An exception is made for W3C staff members.) This limit can be overridden by the program committee in the case of particularly interesting contributions, and if there are remaining vacancies.
Participants will be informed about whether they can participate or not by Wednesday, January 16th. In case you need an earlier confirmation for your travel planning, please (1) submit your position statement and registration as early as possible, (2) include a comment clearly indicating that you need earlier confirmation, and (3) allow at least one week for confirmation (and a bit more over the holidays).
There will be no workshop participation fee. Participants are responsible for their own accommodation and travel expenses.
Position statements (also sometimes called position papers) are the basis for the discussion at the workshop. Position statements must be submitted via e-mail to w3t-i18n-ws-submit@w3.org (archived for W3C Team access only) by 10 January 2002, in (X)HTML or plain text. If necessary, alternate formats can be included as well. Position statements are required from every participant, including invited speakers, experts, and W3C staff!
A position statement can be as short as a few paragraphs and as long as necessary if it contains a well-defined technical contribution. Longer position statements should contain a summary. What is important is not the length, but the information that helps the workshop participants and organizers to prepare for the workshop:
Suggested topics include:
Position statements will be published on the public Web pages of the workshop, and may be distributed as printed notes to all the participants. Unless clearly indicated otherwise, submission of a position statement implies a permission for such a publication. The Chair can ask the author(s) of particularly representative position statements to explicitly present their position at the workshop to foster discussion. The Chair will be guided in this decision by the program committee. If asked for a presentation, the authors are also invited to make the slides of the presentation available on the Workshop Web site.
Martin J. Dürst (W3C)
Email: duerst@w3.org
Tel.: +81 (466) 49 1170
Address: The World Wide Web Consortium, Keio Research Institute at SFC, Keio
University, 5322 Endo, Fujisawa, 252-8520 Japan.
Barbara Jarzyna (Global Meeting Services Inc.)
Email: info@global-conference.com or:
conference@unicode.org
Tel: +1 (858) 638 0206
Fax: +1 (858) 638 0504
Address: 4030 Porte La Paz #90, San Diego, CA 92122, USA.
Susan Westhaver (W3C)
Email: susan@w3.org
Tel.: +1 (617) 253-7970
Address: The World Wide Web Consortium, MIT Lab for Computer Science, 200
Technology Square, Cambridge MA 02139, USA.
Richard Ishida (Xerox), Chris Lilley (W3C), Vincent Quint (W3C), Misha Wolf (Reuters), Martin J. Dürst (W3C)
The workshop is co-located with the 20th International Unicode Conference (IUC). A block of rooms has been reserved at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. Workshop participants are requested to make their reservations through the IUC Conference Management to get the preferential IUC/workshop rate (rooms at the special rate of $169 per night plus taxes available until January 10th; one night charged if not canceled 72 hours from the date of arrival). Please use the reservation form even in case you do not attend the International Unicode Conference.
Note that you will need to make your own hotel reservation.
Omni Shoreham Hotel
2500 Calvert Street, NW
Washington, DC 20008
USATel: +1 202 234 0700
Fax: +1 202 265 7972
The Hotel is located on 11 acres in picturesque Rock Creek Park. One block from the Woodley Park Metro Station, which connects visitors to major Washington attractions. 3 miles from Union Station, 7 miles from Reagan National Airport, 28 miles from Dulles International Airport and 33 miles from Baltimore/Washington International Airport (BWI). See IUC20 Accommodation for more details.
Breakfast is served at 8:00am. The workshop begins at 8:30am and ends at 5pm. Lunch and coffee breaks are included. More than half of the workshop time will be devoted to discussion rather than presentations.
This activity will consume 25% of the time of one W3C staff member for chairing the workshop, to handle local organization, and for managing the workshop website, over a period of three months. This workshop is part of the W3C Internationalization Activity.