| Guide

Use of W3C or Other Technologies within W3C Recommendations

W3C's overriding goal is to develop common standards that promote the evolution of the Web and ensure its interoperability. To do this in the most effective way, W3C Working Groups may find a need to consider the use of technologies developed within other standards bodies. WGs in this situation should consider the following before making a decision in this direction:

If W3C has a technology addressing the same or similar functionality, the WG should attempt to make use of it; at least as one (ideally, the preferred) alternative. The motivation for this is, in part, to help leverage and foster the level of interoperability that inherent in W3C's work. If they have difficulty using W3C technology, they should pose the problem to the WG responsible for that technology. If that WG cannot address the problem, it may be acceptable to fulfill the function using only the the technology from the other standards bodies.

Notes:

(1) Text was motivated by the HTML WG desire to draft an XHTML+SVG+SMIL Profile using RELAX NG in order to specify a number of normative schemas. [Link???]