Overview of the World Wide Web Consortium

Steve Bratt
Chief Operating Officer
World Wide Web Consortium

10 November 2005
New Delhi, India

http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-sb-w3c-overview-ind/
http://www.w3.org/2005/Talks/1110-sb-w3c-overview-ind/1110-sb-w3c-overview-ind.pdf

presented at the
International Conference & Workshop on Web Technologies
on the occasion of the launch of the W3C Indian Office

Outline

• Mission
• Key Ingredients
  • Organization, Leadership, Process
• Technologies
  • Areas, Achievements
• Future Directions
  • Focus: Expanding int'l participation

Mission: Leading the Web to its Full Potential

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

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

From a Web of Documents ... ... toward one Web: of Data and Services on Everything for Everyone ... that is Interoperable, Trustworthy, Evolving with time ...

(Membership / Benefits / "At a Glance" brochure)

International Web Standards Organization

Expanding base of international operations

• 3 Hosts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology | European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics | Keio University (map)

• 15 Offices(map): Australia | Benelux/Bénélux | Suomi | Deutschland und Österreich | Ελλάδα | 香港 | Magyarország | भारत | ישראל | Italia | 한국 | المغرب | España | Sverige | United Kingdom and Ireland (map)

  Office discussions underway: China, Latin America.

International Leadership and Cooperation

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

• Accountable to the Global Public
• 40 Liaisons with other international standards bodies

• 65 Member-neutral Technical Staff (map)

• 400 Members driving standardization work (history map) ...

W3C Membership, Oct 2005

Member Profile

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

W3C's Membership includes

• commercial companies (vendors and consumers)
• academic institutions
• research laboratories
• government agencies
• non-profit organizations

... organizations, which are ...

• developing Web-based products
  
• leveraging Web technologies as an enabling medium for your work
  
• 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.

Developing Standards at W3C

• Clear and effective Process:
  • Member-neutrality
  • Clear Patent Policy
  • Consistent architectural framework
    • Architecture of the World Wide Web, Vol 1
  • Coordination, consensus and interoperability
    • No "rubber stamping"
    • Must engineer dependencies (inside and outside of W3C)
  • Views of the Process: Life of Working Group, Recommendation Track

• Incubator Activity - soon to be launched
  • Quicker, lighter process for efforts that are innovative and not-yet-ready for standardization

  
  

W3C Engineers the Foundation of the Web

W3C Groups

Current work done in ~50 Working, Interest and Coordination Groups

W3C Web Standards

80+ Standards to date(list/ svg-by-yr/ translations)

Leading Edge: Latest and Future

• Web of Data and Services
  • XML: Future, Binary, Processing Model
  • Web Services: Performance, Addressing, SemWeb Services, Policy, Schema/Databindings
  • Semantic Web: Best Practices, Query, Rules, Health Care and Life Sciences
• Web on Everything
  • Interaction technologies: XHTML, XForms, CSS, SVG, SMIL, Voice, MMI
  • Rich Web Clients: Compound Doc Formats, Web Applications
  • Mobile Web Initiative
  • Embedded systems, Ubiquitous Web
• Web for Everyone
  • Web Accessibility Initiative (new charters)
  • Expanded Internationalization Activity
  • New Web security/privacy/trust work under consideration
  • Expanding global participation in W3C

Case for Expanding Global Participation (1)

Improved mutual understanding ... of W3C's unique position as int'l standards body to ensure W3C evolves over time to better support global needs Web standards that are better ... through diverse use cases, requirements, technologies, testing that are more comprehensive, broadly interoperable, and higher quality Web standards that are more widely deployed, because they meet global requirements are better understood by global experts

Case for Expanding Global Participation (2)

(continued ... )

Greater opportunity for everyone, through ... improved communication, understanding, innovation, commerce, productivity widespread sharing of information, via accessible languages, technologies development of Web-based products and participation in expanding markets improving agriculture, engineering, education, nutrition, health care, etc. ... ... while providing an avenue for expanded global commercial and social networking

Plans for Expanding Global Participation (1)

• Add to W3C's current 15 Global Offices
  • India Office launched
  • Exploring interest in China, Latin America, elsewhere

• Establish new liaisons
  • Int'l orgs, gov and non-gov orgs, nat'l and int'l standards bodies, overseas offices of current Members
  • Identify and reach out to orgs from underrepresented countries who might be interested in and benefit from W3C's work

• Reduce financial barriers to Membership
  • April 2005: W3C announced 40-85% reduction in Membership fees for small companies and not-for-profit organizations based in the developing world

Plans for Expanding Global Participation (2)

(continued ...)

• Reduce financial barriers to participation
  • Explore funding for participation of experts from developing countries

• Reduce non-financial barriers
  • Exploring how to mitigate effects of language, jargon, time zones, time commitments

• Extend outreach in multiple levels and languages
  • Web and hardcopy materials about W3C's work and usage to improve life
  • Workshops, tutorials, conferences, visits, etc.

Conclusions

W3C is an active int'l organization Building foundational Web standards Innovating toward a Web ... of Data and Services on Everything for Everyone Come innovate with us! How to join W3C http://www.w3.org/

Value of W3C Membership

• Leadership
  • Introduce ideas through submissions & workshops
  • Influence standards through Working Group participation, review, implementation
  • Provide strategic direction through seat on Advisory Committee
    • Each Member has one AC Representative

• Early insight into market trends
  • Access Member & Team technical experts
  • Track emerging technologies & markets through Member-confidential access
  • Implement standards & plan for procurement of new technologies ahead of market

• Promoting image as innovator
  • Participate in international media activities, press releases, testimonials (e.g., MWI)
  • Display organization and logo on W3C site (250K visits/day)
  • Display W3C Member logo on organization's page
  • Ensure & enjoy benefits of royalty-free implementation of Web standards

(Membership / Benefits / How to join W3C / "At a Glance" brochure)