World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
“To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols
and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web”
- Founded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1994
- Develops open Recommendations (Web Standards)
- Engages in education, outreach, develops guidelines…
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A neutral forum for building consensus around Web standards
W3C’s Long Term Goals
-
Web for Everyone
- regardless of language, user capabilities, geographical location, device used for access,…
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Web on Everything
- not only PC-s, but Phones, PDA-s, Television,…
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Knowledge Base, Advanced data searching and sharing
- information for both human and machine processing
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Trust and Confidence
- technologies for collaborative environment
- a Web with accountability, security, confidence, and confidentiality
W3C and eGovernments
We will address two issues:
- What are open standards and why are they important for eGovernment?
- Which technologies areas of W3C are relevant for eGovernment?
So… Why Bother?
- Why bother about standards at all?
- Why bother about open standards?
Why Bother: Internet Stack Benefits
Separate markets exist for:
- hardware
- operating system
- connectivity (IP)
- browsers
- search services
- specific application areas (book sales, advertisements, etc.)
- etc
Open standards allow different layers to evolve independently and therefore faster and better!
Why Bother: User/Vendor Benefits
- Avoids vendor lock-in
- Access for all — accessibility, new devices
- Unexpected reuse (see the arrival of the Mobile Web!)
- Cross-application integration (Web Services, Semantic Web)
And… How do you Measure the Cost of
- … of the US still using feet and pounds?
- … of power sockets being different all over the World?
- … of using different widths between rails in, say, Spain, Ukraine, etc, and than the rest of Europe
- … of US cellphones not being GSM?
- … of the first WAP not being an open Internet platform?
- … of U Minn asking for a fee for Gopher in 1993?
Wap 1 Example
- … of the first WAP not being an open Internet platform? (eg, ignore
other Web content)
[Source: T-mobile]
Standards and e-Government?
- Users’ lock-in must be avoided. A user should not be required to
- … use a particular operating system to fill tax forms on-line, to access health insurance data, …
- … have access to a particular (and expensive) software to submit a, say, grant proposal or ask for a passport
- …
Standards and e-Government (cont)?
- The usage of the Web is a major step (the Web should be accessed from any platform…)
- But there is a danger of lock-in, too!
- use a particular browser, colour, screen resolution, …
- Hence the usage of Open (Web) Standards is paramount
Besides: governments shows the way for local industry, it serves as general example and reference
So What Are Open Standards?
Open Standards: an EU View
- The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit organization
- The standard specification document is available either freely or at a nominal charge
- The intellectual property of the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty free basis
- No constraints on the re-use of the standard.
[Source: European Interoperability Framework for pan-European eGovernment Services]
Open Standards: W3C’s View
- Transparency
- public process
- public access to technical discussions, minutes,…
- Relevance
- start based on due analysis and market needs for all, including, eg, aspects of internationalization, accessibility,…
- Openness
- anybody can participate
- participation of users and developers; industry and research; governments and public
- Impartial and consensus based
- guaranteed fairness
- equal weight for each participant
- Availability
- free access to standard documents (not even a nominal fee!)
- clear process for translations
-
clear IPR rules
- Maintenance
- testing, errata, revisions…
Success of Internet and Web depended/depends on open standards
How This Work at W3C?
- Transparency
- W3C’s process document is publicly available
- W3C archives all its mailing lists and minutes; some accessible to
all W3C members, some to the general public
- Relevance
- per process, the work must begin by a public requirement document
- all work is continuously checked against accessibility, internationalization, etc
- Openness
- any organization can become a member
- documents are periodically released to the public
- groups must respond and document all public comment
- Impartial and consensus based
- the working groups’ work is based on consensus
- vendor neutrality guides all actions of W3C
- all members have equal rights at W3C
- Availability
- all W3C recommendations are free to the public
- W3C has an active (volunteer based) translation programme (700+ translations are available)
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W3C has defined a clear Patent Policy
- Maintenance
- testing, errata, revisions… (“life after rec”)
Patent Problem Grew …
- Original W3C process became increasingly inadequate
- fierce competition to exploit the Web
- increasing number of patents asserted
- increasing level of concern, confusion, legal actions, delays
Patent Problem Grew …
- Perceived risk to the Web business model, e.g.
- …to the continued development of open Web standards
- …to the continued growth of the Web as a medium for communication
- …to the continued growth of the Web as an instrument of commerce
W3C Had to Develop its Own PP
- W3C was forced to deal with the issue
- Was a long, tedious, and very controversial work
- torn between demands of full royalty free and rand (reasonable and non-discriminatory)
- torn between the open source community and big companies
- At the end, a policy was published in 2004, first of its kind among standard setting organizations
Patent Policy in a Nutshell
Goal: Produce Recommendations implementable on Royalty-Free basis
and allow technical work to with minimal interruption
Method:
- W3C RF obligations for Working Group participants
- the participating organization formally commits to the W3C
Royalty-Free License requirements for patents found to be
“essential” to the Recommendation.
- W3C RF licensing definition
- must be available to all implementers and users
- may be limited to implementations of the Recommendation
- must not charge a fee or royalty
- must not impose any other material conditions, such as requirements to use other technologies, etc.
- disclosure rules
- Working Group participants are not required to disclose
known patents as long as the participating organization commits to
licensing those patents according to the W3C Royalty-Free License
requirements.
- exclusion
- participants may exclude specific patent claims from the licensing
commitment
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must be done at the beginning
- Working Group knows and may try to avoid those features in the recommendation
The W3C Technology Stack…
The Real Question
- Q: Which of these are relevant to e-Governments?
- A: All of them…
- In what follows, some examples will be given (Let us not spend time on the obvious, e.g., Web Services, XML, …)
XForms
- XForms can be used to develop complex and secure input forms
- Declarative formats, most of the scripting can be avoided
- Combines with Web Services (data are XML based, Schema validation can be used, etc)
- Example: (simplified) tax form
Semantic Web
- Gives tools to create and store qualified relationships among data on the Web
- Different databases, information sources, ontologies, etc, can be used in a coherent application
- May become an essential tool for “information interoperability” (i.e., how to combine electronic
documents with different (XML) formats?)
- Archived information (e.g., legal texts) can be properly annotated, organized, searched…
- Example: semantic “harvester” of environmental agencies and information
Mobile Web
(courtesy of solidapp.com)
- Information should be accessible from all kinds of devices
- W3C has “mobile variants” for a number of its technologies
- Very important issue in some developing countries, where Mobile Web is the Web access in
some communities!
- But… how do create web sites that works on my mobile?
- W3C’s Mobile Web Initiative is looking at this issue
- develops guidelines, creates inventories, …
Scalable Vector Graphics
- “A picture is worth 1000 words”
- (Information) Visualization is vital for decision making
- SVG is also finding its role on Mobile!
- Example: German Federal Statistical Office figures
Internationalization
- Technologies should be adaptable to various languages, writing modes and directions…
- Huge issue in countries like India or in the European Union
- It is not only the issue of proper character sets: e.g., dates, colour schemes, …
- All W3C technologies are reviewed by internationalization experts
Web Accessibility
- The Web should be accessible to senior citizens, people with various disabilities, …
- Has lots of similarities to accessing the web in adverse conditions (bad light conditions, old
equipments, etc)
- In a number of countries accessibility is (or will be) required by law
- W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is one of the
fundamental documents, e.g., in EU regulations
- All W3C technologies are reviewed by accessibility experts
Conclusions
- Open Standards are vital for the progression of the Web (and elsewhere…)
- W3C provides a number of building blocks in building e-governments
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Governments should rely on open standards in their e-governmental initiatives
Thank you for your attention
W3C’s Technologies and e-Government
