The World Wide Web Consortium

Mauro Nunez
North American Business Manager
World Wide Web Consortium

21 November 2007

These slides: http://www.w3.org/2007/Talks/101-mn-ZhejiangUniversity.html

Outline

Web's Success and the Role of Standards
World Wide Web Consortium
Web for Everyone
Questions

Web's Success

and the

Role of Standards

"Over 1 Billion Served"

Internet usage vs. continent

Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Note: in 1995, there were ~16,000,000 Internet users, or 0.4% of global population

(see also: Top languages on the Internet:
English 31% w/ 158% growth 2000-2007, Chinese 16% w/ 470% growth 2000-2007)

"Over 100 Million Serving"

Number of Web Sites (domain names and content)

Web servers vs. time

Source: http://www.zakon.org/robert/internet/timeline/, http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2006/11/01/november_2006_web_server_survey.html

(Users:Servers ratio ~ 1996 = 150:1. 2000 = 50:1. 2006 = 10:1)

What Led to the Web's Success?

Happy child at computer, and very busy person at desk

Simple architecture - HTML, URI, HTTP
Networked - value grows with data, services, users
Extensible - from Web of documents to ...
Tolerant - even w/ imperfect mark-up, data, links, software
Universal - independent of systems and people
Free / cheap - browsers, information, services
Simple / powerful / fun for users - text, graphics, links
Open standards ...

Why are Open Standards Important?

People meeting

Broad industry agreement (if done right)
Interoperability ... cross-application, -organization, -data
Avoids vendor lock-in ... for providers and users
Open access = no black boxes
Mandated ... by customers, government
Open, royalty-free standards = good business sense

World Wide Web Consortium

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

Graph of Globe

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

... expanding ...

From a Web of Documents ...
Toward One Web ...
- ... of Data and Services
- ... on Everything
- ... for Everyone
... the Semantic Web

A Unique Standards Organization

20 Hosts/Offices: MIT | ERCIM | Keio | | Australia | Brazil | Benelux | China | Finland | Germany and Austria | Greece | Hungary | India | Israel | Italy | Korea | Morocco | Southern Africa | Spain | Sweden | United Kingdom and Ireland |

437 Members (history map, largest)
1,000+ Technologists developing standards in 60 Groups
65 Member-neutral Technical Staff
Accountable to the Global Public

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

Why Participate in W3C?

W3C Member logo

Leadership
- Introduce ideas through submissions, workshops, Incubator Groups
- Influence standards through Working Group participation, review, implementation

Early insight into market trends
- Access world's foremost Web technologists from Member & Team
- Plan for emerging technologies & markets through Member-confidential access

Promoting image as innovator
- Participate in international media activities, press releases, testimonials (e.g., MWI)
- Display logo on W3C site (300K visits/day) and W3C logo on your site

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

Engineering the Web's Interoperable Foundation

Close to 100 Web Standards to date (list/svg-by-yr/translations/~60 groups svg)
- Including: HTML, XML, CSS, SOAP, SVG, Voice XML, RDF and more

W3C technology stack

(Description of technologies in the stack)

The Real Question

Q: Which of these are relevant to China?

A: All of them…

Web for Everyone

Children's hands on globe

Universal Access ...

Global participation (Offices, translations, etc.)
Internationalization Activity (overview talk)
Web Accessibility Initiative
New Web security work
Future objective: "Trust"

Summary

2006 Tech Plenary meeting, participants, from the back of room

Evolution toward one Web ...
- of Data and Services, on Everything, for Everyone
Strong business case for
- Understanding emerging standards
- Implementing standards as they appear ready
... Participating in standards orgs supports both
A good resource ...http://www.w3.org/