W3C's Mobile Web Initiative - Crossing the Chasm

W3C Mobile Web Initiative

Philipp Hoschka
W3C Deputy Director
Ubiquitous Web Domain Leader

Mobile Monday - London, UK
October 8, 2007

What is W3C ?

Founded by Tim Berners-Lee, Web Inventor
Mission: Lead the Web to its Full Potential
Web Standards: XHTML, CSS, VoiceXML, XML, SOAP, RDF, ...
Member consortium
~ 440 members (3, Alcatel, AT&T, BT, Ericsson, France Telecom, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Nokia, Samsung, Telecom Italia, Telefonica (O2), T-Mobile, Vodafone,..)
- UK+Ireland (55): Afilias, Argo Interactive, Bango, BBC, BT, ChangingWorlds, ICRA, M:Metrics, Mobileaware, .mobi, Segala, Symbian, Vodafone, Volantis, ...
- UK+Ireland members largest European "contingent" (and more than 10% of total members)

Crossing the Chasm

Source: Geoffrey Moore - "Crossing the Chasm"

Issue: Bad user experience when accessing Web on phone
- Idea: Mobile Web Best Practices for Web Developers
- Idea: MobileOK for Web sites following Best Practices
- Idea: Education and Training
Issue: Developer: High Costs when developing mobile Web content
- Idea: Improve Device Description Repository technology
- Idea: Test suites to improve browser interoperability

MWI sponsors

Apr 2007: "Mobile, Mobile, Mobile" - Eric Schmidt (Google) on Web's biggest growth area
June 2007: IPhone launch
Oct 2007: Internet capability key factor in handset purchase for 45% of US mobile phone users (Kelsey Group)
Lots of Mobile Web Events this Autumn/Winter:
- Sept 07: Mobile Web 2.0, Informa
- Sept 07: Mobile Ajax Workshop, San Francisco
- Oct 07: Mobile Web Americas, Orlando
- Oct 07: Mobile Monday, London
- Oct 07: Mobile Web Camp, Paris
- Oct 07: Mobile 2.0, San Francisco
- Nov 07: Mobile Internet World, Boston
- Dec 07: MAPOS, London
- ...
Flat rate data plans
...

"Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0" - W3C Proposed Recommendation
- Use standards such as XHTML Basic
- Use CSS for styling (no layout tables)
- Avoid large graphics
- ...
"W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0" - W3C Last Call Working Draft
- "If the document ... fails to validate according to its given DOCTYPE, FAIL"
Education and Training
- W3C "Mobile Web Best Practices Checker"
- Open source MobileOK Checker library
- W3C Webinars/Podcasts on Best Practices

Device Description Working Group
- Standardized API to Device Description Repository
- ...
- See demo by Andrea Trasatti
Test Suites Working Group
- Mobile Test harness
- Community-based Open Mobile Web Test Suite

Crossing the Chasm

Content Transformation Task Force
- Best practices for content transformation
- See Novarra presentation
Sept 07: Mobile Ajax Workshop - W3C/Open Ajax Alliance
- From mobile Web pages to mobile applications
- More best practices?
- API to phone internals? Security?
- More info: Talk to Dan Appelquist
[ Ubiquitous Web Applications WG
- DIAL (Device Independent Authoring Language)
- DCCI (Delivery Context: Client Interfaces) - Phone APIs
- ... ]

Man with mobile phone in Asia. AFP, Deshakalyan Chowdhury

The Mobile Web can accelerate Internet access around the world by solving the "last kilometer" problem

Person with mobile phone in rural Africa