W3C: a Use Case for Web Technologies

Brisbane, Australia 2009-07-02

Klaus Birkenbihl, W3C klaus@w3.org

Content

This talk is about:

Technology
W3C
W3C as user of its technologies

The Web

After ~17 years in the wild the Web has changed and still develops in various directions:

Web everywhere – the Mobile Web
Web for everyone – the Accessible Web
Web of structured information – the Semantic Web
Web of participation and communication – Collections, Blogs and Fora
Web as a service – Rich Web Applications
Web for business – Web Services
Web for media – Video and Voice on the web

Admitted: there might be different views on this

Requirements for the Web

Some demands in order to make the Web useful and successful:

privacy on the Web
security and trust on the Web
treatment of intellectual property
content classification and rating
accessibility of the Web
scalability of the Web

It started pretty simple

a common syntax for documents that may contain hyperlinks (HTML)
- provides a base for structuring documents
- a framework for applications to display document
- a mechanism to link to other documents
a syntax for locating documents (or fragments of documents) and the option to use this syntax within HTML to build hyperlinks (URL)
- a base for a globally unique identification of documents
- unique identification it relies on the Internet Domain Name System
a protocol to send request and responses between clients (usually browsers) and servers (HTTP)
- to make servers and clients understand each other

Fairly simple, but most of the topics mentioned before where not yet addressed - except: it scaled!

Broadening the Basis

URL concept extended to URI and IRI
- a more general scheme for uniquely naming documents, real objects and beings, abstract concepts and ideas ...
HTML as basis is replaced by a more general concept: XML
- document structuring tags, can be freely chosen
- can represent hierarchical databases
- (apart from some syntactic restrictions of XML) HTML can be seen as a "restricted XML"
- XHTML resolves this syntax problem
A few supporting technologies came with XML as there are:
- XML name spaces as a means to separate one space of tags from another
- XML Schemas to allow the definition of restrictions to specify a new XML language
- XQuery/Xpath as a means to navigate through or query XML documents
- XML Base to cope with relative URIs/IRIs
- XPointer to allow reference to XML documents and fragments
- DOM an abstract Interface to process XML and related events

Even broader ...

XML relies on the concept to define complex entities by composing them of simpler ones.
RDF graphs try to define entities by describing their relationship to others.
- An RDF graph is composed of triples of the form subject predicate object
- subject (a resource) denotes something you want to define, predicate defines the relationship (property), and object (a resource) is something for which the relationship holds
- Objects (and even predicates) in one triple can appear as subjects in others
As XML RDF comes with a set of associated technologies
- RDFS is a Schema language that defines a vocabulary that gives meaning to some resources and properties. This opens a standardized way to express set or logic related properties. OWL supplements and extents these definitions.
- SPARQL is a query language for RDF

The universal Web

everybody should be able to use the Web with a wide range of devices in any language he knows according to his mental capabilities
- accessibility
- device independence
- internationalization
general rules that help to achieve this:
- use standards wherever they exist
- add redundancy in the way you present your information
- structure your information properly, present it recognizable
- separate content from presentation
welcome side effects:
- a Web site that is accessible is usually better searchable
- usability and accessibility go hand in hand
- these rules also contribute to maintainability

Technology

Technologies stack

We cannot cover all. More on http://www.ict-media.de/webtech.html

Web applications

plain HTML is all you need to build a Web application
on the other end we see fully fledged applications for:
- office work or picture processing.
- Video, audio
- sophisticated graphics
- presentational software for mathematics or chemistry
Plugins and Interpreters for programming languages allow nearly any content or processing that works on the desktop. Using technologies that are
- standardized
- proprietary
- Open Source
- locked
some important standards
- HTML ... 2 are emerging actually
  - the main focus of XHTML 2 is to better use the advantages of XML within HTML
  - HTML 5 is more on advancing the existing HTML (HTML 4 or XHTML 1) in a compatible way
- CSS to control presentation in a structured way
- Xforms as a better way to exchange information with servers
- SVG for vector based two dimensional graphics
- compound document standards (WICD, CDF…) to allow better integration of parts of a document using different technologies
The Web – especially when combined with powerful programming languages and interfaces – can act as a platform for sophisticated applications.
- Games, maps, image processing or complete office suites…
- using technologies like Compound Document Formats, XML, the DOM (and DOM events), Xforms, XHTML, SVG and some more
SMIL to build presentations with media from various sources in a synchronized manner

The web today

Cuurent web

Semantic Web

Cuurent web

How do we get there

Stop: Mash-ups/Ajax do it already!
- API based, often one API per source
- APIs mostly proprietary
- quite some effort in implementing
- dependency from API provider
- instrumental to show how powerful a Web of data can be
Microformats:
- standard to represent data
- could be used by mash-up
- not very flexible, rather static
standards to resolve this:
- RDF family (RDFS, OWL) to represent data
- SPARQL to access data
- RDFa allows to include RDF statements in an XHTML document
- SKOS provides a data model for sharing and linking knowledge organization systems as application of RDF

Web Services

Web Services is not about browsing
- interoperation of software applications that run on computers interconnected by a network
- especially in e-business
- pass data from one business step to the next ones
- automate parts of the business process
- lot of concepts and buzzwords (EAI, ESB, MOM, SOA…)
technologies
- SOAP specifies the format of messages that can be used to communicate with a service
- WS-Addressing describes how to address Web Services and messages
- WSDL is a language to describe a service by the kind of messages it will receive or send and its functionality. There is also a standard for Semantic Annotations to WSDL (SAWSDL) which allows to use ontologies to deceive the semantics of Web Services.
- a means to specify policies for the use of a service can be specified and attached to a service by using the Web Services Policy specifications.
- Semantic Annotations for WSDL allow to include semantics into service descriptions

Mobile Web

devices with limited capabilities (e.g. mobile phones)
- connectivity
- bandwidth
- processing power
- display size and sound quality
limited capabilities are addressed by
- down sizing of existing standards to match the constraints of mobile devices
- the development of guidelines especially for authors (but for authoring-tool manufacturers as well) on how to make sure that a Web site is mobile friendly
- a way for servers to learn about the capabilities of an attached client
technologies:
- downsized standards XHTML Basic, SVG Tiny, SVG Basic,, SMIL mobile, Xforms Basic and CSS mobile
- DDR simple API describes an interface that servers can use to query device description

Voice: the phone on the Web

designing voice dialogs
- VoiceXML is about defining frameworks for dialogs.
- speach oriented standards to support the use of VoiceXML:
  - The SSML is an XML based language to assist the generation of synthetic speech.
  - SRGS allows the specification of grammars for recognition of speech.
CCXML provides support for telephony call control and can be used in conjunction with dialog systems such as VoiceXML.
EMMA is an XML language to describe input received on several channels (voice, handwriting, keyboard…) simultaneously.

Privacy and security

issues
- while using the Web we disclose a lot of our personal data, our interests and preferences
- can we be sure that the Web site that pretends to be the home page of our bank is really our bank?
- can we securely transfer confidential data over the Web?
- can we securely identify ourselves on the web?
technologies that help
- P3P is a standard for specifying a machine readable description of a privacy policy
- TLS/SSL resolves much of the authentication, authorithation, confidentiallity issues on the Internet transport layer
- XML Encryption, XML Signature and XML Key Management: 3 related technologies that allow to apply well known cryptographic methods on fragments of XML documents

The Web live

here we are and ...
- technologies and standards are a means to an end
- the list is far from complete
- available bandwidth and compute power are steadily increasing
- Web turned from geek's toy to a powerful infrastructure
- formed by millions of individuals, business people, journalists, artists, scientists…
- Google, Yahoo, Flickr, Ebay, Youtube, Myspace, Wikipedia, Mozilla are only a few popular projects that live in this one space
here we go
- a lot of open questions that wait for ideas, technical solutions, standards or a social agreement
- in parallel to the work on millions of Web sites, Blogs, Wikis, shops and fancy applications there is ongoing work on better standards and technologies
- W3C provides a framework where vendors, authors and users cooperate to improve the supporting frame of the Web

W3C

W3C http://www.w3.org/ the home of (X)HTML, XML, CSS, RDF, the Web and Semantic Web ...
~400 members (the usual suspects, SMEs, users, grasroots ...) http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Member/List
invited experts and volunteers
65 groups doing the work http://www.w3.org/Consortium/activities
17 world offices all over the world http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Offices/
a team of ~60 individuals - working and living distributed around the globe - coordinated by 3 hosts
- MIT, US http://www.csail.mit.edu/
- ERCIM, Europe http://www.ercim.org/
- Keio University, Japan http://www.keio.ac.jp/
director: WWW inventor Tim Berners Lee http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/

Making Standards at W3C

a very open and transparent process to form consensus http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/
responsive to the public
a transparent patent policy http://www.w3.org/2004/02/05-patentsummary.html that protects IPRs and promotes proliferation of standards
standards are available for free (might be essential for their success!) - find all of them here: http://www.w3.org/TR/ (and use and implement!)
any other info please read: About W3C http://www.w3.org/Consortium/

A bit of History

W3C history, see http://www.w3.org/Consortium/techstack-desc.html for more details Big picture

Some simple rules - great impact

everything is on the web
- if its not on the Web it does not exist!
- paperless
- history - archiving and versioning by CVS!
- proof of concept
- gives us feedback (about use)
eat your own dogfood!
- use standards for your work wherever you can
- be your own usecase
- store your ideas on the server - there you can refer to them
conform to standards - no cheap excuses please!
- credibility
- no tools???
document your communication - use mailinglists and logged IRC
be open to new applications of standards
- RSS feeds
- WIKIs
- Blog!
- use Semantic Web applications
- ...
go public - listen to the public - response to the public
- its not necessary to be a member to submit ideas (though it helps)
- member or not - you are invited to contribute

Outline of the process

Finding new Ideas
- make a (members) Submission http://www.w3.org/Submission/
- organize/go to a Workshop http://www.w3.org/2003/08/Workshops/
- set-up an Incubator Group to develop ideas http://www.w3.org/2005/Incubator/
Getting things started
- team drafts a charter for a group http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-new-work/
- identifying team-contact and chair
- get the "go" from the membership
working along
- publish working drafts from the working group
- discuss with members and the public
- promote to (candidate/proposed) recommendation (aka standard)

Some of our tools

work is done in meetings (either face to face or - mostly - on phone) working group tools: http://www.w3.org/2004/12/wg-tools
- logged IRC (RFC1459 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1459.txt) for minuting
- Semantic Web Based Tool "Zakim" meeting and phonebridge management http://www.w3.org/2001/12/zakim-irc-bot.html
- an "RRSAgent" agent to draft meeting minutes http://www.w3.org/2002/03/RRSAgent
- Action tracking, Issue tracking
Outside meetings working groups use
- public and members only mailing list (100s) http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/
- Wikis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
- Blogs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog
- IRC (RFC1459 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1459.txt) for instant messaging
- action tracking http://www.w3.org/2005/06/tracker/ , issue tracking ... http://esw.w3.org/topic/TrackingIssues
- WBS: Web-Based Straw-poll and balloting system http://www.w3.org/2002/09/wbs/1/
- ...
publishing about the results disseminating the results
- "pubrule checker" http://www.w3.org/2005/07/pubrules
Quality - life after rec
- validators http://www.w3.org/QA/Tools/#validators
- test suites z.B. http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/Test/20061213/ oder http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/#browsers
- tutorials http://www.w3.org/2002/03/tutorials
- lists of implementations (see respective working group or activity pages)
- translations database (SW based) http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Translation/
- talks database (SW based) http://www.w3.org/Talks/
- ...

Summary

could not mention all
- maybe I fogot some important
- e.g. Slidy http://www.w3.org/Talks/Tools/Slidy/ the tool that I use for my slides
technology makes life easier
we reach the community (4Mio hits/day on http://www.w3.org/)
people can access
- fast
- search
- lots of additional information
because everthing is on the Web
many tools are available open source

See more

Most links are embedded in the slides of this talk: http://www.w3.org/2009/Talks/0702Brisbane-KB/
Article on Web technologies: http://www.ict-media.de/webtech.html
About W3C: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/
All W3C technical reports (including recommendations aka standards): http://www.w3.org/TR/
W3C Process: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Process/
Talks database: http://www.w3.org/2007/11/Talks/search/
Translations database: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Translation/
W3C Home page (leading to much more stuff as press, mailing list, people, groups, news, Offices ...): http://www.w3.org/