XHTML 2 Working Group Expected to Stop Work End of 2009, W3C to Increase Resources on HTML 5

2009-07-02: Today the Director announces that when the XHTML 2 Working Group charter expires as scheduled at the end of 2009, the charter will not be renewed. By doing so, and by increasing resources in the HTML Working Group, W3C hopes to accelerate the progress of HTML 5 and clarify W3C's position regarding the future of HTML. A FAQ answers questions about the future of deliverables of the XHTML 2 Working Group, and the status of various discussions related to HTML. Learn more about the HTML Activity. (Permalink)

W3C Launches Device APIs and Policy Working Group

2009-07-03: W3C launched a new Device APIs and Policy Working Group, co-Chaired by Robin Berjon (Vodafone) and Frederick Hirsch (Nokia). The group's mission is to create client-side APIs that enable the development of Web Applications and Web Widgets that interact with devices services such as Calendar, Contacts, and Camera. Additionally, the group will produce a framework for the expression of security policies that govern access to security-critical APIs (such as the APIs listed previously). Per its charter, this group will conduct its work in public. Learn more about the Device APIs and Policy Working Group. (Permalink)

Last Call for Six Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Drafts

2009-07-03: The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group has published six Last Call Working Drafts. Together, they allow systems using a variety of rule languages and rule-based technologies to interoperate with each other and with other Semantic Web technologies. Three of the drafts define XML formats with formal semantics for storing and transmitting rules:

• The RIF Production Rule Dialect (PRD) is designed for the kinds of rules used in modern Business Rule Management systems.
• The RIF Basic Logic Dialect (BLD) is a foundation for Logic Programming, classical logic, and related formalisms.
• The RIF Core Dialect is the common subset of PRD and BLD, useful when having a ubiquitous platform is paramount.

The other drafts:

• RIF Datatypes and Builtins (DTB) specifies the datatypes and standard operations (modeled on XPath Functions) available in all RIF dialects
• RIF RDF and OWL Compatibility specifies how RIF works with RDF, RDFS, OWL 1, and OWL 2.
• RIF Framework for Logic Dialects (FLD) provides a mechanism for specifying extended dialects, beyond BLD, when more expressive power is required.

The Working Group requests comments be sent to public-rif-comments@w3.org by 31 July 2009. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)

Live Training Sessions On Mobile Web Design Rescheduled

2009-07-03: Originally scheduled for July, W3C has rescheduled a Live Training Sessions On Mobile Web Design for 13 October 2009. Students will attend a full day of lectures and hands on sessions about the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices standard, and more generally on mobile Web design. Read the full announcement, register, and learn more about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative. (Permalink)

Summary of Workshop on Speaker Biometrics and VoiceXML 3.0 Available

2009-07-02: W3C has published a summary and full minutes of the Workshop on Speaker biometrics and VoiceXML 3.0, that took place in Menlo Park, California on 5-6 March. Participants from 15 organizations focused discussion on Speaker Identification and Verification (SIV) functionality within VoiceXML 3.0, and identifying and prioritizing directions for the functionality. The major "takeaways" from the Workshop were confirmation that SIV fits into the VoiceXML space and creation of the "Menlo Park Model", a SIV available VoiceXML architecture. The Working Group will continue to discuss how to include the requirements expressed at the Workshop into VoiceXML 3.0 and improve the specification. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity. (Permalink)

First Draft of SPARQL New Features and Rationale

2009-07-02: The SPARQL Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of SPARQL New Features and Rationale. This document provides an overview of the main new features of SPARQL and their rationale. This is an update to SPARQL adding several new features that have been agreed by the SPARQL WG. These language features were determined based on real applications and user and tool-developer experience. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)

W3C Talks in July

2009-07-01: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)

• 2 July, Brisbane, Australia: W3C: a Use Case for Web Technologies.Klaus Birkenbihl presents at NICTA, Queensland Research Laboratory.
• 7 July, Barcelona, Spain: Acceso a la Información Pública y Redes Sociales.José Manuel Alonso participates in a panel at V Congreso Internet, Derecho y Política.
• 14 July, Linz, Austria: WCAG 2.0 ist da, was nun?.Shadi Abou-Zahra presents at IKT Forum 2009.
• 20 July, Boston, USA: Web Accessibility, Universal Design, and Standardization.Judy Brewer participates in a panel at Accessing the Future: A global collaborative exploration for accessibility in the next decade.
• 20 July, Seattle, WA, USA: Accessibility: It's for Everyone and Everything.Shawn Henry presents at Web Design World 2009 Seattle.
• 21 July, Seattle, WA, USA: Accessibility in a Web 2.0 World.Shawn Henry presents at Web Design World 2009 Seattle (discount "Passport" registration code: S9W06).
• 24 July, San Diego, USA: WCAG 2.0 Test Samples Repository.Shadi Abou-Zahra presents at HCI International 2009.
• 27 July, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA: Ex-XHTML HTML.Doug Schepers presents at The Summer XML 2009 Conference.
• 28 July, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA: Open Graphics and the Sustainable Web: Scalable Vector Graphics and Canvas.Doug Schepers presents at The Summer XML 2009 Conference.
• View upcoming talks by country
• More talks...

Last Call: CSS3 module: Multi-column layout

2009-06-30: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS3 module: Multi-column layout. This module describes multi-column layout in CSS. It builds on the CSS3 Box model module and adds functionality to flow the content of an element into multiple columns. Comments are welcome through 01 October. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)

Two SML Notes: XLink Reference Scheme, EPR-Based Reference Schemes

2009-06-30: The Service Modeling Language Working Group has published two Working Group Notes: The SML XLink Reference Scheme and Framework for SML EPR-Based Reference Schemes. The Service Modeling Language specification extends the Extensible Mark-up Language and XML Schema with a mechanism for incorporating into XML documents references to other documents or document fragments. The first note addresses the construction of an SML reference scheme based on the XML Linking Language. The second addresses the construction of SML reference schemes for document or document fragment references that employ WS-Addressing endpoint references (EPRs). Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)

Steve Bratt to Assume Full-Time Role as Web Foundation CEO

2009-06-26: As of 30 June, Steven R. Bratt will step down from his role as W3C CEO in order to pursue full-time the role of CEO of the World Wide Web Foundation. The Web Foundation was announced in September 2008 with a mission to advance the Web, connect humanity, and empower people. Steve has been part-time CEO of the Web Foundation since then.

While W3C COO and then CEO, Steve was responsible for W3C's worldwide operations and outreach, including overall management of Member relations, the W3C Process, the staff, strategic planning, budget, legal matters, external liaisons and major events. His purposeful and thoughtful leadership at W3C was informed by previous experiences in research, industry, and government, where he served on scientific and arms control delegations among others.

While W3C seeks to fill the open position, Ralph Swick assumes Steve's leadership responsibilities. Thomas Roessler steps up in the interim to take on the role of Technology and Society Domain Lead.

The mission of the Web Foundation complements that of W3C, and the two organizations will continue to coordinate their efforts to make the Web useful and available to all. W3C looks forward to Steve's successful leadership of the Web Foundation. (Permalink)

W3C Invites Implementations of Widgets 1.0: Digital Signatures

2009-06-25: The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Widgets 1.0: Digital Signatures. Widgets are full-fledged client-side applications that are authored using Web standards and packaged for distribution. This document defines a profile of the XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1 specification to allow a widget package to be digitally signed, helping to ensure continuity of authorship and distributorship. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)

First Authorized Translation of WCAG 2.0 Published

2009-06-26: W3C announces the French Authorized Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, Règles pour l'accessibilité des contenus Web (WCAG) 2.0. It is the first of several planned WCAG 2.0 Translations: Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and other languages. Translations are listed on the WCAG 2.0 Translations page and announced via the WAI Interest Group mailing list and WAI RSS feed. Learn more about translating W3C documents, Policy for Authorized W3C Translations, WCAG 2.0, and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (Permalink)

W3C Workshop on Using Ink in Multimodal Applications Canceled

2009-06-25: The Workshop on Using Ink in Multimodal Applications, which was planned for 10-11 July 2009 in Grand Bend, Ontario (Canada), has been canceled. The goal of the Workshop was to help the Multimodal Interaction Working Group integrate handwriting modality components (Ink Modality Components) into the MMI Architecture and clarify what should be added to the Multimodal specifications to enable applications to adapt to various modality combinations including Ink. The group is planning to meet face-to-face during W3C's TPAC 2009, and will continue to discuss possible extensions for InkML and how to integrate the specification into the architecture. Read about the Ink Markup Language (InkML) and W3C's Multimodal Interaction Activity. (Permalink)

Five Web Services Drafts Updated

2009-06-25: The Web Services Resource Access Working Group published updates to five Working Drafts: Web Services Enumeration (WS-Enumeration), Web Services Eventing (WS-Eventing), Web Services Resource Transfer (WS-RT), Web Services Transfer (WS-Transfer), and Web Services Metadata Exchange (WS-MetadataExchange). The first describes a general SOAP-based protocol for enumerating a sequence of XML elements that is suitable for traversing logs, message queues, or other linear information models. The second describes a protocol that allows Web services to subscribe to or accept subscriptions for event notification. The third defines extensions to WS-Transfer that deal primarily with fragment-based access to resources to satisfy the common requirements of WS-ResourceFramework and WS-Management. The fourth describes a general SOAP-based protocol for accessing XML representations of Web service-based resources. The fifth defines how metadata associated with a Web service endpoint can be represented as resources, how metadata can be embedded in endpoint references, and how metadata could be retrieved from a Web service endpoint. Learn more about the Web Services Activity. (Permalink)

Note Published: W3C mobileOK Scheme 1.0

2009-06-25: The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has published a Group Note of W3C mobileOK Scheme 1.0. W3C's mobileOK is designed to improve the Web experience for users of mobile devices by rewarding content providers that adhere to good practice when delivering content to them. This document describes the mobileOK scheme, which allows content providers to promote their content as being suitable for use on very basic mobile devices. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity. (Permalink)

First Drafts of Widgets 1.0: Access Requests Policy; URI Scheme

2009-06-18: The Web Applications Working Group has published two First Public Working Drafts: Widgets 1.0: Access Requests Policy and Widgets 1.0: URI Scheme. The former defines the security model controlling network access from within a widget, as well as a method for widget authors to request that the user agent grant access to certain network resources. The latter defines a "widget:" URI scheme to help identify resources within a widget package. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)

First Draft Published for Ontology for Media Resource 1.0

2009-06-18: The Media Annotations Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Ontology for Media Resource 1.0. This specification defines an ontology for cross-community data integration of information related to media resources, with a particular focus on media resources on the Web. The ontology is supposed to foster interoperability and counter the current proliferation of video metadata formats by providing full or partial translation and mapping towards existing formats. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity. (Permalink)

CSS Fonts Module Level 3 Draft Published

2009-06-18: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published the Working Draft of CSS Fonts Module Level 3. This CSS3 module describes how font properties are specified and how font resources are loaded dynamically. This draft consolidates material previously divided between the CSS3 Fonts and CSS3 Web Fonts modules. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)

W3C Launches Open Web Education Alliance Incubator Group

2009-06-17: W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Open Web Education Alliance Incubator Group, whose mission is to help enhance and standardize the architecture of the World Wide Web by facilitating the highest quality standards and best practice based education for future generations of Web professionals. The goal of this Incubator Group is to bring together interested individuals, companies, and organizations with a strong interest in the field of educating Web professionals, to explore the needs and issues around the topic of Web development education. The group will be chaired by John Allsopp. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: Adobe Systems Inc.; Mitsue-Links Co., Ltd; and Opera Software. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track. (Permalink)

Last Call: Delivery Context Ontology

2009-06-16: The Ubiquitous Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Delivery Context Ontology. A "Delivery Context" is a source of information that can help create context-aware applications, thus providing a compelling user experience. The Delivery Context Ontology specification provides a formal model of the characteristics of the environment in which devices interact with the Web or other services. The Delivery Context includes the characteristics of the Device, the software used to access the service and the Network providing the connection among others. Comments are welcome through 07 July. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity. (Permalink)