W3C
Members take a leadership role in the future of the Web,
promote their image as an innovator participating in a
standards body international in mission and impact, and gain early
insight into market trends (thus reducing the risk of missing
them).
Membership contact information is
available if you are interested in becoming a W3C Member or if you have
questions about the process for joining
(see also the Member Agreement). Through the benefits of W3C Membership
(printable version), organizations have a variety of
ways to leverage and promote their participation in W3C Activities. Please
note that W3C does not have a class of Membership tailored to or priced for
individuals. Individuals and organizations can also help support W3C
operations through financial contributions and donations of goods. Please see
the W3C Supporters Program for more
information.
- Take a leadership role
- Exercise technical influence over standards
through participation in Working Groups, review of standards in
development, implementations, and contribution of use cases;
- Provide strategic direction for the Web's future
through your seat on the W3C Advisory Committee and through
participation in W3C's meetings;
- Extend your international outreach through W3C
media activities such as W3C press releases and accompanying Member
testimonials, generally published in multiple languages to a world
audience;
- Promote your image as innovator
- Introduce new ideas through W3C
Workshops, the W3C
Incubator Activity, and Member Submissions,
complementary means available to W3C Members for building interest
in new work within W3C;
- Gain public recognition of your organization's
contributions through your display of the W3C Member logo
and also through the prominent display of your organization's logo
and testimonial on the W3C home page, viewed by a
quarter million visitors each day on average;
- Ensure that Web standards can be implemented
royalty-free. The goal of W3C's unique Patent Policy is to assure that Web Standards (W3C
Recommendations) can be implemented on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis.
As explained in the Business
Benefits of the W3C Patent Policy, royalty-free Web
standards allow organizations to gain revenue from their technology
investments;
- Gain early insight into market trends
- Track development of emerging technologies, markets, and
priorities through Member-only news services, discussion
forums, face-to-face meetings, Workshops and the process for
starting new work at W3C;
- Implement a standard ahead of the market while
participating in the Working Group that authors it. A close
association between the implementers and the Working Group affords
numerous benefits, including access to the expertise of the entire
group, improvements to the quality and deployment of the standard,
and marketing power;
- Help to coordinate technology development, for
example at W3C's annual Technical Plenary, an opportunity to hear
about the industry's current technical challenges and directions,
and to help forge solutions.
Several printable versions of this list are
available: single HTML
page and a flyer (PDF printable on A4).
Who Can Join W3C
W3C Membership is available to all organizations. If your organization is
investing significant resources into Web technologies — either by
developing Web-based products, using Web technologies as an enabling medium
for your work, conducting research on the Web, and/or developing products
based on W3C specifications — then your organization should be a W3C
Member. Adoption of W3C standards and reliance of global commerce and
information exchange upon these standards continue to grow. Those who
participate in our work have a unique opportunity to shape W3C standards and
to leverage them to create new markets, expand existing markets, and
participate directly in the revolution that continues to change the way the
world works. See also how to join
W3C.