W3C
Help and FAQ
- What does W3C do?
- Where is W3C located?
- How is W3C funded?
- What is the difference between the Web and the Internet?
- What does it mean that Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web?
- What is the difference between open source and an open standard?
- Do you have more FAQs?
What does W3C do?
W3C's primary activity is to developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web. W3C's standards define key parts of what makes the World Wide Web work. Learn more about W3C's mission.
Where is W3C located?
W3C does not have a single physical headquarters. There are three institutions, however, that "host" W3C: MIT (in Cambridge, MA, USA), ERCIM (in Sophia-Antipolis, France), and Keio University (near Tokyo, Japan).
The W3C staff is distributed around the world, but there are concentrations of people in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA), Sophia-Antipolis (France), and Tokyo (Japan). In addition, W3C is represented in 17 other regions of the world via representatives based at organizations. W3C calls these regional points of content "W3C Offices."
How is W3C funded?
W3C receives funds from:
What is the difference between the Web and the Internet?
From the definition in the Wikipedia: "The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that interchange data by packet switching using the standardized Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP)."
Thus, the Internet is defined by the TPC/IP standards.
The Web, on the other hand, is defined in W3C's Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume I as follows: "The World Wide Web (WWW, or simply Web) is an information space in which the items of interest, referred to as resources, are identified by global identifiers called Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI)."
Thus, the Web is defined by other specifications. The first three specifications for Web technologies defined URLs, HTTP, and HTML.
What does it mean that Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web?
Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal in 1989 for a system called the World Wide Web. He then wrote the first Web browser, server, and Web page. He wrote the first specifications for URLs, HTTP, and HTML.
What is the difference between an open standard and open source software?
In general terms: open source refers to software, and open standards refer to documents (that may then be implemented by software). There is no single definition global for either term.
Some elements of openness that apply to W3C standards include:
- All standards are available publicly at no cost
- W3C adopted a Patent Policy in 2004 with the stated goal of assuring "that Recommendations produced under this policy can be implemented on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis.
- W3C Process requires that groups address public comments
- All technical comments are handled on their merits, whether they are made by W3C Members or public.
- W3C's process is vendor-neutral.
- W3C's persistence policy seeks to ensure that standards will be available at the same URI, unchanged, indefinitely.
Do you have more FAQs?
Yes. These additional FAQs are maintained by various people in the community; some are more up-to-date than others.
About W3C
- Copyright and Intellectual Property
- Tim Berners-Lee
- Logos and Icons
- Mail and Mailing Lists
- Membership
- Participation
- Patent Policy
- Standards
- Supporters Program
- Web Site
About Areas of Work
About Specifications
- Accessible Rich Internet Applications Suite (ARIA)
- Authoring Tools Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 1.0
- Document Object Model (DOM)
- Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 FAQ
- HTML and XHTML FAQ
- MathML
- P3P and the Privacy
- Patent Policy
- Platform for Internet Content Selection (PICS)
- Resource Description Framework (RDF) FAQ
- SOAP Version 1.2
- SVG 1.1 and SVG Mobile
- User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 1.0
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 1.0
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
- Web Ontology Language (OWL)
- XForms 1.0
- XOP Inclusion
