Mobile Web @ W3C - W3C

February 2012 edition of “Standards for Web Applications on Mobile”

2012-02-20T13:38:55+00:00

As Mobile World Congress draws near (W3C will have a booth there, come and say hi if you’re around), I have just released an update to the quaterly Standards for Web Applications on Mobile.

This February 2012 edition features for the first time detailed information on which mobile browser implements what specification, based on data collected from existing on-line sources and computed into simple graphics via a simple tool.

The document also has the latest information about the status of specifications, their expected evolution, the state of their accompanying test suites, etc.

A number of the technologies the document covers will be at the core of the new on-line training course: Mobile Web 2: Applications, scheduled to start on March 12, and for which early bird rates end on March 1st — a perfect opportunity to explore these technologies in a lot more details!

New Mobile Web “advanced” course is open for registration

2012-02-08T16:45:27+00:00

We are pleased to announce that a brand new mobile Web course is open for registration: “Mobile Web 2: Applications” will provide you with all the knowledge you need to write mobile Web applications that can ship both online and in application stores, using today’s advanced technologies.

During this course, participants will:

Understand the specifics of developing Web applications for the mobile environment.
Learn the latest HTML5 and Javascript APIs that are actually usable in real-world environments.
Discover the options at your disposal to package applications so that they work offline or can be shipped to application stores.
Be informed about what technologies are coming next so that you will be ready to use them when they become broadly available.

Developped by the W3C/MobiWebApp team, and taught by Robin Berjon, W3C Device APIs working group chair and newly elected TAG member, this new course will last 8 weeks, with a start date of 12 March 2012. Read the course description and register quickly before 1 March to benefit from the early bird rate(165€).

W3C Mobile Web tutorial @ WWW2012

2012-02-06T17:37:23+00:00

At this year’s 21th International World Wide Web Conference – WWW2012, W3C organizes a W3C tutorial track over two days, on Monday 16 and Tuesday 17 April 2012.

Half-day tutorials from leading experts will be available to researchers and developers seeking to pick up new skills on the latest developments on W3C Web standards.

One of these W3C tutorials will be about “Developing Mobile Web Applications” and will be taught by Dominique Hazaël-Massieux (W3C Mobile Web Activity Lead) and Frances de Waal (W3DevCampus trainer for the Mobile Web and Application Best Practices online training course). The tutorial informations are summarized below:

W3C tutorial on “Developing Mobile Web Applications”
by Frances de Wall and Dominique Hazaël-Massieux
on Tuesday April 17th – morning
at the Lyon Convention Centre, Lyon, France
Abstract: Participants to the tutorial will learn how to build applications for mobile devices using Web technologies. We will first focus on what makes it different to use the Web on mobile devices compared to computers: the specific constraints of these devices, as well as their increasing specific advantages. The tutorial will then look at how to exploit all the specificities of the mobile user experience, via JavaScript APIs, touch interactions, camera integration, etc.
Please register to this tutorial before 13 February to get an early bird rate!

New “startup level” for W3C Membership

2012-02-06T15:59:02+00:00

Part of the goals of our MobiWebApp project is to help more European SMEs get involved in the standardization work around Web applications on mobile devices.

As a result, we’ve been pushing for the adoption of a new W3C Membership level targeted at small enterprises, which W3C just announced is now available to any company with less than 10 employees, less than 2.25M Euros of gross revenues and has never been a W3C Member before.

The fee for most Europe-based companies is at 1950€ (as can be verified in the W3C fees calculator), making it a great opportunity for small business that would like to help shape the future standards of the Web. Don’t miss it!

Early bird rate ends soon for the MWABP course

2012-01-06T13:29:00+00:00

Just a quick reminder that the early bird rate for the W3C “Mobile Web and Application Best Practices” (MWABP) acclaimed course is expiring next Monday. Do register before 9 January 2012 eod, and save 60 Euros!

This 3rd edition of the MWABP course will start on 30 January, and will last 8 weeks. Participants are expected to spend an average of 4-6 hours per week to both learn the course material and work on the assignments.

The course will be lead by trainers Frances de Waal and Phil Archer. Read the past students’ feedback and find out more about the course. And again, do not forget to register before 9 January 2012 to benefit from the early bird rate!

Registration opens for 3rd edition of the Mobile Web training course

2011-12-13T15:41:29+00:00

W3C is pleased to announce a third edition of its most popular online training course, “Introduction to Mobile Web and Application Best Practices“:

Start date: 30 January 2012
Duration: 8 weeks
Early bird price: 165€ (until 9 Jan. 2012)
Full price: 225€
Course description and other details
Register to this course

During the course, participants will:

learn about and use the recommended versions of HTML and CSS to use for mobile today;
understand the constraints of working on mobile and how to overcome them to deliver the best possible experience to the widest range of users;
practice client side and server side content adaptation techniques;
learn about and use the exciting new APIs available on modern mobile platforms.

The course will be lead by trainers Frances de Waal and Phil Archer. Read the past students’ feedback and find out more about the course. And do not forget to register before 9 January 2012 to benefit from the early bird rate!

November Update to Standards for Web Applications on Mobile

2011-12-06T08:52:33+00:00

Back in February, I announced the start of a series of updates for a standardization roadmap for Web applications on mobile devices, a compilation of the most relevant current and upcoming technologies to develop Web applications well-fitted to mobile devices, which was again updated in May and August 2011.

I have just released a fourth update to that document that takes into account the many changes that have occurred in the past 3 months. Among the highlights:

the publication of the first draft of the Web Real-Time Communications APIs, including work on the API to access the camera and microphone;
progress on device APIs such as the Vibration API (first draft), battery status (last call), touch events (last call), accelerometer/gyroscope support (last call).

The next smaller iteration of this document will be provided end of February, in time for Mobile Word Congress 2012. Stay tuned!

From hypertext to hyperdevices

2011-11-22T15:05:20+00:00

When the Web started some 20 years ago, it brought a platform for distributing and accessing text, with an added dimension brought by links: hypertext. Because it was free and could be deployed everywhere easily, it was a revolution.

For the past few years, we've seen this additional dimension brought to media content, building hypermedia: SVG and canvas make it possible to build graphics that integrate or link to content from various sources, the addition of the audio and video tags in HTML5 are the starting points for making audio-video content as integrated into the Web as images have been. The Popcorn.js project illustrates for instance how video content can benefit from hyperlinking (much in the same way I had been exploring 2 years ago with my presentation viewer). Because these technologies are, can be deployed everywhere easily, I expect this will increasingly revolutionize our consumption of media.

I believe we're now starting to see a new trend of that sort, with the emergence of what I would call hyperdevices.

As more and more devices (mobile obviously, but also tablets, TV, cars, lightbulbs and many more) get connected, they more often that not get shipped with Web capabilities.

As the Web gains more and more access to the specific capabilities of these devices (touch interactions, geolocation, accelerometer, and many more), not only does it become a platform of choice to develop applications targeted at these devices (as we’re exploring in the MobiWebApp project), but it also creates new form of interactions across these devices that were not possible previously.

To illustrate that point, I've built a couple of very simple demos:

the remote whiteboard lets you use a touch-screen device to draw on another device screen, via the browser; in other words, it gives touch-capabilities to devices that don't have touch screens (e.g. most desktops or TV sets) — see the video of the demo in action
the 3D explorer lets you use a device with an accelerometer to rotate a 3D-graphic (in this case, the HTML5 logo) on a separate screen (see a video of the demo in action); it thus gives the equivalent of a 3D-mouse to any Web-enabled devices; whilst there probably are some 3D mouses out there, it's by far not as ubiquitous as mobile devices that come with an accelerometer

No Video Support. Transcript of the video:

In this demonstration, I'm using the browser on my mobile phone with accelerometer support to manipulate a 3D object viewed in the browser on my desktop computer. As I turn the phone, the rendering of the 3D object turns in synchronization.

This demo was built by Dominique Hazael-Massieux, only with W3C Web technologies. Find out more at github.com/dontcallmedom.

Note: If your browser does not support HTML5, you may still be able to view the video directly: mp4 version, webm version.

We're still at the very early days on this wave, but there is a growing interest around it. Device and service discovery (see recent discussions on Web Intents) will play a role there without a doubt, and the work done as part of the webinos project (where I'm involved) will hopefully also inform the technical challenges that are still to be overcome. We will also need plenty of creativity to invent user interactions that match these new capabilities.

But for sure, this is where we are going.

Follow me on Twitter: @dontcallemdom.

Beyond the device frontier

2011-11-21T16:36:53+00:00

I’ve just published on the W3C blog an illustration on another aspect in which mobile Web applications create new opportunities: given how ubiquitous the Web is becoming, it is now offering ways for devices to complete one another, making what I call “hyperdevices” (by analogy to hypertext).

I’ve built two demonstrations that illustrate this, and that you can either run by yourself, or simply watch as a video:

the remote whiteboard exploits touch-capabilities from a mobile device to draw on a computer (video);
the 3D explorer uses a mobile device with an accelerometer as a way to manipulate a 3D object on another screen (video).

The work happening in the Device APIs Working Group — in particular around device discovery — will be a critical component in making this type of interactions a natural extension of what we think of using the Web.

Web walls, digital signage and personalized content

2011-11-10T14:51:39+00:00

There is increasing interest in multiscreen applications, and this is featured in the latest webinos video on multiplayer games. In the office, we are used to having to plug our personal computers into the room's projector, but perhaps these days are numbered. It should be easy to have web applications that run across multiple devices so that you can run your presentation from your smart phone or tablet and view it on the wall screen, with no need for video cables at all. One aspect of this is how your mobile device discovers the wall screen. This is now in active development in the W3C Device APIs Working Group.

Large displays in public spaces are often used for Digital Signage, and this was the subject of a break out session in TPAC2011. One challenge is how to provide personalized content for public displays. This was brought into focus by the film Minority Report, and has made it into reality with road side billboards that recognize car number plates. The long range infrared laser iris scanning technology in Minority Report is a little scary, but another possibility is to use face recognition together with pico cells. This identifies the set of people nearby based upon the mobile phones they are carrying, and by limiting the number of people increases the chances of successful face recognition. Bluetooth and WiFi MAC addresses offer further alternatives. Social networks and photo sharing sites already have our photos and profiles, so this would be a direct extension to their advertising based business model.

A final piece in the jigsaw is enabling the displays to target multiple passersby with personalized content. The emergence of 3D displays is pointing the way to a future where the content you see is based upon your position relative to the display, and determined by the face recognition software acting on the camera feeds for the display. By this point, you are probably getting increasingly concerned over privacy. Luckily, W3C is on the job with the Tracking Protection Working Group allowing you to opt out of personalized ads, whether on a conventional web page or a public display in the airport.