W3C

2001

W3C Releases 27 Technical Reports

23 December 2001

During two weeks in December, W3C Working Groups released a record 27 publications: 19 Working Drafts, 7 Notes, and a Recommendation. Find them all linked to the index of technical reports. W3C thanks our Webmaster Dominique Hazaël-Massieux for his superlative execution of this busy publication schedule. Publications will resume on 7 January 2002. As 2002 begins on the Gregorian calendar, please accept W3C's wishes to all of our visitors for a happy and successful new year.

CSS TV Profile Working Draft Published

21 December 2001

As part of the W3C Style Activity, the CSS Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of CSS TV Profile 1.0. The draft is a subset of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Level 2 tailored to the needs and constraints of TV devices such as interactive television sets that display their output on a television screen. Comments are welcome. Visit the CSS home page.

Wombat Working Draft Published

21 December 2001

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines "Wombat". The guidelines are for developers who wish to design authoring tools that produce accessible Web content and who wish to create accessible authoring interfaces. Comments are welcome. Visit the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative.

CC/PP Implementors Guides Published

20 December 2001

The Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP) Working Group has released CC/PP Implementors Guides as a W3C Note, Harmonization with Existing Vocabularies and Content Transformation Heuristics, and a Working Draft of Privacy and Protocols for a future Note. CC/PP is a user-side hardware, software, and user preferences profile. Comments are welcome. Read about the W3C Device Independence Activity.

Character Model Working Draft Published

20 December 2001

The W3C Internationalization Working Group has released an interim Working Draft of the Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0 recording their progress. This document provides authors of specifications, software developers, and content developers a common reference for interoperable text manipulation. Please hold comments until the second Last Call. Read about W3C work on internationalization.

XSL Transformations (XSLT) 2.0 Working Draft Published

20 December 2001

As part of the W3C Style Activity, the XSL Working Group has released the first Working Draft of XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0. XSLT is a stylesheet language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents. It is often used to produce HTML and XHTML and application-specific message formats. Visit the XSL home page.

XQuery, XPath Working Drafts Published

20 December 2001

The W3C XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group have released several Working Drafts. XQuery is a computer language designed to return information to users or their agents, and is applicable to many types of XML data sources from documents to databases, search engines, and object repositories. Derived from XPath 1.0 and XQuery, XPath is a language used to address parts of an XML document. Read about the W3C XML and Style Activities. Today's publications include:

Modularization of XHTML in XML Schema Published

19 December 2001

The W3C HTML Working Group has released a Working Draft of Modularization of XHTML in XML Schema. The draft provides a complete set of XML Schema modules for XHTML, and a framework for extending and modifying XHTML. Read about the W3C HTML Activity on the HTML home page.

RDF/XML Syntax Working Draft Published

18 December 2001

The RDF Core Working Group has released a Working Draft of RDF/XML Syntax Specification (Revised). The document updates the grammar in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification and is now based on the XML Infoset and RDF Model Theory. Read about the Semantic Web Activity.

MIT Scheduled Power Outage 21-23 December

18 December 2001

On Friday, 21 December, power at the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) will be turned off at approximately 9:00 p.m. EST (2:00Z 22 December) to complete retooling of the building's power configuration. All services will be suspended and the site will be accessible in a read-only state. Mail sent to W3C archives will be queued, and posted when the power is restored. Power is expected to return by 7:00 a.m. EST Sunday, 23 December (12:00Z 23 December). We apologize for the inconvenience.

Amaya 5.3 Released

18 December 2001

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 5.3 supports annotations on annotations and discussion threads, handles multiple profiles, and includes new English documentation by WinWriters and other new features. Download Amaya binaries for Linux and Windows. Source code is available. If you are interested in annotations, visit the Annotea home page.

WebCGM Second Release Becomes a W3C Recommendation

18 December 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today published WebCGM 1.0 Second Release as a W3C Recommendation. The second release is not a new version; it brings WebCGM up to date with the first release errata. A joint effort of W3C and the CGM Open Consortium, WebCGM is an interoperable way to exchange dynamic Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) files over the Web. The WebCGM Profile adds hyperlinking to graphics-rich applications such as interactive electronic manuals for engineering and manufacturing. Read more about WebCGM.

Four SOAP 1.2 Working Drafts Published

18 December 2001

The XML Protocol Working Group has released four Working Drafts: SOAP Version 1.2 in three parts, Part 0: Primer, Part 1: Messaging Framework and Part 2: Adjuncts, as well as the first Working Draft of XML Protocol Usage Scenarios. Publicly developed, SOAP is a data transfer protocol designed for information exchange on the Web, using XML as its encapsulation language. Visit the XML Protocol home page.

XML 1.1 Working Draft Published

13 December 2001

The XML Core Working Group has published the first Working Draft of XML 1.1. Built from XML Blueberry Requirements, the draft addresses Unicode character set and line ending issues. Everything that is not forbidden is permitted in XML 1.1 names. Comments are welcome. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

Component Extension API Note Published

11 December 2001

Component Extension (CX) API requirements Version 1.0 has been published as a W3C Note. Produced by the HyperText Coordination Group, the Note describes requirements for browser plug-ins and an active component architecture for the Web for server and client software. Comments are welcome.

W3C Forms Technical Architecture Group

11 December 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). The TAG will document cross-technology Web architecture principles, and resolve architectural issues. The TAG will conduct its work on a public mailing list. Chair Tim Berners-Lee, Paul Cotton, Roy Fielding, David Orchard, Norman Walsh, and Stuart Williams join appointees Tim Bray, Dan Connolly, and Chris Lilley as the first TAG participants. Read the press release and visit the TAG home page.

DOM Level 2 HTML Last Call Published

10 December 2001

The sixth component of DOM Level 2, the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML Specification has been published as a Last Call Working Draft. The draft is a set of interfaces used to manipulate the structure and contents of HTML and XHTML documents. Comments are invited through 7 January 2002. Read more about the W3C DOM Activity.

XForms Working Draft Published

10 December 2001

The XForms Working Group has released a new Working Draft of XForms 1.0. More flexible than previous HTML and XHTML form technologies, the new generation of Web forms called XForms separates purpose, presentation, and data. Comments are welcome. Read about XForms.

W3C Team Talks at XML 2001

10 December 2001

W3C Team members will speak at XML 2001 USA being held 9-14 December in Orlando, Florida.

  • Tuesday, 11 December, Daniel Weitzner, Patents and Web Standards
  • Wednesday, 12 December, Karl Dubost, W3C Quality Assurance Activity Initiated
  • Thursday, 13 December, Chris Lilley, Not Just SVG - Integrated XML Graphics
  • Thursday, 13 December, Dean Jackson, SVG Mobile - SVG on resource-limited devices
  • Thursday, 13 December, Henry S. Thompson, Schema Languages Comparison
  • Friday, 14 December, Henry S. Thompson, Normal Form Conventions for XML Representations of Structured Data
  • Friday, 14 December, Philippe Le Hégaret, Update from the W3C DOM Activity
  • Friday, 14 December, Hugo Haas, Update on the Work of the W3C XML Protocol Activity

C. M. Sperberg-McQueen is a member of the XML 2001 USA Planning Committee. Browse past W3C Team talks and presentations and upcoming W3C appearances and events.

W3C Launches XML Key Management Activity

09 December 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the XML Key Management Activity. The Activity will develop an XML application that allows a client to obtain key information from a Web service. Based on the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS), the Activity is chartered to produce a companion Recommendation for the IETF/W3C XML Encryption and XML Digital Signature Activities. Read more in the XML Key Management Activity statement.

Tim Berners-Lee Keynote for W3C Day Available

06 December 2001

160 participants and 24 members of the press attended W3C Day on 29 November at Keio University in Tokyo. The prerecorded introductory talk by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee has both English and Japanese subtitles (SMIL 2.0 player required).

W3C Internationalization Workshop Announced

03 December 2001

Registration is open through 10 January for the W3C Internationalization Workshop to be held in Washington, DC, USA, on 1 February 2002, colocated with the 20th International Unicode Conference. With the goal of strengthening the W3C Internationalization Activity, to define the exact shape of this effort, and to allow for a wide variety of input, we are organizing a one-day workshop open to 45 participants. Position papers should be submitted by 10 January.

P3P Deployment Guide Updated

30 November 2001

The Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 Deployment Guide has been updated. This guide for Web site operators explains how to write a machine-readable privacy policy, and gives step-by-step instructions for deploying your privacy policy on popular Web servers. Read the answers to frequently asked questions about P3P and more about the W3C Privacy Activity.

W3C Team Presentations in December

30 November 2001

On 3 December, Tim Berners-Lee speaks at the Harvard Information Infrastructure Project at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA. On 19 December, Wendy Chisholm will be the keynote speaker at the State of Washington Accessibility Symposium, USA. Several Team members present at XML 2001 USA in Orlando, Florida: on 11 December, Daniel Weitzner speaks on Patents and Web Standards; on 13 December, Chris Lilley gives a talk on Not Just SVG - Integrated XML Graphics, Dean Jackson gives a talk titled SVG Mobile - SVG on resource-limited devices, and Henry S. Thompson speaks on Schema Language Comparison; on 14 December, Henry Thompson presents Normal Form Conventions for XML Representations of Structured Data, Philippe Le Hégaret presents an Update from the W3C DOM Activity, and Hugo Haas presents an Update on the Work of the W3C XML Protocol Activity.

EuroWeb 2001 Conference now a Free Event

25 November 2001

Registration is still mandatory but now free of charge for EuroWeb 2001, the first of a new series of regional conferences endorsed by IW3C2. Supported by the W3C Italian Office, EuroWeb is to be held 18-20 December in Pisa, Italy. Representing the W3C Team, Ivan Herman presents A Tour around W3C XML Recommendations and Yasuyuki Hirakawa and Tatsuya Hagino present a paper. The conference focus is "The Web in Public Administration." Real time translation of sessions will be available.

Exclusive XML Canonicalization Last Call Published

20 November 2001

The joint IETF/W3C XML Signature Working Group has released the first public draft of Exclusive XML Canonicalization as a Last Call Working Draft. The specification provides a method to exclude ancestor context from the canonicalized form of a subset of an XML document. Comments are welcome through 11 December. Read about the XML Digital Signature Activity.

W3C Day in Japan, 29 November

19 November 2001

W3C Day will be held on 29 November at Keio University Mita Campus in Tokyo. Conducted in English and Japanese, and chaired by Hidetaka Ohto, W3C Fellow from Panasonic, the program includes: Marie-Claire Forgue, an overview of W3C work; Tatsuya Hagino, the Semantic Web; José Kahan, Annotea; Kazuhiro Kitagawa, mobile technology; Chris Lilley, SVG; and Nobuo Saito, XML and Web services. Please refer to the press release.

Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition Working Draft Published

16 November 2001

The Voice Browser Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition. Part of the W3C Speech Interface Framework, the draft describes syntax and semantics for tags in speech recognition grammar that are used to build computer-processable representations of user utterances. Comments are welcome. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

RDF Test Cases Working Draft Published

15 November 2001

The RDF Core Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of RDF Test Cases. The draft describes a set of machine-processable test cases that correspond to the issues the Working Group is addressing. Comments are welcome. Read about the Semantic Web Activity.

Selectors Becomes a W3C Candidate Recommendation

15 November 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Selectors to Candidate Recommendation. Selectors are patterns in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language that match to elements in HTML and XML. This specification describes the CSS1 and CSS2 selectors and new selectors for CSS3. A test suite is available. Please send your comments by May 2002 and read more on the CSS home page.

CC/PP Last Call Updated

15 November 2001

Incorporating comments received during Last Call, the CC/PP Working Group has updated Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies. CC/PP is a user-side hardware, software and preferences profile written in Resource Description Framework (RDF), W3C's language for modeling metadata. Comments are invited through 27 November. Read about device independence.

Call for Papers: SVG Open Conference

14 November 2001

The SVG Open / Carto.net Developers Conference will be held in Zurich, Switzerland on 15-17 July 2002. Co-sponsored by W3C, SVG Open is a platform for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) developers to share ideas, examples and implementations. Presenters are asked to send a 400-800 word abstract prior to 15 January 2002. For more information, please read the call for papers, contact Ivan Herman or Chris Lilley of the W3C Team, and consult the conference Web site.

Third Release: SVG 1.0 Test Suite

14 November 2001

The third public release of the W3C SVG Test Suite has been made to include errata, and to conform to the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Recommendation. The SVG implementation report is also updated. The SVG Working Group invites feedback on the tests, and also suggestions for new tests. Comments and suggestions should be sent to svg-testsuite-comments@w3.org.

W3C Welcomes Members at Advisory Committee Meeting

14 November 2001

W3C held its semiannual Advisory Committee Meeting on 6-7 November in Nice, France. W3C Member organizations participated in two days of presentations and discussions on the range of W3C Activities. If you would like to join W3C, visit the Membership page, and consider attending the next Advisory Committee Meeting to be held 5-7 May 2002, colocated with the Eleventh International World Wide Web Conference on 7-11 May in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

W3C Day at Keio Announced

31 October 2001

W3C is pleased to announce W3C Day at Keio (in Japanese) to be held on 29 November at Keio University Mita Campus in Tokyo, Japan. Team members from all three W3C host sites, INRIA, Keio, and MIT, will participate in the event. Marie-Claire Forgue, Tatsuya Hagino, José Kahan, Kazuhiro Kitagawa, Chris Lilley, and Nobuo Saito will give talks.

DOM Level 3 XPath Working Draft Published

31 October 2001

The DOM Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 XPath Specification. The draft provides simple functionalities to access a DOM tree using XPath 1.0. Comments are welcome. Read about the W3C DOM Activity.

SVG 1.1 and Mobile SVG Profiles Working Drafts Published

30 October 2001

The SVG Working Group has released two first public Working Drafts. Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Version 1.1 is a modularization of the SVG language used to build profiles. Mobile SVG Profiles: SVG Tiny and SVG Basic defines SVG Tiny for highly restricted mobile devices, and SVG Basic for higher level mobile devices. SVG delivers two-dimensional graphics in XML to the Web, providing accessible, dynamic, reusable, and extensible vector graphics, text, and images. Comments are welcome on both drafts. Read more on the SVG home page.

EuroWeb 2001 Conference Registration Open

29 October 2001

Registration is open for EuroWeb 2001, the first of a new series of regional conferences endorsed by IW3C2. Supported by the W3C Italian Office, EuroWeb is to be held 18-20 December in Venice, Italy. Representing the W3C Team, Steven Pemberton, Rigo Wenning, and Massimo Marchiori give tutorials and Yasuyuki Hirakawa and Tatsuya Hagino present a paper. The conference focus is "The Web in Public Administration."

W3C Team Presentations in November

29 October 2001

On 1 November, Martin J. Dürst presents The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): An Overview and Web Architecture: From URI to the Semantic Web at the 2001 Web-based Technology Standard Conference in Seoul, Korea. On 15 November, Tim Berners-Lee gives a talk titled Technology in the 21st Century at the Cambridge Forum in Cambridge, MA, USA. Also on 15 November, Bert Bos gives the closing keynote at the annual congress of the Dutch SGML/XML Users Group in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. On 15 and 16 November, Wendy Chisholm and Charles McCathieNevile speak at OZeWAI 2001 in Melbourne, Australia. On 20 November, Philipp Hoschka will give a keynote titled The Future of Streaming Media on the Web at Streaming Media Japan 2001 in Tokyo, Japan. On 21 November, Kazuhiro Kitagawa presents Device Independence and the Semantic Web (in Japanese) at Internet World Japan 2001 in Chiba, Japan. On 22 November, Ivan Herman presents W3C Architectural Recommendations at the XML Belux conference in Mechelen, Belgium.

Amaya 5.2 Released

29 October 2001

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 5.2 supports generic-xml documents in browser mode, the embed element for SVG and MathML, "Export CR/LF" from Windows, a DOS file format, the HTTP Content-Location header, and other new features. Download Amaya binaries for Linux and Windows. Source code is available. If you are interested in annotations, visit the Annotea home page.

XML Events Last Call Working Draft Published

26 October 2001

The HTML Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of XML Events. The specification defines a module used to associate behaviors with document-level markup for XML languages, and supports the DOM Level 2 event model. Comments are welcome through 30 November. Visit the HTML home page.

DOM Level 2 and 3 Working Drafts Published

25 October 2001

The DOM Working Group has updated the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 HTML and the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Abstract Schemas and Load and Save Working Drafts. The DOM is a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of documents. Comments are invited. Read about the W3C DOM Activity.

CSS Mobile Profile Becomes a W3C Candidate Recommendation

24 October 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of CSS Mobile Profile 1.0 to Candidate Recommendation. The specification defines a subset of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Level 2 tailored for mobile devices such as wireless phones. Comments are welcome through April 2002. Visit the CSS home page.

XML Information Set Becomes a W3C Recommendation

24 October 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the XML Information Set (Infoset) as a W3C Recommendation. Produced by the XML Core Working Group as part of the XML Activity, the specification has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favor its adoption by industry. The Infoset defines a set of eleven types of information items in XML documents. Read the press release and visit the XML home page.

VoiceXML 2.0 Promises Speech and Phone Services for the Web

23 October 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the first public Working Draft of the Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) Version 2.0 and a Memorandum of Understanding issued jointly with the VoiceXML Forum. VoiceXML uses XML to bring synthesized speech, spoken and touch-tone input, digitized audio, recording, telephony, and computer-human conversations to the Web. Read the press release, testimonials, and visit the Voice Browser home page.

XML Encryption Last Call Working Drafts Published

18 October 2001

The XML Encryption Working Group has released three Last Call Working Drafts. XML Encryption Requirements provides XML syntax and processing requirements for encrypting digital content. XML Encryption Syntax and Processing specifies a process for encrypting data and representing the result in an EncryptedData element for cipher data. Decryption Transform for XML Signature enables the repeated encryption and signing of parts of XML documents. Comments are welcome through 9 November. Read about the W3C XML Encryption Activity.

XML Events Working Draft Published

17 October 2001

The HTML Working Group has released the fourth public Working Draft of XML Events. The specification was renamed from XHTML Events, with significant changes. It defines a module used to associate behaviors with document-level markup through DOM Level 2 event model support. Comments are welcome. Read more on the HTML home page.

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Becomes a W3C Recommendation

16 October 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. The specification has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favor its adoption by industry. Designers use an XSL stylesheet to express how source content should be styled, laid out, and paginated onto a presentation medium such as a browser window, a pamphlet or a book. Read the press release and testimonials.

SOAP Version 1.2 Test Collection Published

15 October 2001

The XML Protocol Working Group is welcoming input on the SOAP Version 1.2 Test Collection. Demonstrating interoperability, the tests are intended to show that SOAP 1.2 meets its goal for conformance requirements, and that implementations exist for each of its features. Instructions are linked from the call for contributions.

W3C Announces Patent Policy Next Steps

13 October 2001

W3C has opened its patent policy process for continuing public dialog. Free software and open source authorities Eben Moglen and Bruce Perens are joining the Patent Policy Working Group (PPWG) as invited experts. The PPWG has launched a public home page. A second public Last Call for the W3C Patent Policy Framework is planned. W3C thanks all participants on the comments mailing list. Please refer to the next steps announcement from Danny Weitzner, PPWG Chair.

XHTML 1.0 Second Edition Working Draft Published

04 October 2001

The HTML Working Group has released XHTML 1.0: The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Second Edition) as a Working Draft for public review. XHTML 1.0 is a reformulation of HTML in XML, giving the rigor of XML to Web pages. The second edition is not a new version; it brings the XHTML 1.0 Recommendation up to date with the first edition errata. Read more on the HTML home page.

W3C Responds to the Public on Patent Policy Draft

02 October 2001

W3C has published a response to public comments received on the W3C Patent Policy Framework. Prepared by the Patent Policy Working Group, the draft proposes a patent policy for W3C Working Groups and Members. Thanks to requests from the Web community, the W3C Team has extended a public and Member review period through 11 October. Your comments are welcome.

SOAP 1.2 Working Drafts Published

02 October 2001

The XML Protocol Working Group has released the second Working Draft of SOAP Version 1.2 in two parts, Part 1: Messaging Framework and Part 2: Adjuncts. Publicly developed and based on SOAP/1.1 (Simple Object Access Protocol), SOAP is a data transfer protocol designed for information exchange on the Web, using XML as its encapsulation language. Visit the XML Protocol home page.

W3C Team Presentations in October

01 October 2001

On 1 October, Henry Thompson gives a keynote at XML Days in Budapest, Hungary. On 4-5 October, Rigo Wenning participates in the JRC-Workshop on Privacy and Security in Brussels, Belgium. On 13 October, Ivan Herman presents Overview of W3C Technologies at Day of the Greek W3C Office in Thessaloniki, Greece. On 15-19, Philipp Hoschka presents Future Web Interface Technologies at SBMIDIA 2001 in Florianopolis, Brazil. On 16 October, Charles McCathieNevile speaks on the Semantic Web and use cases for the British Computer Society's Specialist Group. On 26 October, Charles presents Formación para las autores del Web at V Jornadas del SID@R in Mar del Plata, Argentina. On 29 October, Nobuo Saito presents Standardization Activities by W3C and Tatsuya Hagino gives a talk on the Current Situation and Perspective of Semantic Web and XML at the INTAP Semantic Web Conference in Tokyo, Japan.

Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 Last Call Working Draft Published

30 September 2001

The P3P Specification Working Group has released The Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 (P3P 1.0) Last Call Working Draft with an amendment (an embedded DATASCHEMA is now child of POLICIES rather than of POLICY). Comments are welcome through 15 October. P3P simplifies and automates the process of reading Web site privacy policies, promoting trust and confidence in the Web. Read the answers to frequently asked questions about P3P and more on the W3C Privacy Activity.

Character Model Working Draft Published

30 September 2001

The W3C Internationalization Working Group has released a Working Draft of the Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0 recording changes made since the first Last Call. This document provides authors of specifications, software developers, and content developers a common reference for interoperable text manipulation. Read about W3C's work on internationalization.

XML Schema: Formal Description Working Draft Published

25 September 2001

The XML Schema Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of XML Schema: Formal Description. Based on the syntax in XML Schema Part 1: Structures, the formalization is a declarative system for describing and naming XML Schema information, specifying XML instance type information, and validating instances against schemas. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

RDF Model Theory Working Draft Published

25 September 2001

The RDF Core Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of RDF Model Theory. The document provides a precise semantic theory for RDF and RDFS, and sharpens the notions of consequence and inference in RDF. Learn more on the RDF home page, and read about the W3C Semantic Web Activity.

CSS3 module: Backgrounds Working Draft Published

24 September 2001

The CSS Working Group has released the first Working Draft of CSS3 module: Backgrounds. Part of the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language Level 3, this module describes backgrounds such as background colors and background images that are used to render HTML and XML documents. Comments are welcome. Visit the CSS home page.

Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 Last Call Working Draft Published

24 September 2001

The P3P Specification Working Group has released The Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 (P3P 1.0) as a Last Call Working Draft. Comments are welcome through 15 October. P3P simplifies and automates the process of reading Web site privacy policies, promoting trust and confidence in the Web. Read the answers to frequently asked questions about P3P and more on the W3C Privacy Activity.

URIs, URLs, and URNs Note Published

24 September 2001

The W3C/IETF URI Planning Interest Group has published URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0 as a W3C Note. The Note outlines the difference between classical and contemporary URI partitioning, explains the relationship between URIs, URLs, and URNs, describes how URI schemes and URN namespace ids are registered, and sets forth recommendations. Read about the W3C URI Activity.

XML Blueberry Requirements Working Draft Published

21 September 2001

The XML Core Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of XML Blueberry Requirements. The draft lists the design principles and requirements for a revision of XML 1.0 being developed to address Unicode character set and line ending issues. Comments are welcome. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

Device Independence Principles Published

19 September 2001

The Device Independence Working Group has released its first publication, a Working Draft of Device Independence Principles. The document describes the principles necessary to make the Web accessible by "anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyhow." Read about the W3C Device Independence Activity.

W3C Morocco Office Launches Arabic Home Page

18 September 2001

The home page of the W3C Morocco Office is now available as Unicode encoded Arabic. The Office is hosted by the Ecole Mohammadia d'Ingénieurs, in Rabat, Morocco. W3C Offices assist with promotion efforts in local languages, broaden W3C's geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C Activities.

W3C HTML Validation Service Upgraded

18 September 2001

W3C is pleased to announce an upgrade to the W3C HTML Validation Service created and maintained by Gerald Oskoboiny of the W3C Systems Team. New features include XHTML 1.1 and XHTML Basic 1.0 support, experimental MathML 2.0 support, new functions on the results page, and an option to override character encoding. Feedback on the service is welcome (archive). Refer to What's New for the change history.

W3C Presents at Keio SFC Open Research Forum

17 September 2001

The Open Research Forum (in Japanese) is the yearly open house extending research and development at Keio University SFC (Shonan Fujisawa Campus) to interested companies and the general public. On 21 September, W3C holds a tutorial seminar (in Japanese) at ORF: Saeko Takeuchi chairs, Tatsuya Hagino gives an introduction to W3C and a talk on the Semantic Web, Masayasu Ishikawa introduces the XHTML Family, and Kazuhiro Kitagawa presents the Device Independence Activity.

DOM Level 3 Core Working Draft Published

13 September 2001

The DOM Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification. The DOM is a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of documents. Comments are invited. Read about the W3C DOM Activity.

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Become a W3C Candidate Recommendation

13 September 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 (UAAG) to Candidate Recommendation. This document provides guidelines for designing user agents that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with visual, hearing, physical, and cognitive disabilities. Comments are invited through December. The companion Techniques Working Draft is also updated. Read the press release, the implementation report, and more about the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative.

RDF Test Cases Working Draft Published

12 September 2001

The RDF Core Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of RDF Test Cases. The draft describes a set of machine-processable test cases that correspond to the issues the Working Group is addressing. Comments are welcome. Read about the Semantic Web Activity.

XPointer Becomes a W3C Candidate Recommendation

11 September 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the XML Pointer Language (XPointer) Version 1.0 to Candidate Recommendation. XPointer can be used in URI references to address parts of an XML document such as elements, attributes, character content, and relative position. Comments are welcome through 4 March 2002. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

Refactoring RDF/XML Syntax Working Draft Published

06 September 2001

The RDF Core Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of Refactoring RDF/XML Syntax. The document records the process of updating the grammar in the Resource Description Framework (RDF) Model and Syntax Specification, showing the changes step-by-step. Read about the Semantic Web Activity.

SMIL Animation Becomes a W3C Recommendation

05 September 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium has issued SMIL Animation as a W3C Recommendation. This subset of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language 2.0 (SMIL, pronounced "smile") puts animation on a time line, allows composition of multiple animations, and describes animation elements for any XML-based host language. Read about the W3C Synchronized Multimedia Activity.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Becomes a W3C Recommendation

05 September 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Specification as a W3C Recommendation. The specification has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favor its adoption by industry. SVG delivers two-dimensional graphics in XML to the Web, providing accessible, dynamic, reusable, and extensible vector graphics, text, and images. Read about SVG implementations, and learn more in the press release and testimonials.

W3C Team to Present at XML Days Europe

04 September 2001

Eight W3C Team members will present at the XML Days conference series to be held from 17 September through 1 October 2001. Ivan Herman appears in Amsterdam. Daniel Dardailler appears in Brussels and in Copenhagen. Bert Bos appears in Munich. Karl Dubost appears in Zurich. Oreste Signore of the W3C Italian Office appears in Milan. Philippe Le Hégaret appears in Paris. Charles McCathieNevile appears in Oslo and Stockholm, Steven Pemberton appears in Helsinki, and Henry Thompson appears in Budapest.

W3C Team Presentations in September

03 September 2001

On 3 September, Charles McCathieNevile speaks on the Semantic Web and Web accessibility at Monash University, Clayton Campus. On 6 September, Ivan Herman presents 2D Web Graphics, State of the Art Presentation at the Eurographics 2001 conference in Manchester, UK, and Eric Miller gives a keynote, Digital Libraries and the Semantic Web, at the 5th European Conference on Research and Advanced Technology for Digital Libraries in Darmstadt, Germany. On 12 September, Chris Lilley presents SVG: Vector Graphics Meets Unicode at the 19th International Unicode Conference in San Jose, USA, and Henry Thompson gives a keynote, XML, Objects and the Web: How XML Schema and XML Infoset facilitate OO Data Binding, at Net.ObjectDays 2001 in Erfurt, Germany.

DOM Level 3 XPath Working Draft Published

30 August 2001

The DOM Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 XPath Specification. The draft provides simple functionalities to access a DOM tree using XPath 1.0. Comments are welcome. Read about the W3C DOM Activity.

In Memoriam: Michael Dertouzos

30 August 2001

Professor Michael L. Dertouzos, director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) since 1974, died on 27 August 2001, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Born in Athens, Greece, author of eight books, and widely admired for bringing his humanity to computing, Dertouzos was 64. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director, credits Prof. Dertouzos with the W3C's existence, and has written a personal tribute. In his last interview on 22 August 2001, Dertouzos said, "Don't forget the impact that love has on education." His impact is difficult to overestimate. He is already sorely missed.

XML Accessibility Guidelines Working Draft Published

29 August 2001

The WAI Protocols and Formats Working Group has released a Working Draft of XML Accessibility Guidelines. A guide for tools designers and authors of XML formats, the document explains how to design accessible applications using XML, the Extensible Markup Language. Please send your comments by 30 September. Read about the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative.

XForms Working Draft Published

28 August 2001

The XForms Working Group has released a new Working Draft of XForms 1.0. More flexible than previous HTML and XHTML form technologies, the new generation of Web forms called XForms separates purpose, presentation, and data. Comments are welcome. Read more about XForms and the W3C HTML Activity.

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

28 August 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 1.0 to Proposed Recommendation. Designers use an XSL stylesheet to express how source content should be styled, laid out, and paginated onto a presentation medium such as a browser window, a pamphlet or a book. Please send your comments by 25 September. Read more on the XSL home page.

XQuery/XPath Functions and Operators Working Draft Published

27 August 2001

Two joint task forces from the W3C XML Query, XML Schema, and XSL Working Groups have released the first publication of XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators Version 1.0 as a Working Draft. Written for use in XQuery, XPath and related XML standards, the document defines operations on XML schema datatypes and operators and functions on nodes and node sequences as defined in the XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

XSLT 1.1 Working Draft Published

24 August 2001

The XSL Working Group has published a final Working Draft of XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 1.1. Except for its status, it is unchanged from the previous draft. Requirements for version 1.1 will be considered for XSLT 2.0. An XSLT style sheet describes rules for transforming a source tree into a result tree. The source tree can be filtered and reordered, and arbitrary structure can be added. Learn more about XSL and the W3C Style Activity.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Working Draft Published

24 August 2001

The W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released a Working Draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 showing how checkpoints more generalized and less HTML-specific than WCAG 1.0 might read. WCAG checkpoints explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities. Read about the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

DOM Level 3 Events Working Draft Published

23 August 2001

The DOM Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification. The DOM is a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of documents. Comments are invited. Read about the W3C DOM Activity.

Speech Recognition Grammar Last Call Working Draft Published

22 August 2001

The W3C Voice Browser Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification. With this language, developers can specify words and patterns of words to be listened for by speech recognizers. Please send your comments by 28 September. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Patent Policy Last Call Working Draft Published

20 August 2001

The Patent Policy Working Group has released the W3C Patent Policy Framework as a Last Call Working Draft. The draft proposes changes to the W3C process and Member Agreements, including licensing modes for W3C Working Groups, disclosure obligations, licensing commitments, and a procedure for variances. Comments are welcome through 30 September. Learn more in the backgrounder and Patent Policy FAQ.

XML-Signature Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

20 August 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XML-Signature Syntax and Processing to Proposed Recommendation. XML digital signatures provide integrity, message authentication, and signer authentication services. The specification is the work of the joint IETF/W3C XML Signature Working Group. Comments are welcome through 17 September. Read about the XML Digital Signature Activity.

W3C Launches Quality Assurance Activity

16 August 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Quality Assurance (QA) Activity. Launched with a Working Group and Interest Group, the primary mission of the QA Activity is to improve the quality of W3C specification implementation in the field. QA will work on the quality of W3C specifications, promote the development of good validators, test tools, and harnesses for implementers, and think ahead to additional steps. Learn more in the QA Activity statement.

W3C Launches New RDF Validation Service

14 August 2001

As part of the Semantic Web Activity, W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the W3C RDF Validation Service. Created and maintained by Art Barstow, visiting W3C Fellow from Hewlett-Packard, the validator is based on the Another RDF Parser (ARP) by Jeremy Carroll. Enter a URI or RDF/XML document, and the RDF Validator will display a 3-tuple (triple) representation and a graphical visualization of the data model. Feedback on the new service is welcome at www-rdf-validator@w3.org.

XML Information Set Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

10 August 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XML Information Set (Infoset) to Proposed Recommendation. The Infoset defines a set of eleven types of information items in XML documents. Comments are invited through 10 September at www-xml-infoset-comments@w3.org (archive). Read about the W3C XML Activity.

XHTML+SMIL Profile Working Draft Published

09 August 2001

As part of the Synchronized Multimedia Activity, the SYMM Working Group has published a Working Draft of XHTML+SMIL Profile. The draft integrates a subset of the SMIL 2.0 specification with XHTML. It includes modules for animation, content control, media objects, timing and synchronization, and transition effects. Comments are welcome.

SMIL 2.0 Becomes a W3C Recommendation

09 August 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) 2.0 as a W3C Recommendation. The specification has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favor its adoption by industry. SMIL (pronounced "smile") defines an XML-based language that authors can use to write interactive multimedia presentations. Version 2.0 includes approximately one hundred predefined transition effects, and support for hierarchical layout and animation. See how SMIL is already implemented, and read the press release and testimonials.

W3C/MIT Power Restored

08 August 2001

Due to a power outage in the MIT LCS W3C building on Tuesday and Wednesday, 7-8 August, parts of the W3C site were down. W3C apologizes for the inconvenience. Services were restored at 22:00Z on 8 August.

SVG Requirements Working Drafts Published

03 August 2001

The SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) Working Group has released two Working Drafts of design principles and requirements: SVG 1.1/2.0 Requirements applies to future versions of the SVG language, and SVG Mobile Requirements applies to an SVG mobile profile to be developed for small devices. Read more about W3C work on SVG.

CSS3 module: Fonts Working Draft Published

31 July 2001

The CSS Working Group has released the first Working Draft of CSS3 module: Fonts. This module contains the font sections of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Level 2, as well as the font decoration properties that are new in CSS Level 3. Comments are welcome on the public mailing list www-style@w3.org.

W3C Team Presentations in August

31 July 2001

Kazuhiro Kitagawa, Wataru Okada, and Fumio Kato present Empirical study on location based service on the Web with CC/PP and RDF at ITCom 2001 on 22 August in Denver, Colorado, USA. Philipp Hoschka and Vincent Quint will attend École d'été PDMS 2001 in Autrans, France on 27 August: Vincent presents L'évolution des standards du World Wide Web Consortium, and Philipp presents Le multimédia sur le web : Etat de l'art, enjeux et perspectives. Charles McCathieNevile speaks on Accessibility - What and Why and gives a workshop on Accessibility - How on 30 August in Perth, Western Australia.

P3P Deployment Guide Updated

27 July 2001

The Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 Deployment Guide has been updated. This guide for Web site operators explains how to write a machine-readable privacy policy, and gives step-by-step instructions for deploying your privacy policy on popular Web servers. Read the answers to frequently asked questions about P3P and more about the W3C Privacy Activity.

CSS3 module: The Box Model Working Draft Published

26 July 2001

The CSS Working Group has released the first Working Draft of CSS3 module: the box model. Part of the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language Level 3, this module describes the layout of textual documents in visual media. Comments are invited. Visit the CSS home page.

W3C Adopts Technical Architecture Group Charter (TAG)

19 July 2001

W3C has published the Technical Architecture Group charter and revised the Process Document. The TAG will document cross-technology Web architecture principles, and resolve architectural issues. Chaired by the W3C Director, the TAG will consist of five elected and three appointed participants. Like other W3C Working Groups, the TAG will use the Recommendation track to build consensus around its documents. The TAG will conduct most of its work on a public mailing list. The nomination period is expected to begin in a few weeks. Visit the TAG home page.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0 Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

19 July 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG 1.0) Specification to Proposed Recommendation. SVG delivers two-dimensional vector graphics and mixed vector and raster graphics to the Web in XML, ensuring accessibility, dynamism, reusability, and extensibility. Read the SVG overview. Comments are welcome through 16 August.

SMIL Animation Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

19 July 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of SMIL Animation to Proposed Recommendation. This subset of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language 2.0 (SMIL, pronounced "smile") puts animation on a time line, allows composition of multiple animations, and describes animation elements for any XML-based host language. Comments are welcome through 16 August. Learn about W3C work on synchronized multimedia.

CSS3 module: Values and Units Working Draft Published

13 July 2001

The CSS Working Group has released a first Working Draft of CSS3 module: Values and Units. A module for CSS Level 3, the draft describes the values and units that CSS properties accept. It explains specified, computed, and actual values. Comments are invited. Learn about the W3C Style Activity.

CSS3 module: Cascading and Inheritance Working Draft Published

13 July 2001

The CSS Working Group has published a first Working Draft of CSS3 module: Cascading and inheritance. Part of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Level 2 rewritten as a module for CSS Level 3, the draft describes how values are assigned to properties using the cascade mechanism, inheritance, and initial values. Comments are welcome. Visit the CSS home page.

Amaya 5.1 Released

11 July 2001

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 5.1 is a bug fix release, adding flat style to the button bar, a Portuguese translation of Amaya dialogues, and an online documentation index developed by WinWriters. Download Amaya binaries for Linux, Solaris, Windows 2000/NT, and Windows 95/98. Source code is available. If you are interested in annotations, visit the Annotea home page.

SOAP Version 1.2 and XML Protocol Abstract Model Working Drafts Published

09 July 2001

The XML Protocol Working Group has released Working Drafts of SOAP Version 1.2 and the XML Protocol Abstract Model. Publicly developed and based on SOAP/1.1 (Simple Object Access Protocol), SOAP is a data transfer protocol designed for information exchange on the Web, using XML as its encapsulation language. Version 1.2 implements XML schemas and namespaces, clarifies ambiguities, and provides a refined processing model. Read the press release and testimonials, and visit the XML Protocol home page.

W3C Team Presentations in July

09 July 2001

On 10 July, Hugo Haas and Eric Prud'hommeaux attend the Software Services Grid Workshop, sponsored by the Object Management Group, Inc, in Danvers, Massachusetts, USA. On 11 July, Philipp Hoschka presents Activities of the W3C at the ICANN PSO General Assembly, sponsored by ETSI, in Sophia-Antipolis, France. Charles McCathieNevile speaks on Web accessibility at the TechFest 2001 Assistive Technology Expo to be held on 17 and 19 July in Launceston and Hobart, Tasmania. Charles also speaks at the Central Queensland University in Rockhampton, at Changing Landscape II on 20 July.

W3C Restructures User Interface Domain

06 July 2001

In the W3C sense, "domains" are groups of related W3C Activities. To better balance and focus W3C work, the Document Formats Domain and the Interaction Domain replace W3C's User Interface Domain as of today. The Document Formats Domain, led by Vincent Quint, hosts the Amaya, Graphics, HTML, Internationalization, Math, and Style Activities. The Interaction Domain, led by Philipp Hoschka, hosts the Device Independence, Synchronized Multimedia, and Voice Browser Activities. Michael Sperberg-McQueen becomes Architecture Domain Leader.

Amaya 5.0 Released

04 July 2001

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 5.0 adds accessibility features, enhanced SVG and PNG support, CSS parser feedback, and XHTML 1.1 support including simple and complex ruby annotation. Download Amaya binaries for Solaris 8, Linux, and Windows 2000, NT, 95, and 98. Source code is available. If you are interested in annotations, please visit the Annotea home page.

XML Base and XLink Become W3C Recommendations

27 June 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today released XML Base and XML Linking Language (XLink) as W3C Recommendations. The specifications are stable, and have been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favor their adoption by industry. XLink provides a way to allow elements to be inserted into XML documents in order to create and describe links between resources; XML Base provides a way to indicate the URI base for linking in XML. Read the press release.

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Draft Published

27 June 2001

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published a Working Draft of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 in response to Last Call comments. This document provides guidelines for designing user agents that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with visual, hearing, physical, and cognitive disabilities. Comments are invited. Read about the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative.

Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Draft Published

27 June 2001

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has released a new Working Draft of Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This document is a companion to UAAG 1.0, and covers the accessibility of user interfaces, content rendering, application programming interfaces (APIs), and languages such as HTML, CSS, and SMIL. Comments are welcome.

Decryption Transform for XML Signature Working Draft Published

27 June 2001

The XML Encryption Working Group has released the first Working Draft of Decryption Transform for XML Signature. A transform is defined, enabling digital signatures verification even if both signature and encryption operations are performed on an XML document. The editors welcome comments.

XML Encryption Syntax and Processing Working Draft Published

27 June 2001

The XML Encryption Working Group has released the first Working Draft of XML Encryption Syntax and Processing. This document specifies a process for encrypting data and representing the result in an XML Encryption EncryptedData element which contains or identifies the cipher data. Comments are welcome. Read about the W3C XML Encryption Activity.

XML Blueberry Requirements Working Draft Published

20 June 2001

The XML Core Working Group has published the first public Working Draft of XML Blueberry Requirements. The draft lists the design principles and requirements for a revision of XML 1.0 being developed to address Unicode character set and line ending issues. Comments are welcome. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

DOM Level 3 XPath Working Draft Published

18 June 2001

The DOM Working Group has published the first public Working Draft of the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 XPath Specification. The draft provides simple functionalities to access a DOM tree using XPath 1.0. Comments are welcome. Read about the W3C DOM Activity.

XML Query Working Group Publishes Five Working Drafts

11 June 2001

The W3C XML Query Working Group for a second time this year has released five Working Drafts at once. The drafts include XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language, the first public release of XML Syntax for XQuery 1.0 (XQueryX), XML Query Use Cases, XQuery 1.0 Formal Semantics replacing XML Query Algebra, and XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model replacing the XML Query Data Model. The XQuery language is designed to be broadly applicable across all types of XML data sources from documents to databases and object repositories.

XForms Working Draft Published

08 June 2001

The XForms Working Group has released a new Working Draft of XForms 1.0. More flexible than previous HTML and XHTML form technologies, the new generation of Web forms called XForms separates purpose, presentation, and data. Comments are welcome. Read more about XForms and the W3C HTML Activity.

XHTML Events Working Draft Published

08 June 2001

The HTML Working Group has released a new Working Draft of XHTML Events comprised of two modules used to associate behaviors with document-level markup. The XHTML Events Module provides DOM Level 2 event model support. A subset, the Basic XHTML Events Module, provides this support to simple applications and devices. Comments are welcome. Read more about the W3C HTML Activity.

DOM Level 3 Abstract Schemas and Load and Save Working Draft Published

07 June 2001

The DOM Working Group has published the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Abstract Schemas and Load and Save Specification as a Working Draft. Formerly known as DOM Level 3 Content Model and Load and Save, the draft builds on DOM Core Level 3. Read about the W3C DOM Activity.

DOM Level 3 Core Working Draft Published

05 June 2001

As part of the W3C DOM Activity, the DOM Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification. The DOM is a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of documents. Comments are invited on the public mailing list www-dom@w3.org (archive).

SMIL 2.0 Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

05 June 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.0) to Proposed Recommendation. SMIL (pronounced "smile") 2.0 defines an XML-based language that authors can use to write interactive multimedia presentations. It allows reuse of SMIL syntax and semantics in other XML-based languages. Comments are welcome through 5 July. Read the implementation report and more about the W3C Synchronized Multimedia Activity.

XML Linking and Style Note Published

05 June 2001

XML Linking and Style has been published as a W3C Note. The product of an XML Linking/XSL joint task force, the Note provides a conceptual model for the interaction of XLink linking elements and styling, and gives suggestions for application of that model using current W3C technical reports. Read more about XML Linking and XSL.

XHTML 1.1 and Ruby Annotation Become W3C Recommendations

31 May 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today released XHTML 1.1 - Module-based XHTML and Ruby Annotation as W3C Recommendations. The specifications are stable, and have been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favor their adoption by industry. XHTML 1.1 is a reformulation of XHTML 1.0 Strict based on XHTML modules, including the ruby module. Ruby is a short run of text alongside base text typically used in East Asian documents to indicate pronunciation or annotation. Read the press release and testimonials.

Implementing the Ruby Module Note Published

31 May 2001

Implementing the Ruby Module has been published as a W3C Note. Written by Masayasu Ishikawa of the W3C Team, the Note describes sample module implementations of Ruby Annotation's abstract definition of ruby markup in several schemas: DTD, RELAX, TREX, and XML Schema. Comments may be sent to the author.

W3C Team Presentations in June

29 May 2001

Charles McCathieNevile and Marja-Riitta Koivunen present Accessible Graphics and Multimedia in the Web at the 7th Annual Human Factors and the Web Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, USA on 4 June. Massimo Marchiori co-chairs and speaks at Financial Protocols 2001 being held 14-15 June in London, UK, where he presents XML and the Foundation Layer. Ivan Herman presents Understanding the Major W3C XML Standards at the Workshop on XML for Financial Services in Stockholm, Sweden on 18 June. Philipp Hoschka presents Les différentes spécifications d'XML at the XML pour les services financiers conference to be held in Paris, France on 25-27 June. Charles McCathieNevile will co-present a Semantic Web class at CWI in The Hague, the Netherlands on 27 June. Massimo Marchiori presents Data on the Web: A W3C Perspective at SEBD 2001 to be held in Venice, Italy on 27-29 June. Browse W3C Team talks and presentations.

Introduction to CSS3 Working Draft Published

23 May 2001

The CSS Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Introduction to CSS3. This document lists all the modules in the future Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3) specification. Comments are welcome on the www-style@w3.org mailing list (archive) or may be sent to the editors. Learn more on the CSS home page.

W3C Team to Present at XML Europe

18 May 2001

Five W3C Team members will present at XML Europe 2001 to be held 21-25 May in Berlin, Germany. Philippe Le Hégaret gives two half-day tutorials, The Document Object Model, Hands-On, on 21 May. Michael Sperberg-McQueen and Henry Thompson give the W3C Standards Update on 23 May. Chris Lilley co-chairs the Graphics track and will present A Comparison of WebCGM and SVG on 24 May. Joseph Reagle presents The Status/Design of XML Signatures and Encryption on 25 May.

W3C Workshop on XML Key Management Announced

18 May 2001

Registration is open through 19 June for the W3C Workshop on XML Key Management to be held in Redwood City, California, USA, on 19 July 2001. Participants will consider the requirements for simple key resolution and trust services for XML security applications, the XKMS specification, and discuss the potential for a related W3C Activity. Position papers should be submitted by 19 June.

XML Inclusions Last Call Working Draft Published

17 May 2001

The XML Core Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0. XInclude specifies a processing model and syntax for general purpose inclusion. This is accomplished by merging a number of XML Infosets into a single composite Infoset. Comments are invited through 5 June. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

CSS Media Queries Working Draft Published

17 May 2001

The CSS Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Media queries. The draft proposes a registry of media types to describe what type of devices a style sheet applies to, and provides for expressions to limit a style sheet's scope. Comments are invited. Read about the W3C Style Activity.

CSS3 Module: Text Working Draft Published

17 May 2001

The CSS Working Group has released a Working Draft of CSS3 module: text. The document presents a set of text formatting properties for Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 including new properties addressing an international context. Comments are invited. Read about the W3C Style Activity.

Web Accessibility Tutorials Announced

17 May 2001

Wendy Chisholm, Web Accessibility Engineer at W3C, and Shawn Lawton Henry of Optavia will give tutorials at the 7th Annual Human Factors and the Web Conference being held in Madison, Wisconsin, USA on 4-6 June. Web Accessibility Workshop: More People. More Situations. More Business. runs on 5 June, and Advanced Topics in Web Accessibility runs on 6 June. Registration is open.

XML Information Set Becomes a W3C Candidate Recommendation

14 May 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the XML Information Set (Infoset) to Candidate Recommendation. The Infoset defines a set of eleven types of information items in XML documents. Comments are invited through 15 June at www-xml-infoset-comments@w3.org (archive). Read about the W3C XML Activity.

P3P Deployment Guide Published

10 May 2001

The Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.0 Deployment Guide has been released as a W3C Note. This guide for Web site operators explains how to write a machine-readable privacy policy, ways to publish it, and gives step-by-step instructions for deploying your privacy policy on popular Web servers. Read the answers to frequently asked questions about P3P and more on the W3C Privacy Activity.

W3C Australian Office Hosts W3C Day

08 May 2001

The W3C Australian Office hosted W3C Day at Evolve 2001 in Sydney, Australia on 7 May. Bert Bos, Max Froumentin, Ivan Herman, Dean Jackson, Charles McCathieNevile, Sev Ozdowski, and Hoylen Sue gave talks, and Janet Daly chaired the day's events. The press release has more information.

XML Schema Becomes a W3C Recommendation

02 May 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today released XML Schema as a W3C Recommendation in three parts: Part 0: Primer, Part 1: Structures, Part 2: Datatypes. The specification is stable and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favors its adoption by academic, industry, and research communities. XML Schemas define shared markup vocabularies, the structure of XML documents which use those vocabularies, and provide hooks to associate semantics with them. XML Schema was produced by the XML Schema Working Group. Read the press release and testimonials.

W3C Team Presentations in May

24 April 2001

Massimo Marchiori presents Web Spies: Privacy and P3P at the University of Bologna in Bologna, Italy on 10 May, and XML and the Information World at NETTAB 2001 in Genoa, Italy on 17 May. Chris Lilley co-chairs the Graphics track at XML Europe 2001 in Berlin, Germany on 24 May, and will present A Comparison of WebCGM and SVG. Browse upcoming W3C Team appearances.

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Team Present at WWW10

24 April 2001

Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director, gave the opening keynote at the Tenth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW10) in Hong Kong on 2 May. The keynote slides are online. W3C presented over thirteen and a half hours of content in the W3C Track.

XML Encryption Requirements Published

20 April 2001

The XML Encryption Working Group has released the first Working Draft of XML Encryption Requirements. The draft provides XML syntax and processing requirements for encrypting digital content, including portions of XML documents and protocol messages. Read about the W3C XML Encryption Activity.

Document Object Model (DOM) Requirements Updated

19 April 2001

As part of the W3C DOM Activity, the DOM Working Group has updated the Document Object Model (DOM) Requirements Working Draft. The DOM is a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents.

DOM Level 3 Content Models and Load and Save Working Draft Published

19 April 2001

The DOM Working Group has updated the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Content Models and Load and Save Specification Working Draft. Comments are invited on the public mailing list www-dom@w3.org (archive). Read about the W3C DOM Activity.

W3C Israeli Office Home Page Open to the Public

19 April 2001

The home page of the W3C Israeli Office is now open to the public. The Office is hosted by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Institute of Computer Science and Engineering in Jerusalem, Israel. W3C Offices assist with promotion efforts in local languages, broaden W3C's geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C Activities.

Revised XML-Signature Candidate Recommendation Published

19 April 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the publication of a revised XML-Signature Syntax and Processing Candidate Recommendation. XML digital signatures provide integrity, message authentication, and signer authentication services. The specification is the work of the joint IETF-W3C XML Signature Working Group. Comments are welcome through 19 May. Read about the XML Digital Signature Activity.

W3C Surpasses 500 Member Mark

17 April 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today announced that it has grown to over 500 member organizations, representing industry, research, government, and citizens groups, from 34 countries. W3C supports universal access, the Semantic Web, trust, interoperability, evolvability, decentralization, and cooler multimedia through its consensus-based process. Please read the roster of current Members and the press release. If your organization would like to join W3C, refer to the W3C Membership page.

Call Control Requirements Published

17 April 2001

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Working Draft of Call Control Requirements in a Voice Browser Framework. The draft outlines call initiation, interpreter context management, inter-session communication, conferencing capabilities, and call leg management requirements for a VoiceXML telephony platform. Read about the W3C Voice Browser Activity.

Semantic Web Featured in Scientific American

13 April 2001

The Semantic Web, written by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, and Ora Lassila, is the cover story in the May 2001 issue of Scientific American magazine. Read more about the W3C Semantic Web Activity.

Modularization of XHTML Becomes a W3C Recommendation

10 April 2001

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Modularization of XHTML as a W3C Recommendation. The specification is stable, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favors its adoption by academic, industry, and research communities. The Recommendation extends XHTML's reach onto emerging Web platforms like mobile devices, television, and appliances. Read the press release and testimonials, and visit the HTML home page.

DOM Level 3 Events Working Draft Published

10 April 2001

The DOM Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification. The DOM is a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of documents. Comments are invited. Read about the W3C DOM Activity.

W3C Team Presentations in April

09 April 2001

Among upcoming W3C Team appearances, Charles McCathieNevile gives a talk on the Semantic Web and accessibility at the Seventh Australian World Wide Web Conference (AusWeb 01) to be held 21-25 April in Coffs Harbor, NSW, Australia. Martin Dürst, Max Froumentin, and Chris Lilley attend the 18th International Unicode Conference in Hong Kong. On 27 April, Bert Bos presents XML and its family of standards - how to apply Web technology at CRICS V in Havana, Cuba.

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Last Call Working Draft Published

09 April 2001

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This document provides guidelines for designing user agents that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with visual, hearing, physical, and cognitive disabilities. Comments are invited through 4 May. Read about the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative.

Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Draft Published

09 April 2001

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has released a Working Draft of Techniques for User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. This document is a companion to UAAG 1.0, and covers the accessibility of user interfaces, content rendering, application programming interfaces (APIs), and languages such as HTML, CSS, and SMIL. Comments are welcome.

XForms Requirements Working Draft Published

06 April 2001

The XForms Working Group has released XForms Requirements, a Working Draft outlining requirements for the next generation of Web forms. Comments are welcome on the www-forms@w3.org public mailing list (archive). See how forms are changing on the W3C XForms home page.

CSS Media Queries Working Draft Published

06 April 2001

The CSS Working Group has released a first Working Draft of Media queries. The draft proposes a registry of media types to describe what type of devices a style sheet applies to, and provides for expressions to limit a style sheet's scope. Please send your comments to the www-style@w3.org mailing list (archive). Read about the W3C Style Activity.

Introduction to CSS3 Working Draft Published

06 April 2001

The CSS Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Introduction to CSS3. This document lists all the modules in the future Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3) specification. Comments are welcome on the www-style@w3.org mailing list (archive) or may be sent to the editors. Learn more on the CSS home page.

Ruby Annotation Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

06 April 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Ruby Annotation to Proposed Recommendation. Ruby is a short run of text alongside base text, typically found in East Asian documents to indicate pronunciation or to provide an annotation. Comments are welcome through 7 May. Read about the W3C Internationalization Activity.

XHTML 1.1 Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

06 April 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XHTML 1.1 - Module-based XHTML to Proposed Recommendation. A reformulation of XHTML 1.0 Strict in XHTML modules, the specification defines a new XHTML document type based upon the module framework and modules defined in Modularization of XHTML. Comments are welcome through 7 May. Learn more on the HTML home page.

RDF Schema for the XML Infoset Published

06 April 2001

The XML Core Working Group has released An RDF Schema for the XML Information Set as a W3C Note. This RDF schema is a formal description of the Infoset that will be useful as an aid to understanding the Infoset and for validating infosets serialized as RDF instances. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

MIT Scheduled Power Outage Canceled

31 March 2001

The power outage that was scheduled for Saturday, 7 April 2001, at MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) has been canceled. A design modification has been made in construction plans, eliminating the need for a power shutdown.

XML Schema Proposed Recommendation Updated

30 March 2001

The XML Schema Working Group has updated the XML Schema Proposed Recommendation, restoring the name 'decimal' to one datatype. XML schemas provide a superset of the capabilities found in XML document type definitions (DTDs). The specification is in three parts: Part 0, Part 1, and Part 2. Review comments are invited through 16 April. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

MIT Scheduled Power Outage 7 April

28 March 2001

On Saturday, 7 April 2001, from 6:00 a.m. EDT, MIT's Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) will have a scheduled power outage for about 8 hours due to construction around the LCS building. Normal W3C services will be interrupted but most public pages will be accessible. All mail archives will be offline. We apologize for the inconvenience.

W3C Track at WWW10 Announced

27 March 2001

The W3C Track for the Tenth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW10) in Hong Kong was announced today. W3C will present over thirteen and a half hours of content on 2-4 May: XML and Semantic Web Overviews, Foundations of Web Services, Best Practices, Essential UI Features, XHTML and Modularization, Delivering Device Independence, Presentation and Transformation, and a W3C Town Meeting. Please visit the W3C Track page for details. Early registration ends 31 March.

Amaya 4.3.2 Available

23 March 2001

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 4.3.2 is a bug fix release for MathML, forms, XHTML and HTML, and the user interface. Download Amaya binaries for Unix and Windows NT/95/98. Source code is available. If you are interested in annotations, please visit the Annotea home page.

W3C to Deliver Tutorials at CeBIT 2001

22 March 2001

W3C is delivering a series of tutorials on privacy, graphics, multimedia and accessibility at CeBIT 2001 in Hannover, Germany, from 22-28 March 2001. Attendees have the opportunity to meet members of the W3C Team and the staff of the W3C Office in Germany. Read the press release for more details, and find W3C in Hall 16, Stand D59.

Modularization of XHTML in XML Schema Published

22 March 2001

The W3C HTML Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of Modularization of XHTML in XML Schema. The draft provides a complete set of XML Schema modules for XHTML, and a framework for extending and modifying XHTML. Read about the W3C HTML Activity on the HTML home page.

W3C to Deliver Tutorials at CeBIT 2001

22 March 2001

W3C is delivering a series of tutorials on privacy, graphics, multimedia and accessibility at CeBIT 2001 in Hannover, Germany, from 22-28 March 2001. Attendees have the opportunity to meet members of the W3C Team and the staff of the W3C Office in Germany. Read the press release for more details, and find W3C in Hall 16, Stand D59.

XML Schema: Formal Description Working Draft Published

20 March 2001

Based on the syntax in XML Schema Part 1: Structures, a first Working Draft of XML Schema: Formal Description has been published. The formalization is a declarative system for describing and naming XML Schema information, specifying XML instance type information, and validating instances against schemas. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

Canonical XML Becomes a W3C Recommendation

19 March 2001

W3C today released Canonical XML Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. The specification is stable, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favors its adoption by academic, industry, and research communities. With XML Signature, Canonical XML can ensure the integrity of data traveling between XML processors, crucial in applications like electronic commerce. Canonical XML was produced by the XML Signature Working Group, a joint effort of the IETF and W3C. Read the press release.

XML Protocol Requirements Working Draft Published

19 March 2001

The XML Protocol Working Group has published XML Protocol (XMLP) Requirements as a Working Draft. XMLP allows two or more peers to communicate in a distributed environment using XML as its encapsulation language. Discussion takes place on the public mailing list xml-dist-app@w3.org (archive). Read about the W3C XML Protocol Activity.

XML Information Set Working Draft Published

16 March 2001

The W3C XML Core Working Group has published a Working Draft of the XML Information Set (Infoset) so that Last Call reviewers can evaluate how their feedback was incorporated. The Infoset defines a set of eleven types of information items in XML documents. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

XML Schema Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

16 March 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XML Schema to Proposed Recommendation. XML schemas provide a superset of the capabilities found in XML document type definitions (DTDs). XML Schema Part 0: Primer is an introduction. XML Schema Part 1: Structures specifies the XML Schema definition language for describing the structure and constraining the contents of XML documents. XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes specifies an extensible system of data categories. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

CC/PP Last Call Working Draft Published

15 March 2001

The CC/PP Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies. CC/PP is a user-side hardware, software and preferences profile written in Resource Description Framework (RDF), W3C's language for modeling metadata. Comments are invited through 5 April. Read about the W3C Device Independence Activity.

Pronunciation Lexicon Markup Requirements Published

15 March 2001

The Voice Browser Working Group has released the first published Working Draft of Pronunciation Lexicon Markup Requirements for the W3C Speech Interface Framework. A pronunciation lexicon can augment the vocabulary in speech synthesis and speech recognition systems. Read about the W3C Speech Interface Framework and more on the W3C Voice Browser home page.

Amaya 4.3.1 Available

15 March 2001

Amaya is W3C's free Web browser and authoring tool. Version 4.3.1 features changes to handling of character entities, XHTML, printing, SVG paths, and annotations as well as many bug fixes. Download Amaya binaries for Unix and Windows NT/95/98. Source code is available. If you are interested in annotations, please visit the Annotea home page.

W3C to Deliver Tutorials at CeBIT 2001

14 March 2001

W3C is delivering a series of tutorials on Privacy, Graphics, Multimedia and Accessibility at CeBIT 2001 in Hannover, Germany, from 22-28 March 2001. Atttendees have the opportunity to meet members of the W3C Team and the staff of the W3C Office in Germany. Read the Press Release for more details.

Jigsaw 2.2.0 Available

14 March 2001

Jigsaw version 2.2.0 is available for download. New features include WebDAV support and a parser for dates in ISO 8601 format. The release notes list all bug fixes. Jigsaw is W3C's leading-edge Web server platform implemented in Java. Learn more about the W3C Jigsaw Activity.

Winie 1.0.8 Available

09 March 2001

Winie version 1.0.8 is available for download. Winie is a free network utility to put, get, and delete files on the Web using HTTP/1.1. Version 1.0.8 features basic support for the Content-Language entity-header field and a digest authentication bug fix. Winie discussion takes place on the public mailing list www-winie@w3.org (archive).

Annotea Project Launches Home Page

09 March 2001

The product of collaboration at W3C, the Annotea project now has a home page. Annotations are external remarks attached to any Web document. When the user gets the document he can load the annotations and see what his peer group thinks. The first client implementation of Annotea is W3C's Amaya browser and authoring tool. See a quick tutorial for annotations to get you started. This project is part of the W3C Semantic Web Activity Advanced Development work to develop and deploy RDF infrastructure.

W3C Team to Give Tutorials at CeBIT

08 March 2001

Four W3C Team members will give tutorials at the CeBIT 2001 world business fair and exhibition in Hannover, Germany: Philipp Hoschka, SMIL on 23 March; Daniel Dardailler, WAI on 24 March; Bert Bos, Styling on 26 March; and Rigo Wenning, P3P on 27 March. Browse past W3C Team talks and presentations and upcoming W3C appearances and events.

APPEL Working Draft Published

05 March 2001

The P3P Specification Working Group has released A P3P Preference Exchange Language (APPEL) 1.0 as a Working Draft and companion to the P3P specification. The Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) simplifies and automates the process of reading Web site privacy policies, promoting trust and confidence in the Web. Read the answers to frequently asked questions about P3P and more on the W3C Privacy Activity.

SMIL 2.0 Working Draft Published

05 March 2001

As part of the W3C Synchronized Multimedia Activity, the SYMM Working Group has issued an updated Working Draft of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language 2.0. SMIL (pronounced "smile") 2.0 defines an XML-based language that authors can use to write interactive multimedia presentations, and allows reuse of SMIL syntax and semantics in other XML-based languages. Comments are welcome.

Amaya 4.3 Released

05 March 2001

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 4.3 features MathML 2.0 attribute support, improved math editing, more SVG support, and access keys and window shortcuts. Download Amaya binaries for Unix and Windows NT/95/98. Source code is available. Amaya includes collaborative annotation based on Resource Description Framework (RDF), XLink, and XPointer. Visit the Annotea home page.

CSS Syntax for HTML "style" Working Draft Published

05 March 2001

The CSS Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Syntax of CSS rules in HTML's "style" attribute. The draft describes the history, grammar, cascading order and profiles for CSS fragments in the "style" attribute. Read about CSS level 3 and visit the CSS home page.

CSS3 Color Module Working Draft Published

05 March 2001

The CSS Working Group has released a Working Draft of CSS3 module: Color. The draft merges parts of HTML 4, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) levels 2 and 3, and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.0. It describes CSS properties authors can use to specify foreground color and opacity, ICC color profiles, and rendering intent of image content. Read about CSS level 3 and visit the CSS home page.

W3C Hosts Technical Plenary and All-Group Meeting

05 March 2001

W3C held its first ever Technical Plenary and Working Group Meeting Event on 26 February - 2 March in Cambridge, MA, USA. Over 300 W3C Working and Interest Group participants attended face to face and birds of a feather meetings. Mid-week, an all-group plenary included panel discussions on Web architecture, XML Schema usage, and the Candidate Recommendation experience. If your organization would like to join W3C and lead the Web to its full potential, please refer to the W3C Membership page.

W3C Team Presentations in March

25 February 2001

Among upcoming W3C Team presentations, Ian Jacobs presents Authoring Accessible Help for the Web at the WinWriters Online Help Conference on 5 March, in Santa Clara, California, USA. Henry Thompson attends XML World Euro Edition, held 26-28 March, in Amsterdam, giving a keynote, XML - Knitting the Web Together, and a tutorial, Overview of the XML family of W3C Recommendations.

CC/PP Structure and Vocabularies Working Draft Published

23 February 2001

The CC/PP Working Group has released a Working Draft of Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies. CC/PP is a user-side hardware, software and preferences profile written in Resource Description Framework (RDF), W3C's language for modeling metadata. Comments are welcome. Read about the W3C Device Independence Activity.

Modularization of XHTML Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

23 February 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Modularization of XHTML to Proposed Recommendation. The specification subsets XHTML and extends XHTML's reach onto emerging platforms like mobile devices, television, and appliances. Comments are invited through 22 March. Read more on the HTML home page.

MathML 2.0 Becomes a W3C Recommendation

21 February 2001

W3C today released Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 2.0 as a W3C Recommendation. The specification is stable, and has been reviewed by the W3C Membership, who favors its adoption by academic, industry, and research communities. An XML application built on MathML 1.01, MathML 2.0 allows mathematical notation and content to be served, received, and processed on the Web. Read the press release and testimonials, and learn about the 17 implementations of MathML 2.0 already available.

CSS3 module: Ruby Working Draft Published

16 February 2001

The CSS Working Group has released a Working Draft of CSS3 module: Ruby, proposing a set of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) properties for ruby elements. Comments are invited on the www-style@w3.org (archive) public mailing list. Read about CSS level 3 and visit the CSS home page.

Ruby Annotation Working Draft Published

16 February 2001

The Internationalization Working Group has released a Working Draft of Ruby Annotation, defining an XHTML module for ruby markup. Ruby is a short piece of text alongside base text, typically found in East Asian documents to indicate pronunciation or to provide an annotation. Read about the W3C Internationalization Activity.

XForms 1.0 Working Draft Published

16 February 2001

The XForms Working Group has released a new Working Draft of XForms 1.0. The draft describes the architecture, concepts, processing model, and terminology underlying XForms, the next generation of Web forms. Comments are welcome. Learn more about XForms and the W3C HTML Activity.

TVWeb Interest Group Charter Extended

15 February 2001

The TVWeb Interest Group charter has been extended through the end of February 2002. Open to the public, the group has an archived public mailing list, serves to coordinate with TV standardization groups, and works on integration of television and the Web. TVWeb is part of the Device Independence Activity.

XSLT 2.0 Requirements Working Draft Published

15 February 2001

As part of the W3C Style Activity, the XSL Working Group has released a Working Draft of XSLT Requirements Version 2.0. Building on the XSLT 1.0 W3C Recommendation for a style sheet language used to transform XML documents, the requirements outline goals for an XSLT 2.0 specification. Visit the XSL home page.

XPath 2.0 Requirements Working Draft Published

15 February 2001

The XSL and XML Query Working Groups have released a Working Draft of XPath Requirements Version 2.0. Building on the XPath 1.0 W3C Recommendation, plans for XPath 2.0 include simplified manipulation of schema-typed and string content, support for XML standards, and improved ease of use, interoperability, and internationalization support. Visit the XSL home page.

XML Query Working Group Publishes Five Working Drafts

15 February 2001

The W3C XML Query Working Group has released the first public Working Draft of XQuery: A Query Language for XML. The XQuery language is designed to be broadly applicable across all types of XML data sources from documents to databases and object repositories. Today's related publications are:

XML Fragment Interchange Becomes a W3C Candidate Recommendation

12 February 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XML Fragment Interchange to Candidate Recommendation. The specification allows exchange of XML fragments from volumes or chapters down to paragraphs, tables or footnotes, without having to manage each as a separate entity, or risking incorrect parsing due to loss of context. Comments are invited through the end of April 2001. Read about the XML Activity.

DOM Level 3 Content Models and Load and Save Working Draft Published

09 February 2001

The W3C DOM (Document Object Model) Working Group has released a Working Draft of the DOM Level 3 Content Models and Load and Save Specification, a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents. Comments are invited at www-dom@w3.org (archive). Read about the DOM Activity.

W3C Launches Semantic Web Activity

09 February 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Semantic Web Activity. The Semantic Web is a vision: the idea of data on the Web defined and linked in a way that it can be used by machines for automation, integration and reuse. The Web can reach its full potential only if it becomes a place where data can be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people. Learn more in the Semantic Web Activity statement.

New Operative W3C Process Document

08 February 2001

The 8 February 2001 W3C Process Document is now the operative W3C Process Document. This version of the Process Document, produced by the W3C Advisory Board, is the result of two reviews by the W3C Advisory Committee. A list of changes from the previous (11 November 1999) version is available.

W3C Team to Present at XML DevCon and EBU Workshop

07 February 2001

Among upcoming W3C Team presentations, Henry Thompson speaks on global e-business standards at XML DevCon 2001 held 21-23 February in London, England. Four W3C Team members will present on 22-23 February at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) workshop on XML Technologies in Broadcasting in Geneva, Switzerland: Vincent Quint gives a keynote W3C and Web technologies, Philipp Hoschka presents Multimedia applications based on SMIL, Bert Bos speaks on RDF for metadata, and Daniel Dardailler presents Accessibility for XML-based multimedia.

W3C Weekly News Debuts

07 February 2001

W3C has launched a new public news service, W3C Weekly News, published on Mondays. This text-based email includes all home page news items for the previous week. Please visit the archives for back issues and subscription instructions.

W3C Morocco Office Launches Home Page

07 February 2001

The home page of the W3C Morocco Office is now open to the public. The Office is hosted by the Ecole Mohammadia d'Ingénieurs, in Rabat, Morocco. W3C Offices assist with promotion efforts in local languages, broaden W3C's geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C Activities.

Common User Agent Problems Note Published

06 February 2001

Karl Dubost, Hugo Haas, and Ian Jacobs of the W3C Team have published a W3C Note, Common User Agent Problems. This Note explains common mistakes that user agents make due to incorrect or incomplete implementation of specifications, and offers suggestions for good user agent behavior.

Workshop on Quality Assurance at W3C Announced

05 February 2001

Registration is open through 28 March for the Workshop on Quality Assurance at W3C to be hosted by NIST in Gaithersburg, MD, near Washington, D.C. USA, on 3-4 April 2001. Participants can share their understanding of Web QA tools, conformance activities at W3C, and discuss a potential new W3C QA Activity. Position papers should be submitted to the Workshop Chairs by 16 March.

P3P Assurance Signature Profile Note Published

02 February 2001

Joseph Reagle of the W3C Team has published A P3P Assurance Signature Profile as a W3C Note. Using the Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) as an example, the Note presents a possible use of the SignatureProperty element, as permitted by the XML-Signature Syntax and Processing specification, for exploration and discussion.

XML Information Set Last Call Working Draft Published

02 February 2001

The W3C XML Core Working Group has published a second Last Call Working Draft of the XML Information Set (Infoset). The Infoset defines a set of seventeen types of information items in XML documents. Comments should be sent to www-xml-infoset-comments@w3.org (archive) by 23 February. Read about the W3C XML Activity.

W3C Workshop on Web Services Announced

02 February 2001

W3C has organized a workshop on Web services to bring together the community interested in XML-based Web service solutions, and the standardization of Web service components. The workshop will be held in San Jose, California (USA) on 11-12 April 2001. Workshop registration is open until 1 April 2001; participation limitations and requirements are indicated on the workshop description page. The deadline for W3C Member position papers that are to be included in the workshop program is 12 March 2001.

Second Public Release of SVG Test Suite

02 February 2001

The W3C Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group has published an enhanced and updated version of the SVG Conformance Test Suite. The results of testing six implementations against the test suite are also available. SVG is a language for describing two-dimensional vector, image, and text graphics in XML.

CSS Mobile Profile Last Call Working Draft Published

30 January 2001

The W3C CSS Working Group has released CSS Mobile Profile 1.0 as a Last Call Working Draft. The specification defines a subset of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Level 2 tailored for mobile devices such as wireless phones. Please send your comments by 1 March and read more on the CSS home page.

W3C Launches Device Independence Activity

30 January 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Device Independence Activity. Made up of three Working Groups, this Activity will promote single authoring for the Web for all access devices from desktop PCs to in-car computers, TV, digital cameras, and cellular phones. Visit the Device Independence home page.

DOM Level 3 Core Working Draft Published

26 January 2001

As part of the W3C DOM Activity, the DOM Working Group has released a Working Draft of the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Core Specification. The DOM is a platform- and language-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure, and style of documents. Comments are invited on the public mailing list www-dom@w3.org (archive).

Character Model Last Call Working Draft Published

26 January 2001

The W3C Internationalization Working Group has released Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0 as a Last Call Working Draft. This document provides authors of specifications, software developers, and content developers a common reference for interoperable text manipulation. Please send your comments by 23 February and read more about W3C's work on internationalization.

CSS3 Module: W3C Selectors Last Call Working Draft Published

26 January 2001

The W3C CSS Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of CSS3 module: W3C selectors. Selectors are patterns in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language that match to elements in HTML and XML. This specification describes the CSS1 and CSS2 selectors and new selectors for CSS3. Please send your comments by 1 March and read more on the CSS home page.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Working Draft Published

25 January 2001

The W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released a first Working Draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 building on feedback received on WCAG 1.0. These checkpoints explain how to make Web content accessible to people with disabilities. Read about the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

W3C Launches XML Encryption Activity

25 January 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the XML Encryption Activity. This Activity will specify the necessary data model, syntax, and processing to encrypt XML content. Applications for XML encryption include exchange of payments and purchase orders and other sensitive information. Learn more:

W3C Team Presentations in February

23 January 2001

Among upcoming W3C Team presentations, on 1 February, Daniel Weitzner participates in a panel on The Social and Political Impact of Information Technology at the Information Technology in the Middle East conference in Washington, DC. Four Team members will present at PAGE2001 (Japanese) in Tokyo, Japan: on 8 February, Kazuhiro Kitagawa chairs XML and its Standardization; on 9 February, Martin Dürst chairs a W3C session on XML-based publishing, Chris Lilley speaks on SVG, and Norio Touyama presents Perspectives of XML-based Publishing. On 27 February, Alan Kotok presents The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and You at SHARE in Long Beach, CA, USA.

Introduction to CSS3 Working Draft Published

19 January 2001

The CSS Working Group has released a Working Draft of Introduction to CSS3. This document lists all the modules in the future Cascading Style Sheets Level 3 (CSS3) specification. Please send comments to the www-style@w3.org mailing list (archive) or to the editor. Learn more on the CSS home page.

Canonical XML Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

19 January 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Canonical XML Version 1.0 to Proposed Recommendation. Canonical XML permits applications such as digital signatures to determine whether an application has substantively changed an XML document. The review period ends 16 February. Canonical XML is produced by the XML Signature Working Group, a joint effort of the IETF and W3C.

CSS3 Multi-column Layout Working Draft Published

18 January 2001

The CSS Working Group has released a Working Draft of CSS3 module: Multi-column layout. Style sheet authors can allow content to flow from one column to another, specify column width, and allow the number of columns to vary, all depending on available space. Please send your comments to the www-style@w3.org mailing list (archive) or to the editor. Learn more about Cascading Style Sheets on the CSS home page.

XPointer Last Call Working Draft Published

08 January 2001

The XML Linking Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the XML Pointer Language (XPointer) Version 1.0. In conjunction with the IETF Internet-Draft "XML Media Types," XPointer forms the basis for addressing internal parts of XML documents. Please send your comments by 29 January.

MathML 2.0 Becomes a W3C Proposed Recommendation

08 January 2001

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 2.0 to Proposed Recommendation. By describing mathematical notation in XML, MathML allows mathematics to be served, received, and processed on the Web, just as HTML enables this functionality for resources like text and images. Please send your comments by 5 February and visit the W3C Math home page.

W3C Team Presentations in January

03 January 2001

The W3C Team has presentations upcoming. Daniel J. Weitzner will participate in Open and/or Closed: The Future of Technology at the Future of Music Policy Conference in Washington, DC, on 10 January. Charles McCathieNevile will speak on Web Accessibility - Present and Future on 17 January at Information Online 2001 in Sydney, Australia. On 18 January, Philipp Hoschka will participate in a Roundtable on Streaming Media in Paris, sponsored by the Development Institute International. On 22 January, Ivan Herman will present Identifying the XML Opportunity for the Telecom Industry at XML and VoiceXML in Telecoms sponsored by XML.org.

Stochastic Language Models (N-Gram) Working Draft Published

03 January 2001

The W3C Voice Browser Working Group has released the Stochastic Language Models (N-Gram) Specification as a Working Draft. The draft describes markup for representing statistical language models, used to support large vocabulary and open vocabulary applications, and to represent concepts or semantics. Read more about the Voice Browser Activity.

Speech Synthesis Markup Language Last Call Working Draft Published

03 January 2001

The W3C Voice Browser Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the Speech Synthesis Markup Language Specification. With this language, content authors can generate synthetic speech on the Web, controlling pronunciation, volume, pitch, and rate. Please send comments to the public mailing list www-voice@w3.org (archive) by 31 January.

Speech Recognition Grammar Last Call Working Draft Published

03 January 2001

The W3C Voice Browser Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the Speech Recognition Grammar Specification. With this language, developers can specify words and patterns of words to be listened for by speech recognizers. Please send comments to the public mailing list www-voice@w3.org (archive) by 31 January.