W3C

2004

Working Draft: SPARQL Variable Binding Results XML Format

21 December 2004

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the SPARQL Variable Binding Results XML Format. The SPARQL query language (pronounced "sparkle") offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Draft: WSDL 2.0 Primer

21 December 2004

The Web Services Description Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0 Part 0: Primer. A companion to the WSDL 2.0 Core Language, Predefined Extensions and Bindings specifications, the Primer develops a simple example WSDL 2.0 document using a hotel reservation service use case. Readers will also find information on defining message types and services, and on interfaces, bindings and advanced topics. Read about Web services.

W3C Launches Graphics Activity

20 December 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Graphics Activity. The Scalable Vector Graphics Working Group is chaired by Chris Lilley (W3C) and is chartered through 30 September 2006. The SVG Working Group develops the SVG language for describing two-dimensional graphics and graphical applications in XML, including profiles for desktops, mobile devices and printers. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the SVG home page.

XInclude Is a W3C Recommendation

20 December 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. Strengthening the XML family, XInclude provides a generic method for merging XML documents into a single composite document. It contributes to efficient content management at the enterprise level. XInclude uses existing XML constructs—elements, attributes and URI references. Read the press release and testimonials and visit the XML home page.

Working Draft: CSS3 Speech Module

17 December 2004

The CSS Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the CSS3 Speech Module. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language is used to render structured documents like HTML and XML on screen, on paper and in speech. The draft defines aural properties that match the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) model. Comments are welcome. Visit the CSS home page.

Last Call: Web Services Choreography Description Language 1.0

17 December 2004

The Web Services Choreography Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the Web Services Choreography Description Language Version 1.0 (WS-CDL). This XML-based language describes peer-to-peer collaborations between Web service participants by defining their behavior from a global viewpoint. Ordered message exchanges thus accomplish a common business goal. Comments are welcome through 31 January. Visit the Web services home page.

W3C Launches Patents and Standards Interest Group

17 December 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Patent Policy Activity. The new Patents and Standards Interest Group (PSIG) is chaired by Don Deutsch (Oracle) and Daniel J. Weitzner (W3C) and is chartered through 1 December 2007. The PSIG is is a forum for W3C Members and Invited Experts to discuss policy issues regarding the implementation of the W3C Patent Policy as well as new patent-related questions that arise which require action or attention from the W3C Membership.

Working Draft: Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.1

16 December 2004

The XSL Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.1. Version 1.1 updates the XSL 1.0 Recommendation for change marks, indexes, multiple flows, and bookmarks, and extends support for graphics scaling, markers, and page numbers. Comments are invited. Read about the XML Activity.

'Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One' is a W3C Recommendation

15 December 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Architecture of the World Wide Web, Volume One as a W3C Recommendation. The Web uses relatively simple technologies with sufficient scalability, efficiency and utility that they have resulted in a remarkable information space of interrelated resources, growing across languages, cultures and media. This architecture document discusses the core design components of the Web in an effort to preserve these properties of the information space as its technologies evolve. Read the press release, Member testimonials, and visit the TAG home page.

W3C Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences: Summary

15 December 2004

The summary and position papers have been published from the W3C Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences held in Cambridge, MA, USA on 27-28 October. The workshop concluded that work is needed in core vocabularies and integration of life science identifiers (LSID) and Web resources, and that an implementers Interest Group will be beneficial. W3C thanks all 150 attendees for their valued participation. Read about workshops and Technology & Society at W3C.

EMMA Working Draft Updated

14 December 2004

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of EMMA. The Extensible MultiModal Annotation language (EMMA) is a data exchange format for interaction management systems. Part of the W3C Multimodal Interaction Framework, the specification describes markup for describing user input together with annotations such as confidence scores, timestamps and input medium. This version includes the associated XML schema. Visit the Multimodal Interaction home page.

Massachusetts Governor Declares December 2004 "W3C Month"

09 December 2004

In a proclamation issued 1 December, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has declared December 2004 to be World Wide Web Consortium Month. Read by COO Steve Bratt at the W3C Tenth Anniversary Celebration, the proclamation cites W3C for "its good work and concern for the diverse users of the Web" and says W3C "earned their respect, trust and support." See the official document and read the full text.

Working Drafts: Web Services Addressing

08 December 2004

The Web Services Addressing Working Group has released three First Public Working Drafts. Web Services Addressing - Core enables message transmission through networks that include processing nodes such as endpoint managers, firewalls, and gateways in a transport-neutral manner. WSDL Binding defines how the core specification's properties are described in the Web Services Description Language (WSDL). SOAP Binding defines their association to SOAP messages. Read about Web services.

Upcoming W3C Talks

06 December 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

W3C Welcomes Members at Advisory Committee Meeting

06 December 2004

W3C held its semiannual Advisory Committee Meeting on 2-3 December in Cambridge, MA, USA. W3C Member organizations participated in two days of discussions on W3C Activities. If your organization would like to join W3C, please refer to the Membership page. The next Advisory Committee Meeting will be held 5-7 June 2005 in Mandelieu, France.

W3C Celebrates Its Tenth Anniversary

30 November 2004

This year, the World Wide Web Consortium celebrates its tenth anniversary—ten years of its mission to lead the Web to its full potential. On 1 December, W3C Members, Team, invited speakers, and international media will gather in Boston, USA to reflect on the progress of the Web, W3C's central role in its growth, and the risks and opportunities facing the Web during W3C's second decade. "This special anniversary brings the opportunity to acknowledge the impact of the Web and the W3C's stewardship role," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "I hope it will also inspire ever more collaboration, creativity, and understanding across the globe." Sign the greeting card, read the press release and read more about the W3C Tenth Anniversary Celebration.

Working Draft: SVG's XML Binding Language (sXBL)

22 November 2004

Through joint efforts, the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group and the CSS Working Group have released a second Working Draft of SVG's XML Binding Language (sXBL). The sXBL language defines the presentation and interactive behavior of elements outside the SVG namespace. The XBL task force considers the sXBL specification to be nearly ready for Last Call. Visit the SVG and CSS home pages.

Last Call: Dynamic Properties Framework (DPF)

22 November 2004

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the Dynamic Properties Framework (DPF). Written for the W3C Multimodal Interaction Framework, the draft describes interfaces for dynamic access to properties that represent device capabilities, device configuration, user preferences and environmental conditions. The previous Working Draft was named "System and Environment Framework." Comments are welcome through 10 January. Read about Multimodal Interaction.

Last Call: Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

22 November 2004

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and a Working Draft of its companion Implementation Techniques. The guidelines are written to help developers create accessible authoring interfaces that produce accessible Web content. Resulting content can be read by a broader range of readers including those with disabilities. Comments are welcome through 7 January. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Last Call: QA Specification Guidelines

22 November 2004

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the QA Framework: Specification Guidelines. The document is designed to help W3C editors write better specifications by making a specification easier to interpret without ambiguity, and clearer as to what is required in order to conform. Comments are welcome through 28 January. The QA Handbook is now a Working Group Note. Written for W3C Working Group Chairs and Team Contacts, the handbook provides techniques, tools, and templates for test suites and specifications, and is designed to facilitate and accelerate the work of W3C Working Groups. Learn more about quality assurance at W3C.

Character Model for the World Wide Web Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

22 November 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of two parts of the Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0. Fundamentals is a Proposed Recommendation and Resource Identifiers is a Candidate Recommendation. The documents provide authors of specifications, software developers, and content developers with a common reference for text manipulation and the use of internationalized resource identifiers on the Web. They build on the Universal Character Set defined by Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646. Comments are welcome through 20 December and 15 January respectively. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Working Drafts: Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

19 November 2004

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released a First Public Working Draft of Client-side Scripting Techniques for WCAG 2.0 and three updated Working Drafts: HTML Techniques for WCAG 2.0, CSS Techniques for WCAG 2.0, and General Techniques for WCAG 2.0. The drafts give guidance on using HTML, XHTML, ECMAScript and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create accessible content. Deprecated examples illustrate techniques that content developers should not use. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Working Draft: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

19 November 2004

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released an updated Working Draft for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. This draft focuses on guidelines, attempts to apply guidelines to a wider range of technologies, and uses wording that may be understood by a more varied audience. Following WCAG checkpoints makes Web content accessible to people with disabilities and to users of a variety of Web-enabled devices. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

W3C/Keio Presents at SFC Open Research Forum (ORF 2004) in Tokyo

18 November 2004

SFC Open Research Forum (ORF) (in Japanese) is an annual open house event of the Keio Research Institute of Shonan Fujisawa Campus (SFC), Keio University, Japan. At ORF 2004, W3C/Keio will organize a talk session, "W3C Forum in ORF," on 24 November. Tatsuya Hagino chairs, and Masayasu Ishikawa, Martin Dürst, Yoshio Fukushige and Kazhiro Kitagawa will give talks on Web technologies such as Compound Document Formats, Internationalization, the Semantic Web and Social Information Filtering. The event is open to interested companies and the general public.

W3C Holds "Mobile Web Initiative" Workshop

17 November 2004

The W3C "Mobile Web Initiative" Workshop is 18-19 November in Barcelona, Spain. Participants will discuss how a W3C initiative could help to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Sponsored by W3C Members HP, Orange, Vodafone and Volantis, and colocated with an OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) meeting, the workshop is designed for industry and community input and feedback. Read the press release, the program, about workshops, and about W3C's mobile Web work.

Requirements: Internationalization of Web Services

16 November 2004

The Web Services Internationalization Task Force of the Internationalization Working Group has published Requirements for the Internationalization of Web Services as a Working Group Note. Developed to help achieve worldwide usability for Web services, the requirements address the way internationalization options are exposed in Web services definitions, descriptions, messages, and discovery mechanisms. Visit the Internationalization home page.

SOAP Performance: Three W3C Proposed Recommendations

16 November 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of three technical reports to Proposed Recommendations offering an optimal way to transfer binary data like images in Web services messages. Produced by the XML Protocol Working Group, SOAP Version 1.2 is a lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment such as the Web. Comments are welcome through 16 December. Visit the Web services home page.

Working Draft: XForms 1.1

15 November 2004

The XForms Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of XForms 1.1. XForms is the new generation of Web forms. Addressing immediate needs for the forms community, version 1.1 has enhancements for the XForms 1.0 framework, embraces SOAP, makes XForms authoring easier, and facilitates XForms use in other host languages. Comments are welcome. Visit the XForms home page.

SMIL 2.0 Is a Proposed Edited Recommendation

09 November 2004

The SYMM Working Group has released a Proposed Edited Recommendation for the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.0). This second edition is not a new version; its purpose is to correct errors in the SMIL 2.0 first edition as a convenience to readers. 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 5 December. Visit the Synchronized Multimedia home page.

Program: W3C "Mobile Web Initiative" Workshop

09 November 2004

The program and position papers have been announced for the W3C "Mobile Web Initiative" Workshop to be held in Barcelona, Spain on 18-19 November. Attendees will discuss how a W3C initiative could help to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Read about workshops and W3C's mobile Web work.

Last Call: xml:id

09 November 2004

The XML Core Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of xml:id Version 1.0. The specification introduces a predefined attribute name that can always be treated as an ID and hence can always be recognized. Comments are welcome through 13 December. Visit the XML home page.

Use Cases: XML Binary Characterization

09 November 2004

The XML Binary Characterization Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of XML Binary Characterization Use Cases. Presenting documented examples, the draft will help to decide if standardized and optimized serialization can be used to improve the generation, parsing, transmission and storage of XML-based data. Visit the XML home page.

Last Call: Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition

08 November 2004

The Voice Browser Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of Semantic Interpretation for Speech Recognition. The draft describes the contents of speech recognition grammar tags used to represent natural language utterances. It is expected that the results can be integrated into the EMMA data format. Comments are welcome through 5 December. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Working Draft: XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0

05 November 2004

Addressing comments received during Last Call, the XSL Working Group has released a Working Draft of XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.0. Comments are welcome. Version 2.0 of the XSLT language allows transformation of XML documents and non-XML data into other documents, is designed for use with XPath 2.0 and includes the means to serialize the results of a transformation. Visit the XML home page.

Architecture of the World Wide Web Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

05 November 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Architecture of the World Wide Web, First Edition to Proposed Recommendation. The World Wide Web uses relatively simple technologies with sufficient scalability, efficiency and utility that they have resulted in a remarkable information space of interrelated resources, growing across languages, cultures and media. In an effort to preserve these properties of the information space as its technologies evolve, this architecture document discusses the core design components of the Web. Comments are welcome through 8 December. Visit the TAG home page.

Use Cases: XML Binary Characterization

04 November 2004

The XML Binary Characterization Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of XML Binary Characterization Use Cases. Presenting documented examples, the draft will help to decide if standardized and optimized serialization can be used to improve the generation, parsing, transmission and storage of XML-based data. Comments are welcome. Visit the XML home page.

Last Call: Assigning Media Types to Binary Data in XML

02 November 2004

The XML Protocol Working Group and the Web Services Description Working Group jointly released a Last Call Working Draft of Assigning Media Types to Binary Data in XML. The draft describes how to indicate the media type of XML element content and the way to specify that type in XML Schema. Comments are welcome through 24 November. Visit the Web services home page.

Working Draft: Timed Text Distribution Profile

01 November 2004

The Timed Text (TT) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format 1.0 Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP). The draft is designed for existing subtitling and captioning distribution content formats. It allows authors and authoring systems to associate style, layout and timing to text for the purpose of interchange. Visit the Synchronized Multimedia home page.

Upcoming W3C Talks

01 November 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

Device Independence Activity Launched

01 November 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Device Independence Activity. The Device Independence Working Group is chaired by Rhys Lewis (Volantis) and is chartered through October 2006. Guiding content authors and enabling different devices with different capabilities, the group's specifications ensure access to a unified Web from any device in any context by anyone. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the Device Independence home page.

XML Schema Second Edition Is a W3C Recommendation

29 October 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released XML Schema Second Edition as a W3C Recommendation in three parts: Part 0: Primer, Part 1: Structures and Part 2: Datatypes. The second edition is not a new version; it corrects errors found in the XML Schema first edition. A modular approach well-suited to distributed applications, XML schemas define shared markup vocabularies and the structure of XML documents using those vocabularies. Visit the XML home page.

Working Drafts: XQuery, XPath and XSLT

29 October 2004

The XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group have released five updated Working Drafts addressing comments received during Last Call. Comments are invited on all of these drafts. Visit the XML home page.

Pronunciation Lexicon Requirements Updated

29 October 2004

The Voice Browser Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0 Requirements. A collection of words or phrases together with their pronunciations, 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 Voice Browser home page.

W3C Spanish Office's Standards Tour Visits Ten Cities in Spain

27 October 2004

The W3C Spanish Office brings its first W3C Standards Tour to ten universities in Spain from 3 to 26 November. The environment-friendly tour bus with disability access, video conferencing and Internet connectivity via satellite will visit Gijón, Bilbao, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Salamanca, A Coruña and Oviedo and make a Multimodal Web Seminar stop in Madrid. The W3C Spanish Office Prize for Web Standardization will be launched during the tour. Read the press release and visit the W3C Offices home page.

Last Call: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2

27 October 2004

The SVG Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2. The SVG language delivers accessible, dynamic, and reusable vector graphics, text, and images to the Web in XML. The document also describes a set of APIs for building graphics-based applications. Comments are welcome through 24 November. Visit the SVG home page.

Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences Explores Scientific Data Networks

26 October 2004

The W3C Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences is being held in Cambridge, MA, USA on 27-28 October. Data networks allow biology to progress from the mapping of one-dimensional DNA to understanding multi-dimensional organisms and their diseases. Semantic Web technologies such as RDF and OWL enable the rapid creation of rich information networks and can assist in the generation of hypotheses across massive data sets. Workshop participants will address the publication, sharing and management of data networks, and will develop use cases and prototypes. Read the press release and about W3C workshops, and visit the Semantic Web home page.

W3C Multimodal Interaction Seminar in Madrid

15 October 2004

As part of the European IST Programme's MWeb project, a Multimodal Interaction seminar will be held in Madrid, Spain on 18 November at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The agenda of this one-day event will feature presentations from W3C Members and Team. Please register before 11 November. The seminar is open to the public. Visit the multimodal interaction home page.

Working Draft: Specifying the Language of XHTML and HTML Content

15 October 2004

The GEO (Guidelines, Education and Outreach) Task Force of the Internationalization Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Specifying the Language of Content. Part of a series designed for authors, the document is an aid to specifying the language of content for an international audience. Comments are welcome. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Constraints and Capabilities for Web Services Workshop Underway 12-13 October

12 October 2004

The W3C Workshop on Constraints and Capabilities for Web Services is underway 12-13 October at Oracle in Redwood Shores, CA, USA. Attendees will discuss common Web services constraints and capabilities and frameworks for combining them, and their relationships to core Web services work being standardized at W3C and to other Web technologies. Read the press release and more about workshops, and visit the Web services home page.

Working Draft: Web Services Choreography Description Language 1.0

12 October 2004

The Web Services Choreography Working Group has released a second Working Draft of the Web Services Choreography Description Language Version 1.0 (WS-CDL). This XML-based language describes peer-to-peer collaborations between Web service participants by defining their behavior from a global viewpoint. Ordered message exchanges thus accomplish a common business goal. Visit the Web services home page.

RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements Updated

12 October 2004

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements. The draft suggests how an RDF query language and data access protocol could be used in the construction of novel, useful Semantic Web applications in areas like Web publishing, personal information management, transportation and tourism. Comments are welcome. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Draft: SPARQL Query Language for RDF

12 October 2004

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Language for RDF. SPARQL (pronounced "sparkle") offers developers and end users a way to write and to consume search results across a wide range of information such as personal data, social networks and metadata about digital artifacts like music and images. SPARQL also provides a means of integration over disparate sources. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Web Services Addressing Working Group Launched

07 October 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Web Services Addressing Working Group. Chartered through February 2006 and chaired by Mark Nottingham (BEA), the group will build on WS-Addressing to define how message headers direct messages, to provide an XML format for exchanging endpoint references, and to define mechanisms to direct replies or faults. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the Web Services home page.

Compound Document Formats Activity Launched

07 October 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Compound Document Formats Activity. The Compound Document Formats (CDF) Working Group, chartered through 6 October 2006, is chaired by Vincent Hardy (Sun). The group's specifications will combine selected existing document formats (such as XHTML, SVG and SMIL) with other technologies (such as CSS and DOM) and specify their runtime behavior. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the Compound Document Formats home page.

W3C Celebrates Ten Years Leading the Web

07 October 2004

This year, W3C celebrates its tenth anniversary. During a symposium for Members and invited guests in Boston, USA on 1 December, W3C will reflect on the progress of the Web, W3C's central role in its growth, and risks and opportunities facing the Web during W3C's second decade. Please sign the greeting card and read about the W3C Tenth Anniversary Celebration.

Upcoming W3C Talks

05 October 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

Working Draft: XML Binary Characterization Properties

05 October 2004

The XML Binary Characterization Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of XML Binary Characterization Properties. Derived from use cases, this first draft in a series describes properties identified as desirable for any serialization of an XML data model. Comments are welcome. Visit the XML home page.

XInclude Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

30 September 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 to Proposed Recommendation. XInclude introduces a generic mechanism for merging XML documents (information sets) using existing XML constructs—elements, attributes and URI references. Comments are welcome through 29 October. Visit the XML home page.

Call for Participation: W3C "Mobile Web Initiative" Workshop

29 September 2004

Position papers are due 15 October for the W3C "Mobile Web Initiative" Workshop to be held in Barcelona, Spain on 18-19 November. Attendees will discuss how a W3C initiative could help to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. Read about workshops and W3C's mobile Web work.

Ink Markup Language Working Draft Updated

28 September 2004

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released a third Working Draft of the Ink Markup Language (InkML). The InkML data format is used to represent ink entered with an electronic pen or stylus. Ink-aware Web applications can process and exchange handwriting, gestures, sketches, music and other notational languages. Visit the Multimodal Interaction home page.

Noah Mendelsohn Appointed to TAG

27 September 2004

W3C is pleased to announce that Noah Mendelsohn (IBM) has been appointed to the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). Noah joins TAG participants Dan Connolly (W3C), Paul Cotton (Microsoft), Roy Fielding (Day Software), Chris Lilley (W3C), Norm Walsh (Sun), and co-Chairs Stuart Williams (Hewlett-Packard) and Tim Berners-Lee (W3C). The remaining one open seat will be filled at the next TAG election. Created in 2001, the TAG documents principles of Web architecture and works with other groups to resolve architectural issues. Read the Architecture of the World Wide Web Last Call Working Draft and visit the TAG home page.

Massimo Marchiori Receives Technology Review TR100 Honor

20 September 2004

Massimo Marchiori, W3C Research Scientist at MIT and research professor in Computer Science at the University of Venice, has been chosen as one of Technology Review's 2004 TR100, a group of one hundred young innovators in technology from around the world. The award recognizes Massimo's innovative contributions in a variety of fields including search engines, networks, Semantic Web, privacy, and modularity. Join us in congratulating Massimo for his achievement. Read about his past and ongoing work on Massimo's home page.

Speech Synthesis Markup Language Is a W3C Recommendation

08 September 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. With the XML-based SSML language, content authors can generate synthetic speech on the Web, controlling pronunciation, volume, pitch and rate. "SSML builds on the work of the pioneers in speech synthesis to provide application developers with a powerful and flexible means to deliver a high quality mix of synthetic and pre-recorded speech as part of interactive voice response services," said Dave Raggett (W3C/Canon). Read the press release, testimonials and implementation report and visit the Voice Browser home page.

Deadline Extension: Public Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences

02 September 2004

The deadline for position papers has been extended nine days to 15 September for the W3C Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences to be held in Cambridge, MA, USA on 27-28 October. Attendees will discuss how Semantic Web technologies such as RDF, OWL and the Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) help to manage modern life sciences research, enable disease understanding and accelerate the development of therapies. Read about W3C workshops and the Semantic Web.

Deadline Extension: Public Workshop on Metadata for Content Adaptation

02 September 2004

The deadline for position papers has been extended one week to 13 September for the W3C Workshop on Metadata for Content Adaptation to be held in Dublin, Ireland on 12-13 October. Attendees will discuss how metadata can help the adaption of Web content to fit user needs and device characteristics, and will provide feedback and suggestions for future W3C work. Read about workshops and Interaction at W3C.

W3C Co-Sponsors 26th Internationalization & Unicode Conference

02 September 2004

The 26th Internationalization & Unicode Conference will be held 7-10 September in San Jose, CA, USA. Presenters include Team members Martin Dürst and Richard Ishida and participants in the W3C Internationalization Working Group. The event is the premier technical conference worldwide for software and Web internationalization. During four days of tutorials and presentations, leaders in the field will discuss internationalized Web addresses and markup, language and locale tagging, complex scripts, ICU, software internationalization and other topics. Read about Unicode and the W3C Internationalization Activity.

Upcoming W3C Talks

01 September 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

EMMA Working Draft Updated

01 September 2004

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of EMMA. The Extensible MultiModal Annotation language (EMMA) is a data exchange format for interaction management systems. EMMA represents user input. Speech and handwriting recognizers, natural language engines, media interpreters, and multimodal integration components generate EMMA markup. Visit the Multimodal Interaction home page.

SVG's XML Binding Language (sXBL)

01 September 2004

Through joint efforts, the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group and the CSS Working Group have released the First Public Working Draft of SVG's XML Binding Language (sXBL). The sXBL language defines the presentation and interactive behavior of elements outside the SVG namespace. A future version may extend XBL to any markup. Visit the SVG and CSS home pages.

XForms 1.1 Requirements Updated

31 August 2004

The XForms Working Group has updated the XForms 1.1 Requirements Working Group Note. XForms is the new generation of Web forms. Version 1.1 has enhancements for the XForms 1.0 framework, embraces SOAP, makes XForms authoring easier, and facilitates XForms use in other host languages. Visit the XForms home page.

Working Drafts: Quality Assurance

30 August 2004

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has published three Working Drafts. Written for W3C Working Group Chairs and Team Contacts, The QA Handbook provides techniques, tools, and templates for test suites and specifications. QA Framework: Specification Guidelines are designed to help make technical reports easy to interpret without ambiguity, and explain how to define and specify conformance. Variability in Specifications is a First Public Working Draft. Formerly part of the Specification Guidelines, the document contains advanced design considerations and conformance-related techniques. Read about QA at W3C.

SOAP Performance: Three W3C Candidate Recommendations Published

26 August 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of three technical reports to Candidate Recommendations, offering an optimal way to transfer binary data like images in Web services messages. Produced by the XML Protocol Working Group, SOAP Version 1.2 is a lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment such as the Web. Comments are welcome through 15 September. Visit the Web services home page.

XML Activity Chartered Through June 2006

26 August 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. The Activity's Working, Interest and Coordination Groups given below have been chartered through 30 June 2006. New in March, the XML Binary Characterization Working Group is chartered through March 2005. Participation is open to W3C Members. Learn about XML in 10 Points and visit the XML home page.

Deadline Extension: Workshop on Constraints and Capabilities for Web Services

23 August 2004

The deadline for position papers has been extended one week to 3 September for the W3C Workshop on Constraints and Capabilities for Web Services to be held in Redwood Shores, CA, USA on 12-13 October. Attendees will discuss the establishment of a framework for describing Web services constraints and capabilities, and will provide feedback and suggestions for future work. Read more about workshops and Web services.

Last Call: Architecture of the World Wide Web

19 August 2004

The W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) has released a second Last Call Working Draft of the Architecture of the World Wide Web, First Edition. The document is written for Web developers, implementers, content authors and publishers. It describes the properties that are desired of the Web and the design choices that have been made to achieve them. Comments are welcome through 17 September. Visit the TAG home page.

Last Call: URI and IRI Internet-Drafts

17 August 2004

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has announced two Last Call Internet-Drafts important for Web addressing. The documents are coordinated IETF-W3C efforts.

  • Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax is written by Tim Berners-Lee (W3C), Roy Fielding (Day Software) and Larry Masinter (Adobe) with involvement of the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). Last Call ends 13 September. Simple text strings that refer to Internet resources, URIs may refer to documents, resources, to people, and indirectly to anything. URIs are a fundamental component of the Web. Read about the W3C URI Activity and visit the TAG home page.
  • Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) is written by Martin Dürst (W3C) and Michel Suignard (Microsoft) with involvement of the W3C Internationalization Working Group. Lifting the limitation to a subset of US-ASCII previously allowed in Web addresses, IRIs allow characters in the Universal Character Set (Unicode/ISO 10646). Last Call ends 8 September. Visit the W3C Internationalization home page.

Last Call: SVG Tiny Version 1.2

13 August 2004

The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of Mobile SVG Profile: SVG Tiny, Version 1.2. The draft defines SVG Tiny 1.2, a mobile profile of SVG 1.2 suitable for displaying vector graphics on small devices. Comments are welcome through 17 September. Visit the SVG home page.

Mobile Profile: SVG Tiny Version 1.2 Updated

06 August 2004

The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group has released the fourth Working Draft of Mobile SVG Profile: SVG Tiny, Version 1.2. The draft defines SVG Tiny 1.2, a mobile profile of SVG 1.2 suitable for displaying vector graphics on small devices. The Working Group invites comments. Visit the SVG home page.

SVG Open 2004: Tokyo, Japan 7-10 September

05 August 2004

SVG Open 2004, the 3rd annual conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, will be held 7-10 September at Keio University, Japan, on the Mita Campus in Tokyo. The conference schedule has courses and presentations and location and accommodation. Registration opens 31 August. A joint event, UPIMap is colocated on 7-9 September. SVG Open is your chance to discuss SVG development experiences, products, workflows and strategies. The conference language is English; translation facilities will be available to encourage English-Japanese communication. Read about SVG.

Scheduled Systems Outage 7 August

05 August 2004

W3C's mailing lists are being moved to a new server on Saturday, 7 August at 04:00 UTC. List service will be suspended for a few hours but the majority of the W3C Web site will remain accessible. Mail sent to W3C archives will be queued and posted when the move is complete. The W3C Systems Team expects to have list service restored on the same day. We appreciate your patience.

RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements Updated

04 August 2004

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements. The draft suggests how an RDF query language and data access protocol could be used in the construction of novel, useful Semantic Web applications in areas like Web publishing, personal information management, transportation and tourism. Comments are welcome. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Last Call: Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 2.0

03 August 2004

The Web Services Description Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0: Part 1: Core Language, Part 2: Predefined Extensions and Part 3: Bindings. WSDL is an XML language for describing network services. The drafts describe functionality, and define sequence, cardinality and criteria for conformant processors. Comments are welcome through 4 October. Read about Web services.

Representing Specified Values in OWL

03 August 2004

The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment (SWBPD) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Representing Specified Values in OWL: "value partitions" and "value sets". Comments are welcome. The draft presents methods for representing modified values and collections of values in the OWL Web Ontology Language. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Upcoming W3C Talks

02 August 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

Working Group Note: Web Services Internationalization Usage Scenarios

02 August 2004

The Web Services Task Force of the Internationalization Working Group has released a Working Group Note Web Services Internationalization Usage Scenarios with additional guidance for implementers of Web service technologies. The document examines how language, culture and related issues interact with Web services architecture and technology. Comments are welcome on this draft. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Working Drafts: Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

02 August 2004

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released three First Public Working Drafts. HTML Techniques for WCAG 2.0 and CSS Techniques for WCAG 2.0 give guidance on using HTML, XHTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to create accessible content. Deprecated examples illustrate techniques that content developers should not use. The draft Gateway to Techniques for WCAG 2.0 is an entry point to meeting the success criteria in WCAG 2.0. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Working Draft: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

02 August 2004

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released an updated Working Draft for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Version 2.0 widens the range of technologies covered and simplifies wording. Following WCAG checkpoints makes Web content accessible to people with disabilities and to users of a variety of Web-enabled devices. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Internationalization Articles Published

30 July 2004

The GEO Task Force of the W3C Internationalization Working Group publishes information to help authors and Webmasters understand and use W3C technologies. Articles in July: FAQ: Why should I use the language attribute in Web pages?, FAQ: Should I declare the language of my XHTML document using a language attribute, the Content-Language HTTP header, or a meta element?, FAQ: How do I use .htaccess directives on an Apache server to serve files with a specific encoding? For more items, visit the Internationalization home page.

W3C and Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Establish Formal Relationship

29 July 2004

W3C and the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) enabling their cooperation on mobile Web specifications. "Together, W3C and OMA are well positioned to lead development toward technological compatibility and the ease of repurposing Web content, known as single Web authoring," said Philipp Hoschka (W3C). In widespread use, W3C Recommendations for the mobile industry include XHTML Basic markup, SMIL multimedia and SVG graphics. Read the press release and more about Device Independence.

Working Draft: System and Environment Framework

28 July 2004

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the System and Environment Framework. Written for the W3C Multimodal Interaction Framework, the draft describes interfaces for dynamic access to properties that represent device capabilities, device configuration, user preferences and environmental conditions. Read about Multimodal Interaction.

Use Cases: XML Binary Characterization

28 July 2004

The XML Binary Characterization Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of XML Binary Characterization Use Cases. Presenting documented examples, the draft will help to decide if standardized and optimized serialization can be used to improve the generation, parsing, transmission and storage of XML-based data. Comments are welcome. Visit the XML home page.

Last Call: VoiceXML 2.1

28 July 2004

The Voice Browser Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 2.1. Fully backwards-compatible with VoiceXML 2.0, the draft standardizes eight additional features implemented by VoiceXML platforms. Comments are welcome through 1 September. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Call for Participation: Public Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences

28 July 2004

Position papers are due 6 September for the W3C Workshop on Semantic Web for Life Sciences to be held in Cambridge, MA, USA on 27-28 October. Attendees will discuss how Semantic Web technologies such as RDF, OWL and the Life Sciences Identifier (LSID) help to manage modern life sciences research, enable disease understanding and accelerate the development of therapies. Read about W3C workshops and the Semantic Web.

Working Draft: CSS3 Speech Module

27 July 2004

The CSS Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the CSS3 Speech Module. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language is used to render structured documents like HTML and XML on screen, on paper and in speech. The draft defines aural properties that match the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) model. Comments are welcome. Visit the CSS home page.

Working Drafts: XQuery, XPath and XSLT

26 July 2004

The XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group have released five updated Working Drafts. Comments on all of these documents are invited. Visit the XML home page.

Working Draft: XHTML 2.0

22 July 2004

The HTML Working Group has released the sixth public Working Draft of XHTML 2.0. A modularized language without presentation elements, XHTML 2 takes HTML back to its roots in document structuring. The draft includes an early implementation of XHTML 2.0 in RELAX NG. Comments are welcome. Visit the HTML home page.

Representing Classes As Property Values on the Semantic Web

21 July 2004

The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment (SWBPD) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Representing Classes As Property Values on the Semantic Web. Comments are welcome. The draft examines approaches to using classes as property values in OWL DL. OWL DL supports users of the OWL Web Ontology Language who want computational completeness and decidability. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Defining N-ary Relations on the Semantic Web

21 July 2004

The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment (SWBPD) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Defining N-ary Relations on the Semantic Web: Use With Individuals. In Semantic Web languages like RDF and OWL, a property links two individuals or an individual and a value. This draft presents patterns and considerations for representing relations between more than two individuals. Comments are welcome. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

HTML and XHTML FAQ, and Introduction to XML Events Published

21 July 2004

The HTML Working Group has released two publications. HTML and XHTML Frequently Answered Questions is written for Web content authors and designers. XML Events for HTML Authors introduces XML Events and its advantages over the onclick style of event handling. Visit the HTML home page.

Working Draft: Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) 1.1

20 July 2004

The P3P Specification Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.1 (P3P 1.1). P3P simplifies and automates the process of reading Web site privacy policies, promoting trust and confidence in the Web. Version 1.1 has new extension and binding mechanisms based on suggestions from W3C workshops and the privacy community. Read about privacy and P3P.

Working Drafts: XML Schema 1.1

19 July 2004

The XML Schema Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of XML Schema 1.1 in two parts: Part 1: Structures and Part 2: Datatypes. The drafts include change logs from the XML Schema 1.0 language and are based on version 1.1 requirements. XML schemas define shared markup vocabularies, the structure of XML documents which use those vocabularies, and provide hooks to associate semantics with them. Visit the XML home page.

W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee Knighted by Queen Elizabeth II

16 July 2004

Queen Elizabeth II has dubbed Sir Timothy Berners-Lee a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) during an Investiture at Buckingham Palace in London on 16 July. UK Honours are available to all who give service to the United Kingdom. Sir Timothy, a British citizen who lives in the United States and is Director of W3C, was knighted in recognition of his services to the global development of the Internet through his invention of the World Wide Web. Please read the congratulations and press release.

XML Schema: Component Designators Working Draft Published

16 July 2004

The XML Schema Working Group has released a revised Working Draft of XML Schema: Component Designators. The document defines a scheme for identifying the XML Schema components specified by the XML Schema Recommendation Part 1 and Part 2. Read about the XML Activity.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects New Advisory Board

15 July 2004

The W3C Advisory Committee has filled five open seats on the W3C Advisory Board. Created in 1998, the Advisory Board provides guidance to the Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process and conflict resolution. Beginning 1 July, the nine Advisory Board participants are Jean-François Abramatic (ILOG), Ann Bassetti (Boeing), Jim Bell (Hewlett-Packard), Klaus Birkenbihl (Fraunhofer Gesellschaft), Eduardo Gutentag (Sun Microsystems), Steve Holbrook (IBM), Ken Laskey (MITRE), Ora Lassila (Nokia), and Lauren Wood (Unaffiliated). Steve Zilles is the interim Advisory Board Chair.

Speech Synthesis Markup Language Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

15 July 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.0 to Proposed Recommendation. Comments are welcome through 27 August 2004. With the XML-based SSML language, content authors can generate synthetic speech on the Web, controlling pronunciation, volume, pitch and rate. Read about the Voice Browser Activity.

Agenda: Workshop on Multimodal Interaction

12 July 2004

The agenda and list of accepted papers have been announced for the W3C Workshop on Multimodal Interaction to be held in Sophia Antipolis, France on 19-20 July. Attendees from user and research communities will discuss current plans, and provide feedback and suggestions for future multimodal work. Read about Workshops and visit the Multimodal Interaction home page at W3C.

Full-Text Search Working Drafts Published

09 July 2004

Through joint efforts the XML Query and XSL Working Groups have released the First Public Working Draft of XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Full-Text. The use cases have been updated. The drafts define a language that extends XQuery and XPath to allow full-text searching of XML text and documents. Comments are invited. Read about the XML Activity.

Call for Participation: Public Workshop on Metadata for Content Adaptation

08 July 2004

Position papers are due 6 September for the W3C Workshop on Metadata for Content Adaptation to be held in Dublin, Ireland on 12-13 October. Attendees will discuss how metadata can help the adaption of Web content to fit user needs and device characteristics, and will provide feedback and suggestions for future W3C work. Read about Workshops and Interaction at W3C.

Working Draft: Architecture of the World Wide Web

05 July 2004

Addressing a selection of Last Call issues, the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) has released a updated Working Draft of the Architecture of the World Wide Web, First Edition. The document is written for Web developers, implementers, content authors and publishers. It describes the properties that are desired of the Web and the design choices that have been made to achieve them. Visit the TAG home page.

Upcoming W3C Talks

01 July 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

Call for Participation: Workshop on Constraints and Capabilities for Web Services

01 July 2004

Position papers are due 27 August for the W3C Workshop on Constraints and Capabilities for Web Services to be held in Redwood Shores, CA, USA on 12-13 October. Attendees will discuss the establishment of a framework for describing Web services constraints and capabilities, and will provide feedback and suggestions for future work. Read about Workshops and Web Services at W3C.

RDF and OWL Working Groups Complete Deliverables, Close

01 July 2004

W3C is pleased to announce that the RDF Core and Web Ontology Working Groups have successfully completed all deliverables. Together these W3C Working Groups developed twelve W3C Recommendations specifying the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the OWL Web Ontology Language. Please join us in thanking all participants and Chairs Brian McBride (HP Labs), Dan Brickley (W3C), Jim Hendler (University of Maryland) and Guus Schreiber (Ibrow) for their contributions. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Draft: Mobile SVG Profiles Version 1.2

30 June 2004

The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group has released the third Working Draft of Mobile SVG Profiles: SVG Tiny and SVG Basic, Version 1.2. The draft defines SVG Tiny 1.2, a mobile profile of SVG 1.2 suitable for displaying vector graphics on small devices. The Working Group invites comments. Visit the SVG home page.

W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents: Summary and Papers

16 June 2004

The summary and minutes have been published from the W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents held in San Jose CA, USA on 1-2 June. All of the 43 position papers are publicly available. The workshop concluded that W3C should consider starting work on a specification that combines W3C document formats for the mobile computing market, and should produce a roadmap for future work in Web applications. W3C thanks host Adobe Systems and all 60 attendees for their valued participation. Read about Workshops and Interaction at W3C.

Tim Berners-Lee Receives Millennium Technology Prize in Helsinki

14 June 2004

W3C is pleased to announce that on 15 June in Helsinki, Ms. Tarja Halonen, President of the Republic of Finland, will present the first Millennium Technology Prize to W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee. The award is given in one of four disciplines for "outstanding technological achievements that directly promote people's quality of life, are based on humane values, and encourage sustainable economic development." The ceremonies are held in conjunction with the Millennium Technology Conference ( Programme PDF 1.5MB) in Espoo, Finland on 13-16 June.

XForms 1.1 Requirements Updated

11 June 2004

The XForms Working Group has updated the XForms 1.1 Requirements Working Group Note. XForms is the new generation of Web forms. Version 1.1 has enhancements for the XForms 1.0 framework, embraces SOAP, makes XForms authoring easier, and facilitates XForms use in other host languages. Visit the XForms home page.

Working Draft: Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0

11 June 2004

The Device Independence Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0. Part of a markup language supporting the creation of Web sites that can be used from diverse devices, this document provides selection between versions of materials using only modest processing power. Learn more about the W3C Device Independence Activity.

Registration Open: Making Visualizations of Complex Information Accessible

09 June 2004

W3C is pleased to announce Making Visualizations of Complex Information Accessible for People with Disabilities, a teleconference sponsored by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative's Research and Development Interest Group. Registration is required and is open through 21 June to 40 participants. Attendees can expect to learn about current research in making visualization technologies for the Internet accessible to persons with disabilities and to develop contacts with people performing that research. The telecon is 28 June 2004 and includes real-time captioning.

Working Draft: Assigning Media Types to Binary Data in XML

08 June 2004

The XML Protocol Working Group and the Web Services Description Working Group jointly released the First Public Working Draft of Assigning Media Types to Binary Data in XML. The draft describes how to indicate the media type of XML element content and the way to specify that type in XML Schema. Visit the Web services home page.

Last Call: SOAP Resource Representation Header

08 June 2004

The XML Protocol Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the SOAP Resource Representation Header. Comments are welcome through 29 June. The document describes a SOAP header block that allows applications to carry a representation of a resource in a SOAP message. SOAP Version 1.2 is a lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. Visit the Web services home page.

Last Call: SOAP Transmission Optimization, XML-Binary Packaging

08 June 2004

The XML Protocol Working Group has released SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism and XML-binary Optimized Packaging (XOP) as Last Call Working Drafts. The drafts improve SOAP Version 1.2 performance. Comments are welcome through 29 June. Also published are XOP Frequently Asked Questions, the Attachment Feature which is superseded, and the completed Use Cases and Requirements. Visit the Web services home page.

Working Draft: QA Specification Guidelines

03 June 2004

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has released QA Specification Guidelines as a Working Draft. The document is designed to help W3C Working Groups write technical reports. Reflecting major changes in the W3C QA Framework, these newly rewritten guidelines are lightweight and more user-friendly. Comments are welcome. Learn more about Quality Assurance (QA) at W3C.

RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements Published

03 June 2004

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements. The document outlines use cases for RDF query languages and access protocols and their requirements, and examines design objectives. Comments are welcome. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Upcoming W3C Talks

03 June 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

Call for Participation: Workshop on Multimodal Interaction

14 May 2004

Position papers are due 11 June for the W3C Workshop on Multimodal Interaction to be held in Sophia Antipolis, France on 19-20 July. Attendees from user and research communities will discuss current plans, and provide feedback and suggestions for future multimodal work. Read about Workshops and visit the Multimodal Interaction home page at W3C.

W3C Track Featured at WWW2004

14 May 2004

The W3C Track chaired by Marie-Claire Forgue runs from 19-21 May at the Thirteenth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2004) in New York, NY USA. W3C Members and Team present three days of content on W3C technologies and achievements. The W3C Track conference room is New York Ballroom B. Conference attendees are also invited to Developers Day presentations on 22 May.

Working Draft: Web Services Internationalization Usage Scenarios

12 May 2004

The Web Services Task Force of the Internationalization Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Web Services Internationalization Usage Scenarios with additional guidance for implementers of Web service technologies. The document examines how language, culture and related issues interact with Web services architecture and technology. Comments are welcome on this draft. Visit the Internationalization home page.

CSS3 Basic User Interface Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

11 May 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the CSS3 Basic User Interface Module to Candidate Recommendation. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language is used to render structured documents like HTML and XML on screen, on paper, and in speech. This module addresses user interface states and features, element fragments, forms, stylistic attributes in HTML, focus navigation, and styling elements as icons for accessibility. Comments are invited through 11 November. Visit the CSS home page.

Working Draft: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2

10 May 2004

The SVG Working Group has released the seventh public Working Draft of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2. The SVG language delivers accessible, dynamic, and reusable vector graphics, text, and images to the Web in XML. The Working Group invites comments on this draft. Visit the SVG home page.

Working Group Note: DOM Assessment for Multimodal Interaction

10 May 2004

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released the Requirements and Capabilities Assessment for the Document Object Model (DOM) as a Working Group Note. Based on their framework. the Multimodal Interaction Activity is extending the Web user interface to allow multiple modes of interaction: aural, visual and tactile. The document examines interfaces between modality components and their host environment. Visit the Multimodal Interaction home page.

Working Drafts: Authoring Techniques for XHTML and HTML Internationalization

10 May 2004

The GEO (Guidelines, Education and Outreach) Task Force of the Internationalization Working Group has published three First Public Working Drafts. The drafts cover Specifying the Language of Content, Characters and Encodings and Handling Bidirectional Text. Designed for content authors, the documents are aids to ensuring that HTML and XHTML are written for an international audience. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Working Draft: The QA Handbook

10 May 2004

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of The QA Handbook. Written for W3C Working Group Chairs and Team Contacts, the document replaces and incorporates the best features of the former QA Framework's Introduction and Operational Guidelines. It provides techniques, tools, and templates for test suites and specifications, and is designed to facilitate and accelerate the work of W3C Working Groups. Visit the QA home page.

W3C Markup Validator Upgraded

06 May 2004

W3C is pleased to announce an upgrade to the W3C Markup Validation Service. The new release is easier to use and install. It features new documentation and navigation, and offers helpful explanations and recovery mechanisms instead of fatal errors. Managed by a team of volunteers and the W3C Quality Assurance Activity, and supported by a large community, this validator is the single most popular resource on the W3C Web site. Read the announcement.

W3C Talks in May

03 May 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML 1.0 Last Call Published

30 April 2004

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0 including major updates. CCXML, the Call Control eXtensible Markup Language, provides telephony call control support for VoiceXML and other dialog systems. Comments are welcome through 28 May. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Working Draft: SOAP Resource Representation Header

28 April 2004

The XML Protocol Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of SOAP Resource Representation Header. The document describes a SOAP header block that allows applications to carry a representation of a resource in a SOAP message. SOAP Version 1.2 is a lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment. Visit the Web services home page.

Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) 1.1 Working Draft Published

28 April 2004

The P3P Specification Working Group has released the second public Working Draft of the Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.1 (P3P 1.1). P3P simplifies and automates the process of reading Web site privacy policies, promoting trust and confidence in the Web. Version 1.1 has new extension and binding mechanisms based on suggestions from W3C workshops and the privacy community. Read about privacy and P3P.

Synchronized Multimedia Activity Launched

28 April 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Synchronized Multimedia (SYMM) Activity. The Synchronized Multimedia Working Group is co-chaired by Yoshihisa Gonno (Sony) and Guido Grassel (Nokia) and will extend the SMIL 2.0 W3C Recommendation. The Timed Text Working Group is chaired by Glenn Adams (XFSI) and is developing XML vocabulary and document types for subtitles and captions. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the Synchronized Multimedia home page.

Web Services Choreography Description Language 1.0 Working Draft Published

27 April 2004

The Web Services Choreography Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the Web Services Choreography Description Language Version 1.0 (WS-CDL). Comments are invited on the group's public mailing list. WS-CDL defines peer-to-peer collaboration between Web service participants. Read the press release and visit the Web services home page.

Position Papers Due 30 April: Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents

27 April 2004

The W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents will be held in San Jose CA, USA on 1-2 June. Attendees will discuss two topics, application development using the Web as a platform-independent environment, and standardization of documents created in multiple markup languages. Position papers are due 30 April. Read about Workshops and Interaction at W3C.

Amaya 8.5 Released

27 April 2004

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 8.5 has bug fixes for CSS, (X)HTML, and the Amaya user interface. Download Amaya binaries for Linux and Windows NT/2000/XP and Debian, Mac OS X and RPM packages. Source code is available. Visit the Amaya home page and the Annotea home page.

SVG Open 2004 Deadline Extension

16 April 2004

SVG Open 2004, the 3rd annual conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, will be held 7-10 September 2004 at Keio University, Japan, on the Mita Campus in Tokyo. The submission deadline for paper abstracts has been extended to 7 May. Proposals for courses or exhibitions may be submitted online. SVG Open is your chance to discuss SVG development experience, products, workflows and strategies. The conference language is English; translation facilities will be available to encourage English-Japanese communication. Read about SVG.

Amaya 8.4 Released

16 April 2004

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 8.4 includes a Mac OS X package and bug fixes for CSS, (X)HTML, annotation and the Amaya user interface. Download Amaya binaries for Linux and Windows NT/2000/XP and Debian and RPM packages. Source code is available. Visit the Amaya home page and the Annotea home page.

Tim Berners-Lee Receives Millennium Technology Prize

15 April 2004

W3C is pleased to announce that the Finnish Technology Award Foundation board has unanimously presented its first Millennium Technology Prize to W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee. The award is given in one of four disciplines for "outstanding technological achievements that directly promote people's quality of life, are based on humane values, and encourage sustainable economic development." Read the press release.

WAI Responds to Web Access Report from UK Disability Rights Commission

14 April 2004

W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has provided an initial response to the Web Access Report released 14 April 2004 by the UK Disabilities Rights Commission. The DRC Report explores the state of Web site accessibility and usability in the UK, and in some sections makes recommendations regarding work done by W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). Learn more about Web Accessibility

W3C Math Activity Launched

14 April 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Math Activity. The W3C Membership approved the Math Interest Group and its charter. The group will maintain the MathML W3C Recommendation and continue its task of facilitating the use of mathematics on the Web, for use in science, technology and education. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the Math home page.

GRDDL Coordination Group Note Published

13 April 2004

Through joint efforts, the RDF in XHTML task force of the Semantic Web Coordination Group and the HTML Working Group has published a Coordination Group Note. Gleaning Resource Descriptions from Dialects of Languages (GRDDL) is a mechanism for encoding RDF statements in XHTML and XML to be extracted by programs such as XSLT transformations. Visit the Semantic Web and HTML home pages.

XInclude Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

13 April 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XML Inclusions (XInclude) Version 1.0 to Candidate Recommendation. XInclude introduces a generic mechanism for merging XML documents (information sets) using existing XML constructs—elements, attributes and URI references. Comments and implementation reports are welcome through 28 May. Visit the XML home page.

xml:id Working Draft Published

08 April 2004

The XML Core Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of xml:id Version 1.0. The specification introduces a predefined attribute name that can always be treated as an ID and hence can always be recognized. Comments are welcome. Visit the XML home page.

DOM Level 3 Core and Load and Save Are W3C Recommendations

07 April 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released two Document Object Model (DOM) specifications as W3C Recommendations. With DOM Level 3 Core, software developers and script authors manipulate the content, structure and style of Web documents. DOM Level 3 Load and Save allows programs and scripts to load, serialize and filter document contents. Read the press release and visit the DOM home page.

XML Processing Model Requirements Published

07 April 2004

The XML Core Working Group has released XML Processing Model Requirements as a Working Group Note. The XML Processing Model and Language it outlines is an interoperable way for applications to describe the order in which processes should be applied to XML documents. Visit the XML home page.

Call for Participation: Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents

06 April 2004

Position papers are due 30 April for the W3C Workshop on Web Applications and Compound Documents to be held in San Jose CA, USA on 1-2 June. Attendees will discuss two topics: application development using the Web as a platform-independent environment, and standardization of documents created in multiple markup languages. Read about Workshops and Interaction at W3C.

XML Key Management (XKMS) Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

05 April 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS 2.0) and its Bindings to Candidate Recommendation. The documents specify protocols for distributing and registering public keys for use with the XML Signature and XML Encryption W3C Recommendations. Comments are welcome through 1 October. Visit the XKMS home page.

W3C Link Checker Released

01 April 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the first standalone release of the W3C Link Checker. Started by Hugo Haas in 1999, the project is now managed by Ville Skyttä and the W3C Quality Assurance (QA) Activity. Documentation and source code are available. Comments are welcome on the www-validator@w3.org mailing list (archive). Read about W3C's free software and visit the QA home page.

W3C Launches XML Binary Characterization Working Group

29 March 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the XML Binary Characterization Working Group in the XML Activity. Robin Berjon (Expway) chairs. Chartered for a year, the group will analyze and develop use cases and measurements for alternate encodings of XML. Its goal is to determine if serialized binary XML transmission and formats are feasible. Participation is open to W3C Members. Read about the XML Activity.

W3C Talks in April

29 March 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

Working Drafts: Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 2.0

26 March 2004

The Web Services Description Working Group has updated two Working Drafts of the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0: Part 1: Core Language and Part 2: Message Patterns. WSDL is a model and XML format for describing network services. The drafts enable abstract functionality and concrete details, and define sequence, cardinality and criteria for conformant processors. Read about Web Services.

Working Draft: Mobile SVG Profiles Version 1.2

25 March 2004

The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group has released the second Working Draft of Mobile SVG Profiles: SVG Tiny and SVG Basic, Version 1.2. The draft defines two mobile profiles of SVG 1.2: SVG Tiny 1.2 is suitable for cellphones, and SVG Basic 1.2 is written for PDAs. Comments are welcome. Visit the SVG home page.

Working Draft: WS Choreography Model Overview

24 March 2004

The Web Services Choreography Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the WS Choreography Model Overview. The Working Group is defining a choreography definition language for coordinating interactions among Web services and their users. Visit the Web services home page.

Call for Participation: SIGGRAPH 2004 Web Graphics

23 March 2004

The Web Graphics Track at SIGGRAPH 2004 is accepting submissions through 31 March. Potential topics include Web standards, Internet applications, usability, accessibility, visualization, animation and games. The Web Graphics Track is a recent addition to the world's premier graphics conference which runs this year from 8-12 August in Los Angeles CA, USA. Read about the W3C Graphics Activity.

Working Draft: VoiceXML 2.1

23 March 2004

The Voice Browser Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 2.1. Fully backwards-compatible with VoiceXML 2.0, the draft's purpose is to standardize eight additional features implemented by VoiceXML platforms. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

W3C HTML Patent Advisory Group Final Report Published

22 March 2004

The W3C HTML Patent Advisory Group (PAG) has published its final report. The PAG was chartered in 2003 to study HTML specification issues raised by the court case of Eolas v. Microsoft and US Patent 5,838,906. The HTML PAG recommended that the W3C Director contact the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and request a reexamination which is underway. The USPTO made a preliminary report rejecting all claims. Visit the HTML home page.

XML Schema Second Edition Is a Proposed Edited Recommendation

18 March 2004

The XML Schema Working Group has released a Proposed Edited Recommendation for XML Schema Second Edition in three parts: Part 0: Primer, Part 1: Structures, Part 2: Datatypes. The second edition is not a new version; its purpose is to correct errors in the XML Schema Recommendation. XML schemas define shared markup vocabularies and the structure of XML documents using those vocabularies, using a modular approach well-suited to distributed applications. Comments are welcome through 16 April. Visit the XML home page.

Working Draft: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2

18 March 2004

The SVG Working Group has released the sixth public Working Draft of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2. The SVG language delivers accessible, dynamic, and reusable vector graphics, text, and images to the Web in XML. The Working Group invites comments on this draft. Visit the SVG home page.

Upcoming W3C Talks

18 March 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

  • Judy Brewer, Wendy Chisholm, Marja-Riitta Koivunen and Matt May present at the CSUN 19th Annual International Conference, "Technology and Persons With Disabilities," at California State University in Northridge, CA, USA on 15-20 March.
  • Charles McCathieNevile presents at the University of Melbourne, Australia on 24 March.
  • From the W3C Internationalization Activity, Steve Billings, Mark Davis, Martin Dürst, Richard Ishida, Michael McKenna, Addison Phillips, Michel Suignard, Tex Texin and Andrea Vine present at the 25th Internationalization and Unicode Conference in Alexandria, VA, near Washington, DC, USA on 31 March - 2 April. Also presenting is Michael Rys, W3C XML Query Working Group.
  • Massimo Marchiori gives a keynote on 1 April at the 2nd International Conference on Trust Management held at St. Anne's College, Oxford, UK.

VoiceXML 2.0 and Speech Recognition Grammar Are W3C Recommendations

16 March 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released two W3C Recommendations written for the world's estimated two billion fixed line and mobile phones. The Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) Version 2.0 uses XML to bring speech, touch-tone input, digitized audio, recording and computer-human conversations to the Web from any telephone. The Speech Recognition Grammar Specification Version 1.0 is key to VoiceXML's support for speech recognition, and is used by developers to describe end-users' responses to spoken prompts. Read the press release and testimonials and visit the Voice Browser home page.

Working Draft: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

11 March 2004

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released a Working Draft for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. Version 2.0 widens the range of technologies covered and simplifies wording. Following WCAG checkpoints makes Web content accessible to people with disabilities and to users of a variety of Web-enabled devices. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Working Draft: Web Services Choreography Requirements

11 March 2004

The Web Services Choreography Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Web Services Choreography Requirements. The group is defining a language based on WSDL 2.0 used to coordinate interactions among Web services and their users. Visit the Web services home page.

MIT Scheduled Systems Outage 13-15 March

11 March 2004

W3C's systems based at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) in Cambridge, MA, USA are being moved to their new location in the MIT Stata Center on Saturday, 13 March. Many services will be suspended but the majority of the W3C Web site will remain accessible. Mail sent to W3C archives will be queued and posted when the move is complete. The W3C Systems Team expects to have all services tested and functioning by the end of Sunday, 14 March (Monday, 15 March UTC). We appreciate your patience.

W3C Launches Phase 2 of Semantic Web Activity

10 March 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of phase two of the Semantic Web Activity. The W3C Membership approved two new Working Groups, the Best Practices and Deployment and RDF Data Access. They join the existing RDF Core and Web Ontology Working Groups and the Semantic Web Interest Group and Coordination Group. Participation is open to W3C Members. A continuation of the World Wide Web, the Semantic Web gives data precise meaning, allowing people and computers to cooperate fully. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

XML Schema: Component Designators Working Draft Published

09 March 2004

The XML Schema Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of XML Schema: Component Designators. The document defines a scheme for identifying the XML Schema components specified by the XML Schema Recommendation Part 1 and Part 2. Read about the XML Activity.

W3C Co-Sponsors 25th Internationalization and Unicode Conference

09 March 2004

Registration is open for the 25th Internationalization and Unicode Conference to be held March 31-April 2 in Washington DC, USA. Come and meet W3C Team and Internationalization Working Group participants who are presenting. The event is the premier technical conference worldwide for software and Web internationalization. Read about Unicode and the W3C Internationalization Activity.

Upcoming W3C Talks

09 March 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

Amaya 8.3 Released

08 March 2004

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 8.3 includes new features and enhancements for tables, CSS, MathML and images and the Amaya user interface. Download Amaya binaries for Linux and Windows, and Debian and RPM packages. Source code is available. Visit the Amaya home page and the Annotea home page.

Call for Participation: SVG Open 2004, Tokyo, Japan

08 March 2004

The third annual SVG Open Conference and Exhibition will be held 7-10 September in Tokyo, Japan. Co-sponsored by W3C and hosted by Keio University, the SVG Open conference series is the premier forum for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) developers to share ideas, examples and implementations. Proposals are welcome through 16 April for course outlines and abstracts for papers. Opportunities are open now for booth exhibits and conference sponsorships. The W3C SVG Working Group and W3C's Chris Lilley will participate. Read about SVG.

W3C Hosts 4th Annual Technical Plenary Week

01 March 2004

W3C holds its Technical Plenary Week from 1-5 March in Cannes-Mandelieu, France where 30 W3C Working Groups and Interest Groups hold face-to-face meetings. Participants and invited guests attend the plenary mid-week where there will be 3-minute lightning talks and presentations on Web architecture, mixed markup, quality assurance, new Web devices and searching the Web. W3C thanks sponsors IBM and Sun Microsystems for their generous support.

Working Draft: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2

26 February 2004

The SVG Working Group has released its fifth public Working Draft of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.2. SVG delivers accessible, dynamic, and reusable vector graphics, text, and images to the Web in XML. The Working Group invites feedback on this draft. Visit the SVG home page.

CSS 2.1, CSS Print Profile and CSS3 Paged Media Are W3C Candidate Recommendations

26 February 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of three Candidate Recommendations for the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language. A snapshot of CSS usage, CSS 2.1 adds a few highly requested features, fixes errata and brings CSS2 in line with implementations. CSS Print Profile works with XHTML-Print for printing to low-cost devices. CSS3 Paged Media Module adds pagination, page margins, headers and footers, footnotes and endnotes, and cross-references with page numbers. Comments are welcome through 25 August. Visit the CSS home page.

QA Framework: Test Guidelines Updated

25 February 2004

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the QA Framework: Test Guidelines. One in a family of QA Framework documents, the draft defines a set of common guidelines for conformance test materials for W3C specifications. The group welcomes comments. Visit the QA home page.

CSS Working Drafts: 'Reader' Media Type, Hyperlink Presentation

25 February 2004

The CSS Working Group has released two First Public Working Drafts, parts of the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language. The CSS 'Reader' Media Type instructs devices to display and speak a document or display and render it in braille. The CSS3 Hyperlink Presentation Module describes the presentation of links and their activation. Comments on both drafts are invited. Visit the CSS home page.

Last Call: Character Model for the World Wide Web

25 February 2004

The Internationalization Working Group has published the Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0 in two parts: Fundamentals in Last Call through 19 March, and Normalization. The documents address character encoding identification, early uniform normalization, string identity matching, string indexing, and URI conventions. They build on the Universal Character Set defined by Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Working Draft Updated

24 February 2004

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has released the second Working Draft of Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. The guidelines are written to help developers create accessible authoring interfaces that produce accessible Web content. Resulting content can be read by a broader range of readers. Visit the Web Accessibility Initiative home page.

W3C Presents at 3GSM World Congress

23 February 2004

Stephane Boyera, Max Froumentin and Philipp Hoschka present at the 3GSM World Congress held 23 to 26 February in Cannes, France. Over 25,000 visitors will have the opportunity to learn about W3C efforts in multimodal interaction, voice browsing, device independence, and multimedia messaging. Read about W3C at 3GSM, read the press release and visit the W3C booth run by Marie-Claire Forgue across from the Palais des Festivals.

Ink Markup Language Working Draft Published

23 February 2004

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released a second Working Draft of the Ink Markup Language (InkML). The InkML data format is used to represent ink entered with an electronic pen or stylus. Ink-aware Web applications can process and exchange handwriting, gestures, sketches, music and other notational languages. Visit the Multimodal Interaction home page.

Last Call: XQuery and XPath Formal Semantics

20 February 2004

The XML Query and XSL Working Groups have released a Last Call Working Draft of XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Formal Semantics. Part of a set, the document gives precise meanings in terms of the XQuery and XPath 2.0 data model. It is written for readers already familiar with these languages. The Working Group invites comments through 15 April. Visit the XML home page.

Working Group Note: Authoring Techniques for Device Independence

18 February 2004

The Device Independence Working Group has completed work on Authoring Techniques for Device Independence. The document addresses the rapidly changing area of delivering content to diverse devices. It covers content creation, maintenance and adaptation, and user interaction with applications. Learn more about the W3C Device Independence Activity.

Jigsaw 2.2.4 Released

18 February 2004

Jigsaw version 2.2.4 is available for download. As this version contains a security fix, updating to 2.2.4 is highly recommended. The new version also includes a revamped HTTP client stack as well as new SSL code from Thomas Kopp. Implemented in Java, Jigsaw is W3C's open source Web server platform.

Working Draft: Modularization of XHTML 1.0 - Second Edition

18 February 2004

The HTML Working Group has released a Working Draft of Modularization of XHTML 1.0 - Second Edition, a revision of the W3C Recommendation Modularization of XHTML. Published for community review, the document clarifies and makes corrections based on nearly three years of use. It includes a new implementation of the abstract modules using XML schemas. Visit the HTML home page.

W3C Process Document Published

17 February 2004

W3C has published a new version of the Process Document to align with the Patent Policy, which was approved in May 2003. Among the changes are clarifications for Technical Architecture Group (TAG) and Advisory Board participation, and for the definitions of "consensus" and "First Public Working Draft." W3C has adopted a transition procedure as part of implementing the patent policy.

Web Accessibility Initiative: Best Practices Training in Madrid, Spain

11 February 2004

The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) held a two day Best Practices Exchange Training on 9-10 February in Madrid, Spain as part of the WAI-TIES Project. The training covered resources for managers, developers, policy makers and others; panels and presentations; directions for developing accessible tables, forms, images, applications and scripts; and a showcase of accessible Web pages. Fundosa Teleservicios hosted the event. Read the press release and more about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) 1.1 Working Draft Published

11 February 2004

The P3P Specification Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the Platform for Privacy Preferences 1.1 (P3P 1.1). P3P simplifies and automates the process of reading Web site privacy policies, promoting trust and confidence in the Web. Version 1.1 has new extension and binding mechanisms based on suggestions from W3C workshops and the privacy community. Read about privacy and P3P.

Web Services Architecture Working Group Notes Published

11 February 2004

The Web Services Architecture Working Group has released Working Group Notes representing the culmination of their work: Web Services Architecture, Usage Scenarios, the Glossary, and Requirements. The reference architecture identifies Web services components, defines their relationships and establishes constraints. Visit the Web Services home page.

RDF and OWL Are W3C Recommendations

10 February 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the Resource Description Framework (RDF) and the OWL Web Ontology Language (OWL) as W3C Recommendations. RDF is used to represent information and to exchange knowledge in the Web. OWL is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, supporting advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management. Read the press release and testimonials and visit the Semantic Web home page.

The Resource Description Framework (RDF):

The OWL Web Ontology Language:

  • Overview - A simple introduction
  • Guide - Demonstrates OWL through an extended example. Provides a glossary
  • Reference - A compact, informal description of OWL modelling primitives
  • Semantics and Abstract Syntax - Normative definition of the OWL language
  • Test Cases - Test cases illustrating correct OWL usage, the formal meaning of constructs, and resolution of issues. Specifies conformance
  • Use Cases and Requirements - Usage scenarios, goals and requirements for a Web ontology language

W3C Talks in February

10 February 2004

Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel.

XML-Binary Packaging and SOAP Transmission Optimization Working Drafts Published

09 February 2004

The XML Protocol Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of XML-binary Optimized Packaging (XOP). XOP allows efficient serializing of certain types of XQuery and XPath 2.0 element content. Based on XOP, the group also published an updated Working Draft of the SOAP Message Transmission Optimization Mechanism for improving SOAP performance. Visit the Web services home page.

DOM Level 3 Core & Load and Save Are W3C Proposed Recommendations

05 February 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of two Document Object Model (DOM) specifications to Proposed Recommendations. Comments are welcome through 5 March. With DOM Level 3 Core, software developers and script authors manipulate the content, structure and style of Web documents. DOM Level 3 Load and Save allows programs and scripts to load, serialize and filter document contents. Visit the DOM home page.

XML 1.0 Third Edition Is a W3C Recommendation

04 February 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 Third Edition as a W3C Recommendation. The third edition is not a new version of XML. It brings the XML 1.0 Recommendation up to date with second edition errata, and clarifies its use of RFC 2119 key words like must, should and may. Visit the XML home page.

XML Infoset Second Edition Is a W3C Recommendation

04 February 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the XML Information Set, Second Edition (Infoset) as a W3C Recommendation. The document updates the Infoset to cover XML 1.1 and Namespaces 1.1, clarifies the consequences of certain kinds of invalidity, and corrects typographical errors. The Infoset defines a set of eleven types of information items in XML documents. Visit the XML home page.

XML 1.1 and Namespaces in XML 1.1 Are W3C Recommendations

04 February 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.1 and Namespaces in XML 1.1 as W3C Recommendations. XML 1.1 addresses Unicode, control character, and line ending issues. Namespaces 1.1 incorporates errata corrections and provides a mechanism to undeclare prefixes. Visit the XML home page.

VoiceXML 2.0 Is a Proposed Recommendation

03 February 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) Version 2.0 to Proposed Recommendation. Comments are welcome through 2 March. VoiceXML uses XML to bring speech, touch-tone input, digitized audio, recording, telephony, and computer-human conversations to the Web. Read the press release and visit the Voice Browser home page.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects TAG Participants

30 January 2004

The W3C Advisory Committee has elected Roy Fielding (Day Software) and Mario Jeckle (DaimlerChrysler) to the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). The other TAG participants as of 1 February 2004 are Tim Bray (unaffiliated), Dan Connolly (W3C), Paul Cotton (Microsoft), Chris Lilley (W3C), Norm Walsh (Sun), and co-Chairs Stuart Williams (Hewlett-Packard) and Tim Berners-Lee (W3C). Created in 2001, the TAG documents principles of Web architecture and works with other groups to resolve architectural issues. Read the Architecture of the World Wide Web Last Call Working Draft and visit the TAG home page.

DOM Level 3 Validation is a W3C Recommendation

27 January 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Document Object Model Level 3 Validation as a W3C Recommendation. DOM Level 3 Validation is a module that provides guidance to programs and scripts to dynamically update the content and the structure of documents while ensuring that the document remains valid, or to ensure that the document becomes valid. Learn more about the DOM Activity.

XForms 1.1 Requirements Published

27 January 2004

The XForms Working Group has released XForms 1.1 Requirements as a Working Group Note. XForms is the new generation of Web forms. Version 1.1 has enhancements for the XForms 1.0 framework, embraces SOAP, and facilitates XForms authoring. Visit the XForms home page.

Parsing OWL in RDF/XML Published

21 January 2004

The Web Ontology Working Group has released Parsing OWL in RDF/XML as a Working Group Note. The OWL language is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, supporting advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management. This document describes a strategy for OWL-RDF parsers. Read about the Semantic Web.

XHTML-Print Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

20 January 2004

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of XHTML-Print to Candidate Recommendation. Comments are welcome through 20 July. XHTML-Print is designed for printing from mobile devices, low-cost printers and in environments without a printer-specific driver. The work is based on XHTML-Print written by the Printer Working Group (PWG), a program of the IEEE-ISTO. Visit the HTML home page.

Amaya 8.2+ Snapshot Released

15 January 2004

Amaya is W3C's Web browser and authoring tool. Version 8.2+ includes bug fixes and new features for dates, tables, shortcuts and transformations. Download Amaya binaries for Linux and Windows NT/2000/XP and Debian and RPM packages. Source code is available. Visit the Amaya home page and the Annotea home page.

CC/PP Structure and Vocabularies 1.0 Is a W3C Recommendation

15 January 2004

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Composite Capability/Preference Profiles (CC/PP): Structure and Vocabularies 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. CC/PP 1.0 is a system for expressing device capabilities and user preferences using the Resource Description Framework (RDF). CC/PP guides the adaptation of content, making it easier to deliver Web content to devices. Read the press release and testimonials, and visit the Device Independence home page.