2004-12-21: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-21: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-20: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-20: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-17: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-17: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-17: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-16: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-15: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-14: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-09: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-08: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-06: 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. (Permalink)
2004-12-06: Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
2004-11-30: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-22: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-22: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-22: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-22: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-22: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-19: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-19: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-18: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-17: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-16: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-16: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-15: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-09: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-09: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-09: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-09: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-08: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-05: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-04: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-02: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-01: 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. (Permalink)
2004-11-01: Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
2004-11-01: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-29: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-29: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-29: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-27: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-27: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-26: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-15: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-15: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-12: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-12: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-12: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-12: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-07: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-07: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-07: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-05: 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. (Permalink)
2004-10-05: Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
2004-09-30: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-29: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-28: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-27: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-20: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-08: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-02: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-02: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-02: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-01: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-01: 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. (Permalink)
2004-09-01: Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
2004-08-31: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-30: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-26: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-26: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-23: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-17: The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has announced two Last Call Internet-Drafts important for Web addressing. The documents are coordinated IETF-W3C efforts. (Permalink)
2004-08-13: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-06: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-05: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-05: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-04: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-03: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-03: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-02: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-02: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-02: 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. (Permalink)
2004-08-02: Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
2004-07-30: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-29: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-28: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-28: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-28: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-28: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-27: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-26: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-22: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-21: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-21: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-21: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-20: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-19: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-16: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-16: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-15: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-15: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-12: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-09: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-08: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-01: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-01: 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. (Permalink)
2004-07-01: Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
2004-06-30: 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. (Permalink)
2004-06-16: 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. (Permalink)
2004-06-14: 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. (Permalink)
2004-06-11: 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. (Permalink)
2004-06-11: 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. (Permalink)
2004-06-09: 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. (Permalink)
2004-06-08: 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. (Permalink)
2004-06-08: 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. (Permalink)
2004-06-08: 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. (Permalink)
2004-06-03: Browse upcoming W3C appearances and events, also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
