W3C

2005

Best Wishes for the New Year from W3C

23 December 2005

On this fifteenth birthday of the World Wide Web, W3C wishes a happy and successful 2006 to our visitors. Following through on its mission to lead the Web to its full potential, in 2005, W3C published six sets of new Web standards, opened the Indian Office, reduced Membership fees in developing countries, founded the Mobile Web Initiative, and launched eleven new groups including Rich Web Clients, Efficient XML Interchange, Rule Interchange Format and Health Care and Life Sciences. W3C thanks our Members, participants and contributors for their part in these achievements. Publications resume in January. Read About W3C.

Mobile Web Best Practices Updated

20 December 2005

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0. The draft describes how to produce Web content and Web sites intended for delivery to mobile and small-screen devices. Scope of Mobile Web Best Practices was published as a Working Group Note. Read about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, a joint effort by authoring tool vendors, content providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators.

Call for Participation: W3C Workshop on the Ubiquitous Web

20 December 2005

Position papers are due 10 February for the W3C Workshop on the Ubiquitous Web to be held 9-10 March 2006, hosted by Keio University in Tokyo, Japan. The "Ubiquitous Web" seeks to fulfill the potential of the Web for distributed applications that adapt to the user's needs, device capabilities and environmental conditions. Attendees will examine enabling technologies and consider what remains to be done to fulfill this vision. Read possible topics and about W3C Workshops.

Note: Using XKMS with PGP

19 December 2005

The XML Key Management Service (XKMS) Working Group has published Using XKMS with PGP as a Working Group Note. This informative note provides usage scenarios for XKMS when used with PGP, together with corresponding sample message exchanges. The note also points out open issues with PGP support in both the XKMS and XML-SIG specifications and proposes some potential solutions to these issues. Visit the XKMS home page.

Compound Document Framework Requirements Updated

19 December 2005

The Compound Document Formats Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Compound Document Use Cases and Requirements Version 2.0. Version 1.0 requirements were published as a Working Group Note. The drafts address events across namespaces, rendering, and the user interaction model for documents that combine multiple formats. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Last Call: Compound Document Framework and WICD Profiles

19 December 2005

The Compound Document Formats Working Group has released four Last Call Working Drafts: Compound Document by Reference Framework, WICD Core 1.0, WICD Full 1.0, and WICD Mobile 1.0. Comments are welcome through 27 January. The Web Integration Compound Document (WICD, pronounced "wicked") is a device independent Compound Document profile based on XHTML, CSS and SVG. The drafts describe behavior when single documents contain multiple formats. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Working Drafts: CSS Layout, Columns and Cascade

16 December 2005

The CSS Working Group has released a First Public Working Draft of the CSS3 Advanced Layout Module defining grid layout. The draft's features could be used to define visual order independent of document order, position and alignment of user interface "widgets," and page and window grids. Also published are Working Drafts of Multi-Column Layout and Cascading and Inheritance. Visit the CSS home page.

Last Call: CSS Selectors

16 December 2005

The CSS Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of Selectors. Designed to be usable in performance-critical code, selectors are patterns in the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language that match to elements in HTML and XML. This specification describes the selectors in CSS1 and CSS2 and new selectors for CSS3. Comments are welcome through 16 January. Visit the CSS home page.

Call for Participation: Toward a More Secure Web

15 December 2005

Position papers are due 25 January for the W3C Workshop on Transparency and Usability of Web Authentication to be held 15-16 March 2006, hosted by Citigroup in New York, NY, USA. Attendees will identify steps W3C can take to improve the Web's trustworthiness and security for users. Topics include site authentication, safe Web client behavior, communication with users, infrastructures for content providers, and user agent testing. Read the press release, about W3C Workshops and more about Technology and Society.

SMIL 2.1 Is a W3C Recommendation

13 December 2005

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.1) as a W3C Recommendation. With SMIL (pronounced "smile"), authors create multimedia presentations and animations integrating streaming audio and video with graphics and text. Version 2.1 features include a new Mobile Profile and an Extended Mobile Profile with enhanced timing, layout and animation capabilities. "Today, W3C makes good on the promise of first class multimedia presentations for the mobile Web," said Chris Lilley (W3C). Read the press release and visit the Synchronized Multimedia home page.

Working Draft: XForms 1.1

13 December 2005

The XForms Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of XForms 1.1. XForms is the new generation of Web forms. Designed to refine and strengthen the XML processing platform introduced by XForms 1.0, version 1.1 embraces SOAP, facilitates XForms use in other host languages, and makes authoring easier. Visit the XForms home page.

W3C Web Services Addressing Interoperability Event: Vancouver, 17-18 January

08 December 2005

The W3C Web Services Addressing Working Group will hold an Interoperability Event on 17-18 January in Vancouver, BC Canada. Participants will test the Web Services Addressing family of W3C specifications. The group invites interested parties who have implemented Web Services Addressing 1.0: Core, SOAP Binding and/or WSDL Binding. For details and to register, please see the announcement. Visit the Web services home page.

Upcoming W3C Talks

07 December 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

Standards for Multimodal Dialogue Context: Edinburgh, 12 December

07 December 2005

Standards for Multimodal Dialogue Context will be held 12 December at the Human Communication Research Centre, School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. Organized by the TALK and AMI IST research projects with support from W3C, the workshop will study interoperability needs for dialog context formats and dialog annotations. Dave Raggett and Henry Thompson of W3C present. Visit the Voice Browser Activity home page.

Last Call: SVG Tiny 1.2

07 December 2005

The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group has released a third Last Call Working Draft of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 Specification. The draft allows reviewers to verify that their comments have been included. Comments will be accepted through 28 December. The SVG language delivers vector graphics, text, and images to the Web in XML. SVG Tiny 1.2 is a complete language specification and is implementable on devices large and small, from cellphones and PDAs to desktop and laptop computers. Visit the SVG home page.

W3C to Internationalize and Secure Voice Browsing

06 December 2005

Following the Workshop on Internationalizing the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML), W3C announces new work to extend SSML to Asian and other languages and to add speaker verification. Speaker verification is "the best biometric for securing telephone transactions and communications," said Ken Rehor (Vocalocity) Chairman of the VoiceXML Forum and participant in the W3C Voice Browser Working Group. Read the press release, join W3C and visit the Voice Browser Activity home page.

W3C Welcomes Members at Advisory Committee Meeting

29 November 2005

photo of TV Raman (Google) at the microphone W3C holds its semiannual Advisory Committee Meeting on 29 November - 1 December in Montréal, Québec, Canada. W3C Member organizations participate in two days of discussions, special sessions and lightning talks on W3C Activities. Learn How to Become a W3C Member and join W3C at the next Advisory Committee Meeting during May 2006 in Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

Working Draft: SPARQL Query Language for RDF

28 November 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released an updated 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.

W3C Renews Quality Assurance Interest Group

28 November 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the renewal of the Quality Assurance Activity and the QA Interest Group, chaired by Karl Dubost (W3C) and Lynne Rosenthal (NIST). The main objective of the QA Interest Group (QA IG) is to provide a venue for W3C, its Membership, and the Web community to share their experiences and involvement with QA. Participation is open to W3C Members and the public. Visit the QA home page.

Note: Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA

23 November 2005

The WAI Protocols and Formats Working Group has released Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA: Alternatives to Visual Turing Tests on the Web as a Working Group Note. Requests for visual verification of a bitmapped image pose problems for those who are blind, have low vision or have a learning disability such as dyslexia. The note examines ways for systems to test for human users while preserving access for users with disabilities. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Working Draft: Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

23 November 2005

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has released a Working Draft of Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 incorporating Last Call comments. 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. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Working Drafts: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

23 November 2005

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released Working Drafts of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 and HTML Techniques for WCAG 2.0 and a First Public Working Draft of Understanding WCAG 2.0. Following WCAG makes Web content more accessible to the vast majority of users, including people with disabilities and older users, using many different devices including a wide variety of assistive technology. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

W3C Group Links Semantic Web With Medical Industry

22 November 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group (HCLSIG). Chaired by Tonya Hongsermeier (Partners HealthCare) and Eric Neumann (Unaffiliated), the group is chartered to improve collaboration, research and development, and innovation adoption in the health care and life science industries. Aiding decision-making in clinical research, Semantic Web technologies will bridge many forms of biological and medical information across institutions. Read the press release and visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Drafts: Internationalization Tag Set

22 November 2005

The Internationalization Tag Set Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) and an updated Working Draft of its requirements. Organized by data categories, this set of elements and attributes supports the internationalization and localization of schemas and documents. Implementations are provided for DTDs, XML Schema and Relax NG, and for existing vocabularies like XHTML, DocBook and OpenDocument. Visit the Internationalization home page.

W3C Continues ICANN Participation

22 November 2005

photos of Daniel Dardailler and Thomas Roessler W3C is pleased to announce the nomination of Daniel Dardailler, W3C Associate Chair based in Europe, as W3C liaison to the Internet Corporation For Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board of Directors. Thomas Roessler will serve on the 2006 ICANN Nominating Committee (NomCom). W3C's involvement in ICANN and in the post-WSIS forum, soon to be launched, should help preserve the operational stability of the Internet and the Web in a transparent and open way while ensuring its unfragmented growth based on contributions from the international community. Read About W3C.

W3C Hosts Feed Validation Service

21 November 2005

W3C is pleased to launch the W3C Feed Validation Service, a free online tool open to creators of syndication feeds in formats such as RSS and Atom. Based on 'feedvalidator', and adding a SOAP Web service interface for interactive programming, the tool is useful for automatic or batch syntax checking. This service joins the existing pool of free, open source tools offered by W3C to the Web development community to help build a better World Wide Web. Learn more in the announcement.

Working Drafts: Compound Document Framework and WICD Profiles

21 November 2005

The Compound Document Formats Working Group has released four Working Drafts: the Compound Document by Reference Framework 1.0, WICD Core 1.0, WICD Full 1.0, and WICD Mobile 1.0. The drafts describe behavior for audio, video, images, fonts, layout, events, scripting, links and encoding when single documents contain multiple XML formats. Read about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Working Draft: Device Description Ecosystem

21 November 2005

The Mobile Web Initiative Device Description Working Group released a First Public Working Draft of Device Description Ecosystem, a future Working Group Note. Serving as input for the group's requirements document, this draft outlines business models and participants in the field of device descriptions, and postulates a common repository. Read about the Mobile Web Initiative.

Note: WSDL 1.1 Description for XKMS

18 November 2005

The XML Key Management Service (XKMS) Working Group has published A WSDL 1.1 description for XKMS as a Working Group Note. The group has defined a Web service to handle conventional PKI (public-key infrastructure) functions. Written for XKMS developers, this note provides a sample Web Services Description Language (WSDL) description for an XKMS service. Visit the XKMS home page.

XPointer Registry Launched

18 November 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the XPointer Registry, opening XPointer scheme registration up to the public. XPointer is an extensible system for identifying regions in XML documents. XPointer provides for multiple addressing schemes but the XPointer specification reserved unprefixed scheme names to W3C. The registry adds public access and enables open and well-regulated use through the XPointer Scheme Name Registry Policy. Visit the XML home page.

W3C Launches Efficient XML Interchange Working Group

18 November 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Efficient XML Interchange Working Group. Robin Berjon (Expway) and Oliver Goldman (Adobe Systems) are Chairs. The group's objective is to define an alternative encoding of the XML Information Set that addresses the requirements identified in the work of the XML Binary Characterization Working Group, while maintaining the existing interoperability between XML specifications. The group is chartered through December 2007. Visit the XML home page.

Mobile Web Initiative Presents "Web on the Move"

15 November 2005

photo of Mobile Web Initiative Sponsors on stage The Web on the Move was held on 15 November at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in London, UK. MWI sponsors attended and Michael Wilson, W3C UK and Ireland Office, was master of ceremonies. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director, sent a recorded welcome address (MP3 audio). Read the media advisory and about the Mobile Web Initiative, a concerted effort to make the Web interoperable and usable for users of mobile devices.

W3C/Keio Presents at SFC Open Research Forum in Tokyo

15 November 2005

SFC Open Research Forum (ORF) is an annual open house event of the Keio Research Institute of Shonan Fujisawa Campus, Keio University, Japan. At W3C Forum in ORF 2005 on 22 November, Tatsuya Hagino chairs, Yoshio Fukushige presents the Semantic Web, Kazuyuki Ashimura presents voice browsing, and Felix Sasaki presents internationalization. An exhibition booth and open tutorials on 22-23 November introduce the Mobile Web Initiative, XHTML 2.0, XForms, Compound Document Formats, internationalization of Web services, and Semantic Web services. The event is open to interested companies and the general public.

W3C Launches Rich Web Client Activity

15 November 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Rich Web Client Activity for client-side Web Application development. The Web APIs Working Group chaired by Robin Berjon (Expway) will document and build standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) such as XMLHttpRequest, an AJAX component. The Web Application Formats Working Group chaired by Art Barstow (Nokia) will develop declarative languages for Web Applications, building on existing technologies in the marketplace where possible. The Compound Document Formats Working Group chaired by Kevin Kelly (IBM) moves to this Activity, and continues to develop a framework for combined documents as well as profiles that use existing W3C formats. Participation in these groups is open to W3C Members.

Last Call: Delivery Context Interfaces (DCI)

14 November 2005

The Device Independence Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of Delivery Context: Interfaces (DCI) Accessing Static and Dynamic Properties. DCI provides access to device properties including capabilities, configuration, user preferences and environmental conditions such as remaining battery life, signal strength, ambient brightness, location, and display orientation. The previous version of this document was named "Dynamic Properties Framework (DPF)." Comments are welcome through 4 December. Read about the Device Independence Activity.

W3C Indian Office Opens

10 November 2005

photo of W3C Indian Office opening ceremony The W3C Indian Office is open in Noida, India. The Office is hosted by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC Noida). R. K. Verma is the Office Manager and the Deputy Office Manager is Vijay Gugnani. Stéphane Boyera, Steve Bratt, Max Froumentin, Ivan Herman and Richard Ishida are among those attending the opening ceremonies on 10-11 November in New Delhi. W3C Offices assist with promotion efforts in local languages, broaden W3C's geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C Activities.

Policy for Authorized W3C Translations Announced

10 November 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the Policy for Authorized W3C Translations. For the first time, W3C will allow recognition of translations as "authorized" when they are developed through the process defined in this policy, which is based on transparency, community accountability, and commitment to W3C oversight. At the same time, W3C will continue its existing translation process which has produced 700 unofficial translations in 44 languages. W3C warmly thanks all the translators who have contributed their work. Translations of W3C documents are an important resource that helps Web standards reach more people worldwide. Read About W3C.

Candidate Recommendation: Web Services Choreography Description Language 1.0

09 November 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the Web Services Choreography Description Language Version 1.0 (WS-CDL) to Candidate Recommendation. 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 March. Visit the Web services home page.

W3C Launches Rule Interchange Format Working Group

07 November 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group. "After years of industry and research work in rules languages, I'm pleased to see W3C Members working to develop a Web-based rules standard," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. Chaired by Christian de Sainte Marie (ILOG) and Sandro Hawke (temporary co-Chair, W3C), the group is chartered through November 2007 to produce a language for the exchange of rules and their transfer between rule systems. Rules are executable pieces of declarative knowledge, important in managing complex and dynamic operations. Read the press release, about the Rule Interchange Format and visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Draft: Scope for Mobile Web Best Practices

04 November 2005

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Scope of Mobile Web Best Practices. This document outlines deliverables such as guidelines for content delivery and display on mobile and small-screen devices, and identifies the goal of one Web. Read about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, a joint effort by authoring tool vendors, content providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators.

Working Drafts: Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)

04 November 2005

The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group released updated Working Drafts of the SKOS Core Guide and SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification. The drafts explain how to express classification schemes, thesauruses, subject heading lists, taxonomies, terminologies, glossaries and other types of controlled vocabulary in RDF. Previous SKOS work was supported by the European project SWAD-Europe. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Draft: WSDL 2.0 RDF Mapping

04 November 2005

The Web Services Description Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0: RDF Mapping. The draft describes the WSDL 2.0 components in the Resource Description Language (RDF) and in the Web Ontology Language (OWL) so that all WSDL 2 documents can be merged with other Semantic Web data. Visit the Web services home page.

XSLT 2.0, XML Query and XPath 2.0 Are W3C Candidate Recommendations

03 November 2005

W3C is pleased to announce eight Candidate Recommendations for XSLT, XML Query and XPath. Comments are welcome through 28 February. XSLT transforms documents into different markup or formats. Important for databases, search engines and object repositories, XML Query can perform searches, queries and joins over collections of documents. Both XSLT 2 and XQuery use XPath expressions and operate on XPath Data Model instances. Read the press release and visit the XML home page.

Become a W3C Supporter

03 November 2005

We are pleased to launch the W3C Supporters Program. W3C welcomes payments and goods such as hardware and software to support W3C's operations. Premier, Major, and Contributing Supporters are acknowledged on the W3C Web site, and may use logos on their own sites as emblems of their support for W3C. Read About W3C and about the W3C Supporters Program. W3C wishes to thank all current W3C Supporters.

W3C Holds Workshop on Internationalizing SSML

02 November 2005

W3C holds the Workshop on Internationalizing the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) on 2-3 November hosted by IBM at the IBM China Research Lab in Beijing, China. Attendees will discuss ways to improve rendering of non-English natural languages using the SSML W3C Recommendation which generates synthetic speech and controls pronunciation, volume, pitch and rate. Read the agenda, about W3C Workshops and visit the Voice Browser Activity home page.

Character Model: Normalization

01 November 2005

The Internationalization Core Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0: Normalization to improve text manipulation on the Web. Based on the character model Fundamentals W3C Recommendation, the draft provides authors of specifications, software developers, and content developers with a common reference for text normalization and string identity matching. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Databinding Working Group Launched

28 October 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the XML Schema Patterns for Databinding Working Group. Chartered through September 2007 and chaired by Paul Downey (BT), the group will specify a set of XML Schema patterns and their usage, allowing developers to access the data structure in Web services and other toolkits efficiently. The group is also chartered to build a test suite and to address versioning in coordination with the W3C TAG, Web Services Description Working Group, and XML Schema Working Group. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the Web services home page.

XML Processing Model Working Group Launched

28 October 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the launch of the XML Processing Model Working Group. Chartered through October 2007 and chaired by Norman Walsh (Sun Microsystems), the group will create a language for users to specify the order in which technologies process XML documents. The XML Pipeline Language and Pipeline Member Submissions and the XML Processing Model Workshop serve as input for this work. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the XML home page.

W3C Launches Indian Office

27 October 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the opening of the W3C Indian Office in Noida, India. The Office is hosted by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC Noida). R. K. Verma is the Office Manager and the Deputy Office Manager is Vijay Gugnani. Stéphane Boyera, Steve Bratt, Max Froumentin, Ivan Herman and Richard Ishida are among those attending the opening ceremonies on 10-11 November in New Delhi. Read the press release and about W3C Offices.

Working Draft: SPARQL Protocol in WSDL 1.1

25 October 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a First Public Working Draft of the SPARQL Protocol for RDF Using WSDL 1.1. The draft describes the SPARQL protocol for RDF non-normatively in WSDL 1.1. It was written to gain implementation experience using existing Web services toolkits until WSDL 2.0 toolkits become widely available. The group also provides a wiki for code samples. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Mobile Web Initiative Event in London on 15 November

21 October 2005

Registration is open for the Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) event on Tuesday, 15 November at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in central London, UK. MWI sponsors will attend. The event is free and open to the public. Read the media advisory and about the Mobile Web Initiative, a concerted effort to make the Web interoperable and usable for users of mobile devices.

W3C Process Document Published

19 October 2005

The 14 October 2005 W3C Process Document is operative. Reviewed by the W3C Membership and staff and produced by the Advisory Board, the Process Document describes the structure and operations of W3C. A summary of changes from the previous version is available. Read more About W3C.

Working Draft: Mobile Web Best Practices

17 October 2005

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0. The draft describes how to produce Web content and Web sites intended for delivery to mobile and small-screen devices. Writing for a wide audience, the group invites feedback from developers and network operators as well as Web professionals who are not technology specialists. Read about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, a joint effort by authoring tool vendors, content providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators.

Working Group Note: Time Zones

13 October 2005

Based on discussions with the XQuery and XSL Working Groups, the Internationalization Core Working Group has released Working with Time Zones as a Working Group Note. The document discusses problems encountered when working with the date, time, and dateTime values from XML Schema when time zone offsets are included or omitted. It offers guidelines for working with field-based dates and times, for working with date and time values that require a time zone, and for comparing times. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Working Draft: XFrames

12 October 2005

The HTML Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of XFrames. Replacing HTML frames, XFrames is an XML application for composing documents together in a view. Solving usability, search and security problems associated with HTML frames, XFrames are designed for content negotiation and to allow bookmarking. Comments are welcome. Read more on the HTML home page.

W3C Office Opens in Australia

06 October 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the CSIRO ICT Centre in Canberra hosts the W3C Australian Office effective 10 October. Ross Ackland is Office Manager. "W3C considers Australia a key to global adoption of Web technologies, and we welcome CSIRO as an Office host," said Ivan Herman, W3C Head of Offices. W3C wishes to thank DSTC in Brisbane and staff members Liz Armstrong and Hoylen Sue for hosting the previous Australian Office. Read about W3C Offices.

XForms 1.0 Second Edition: Proposed Edited Recommendation

06 October 2005

The XForms Working Group has released XForms 1.0 (Second Edition) as a Proposed Edited Recommendation. The document brings the XForms 1.0 Recommendation up to date with first edition errata, and aligns the specification with implementations. Comments are welcome through 3 November. XForms is the new generation of Web forms. XForms separate presentation and content, minimize round-trips to the server, offer device independence and reduce the need for scripting. Visit the XForms home page.

COPRAS: Standardization Guidelines for Research

05 October 2005

COPRAS has published generic guidelines to help researchers integrate standardization into new and existing projects. Participants W3C, The Open Group, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI cooperate to help European research projects find their way through standardization and to increase standards awareness. COPRAS is funded under the European Union's Information Society Technologies (IST) program.

Upcoming W3C Talks

05 October 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

Interest Group Note: RDF and iCalendar Data

29 September 2005

Dan Connolly and Libby Miller of the Semantic Web Interest Group have published RDF Calendar - an application of the Resource Description Framework to iCalendar Data as an Interest Group Note. The Note is a report on the state of the art for integrating calendar data with other Semantic Web data used in social networking, syndicated content, and multimedia. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

SMIL 2.1 Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

27 September 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.1) to Proposed Recommendation. Comments are welcome through 28 October. SMIL (pronounced "smile") puts animation on a time line, allows composition of multiple animations, and describes animation elements for any XML-based host language. Version 2.1 extends SMIL 2.0 and supports enhanced interactive multimedia presentations, reuse of SMIL syntax and semantics, and new mobile profiles. Visit the synchronized multimedia home page.

Last Call: EMMA

16 September 2005

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released a Last Call 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. Visit the Multimodal Interaction home page.

Updated: XQuery, XSLT 2.0 and Supporting Documents

16 September 2005

The XML Query and XSL Working Groups have released the following Working Drafts of XML Query 1.0, XSL 2.0, XPath 2.0 and supporting documents. The goal of this release is to permit public review of changes made in response to Last Call comments. Visit the XML home page.

Working Draft: Compound Document Framework and WICD Profiles

15 September 2005

The Compound Document Formats Working Group released the second Working Draft of Compound Document Framework 1.0 and WICD Profiles. The draft describes behavior for audio, video, images, fonts, layout, events, scripting, links and encoding when single documents contain multiple XML formats. WICD Core is a foundation for profiles based on XHTML, CSS and SVG, the WICD Mobile profile is designed for handsets, and WICD Desktop for the desktop and high-capability handhelds. Visit the Compound Document home page.

Working Draft: Web Services Internationalization

14 September 2005

The Internationalization Core Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Web Services Internationalization (WS-I18N). The draft enhances SOAP messaging for locale and international preference negotiation and defines a locale policy. Without using Accept-Language and user identity, implementations can handle the requester's locale, locale policy and language preference. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Working Group Note: Test Metadata

14 September 2005

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has published Test Metadata as a Working Group Note. Developed on the W3C QA wiki, this set of metadata elements can be used to track and filter tests, to identify what is tested, to construct a test harness and to format test results. Dublin Core is reused where appropriate. Visit the QA home page.

Last Call: SPARQL Protocol for RDF

14 September 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Protocol for RDF. The draft describes RDF data access and transmission of RDF queries from clients to processors. The protocol is compatible with the SPARQL query language (pronounced "sparkle") and is designed to convey queries from other RDF query languages as well. Comments are welcome through 14 October. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Position Papers Due 23 September for W3C Workshop on Internationalizing SSML

12 September 2005

W3C holds the Workshop on Internationalizing the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) on 2-3 November in Beijing, China. Attendees will discuss ways to improve rendering of non-English natural languages using the SSML W3C Recommendation which generates synthetic speech and controls pronunciation, volume, pitch and rate. Position papers are due 23 September. Read about W3C Workshops and visit the Voice Browser Activity home page.

Working Draft: EARL 1.0 Schema

12 September 2005

The Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group has released a Working Draft of the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema. EARL is a flexible format used to exchange, combine and compare test results including bug reports, test suite evaluations and conformance claims. The test subjects might be Web sites, authoring tools, user agents or other entities. The group welcomes feedback from Web developers and researchers. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

xml:id Is a W3C Recommendation

09 September 2005

The World Wide Web Consortium today released xml:id Version 1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. The specification defines an attribute name, xml:id, that can always be treated as an identifier and hence can always be recognized, without fetching external resources, and without relying on an internal subset. The Recommendation is the latest deliverable of the XML Core Working Group, part of the W3C XML Activity.

Working Group Note: The QA Handbook

06 September 2005

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has published an update to The QA Handbook Working Group Note. Written for W3C Working Group Chairs and Team Contacts, the document records group experiences and provides techniques, tools, and templates. Focused on testability and test topics, it is designed to facilitate and accelerate the work of W3C Working Groups. Visit the QA home page.

Scope for Mobile Web Best Practices Published

02 September 2005

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Scope of Mobile Web Best Practices. This document outlines deliverables such as guidelines for content delivery and display on mobile and small-screen devices, sets out requirements for the "mobileOK" trustmark, and identifies the goal of one Web. Read about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, a joint effort by authoring tool vendors, content providers, handset manufacturers, browser vendors and mobile operators.

Working Group Note: Variability in Specifications

31 August 2005

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has published Variability in Specifications as a Working Group Note. A companion to the QA Specification Guidelines W3C Recommendation, the note contains advanced specification design considerations and conformance-related techniques. It describes how design of a specification's conformance model affects implementability and interoperability. Visit the QA home page.

Upcoming W3C Talks

29 August 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

W3C Participates in 28th Internationalization & Unicode Conference

23 August 2005

The 28th Internationalization & Unicode Conference will be held 7-9 September in Orlando, Florida, USA. Team members Richard Ishida and Felix Sasaki will present several papers at this premier technical conference for software and Web internationalization. Read about Unicode and the W3C Internationalization Activity.

Web Accessibility Business Case Documents Published

23 August 2005

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has published "Developing a Web Accessibility Business Case for Your Organization." The 5-page resource suite describes social, technical, financial, legal and policy aspects of Web accessibility. It is designed to help organizations develop their own customized business case for Web accessibility. It provides text that can be used as is, as well as guidance on identifying the most relevant factors for a specific organization. Visit the WAI home page for more information on making the Web accessible to people with disabilities.

Upcoming W3C Talks

23 August 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

W3C Letter Regarding US Copyright Office Proposal

22 August 2005

W3C has written to the US Copyright Office regarding a notice of proposed rulemaking. The notice asks if persons filing electronic-only preregistration forms will experience difficulties if the Office requires them to use Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser. W3C comments to the Copyright Office suggest that requiring a single browser is inappropriate for government services and encourages the Office to pursue standards-based access in accordance with US Federal policy. Read W3C's letter and About W3C.

Specification Guidelines Are a W3C Recommendation, QA Working Group Completes Its Work

17 August 2005

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Specification Guidelines as a W3C Recommendation. Written for editors of W3C technical reports, the guidelines explain how to define and specify conformance. The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group has completed its work and will close. The QA Interest Group will continue W3C's four-year QA effort through mailing lists and online tools. "QA's products will be integral resources that ensure the work of W3C's Working Groups is of high quality," said Steve Bratt, W3C Chief Operating Officer. Read the press release and visit the QA home page.

Web Services Addressing Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

17 August 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Web Services Addressing - Core and its SOAP Binding to Candidate Recommendation. The core specification defines properties that allow uniform addressing of Web services and messages, independent of the underlying transport. The binding defines the core properties' association to SOAP messages. Visit the Web services home page.

Working Group Note: Schema Languages and Type System Support in WSDL 2.0

17 August 2005

The Web Services Description Working Group has published Discussion of Alternative Schema Languages and Type System Support in WSDL 2.0 as a Working Group Note. The note discusses WSDL 2.0 type system extensibility, defines the use of XML Schema 1.0 as a type system in the WSDL 2.0 core specification, and includes the basics of extensions for DTDs and Relax NG. Read about Web services.

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

15 August 2005

The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group has released an updated 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 group welcomes comments and seeks feedback on the includes attribute. Visit the SVG home page.

XML Query Test Suite Released

11 August 2005

The XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group are pleased to release the XML Query Test Suite (XQTS). The groups invite W3C Members and the public to run this suite of approximately 7,000 test cases with any or all of the over 20 implementations of the XML Query draft specification. Your feedback will help the Working Groups judge the implementability of the XML Query language, help to improve interoperability, and help XML Query advance on the W3C Recommendation Track. Contributions of additional test cases are invited. Visit the XML home page.

Working Draft: Compound Document Framework and WICD Profiles

09 August 2005

The Compound Document Formats Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Compound Document Framework 1.0 and WICD Profiles. The draft describes behavior for audio, video, images, fonts, layout, events, scripting, links and encoding when single documents contain multiple XML formats. WICD Core is a foundation for profiles based on XHTML, CSS and SVG, the WICD Mobile profile is designed for handsets, and WICD Desktop for the desktop and high-capability handhelds. Visit the Compound Document home page.

Working Draft: Compound Document Use Cases and Requirements

09 August 2005

The Compound Document Formats Working Group has released the third Working Draft of Compound Document by Reference Use Cases and Requirements Version 1.0. A compound document combines multiple formats, such as XHTML, SVG, XForms, MathML and SMIL. This draft introduces compounding by a reference like img, object, link, src and XLink. Compounding by inclusion is planned for a later phase. Visit the Compound Document home page.

Call for Participation: W3C Workshop on Internationalizing the Speech Synthesis Markup Language

09 August 2005

Position papers are due 23 September for the W3C Workshop on Internationalizing the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) to be held 2-3 November in Beijing, China. Attendees will discuss ways to improve rendering of non-English natural languages using the SSML W3C Recommendation which generates synthetic speech and controls pronunciation, volume, pitch and rate. Read about W3C Workshops and visit the Voice Browser Activity home page.

Requirements: Internationalization and Localization Markup

05 August 2005

The Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Internationalization and Localization Markup Requirements. Addressing the main challenges and issues of internationalizing and localizing XML documents, the draft outlines requirements for vocabulary, guidelines and mechanisms to meet the needs of content authors, developers and the localization community. Visit the Internationalization home page.

Call for Participation: Device Description Technologies Survey

05 August 2005

Responses are due 25 August for the Device Description Technologies Survey sponsored by the Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) Device Description Working Group. This survey is open to the public (please see the procedure). Your input will help the Working Group create technical reports to advance the MWI goal of content adaptation. Read about the Device Description Working Group and the Mobile Web Initiative.

Internationalization Articles Published

05 August 2005

The Internationalization GEO (Guidelines, Education & Outreach) Working Group publishes information to help people understand and use international aspects of W3C technologies. In the past month, the group published Using Character Entities and NCRs, Using <select> to Link to Localized Content and Ruby Markup and Styling, as well as numerous updates and translations. For details and I18n news and RSS feeds, visit the Internationalization home page.

Last Call: Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 2.0

03 August 2005

The Web Services Description Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0: the Primer, Part 1: Core Language, Part 2: Adjuncts and the SOAP 1.1 Binding. An XML language, WSDL describes network services and is used to document distributed systems and automate communication between applications. Comments are welcome through 19 September. Read about Web services.

Last Call: SPARQL Variable Binding Results XML Format

02 August 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Query 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. Comments are welcome through 1 September. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Last Call: Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.1

28 July 2005

The XSL Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) Version 1.1. Version 1.1 updates and enhances 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 through 16 September. Read about the XML Activity.

Working Draft: CSS3 Values and Units

28 July 2005

The CSS Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of CSS3 Values and Units. The draft explains specified, computed, and actual values and defines common values and units in one specification which can be referred to by other CSS3 modules. Visit the CSS home page.

Last Call: SPARQL Query Language for RDF

21 July 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the SPARQL Query Language for RDF. Comments are welcome through 1 September. 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.

W3C Day in Berlin to Focus on Mobile Web

18 July 2005

The W3C Office in Germany and Austria is pleased to present W3C-Tag 2005 - Das Mobile Web (W3C Day) on 14 September in Berlin, Germany. The event is organized jointly with Berliner XML-Tage at Humboldt University. W3C Day focuses on mobile Web and W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (MWI). Speakers include Philipp Hoschka (W3C) and Dr. Simone Emmelius (ZDF). The event is free and open to the public. Registration with Berliner XML-Tage is required.

"Web Foundations" Highlights Universal Access to Information

14 July 2005

The W3C Spanish Office is pleased to present Shawn Henry, Jakob Nielsen, Steven Pemberton, Inmaculada Placencia, John Slatin, and Jeffrey Zeldman at Web Foundations 2005 on 22-23 November in Gijón, Spain. These noted accessibility, usability and Web standards experts will discuss Design for All as an essential requirement for equitable Internet access. Steven Pemberton also gives an XForms and XHTML tutorial on 24 November in Oviedo. The deadline for discount registration fees is 1 November. The event is open to the public.

xml:id Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

12 July 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of xml:id Version 1.0 to Proposed Recommendation. The specification introduces a predefined attribute name that can always be treated as an ID and hence can always be recognized. Comments are invited through 26 August. Visit the XML home page.

Requirements: Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0

11 July 2005

The Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Requirements for the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0. EARL expresses test results in a vendor-neutral and platform-independent format and is used to exchange test results between Web accessibility evaluation tools. EARL also provides a reusable vocabulary for Web quality assurance and validation. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Last Call: XLink 1.1

07 July 2005

The XML Core Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.1. Comments are welcome through 26 August. The XLink 1.1 language allows elements to be inserted into XML documents in order to create and describe links between resources. It uses XML syntax to create structures that can describe links similar to the simple unidirectional hyperlinks of today's HTML, as well as more sophisticated links. Visit the XML home page.

W3C Offices Expand to India

05 July 2005

W3C Indian Office logo W3C is pleased to announce the opening of the W3C Indian Office in Noida, India, hosted by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC). R.K. Verma is Office Manager and Vijay Gugnani is Deputy Manager. The opening ceremony is planned for 10-11 November. W3C Offices assist with promotion efforts in local languages, broaden W3C's geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C Activities.

Working Draft: State Chart XML (SCXML)

05 July 2005

The Voice Browser Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of State Chart XML (SCXML): State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction 1.0. SCXML is an execution environment based on UML Harel State Tables and CCXML. SCXML is a candidate for the control language within VoiceXML 3.0, CCXML 2.0, and the authoring language under development by the Multimodal Interaction Working Group. Visit the voice browser home page.

Working Draft: Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) 1.1

05 July 2005

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. The draft also includes all errata for P3P 1.0. Read about privacy and P3P.

Upcoming W3C Talks

01 July 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

W3C Welcomes Founding Sponsors of the Mobile Web Initiative

01 July 2005

W3C is pleased to welcome the Founding Sponsors of the Mobile Web Initiative: Afilias, Bango.net, Drutt Corporation, Ericsson, France Telecom, HP, Jataayu Software, MobileAware, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Opera Software, TIM Italia, Segala M Test, Sevenval, RuleSpace, Vodafone and Volantis. W3C MWI is a concerted effort to make the Web interoperable and usable for users of mobile devices. Read about MWI and how to sponsor MWI.

Working Drafts: Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

30 June 2005

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released four updated Working Drafts of techniques for WCAG 2.0: Client-side Scripting, CSS, General and HTML. The drafts give guidance on using ECMAScript, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), HTML and XHTML to create accessible Web content. The Working Group invites comments, especially on the general techniques. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Working Drafts: Checklists for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

30 June 2005

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released First Public Working Drafts of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 Checklist in both table and linear formats. Serving as an appendix to and quick reference for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, the checklists give all success criteria and their levels, linked to WCAG 2.0 for more information. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Working Draft: Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

30 June 2005

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0. The Working Group invites comments on the number of conformance levels, how to address validity, and the resolution of previously raised issues. Following WCAG makes Web content more accessible to the vast majority of users, including people with disabilities and older users, using many different devices including a wide variety of assistive technology. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

QA Specification Guidelines Are a W3C Proposed Recommendation

29 June 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of QA Framework: Specification Guidelines to Proposed Recommendation. Designed to help make technical reports easy to interpret without ambiguity, the guidelines explain how to define and specify conformance and how a specification might allow variation. Published as an updated Working Draft, Variability in Specifications contains advanced design considerations and conformance-related techniques. Visit the QA home page.

Last Call: Voice Browser Call Control

29 June 2005

Addressing comments and implementation issues, the Voice Browser Working Group has published a third Last Call Working Draft of Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0. CCXML, the Call Control eXtensible Markup Language, provides telephony call control support for VoiceXML and other dialog systems. Comments are welcome through 29 July. Visit the voice browser home page.

XML Key Management (XKMS) Is a W3C Recommendation

28 June 2005

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS 2.0) and its Bindings as a W3C Recommendation. An open, standards-based interface for key management, XKMS makes PKI practical to implement in Web applications including Web services. With XKMS, enterprises can share public key identity across applications, systems and trust boundaries. Read the press release and testimonials and visit the XKMS home page.

Working Draft: CSS3 Text Effects

27 June 2005

The CSS Working Group has released a Working Draft of the CSS3 Text Effects Module. The draft addresses white space, line breaks, word boundaries, text wrapping, alignment, justification and spacing. With the upcoming module "Text Layout," it replaces and obsoletes the May 2003 Text Module. Visit the CSS home page.

Working Group Note: Authorizing Read Access to XML Content

20 June 2005

The Voice Browser Working Group has released Authorizing Read Access to XML Content Using the <?access-control?> Processing Instruction 1.0 as a Working Group Note for information only. This note describes a mechanism being used in the industry that allows a content provider to use a processing instruction embedded within XML content to specify the access policy of that content. Implementors should perform their own security analysis. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

W3C Holds Workshop on XML Schema 1.0 User Experiences

20 June 2005

W3C holds the Workshop on XML Schema 1.0 User Experiences on 21-22 June at the Oracle Conference Center in Redwood Shores, CA, USA. Diverse communities, from XML Schema end users to vendors and the W3C XML Schema Working Group, will share implementation stories and expertise. The Workshop goal is to create a plan of action addressing XML Schema 1.0 interoperability, errata and clarifications. Read the program and about W3C Workshops.

Last Call: CSS 2.1

14 June 2005

The CSS Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 revision 1 (CSS 2.1). CSS 2.1 is derived from and is intended to replace CSS2. A snapshot of CSS language usage, the specification adds a few highly requested features, fixes errata and brings CSS2 in line with implementations. Comments are welcome through 15 July. Visit the CSS home page.

VoiceXML 2.1 Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

13 June 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 2.1 to Candidate Recommendation. Fully backwards-compatible with VoiceXML 2.0, the document standardizes eight additional features implemented by VoiceXML platforms: data, disconnect, grammar, foreach, mark, property, script, and transfer. Comments are welcome through 11 July. Visit the voice browser home page.

W3C Holds Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services

09 June 2005

The W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services is 9-10 June in Innsbruck, Austria, hosted by DERI and supported by EC's IST programme WS2 project. Over sixty organizations are presenting papers identifying areas of shared interest between Web services and Semantic Web communities. Topics include background technologies, registries, taxonomies, search mechanisms, ontologies for Web services, Web services choreography, and business process. Read the press release, the program and about W3C Workshops.

Report on W3C Rule Languages Workshop Published

07 June 2005

The report on the W3C Rule Languages Workshop is now available. Over eighty representatives from various vendors, user communities, and research groups attended and reported on their views, experience, and ideas on options for establishing a standard web-based language for expressing rules. More information is available from the Workshop Web site and the press release.

W3C Welcomes Members at Advisory Committee Meeting

06 June 2005

photo of Glen Newton (National Research Council Canada) speaking at the Advisory Committee meeting W3C holds its semiannual Advisory Committee Meeting on 5-7 June in Mandelieu, France. W3C Member organizations participate in two days of discussions, special sessions and lightning talks on W3C Activities. Learn How to Become a W3C Member and join W3C at the next Advisory Committee Meeting on 29 November - 1 December in Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Last Call: XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Formal Semantics

05 June 2005

Addressing comments from the previous Last Call, the XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group released three updated requirements documents and a Last Call Working Draft for the XQuery and XPath languages. Important for databases, search engines and object repositories, XML Query can perform searches, queries and joins over collections of documents. XPath is used to select parts of XML documents. Visit the XML home page.

Working Draft: SPARQL Variable Binding Results XML Format

01 June 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a second Working Draft of the SPARQL Query 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: SPARQL Protocol for RDF

01 June 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released a second Working Draft of the SPARQL Protocol for RDF. The draft describes RDF data access and transmission of RDF queries from clients to processors. The protocol is compatible with the SPARQL query language (pronounced "sparkle") and is designed to convey queries from other RDF query languages as well. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

W3C Talks in June

01 June 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

W3C Celebrates Ten Years Leading the Web in Europe

31 May 2005

Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau on stage The World Wide Web Consortium marks the ten year anniversary of its European presence with a celebration on 3 June at CERAM in the Sophia Antipolis Science Park, France. The program includes "How it All Started at CERN," "The Web as Unifying Force in Europe," "Policies Shaping the Web in Europe," discussion, a press briefing and reception. Read the media advisory and more about W3C10 Europe.

Working Draft: XHTML 2.0

27 May 2005

The HTML Working Group has released the seventh public Working Draft of XHTML 2.0. A modularized language without presentation elements, XHTML 2 takes HTML back to its roots in document structuring. See the introduction for the differences between XHTML versions 1 and 2. Much of XHTML 2 works in existing browsers. The draft includes an implementation in RELAX NG with DTD and XML Schema implementations to follow. Visit the HTML home page.

Working Group Note: SSML say-as Attribute Values

26 May 2005

The Voice Browser Working Group has released SSML 1.0 say-as attribute values as a Working Group Note. The note provides definitions for the interpret-as, format, and detail attributes that cover many of the most common uses for the say-as element in the Speech Synthesis Markup Language. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Representing Specified Values in OWL

19 May 2005

The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment (SWBPD) Working Group has released Representing Specified Values in OWL: "value partitions" and "value sets" as a Working Group Note. Produced by the Ontology Engineering and Patterns Task Force, the note describes two methods for representing descriptive features in the OWL Web Ontology Languagepartitions of classes and enumerations of individuals. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

SMIL 2.1 Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

16 May 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.1) to Candidate Recommendation. Comments are welcome through 15 June. SMIL (pronounced "smile") puts animation on a time line, allows composition of multiple animations, and describes animation elements for any XML-based host language. Version 2.1 extends SMIL 2.0 and supports enhanced interactive multimedia presentations, reuse of SMIL syntax and semantics, and new mobile profiles. Visit the synchronized multimedia home page.

W3C Launches Mobile Web Initiative

11 May 2005

The World Wide Web Consortium today launched the Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy, and convenient as Web access from a desktop device. "MWI recognizes the mobile device as a first class participant of the Web," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. W3C thanks MWI Founding Sponsors France Telecom, HP, MobileAware, Segala M Test, Vodafone and Volantis. Read about MWI, how to sponsor MWI and the testimonials and press release.

XML 1.1 and XML Schema Processors

11 May 2005

The XML Schema Working Group has published Processing XML 1.1 Documents With XML Schema 1.0 Processors as a Working Group Note. Developed to encourage adoption of internationalized XML, the note presents a strategy for users, specifications and processors until XML Schema addresses this issue normatively. Visit the XML home page.

Working Drafts: Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 2.0

11 May 2005

The Web Services Description Working Group has published Working Drafts of the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 2.0: the first complete draft of the Primer, updates to Part 1: Core Language and Part 2: Adjuncts and a First Public Working Draft of the SOAP 1.1 Binding. An XML language, WSDL describes network services and is used to document distributed systems and automate communication between applications. Read about Web services.

Working Drafts: Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS)

10 May 2005

The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group released three First Public Working Drafts: SKOS Core Guide, SKOS Core Vocabulary Specification, and a Quick Guide to Publishing a Thesaurus on the Semantic Web. The drafts explain how to express classification schemes, thesauruses, subject heading lists, taxonomies, terminologies, glossaries and other types of controlled vocabulary in RDF. Previous SKOS work was supported by the European project SWAD-Europe. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Note: Describing Media Content of Binary Data in XML

04 May 2005

The XML Protocol Working Group and the Web Services Description Working Group have completed Describing Media Content of Binary Data in XML and published the document as a Working Group Note. The note specifies how to indicate the content-type associated with binary element content in an XML document and to specify, in XML Schema, the expected content-type(s) associated with binary element content. Use of these attributes is expected to improve the handling and description of binary data in Web services messages. Visit the Web services home page.

XML Key Management (XKMS) Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

03 May 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of the XML Key Management Specification (XKMS 2.0) and its Bindings to Proposed 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 3 June. Visit the XKMS home page.

W3C Seminar: Multimodal Web Applications for Embedded Systems

02 May 2005

As part of the European IST Programme's MWeb project, a Multimodal Web Applications for Embedded Systems seminar will be held in Toulouse, France on 21 June. W3C Members and Team will demonstrate innovative multimodal Web applications related to new environments such as mobile devices, automotive telematics and ambient intelligence. Please register. The seminar is free and open to the public. Visit the multimodal interaction home page.

Working Draft: XML Schema Datatypes in RDF and OWL

02 May 2005

The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group released a First Public Working Draft of XML Schema Datatypes in RDF and OWL. Posing questions and answers about XML Schema datatypes in the Semantic Web, the document discusses user defined datatypes, comparison of values, duration, and the use of numeric types. The group invites public discussion and feedback on implementations. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Draft: XLink 1.1

02 May 2005

The XML Core Working Group has released a First Public Working Draft of XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.1. The XLink 1.1 language allows elements to be inserted into XML documents in order to create and describe links between resources. It uses XML syntax to create structures that can describe links similar to the simple unidirectional hyperlinks of today's HTML, as well as more sophisticated links. Visit the XML home page.

Working Drafts: Specification Guidelines

02 May 2005

The Quality Assurance (QA) Working Group updated two Working Drafts written for W3C editors. QA Framework: Specification Guidelines is designed to help make technical reports easy to interpret without ambiguity. The guidelines explain how to define and specify conformance and how a specification might allow variation. Variability in Specifications contains advanced design considerations and conformance-related techniques. Visit the QA home page.

Last Call: Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0

02 May 2005

The Device Independence Working Group released a Last Call Working Draft of Content Selection for Device Independence (DISelect) 1.0. DISelect supports 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. Comments are welcome through 3 June. Visit the device independence home page.

W3C Talks in May

02 May 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

  • Dave Beckett, Martin Dürst, Steve Harris, Richard Ishida, Kazuhiro Kitagawa, Akio Kokubu, Eric Prud'hommeaux, Nobuo Saito, and Andy Seaborne present on 10 May, and Yasuyuki Hirakawa and Hanako Onozuka run a booth on 10-11 May at the 14th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2005) in Chiba, Japan.
  • Tim Berners-Lee gives a keynote on 11 May at WWW2005 in Chiba, Japan.
  • Mark Birbeck, Bert Bos, Hugo Haas, Richard Ishida, Dean Jackson, Steven Pemberton and TV Raman present on 11-13 May at the W3C Track at WWW2005 in Chiba, Japan.
  • Kangchan Lee, W3C Korean Office, presents at Yangsan University on 19 May in Busan, Korea.
  • Ivan Herman and Dominique Hazaël-Massieux present on 24 and 26 May at XTech 2005 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
  • Ivan Herman presents and Steven Pemberton gives a keynote on 24 May at the News Standards Summit 2005 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

W3C Holds Rule Languages Workshop

27 April 2005

W3C has brought together over sixty industry and research organizations in a Washington, D.C. Workshop to discuss development of a uniform Rule language - the next layer in the Semantic Web development stack. Hosted by ILOG, SA and supported by DARPA, the W3C Rule Languages Workshop is bringing together the leaders in Business Rules development, customers, and Semantic Web developers in an effort to identify requirements for a common rule language. Read the Press release and the Call for Participation.

Working Draft: Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces

25 April 2005

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces. This document describes a loosely coupled architecture for multimodal user interfaces, which allows for co-resident and distributed implementations, and focuses on the role of markup and scripting, and the use of well defined interfaces between its constituents. Visit the Multimodal Interaction Working Group home page.

W3C Lowers Membership Fee in Developing Countries

20 April 2005

The World Wide Web Consortium is pleased to announce reduced Membership fees in developing countries. "W3C is all about building Web technologies that can be of service to the world," said Steve Bratt, W3C Chief Operating Officer. W3C is actively soliciting participation from organizations in the developing world, with help from its Members, government and NGOs, philanthropic organizations, and the W3C global Offices network. Read the press release, About W3C and How to Become a W3C Member.

Working Draft: SPARQL Query Language for RDF

19 April 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the third 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.

Last Call: SVG Tiny Version 1.2

15 April 2005

The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 Specification. The SVG language delivers vector graphics, text, and images to the Web in XML. The draft is a complete language specification and is implementable on devices large and small, from cellphones and PDAs to desktop and laptop computers. Comments are welcome through 20 May. SVG Full 1.2, published as a placeholder today, will become a superset of SVG 1.2 Tiny. Visit the SVG home page.

Working Draft: Web Services Addressing WSDL Binding

13 April 2005

The Web Services Addressing Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Web Services Addressing 1.0 - WSDL Binding. The document defines how the properties in Web Services Addressing 1.0 - Core are described in the Web Services Description Language (WSDL). Web Services Addressing provides transport-neutral mechanisms and is designed to work with both WSDL versions 1.1 and 2.0. Read about Web services.

W3C Track Featured at WWW2005

12 April 2005

The W3C Track chaired by Marie-Claire Forgue runs from 11-13 May at the Fourteenth International World Wide Web Conference (WWW2005) in Chiba, Japan. W3C Members and Team present three days of content on W3C technologies and achievements. Conference attendees are also invited to Developers Day presentations on 14 May. Read the press release.

Representing Classes As Property Values on the Semantic Web

11 April 2005

The OEP Task Force of the Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group released Representing Classes As Property Values on the Semantic Web as a Working Group Note. The note presents the direct approach for representing classes as property values in the full OWL Web Ontology Language and RDF Schema, mechanisms for OWL DL and OWL Lite, and considerations for users. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

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

06 April 2005

The Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group has released a third 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 group welcomes comments and seeks feedback on three issues outlined in the status section. Visit the SVG home page.

Last Call: XQuery, XPath and XSLT

04 April 2005

The XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group released twelve Working Drafts for the XQuery, XPath and XSLT languages. Seven are in last call through 13 May. Important for databases, search engines and object repositories, XML Query can perform searches, queries and joins over collections of documents. XSLT transforms documents into different markup or formats. Both XQuery and XSLT 2 use XPath expressions and operate on XPath Data Model instances. Visit the XML home page.

Working Draft: Compound Document Use Cases and Requirements

04 April 2005

The Compound Document Formats Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of Compound Document by Reference Use Cases and Requirements Version 1.0. A compound document combines multiple formats, such as XHTML, SVG, XForms, MathML and SMIL. This draft introduces compounding by a reference like img, object, link, src and XLink. Compounding by inclusion is planned for a later phase. Visit the Compound Document home page.

Upcoming W3C Talks

31 March 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

XML Binary Characterization Notes Published

31 March 2005

The XML Binary Characterization Working Group has released its evaluation, recommending that W3C produce a standard for binary interchange of XML. Published today as a Working Group Note, XML Binary Characterization is supported by use cases, properties and measurement methodologies. Optimized serialization can improve the generation, parsing, transmission and storage of XML-based data. Visit the XML home page.

Last Call: Web Services Addressing

31 March 2005

The Web Services Addressing Working Group has released two Last Call Working Drafts. Web Services Addressing - Core enables messaging systems to support transmission through networks that include processing nodes such as endpoint managers, firewalls, and gateways. SOAP Binding defines the core properties' association to SOAP messages. Visit the Web services home page.

Working Draft: RDF/Topic Maps Interoperability

29 March 2005

The Semantic Web Best Practices and Deployment Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of A Survey of RDF/Topic Maps Interoperability Proposals. The document is a starting point for establishing standard guidelines for combined usage of the W3C RDF/OWL family and the ISO family of Topic Maps standards. The group expects to publish Survey and Guidelines Working Group Notes based on this draft. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Last Call: XML Schema Component Designators

29 March 2005

The XML Schema Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of XML Schema: Component Designators. Comments are welcome through 26 April. The document defines a scheme for identifying the XML Schema components specified by the XML Schema Recommendation Part 1 and Part 2. Visit the XML home page.

RDF Data Access Use Cases and Requirements Updated

25 March 2005

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. The group invites feedback on which features are required for a first version of SPARQL and which should be postponed in order to expedite deployment of others. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Call for Participation: W3C Workshop on XML Schema 1.0 User Experiences

23 March 2005

Position papers are due 20 May for the W3C Workshop on XML Schema 1.0 User Experiences to be held 21-22 June in Redwood Shores, California, USA. Schema authors and users, developers and vendors of schema-aware code generators, middleware, validators, and the W3C XML Schema Working Group will gather to discuss user experience with XML Schema 1.0. The workshop goal is to arrive at plan of action for XML Schema 1.0 interoperability, errata and clarification. Read about W3C workshops and visit the XML home page.

Last Call: Timed Text Distribution Profile

21 March 2005

The Timed Text (TT) Working Group has released a Last Call Working Draft of the Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format 1.0 Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP). The format enables authors and authoring systems to interchange style, layout and timing associated with text. DFXP helps to transform and distribute subtitles and captions to legacy systems. Comments are welcome through 11 April. Visit the Synchronized Multimedia home page.

Working Draft: Compound Document Use Cases and Requirements

15 March 2005

The Compound Document Formats Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Compound Document by Reference Use Cases and Requirements Version 1.0. A compound document combines multiple formats, such as XHTML, SVG, XForms, MathML and SMIL. This draft introduces compounding by a reference like img, object, link, src and XLink. Compounding by inclusion is planned for a later phase. Visit the Compound Document home page.

Working Draft: Timed Text Distribution Profile

14 March 2005

The Timed Text (TT) Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format 1.0 Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP). The format enables authors and authoring systems to interchange style, layout and timing associated with text. DFXP helps to transform and distribute subtitles and captions to legacy systems. Visit the Synchronized Multimedia home page.

W3C Talks in March

14 March 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

W3C Hosts Fifth Annual Technical Plenary Week

28 February 2005

photo of the W3C Technical Plenary in Boston W3C holds its Technical Plenary Week from 28 February - 4 March in Boston, Massachusetts, USA where 30 W3C Working Groups and Interest Groups hold face-to-face meetings. Participants and invited guests attend plenary day for talks and demos on extensibility and versioning, XML, test suites, Web applications, Web site usability and design, multimodal interaction and voice. Read the minutes, learn how to join W3C and read about W3C.

Internationalization Articles Published

25 February 2005

The Internationalization GEO (Guidelines, Education & Outreach) Working Group publishes information to help authors and Webmasters understand and use W3C technologies. Recent articles are An Introduction to Multilingual Web Addresses and Language Tags in HTML and XML. Read about W3C internationalization RSS feeds and news filters and visit the Internationalization home page.

Working Draft: Specifying the Language of XHTML and HTML Content

24 February 2005

The Internationalization GEO (Guidelines, Education & Outreach) 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.

Working Drafts: XML Binary Characterization

24 February 2005

The XML Binary Characterization Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of XML Binary Characterization Measurement Methodologies and updates to XML Binary Characterization Use Cases and XML Binary Characterization Properties. The drafts 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.

Working Drafts: XML Schema 1.1

24 February 2005

The XML Schema Working Group has released updated Working Drafts of XML Schema 1.1: Part 1: Structures and Part 2: Datatypes. Please see the status section of each document for changes since the First Public Working Drafts and from the XML Schema 1.0 language. 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.

Working Draft: SPARQL Query Language for RDF

17 February 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the second 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.

Working Draft: CSS3 Backgrounds and Borders

16 February 2005

The CSS Working Group has released a Working Draft of CSS3 Backgrounds and Borders Module. The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language is used to render structured documents like HTML and XML on screen, on paper and in speech. Replacing two separate CSS3 modules, the draft proposes CSS Level 3 functionality including borders consisting of images and backgrounds with multiple images. Visit the CSS home page.

W3C Launches URI Interest Group

16 February 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the URI Activity. The new URI Interest Group, chaired by Dan Connolly (W3C) and Norman Walsh (Sun Microsystems), is chartered through 28 February 2007. The group reviews ongoing work related to Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs) and Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) and helps to deploy quality implementations by maintaining testing materials. Participation is open to W3C Members and the public.

Character Model for the World Wide Web Is a W3C Recommendation

15 February 2005

The World Wide Web Consortium today released Character Model for the World Wide Web 1.0: Fundamentals as a W3C Recommendation. The document allows Web applications to transmit and process the characters of the world's languages. Building on the Universal Character Set defined by Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646, it gives authors of specifications, software developers, and content developers a common reference for text manipulation. Read the press release and visit the Internationalization home page.

Working Drafts: Web Services Addressing

15 February 2005

The Web Services Addressing Working Group has released three updated 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.

Working Draft: Pronunciation Lexicon Specification 1.0

14 February 2005

The Voice Browser Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0. Designed for ease of use by developers and internationally, PLS allows pronunciation information to be specified for speech recognition and speech synthesis engines in voice browsing applications. Pronunciations grouped together in a PLS document may be referenced from other markup languages such as SRGS and SSML. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Call for Participation: W3C Workshop on Rule Languages for Interoperability

14 February 2005

Position papers are due 18 March for the W3C Workshop on Rule Languages for Interoperability to be held 27-28 April in Washington, DC, USA. This workshop will bring together rule system vendors, rule users with a need for interoperability, and others to work toward developing a standard rule language, a key next step in promoting data exchange on the Web. Read about W3C workshops and visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Drafts: XQuery, XPath and XSLT

11 February 2005

The XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group have released ten Working Drafts for the XQuery, XPath and XSLT languages. Please see the status section of each document for authorship and change history information. XML Query is an XML-aware programming language that can be optimized to run database-style searches, queries and joins over collections of documents, databases and XML or object repositories. Applications implementing XPath can address the nodes in an XML tree. XSLT 2 allows transformation of XML documents and non-XML data into other documents. Visit the XML home page.

Call for Participation: W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services

10 February 2005

Position papers are due 22 April for the W3C Workshop on Frameworks for Semantics in Web Services to be held 9-10 June in Innsbruck, Austria. Participants will discuss possible future W3C work on a comprehensive and expressive framework for describing all aspects of Web services. The workshop's goal is to envision more powerful tools and fuller automation using Semantic Web technologies such as RDF and OWL. Read about W3C workshops and visit the Web services home page.

W3C Presents at 3GSM World Congress

08 February 2005

Bert Bos, Stéphane Boyera, Marie-Claire Forgue, Max Froumentin and Philipp Hoschka present at Hall 1, stand A24 at the 3GSM World Congress held 14 to 17 February in Cannes, France. "Our goal is to make Web access from a mobile device as simple, easy and convenient as it is from a desktop device," said Philipp Hoschka. Over 28,000 visitors will have a chance to see W3C efforts for the mobile Web in markup, style, graphics, multimodal interaction, device independence, voice browsing and multimedia messaging. Read about W3C at 3GSM and read the press release.

xml:id Is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

08 February 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the advancement of xml:id Version 1.0 to Candidate Recommendation. The specification introduces a predefined attribute name that can always be treated as an ID and hence can always be recognized. Comments are invited through 10 March. Visit the XML home page.

Upcoming W3C Talks

01 February 2005

Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel.

Last Call: SMIL 2.1

01 February 2005

The SYMM Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.1) as a Last Call Working Draft. Comments are welcome through 25 February. SMIL (pronounced "smile") puts animation on a time line, allows composition of multiple animations, and describes animation elements for any XML-based host language. Version 2.1 extends SMIL 2.0 and supports enhanced interactive multimedia presentations, reuse of SMIL syntax and semantics, and new mobile profiles. Visit the Synchronized Multimedia home page.

Working Group Note: Extending XLink 1.0

27 January 2005

The XML Core Working Group has released Extending XLink 1.0 as a Working Group Note. The document describes changes that could be incorporated into an XLink Version 1.1 specification to address usability, dependence on annotations provided by external grammars, and interoperability. The Working Group plans no updates to this Note. Visit the XML home page.

W3C Supports the URI Standard and IRI Proposed Standard

26 January 2005

W3C is pleased to announce its support for two publications that are important for Web addressing and increase the international reach of the Web. The documents are coordinated efforts of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and W3C. Read the press release.

W3C Recommendations Enhance SOAP Performance

25 January 2005

The World Wide Web Consortium today released three W3C Recommendations to improve Web services performance by standardizing the transmission of large binary data. "Web services have just become faster and more usable," said Yves Lafon (W3C). Read the press release and testimonials and visit the Web services home page.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects TAG Participants

25 January 2005

The W3C Advisory Committee has elected David Orchard (BEA), Ed Rice (HP), Henry Thompson (University of Edinburgh) and Norman Walsh (Sun Microsystems) to the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). The Director also appointed Vincent Quint (INRIA) to the TAG; he will serve as co-Chair along with Tim Berners-Lee. Continuing TAG participants are Dan Connolly (W3C), Noah Mendelsohn (IBM), and Roy Fielding (Day Software). 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, Volume One and visit the TAG home page.

Working Draft: SPARQL Protocol for RDF

18 January 2005

The RDF Data Access Working Group has released the First Public Working Draft of the SPARQL Protocol for RDF. The draft describes RDF data access and transmission of RDF queries from clients to processors. The protocol is compatible with the SPARQL query language (pronounced "sparkle") and is designed to convey queries from other RDF query languages as well. Visit the Semantic Web home page.

Working Group Note: Delivery Context Overview

18 January 2005

The Device Independence Working Group has published Delivery Context Overview for Device Independence as a Working Group Note. The term delivery context is used to describe user preferences and the capabilities of user Web access mechanisms. This document explains the role of delivery context in achieving a device independent Web. The group plans no further changes. Visit the device independence home page.

Working Draft: Glossary of Terms for Device Independence

18 January 2005

The Device Independence Working Group has released an updated Working Draft of the Glossary of Terms used in the group's publications. The glossary definitions are maintained with unique identifiers, and can be linked to from documents new and old. Read about W3C work on device independence and single-authored content for all Web access devices.

W3C Launches Multimodal Interaction Activity

18 January 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Multimodal Interaction Activity. The Multimodal Interaction Working Group is chaired by Deborah Dahl and is chartered through 31 January 2007. The Activity extends user interaction with the Web to multiple modes such as GUI, speech, vision, pen, haptic interfaces, and gestures. Their work enables rich capabilities for mobile phones and other devices with limited resources, and for future generations of multimodal devices. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the multimodal interaction home page.

W3C Launches Voice Browser Activity

18 January 2005

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Voice Browser Activity. The Voice Browser Working Group, co-chaired by Jim Larson (Intel) and Scott McGlashan (HP), is chartered through 31 January 2007. Voice browsing includes Web interaction with key pads, spoken commands, listening to prerecorded speech, synthetic speech and music. The Activity is defining a suite of markup languages for dialog, speech synthesis, speech recognition, call control and other aspects of interactive voice response applications. Participation is open to W3C Members. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML 1.0 Last Call Published

13 January 2005

Addressing comments received during the first Last Call, the Voice Browser Working Group has published a second Last Call Working Draft of Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0. CCXML, the Call Control eXtensible Markup Language, provides telephony call control support for VoiceXML and other dialog systems. Comments are welcome through 31 January. Visit the Voice Browser home page.

W3C Offices Meet Face to Face

11 January 2005

W3C's Offices hold their annual meeting on 10-11 January in Sophia Antipolis, France. "Office representatives from five continents have gathered at W3C's host in France to discuss local issues, recruiting and Membership issues, Office events and outreach as they plan for 2005 and beyond," said Ivan Herman, Head of Offices. W3C Offices work with their regional Web communities to promote W3C technologies in local languages, broaden W3C's geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C Activities. Visit the Offices home page.

Week Ending 7 January

W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Internationalization Activity. The Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Working Group, chaired by Yves Savourel (Enlaso), is chartered with new work to develop elements and attributes to support document internationalization and localization. Formerly task forces, the Internationalization Core Working Group is chaired by Addison Phillips (webMethods) and the Internationalization Guidelines, Education & Outreach (GEO) Working Group is chaired by Richard Ishida (W3C). All three Working Groups and the Internationalization Interest Group, chaired by Martin Dürst (W3C), are chartered through October 2006. Visit the Internationalization home page.

The World Wide Web Consortium today released the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.0) Second Edition as a W3C Recommendation. 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. Visit the Synchronized Multimedia home page.

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.


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