W3C

W3C News Archive: 2011

First Drafts of Three Audio API Specifications Published

15 December 2011

The Audio Working Group has published three First Public Working Drafts to provide an advanced audio API for the Web:

  • the Web Audio API and MediaStream Processing API specifications each define a different approach to process and synthesize audio streams directly in script. These APIs can be used for interactive applications, games, 3D environments, musical applications, educational applications, and for the purposes of accessibility. They include the ability to synchronize, visualize, or enhance sound information when used in conjunction with graphics APIs.
  • Audio Processing API introduces and compares two client-side APIs for processing and synthesizing real-time audio streams in the browser.

Read the blog post Sounding Out the Audio APIs for more information about the possibilities unlocked by an audio API, and learn more about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Drafts Updated for XHTML+RDFa 1.1 and RDFa Core 1.1

15 December 2011

The RDF Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of RDFa Core 1.1, a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. The group also published an update to XHTML+RDFa 1.1, a Host Language for RDFa Core 1.1. This document is intended for authors who want to create XHTML Family documents that embed rich semantic markup. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation Draft Published

15 December 2011

The Provenance Working Group has published a Working Draft of The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation. Provenance of information is crucial in deciding whether information is to be trusted, how it should be integrated with other diverse information sources, and how to give credit to its originators when reusing it. In an open and inclusive environment such as the Web, users find information that is often contradictory or questionable: provenance can help those users to make trust judgments. PROV-DM is a data model for provenance for building representations of the entities, people and activities involved in producing a piece of data or thing in the world. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

CSS 2D Transforms Updated

15 December 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS 2D Transforms. CSS 2D Transforms allows elements rendered by CSS to be transformed in two-dimensional space. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Touch Events version 1

15 December 2011

The Web Events Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Touch Events version 1. The Touch Events specification defines a set of low-level events that represent one or more points of contact with a touch-sensitive surface, and changes of those points with respect to the surface and any DOM elements displayed upon it (e.g., for touch screens) or associated with it (e.g. for drawing tablets without displays). Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

XPath, XQuery 3.0 Last Call Drafts Published; First Drafts of XPath Full Text and XQuery Update

15 December 2011

The XML Query Working Group and the XSLT Working Group have jointly published Last Call Working Drafts of XPath 3.0 and supporting specifications, together with a First Public Working Draft of Full Text 3.0; the XQuery Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts for XQuery 3.0 and XQueryX 3.0, and also a First Public Working Draft for XQuery Update 3.0. XPath is a widely-used language for querying and selecting from XML documents or other structure; XQuery and XQueryX are query languages for operating on single XML documents, document collections, relational databases and other data sources. Learn more about XML technology.

Registration for W3C Online Course on Mobile Web; Early Bird Registration Through 9 January

13 December 2011

W3C is pleased to announce that registration is now open for a third edition of the most popular W3C online training course, W3C Introduction to Mobile Web and Application Best Practices.The 8-week course begins 30 January 2012. Developed by the W3C/MobiWebApp team, the course familiarizes Web designers and content producers with the Web as delivered on mobile devices. Along with the course description, read comments from past students and what they have achieved. An early bird rate of €165 is available until 9 January 2012; after that date the full price is €225. Don't miss the early bird rate - enroll now!

Seven Web Services Specifications are Recommendations

13 December 2011

W3C is pleased to announce the publication of seven Web Services specifications from the Web Services Resource Access Working Group: Enumeration (WS-Enumeration), Event Descriptions (WS-EventDescriptions), Eventing (WS-Eventing), Fragment (WS-Fragment), Metadata Exchange (WS-MetadataExchange), SOAP Assertions (WS-SOAPAssertions), and Transfer (WS-Transfer). Together, these specifications are designed to be composed with each other to provide a rich set of tools for the Web Services environment. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Two Widgets Specifications Published: Widget Access Request Policy; Widget Interface

13 December 2011

The Web Applications Working Group published two Widgets specifications today:

  • A Candidate Recommendation of Widget Interface, which defines an application programming interface (API) for widgets that provides, among other things, functionality for accessing a widget's metadata and persistently storing data. W3C invites implementation of this specification; see the ongoing implementation report.
  • A Proposed Recommendation of Widget Access Request Policy, which defines the security model controlling network access from within a widget, as well as a method for authors to request that the user agent grant access to certain network resources. Comments are welcome through 17 January 2012.

Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

First Draft of CSS Exclusions and Shapes Module Level 3 Published

13 December 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of CSS Exclusions and Shapes Module Level 3. CSS exclusions define arbitrary areas around which inline content can flow. Unlike CSS floats, which they extend, CSS exclusions can be positioned with any CSS positioning schemes. Learn more about the Style Activity.

First Draft Published of The PROV Ontology: Model and Formal Semantics

13 December 2011

The Provenance Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The PROV Ontology: Model and Formal Semantics. The PROV Ontology (also PROV-O) encodes the PROV Data Model [PROV-DM] in the OWL2 Web Ontology Language (OWL2). The PROV ontology consists of a set of classes, properties, and restrictions that can be used to represent provenance information. The PROV ontology can also be specialized to create new classes and properties for modeling provenance information specific to different domain applications. The PROV ontology supports a set of entailments based on OWL2 formal semantics and provenance specific inference rules. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Workshop: The Multilingual Web – The Way Ahead

09 December 2011

W3C announces today the fourth in a series of workshops to ensure the multilingual success of the World Wide Web: The Multilingual Web – The Way Ahead, 15 - 16 March 2012, Luxembourg, hosted by the Directorate-General for Translation (DGT) of the European Commission. The event is co-located with the European Commission's Language Technology Showcase Days. Anyone may attend and participation is free. W3C welcomes participation from both speakers and non-speaking attendees, but the total number of participants is limited due to space.

Building on the success of the preceding events in Madrid, Pisa, and Limerick, this workshop will once again bring together speakers and participants with an interest in best practices and standards aimed at helping content creators, localizers, tools developers, and others meet the challenges of the multilingual Web. It provides further opportunities for networking across communities that span the various aspects involved. We are particularly interested in speakers who can identify gaps in current standards and best practices related to the mutilingual Web, and propose opportunities for addressing those. Registration is available online.

RDFa Lite 1.1 Draft Published; RDFa 1.1 Primer Updated

08 December 2011

The RDF Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft for RDFa Lite 1.1 and an updated Working Draft for the RDFa 1.1 Primer.

One critique of RDFa is that is has too much functionality, leaving first-time authors confused about the more advanced features. RDFa Lite is a minimalist version of RDFa that helps authors easily jump into the structured data world. The goal was to outline a small subset of RDFa that will work for 80% of the Web authors out there doing simple data markup.

The RDFa Primer is a more in-depth introduction to RDFa and all of the structured data markup features that it provides.

The release of these two documents as Working Drafts is an open invitation to the general public to review and provide feedback on the direction of these documents via the RDF Web Applications Working Group mailing list. These documents are intended to be the last Working drafts before RDFa enters Last Call. You can learn more about similar projects to RDFa in W3C's Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of The WebSocket API, Web Storage

08 December 2011

The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of two Candidate Recommendations:

  • The WebSocket API, which defines an API that enables Web pages to use the WebSocket protocol for two-way communication with a remote host.
  • Web Storage, which defines an API for persistent data storage of key-value pair data in Web clients.

Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Call for Review: SOAP over Java Message Service 1.0 Proposed Recommendation Published

08 December 2011

The SOAP-JMS Binding Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of SOAP over Java Message Service 1.0. The work described in this and related documents is aimed at a set of standards for the transport of SOAP messages over JMS [Java Message Service]. The main purpose is to ensure interoperability between the implementations of different Web services vendors. This will also enable customers to implement their own Web services for part of their infrastructure, and to have this interoperate with vendor provided Web services. Comments are welcome through 13 January. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Incubator Group Report: HTML Speech XG Final Report

06 December 2011

The W3C HTML Speech Incubator Group has published their final report. This report provides use cases, requirements derived from those use cases and prioritized, and the following proposals: a JavaScript API for use of ASR services, a new <reco> html element that can be linked to the JS ASR API, a new <tts> html element for use of TTS services, and a protocol for how Web User Agents such as web browsers would communicate with ASR and TTS services other than the default ones provided by the Web User Agent. While the group has made astonishing progress in its goals, the proposals are far from being complete, Recommendation-level standards. The Incubator Group expects that the contents of this report will be used as the beginning of standards-track work in one or more W3C Working Groups and/or that of other Standards Development Organizations such as the Internet Engineering Task Force.

This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track.

Report: Status and Roadmap of Standards for Web Applications on Mobile

06 December 2011

Thumbnail of application platform diagram that appears in report W3C has published a new edition of Standards for Web Applications on Mobile, an overview of the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the power of Web applications, particularly in the mobile context.

A deliverable of the MobiWebApp project, this fourth edition of the document highlights changes since August 2011, including several new specifications in development at W3C (Web Real Time communications, Geolocation v2, vibration API), progress on many others, and new links to resources on mobile accessibility.

The next edition of the document is scheduled for February 2012, in time for Mobile World Congress. W3C invites attendees to visit W3C's booth (Hall 2, 2A31) to learn more about these technologies and how they are transforming the mobile industry. Learn more about the Web and Mobile Devices.

CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3 Draft Published

06 December 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3. In CSS Levels 1 and 2, image values, such as those used in the 'background-image' property, could only be given by a single URI value. This module introduces additional ways of representing 2-dimensional images, for example as a list of URIs denoting fallbacks, as a reference to an element in the document, or as a gradient. This module also defines several properties for manipulating raster images and for sizing or positioning replaced elements such as images within the box determined by the CSS layout algorithms. It also defines in a generic way CSS's sizing algorithm for images and other replaced elements. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Indexed Database API Draft Published

06 December 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Indexed Database API. This document defines APIs for a database of records holding simple values and hierarchical objects. User agents need to store large numbers of objects locally in order to satisfy off-line data requirements of Web applications. The Web Storage specification is useful for storing pairs of keys and their corresponding values. However, it does not provide in-order retrieval of keys, efficient searching over values, or storage of duplicate values for a key. Indexed Database API makes it possible to perform advanced key-value data management that is at the heart of most sophisticated query processors. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Media Fragments URI 1.0

01 December 2011

The Media Fragments Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Media Fragments URI 1.0. Audio and video resources on the World Wide Web are currently treated as "foreign" objects, which can only be embedded using a plugin that is capable of decoding and interacting with the media resource. Specific media servers are generally required to provide for server-side features such as direct access to time offsets into a video without the need to retrieve the entire resource. Support for such media fragment access varies between different media formats and inhibits standard means of dealing with such content on the Web. This specification provides for a media-format independent, standard means of addressing media fragments on the Web using Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). The Working Group also published today the first draft of a companion document, Protocol for Media Fragments 1.0 Resolution in HTTP, which describes various recipes for processing media fragments URI when used over the HTTP protocol. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Last Calls: Geolocation API Specification Level 2; DeviceOrientation Event

01 December 2011

The Geolocation Working Group has published two Last Call Working Drafts: Geolocation API Specification Level 2 and DeviceOrientation Event Specification. The former defines a high-level interface to location information associated only with the device hosting the implementation, such as latitude and longitude. The API itself is agnostic of the underlying location information sources. Common sources of location information include Global Positioning System (GPS) and location inferred from network signals such as IP address, RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses, and GSM/CDMA cell IDs, as well as user input.

The DeviceOrientation Event Specification defines several new DOM events that provide information about the physical orientation and motion of a hosting device.

Comments are welcome on both specifications through 15 January. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Content Security Policy Draft Published

01 December 2011

The Web Application Security Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Content Security Policy. This document defines Content Security Policy, a mechanism web applications can use to mitigate the broad class of content injection vulnerabilities, such as cross-site scripting (XSS). Content Security Policy is a declarative policy that lets the authors (or server administrators) of a web application restrict from where the application can load resources. Learn more about the Security Activity.

Interest Group Note: Requirements for Home Networking Scenarios

01 December 2011

The Web and TV Interest Group published today an Interest Group Note of Requirements for Home Networking Scenarios. This document lists the design goals and requirements that potential W3C recommendations should support in order to enable access to services and content provided by home network devices on other devices, including the discovery and playback of content available to those devices, both from services such as traditional broadcast media and internet based services but also from the home network. Learn more about Web and TV.

Call for Review: Ontology for Media Resources 1.0 Proposed Recommendation Published

29 November 2011

The Media Annotations Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Ontology for Media Resources 1.0. This document defines the Ontology for Media Resources 1.0. The term "Ontology" is used in its broadest possible definition: a core vocabulary. The intent of this vocabulary is to bridge the different descriptions of media resources, and provide a core set of descriptive properties. This document defines a core set of metadata properties for media resources, along with their mappings to elements from a set of existing metadata formats. Besides that, the document presents a Semantic Web compatible implementation of the abstract ontology using RDF/OWL. The document is mostly targeted towards media resources available on the Web, as opposed to media resources that are only accessible in local repositories. Comments are welcome through 31 December. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

CSS Specifications Updated: Flexible Box Layout, CSS Template, Regions, Paged Media

29 November 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published four Working Drafts:

  • CSS Flexible Box Layout Module, which describes a CSS box model optimized for user interface design. In flexbox layout model, the children of a box are laid out either horizontally or vertically, and unused space can be assigned to a particular child or distributed among the children by assignment of "flex" to the children that should expand. Nesting of these boxes (horizontal inside vertical, or vertical inside horizontal) can be used to build layouts in two dimensions.
  • CSS Template Layout Module, which contains CSS features to describe layouts at a high level, meant for tasks such as the positioning and alignment of "widgets" in a graphical user interface or the layout grid for a page or a window.
  • CSS Regions Module Level 3, which allows content to flow across multiple areas called regions. The regions are not necessarily contiguous in the document order. The CSS regions module provides an advanced content flow mechanism, which can be combined with positioning schemes as defined by other CSS modules such as the Multi-Column Module or the Grid Layout Module to position the regions where content flows.
  • CSS Generated Content for Paged Media Module, describes features often used in printed publications.

Learn more about the Style Activity.

Updated Requirements for Japanese Text Layout Draft Published

29 November 2011

W3C has published a second version of Requirements for Japanese Text Layout, which describes requirements for general Japanese layout realized with technologies like CSS, SVG, XSL-FO and eBook standards. The document is mainly based on a standard for Japanese layout, JIS X 4051, however, it also addresses areas which are not covered by JIS X 4051. This second version of the document contains a significant amount of additional information related to hanmen design, such as handling headings, placement of illustrations and tables, handling of notes and reference marks, etc. This document was developed by participants in the Japanese Layout Task Force, with input from four W3C Working Groups: CSS, Internationalization Core, SVG and XSL. A Japanese version is also available.

Last Call: Battery Status API

29 November 2011

The Device APIs Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Battery Status API. The Battery Status API specification defines a means for web developers to programmatically determine the battery status of the hosting device. Without knowing the battery status of a device, a web developer must design the web application with an assumption of sufficient battery level for the task at hand. This means the battery of a device may exhaust faster than desired because web developers are unable to make decisions based on the battery status. Given knowledge of the battery status, web developers are able to craft web content and applications which are power-efficient, thereby leading to improved user experience. Comments are welcome through 20 December. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Patent Advisory Group Recommends Continuing Work on Widgets Access Request Policy

28 November 2011

The Patent Advisory Group (PAG) for the Web Applications Working Group has published a report recommending that W3C continue work on the Widgets Access Request Policy Specification without changes. W3C launches a PAG to resolve issues in the event a patent has been disclosed that may be essential, but is not available under the W3C Royalty-Free licensing requirements. See the original announcement of the PAG.

W3C Invites Implementations of API for Media Resources 1.0

22 November 2011

The Media Annotations Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of API for Media Resources 1.0. This specification defines an API to access metadata information related to media resources on the Web. The overall purpose is to provide developers with a convenient access to metadata information stored in different metadata formats. The Working Group is developing a test suite during this Candidate Recommendation phase. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

First Draft of Vibration API Published

17 November 2011

The Device APIs Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Vibration API. The Vibration API defines a means for web developers to programmatically provide tactile feedback in the form of vibration. The API is designed to tackle high-value use cases related to gaming, and is not meant to be used as a generic notification mechanism. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Two SPARQL 1.1 Drafts Published

17 November 2011

The SPARQL Working Group published two drafts today:

  • the First Public Working Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Overview, which provides an introduction to a set of W3C specifications that facilitate querying and manipulating RDF graph content on the Web or in an RDF store.
  • a Last Call Working Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Federated Query, which offers data consumers an opportunity to merge data distributed across the Web from multiple SPARQL query services. Comments on this working draft are welcome before 31 December 2011.

Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Website Accessibility Metrics - Online Symposium - 5 December

17 November 2011

Registration is now open for the online symposium on website accessibility metrics to be held on 5 December 2011. The symposium is intended for researchers and practitioners who want to explore website accessibility metrics and help develop a roadmap for future research and development. For details and registration, see Website Accessibility Metrics - Online Symposium. Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

WAI-ACT Web Accessibility Project

16 November 2011

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) has launched WAI-ACT - Cooperation Framework for Guidance on Advanced Technologies, Evaluation Methodologies, and Research Agenda Setting to Support eAccessibility, a European Commission (EC)-funded project.

Learn more about the project and how to participate from the WAI-ACT Project announcement e-mail.

W3C Announces First Draft of Standard for Online Privacy

14 November 2011

To address rising concerns about privacy on the Web, W3C publishes today two first drafts for standards that allow users to express preferences about online tracking:

These documents are the early work of a broad set of stakeholders in the W3C Tracking Protection Working Group, including browser vendors, content providers, advertisers, search engines, and experts in policy, privacy, and consumer protection. W3C invites review of these early drafts, expected to become standards by mid-2012. Read the full press release and testimonials and learn more about Privacy.

W3Conf Developer Conference 15-16 November; Live Video Stream Available

09 November 2011

W3Conf W3C's first developer conference, W3Conf: Practical Standards for Web Professionals takes place 15-16 November in Redmond, Washington. Registration is still open. For those who cannot attend in person, W3C will provide a live video stream of more than 25 presentations, on mobile development, layout, script libraries, graphics, security, and Web gaming, as well as a panel with representatives from most of the major browsers. No registration is required for the video stream. W3C would like to thank Microsoft for making this conference possible, and express our appreciation to Platinum Sponsor ATT, and Gold Sponsors Adobe and Nokia. Follow us on twitter on @w3cconf.

Workshop Report: Third Workshop on Web and TV

08 November 2011

W3C today published the final report of the Third W3C Web and TV Workshop, hosted by Comcast Cable 19-20 September in Hollywood, California. Nearly 150 representatives from key stakeholders participated, including major browser vendors, content providers, video service providers, TV broadcasters, cable operators, and CE manufacturers. Participants in the Workshop focused on addressing gaps between the experiences, perspectives, and expectations of the entertainment industry and the Web community. In addition, the Web and TV Interest Group discussed the issues from the workshop during its first F2F meeting on September 21-22, and decided on next steps for each issue, e.g., submit functional gaps to Working Groups or create new Interest Group Task Forces. The conclusion is included in the group's September Report.

W3C Co-organizes Meeting on Domain Names and Persistence at IDCC11

08 November 2011

On 8 December 2011 at the International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC), W3C is co-organizing with the Digital Curation Centre a workshop on Domain Names and Persistence, in Bristol, UK. The vulnerability of any digital material to unexpected or unintended changes in Internet domain name assignment, and hence to the outcome of domain name resolution, is widely recognised. The fact that domain names are not permanently assigned is regularly cited as one of the main reasons why http: URIs cannot be regarded as persistent identifiers over the long term. This workshop is intended to bring together interested parties to explore the dimensions of the problem and possible directions in which to look for solutions. Learn about related work by the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG).

W3C Community Convenes for Technical Plenary 2011

27 October 2011

TPAC 2011 Next week, the W3C community meets in Santa Clara, California for TPAC 2011, W3C's annual face-to-face gathering to coordinate both technical and strategic directions for the organization. We anticipate more than 350 people will participate in Working Group meetings, an Advisory Committee meeting, and a Plenary Day organized this year as a participant-driven camp. In addition to two plenary sessions (on Web and Television, and Web Content Interoperability), participants will discuss a variety of breakout topics. Although participation in TPAC is limited to those already in W3C groups, the TPAC proceedings are public and will be made available shortly after the meeting. Follow the meeting on social networking sites with tag #tpac.

First Draft of WebRTC 1.0: Real-time Communication Between Browsers Published

27 October 2011

The Web Real-Time Communications Working Group has published he First Public Working Draft of WebRTC 1.0: Real-time Communication Between Browsers. This document defines a set of APIs that enable video conferencing from within an Open Web Platform application. These APIs allow local media, including audio and video, to be requested from a platform, media to be sent over the network to another browser or device implementing the appropriate set of real-time protocols, and media received from another browser or device to be processed and displayed locally. This specification is being developed in conjunction with a protocol specification developed by the IETF RTCWEB group. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Last Call: Touch Events version 1

27 October 2011

The Web Events Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Touch Events version 1. User Agents that run on terminals which provide touch input to use web applications typically use interpreted mouse events to allow users to access interactive web applications. However, these interpreted events, being normalized data based on the physical touch input, may not deliver the intended user experience. Native applications are capable of handling both cases with the provided system APIs. The Touch Events specification now provides a solution for Open Web Platform applications: the ability to directly handle touch events, and multiple touch points for enabled devices. Comments are welcome through 17 November. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Incubator Group Report: Unified Service Description Language XG Final Report

27 October 2011

The W3C Unified Service Description Language Incubator Group has published their final report. The mission of the Unified Service Description Language Incubator Group was to work on the already existing proposal for USDL in three directions: investigate similar approaches and relate them to USDL, reshape the specification to align it with W3C and feedback that was collected, and prove practical relevance by creating reference test cases by various partners. During the XG's lifetime, the group shifted the focus away from working on the language itself in order to better concentrate on use cases and adoption. The Incubator Group Report therefore contains a comprehensive overview and assessment of other languages, specifications and approaches that were considered to be related to USDL. The report also contains a description of our reference test cases and their implementations, a list of issues and ideas of improvement for the next version of USDL, and a statement from some partners about USDL. It concludes with the recommendation to follow up on the USDL specification in form of a Working Group, among others.

This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track.

Incubator Group Report: Object Memory Modeling XG Final Report

26 October 2011

The W3C Object Memory Modeling Incubator Group has published their final report. This report summarizes the findings of the Object Memory Modeling Incubator Group. An XML-based object memory format is introduced, which allows for modeling of events or other information about individual physical artifacts, and which is designed to support data storage of those logs on so-called "smart labels" attached to the physical artifact. The group makes several recommendations concerning the future evolution of the object memory format at the W3C; these address connections to provenance modeling, the embedding of object memories in web pages, and potential benefits of an object memory API.

This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track.

Last Call: Web Storage

25 October 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Web Storage. This specification introduces two related mechanisms, similar to HTTP session cookies, for storing structured data on the client side. The first is designed for scenarios where the user is carrying out a single transaction, but could be carrying out multiple transactions in different windows at the same time. Cookies don't really handle this case well. To address this, this specification introduces the sessionStorage IDL attribute. Comments are welcome through 15 November. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Incubator Group Report: Library Linked Data XG Final Report

25 October 2011

The W3C Library Linked Data Incubator Group has published their final report. In the report, the group characterized the current state of library data management, outlined the potential benefits of publishing library data as Linked Data, and formulated next-step recommendations for library standards bodies, data and systems designers, librarians and archivists, and library leaders. The report is supplemented by two more detailed reports. "Use Cases" describes library applications which showcase the benefits of adopting Semantic Web standards and Linked Data principles to publish library assets such as bibliographic data, concept schemes, and authority files. "Datasets, Value Vocabularies, and Metadata Element Sets" provides a snapshot of key resources available for creating library Linked Data today. The group moved several documents to the W3C's Semantic Web wiki and expects the discussion to continue on the public-lld mailing list, both of which are open to participation by all interested members of the public.

This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track.

Schedule, Speakers, and Sponsors Announced for W3Conf Developer Conference

21 October 2011

W3Conf W3C announces today the speakers and the schedule for W3Conf, W3C's first developer conference, in the Seattle area on 15-16 November 2011. W3Conf will feature presentations by renowned experts on mobile development, layout, script libraries, graphics, security, and Web gaming, and representatives from major browser and authoring tool vendors. The talks will focus on technologies you can use today, with a glimpse of the future; this is about developers, not products. Registration is open, with early bird rates available through 31 October. W3C would like to thank Microsoft for making this conference possible, and express our appreciation to Platinum Sponsor ATT, and Gold Sponsors Adobe and Nokia.

Updated Drafts of Three WebApps Specifications: File API, Server-Sent Events, HTML5 Web Messaging

20 October 2011

The Web Applications Working Group updated three Working Drafts today:

  • File API, which provides an API for representing file objects in web applications, as well as programmatically selecting them and accessing their data.
  • Server-Sent Events, which defines an API for opening an HTTP connection for receiving push notifications from a server in the form of DOM events. The API is designed such that it can be extended to work with other push notification schemes such as Push SMS.
  • HTML5 Web Messaging, which defines two mechanisms for communicating between browsing contexts in HTML documents.

Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Group Note: Ontology of Rhetorical Blocks (ORB)

20 October 2011

The Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group has published a Group Note of Ontology of Rhetorical Blocks (ORB). The Ontology of Rhetorical Blocks is a formalization capturing the coarse-grained rhetorical structure of scientific publications. This note is designed to provide a general overview of the motivation and use-cases supporting ORB, in addition to the actual conceptual elements, as well as, practical examples of how to use it in conjunction with different representation languages. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Welcomes Google and Adobe as First Organization Sponsors

19 October 2011

W3C introduced a W3C Organization Sponsor program earlier this year to enhance its capacity to support the deployment of Web standards. W3C announces today the first W3C Organization Sponsors: Google (Gold) and Adobe (Silver). W3C thanks both organizations for their generosity. W3C will use the donations to support training, documentation, tools, and outreach to Web professionals. "W3C has been a cornerstone component of the World Wide Web's evolution and Google is pleased to be able to support and participate in its processes," said Vint Cerf, Chief Internet Evangelist at Google and an Internet pioneer. "W3C brings many perspectives together from around the world to move the Web forward," said Kevin Lynch, Chief Technology Officer at Adobe. "We're happy to help support this effort and look forward to ongoing collaboration around our shared vision in the standardization of a richer Web." Read the press release and learn more about the W3C Organization Sponsor program.

First Draft of PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation Published

18 October 2011

The Provenance Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation. PROV-DM is a core data model for provenance for building representations of the entities, people and processes involved in producing a piece of data or thing in the world. PROV-DM is domain-agnostic but with well-defined extensibility points allowing further domain-specific and application-specific extensions to be defined. It is accompanied by PROV-ASN, a technology-independent abstract syntax notation, which allows serializations of PROV-DM instances to be created for human consumption, which facilitates its mapping to concrete syntax, and which is used as the basis for a formal semantics. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Launches Model-Based User Interfaces Working Group

17 October 2011

W3C announces today the new Model-Based User Interfaces (MBUI) Working Group. The mission of the Model-Based UI Working Group is to develop standards as a basis for interoperability across authoring tools for context aware user interfaces for Web-based interactive applications. Application developers face increasing difficulties due to wide variations in device capabilities, in the details of the standards they support, the need to support assistive technologies for accessibility, the demand for richer user interfaces, the suites of programming languages and libraries, and the need to contain costs and meet challenging schedules during the development and maintenance of applications. The Model-Based UI Working Group will start from extensive experience with model-based user interface design solutions, and will provide a strong basis for interoperable authoring tools for interactive application front ends, with HTML5 as a key delivery platform. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

W3C Launches Web Testing Activity

13 October 2011

W3C announces the launch of a new Web Testing Activity. For years, W3C has been testing technologies independently in a variety of Working Groups. Each specification follows its own methods for testing the underlying technology and there has been minimal coordination between Working Groups on testing methods. Technologies such as HTML, CSS, and APIs must be tested in the same user agents, at times in combination. Therefore, as the number of technologies and the number of devices using them increase, it has become vital to quality on the Web that W3C take a broader view of testing. To this end, W3C has launched two groups. The Browser Testing and Tools Working Group will produce technologies for use in testing, debugging, and troubleshooting of Web applications running in Web browsers. The Web Testing Interest Group will develop and deploy testing mechanisms and collateral materials for testing of Web technologies across different devices (desktops, mobile, TV, etc.).

BAD to Good: Demo shows web accessibility barriers fixed

13 October 2011

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has updated the Before and After Demonstration (BAD). BAD shows an inaccessible website and a retrofitted version of the same website with the accessibility barriers fixed. Read the call for review e-mail, learn about Accessibility, and visit the WAI home page.

SVG Open 2011 is Around the Corner: 17-20 October

07 October 2011

Registration is coming to a close for SVG Open 2011, which takes place 17-20 October 2011. W3C joins other sponsors to help with SVG Open 2011, the 9th international conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, which may now be used in all modern browsers. This year, Microsoft Corporation hosts the conference at their New England Research and Development (NERD) Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. SVG Open provides an opportunity for designers, developers and implementers to learn about SVG, and share ideas, experiences, products, and strategies. Members of the W3C SVG Working Group, including W3C Team member Doug Schepers, will be attending and presenting at the conference. The SVG Working Group will also brief attendees on recent developments around the SVG specification, including SVG2 and integration with CSS and HTML. The conference includes a day of workshops. Learn more about Graphics at W3C.

New Course on Game development in HTML5 and Open Web Technology

07 October 2011

W3C is pleased to announce its newest online course dedicated to "Game Development in HTML5". Developed and taught by Michal Budzynski, who recently ran onGameStart, where W3C/OpenMedia explored standardization needs around games with the Web games community. This course will last 4 weeks from 31 Oct. to 27 Nov. 2011. Through this course, students will create browser based multiplayer games by using open Web technologies such as HTML5 Canvas, CSS Transitions, Timing control for script-based animations, Web Sockets and other JavaScript APIs. The full price of the course is €225 but we have a limited number of seats available at the early bird rate of €145, open until 22 October 2011. Register today!

CSS Fonts Module Level 3 Draft Published

04 October 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Fonts Module Level 3. This specification describes how font properties are specified and how font resources are loaded dynamically. Font resources may be local, installed on the system on which a user agent is running, or downloadable. For local font resources descriptive information can be obtained directly from the font resource. For downloadable font resources (sometimes referred to as web fonts), the descriptive information is included with the reference to the font resource. Families of fonts typically don't contain a single face for each possible variation of font properties. The CSS font selection mechanism describes how to match a given set of CSS font properties to a given font face. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Open Task Forces to Discuss Web Schemas, Data Formats

30 September 2011

Structured data on the Web gained additional momentum with the June 2011 announcement from Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo! of schema.org, which "provides a collection of schemas ... that webmasters can use to markup their pages in ways recognized by major search providers." The launch raised two topics in particular that will now be the focus of new task forces within W3C's Semantic Web Interest Group; schema.org will participate in these discussions:

  • Web Schemas Task Force, to be chaired by R.V. Guha (Google). This task force will focus on collaboration around vocabularies.
  • HTML Data Task Force, to be chaired by Jeni Tennison. This task force will focus on the relationship between RDFa, microdata, and other approaches to structured data on the Web, including how people can combine data sources or translate from one syntax to another.

Anyone may participate in these task forces; for more information see the Semantic Web Interest Group home page. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Two New CSS Recommendations: Namespaces Module and Selectors Level 3; First Draft of Selectors Level 4

29 September 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group published two W3C Recommendations today: CSS Namespaces Module and Selectors Level 3. The first defines the syntax for using namespaces in CSS. The second defines the patterns that style sheet designers may use to match parts of a document; see the list of changes from CSS2 selectors. The Working Group also published the First Draft of Selectors Level 4, which introduces powerful new selectors. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Last Call: The WebSocket API

29 September 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of The WebSocket API. To enable Web applications to maintain bidirectional communications with server-side processes, this specification introduces the WebSocket interface. Comments are welcome through 21 October. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Social Business Jam: Three-day Online Global Event

28 September 2011

W3C Jam image Update 7 October: Registration is open. W3C announces today its first ever 3-day virtual event, the W3C Social Business Jam, 8-10 November. Participation is free and open to all. Participation in this Jam is intended for individuals and professionals working in businesses or the social business space. If you are passionate about leveraging social capabilities to improve business results or if you want to discuss your ideas on how social technologies offer business value beyond traditional social media approaches, then this Jam is the right place for you. The meeting should produce a better understanding of how businesses are using social technologies and the challenges they face integrating the technologies into their existing environments. We expect the conversation on social business to continue after the Jam in W3C Community or Business Groups. Learn more about the W3C Social Business Jam.

Call for Review of Seven Web Services Proposed Recommendations

27 September 2011

The Web Services Resource Access Working Group has published Proposed Recommendations of seven Web Services specifications: Enumeration (WS-Enumeration), Event Descriptions (WS-EventDescriptions), Eventing (WS-Eventing), Fragment (WS-Fragment), Metadata Exchange (WS-MetadataExchange), SOAP Assertions (WS-SOAPAssertions), and Transfer (WS-Transfer). Comments welcome through 4 November 2011. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL-FO) 2.0 Updated

27 September 2011

The XML Print and Page Layout Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL-FO) Version 2.0. XSL-FO is a powerful template-based language for formatting XML documents. This is the first draft that includes the existing specification as well as new work, although some new features from the previous draft are not yet included. Learn more about XML.

Widget Packaging and XML Configuration a Recommendation; three other Web Apps specifications published

27 September 2011

The Web Applications Working Group published a W3C Recommendation today of Widget Packaging and XML Configuration. This specification standardizes a packaging format and metadata for a class of software known as widgets. Unlike traditional user interface widgets (e.g., buttons, input boxes, toolbars, etc.), widgets as specified in this document are full-fledged client-side applications that are authored using technologies such as HTML and then packaged for distribution.

The Working Group also published today:

  • a Working Draft of Widget URI scheme, which defines the widget URI scheme and rules for dereferencing a widget URI, which can be used to address resources inside a package.
  • a Note of Requirement For Standardizing Widgets, which lists the design goals and requirements that specifications would need to address in order to standardize various aspects of widgets.
  • a Last Call Working Draft of Web IDL, which can be used to describe interfaces that are intended to be implemented in web browsers. Web IDL is an IDL variant with a number of features that allow the behavior of common script objects in the web platform to be specified more readily. Last call comments welcome through 18 October 2011.

Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

New Online Course: HTML5 Audio and Video

27 September 2011

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new W3C online course: HTML5 Audio and Video. Taught by Mark Boas, one of the HTML5 doctors, the course will last 5 weeks, from 17 October to 20 November 2011. Through this course students will learn how to use HTML5 media in Web pages and applications. The full price of the course is €225 but we have a limited number of seats available at the early bird rate of €145, available until 7 October 2011. Register today!

W3C Organizes Workshop on Linked Enterprise Data Patterns

26 September 2011

Linked Data technology offers huge potential for enterprise applications such as the integration and the management of data within and across enterprises. The distributed nature of Linked Data enables loose-coupling for data sharing within and between organizations. With Linked Data, enterprises have a unique opportunity to cooperate in their use of shared data without the costs of extensive coordination. W3C is organizing a Workshop on Linked Enterprise Data Patterns: Data-driven Applications on the Web for participants to discuss requirements, share solutions, and develop a healthy and scalable Linked Enterprise Data infrastructure. The Workshop takes place 6-7 December in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Anyone may participate; W3C membership is not required. All participants are required to submit a position paper by 25 October. Learn more about the Workshop and the Semantic Web.

W3C Invites Implementations of Progress Events

26 September 2011

The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Progress Events. The Progress Events specification defines an event interface that can be used for measuring progress; e.g., HTTP entity body transfers. This specification is primarily meant to be used by other specifications. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Inria to Host First W3C Office in France

20 September 2011

INRIA To strengthen its relations with industry and research activities in France and Europe, W3C announces today the opening of a W3C Office in France, hosted by Inria (French National Computer Science Research Institute). To mark the launch, the Office is organizing a session on Open Data at the Open World Forum on 22 September in Paris, in cooperation with Inria and Paris City Hall. "Inria has a longstanding commitment to the development of free software and open standards," said Prof. Michel Cosnard, Inria Chairman and CEO. "We have supported W3C's mission since the inception of the Consortium in 1994, notably by hosting W3C's European branch". Read the full press release and learn more about the W3C Offices.

Digital Ink Standard Enhances Device Integration

20 September 2011

W3C announced today a new standard for the exchange of "digital ink" on the Web. The Ink Markup Language (InkML) Recommendation can be used to store and exchange the output of an electronic pen or stylus as well as handwriting, gestures, sketches, music, and other notations. InkML is part of W3C's ongoing efforts to build One Web available from any device. A host of new applications are now possible thanks to this open standard, such as: pen-based text messaging; handwritten annotation of documents, photos, or other media; collaborative white boards; archiving of hand-written notes; and more efficient approaches to filling out forms. Read the press release and testimonials and learn more about the Web of Devices.

Last Call: R2RML and A Direct Mapping of Relational Data to RDF

20 September 2011

The RDB2RDF Working Group has published two Last Call Working Drafts for bringing relational database information to the Semantic Web: R2RML: RDB to RDF Mapping Language and A Direct Mapping of Relational Data to RDF . The former describes R2RML, a language for expressing customized mappings from relational databases to RDF datasets. Such mappings provide the ability to view existing relational data in the RDF data model, expressed in a structure and target vocabulary of the mapping author's choice. The latter document defines a direct mapping from relational data to RDF. Comments are welcome through 1 November. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Announces Online Symposium on Web Accessibility Metrics

15 September 2011

The Research and Development Working Group (RDWG) will hold an online symposium for researchers and practitioners to explore web accessibility metrics and develop a roadmap for future research and development. The Call for Papers is open until 1 November 2011. Learn more about the Symposium on Web Accessibility Metrics and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

First Draft of CSS Device Adaptation Published

15 September 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of CSS Device Adaptation. This specification provides a way for an author to specify, in CSS, the size, zoom factor, and orientation of the viewport that is used as the base for the initial containing block. The goal of this specification is to make it easier to design across devices with different viewport sizes. Learn more about the Style Activity.

DOM4 Draft Updated

15 September 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of DOM4. DOM4 defines the event and document model the Web platform uses. The DOM is a language- and platform neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content and structure of documents. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Battery Status Events Draft Published

15 September 2011

The Device APIs Working Group has published a Working Draft of Battery Status Events. This specification defines DOM event types that provide information about the battery status of the hosting device. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Announcing W3Conf, W3C's First Developer Conference

14 September 2011

W3C announces today W3Conf: Practical Standards for Web Professionals, W3C's first developer conference, in the Seattle area on 15-16 November 2011. Speakers and participants will focus on practical, cutting-edge standards that developers and designers can use across browsers today. The conference will feature presentations by leading experts in the Web industry on HTML5, CSS3, graphics, accessibility, multimedia, APIs, and more. Seating will be limited, but the event will be webcast live with video streaming. Registration will open soon! W3C Members interested in sponsoring the conference should contact Doug Schepers or Alan Bird.

Last Call for SPARQL 1.1 Query Results JSON Format; First Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Query Results CSV and TSV Formats

13 September 2011

The SPARQL Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Query Results JSON Format. This was also the First Public Draft of that document. SPARQL is a set of standards for the query and update of RDF data, along with ways to access such data over the web. This document describes the representation of SELECT and ASK query results using JSON. Comments are welcome through 26 October.

The Group also published a First Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Query Results CSV and TSV Formats, which describes the use of CSV and TSV formats for expressing SPARQL query results from SELECT queries. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Last Call: Touch Events version 1

13 September 2011

The Web Events Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Touch Events version 1. The Touch Events specification defines a set of low-level events that represent one or more points of contact with a touch-sensitive surface, and changes of those points with respect to the surface and any DOM elements displayed upon it (e.g. for touch screens) or associated with it (e.g. for drawing tablets without displays). Comments are welcome through 11 October. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Organizes Workshop on the Future of Offline Web Applications

09 September 2011

The Web has rapidly evolved into a platform suitable for rich applications, but off-line use has remained one of the key missing elements that application developers require. To strengthen support for offline Web apps in the Open Web Platform, W3C is organizing a Workshop on the Future of Offline Web Applications on 5 November, hosted by Vodafone in Redwood City, CA. The Workshop is open to all at no cost, space permitting. Participants must submit a position paper by 30 September 2011. Learn more about the Workshop.

W3C Launches Work on “Do Not Track” Standards for the Web

08 September 2011

Today, the World Wide Web Consortium announced a new standardization effort to improve user privacy on the Web. The Tracking Protection Working Group will create standards for "Do Not Track" technology by building consensus among a broad set of stakeholders, including browser vendors, content providers, advertisement networks, search engines, and experts in policy, privacy, and consumer protection. The Working Group, which first meets in two weeks, is charted to publish Do Not Track standards by mid-2012. The standards will let users express their tracking preferences and select which parties can track them online. Learn more about W3C's Privacy Activity and read the April 2011 Report from the W3C Workshop on Web Tracking and User Privacy, which was sponsored by Adobe, Yahoo!, Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft.

CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3 Draft Updated

08 September 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3. This CSS Image Values and Replaced Content module has two parts: First, it defines the syntax for image values in CSS. Second, it defines properties used to control the interaction of replaced content and the CSS layout algorithms. These properties can affect the used image resolution for bitmaps, the replaced object's orientation, and whether and how to preserve the object's aspect ratio. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Launches New Web Application Security Working Group

07 September 2011

Modern Web Applications may be governed by numerous security policies. Because there is no standard and shared mechanism for declaring and enforcing policies, it is not possible for sites to selectively declare the need to escape from some restrictions or to request enforcement of additional restrictions. W3C today launched the new Web Application Security Working Group, with a mission is to address security issues in modern web applications and mash-ups. The group will define lightweight policy expression mechanisms to tune the browser security model. The group will take up work based on the Content Security Policy specification, and will work on secure mash-up technologies including Cross-Domain Resource Sharing and UMP. W3C also launched today the Web Security Interest Group, a forum for discussions on improving standards and implementations to advance the security of the Web. Learn more about W3C's Security Activity.

Last Call: Web Storage; Web Workers

06 September 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of Web Storage and Web Workers. The former defines an API for persistent data storage of key-value pair data in Web clients. The latter defines an API that allows Web application authors to spawn background workers running scripts in parallel to their main page. This allows for thread-like operation with message-passing as the coordination mechanism. Comments are welcome through 27 September. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Last Call: Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces

06 September 2011

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of 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. Comments are welcome through 27 September. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

CSS Values and Units Module Level 3 Draft Updated

06 September 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Values and Units Module Level 3. This CSS3 module describes the various values and units that CSS properties accept. Also, it describes how values are computed from "specified" through "computed" and "used" into "actual" values. The main purpose of this module is to define common values and units in one specification which can be referred to by other modules. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Web Services Standards Approved as ISO/IEC International Standards

06 September 2011

Today W3C and JTC1, a joint technical committee of ISO and IEC, announced formal approval of a package of W3C Web Services technologies as ISO/IEC International Standards. As ISO/IEC JTC 1 Standards, these widely deployed technologies now benefit from formal recognition from national bodies, which will promote interoperability and reduce market fragmentation, thus benefiting all users. "This is good news for ensuring that people can use the Web anywhere, on any device," said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. The package included eight specifications, including SOAP 1.2, MTOM, Addressing 1.0 and Policy 1.5, which are foundation specifications for message-based service technology that has been adopted by industry worldwide. Read the full press release and testimonials, and learn more about W3C's PAS Submitter status in the W3C PAS FAQ.

Last Call: Performance Timeline; User Timing

01 September 2011

The Web Performance Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of Performance Timeline and User Timing. The former defines an interface for web applications to access timing information related to navigation and elements. The latter defines an interface to help web developers measure the performance of their applications by giving them access to high precision timestamps. Comments are welcome through 22 September. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Three CSS Drafts Published; First Draft of Conditional Rules Module Level 3

01 September 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group published three drafts today:

  • a First Public Working Draft of CSS Conditional Rules Module Level 3, which describes the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc. This module contains the features of CSS for conditional processing of parts of style sheets, conditioned on capabilities of the processor or the document the style sheet is being applied to.
  • a draft of CSS Text Level 3, which defines properties for text manipulation and specifies their processing model. It covers line breaking, justification and alignment, white space handling, text decoration and text transformation.
  • a draft of CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3, which defines CSS features to support for various international writing modes, such as left-to-right (e.g. Latin or Indic), right-to-left (e.g. Hebrew or Arabic), bidirectional (e.g. mixed Latin and Arabic) and vertical (e.g. Asian scripts).

Learn more about the Style Activity.

Report Published from Identity in the Browser Workshop; Charter in Development

30 August 2011

W3C today published the final report of the W3C Identity in the Browser workshop, hosted by Mozilla 24-25 May in Mountain View, California. More than 80 representatives from various organizations participated, including major browser developers such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla, and Netflix as well as companies wanting a more secure identity mechanism for the Web, such as Workshop sponsors RSA, Paypal, and Yahoo!. The report suggests opportunities for standardization to make the Web a more secure platform, in particular by enabling identity to be built on top of reliable cryptography in the browser. W3C is now developing a draft Working Group charter; contact Harry Halpin if interested.

XML Security RELAX NG Schemas Draft Published

30 August 2011

The XML Security Working Group has published a Working Draft of XML Security RELAX NG Schemas. This document serves to publish RELAX NG schemas for XML Security specifications, including XML Signature 1.0 and 1.1, XML Encryption 1.0 and 1.1, Exclusive Canonicalization, XML Signature Properties, XML-Signature XPath Filter 2.0, and XML Security Generic Hybrid Ciphers. Learn more about the Security Activity.

First Draft of RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax Published

30 August 2011

The RDF Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of RDF 1.1 Concepts and Abstract Syntax. The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a framework for representing information in the Web. This document defines an abstract syntax (a data model) on which RDF is based, and which serves to link concrete syntaxes to its formal semantics. It also includes discussion of key concepts, datatyping, character normalization and handling of IRIs. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

One Week to Register for Mobile Web Online Training Course

30 August 2011

Registration for the second edition of W3C's Mobile Web Online Training Course is open one more week. The acclaimed course begins Monday, 5 September and lasts 8 weeks. Web developers face a number of challenges when designing for the wide array of mobile devices people use today. This course explains how to use Web standards to provide the best experience to the most users: which versions of HTML and CSS are effective in a mobile context, how to overcome various constraints tied to mobile devices, practical client and server-side techniques, what you can do with emerging APIs, and more. The course is developed and taught by the W3C/MobiWebApp team. On successful completion, participants receive a W3C Certificate. Learn more about the Mobile Web Online Training Course.

Last Call: CSS Speech Module

18 August 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS Speech Module. The CSS Speech module defines aural CSS properties that enable authors to declaratively control the rendering of documents via speech synthesis, and using optional audio cues. The feature set exposed by this specification is designed to match the model described by the Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1. Comments are welcome through 30 September. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) is a W3C Recommendation

16 August 2011

The SVG Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition). This specification defines the features and syntax for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Version 1.1, a modularized language for describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML. The Second Edition incorporates a number of corrections that were published as errata against the First Edition, as well as numerous other changes that help make the specification more readable and unambiguous. The Changes appendix lists all of the changes that were made since the first Proposed Recommendation publication of the Second Edition. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

XMLHttpRequest Level 2 Draft Published

16 August 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of XMLHttpRequest Level 2. The XMLHttpRequest Level 2 specification enhances the XMLHttpRequest object with new features, such as cross-origin requests, progress events, and the handling of byte streams for both sending and receiving. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

First Draft of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Profile Published

16 August 2011

The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Profile. Many device classes and use-cases desire to use EXI as its exchange format. Due to various restrictions some of those application areas are not capable or allowed to require arbitrary memory growth at runtime. Certain evaluations of EXI in the context of such areas exposed some challenges to the attempt to restrict memory usage predictably within their limited respective threshold. This document describes a profile of the EXI 1.0 specification that allows bounding the memory consumption of EXI internal structures such as grammars and string partitions. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Launches Agile Track to Speed Web Innovation

15 August 2011

Community and Business Groups To support the rapid evolution of Web technology, W3C today announced Community Groups, an agile track for developers and businesses to create Web technology within W3C's international community of experts. Community Groups are open to all, anyone may propose a group, and there is no fee to participate. "Innovation and standardization build on each other," said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. "As the pace of innovation accelerates and more industries embrace W3C's Open Web Platform, Community Groups will accelerate incorporation of innovative technologies into the Web." W3C also launched Business Groups today, which provide W3C Members and non-Members a vendor-neutral forum for the development of market-specific technologies and the means to have a powerful impact on the direction of Web standards. Read more in the press release and testimonials. Learn more about Community and Business Groups then start your own Community Group or your own Business Group.

Three Web Apps Specifications Advance to Proposed Recommendation

11 August 2011

The Web Applications Working Group published three Proposed Recommendations today:

  • The 'view-mode' Media Feature, which defines a media feature to match the different visual presentation modes that can be applied to web applications and thereby apply different styling based on these different modes using CSS Media Queries.
  • Widget Packaging and XML Configuration, which standardizes a packaging format and metadata for a class of software known as widgets. Unlike traditional user interface widgets (e.g., buttons, input boxes, toolbars, etc.), widgets as specified in this document are full-fledged client-side applications that are authored using technologies such as HTML and then packaged for distribution.
  • XML Digital Signatures for Widgets, which defines a profile of the XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1 specification to allow a widget package to be digitally signed. Authors and distributors can digitally sign a widget as a mechanism to ensure continuity of authorship and distributorship. A user agent, or other validation system, can use a digital signature to verify the data integrity of the files within a widget package and to confirm the signing key(s).

Comments are welcome through 15 September. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Call for Review: CSS Namespaces Module Proposed Recommendation Published

11 August 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of CSS Namespaces Module. This CSS Namespaces module defines the syntax for using namespaces in CSS. It defines the @namespace rule for declaring the default namespace and binding namespaces to namespace prefixes, and it also defines a syntax that other specifications can adopt for using those prefixes in namespace-qualified names. Comments are welcome through 8 September. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Associating Schemas with XML documents 1.0 (Second Edition) Note Published

11 August 2011

The XML Core Working Group has published a Group Note of Associating Schemas with XML documents 1.0 (Second Edition). This document allows schemas using any schema definition language to be associated with an XML document by including one or more processing instructions with a target of xml-model in the document's prolog. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Last Call: Resource Timing; First Draft of Performance Timeline

11 August 2011

The Web Performance Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Resource Timing. This specification defines an interface for web applications to access timing information related to HTML elements. Comments are welcome through 15 September. The Working Group also published the First Public Working Draft of Performance Timeline, which defines an interface for web applications to access timing information related to navigation and elements. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

First Draft of Turtle Published

09 August 2011

The RDF Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Turtle. Turtle has long been popular among Semantic Web developers as an intuitive and powerful representation of RDF data. The standardization of Turtle will encourage its use in other standards such as R2RML as well as further its adoption in Semantic Web tool chains. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Last Call: Progress Events

09 August 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Progress Events. The Progress Events specification defines an abstract event interface that can be used for measuring loading progress. Comments are welcome through 01 September. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

First Draft of HTML5: Edition for Web Authors Published

09 August 2011

The HTML Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of HTML5: Edition for Web Authors. This document is a strict subset of the full HTML5 specification that omits user-agent (UA) implementation details. It is targeted toward Web authors and others who are not UA implementors and who want a view of the HTML specification that focuses more precisely on details relevant to using the HTML language to create Web documents and Web applications. Because this document does not provide implementation conformance criteria, UA implementors should not rely on it, but should instead refer to the full HTML5 specification. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

XML Signature Best Practices Draft Published

09 August 2011

The XML Security Working Group has published a Working Draft of XML Signature Best Practices. This document collects best practices for implementers and users of the XML Signature specification. Most of these best practices are related to improving security and mitigating attacks, yet others are for best practices in the practical use of XML Signature, such as signing XML that doesn't use namespaces, for example. Learn more about the Security Activity.

W3C Organizes Workshop on Data and Services Integration

05 August 2011

Integration of heterogeneous data and services has always been a concern for creators and managers of services. With the emergence of the Web, the need for reusing data and services has become even stronger as the number of available services has grown. Different services stacks now exist from Web Services to Cloud-based services. On 20-21 October, W3C is organizing a Workshop on Data and Services Integration hosted by MITRE in Bedford, MA, USA to bring together people with different ways of looking at the issues left unsolved by the existing stacks, to investigate the possible paths to help bridging services built using different paradigms, and to identify points where standardization would help integration of services and data. The Workshop is open to all at no cost, space permitting. Participants must submit a position paper by 9 September 2011. Learn more about the Workshop.

W3C Invites Implementations of WOFF File Format 1.0

04 August 2011

The WebFonts Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of WOFF File Format 1.0. This document specifies the WOFF font packaging format. This format was designed to provide lightweight, easy-to-implement compression of font data, suitable for use with CSS @font-face rules. Any properly licensed TrueType/OpenType/Open Font Format file can be packaged in WOFF format for Web use. User agents decode the WOFF file to restore the font data such that it will display identically to the input font. Learn more about the Fonts Activity.

CSSOM View Module Draft Published

04 August 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSSOM View Module. The APIs introduced by this specification provide authors with a way to inspect and manipulate the visual view of a document. This includes getting the position of element layout boxes, obtaining the width of the viewport through script, and also scrolling an element. Learn more about the Style Activity.

First Draft Published of Web Application Privacy Best Practices

04 August 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Web Application Privacy Best Practices. This document outlines good privacy practices for web applications, including those that might use device APIs.Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of W3C XML Schema Definition Language 1.1 (Parts 1 and 2)

22 July 2011

The XML Schema Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation s XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1 Part 1: Structures and XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1 Part 2: Datatypes. The first document specifies the XML Schema Definition Language, which offers facilities for describing the structure and constraining the contents of XML documents, including those which exploit the XML Namespace facility. The schema language, which is itself represented in an XML vocabulary and uses namespaces, substantially reconstructs and considerably extends the capabilities found in XML document type definitions (DTDs). This specification depends on XML Schema Definition Language 1.1 Part 2: Datatypes, which defines facilities for defining datatypes to be used in XML Schemas as well as other XML specifications. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Last Call: Page Visibility

22 July 2011

The Web Performance Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Page Visibility. This specification defines a means for site developers to programmatically determine the current visibility state of the page in order to develop power and CPU efficient web applications. Comments are welcome through 18 August. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

First Draft of The From-Origin Header Published

22 July 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The From-Origin Header. The Web platform currently has no limitations on embedding resources from different origins. This specification defines a way for resources to declare they are unavailable within an embedding context. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 and Implementing ATAG 2.0 Working Drafts Updated

22 July 2011

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published updated Working Drafts of Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 and the companion document Implementing ATAG 2.0. ATAG defines how authoring tools should help developers produce accessible web content that conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. It also defines how to make authoring tools accessible so that people with disabilities can use them. Comments are welcome through 15 September 2011. Please see the invitation to review the ATAG 2.0 Working Draft for more information. Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

User Agent Accesibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0 Draft Published

20 July 2011

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0. UAAG defines how browsers, media players, and other "user agents" should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. The Working Group also published an updated Working Draft of Implementing UAAG 2.0. Read the invitation to review the UAAG 2.0 Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Internationalization Checker Updated

19 July 2011

The i18n checker is a free service from W3C that provides information about internationalization-related aspects of your HTML page and advice on creating markup that supports the multilingual Web. This latest release uses a new user interface and redesigned source code. It also adds a number of new tests, a file upload facility, and support for HTML5. This is still a 'pre-final' release and development continues. There are already plans to add further tests and features, to translate the user interface, to add support for XHTML5 and polyglot documents, to integrate with the W3C Unicorn checker, and to add various other features. At this stage we are particularly interested in receiving user feedback. Learn more about Web Internationalization.

Last Call: API for Media Resources 1.0

12 July 2011

The Media Annotations Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of API for Media Resources 1.0. This specification defines an API to access metadata information related to media resources on the Web. The overall purpose is to provide developers with convenient access to metadata information stored in different metadata formats. The API provides means to access the set of metadata properties defined in the Ontology for Media Resources 1.0 specification. Comments are welcome through 07 August. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

CSS Drafts Updated: CSSOM; CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3

12 July 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published Working Drafts of CSSOM and CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3. CSSOM defines APIs (including generic parsing and serialization rules) for Media Queries, Selectors, and CSS itself. The latter specification defines the syntax for image values in CSS. It also defines properties used to control the interaction of replaced content and the CSS layout algorithms. These properties can affect the used image resolution for bitmaps, the replaced object's orientation, and whether and how to preserve the object's aspect ratio. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Last Call: Web IDL

12 July 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Web IDL. This document defines an interface definition language, Web IDL, that can be used to describe interfaces that are intended to be implemented in Web browsers. Web IDL is an IDL variant with a number of features that allow the behavior of common script objects in the web platform to be specified more readily. How interfaces described with Web IDL correspond to constructs within ECMAScript and Java execution environments is also detailed in this document. It is expected that this document acts as a guide to implementors of already-published specifications, and that newly published specifications reference this document to ensure conforming implementations of interfaces are interoperable. Comments are welcome through 23 August. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Registration Opens for W3C Training on Mobile Web and Application Best Practices (starts September)

12 July 2011

W3C is pleased to announce that registration is now open for a second edition of the "W3C Introduction to Mobile Web and Application Best Practices." The online course can be taken in any time zone and will last 8 weeks, from 5 September to 28 October 2011. Developed and taught by the W3C/MobiWebApp team, the course is based entirely on W3C standards, particularly the Mobile Web Best Practices and Mobile Web Application Best Practices, all designed to help make great Web content available to as wide an audience as possible. On successful completion, participants receives a W3C Certificate of Completion. The full price of the course is €195 but we have a limited number of places available at the early bird rate of €145. See full details of the course. To ensure your place on the course, please register now.

Call for Prior Art Related to US Patent 7,743,336 and US Patent Application 20070101146

08 July 2011

This is a public call for prior art on patent Application No. 11/432,295 and on Patent 7,743,336. The W3C seeks information about access control systems available before October 2005 and content distribution systems before April 2006 that offer a viable solution that may apply to the use of access requests policy in Widgets. People who wish to provide feedback should refer to the call for prior art for more information. On 13 November 2009, pursuant to its rights under W3C's Patent Policy, Apple, Inc. disclosed US Published Patent Application No. 11/432,295 and US Published Patent Application 11/409,276 and claimed that it applies to the Web Applications WG's Widget Access Request Policy specification. Apple excluded all claims from the W3C Royalty-Free License commitment of the W3C Patent Policy given by Participants of the Web Applications Working Group. In accordance with the exception procedures of the Patent Policy, W3C launched a Patent Advisory Group (PAG) to determine possible solutions. The PAG has advised W3C to issue this call for prior art.

Continuing Global Conversation on Key Issues in Web & TV Convergence: Third Workshop on Web and TV Scheduled

08 July 2011

W3C announces the third in a series of Workshops on the Web and TV. The Third W3C Web and TV Workshop takes place in Hollywood, California, USA, 19-20 September 2011, hosted by Comcast Cable. In the previous two workshops (Tokyo Workshop and Berlin Workshop), participants identified opportunities for convergence of Web and TV infrastructure and began identifying technical challenges. This third workshop will continue these efforts, with a particular focus on the needs of content creators and distributors. Additionally, there will be an opportunity to discuss and debate some of the initial requirements arising in the Web and TV Interest Group that began its work in February 2011. Anyone may participate in this Workshop; a Position Paper is required from a presenter while a Statement of Interest is required from an observer. Both Position Papers and Statements of Interest are due 15 August 2011. Please see the Call for Participation for further details.

Joint Workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic Development Report Available

07 July 2011

W3C together with the Web Foundation today published the report from the W3C/Web Foundation Workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic Development held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in June. The large and diverse group representing more than 30 different nationalities had engaging discussions on voice-based services for underprivileged communities, mobile entrepreneurship and data collection tools. The results of these discussions, as well as the actions identified will be investigated by the W3C Mobile Web for Social Development Interest Group and the Web Foundation.

W3C and the Web Foundation thanks the participants and appreciates the support of the Workshop sponsors: Spider (Gold Sponsor), Twaweza (Gold Sponsor) and Comviva (silver sponsor).

First Draft of XML Encryption 1.1 CipherReference Processing using 2.0 Transforms Specification Published

07 July 2011

The XML Security Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of "XML Encryption 1.1 CipherReference Processing using 2.0 Transforms" specification. This specification brings the benefits of the XML Signature 2.0 transform processing model to XML Encryption, reducing the attack surface and simplifying the processing model. Related 2.0 specifications are in Last Call, including XML Signature 2.0, Canonical XML 2.0 and the XML Signature Streaming Profile of XPath 1.0. The XML Security WG also has 1.1 specifications in Candidate Recommendation, including XML Signature 1.1, XML Encryption 1.1, XML Signature Properties, and XML Security Generic Hybrid Ciphers.

To address patent disclosures related to the XML Signature 1.1 and 2.0 and XML Encryption 1.1 specifications, W3C has chartered a Patent Advisory Group that is in progress. Learn more about W3C's Security Activity.

Ontology for Media Resources 1.0 is a W3C Candidate Recommendation

07 July 2011

The Media Annotations Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation Ontology for Media Resources 1.0. This document defines the Ontology for Media Resources 1.0. The term "Ontology" is used in its broadest possible definition: a core vocabulary. The intent of this vocabulary is to bridge the different descriptions of media resources, and provide a core set of descriptive properties. This document defines a core set of metadata properties for media resources, along with their mappings to elements from a set of existing metadata formats. Besides that, the document presents a Semantic Web compatible implementation of the abstract ontology using RDF/OWL. The document is mostly targeted towards media resources available on the Web, as opposed to media resources that are only accessible in local repositories. See the group's Media Ontology Test Suite. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0 is a W3C Recomendation

05 July 2011

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0. The Call Control Extensible Markup Language (CCXML) provides declarative markup to describe telephony call control. CCXML can be used in conjunction with a dialog system such as VoiceXML. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

Working with Time Zones Published as an updated Working Group Note

05 July 2011

The Internationalization (I18N) Core Working Group has published an updated version of Working with Time Zones as a Working Group Note. Date and time values can be complex and the relationship between computer and human timekeeping systems can lead to problems. The working group has updated this version to contain more comprehensive guidelines and best practices for working with time and time zones in applications and document formats. Use cases are provided to help choose an approach that ensures that geographically distributed applications work well. This document also aims to provide a basic understanding and vocabulary for talking about time and time handling in software. Learn more about the Internationalization Activity.

CSS3 Ruby Module Draft Published

30 June 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS3 Ruby Module. "Ruby" are short runs of text alongside the base text, typically used in East Asian documents to indicate pronunciation or to provide a short annotation. This document proposes a set of CSS properties associated with the 'Ruby' elements. They can be used in combination with the Ruby elements of HTML. Learn more about the Style Activity.

First Draft of DeviceOrientation Event Specification Published

28 June 2011

The Geolocation Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of DeviceOrientation Event Specification. This specification defines several new DOM event types that provide information about the physical orientation and motion of a hosting device. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Incubator Group Report: Semantic Sensor Network XG Final Report

28 June 2011

The W3C Semantic Sensor Network Incubator Group has published their final report. As networks of sensors become more commonplace there is a greater need for their management and querying to be assisted by standards and computer reasoning. Building on the OGC's Sensor Web Enablement services-based architecture and standards, including four description languages, the group produced ontologies for describing sensors and extended a language to support semantic annotations. The report lists use-cases and reviews existing ontologies leading to the selection of the SSN ontology, analyzes examples and semantic markup as well as mapping to existing standards. The report also includes a list of directions for future work in the context of Linked Sensor Data, or Semantic Internet of Things for work at the border of Internet of Things and Internet of Service. The group plans to create a W3C Community Group to focus on the maintenance and extension of the SSN Ontology.

This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track.

Six Drafts Published Related to XSLT, XQuery, Xpath

21 June 2011

W3C today published six documents related to XSLT, XQuery, and XPath:

These drafts were published by the XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group. Read more about XML.

For Review: Updated Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

21 June 2011

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group today requests review of draft updates to Notes that accompany WCAG 2.0: Techniques for WCAG 2.0 (Editors' Draft) and Understanding WCAG 2.0 (Editors' Draft). Comments are welcome through 26 August 2011. (This is not an update to WCAG 2.0, which is a stable document.) To learn more about the updates, see the Call for Review: WCAG 2.0 Techniques Draft Updates e-mail. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Last Call: Contacts API

16 June 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Contacts API. The Contacts API defines the high-level interfaces required to obtain read access to a user's unified address book. Comments are welcome through 14 July. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Two XML Schema Notes published: Unicode block names for use in XSD regexps; XSD datatype for IEEE floating-point decimal

14 June 2011

The XML Schema Working Group published two Group Notes today: Unicode block names for use in XSD regular expressions and An XSD datatype for IEEE floating-point decimal. The former lists the names of character categories and character blocks defined by Unicode and used in the regular expression language defined by XSD 1.0 and XSD 1.1. The latter defines a datatype designed for compatibility with IEEE 754 floating-point decimal data, which can be supported by XSD 1.1 processors as an implementation-defined datatype. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects Advisory Board

14 June 2011

The W3C Advisory Committee has filled four open seats on the W3C Advisory Board. Created in 1998, the Advisory Board provides guidance to the Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution. Beginning 1 July 2011, the nine Advisory Board participants are Jean-François Abramatic (IBM), Ann Bassetti (The Boeing Company), Jim Bell (HP), Michael Champion (Microsoft), Eduardo Gutentag (Oracle), Robert Freund (Hitachi), Ora Lassila (Nokia), Charles McCathieNevile (Opera Software), and Takeshi Natsuno (Keio University). Steve Zilles continues as interim Advisory Board Chair. Read more about the Advisory Board.

First Draft of CSS Regions Module Draft Published

09 June 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of CSS Regions Module. The CSS Regions module allows content to flow across multiple areas called regions. The regions do not necessarily follow the document order. The CSS Regions module provides an advanced content flow mechanism, which can be combined with positioning schemes as defined by other CSS modules such as the Multi-Column Module or the Grid Layout Module to position the regions where content flows. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Call for Review: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition) Proposed Recommendation

09 June 2011

The SVG Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition). This specification defines the features and syntax for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Version 1.1, a modularized language for describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML. Comments are welcome through 07 July. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

Last Call: Three Widgets Specifications

07 June 2011

The Web Applications Working Group published three Last Call Working Drafts today:

  • Widget Packaging and XML Configuration, which lets users create full-fledged client-side applications that are authored using technologies such as HTML and then packaged for distribution.
  • Widget Interface, which defines an API to access a widget's metadata and persistently storing data.
  • XML Digital Signatures for Widgets, a security mechanism that allows people to digitally sign a widget as a mechanism to ensure continuity of authorship and distributorship.

Comments are welcome through 28 June. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

First Draft of The Network Information API Published

07 June 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The Network Information API. This API provides an interface enabling Web applications to access the underlying network information (connection type) of the device. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Cascading Style Sheets Standard Boasts Unprecedented Interoperability

07 June 2011

W3C announced new levels of support today for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), the language for adding style to Web content. W3C released an update to the core CSS standard, CSS 2.1, to reflect the current state of support for CSS features, and to serve as the stable foundation for future extensions. CSS has been in widespread use as an Open Web technology for more than a decade, but it took many years for implementations and the specification to converge. The collective efforts of the CSS Working Group, implementers, contributors to the CSS Test Suite, and the W3C CSS community have made interoperable CSS a reality for the Open Web. More than 9000 CSS tests have made it easier for designers to create style sheets that work across browsers, and across devices. "This publication crowns a long effort to achieve very broad interoperability," said Bert Bos, co-inventor of CSS and co-Editor of CSS 2.1." Now we can turn our attention to the cool features we've been itching to bring to the Web." The CSS Working Group also published two other Recommendations today: CSS Color Module Level 3 and A MathML for CSS Profile. Read the press release and testimonials, and learn more about Cascading Style Sheets.

W3C Launches New Government Linked Data Working Group

06 June 2011

W3C today launched the new Government Linked Data Working Group, whose mission is to provide standards and other information which help governments around the world publish their data as effective and usable Linked Data using Semantic Web technologies; see the full charter. In addition, W3C renewed today the eGovernment Interest Group, a forum for building and strengthening the community of people who use or promote the use of W3C technologies to improve Government. That group identifies and discusses essential areas of technology and related policy issues; see the full eGov Interest Group charter and learn more about eGovernment at W3C.

Battery Status Event Specification Updated

02 June 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Working Draft of Battery Status Event Specification. This specification defines a new DOM event type that provides information about the battery status of the hosting device. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Three Web Performance Drafts Published: Visibility, Timing Control for Script-Based Animations, Navigation Timing

02 June 2011

The Web Performance Working Group published three drafts today:

  • a First Public Working Draft of Page Visibility, which defines a means for site developers to programmatically determine the current visibility state of the page in order to develop power and CPU efficient web applications.
  • a First Public Working Draft of Timing control for script-based animations, which defines an API web page authors can use to write script-based animations where the user agent is in control of limiting the update rate of the animation. Using this API should result in more appropriate utilization of the CPU by the browser.
  • an update to the Candidate Recommendation for Navigation Timing, which defines an interface for web applications to access timing information related to navigation and elements.

Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3 Draft Updated

31 May 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3. CSS3 Writing Modes defines CSS features to support for various international writing modes, such as left-to-right (e.g. Latin or Indic), right-to-left (e.g., Hebrew or Arabic), bidirectional (e.g., mixed Latin and Arabic) and vertical (e.g., Asian scripts). Learn more about the Style Activity.

DOM Level 3 Events Published as Last Call; DOM Core Draft Updated

31 May 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of DOM Level 3 Events. The DOM is a language- and platform neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content and structure of documents. Document Object Model Events Level 3 defines a generic platform- and language-neutral event system which allows registration of event handlers, describes event flow through a tree structure, and provides basic contextual information for each event. Comments welcome through 28 June 2011. The group also published today an updated Working Draft of DOM Core. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Workshop Report: Web Tracking and User Privacy

25 May 2011

W3C today published the report from the W3C Workshop on Web Tracking and User Privacy held at Princeton University in April. The large and diverse group of participants had an engaging discussion yielding consensus on the importance, time-sensitivity and complexity of the issue and revealing promising areas for standards work. We encourage interested parties to continue discussion on the public mailing list, including on the possibility of W3C forming new groups in this area.

W3C thanks the participants and appreciates the support of the Workshop sponsors: Adobe, Yahoo!, Google, Mozilla and Microsoft.

Last Call: W3C Invites Broad Review of HTML5 and Five Related Specifications

25 May 2011

HTML5 W3C today called for broad review of HTML5 and five related specifications published by the W3C HTML Working Group. HTML5 offers powerful tools for creating Web-based applications that will run on any device. By issuing a Last Call announcement, the HTML Working Group encourages people to comment on the extent to which they believe that technical requirements have been met and significant dependencies with groups inside and outside W3C have been satisfied. Comments are welcome through 3 August. Each document includes instructions for providing feedback in the status section of the document:

The HTML Working Group published three other drafts today as well: HTML: The Markup Language Reference, HTML5 diffs from HTML4, and HTML to Platform Accessibility APIs Implementation Guide.

Read the press release and FAQ for HTML5 Last Call and learn more about HTML.

First Draft of Resource Timing Published

24 May 2011

The Web Performance Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Resource Timing. This specification defines an interface for web applications to access timing information related to HTML elements. User latency is an important quality benchmark for Web Applications. While JavaScript-based mechanisms can provide comprehensive instrumentation for user latency measurements within an application, in many cases, they are unable to provide a complete end-to-end latency picture. While the Navigation Timing specification address part of the problem by providing timing information associated with a navigation, this document introduces the ResourceTiming interface to allow Javascript mechanisms to collect complete timing information related to resources on a document. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

CSS Lists and Counters Module Level 3 Draft Published

24 May 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Lists and Counters Module Level 3. This draft contains the features of CSS level 3 relating to list styling. The main extensions compared to CSS Level 2 are a pseudo-element representing the list marker, a new hanging value for list-style-position, and a method for authors to define their own list-styles. Learn more about the Style Activity.

RIF In RDF Note Published

13 May 2011

The Rule Interchange Format Working Group has published a Group Note of RIF In RDF. This document specifies a reversible mapping (or transformation) from Rule Interchange Format (RIF) XML documents to Resource Description Framework (RDF) graphs. This mapping allows the contents of RIF documents to be interoperably stored and processed as RDF triples, using existing serializations and tools for RDF. When used with the standard mapping from RDF triples to RIF frames, this also provides a "reflection" or "introspection" mechanism, an interoperable way for RIF rules to operate on RIF documents. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

First Draft of Points of Interest Core Published

13 May 2011

The Points of Interest Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Points of Interest Core. In general terms, a "point of interest" is a location about which information is available. A POI can be as simple as a set of coordinates and an identifier, or more complex such as a three dimensional model of a building with names in various languages, information about open and closed hours, and a civic address. POI data has many uses including augmented reality browsers, location-based social networking games, geocaching, mapping, and navigation systems. This document describes a generic data model and one normative format. This format is based on XML and is likely insufficient to cover all POI use cases, therefore, it is expected that the data model will be mapped to other formats, such as JSON, GML, RDF, GeoRSS, or HTML. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Call for Review: Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0 is a Proposed Recommendation

12 May 2011

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0. This document describes CCXML, or the Call Control eXtensible Markup Language. CCXML is designed to provide telephony call control support for dialog systems, such as VoiceXML. Comments are welcome through 10 June. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

Last Call: Five SPARQL 1.1 Drafts

12 May 2011

The SPARQL Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of the following SPARQL 1.1 documents:

SPARQL is a set of specfications related to querying a web of linked data. Review comments welcome through 29 July. Learn more about the Semantic Web and Linked Data.

Last Call: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition)

12 May 2011

The SVG Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition), a modularized language for describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML. The document has been republished as a Last Call Working Draft primarily for the community to validate changes made as a result of the previous Last Call. Comments are welcome through 02 June. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

Updated CSS Snapshots for 2010, 2007

12 May 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published updates to two Group Notes: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Snapshot 2010 and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Snapshot 2007. These documents collect into one definition all the specs that together form the current state of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) as of the indicated year. The primary audience is CSS implementors, not CSS authors, as this definition includes modules by specification stability, not Web browser adoption rate. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Announces Workshop to Bring Local Focus to the Multilingual Web

12 May 2011

MultilingualWeb logo W3C announces the A Local Focus for the Multilingual Web, to take place 21 - 22 September 2011 in Limerick, Ireland, co-located with the 16th Annual LRC Conference. Workshop participants will discuss currently available best practices and standards that help content creators, localizers, language technology developers, browser makers, and others meet the challenges of the multilingual Web. The Workshop also provides opportunities for networking that bring together the various communities involved in enabling the multilingual Web. This is the third of four Workshops being planned by W3C over two years as part of the MultilingualWeb European Project and is hosted by the University of Limerick. Participation is free and open to anyone. However, space is limited and participants are advised to register as soon as possible. People wishing to speak should submit an outline of their proposed talk with their registration form. The deadline for speaker proposals is 15 July. For more information, see the call for participation. Learn more about W3C's Internationalization Activity.

W3C Publishes First Draft of RDF Interfaces

10 May 2011

The RDF Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of the RDF Interfaces specification. The goal of the RDF Interfaces specification is to provide a common development environment for Web Applications that utilize structured data and RDF. It provides interfaces for creating and managing RDF Triples, Graphs, and Parsers. It also provides the basic building blocks for the upcoming RDF API and the recently published RDFa API. While RDF support is a priority, support for Microdata and Microformats are also provided through extensible-by-design interfaces for parsers and Graph storage. Since this is a First Public Working Draft, the document is expected to change over the coming months. We welcome feedback from the community of Web Application developers on the group's public list. For more information about the Semantic Web, please see the Semantic Web Activity.

Open Web Platform Progress Drives Expanding Industry Interest

10 May 2011

W3C and its partners are creating an innovative Open Web Platform for application development. The platform has captured the attention of a great many industries that see the business opportunities enabled by its richness, universality, and interoperability across diverse devices. "W3C's Open Web Platform is emerging as the platform of choice for the delivery of services and the development of rich applications across a broader set of industries, including mobile, television, publishing, and advertising," said Dr. Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. As a result, nearly forty organizations from sixteen countries have joined W3C in the past twelve months, including these leaders in media, television, entertainment, gaming, telecommunications, device manufacturers, and social media: China Unicom, Comcast, Facebook, LG Electronics, NEC Corporation, Netflix, SanDisk, Sony, and Zynga. Read the full press release and testimonials from many of the recent Members.

Call for Review: Ink Markup Language (InkML) Proposed Recommendation Published

10 May 2011

The Multimodal Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Ink Markup Language (InkML). This document describes the syntax and semantics for the Ink Markup Language, which serves as the data format for representing ink entered with an electronic pen or stylus. The markup allows for the input and processing of handwriting, gestures, sketches, music and other notational languages in applications. It provides a common format for the exchange of ink data between components such as handwriting and gesture recognizers, signature verifiers, and other ink-aware modules. Comments are welcome through 10 June. Learn more about Multimodal Interaction.

Last Call: Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0

10 May 2011

The Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema, and updated Working Drafts of Developer Guide for Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0, HTTP Vocabulary in RDF 1.0, Representing Content in RDF 1.0, and Pointer Methods in RDF 1.0. EARL is a machine-readable format for expressing test results, such as results from web accessibility evaluation tools. Read the invitation to review the EARL 1.0 Last Call Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

W3C Launches Web Real-Time Communications Working Group

05 May 2011

W3C today launched a new Web Real-Time Communications Working Group to define client-side APIs to enable Real-Time Communications in Web browsers. These APIs should enable building applications that can be run inside a browser, requiring no extra downloads or plugins, that allow communication between parties using audio, video and supplementary real-time communication, without having to use intervening servers. Read the full charter and learn more about W3C's Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

First Draft of Touch Events Specification Draft Published

05 May 2011

The Web Events Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Touch Events Specification. The Touch Interface specification defines a set of low-level events that represent one or more points of contact with a touch-sensitive surface, and changes of those points with respect to the surface and any DOM elements displayed upon it (e.g., for touch screens) or associated with it (e.g., for drawing tablets without displays). It also addresses pen-tablet devices, such as drawing tablets, with consideration toward stylus capabilities. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Call for Implementation of Seven Web Services Specifications

28 April 2011

The Web Services Resource Access Working Group invites implementation of seven Candidate Recommendations for Web Services: Enumeration (WS-Enumeration), Event Descriptions (WS-EventDescriptions), Eventing (WS-Eventing), Fragment (WS-Fragment), Metadata Exchange (WS-MetadataExchange), SOAP Assertions (WS-SOAPAssertions), and Transfer (WS-Transfer). Comments welcome through 20 May 2011. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3 Draft Updated

28 April 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3. CSS3 Writing Modes defines CSS features to support for various international writing modes, such as left-to-right (e.g. Latin or Indic), right-to-left (e.g. Hebrew or Arabic), bidirectional (e.g. mixed Latin and Arabic) and vertical (e.g. Asian scripts). Learn more about the Style Activity.

New W3C Online Course: Introduction to Mobile Web and Application Best Practices

28 April 2011

W3C is pleased to announce its latest online training course: Introduction to Mobile Web and Application Best Practices. This course includes a lot of new material concerning Web applications. Delivered over 8 weeks with a start date of 6 June 2011, the course will help Web designers and content producers to become familiar with the Web as delivered on mobile devices. It is based entirely on W3C standards, particularly the Mobile Web Best Practices and Mobile Web Application Best Practices. Participants will learn in particular about which versions of HTML and CSS to use for mobile today, client-side and server-side content adaptation techniques, and exciting new APIs available on modern mobile platforms. The full price for the new course is €195 but there are two early bird periods. From now until Friday 6 May you can enroll for just €95. The second early bird period runs until Friday 20 May at €145. See full details of the course and register now.

State Chart XML (SCXML): State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction Draft Published

26 April 2011

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Working Draft of State Chart XML (SCXML): State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction. This document outlines State Chart XML (SCXML), which is a general-purpose event-based state machine language that combines concepts from CCXML and Harel State Tables. CCXML is an event-based state machine language designed to support call control features in Voice Applications (specifically including VoiceXML but not limited to it). Learn more about Voice browsing.

First Draft of Battery Status Event Specification Published

26 April 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Battery Status Event Specification. This specification provides tools for developers to access device battery status (charge level, time remaining, etc.) within Web Applications. This specification defines a new DOM event type that provides information about the battery status of the hosting device and associated auxiliary devices. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 and Implementing ATAG 2.0 Working Drafts Updated

26 April 2011

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published updated Working Drafts of Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 and the companion document Implementing ATAG 2.0. ATAG defines how authoring tools should help developers produce accessible web content that conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. It also defines how to make authoring tools accessible so that people with disabilities can use them. Comments are welcome through 24 May 2011. Please see the invitation to review the ATAG 2.0 Working Draft for more information. Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Last Call: XML Signature, Canonicalization 2.0

26 April 2011

The XML Security Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of XML Signature Syntax and Processing Version 2.0, Canonical XML 2.0, and XML Signature Streaming Profile of XPath 1.0. These specifications are part of an ongoing effort to rework XML Signature and Canonical XML to address issues around performance, streaming, robustness, and attack surface. With this Last Call, the Working Group is seeking broad feedback on the approach it has taken. Please comment by 31 May.

Additionally, the XML Security Working Group has updated Working Drafts of XML Security Algorithm Cross-Reference, XML Security 2.0 Requirements and Design Considerations, and XML Security RELAX NG Schemas documents. Learn more about XML.

W3C to Participate in SVG Open 2011

20 April 2011

Developers and designers are excited by the ability to use SVG in all modern browsers. W3C joins other sponsors to help with SVG Open 2011, the 9th international conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, 17-20 October 2011. This year, Microsoft Corporation will be hosting the conference at their New England Research and Development (NERD) Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. SVG Open provides an opportunity for designers, developers and implementers to learn about SVG, and share ideas, experiences, products, and strategies. Members of the W3C SVG Working Group, including W3C Team members Chris Lilley and Doug Schepers, will be attending and presenting at the conference. The SVG Working Group will also brief attendees on recent developments around the SVG specification, including SVG2 and integration with CSS and HTML. The conference includes a day of workshops. The deadline for presentation abstracts and course outlines has been extended through 15 May. Learn more about the W3C Graphics Activity.

Four Web Applications Drafts Updated

19 April 2011

The Web Applications Working Group today updated several Working Drafts:

  • WebSocket API, which enables full-duplex bidirectional communication between a Web application and a remote host.
  • Indexed Database API, which defines a concrete API that a Web application can use to maintain an indexed database, and, within that database, to perform advanced key-value data management with in-order retrieval of keys, efficient searching over values, and storage of duplicate values for a key.
  • Two publications that build on the the File API specification, which provides an API for representing file objects in web applications, as well as programmatically selecting them and accessing their data. The first published today is File API: Writer, which defines an API for writing to files from web applications. The second is The File API: Directories and System, which defines an API to navigate file system hierarchies, and defines sandboxed sections of a user's local filesystem to web applications, for secure local storage.

Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

First Draft of Calendar API Published

19 April 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Calendar API. The Calendar API defines the high-level interfaces required to obtain read access to a user's calendaring service. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Call for Review: CSS 2.1 Proposed Recommendation; CSS3 Speech Draft Updated

19 April 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification. This specification defines Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 revision 1 (CSS 2.1). CSS 2.1 is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., fonts and spacing) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). By separating the presentation style of documents from the content of documents, CSS 2.1 simplifies Web authoring and site maintenance. See the CSS Test Suite, a valuable tool in achieving interoperable implementations of this specification. Comments are welcome through 17 May. The group also published today an updated Working Draft of CSS3 Speech Module. Learn more about the Style Activity.

RDFa API and RDFa 1.1 Primer Drafts Updated

19 April 2011

The RDF Web Applications Working Group has published a new Working Draft of the RDFa API. This document specifies an API to access the RDF data embedded in an HTML or XHTML page using RDFa. The Working Group also published a First Public Working Draft of the RDFa 1.1 Primer; this is an updated version of the RDFa Primer that has been adapted to the features of RDFa Core 1.1 specification. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

HTML Media Capture Updated

15 April 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Working Draft of HTML Media Capture. This specification defines a new interface for media files, a new parameter for the accept attribute of the HTML input element in file upload state, and recommendations for providing optimized access to the microphone and camera of a hosting device. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

First Draft of HTML to Platform Accessibility APIs Implementation Guide Published

15 April 2011

The HTML Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of HTML to Platform Accessibility APIs Implementation Guide. This is draft documentation mapping HTML elements and attributes to accessibility API Roles, States and Properties on a variety of platforms. It provides recommendations on deriving the accessible names and descriptions for HTML elements. It also provides accessible feature implementation examples. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

The Messaging API Draft Published

15 April 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Working Draft of The Messaging API. This specification defines an API that provides access to messaging functionality in the device, including SMS, MMS and e-mail. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Last Call: XML Processor Profiles

12 April 2011

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of XML processor profiles. This specification defines several XML processor profiles, each of which fully determines a data model for any given XML document. It is intended as a resource for other specifications, which can by a single normative reference establish precisely what input processing they require. Comments are welcome through 16 May. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

CSS Text Level 3 Draft Published; Minor Updates to Multi-Column Layout Module

12 April 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Text Level 3. This CSS3 module defines properties for text manipulation and specifies their processing model. It covers line breaking, justification and alignment, white space handling, text decoration and text transformation. The CSS Working Group also published today a minor update to the Candidate Recommendation CSS Multi-column Layout Module. The pseudo-algorithm was corrected and also made easier to read. The wording of a few other sections was improved in places, without changes to the functionality. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Clipboard API and Events Draft Published

12 April 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Clipboard API and events. This specification defines the common clipboard operations of cutting, copying and pasting, in such a way that they are exposed to Web Applications and can be adapted to provide advanced functionalities. Its goal is to provide for compatibility where possible with existing implementations. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Last Call: Emotion Markup Language (EmotionML) 1.0

08 April 2011

The Multimodal Interaction (MMI) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Emotion Markup Language (EmotionML) 1.0. As the web is becoming ubiquitous, interactive, and multimodal, technology needs to deal increasingly with human factors, including emotions. The present draft specification of Emotion Markup Language 1.0 aims to strike a balance between practical applicability and basis in science. The language is conceived as a "plug-in" language suitable for use in three different areas: (1) manual annotation of data; (2) automatic recognition of emotion-related states from user behavior; and (3) generation of emotion-related system behavior. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

Vocabularies for EmotionML First Working Draft Published

08 April 2011

The Multimodal Interaction (MMI) Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Vocabularies for EmotionML. This document represents a public collection of emotion vocabularies that can be used with EmotionML to represent emotions and related states. It was originally part of an earlier draft of the EmotionML specification, but was moved out of it so that we can easily update, extend and correct the list of vocabularies as required. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

Grid Layout First Working Draft Published

07 April 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Grid Layout, which allows designers to define invisible grids of horizontal and vertical lines. Elements from a document can then be anchored to points in the grid, which aligns them visually to each other, even if they are not next to each other in the source. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Eight HTML5 Drafts Updated

06 April 2011

The HTML Working Group published eight documents:

Learn more about HTML5.

W3C Launches Provenance Working Group; Renews RDF Web Applications Working Group

31 March 2011

W3C announced today a new Provenance Working Group, whose mission is to support the widespread publication and use of provenance information of Web documents, data, and resources. The Working Group will publish W3C Recommendations that define a language for exchanging provenance information among applications. See the Provenance Working Group Charter for more information.

W3C also renewed the RDF Web Applications Working Group, formerly the RDFa Working Group. The mission of the group is to support the developing use of RDF for embedding and handling structured data in Web documents in general. The Working Group will publish W3C Recommendations to extend and enhance the currently published RDFa 1.0 documents, including an API, as well as a general RDF API aimed at ECMAScript. The Working Group will also support the HTML Working Group in its work on incorporating RDFa in HTML5 and XHTML5 (as a followup on the the currently published Working Draft for RDFa 1.0 in HTML5). See the RDF Web Applications Working Group Charter for more information, and read more about the Semantic Web.

Last Call: RDFa Core 1.1, XHTML+RDFa 1.1

31 March 2011

The RDFa Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of RDFa Core 1.1 and XHTML+RDFa 1.1. The current Web is primarily made up of an enormous number of documents that have been created using HTML. These documents contain significant amounts of structured data, which is largely unavailable to tools and applications. When publishers can express this data more completely, and when tools can read it, a new world of user functionality becomes available, letting users transfer structured data between applications and web sites, and allowing browsing applications to improve the user experience.

RDFa Core is a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. XHTML+RDFa 1.1 is one such language; it is a superset of XHTML 1.1 intended for authors who want to create XHTML Family documents that embed rich semantic markup. There was a very wide review of the First Last Call for RDFa 1.1 by key members of various standards communities, large companies and independent Web developer communities. Due to the large amount of solid feedback by the various respondents, numerous improvements and enhancements were made to RDFa 1.1 to reflect the desires of the developer community.

Comments are welcome through 21 April. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Issues Report on Web and Television Convergence

28 March 2011

Today, W3C publishes a report from the Second Web and TV Workshop, which took place in Berlin in February. The report summarizes the discussion among the 77 participating organizations and highlights some key Web and TV convergence priorities:

  • Adaptive streaming over HTTP
  • Home networking and second-screen scenarios
  • The role of metadata and relation to Semantic Web technology
  • Ensuring that convergent solutions are accessible
  • Profiling and testing
  • Possible extensions to HTML5 for Television

Prioritization now continues in the W3C Web and TV Interest Group. That group will review existing work, as well as the relationship between services on the Web and TV services. It will identify requirements and potential solutions to ensure that the Web will function well with TV.

The W3C Workshop in Berlin was made possible in part by sponsorship from Netflix, IPTV Forum Japan, and Tomo-Digi. This second Web and TV workshop was also organized with the support of the OMWeb EU project. Read the press release about the report.

W3C Launches Audio Working Group

25 March 2011

W3C today launches the Audio Working Group, whose chartered mission is to develop a client-side script API adding more advanced audio capabilities than are currently offered by audio elements. The API will support the features required by advanced interactive applications including the ability to process and synthesize audio streams directly in script, and will extend the HTML5 <audio> and <video> media elements. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Databases on the Semantic Web: Drafts Published for R2RML; A Direct Mapping of Relational Data to RDF

24 March 2011

The RDB2RDF Working Group has published Working Drafts of R2RML: RDB to RDF Mapping Language and A Direct Mapping of Relational Data to RDF, which enable people to expose relational database data on the Semantic Web. In R2RML, people map their relational database to RDF datasets. The Direct Mapping is intended to provide a default behavior for R2RML. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

CSS Fonts Module Level 3 Draft Published

24 March 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Fonts Module Level 3. Families of fonts typically don't contain a single face for each possible variation of font properties. The CSS font selection mechanism describes how to match a given set of CSS font properties to a given font face, and how font resources are loaded dynamically. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Bringing Communities Together at Federated Social Web Europe

24 March 2011

Federated social web conf Social networking has transformed the Web. However, most Social Web applications today limit relationships to those with accounts in the same system. As with many other communications tools (telephone, email, Web) people will ultimately prefer Social Web applications without such barriers, where anyone can communicate seamlessly with anyone else, whatever application they are using. W3C will be exploring how to achieve "One Social Web" at Federated Social Web Europe.

The conference, which takes place 3-5 June in Berlin, Germany, is made possible with the help of the PrimeLife project and is hosted by the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung. It follows the 2010 Federated Social Web Summit and is designed to bring together diverse communities interested in Social Web, identity, and privacy. The agenda will include talks, presentation of position papers, and opportunities for on-the-ground agenda building. Participants are invited to submit position papers, due 2 May. Proposals received after that date may be added to the part of the agenda determined at the event.

Last Call: Widget Packaging and Configuration

22 March 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Widget Packaging and Configuration. This specification standardizes a packaging format and metadata for a class of software known as widgets. Unlike traditional user interface widgets (e.g., buttons, input boxes, toolbars, etc.), widgets as specified in this document are full-fledged client-side applications that are authored using technologies such as HTML5 and then packaged for distribution. Examples range from simple clocks, stock tickers, news casters, games and weather forecasters, to complex applications that pull data from multiple sources to be "mashed-up" and presented to a user in some interesting and useful way. Comments are welcome through 01 May. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Workshop: Identity in the Browser

21 March 2011

The Web is now critical infrastructure and, as such, requires mechanisms that foster trust. For critical enterprise activity, effective government engagement, and sensitive social information accessed over the Web, a higher level of identity assurance, privacy protection, and security is required, and client-side technologies like browsers have an important role to play. There is a pressing need for trustworthy, widely-applicable digital identity management. W3C is therefore organizing a Workshop on Identity in the Browser, to take place 24-25 May 2011 in Mountain View, California, and hosted by the Mozilla Foundation. Participants will investigate strategies to facilitate the development and deployment of improved identity authentication and authorization technologies across the Web. Also included in the workshop will be explorations into the operational, policy, and legal issues that must be addressed by the solutions. Anyone may participate and there is no fee to participate. All participants are required to submit a position paper by 22 April; see additional participation requirements. To help with planning, brief "expressions of interest" are appreciated as rapidly as possible. Learn more about the Workshop on Identity in the Browser.

W3C to Participate in Web Summit Bilbao

18 March 2011

Guggenheim museum The W3C Spain Office, together with representatives from W3C Members Anoboto and CTIC; the City Council of Bilbao; the Basque Government; and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation announced this week the first Bilbao Web Summit to take place 17-18 May 2011 at the Euskalduna Conference Center in Bilbao, Spain. The Bilbao Web Summit will bring together the Web community and global leaders in business, technology, government, media, health and education sectors to discuss the future of the Web. Speakers include W3C staff and Membership, and many other organizations are participating in the conference as speakers and sponsors. The event is open to the public; learn more about registration. Contact the Bilbao Web Summit for more information about speaking and sponsorship opportunities.

XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0; XQuery Update Facility 1.0 are W3C Recommendations

17 March 2011

W3C published two Recommendations today: XQuery Update Facility 1.0 and XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0. The former defines an update facility that extends the XML Query language, XQuery. The XQuery Update Facility provides expressions that can be used to make persistent changes to instances of the XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model. The latter extends XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 with full-text search capabilities. The former document was published by the XML Query Working Group, the latter jointly with the XSL Working Group. Learn more about XML.

Last Call: HTML5 Web Messaging

17 March 2011

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of HTML5 Web Messaging. Web browsers, for security and privacy reasons, prevent documents in different domains from affecting each other; that is, cross-site scripting is disallowed. While this is an important security feature, it prevents pages from different domains from communicating even when those pages are not hostile. This specification defines two mechanisms for communicating between browsing contexts in HTML documents. Comments are welcome through 01 June. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Last Call: Media Fragments URI 1.0

17 March 2011

The Media Fragments Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Media Fragments URI 1.0. Audio and video resources on the World Wide Web are currently treated as "foreign" objects, which can only be embedded using a plugin that is capable of decoding and interacting with the media resource. Specific media servers are generally required to provide for server-side features such as direct access to time offsets into a video without the need to retrieve the entire resource. Support for such media fragment access varies between different media formats and inhibits standard means of dealing with such content on the Web. This specification provides for a media-format independent, standard means of addressing media fragments on the Web using URIs. Comments are welcome through 10 April. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Device API Access Control Use Cases and Requirements Note Published

17 March 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Group Note of Device API Access Control Use Cases and Requirements. With the emergence of numerous new APIs in Web browsers and runtime engines, the need to control which Web sites and applications can make use of these APIs increases. This document describes use cases and requirements for controlling access to these APIs. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Last Call: SVG Compositing Specification

16 March 2011

The SVG Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of SVG Compositing Specification. SVG is a language for describing vector graphics, but it is typically rendered to a display or some form of print medium. The SVG Compositing module adds support for the full range of Porter and Duff operators [PorterDuff] and blending modes. The module allows for raster and vector objects to be combined to produce eye catching effects. Comments are welcome through 12 April. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Navigation Timing

16 March 2011

The Web Performance Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Navigation Timing. This specification defines an interface for web applications to access timing information related to navigation and elements. A preliminary implementation report is available and will be updated during the Candidate Recommendation period. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Invites Discussion of Open Web Platform for All at WWW 2011

16 March 2011

W3C invites all WWW2011 participants to meet at the Hyderabad International Convention Centre (HICC) to discuss the regional and global impact of this expanding Open Web Platform for application development. Participants have several opportunities to meet with the W3C staff, including the W3C track and a keynote by W3C Director Tim-Berners-Lee. This year's W3C track consists of two sessions: people (Accessible and Multilingual Web camp) and devices (Mobile Web Applications camp). Tim Berners-Lee's keynote titled Designing the Web for an Open Society" takes place Thursday, 31 March. The W3C track was organized with the support of the W3C India Office and the MobiWebApp EU project. Read the press release for more information.

Three Web Apps Last Calls: Server-Sent Events, Progress Events, Web Workers

10 March 2011

The Web Applications Working Group published three Last Call Working Drafts today:

  • Server-Sent Events, defines an API for opening an HTTP connection for receiving push notifications from a server in the form of DOM events. The API is designed such that it can be extended to work with other push notification schemes such as Push SMS.
  • Progress Events, defines an abstract event interface that can be used for measuring progress; e.g. HTTP entity body transfers.
  • Web Workers, which defines an API that allows Web application authors to spawn background workers running scripts in parallel to their main page. This allows for thread-like operation with message-passing as the coordination mechanism.

Comments are welcome through 21 April. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

EXI Extends Reach of XML to New Devices and Applications

10 March 2011

W3C today publishes a new standard that will enable people to use XML in brand new ways. The Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) standard dramatically improves the performance, network efficiency, and power consumption of applications that use XML. EXI is a very compact representation of XML information, making it ideal for use in smart phones, devices with memory or bandwidth constraints, in performance sensitive applications such as sensor networks, in consumer electronics such as cameras, in automobiles, in real-time trading systems, and in many other scenarios. Extensive testing shows that EXI performs consistently better than previous XML formats, data compression, and even packed binary data formats. As such, it brings the full range of XML benefits to even the most demanding applications. Read the full press release and Member Testimonials. Learn more about XML at W3C.

Last Call: Ontology for Media Resources 1.0

08 March 2011

The Media Annotations Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Ontology for Media Resources 1.0. This ontology (vocabulary) bridges the different descriptions of media resources, and provide a core set of descriptive properties. This document defines a core set of metadata properties for media resources, along with their mappings to elements from a set of existing metadata formats. Besides that, the document presents a Semantic Web compatible implementation of the abstract ontology using RDF/OWL. The document is mostly targeted towards media resources available on the Web, as opposed to media resources that are only accessible in local archives or museums. Comments are welcome through 31 March. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

W3C Invites Implementer Feedback on XML Security 1.1 Specifications

04 March 2011

The XML Security Working Group published four Candidate Recommendations today: XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1, XML Encryption Syntax and Processing 1.1, XML Security Generic Hybrid Ciphers, and XML Signature Properties. XML Signatures provide integrity, message authentication, and/or signer authentication services for data of any type, whether located within the XML that includes the signature or elsewhere. As companion documents, the Working Group has released new Working Drafts of XML Security 1.1 Requirements and Design Considerations and XML Security RELAX NG Schemas.

To address patent disclosures related to the XML Signature 1.1 and XML Encryption 1.1 specifications, W3C has chartered a Patent Advisory Group. Learn more about W3C's Security Activity.

W3C Launches Patent Advisory Group for XML Signature and XML Encryption

04 March 2011

In accordance with the W3C Patent Policy, W3C has launched a Patent Advisory Group (PAG) in response to disclosures related to the XML Encryption Syntax and Processing 1.1 and XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1 specifications; see the PAG charter. The XML Security Working Group develops this specification. W3C launches a PAG to resolve issues in the event a patent has been disclosed that may be essential, but is not available under the W3C Royalty-Free licensing requirements. Public comments regarding these disclosures may be sent to public-xmlsec-comments@w3.org (with public archive). Learn more about Patent Advisory Groups.

Web Tracking and Privacy Focus of W3C Workshop

03 March 2011

Tracking (e.g., for behavioral advertising) has come to the forefront recently as part of the overall Web privacy conversation in the broader Web and policy community. Several software vendors (including Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google) are offering measures that are intended to permit users to opt out of this tracking, or to prevent tracking by Web sites that are known to engage in these practices. Similar technology is deployed in a number of plugins (including NoScript, AdBlock plus, TACO, and PrivacyChoice). As part of ongoing efforts in the area of user privacy on the Web, W3C is organizing a Workshop on Web Tracking and User Privacy, 28-29 April 2011 in Princeton, New Jersey (USA). Topics are likely to include: whether a do not track proposal is advisable or other means might accomplish the same goals; benefits and challenges of browser-bade approaches; other approaches to better user privacy in the face of frequent online tracking. Anyone may participate in this Workshop; a position paper is required and space is limited. Position papers are due 25 March 2011 but expressions of interest sooner than that are appreciated. Many thanks to the Center for Information Technology Policy at Princeton University for hosting the meeting. Please see the the Call for Participation for further details.

W3C Note Published: Describing Linked Datasets with the VoID Vocabulary

03 March 2011

The Semantic Web Interest Group has published a Group Note of Describing Linked Datasets with the VoID Vocabulary. Semantic Web and other technologies have made it easy and beneficial to publish and share datasets. When someone wants to select a dataset, one of the fundamental questions is, what does it offer? There are datasets such as DBpedia that cover quite a range of topics, whereas there are others that only talk about a certain domain (books, places, etc.). VoID provides a bridge between the publishers and users of datasets. VoID addresses a variety of needs, ranging from data discovery to cataloging and archiving of datasets. Most importantly, VoID helps users find the right data for their tasks. Today's publication provides advice about deployment of dataset descriptions and discusses the discovery as well. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Launches HTML5 Chinese Interest Group

01 March 2011

W3C has launched the HTML5 Chinese Interest Group, whose mission is to facilitate focused discussion in Chinese of the HTML5 specification and of specifications closely related to HTML5, to gather comments and questions in Chinese about those specifications, to collect information about specific use cases in Chinese speaking region for technologies defined in those specifications, and to report the results of its activities as a group back to the HTML Working Group, as well as to other relevant groups and to the W3C membership and community. Learn more in the charter (available in Chinese as well), join the Interest Group, and learn more about the W3C HTML Activity.

Web Notifications First Draft Published

01 March 2011

The Web Notification Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Web Notifications. This specification provides an API to generate simple notifications to alert users outside of the web page. It does not specify exactly how a user agent should display these notifications; the best presentation depends on the device where the user agent is run. When this specificiation refers to displaying notifications on the "desktop", it generally refers to some static display area outside the web page, but may take several forms, including a corner of the user's display, an area within the chrome of the user agent, or the "home" screen of a mobile device. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Best practices for creating MMI Modality Components Note Published

01 March 2011

The Multimodal Interaction (MMI) Working Group today published Best practices for creating MMI Modality Components as a Group Note. Multimodal access means that people may use diverse "modalities" for interaction with the Web, including screen, keyboard, digital ink, voice, speech output, etc. The Working Group has defined a general and flexible framework providing interoperability among modality-specific components from different vendors - for example, speech recognition from one vendor and handwriting recognition from another. The current Note provides additional informative guidelines for authors of MMI modality components. Its purpose is to help authors create useful constituents that may be more easily incorporated into a multimodal system. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3 Draft Published

17 February 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3. This CSS Image Values and Replaced Content module has two parts. First, it defines the syntax for image values in CSS. image values can be a single URI to an image, a list of URIs denoting a series of fallbacks, a reference to an element in the document, or gradients. Second, it defines properties used to control the interaction of replaced content and the CSS layout algorithms. These properties can affect the used image resolution for bitmaps, the replaced object's orientation, and whether and how to preserve the object's aspect ratio. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) Authorized Translations Now in Six Languages

16 February 2011

Today two more Authorized Translations of WCAG 2.0 were published, bringing the total to six languages. These were developed through the Policy for Authorized W3C Translations and they can be used for official purposes. W3C encourages translation of specifications and resources into all languages; see W3C Translations. The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) particularly encourages the development of W3C Authorized Translations of WCAG 2.0 and other technical specifications to facilitate their adoption and implementation internationally; see Translating WAI Documents. To find out if WCAG is available in your language, see the WCAG 2.0 Translations list, which also lists unofficial translations. Additional perspectives are in the "WCAG 2.0 in your mother tongue" blog post. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

W3C Invites Implementations of CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3; Updates Text Level 3

15 February 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3, which contains the features of CSS Level 3 relating to borders and backgrounds. The main extensions compared to CSS Level 2 are borders consisting of images, boxes with multiple backgrounds, boxes with rounded corners and boxes with shadows. The Working Group also updated a Working Draft of CSS Text Level 3, which defines properties for text manipulation and specifies their processing model. It covers line breaking, justification and alignment, white space handling, text decoration and text transformation. Learn more about the CSS Test Suite and the W3C Style Activity.

W3C Extends HTML Working Charter: HTML5 Last Call in May 2011 and Recommendation in 2014

14 February 2011

HTML5 W3C extends today the charter of the HTML Working Group, reaffirming the commitment for HTML5 to reach Last Call in May 2011, and announcing plans to reach Recommendation by 2014. "Even as innovation continues, advancing HTML5 to Recommendation provides the entire Web ecosystem with a stable, tested, interoperable specification," said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. W3C is developing a comprehensive test suite to help achieve broad interoperability for the full specification. Stable specifications are useful targets for interoperability at the same time that innovation never ceases. Therefore, to fulfill the W3C HTML Working Group's mission, W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee encourages the participants to begin discussion of requirements for future versions of HTML after HTML5 reaches Last Call. Read more in the press release and learn more about HTML.

W3C Opens Germany and Austria Office at DFKI

10 February 2011

W3C announces today the opening of a new W3C Germany and Austria Office, hosted at the Project Office Berlin of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the leading German research institute in the field of innovative software technology based on Artificial Intelligence. W3C and DFKI celebrate today this collaborative effort at an opening event, at Theseus Innovation Center in Berlin. "European research and industry have a clear role in shaping the future of the Web," said Dr. Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. "Increased participation from key German and Austrian industries will not only impact positively their businesses and innovation strategies, but will also influence W3C's international landscape." Read more in the press release and learn about the W3C Offices Program.

W3C Launches Web Performance Interest Group

08 February 2011

Today W3C launches a new Web Performance Interest Group, whose mission is to create a faster user experience on the Web. The Interest Group will produce use cases and requirements for future deliverables of the Web Performance Working Group. The Interest Group will provide a forum to discuss Web performance initiatives across web publishers, vendors, developers, and users with the goal of identifying areas for standardization. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Three WebApps Updates: Web Workers, Web Storage, Server-Side Events

08 February 2011

The Web Applications Working Group updated three Working Drafts today: Web Workers, Web Storage, and Server-side Events. The first defines an API that allows Web application authors to spawn background workers running scripts in parallel to their main page. This allows for thread-like operation with message-passing as the coordination mechanism. The second defines an API for persistent data storage of key-value pair data in Web clients. The third defines an API for opening an HTTP connection for receiving push notifications from a server in the form of DOM events. The API is designed such that it can be extended to work with other push notification schemes such as Push SMS. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Launches Web and TV Interest Group

07 February 2011

At the occasion of the Web and TV Workshop in Berlin, W3C announces the creation of a new Web and TV Interest Group. The new group's mission is to provide a forum for Web and TV technical discussions, to review existing work, as well as the relationship between services on the Web and TV services, and to identify requirements and potential solutions to ensure that the Web will function well with TV. See the group's charter for more information. Learn more about Web and TV at W3C.

CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3 Draft Updated

01 February 2011

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published an updated draft of CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3, which specifies the text layout model in CSS and the properties that control it. It covers bidirectional and vertical text. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Alan Bird Joins W3C Staff as Global Business Development Lead

01 February 2011

AlanBird W3C welcomes J. Alan Bird to the W3C staff as the new Global Business Development Lead. Mr. Bird will lead W3C efforts internationally to strengthen the W3C Membership program, identify business development strategies, and seek new revenue streams to support the organization's mission. As the Web creates and transforms a growing number of industries, W3C has created a senior business development position to ensure that a more diverse set of stakeholders can participate in W3C work. Initially, Mr. Bird will focus on development in the areas of Web and Television,and Mobile Web. In addition, he will strengthen our business strategies internationally, working with partners in various regions. Mr. Bird brings 30 years of experience in the IT industry to his new role. In previous roles, Mr. Bird has focused on enterprise systems management and applications development, specializing in building partnerships that benefit end users.

W3C Organizes Workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic Development

31 January 2011

W3C announces its fourth Workshop on Mobile and Web Technologies in Social and Economic Development, in Dar es Salam, Tanzania on 4-5 June. Today, more than half the world's population lives on less than $3 a day, and has no access to healthcare, education, government services, etc. But the strong growth in the mobile phone use offers new opportunities for improvement. The potential of simple ICT services on mobile devices to increase people's income has been demonstrated. However, there are still many challenges to overcome in order to realize the full potential of mobile and Web technologies in this area. The aim of this Workshop is to explore how to lower the existing barriers and to identify key directions for future exploration. Learn more about participation in the Workshop as well as sponsorship opportunities. This Workshop is jointly organized by W3C and the World Wide Web Foundation. Learn more about W3C's Mobile Web for Social Development Interest Group.

Invitation to W3C Germany and Austria Office Opening

26 January 2011

W3C is pleased to announce that the German Research Center for Artifical Intelligence (DFKI), a long-term W3C Member and the leading German research institute in the field of innovative software technology, is the new W3C Office for Germany and Austria. To celebrate this new relationship, W3C and DFKI invite people to an opening event in Berlin, Germany on 10 February 2011. The event will be a great opportunity for people to learn how European research and various industries can contribute to and benefit from W3C's open Web platform. Participation is free, but registration is required. The event follows a W3C Web and TV Workshop. W3C Offices promote adoption of W3C work among developers, application builders, and standards setters, and encourage inclusion of stakeholder organizations in the creation of future recommendations by joining W3C. Learn about the W3C Offices Program.

Call for Review: XQuery Update Facility 1.0 Proposed Recommendation

25 January 2011

The XML Query Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of the XQuery Update Facility 1.0; this defines extensions to XQuery to support changing documents in place in an efficient and declarative manner. Comments are welcome through 22 February. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Call for Review: XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0 is a Proposed Recommendation

25 January 2011

The XSL Working Group and the XML Query Working Group have jointly published a Proposed Recommendation of the XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0 facility. This extends the XPath and XQuery languages to give support for full-text searches against XML Documents or other data model instances. Comments are welcome through 22 February. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Last Call: Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces

25 January 2011

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published a Last Call draft of 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.The Last Call period ends on 15 February 2011. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

W3C Launches RDF Working Group

21 January 2011

W3C today launches the RDF Working Group, whose mission is to update the cornerstone standard for the Semantic Web: the Resource Description Framework (RDF). The scope of work is to extend RDF to include some of the features that the community has identified as both desirable and important for interoperability based on experience with the 2004 version of the standard, but without having a negative effect on existing deployment. Some of the anticipated features include JSON and Turtle serializations, and a standard model and semantics for multiple graphs and graphs stores. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Call for Review: Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0 Proposed Recommendation

20 January 2011

The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0. EXI is a very compact, high performance XML representation that was designed to work well for a broad range of applications. It simultaneously improves performance and significantly reduces bandwidth requirements without compromising efficient use of other resources such as battery life, code size, processing power, and memory. Comments are welcome through 17 February. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Updated Draft of The Messaging API Draft Published

20 January 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Working Draft of The Messaging API. This specification defines an API that provides access to messaging functionality in the device, including SMS, MMS and e-mail. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of WAI-ARIA for Accessible Rich Internet Applications

18 January 2011

The Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) invites implementations of the Candidate Recommendation WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications technical specification for making dynamic, interactive Web content accessible to people with disabilities. WAI-ARIA and supporting documents are described in the WAI-ARIA Overview. Read the WAI-ARIA CR e-mail announcement and the WAI-ARIA CR blog post for more information, and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Role Attribute Last Call Working Draft

18 January 2011

The Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) has published a Last Call Working Draft of Role Attribute, an XML attribute that allows the author to add semantic information to documents. Role Attribute supports WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications technical specification for making dynamic, interactive web content accessible to people with disabilities. Comments are welcome through 25 February 2011. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Device API Access Control Use Cases and Requirements Draft Published

18 January 2011

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Working Draft of Device API Access Control Use Cases and Requirements. With the emergence of numerous new APIs in Web browsers and runtime engines, the need to control which Web sites and applications can make use of these APIs increases. This document describes use cases and requirements for controlling access to these APIs. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

W3C Introduces an HTML5 Logo

18 January 2011

HTML5 W3C unveiled today an HTML5 logo, a striking visual identity for the open web platform. W3C encourages early adopters to use HTML5 and to provide feedback to the W3C HTML Working Group as part of the standardization process. Now there are logos for those who have taken up parts of HTML5 into their sites, and for anyone who wishes to tell the world they are using or referring to HTML5, CSS, SVG, WOFF, and other technologies used to build modern Web applications. The logo home page includes a badge builder (which generates code for displaying the logo), a gallery of sites using the logo, links for buying an HTML5 T-shirt, instructions for getting free stickers, and more. The logo is available under "Creative Commons 3.0 By" so it can be adapted by designers to meet their needs. See also the HTML5 logo FAQ and learn more about HTML5.

Eight HTML5 Drafts Updated

14 January 2011

The HTML Working Group published eight documents:

Learn more about HTML5.

W3C Launches WebID Incubator Group

14 January 2011

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the WebID Incubator Group, whose mission is to further advance for full standardization the WebID protocol, an authentication protocol that uses the SSL/TLS layer for user identification by tying the client to a profile document on the Web through placing a URI in a certificate. It is a first step to a fully standard-based browser authentication experience, but not limited to browser based authentication: peer to peer server authentication will work just as well. The Incubator Group intends to pursue work that has been evolving since 2008, grow the number of interested parties from the Social Web, security and browser communities, and integrate their feedback. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: The Apache Software Foundation, DERI Galway, Garlik, INRIA, Nokia, OpenLink Software, Talis, Telecom Italia SpA, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track but in many cases serves as a starting point for a future Working Group.

W3C Announces Workshop to Bring Content to the Multilingual Web

13 January 2011

MultilingualWeb logo W3C announces the Content on the Multilingual Web Workshop, to take place 4-5 April 2011 in Pisa, Italy. Workshop participants will discuss currently available best practices and standards that help content creators, localizers, language technology developers, browser makers, and others meet the challenges of the multilingual Web. The Workshop also provides opportunities for networking that bring together the various communities involved in enabling the multilingual Web. This is the second of four Workshops being planned by W3C over the next two years as part of the MultilingualWeb European Project and is hosted by the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche. Participation is free and open to anyone. However, space is limited and participants are advised to register as soon as possible. People wishing to speak should submit an outline of their proposed talk with their registration form. The deadline for speaker proposals is 1 March. For more information, see the call for participation. Learn more about W3C's Internationalization Activity.

Last Call: Navigation Timing

11 January 2011

The Web Performance Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Navigation Timing. User latency is an important quality benchmark for Web Applications. While JavaScript-based mechanisms can provide comprehensive instrumentation for user latency measurements within an application, in many cases, they are unable to provide a complete end-to-end latency picture. To address the need for complete information on user experience, this document introduces the PerformanceTiming interfaces. This interface allows JavaScript mechanisms to provide complete client-side latency measurements within applications. Comments are welcome through 08 February. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Ink Markup Language (InkML)

11 January 2011

The W3C Multimodal Interaction Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Ink Markup Language (InkML). This document describes the syntax and semantics for the Ink Markup Language, a data format for representing ink entered with an electronic pen or stylus. The markup allows for the input and processing of handwriting, gestures, sketches, music and other notational languages in applications. It provides a common format for the exchange of ink data between components such as handwriting and gesture recognizers, signature verifiers, and other ink-aware modules. See the group's implementation report plan. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.