The demand for access to applications, video, and other network services continues to grow. The Web platform itself continues its expansion to support mobile devices, television, home appliances, in-car systems, and more consumer electronics. To meet the growing demand, the Web platform of the future will require smarter integration of non-PC devices with Web technology so that both hardware and software vendors can provide richer Web applications on various devices at lower costs.

Today, the World Wide Web is fundamental to communication in all walks of life. As the share of English web pages decreases and that of other languages increases, it is vitally important to ensure the multilingual success of the World Wide Web.

The MultilingualWeb project is looking at best practices and standards related to all aspects of creating, localizing and deploying the Web multilingually. The project aims to raise the visibility of existing best practices and standards and identify gaps. The core vehicle for this is a series of four events which are planned for the coming two years. As the first of the four events, this workshop will introduce and review currently available best practices and standards aimed at helping content creators, localizers, tools developers, and others meet the challenges of the multilingual Web.