W3C News

Design Notes for Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 2.0 Draft Updated

2010-02-04T22:27:36Z

The XSL Working Group has published a Working Draft of Design Notes for Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 2.0. This document describes initial design notes for version 2.0 of the Formatting Object (FO) part of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). Learn more about the XML Activity.

Last Call for Two XML Signature Drafts; Other Drafts Updated

2010-02-04T22:15:56Z

The XML Security Working Group published two Last Call Working Drafts:

XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1, which specifies XML syntax and processing rules for creating and representing digital signatures. XML Signatures can be applied to any digital content, including XML.
XML Signature Properties, which outlines proposed standard XML Signature Properties syntax and processing rules and an associated namespace for these properties. The intent is these can be composed with any version of XML Signature using the XML SignatureProperties element.

The group welcomes Last Call comments through 18 March. The group also published several other drafts today: XML Security 1.1 Requirements and Design Considerations, XML Security RELAX NG Schemas, XML Security 2.0 Requirements and Design Considerations, XML Signature Transform Simplification: Requirements and Design, and XML Signature Best Practices. Learn more about XML Technology.

W3C Launches RDFa Working Group

2010-02-02T16:12:45Z

W3C launched today the RDFa Working Group, whose mission is to support the use of RDFa, a format for embedding structured data in Web documents. The Working Group's goals include making it easier to author RDFa, promoting continued adoption of the technology in HTML, XHTML, and XML, and helping developers create RDFa applications. The group is chartered to extend and enhance RDFa 1.0, including the specification of an API. 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). Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Comments Welcome on First Draft of The System Information API

2010-02-02T15:58:11Z

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The System Information API. This specification defines an API to provide Web applications with access to various properties of the system which they are running on. Specifically, properties pertaining to the device hardware are addressed. Examples include battery status, current network bandwidth. Additionally, some of those properties offer access to the environment around the device, such as ambient brightness or atmospheric pressure. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0; Use Cases Updated

2010-01-28T23:14:44Z

The XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group have jointly published an update to the Candidate Recommendation of XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0, and to the companion Use Cases. The former defines the syntax and formal semantics of XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0 which is a language that extends XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 with full-text search capabilities. Learn more about the XML Activity.

Method for Writing Testable Conformance Requirements Published as Working Group Note

2010-01-28T23:02:32Z

The Mobile Web Initiative Test Suites Working Group has published the First Public Working Group Note of A Method for Writing Testable Conformance Requirements. This document presents a method for writing, marking-up, and analyzing conformance requirements in technical specifications that can help other Working Groups develop better specifications more quickly. Learn more about testing-related work in W3C.

Report Examines Access Control, Privacy Issues

2010-01-28T21:05:55Z

W3C has published a report and full minutes of the Workshop on Access Control Application Scenarios, held in Luxembourg in November 2009. Participants from 17 organizations examined the current limitations of access control, privacy enhancement, distributed handling of access control, and other challenging use cases. eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) was a focus of the Workshop, though not the exclusive topic of conversation. The report summarizes the major "takeaways" from the Workshop, related to XACML semantics, "sticky" policies, and credentials-based access control. The OASIS XACML Technical Committee is expected to take up these topics. W3C's Policy Languages Interest Group (PLING) is expected to discuss data handling policies and the matching and triggering of events in the privacy context.

W3C Seeks Feedback on Early Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Property Paths; Six SPARQL Drafts Updated

2010-01-27T20:22:02Z

The SPARQL Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Property Paths, which defines a more succinct way to write parts of basic graph patterns and also extend matching of triple pattern to arbitrary length paths. The group also published six updates, listed below. The group seeks feedback on open issues in particular. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

SPARQL 1.1 Query adds support for aggregates, subqueries, projected expressions, and negation to the SPARQL query language.
SPARQL 1.1 Update defines an update language for RDF graphs.
SPARQL 1.1 Protocol for RDF defines an abstract interface and HTTP bindings for a protocol to issue SPARQL Query and SPARQL Update statements against a SPARQL endpoint.
SPARQL 1.1 Service Description defines a vocabulary and discovery mechanism for describing the capabilities of a SPARQL endpoint.
SPARQL 1.1 Uniform HTTP Protocol for Managing RDF Graphs describes the use of the HTTP protocol for managing named RDF graphs on an HTTP server.
SPARQL 1.1 Entailment Regimes defines conditions under which SPARQL queries can be used with entailment regimes such as RDF, RDF Schema, OWL, or RIF.

UK Government Launches Open Data Site

2010-01-26T22:57:16Z

The UK Government has unveiled its open data website, data.gov.uk, developed with the help of Tim Berners-Lee (W3C Director) and John Sheridan (Linked Data Lead for data.gov.uk and co-Chair of the W3C eGovernment Interest Group). Like data.gov in the United States, the UK site reflects a growing awareness inside and outside of government that standards-based open data is a key enabler of government services and a building block for new information services across government and industry. Additionally, this new site showcases Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies. Learn more about Publishing Open Government Data and eGovernment at W3C.

Uniform Messaging Policy, Level One Draft Published

2010-01-26T16:56:47Z

The Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Uniform Messaging Policy, Level One. The Uniform Messaging Policy (UMP) enables cross-site messaging that avoids Cross-Site-Request-Forgery and similar attacks that abuse HTTP cookies and other credentials. For example, content from customer.example.org can safely specify requests to resources determined by service.example.com. Rather than restricting information retrieval to a single origin, as the Same Origin Policy almost does, the Uniform Messaging Policy supports origin independent messaging. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD): Component Designators

2010-01-21T23:12:47Z

The XML Schema Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD): Component Designators. XML Schema: Component Designators defines a scheme for identifying XML Schema components as specified by XML Schema Part 1: Structures and XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Updated Draft: Use Cases and Requirements for Ontology and API for Media Resource 1.0

2010-01-21T23:07:27Z

The Media Annotations Working Group has published a Working Draft of Use Cases and Requirements for Ontology and API for Media Resource 1.0. This document specifies use cases and requirements as an input for the development of the "Ontology for Media Resource 1.0" and the "API for Media Resource 1.0". The ontology will be a simple ontology to support cross-community data integration of information related to media resources on the Web. The API will provide read access and potentially write access to media resources, relying on the definitions from the ontology. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Last Call: CSS Styling Attributes Level 1

2010-01-21T23:05:27Z

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS Styling Attributes Level 1. Markup languages such as HTML and SVG provide a styling attribute on most elements, to hold a fragment of a style sheet that applies to those elements. One of the possible style sheet languages is CSS. This draft describes the syntax and interpretation of the CSS fragment that can be used in such styling attributes. Comments are welcome through 09 February. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Contacts API First Draft Published

2010-01-21T23:03:29Z

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Contacts API. This API provides access to the user's address book from within a browser environment. Learn more about JavaScript interfaces developed in W3C.

Interested in Next Steps for RDF? Come to the W3C Workshop!

2010-01-20T22:41:04Z

W3C is organizing a Workshop on the Next Steps for RDF around June 2010; we will announce the exact dates and location as soon as possible. Since its publication in 2004, the Resource Description Framework (RDF) has become the core architectural block of the Semantic Web. The standard is now widely deployed in terms of tools and applications. Due to this wide deployment, additional R&D activities, and the publication of newer standards (e.g., SPARQL, OWL, POWDER, and SKOS), a number of issues regarding RDF have come to the fore. Workshop participants will discuss these issues and help determine whether it is time for a new version of RDF. W3C Membership is not required to participate in the Workshop, but each participant must be associated with an accepted position paper. The deadline for position papers is 29 March 2010; see the Call for Participation for more information. Updates (including the exact date and location of the Workshop) will be added to the Call for Participation and will be announced on the Semantic Web Activity News Blog.