You've heard it: the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) creates Web standards. W3C's mission is to lead the Web to its full potential, which it does by developing technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) that will create a forum for information, commerce, inspiration, independent thought, and collective understanding. This summary in 7 points explains W3C's goals and operating principles.
W3C defines the Web as the universe of network-accessible
information (available through your computer, phone,
television, or networked refrigerator...). Today this universe
benefits society by enabling new forms of human communication and
opportunities to share knowledge. One of W3C's primary goals is
to make these benefits available to all people, whatever their
hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture,
geographical location, or physical or mental ability. W3C's Internationalization Activity, Mobile Activity,
TVWeb Activity,
Voice Browser
Activity, and Web Accessibility Initiative all
illustrate our commitment to universal access.
People currently share their knowledge on the Web in language intended
for other people. On the Semantic Web ("semantic"
means "having to do with meaning"), we will be able to express
ourselves in terms that our computers can interpret and exchange. By
doing so, we will enable them to solve problems that we find tedious,
to help us find quickly what we're looking for: medical information, a
movie review, a book purchase order, etc. The W3C languages RDF, XML, and digital
signatures are the building blocks of the Semantic Web.
The Web is a collaborative medium, not
read-only like a magazine. In fact, the first Web browser was also an
editor, though most people today think of browsing as primarily
viewing, not interacting. To promote a more collaborative environment,
we must build a "Web of Trust" that offers
confidentiality, instills confidence, and makes it possible for people
to take responsibility for (or be accountable for) what they publish
on the Web. These goals drive much of W3C's work
around digital signatures, annotation mechanisms, group authoring,
versioning, etc.
Twenty
years ago, people bought software that only worked with other software
from the same vendor. Today, people have more freedom to choose, and
they rightly expect software components to be interchangeable. They
also expect to be able to view Web content with their preferred
software (graphical desktop browser, speech synthesizer, braille
display, car phone...). W3C, a vendor-neutral organization, promotes
interoperability by designing and promoting open (non-proprietary)
computer languages and protocols that avoid the market fragmentation
of the past. This is achieved through industry
consensus and encouraging an open forum for
discussion.
W3C aims for
technical excellence but is well aware that what we know and need
today may be insufficient to solve tomorrow's problems. We therefore
strive to build a Web that can easily evolve into an even better Web,
without disrupting what already works. The principles of
simplicity, modularity, compatibility, and
extensibility guide all of our designs.
Decentralization is a principle of modern distributed systems,
including societies. In a centralized system, every message or action
has to pass through a central authority, causing bottlenecks when the
traffic increases. In design, we therefore limit the number of central
Web facilities to reduce the vulnerability of the Web as a
whole. Tolerance of errors is the necessary companion of distributed
systems, and the life and breath of the Internet, not just the Web.
Who wouldn't like more interactivity and richer media on the Web,
including resizable images, quality sound, video, 3D effects, and
animation? W3C's consensus process does not limit content provider
creativity or mean boring browsing. Through its membership, W3C
listens to end-users and works toward providing a solid framework for
the development of the Cooler Web through languages
such as the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
language and the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL).
W3C was founded in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. Today, W3C has over 370 Members and nearly 60 full-time staff around the world who contribute to the development of W3C specifications and software. Find out more about:
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