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Perspectives on Encrypted Media Extension Reaching First Public Working Draft

2013-05-09T15:00:00Z

The HTML Working Group has announced their decision to release a First Public Working Draft of the Encrypted Media Extension (EME) specification. A preliminary version of the document has been public for some time, prompting the Free Software Foundation and others to petition W3C not to publish this draft.

The purpose of this post is to inform the community that, while we welcome and value input from all parties, we intend to continue to work on content protection, and publish this draft.

The Requirement from our Community

I intentionally refer to "content protection." Different publishers use the Web differently, some choosing to make content available free of charge, others preferring to control access. Most people would agree that individuals and institutions in general should have the right to limit access to proprietary information, or charge for access to content they own. Against this backdrop, the W3C Director has established that work on content protection for the Web is in scope for the HTML Working Group. This would address a specific set of requirements on HTML that came to the HTML Working Group from the Web and TV Interest Group.

How W3C Develops Web Standards

It is useful to review the W3C process to develop Web standards. It is a consensus process whereby we bring together vast and diverse interested parties to collaborate and achieve consensus to address the never-ending ways in which the Web drives increased value to society. The key objective is to maximize interoperability and openness - values that have served us well. Once we receive requirements for enhanced functionality, we address those requirements in W3C Working Groups. Once a Working Group has been chartered with a particular scope, the group has autonomy in how it satisfies requirements within that scope. It is thus up to the HTML Working Group to do their best to address identified content-protection requirements with the ultimate goal of enhancing interoperability on the Web. At the current time, the only content-protection proposal put forth within the HTML Working Group is the EME specification. Other discussions about content protection and alternative solutions to the requirements are taking place in the Restricted Media Community Group, which could feed into the HTML Working Group standards effort.

It is typical at this early stage of development for there to be issues; EME is an early draft not a final Recommendation. The HTML Working Group will publish revisions, seek comment, respond to issues, and pursue consensus decisions, all part of the usual W3C process. All W3C specifications are developed under the W3C Patent Policy, with a goal of assuring that the final standards can be implemented on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis. The Working Group expects to see open source implementations of the EME specification.

The DRM Debate and How it Relates to Web Standards

Here is our understanding of why EME is a contentious specification, despite broad agreement that some form of content protection is needed for the Web. The EME specification defines Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that would provide access to content decryption modules (CDMs), part of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems. W3C is not standardizing CDM technology, but there is a concern that standardizing APIs could encourage CDM usage - which some view as being in opposition to open Web principles.

While this viewpoint is important to consider as part of the debate, we have heard multiple principled and practical arguments on both sides of the issue.

We all aspire for a rich Web experience. Principled arguments for content protection begin by pointing out that the Web should be capable of hosting all kinds of content and that it must be possible to compensate creative work. Without content protection, owners of premium video content - driven by both their economic goals and their responsibilities to others - will simply deprive the Open Web of key content. Therefore, while the actual DRM schemes are clearly not open, the Open Web must accommodate them as best possible, as long as we don't cross the boundary of standards with patent encumbrances; or standards that cannot be implemented in open source. It has also been noted that a number of widely deployed proprietary technologies are used with the Web, including some video codecs and technologies accessed through plug-in APIs. We are not supportive of proprietary video codecs but recognize that to have far-reaching standards that support interoperability it is essential to include connections to such proprietary elements, some of which may be replaced in time with open standards.

Some have argued that we should not standardize interfaces to CDMs which would have the effect of cordoning off protected content into its own walled garden. This would be a mistake. It is W3C's overwhelming responsibility to pursue broad interoperability, so that people can share information, whether content is protected or available at no charge. A situation where premium content is relegated to applications inaccessible to the Open Web or completely locked down devices would be far worse for all.

There have also been critiques about EME regarding its impact on open source software development, specifically the question as to whether it can be implemented in open source. It is worth noting that the proposed (non-proprietary) APIs would work equally well with proprietary CDMs as with non-proprietary content protection schemes that could be implemented in open source software. The latter might not offer the same degree of content protection - they could be breakable - and would rely more on social convention than on impenetrability. Candidly, we don't see these solutions as being acceptable to content owners for premium video today, but that could change in time, or it could be acceptable to others in the community with different content requirements.

Next Steps

W3C as an organization will weigh a variety of complex considerations to determine the right balance for the Open Web Platform. There are principles and practical arguments on both sides of the debate. If we engage with all, I believe we have a much better chance of success than if we do not. We invite the community to review the First Public Working Draft of the EME specification. We also invite those with alternate proposals for addressing the requirements to consider joining the HTML Working Group, or to discuss them in the Restricted Media Community Group.

Good News about VP8 Licensing

2013-03-11T02:03:04Z

I applaud the licensing agreement announced by Google, MPEG-LA, and additional patent-holders. The agreement appears to align with W3C's Patent Policy which has a goal of assuring that W3C Recommendations can be implemented on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis. Google has also re-iterated its goal to provide the web with a Royalty-Free video codec.

Royalty-Free licensing terms have played an important role in making the Web the premier platform for innovation, and W3C adopted its patent policy to encourage the widest adoption of Web standards. This is the first high-quality video codec we are aware of available on Royalty-Free terms.

Video is huge. In May 2012 Cisco predicted that by 2016, video will be 55 percent of all consumer Internet traffic. Last month they indicated that by 2017, two-thirds of the world's mobile data traffic will be video. Given support from developers for using HTML5 to reach diverse platforms, and growing interest from the television, automotive, digital signage, digital publishing, gaming, and other industries, this decision to aim at royalty-free licensing is likely to give VP8 an advantage on the Web.

Royalty-Free video is critical for the Web in general and has recently received attention for WebRTC. In November 2012 the W3C staff conveyed to the IETF that "there should be a royalty-free standard web infrastructure which should include Real Time Communications on the Web." While W3C does not endorse a particular technology for WebRTC, we are quite pleased that there is finally a Royalty-Free codec to choose from.

Congratulations to all parties involved for increasing the value of the Web for the global community.

On the W3C Agenda: Headlights 2013

2013-01-31T05:44:18Z

Last year we introduced an annual headlights exercise to identify major new strategic directions for W3C. These are studies that involve W3C and its Members, and result in proposals for new work which we evaluate in July. We learned a great deal from doing it, and we are preparing to launch a stronger initiative this year, Headlights 2013.

What we Learned from Last Year's Findings

We learned many things from last year's exercise which has profoundly shaped our agenda this year. Our 11-12 February Workshop about e-books came from a growing realization that there is an opportunity for greater impact in the digital publishing industry. Our study of strategic developer relations led to the creation of webplatform.org a much stronger outreach to the developer community. Our exploration of how W3C is perceived by stakeholders led to a branding study which is currently underway.

We also learned what we could do better. A proper study takes more time. Last year we started at the end of March and reported to the Advisory Committee in May - this year we will start in mid-February and report to the AC in June. So we have two more months to get our work done.

We also learned that we need more participation from our stakeholders. This additional time will give more time for volunteers to participate in these studies.

Headlights 2013

In selecting topics for study this year, we tried to be very thoughtful, and look at our needs in three categories. Accordingly, the topics for this year are:

Open Web Platform
- Web Payments
- HTML5 Performance
- Closing the Gap with Native
- Which Community Groups and Business Groups should transition to Working Groups
Web Stewardship
Brand and Communications
- W3C Brand
- W3C Anniversaries
- Site Redesign
Productivity
- Group Analytics and Dashboards
- Group Chair Training

To learn more about our proposals, please see the public Headlights 2013 wiki.

W3C Host in China

2013-01-20T21:00:00Z

We just announced the establishment of a fourth Host location for W3C, at Beihang University in Beijing.

The Host locations house the W3C Team that facilitates the creation of standards for the Web. The W3C Team acts as a single global body, and has been strategically located in North America (MIT), Europe (ERCIM), and Japan (Keio) to assure that we are close to the centers of Web innovation.

In the last several years, the growth of Web usage in China, the growth of Web related industry in China, and the growth of the developer community in China have clearly established China as a center of Web innovation. We have seen that through the activity and energy of the HTML5 Chinese Interest Group, through the rapid growth of W3C Membership in China, and through the activity of the developer community in China in conferences and other events such as the Test The Web Forward hackathon. We see huge participation from developers in Chinese companies, as well as developers who work in China branches of global companies. Much of this was facilitated by the Office we established in Beihang several years ago, leading to today's announcement that Beihang will now be a Host location.

The timing is propitious. We have recently announced a milestone of "feature complete" for our flagship HTML5 specification. As we complete the work to bring HTML5 to recommendation, it is simultaneously spurring innovation on extension specifications. Developers in China are at the ground level as we introduce the next set of important directions for the Web. Many of these directions are from new use cases and requirements we are hearing from industries that are dramatically impacted by the Open Web Platform such as entertainment, automotive, and digital publishing.

I welcome our Chinese colleagues to greater involvement in the process of Web standardization. There will be a greater partnership in establishing standard Web technology as the core technological platform for the benefit of mankind.

HTML5 and HTML.next

2012-07-26T12:56:50Z

HTML5 is the cornerstone of the Open Web Platform that the web community is building. This week saw two significant events in W3C that bolster our efforts. I wanted to share these with the broader web community, and in the process give an update on HTML.

As background, in April the HTML Working Group Chairs —Paul Cotton (Microsoft), Sam Ruby (IBM), and Maciej Stachowiak (Apple)— and the HTML5 Editor —Ian Hickson (Google)— identified that we needed to make changes in editorial coverage for the specifications. We recognized simultaneous needs: bring HTML5 to “Recommendation” and begin the work on “.next” – what will come after HTML5. Since Ian was already working on the latter, he requested that the Chairs find new editors to bring HTML5 to REC.

So in late April, the Chairs announced to the HTML Working Group that we would search for replacement editors and also we would continue our partnership with the WHAT WG on follow-on work. Additionally, Ian created the W3C WHAT Community Group, part of cementing this partnership.

Here are the two events that occurred this week. First, we announced that Adobe, Google, and Microsoft have provided significant funds to sponsor more complete W3C staff coverage to achieve Recommendation Status for HTML5 for 2014. This covers work both in specification development and interoperability testing. Due to the size and number of the group's specifications, the expanding set of devices implementing Web technology (PCs, laptops, smartphones, e-books, set-top boxes, etc.), and the demands of testing, we expect an unprecedented effort to complete testing for the Open Web Platform.

Second, the chairs announced people from the community chosen to participate in the editorial team to complete HTML5: Travis Leithead, Erika Doyle Navara, Ted O'Connor, and Silvia Pfeiffer; more names will follow. With these contributions of time and money from our Membership, we are confident that HTML5 is resourced to move forward. And we are pleased that the Working Group, in collaboration with others in the community, is also focused on what will come next – as web technology continues to be a living technology.

Update 2012-08-02: The HTML Working Group Chairs have announced the Editorial team for Canvas 2D Context.

On the W3C Agenda: Headlights 2012

2012-04-02T16:48:36Z

The Open Web Platform is expanding rapidly, and with it, the pace of new ideas for the Web. We launched Community Groups as a scalable way for Members and non-Members alike to come together around their Web interests.

This grassroots approach to introducing new ideas is necessary to ensure that W3C's agenda remains highly relevant to industry, but it may not always be sufficient. Longer term projects or efforts that may require significant resources demand a more strategic approach.

In recent weeks W3C created task forces to develop strategic proposals for eleven topics. Six would affect W3C's technical agenda:

Social networking standards
Cloud computing standards
Digital publishing standards
Payment standards
Digital marketing on the Web
Network usage good practices

Three would strengthen our developer outreach:

Strategic developer relations
Developer certification
Updated mobileOK checker

Two relate to organizational growth:

Working Group infrastructure
W3C Twentieth Anniversary in 2014

The eleven task forces are underway and are developing proposals with community participation. The W3C Membership will devote time to the proposals at its May Advisory Committee meeting, so the task forces benefit from the input of the entire Membership of W3C. The task forces will refine the proposals in June. In July, W3C management will prioritize them and allocate resources to a portion of them.

To learn more about the proposals, please see our public wiki.

From Innovation to Standard

2011-08-15T19:40:46Z

Today we introduce Community Groups as a place for developers to collaborate on next generation Web technologies. Our stakeholders have told us that a lightweight environment for innovation is necessary because the market evolves at such a rapid pace. We have designed Community Groups to lower barriers to participation, while at the same time maintaining our Working Groups for building broader consensus around technologies that are mature enough for standardization.

Community Groups:

are open to all with no fee to participate
quick to start and may continue indefinitely
determine their own operations and internal processes
create specifications under a permissive copyright
provide royalty-free patent protection even in draft state

W3C's objective is to be a complete standards ecosystem for the entire Web community. With today's announcement, we create a new workspace for the developer community. We also announced today the creation of Business Groups to strengthen our partnerships with consumers of Web technology. And last year we established a partnership with ISO/IEC to address the portion of the Web community that seeks recognition of open Web standards by national bodies.

We continue to seek input from our entire community on these new offerings and other ways to better serve diverse interests and the long-term growth of the Web.

W3C Priorities and Milestones in 2011

2011-02-09T12:48:01Z

Last year I published several posts about our efforts to establish a new vision for the W3C organization. I wanted to update you on how we have turned the results of the organizational vision task forces into specific plans and actions.

Our first priority was to make sure we were focused on all elements required to create the best possible Web platform. Second, conversations with people in many different industries made clear that this new Open Web Platform was not only a great technical platform, but was literally transforming industries - from telecommunications to television broadcast, social networking, gaming, eGovernment, and publishing. Next we wanted to ensure that we opened up W3C to maximize participation of all stakeholders. Finally, we looked at our financial model - in which we discovered that the growing interest in HTML5 and the broader web program was bringing new stakeholders to strengthen our financial base; and that sponsorships can help further expand our program.

These efforts significantly impacted our plans, which we are now executing. To make sure that we remain results-focused, we have identified a subset of activities to serve a surrogate for the whole. You might be interested in reading about select priorities and milestones in 2011. While this only represents a fraction of our work, it gives a pretty good broad view of our current organizational focus.

Progress in Lyon - TPAC 2010

2010-11-29T19:54:09Z

W3C met in Lyon, France 1-5 November for an annual W3C gathering we call "TPAC" (for Technical Plenary and Advisory Committee, pronounced "T-pack"). This was my first TPAC. Based on what I saw and what I heard it was a success – but with room for improvement.

Overlapping meetings – overlapping objectives

TPAC consists of several different meetings:

Working group face to face meetings - where groups resolve coordination issues in a flurry of activity
Technical Plenary day – when we air concerns and look to the future
Advisory Committee meeting - strategic planning for W3C with the Membership
Hallway conversations - the key community-building ritual

Working group face to face meetings

This is the heart of TPAC; the reason that people come. Overall I was quite satisfied with participation and progress. With over 300 attendees and over 25 Working Groups meeting face to face, were roughly on par with years past and there was a good deal of technical progress. I could not participate in all of the working group meetings, but I did sit in on several of them. I had a good set of discussions with the accessibility team; and had several off-line meetings with the HTML5 chairs.

I wish more people could have attended, but we all suffer from the tyrannies of the calendar. The week after TPAC was a Semantic technologies conference in Shanghai, and that undoubtedly lowered participation from our strong Semantic Web aficionados and working groups. Also there was an IETF meeting in Beijing which had a modest impact.

Technical Plenary Day

I chaired the program committee for technical plenary day and felt really good about the agenda the committee produced. Well, until the critical blogs came. Actually, even after the critical blogs came.

The program committee objective was a balanced agenda. We had talks about the Semantic Web, IETF, XML convergence with HTML, and accessibility. We had a session on different use cases and perspectives for television broadcast. There was also quite a diversity in Lightning Talks: Emotions, the Social Web, Speech, Semantic Web, Relational and RDF, 3D, Points of Interest, XML Performance, Privacy, and Philosophy. So I think we achieved balance. The plenary minutes are public.

Underneath that, we examined our work from different points of view. The first panel, organized by Noah Mendelsohn was about “integration”. We looked above the level of a working group into how pieces fit together from a broader product perspective. W3C is designing an Open Web Platform with a lot of moving parts, and discussions such as those at TPAC help ensure that the parts work together.

We devoted a great deal of attention to HTML. With HTML5 approaching Last Call (May 2011) and many features already in browsers, our attention paralleled the industry's current level of enthusiasm, making this an appropriate focus for this TPAC. Many people have different perspectives about HTML5 – but many perspectives will only come into fruition at .next. HTML Working Group co-Chair Paul Cotton led a great panel which examined different views of what comes after HTML5. We also saw lots of eye candy – HTML5 coming to life in real implementations.

I also want to mention how vibrant our community is. Sixteen lightning talks and a panel of diverse views on Web and television suggested some new areas for W3C attention in the near- and medium- term.

Then came the blogs. Michael Kay and colleagues made several good points abut what was missing from the plenary agenda – but in reality one day cannot possibly address every single aspect of W3C. My conclusion in the posting that I made to that conversation was "Let's use this thread as a prompt to work together so that the next TPAC agenda is more representative of all the work going on at the Consortium." Always room for improvement.

Advisory Committee Meeting

W3C's Advisory Committee (AC) also met to discuss the strategic direction of the organization. I have previously blogged (June, June again, July) about our organizational vision task forces. Those task forces have completed their work and we reviewed the results. W3C management has approved 17 new projects that address technical priorities (new work in privacy, WebID, security, testing), participation and inclusion (easier to bring standards work, better support for a diverse global community), and financial matters. For the latter I reported that the last several months had seen an increase in new members for W3C.

Thursday and Friday the W3C Advisory Board (AB) met for a "post- game analysis" of the AC meeting, diving into the task force recommendations. One piece of advice from the AB was to support our current policy of having dues paid in three currencies; even as they advised that this should be reviewed on a regular basis.

Hallway Conversations

For many people, it is the casual or unexpected meeting or discussion at a break that can have the greatest impact. I can't comment on the thousands of discussions that took place, but let me at least mention the most visible and formal of these "informal" discussions. Thursday night Marie-Claire Forgue organized a meetup with the Lyon developer community, providing an opportunity to showcase W3C and Web activities in Lyon. Over 200 people attended session and together enjoyed practical and whimsical advances in technology, systems, and games. A good capstone for a great event.

Global and Accessible Web

2010-08-26T19:46:44Z

Over the summer I did less blogging due to vacations. But I am in the middle of a series about our organizational task forces, so in the next few postings I will complete that series. I've blogged in detail about our Core Mission and W3C as the Place for New Standards Work. Today I will discuss our directions for a more Global and Accessible Web.

Why am I writing now? Why didn't I wait for the summer to end? I was inspired by Wired.

Last week, Wired wrote an article entitled the Web is Dead. Actually, I'm not that worried, and I'll leave it to others to debate their theory. But for me, it got me thinking. What about the unexploited Web? Isn't it a missed opportunity for so many people in the world who seek local content, access to information about the world, and human contact?

So at the same time that people are writing off the Web, the planet has several billion people that are trying to get on. People who need to get on. Their success depends on their getting on.

The importance of a more Global and Accessible Web

Twenty years ago the Web did not exist. Thus infrastructure of society did not depend on it. There were hard copy books, encyclopedias, and directories. The newspaper was several pieces of paper that arrived every day at the door. Governments communicated their information through manuals, forms, and publications. It was less efficient, but it was adequate.

The Web is far more efficient. As a result - much of the infrastructure of life has moved on-line. The Web is vital. This vitality imposes a social responsibility on all of us to ensure that the Web is accessible to all.

The developing world. The billions of people who do not have access to the Web today. As they and their governments try to advance – it will be through the Web. They will want the efficiency brought by this technology. Why go through intermediate paper stages of development which will be thrown out in the end? The Web will empower people and connect people in developing economies – to each other and to the world.

That is my reflection on Wired. The next several decades will not only see continued growth and sophistication from today's Web users who are exploiting mobility, video, graphics, fonts, and semantic expression. It will see a huge growth of additional people who are getting to use the Web for the first time and substantially enhance their lives.

A W3C agenda in support of a more Global and Accessible Web

We have always focused on a Global and Accessible Web. To start – what is better than open standards? One popular standard we are working on today is HTML5 – part of a suite of standards (including WebApps, SVG, CSS, Geolocation, and others) that are defining an advanced and open Web platform. Closed frameworks lead to walled gardens – which hurts everyone – and particularly hurts those that have less access.

But to achieve this more Global and Accessible Web we can do more. To the extent that some of today's barriers are economic, it will require economic growth in parts of the world. Some of that will be addressed by advocates such as the Web Foundation. Generally, such a focus is outside of the scope of the W3C.

Technical barriers are within the scope of W3C. In our task force we have received input about a variety of technical areas that would enhance access. The task force is not done, but some of these areas are:

Multi-lingual support. There are hundreds of languages and thousands of dialects in the world. They are not equally represented on the Web. What better support can we provide for a multi-lingual world?
Mobile and accessible voice applications. How do we make sure that these applications are usable by people with disabilities? How do we make sure they are usable by people with no textual or IT literacy?
Simpler authoring approaches. It would be desirable for a larger set of people to not only surf the Web, but also to be able to contribute content to the Web. For the non-technically savvy, for people with disabilities, people with low literacy, voice-based authoring or other tools to support simpler authoring would be attractive.

Within W3C we recognize a need to reach out. Some of the reaching out might result in new areas of technical standardization such as the ones mentioned above. Some might result in new methods of W3C working as a global team. For us to be more globally inclusive we must work differently than we have in the past. Differences in language, culture, time zone, and values must be bridged to allow the Web to reach its full potential.

The Core Mission of W3C

2010-07-16T18:14:24Z

New

July 9, 2010

I reported in The Mission of W3C that a major focus of W3C is to Strengthen our core mission. This blog entry elaborates.

Broad and / or deep

Since the Web is central to everything (see also The Expanding Web Platform), it is not too surprising that we get involved in standardizing numerous aspects of Web infrastructure. Today we have over 70 groups that are providing standards in diverse areas. Evidently, some of these groups have greater impact on the utility of the Web than others. Also, some of them are more advanced/complex/difficult than others. If we apply an equal amount of effort to each working group, we will sub-optimize the Web by not applying sufficient resource on those that are most crucial. So we prioritize.

Every time we make an incremental change in our effort – such as when we start a new working group or expand the scope of requirements – we are making an incremental prioritization decision. In our “core mission task force” we are taking a step back and looking at the ensemble of our activity. Do we know which small number of the 70 groups are the most important? Are we applying sufficient resource and attention to them to guarantee the greatest possible success?

What does it mean if a Standards Working Group is Core (or not Core) to W3C

As our task force characterizes projects into core and non-core, one might ask what difference it makes.

There are many reasons that a non-core standard might have migrated to W3C. Some of them are:

The standard is a natural adjacency of a core standard
W3C houses a team who are knowledgeable technologists who can best shepherd the standard
The standard is a candidate to be core in the future

… among other reasons. These are actually sensible reasons. So we will absolutely continue to serve the industry and convene those standards groups.

But for core standards we must have a higher target of quality. It is not sufficient to work with the industry to create the standard. We must assure quality of the standard, develop it on schedule, help make sure that it has the right feature set, work on testing strategies, provide training, and help people appreciate the value. Our core mission task force might not change the list of working groups. But it will change emphasis. For items in core, we will provide supreme effort to ensure quality, the right feature set, timeliness, and market support.

HTML5

Last month I spent a week in Silicon Valley. The importance of giving top attention to core was re-inforced.

Our largest working group is the HTML5 working group. Literally hundreds of people participate in the W3C HTML5 working group.

Many of them work in Silicon Valley. So I met with many of them. They come from a cross-section of companies: browser vendors, web publishers, tools providers, application vendors, security firms.

Since HTML5 is core, it is important that we as a community get it “right”. Since it is central to the next generation web, it evokes strong opinions about what it means to “get it right”. And as I listened to the opinions they are all well reasoned and based on knowledgeable and sensible views of how the future web will evolve.

While they are all reasoned, knowledgeable, and sensible – that does not mean that everyone agrees. Not at all! Nor should we expect agreement for something so central – given that different organizations have different priorities.

Therein, lies W3C's imperative to provide the right amount of attention to strengthen our core. We bring diverse stakeholders to the table and create the environment for the industry to agree on this critical standard. There is still more work to be done. There are technical issues, testing issues, and disagreements that need to be resolved. It is our commitment to work with all stakeholders to drive this forward in a professional way, and ensure that we have the right feature set, quality, timeliness, and market support.

Making W3C the Best Place for New Standards Work

2010-06-18T20:35:42Z

In my previous blog entry I discussed the five major focus areas for W3C as an organization. They were:

Drive a Global and accessible Web
Provide a Better Value Proposition for Users
Make W3C the best place for new standards work
Strengthen our core mission
Resource alignment to achieve the first four

In this entry I will elaborate on the third priority.

General background

I motivated this priority in my last post. The Web platform is expanding. There is much new innovation and the Web will benefit if the community brings their work to W3C.

A friction point is that for a variety of reasons it takes time to create standards. Can the pace of standardization keep up with the pace of innovation? A number of factors affect the pace of standards development:

We are dealing with a mature infrastructure
The expansion of the platform adds a level of complexity
Implementation rhythms of software developers are very rapid
We aim for a royalty-free Web. That is a good thing. But it comes with a side-effect; patent portfolio searches by standards participants. This can take some time.
More people are involved in the decisions.
More people and groups are effected by the outcome.
It takes time to build agreement among stakeholders (in a way that supports fairness and accountability)
W3C is not set up for large numbers of individual developers (from non-Member organizations) to participate

It is clear to us that to make W3C a more friendly place for New Standards we must recognize these issues and come up with approaches to address them.

Not every problem has an easy solution. The first item in the list — growth of complexity — has shown up in other platforms and is not easy to remove.

Also, W3C's robust process is appreciated by most of our stakeholders. So the challenge is to find solutions that allow the robust process when the community calls for it, and to ensure we also have agile, lightweight processes to meet other community needs. This is the challenge that this team has accepted.

Openness of this effort

If we are to be more agile, more open, attracting different stakeholders, this effort needs to start right now. I've set up a task force with a public wiki where you can follow their progress and learn how to contribute.

In particular, right now the task force is interested in hearing about use cases from the community, such as "we're interested in working together on an ontology in my industry" or "we are a few individuals writing a small format specification and would like to share it with the broader community." The task force invites you to discuss your ideas with them on public-vision-newstd@w3.org (publicly archived). The task force will also be using other means of communication that will soon be listed on their home page.

My recent travels

This imperative — the need to be attractive for new Standards work — was confirmed by my travels over the last two weeks to Belgium, Israel, and the UK. I met with many groups; all different in nature. Each in their own way illustrated the excitement around new technologies and new standards. Here are three examples.

In Brussels I met with officials of the EU. There is attention to the EU's framework program, and making the Web more useful for governments and their citizens through the provision of linked open data. This drives new potential standards.

In Holon, I met with the Garage Geeks, an informal group of innovators working in start-ups for a wide range of technologies. In an hour brainstorming session, it was clear that innovation is moving in its usual disruptive fashion — with the Web as a key platform.

And in Herziliya, I gave a keynote address at an IEEE technical conference. Key themes at this conference included cloud computing, media, smart devices, verticals, and high bandwidth infrastructure. Again, showing innovation going in many different directions.

The Mission of W3C

2010-06-01T14:20:53Z

I've now been with W3C for almost three months. My first priority was to meet with the global stakeholders of the organization.

I began with W3C membership. Through meetings, phone calls, technical conferences, and informal sessions I've met upwards of one hundred members and have had profound conversations with many of them.

I also made a point of meeting with organizations that are part of the ecosystem within which W3C works. This includes other standards organizations, government ministers, students, researchers in Web science, and thought leaders in the industry.

I also reached out to organizations that “should” be in W3C. Often this includes presenting our activities and roadmaps. I've reached over one thousand people in this way.

And it was important to do this on a global basis. During these two and a half months I travelled to eight countries, but have spoken to participants from many other locations.

The primary purpose of all of these meetings was to listen. W3C has been an effective organization, but any organization can do better. What are the stakeholders of W3C asking from us?

Four primary requests

W3C has established principles including Web for All and Web on Everything. We've established a technical vision as well. There is broad agreement to these principles and technical vision.

People are asking us to be more tangible and specific in how we achieve this.

There are many ways of summarizing the requests, but four recurring themes best capture the idea. W3C needs to:

Drive a Global and accessible Web. There is little dispute that we should work towards a Web for All. But so many are deprived sufficient access – for reasons of handicap, language, poverty, and illiteracy – that we need a stronger technical program to improve the situation.
Provide a Better Value Proposition for Users. Everyone is a consumer and everyone is an author. Yet our focus has been on vendors that build products. We need to complement that with a better user focus.
Make W3C the best place for new standards work. I blogged last month about the expanding Web platform. There is so much new innovation and we must encourage the community to bring their work rapidly to W3C.
Strengthen our core mission. With the expansion of innovation on the Web, we cannot do it all. We must be very crisp about what we achieve in W3C, what companion organizations achieve, and how do we relate.

Having identified clear imperatives, we are building teams that will look at each of these topics. Typically a team involves W3C staff, participating members, and outside experts. I expect to update you from time to time as this work gets underway.

One more focus area

As we try to improve the global accessible Web; the Web of Users, new standards work, and strong delivery of a core mission, there is a legitimate danger that we will find more work to do without the resource to do it. So we will also make sure that this clearer exposition of our mission is aligned with the resources required to complete that mission!

Asia and W3C

2010-05-14T20:39:38Z

A visit with staff at Keio University

I continue to meet key stakeholders around the world as part of my introduction to W3C. The last two weeks have been focused on Asia.

India

I visited India last week partly to help launch the new W3C office at a conference. My experience in the conference and in meetings illustrated opportunities that W3C has in India: better communication of our work, greater participation in this work by engineers from India, and expanding our technical scope.

The conference itself demonstrated the strong support for W3C within India. Keynote speakers included key government ministers as well as icons of India's high-tech industry. The conference attracted 600 people from industry, government, and academia. The technical program brought together leading researchers and spanned an impressive set of topics.

In India, W3C's office is hosted by TDIL – Technology Development for Indic Languages. This partnership will strengthen our internationalization work, part of ensuring that the Web is available for all people. With 22 official languages in India, in addition to a larger number of languages and dialects – making the Web available irrespective of language and literacy level is a key issue for India and consonant with our values. Many of the conference presentations related to that topic.

Outside the conference was equally rewarding. India has important vendor groups such as Nasscom and Mait who co-sponsored the conference. And TDIL is part of a government ministry. My visit gave me the opportunity to meet with several executives of these organizations and reinforce my belief that there is a strong commitment to W3C in India.

China

In China there was a similar enthusiasm and set of highlight events for W3C.

The visit got off to a good start even before it began – with news that China Unicom became the first large IT vendor in China to join as a W3C Member.

There is great interest in W3C in China. I gave several presentations about the Expanding Web Platform to hundreds of engineers from companies and universities at places such as Beihang University in Beijing. The deep questions illustrated the interest and technical savvy of these engineers in topics such as HTML5, accessibility, and the Semantic Web.

Also of importance were meetings with key decision makers and larger public meetings. At a dinner for W3C member laboratories in China – the local leaders of global firms participated in discussions about how to create a stronger W3C community in China. And at a conference sponsored by CESI – the China national electronics standards institute - related to ISO/IEC JTC1 SC 38, I had an opportunity to deliver remarks about how W3C standards related to the new standardization effort underway in SC 38.

Japan

Japan has always been a strong point for W3C in Asia, but additional opportunities exist.

As background, the Japan team – also noting strong ties with our Korean office – is in the process of putting together a workshop in September on Web TV.

Meeting with technical visionaries and government officials, it is clear that Asian industry is poised to play a strong role in this area. After all, many of the innovations in television manufacturing already take place in Asia. As the convergence continues between the Web and all access devices (including television), what better place than Japan to have our Web TV workshop?

The expanding Web platform

2010-05-05T17:59:04Z

Last week I attended the www conference in Raleigh. It was my first technical conference since I joined W3C less than two months ago. Good conference. Keynotes, panels, technical sessions, poster sessions – all good. Lots of good work underway.

What did I learn at the conference?

I learned a great deal of specific knowledge at the conference, but I was also thinking through the ensemble of information to see what it suggested. Here is my reaction. Although the utility of the Web has been incredible over the last two decades – innovation does not stop. Quite the contrary. We are at the very beginning of the broadest expansion of the Web platform since the Web's inception.

The Web is the platform for future computing in the same way that the desktop operating system was the platform for computing in previous eras. This is based on the contributions that are underway and the opportunities in front of us.

What is a platform? It is a set of stable interfaces and protocols provided by the platform provider so the rest of the world has a sandbox to innovate and create the next generation of computing applications. In the case of the Web, it is an open platform – and the platform provider is “all of us” working together in W3C working groups.

In what way is the platform expanding?

There are several items of huge importance that everyone familiar with W3C knows quite well. HTML5, customized style sheets, standard graphics on the Web, and a burgeoning collection of fonts are key pieces of the Web as an application platform.

Increasingly, people access the Web through hand held devices. It is important to have common presentation of the Web from the tiniest handheld to the largest television. Our Mobile Web effort drives, with key contributions in VoiceXML, Device APIs, and Geolocation.

The Web is not only a technology platform. It touches key elements of society. As a result, security and privacy are a focus. In W3C, one of our most successful focus areas is the area of Web Accessibility. We are working actively to promote WCAG 2.0 internationally, and to ensure that the next generation of technologies, including HTML5, support accessibility.

The next big platform expansion

While all of the above is having impact in the immediate time frame, the pace of the next few years will be truly breathtaking. The Web of data, vertical industry frameworks, social networking, Web services, the Ubiquitous Web (sensors), and cloud computing are all elements of the platform for tomorrow. Each of these areas represent a broad range of challenges: where should the W3C participate? What should be standardized? And when? Are we already too late in certain areas?

Imperatives for W3C

As I think about my responsibility to drive the organization of W3C, it must be measured against the challenges we face. The largest challenge is to create this new platform: quickly, innovatively, with participation, and with open standardization. I will blog in the future as to how we will get our hands around this challenge.

Volcanic ash, Europe, and W3C

2010-04-19T17:14:39Z

I've been to Europe numerous times, but last week was my first visit as CEO of W3C. The meetings were good: with Member companies, prospects, government officials, executives of other standards organizations, press, W3C staff, and other colleagues at ERCIM.

The Eyjafjallajolkull volcano

Below, I'll provide some reactions to my meetings, but first I find it impossible not to be philosophical about the volcanic ash spreading from Iceland. After all, I'm supposed to return to the US today but my flight is canceled. Like many others I am scrambling. How to reorganize our schedules? Keep our meeting commitments?

And there is no end in sight. The travel system has broken down. No-one knows when and where the system will open up.

Critical infrastructures

The airline route system is a critical infrastructure that modern commerce relies on. In the 1990s, I was on an advisory panel looking at critical infrastructures. There are quite a number: electrical, power, transportation, telecommunications, etc. All must have continuous availability against a wide range of circumstances. And we are experiencing a circumstance where sadly and unpredictably the travel system has broken down.

For me, the crisis is a metaphor to think about the Web. The Web is a critical infrastructure. Staggering amounts of commerce rely on the Web. It is humbling to stare at the travel infrastructure and map it to what we must do for the Web. We have collective responsibility to ensure continuous availability of the Web.

Many players participate in this. W3C participants, including its members, do focus on a stewardship role for the Web. W3C strives to ensure that Web technology is capable of connecting all people and devices to data all of the time. Continuous availability.

There are well over 300 organizations who are members of W3C and I applaud their participation in our efforts. They recognize that the Web was created in an open fashion and we all work together for its enhancement and protection. Organizations that are Members contribute to the stewardship role in at least two ways: through their efforts to develop and implement open standards, and through their financial support of W3C. This support is a good investment for these companies given how they - and all of us - benefit from a successful (and now critical) infrastructure.

Europe

Enough philosophy! How were my meetings in Europe?

Exhilarating. As I mentioned at the beginning, I met with a wide range of stakeholders in the Web. The view from Europe is impressive in terms of the maturity of appreciation of the Web. My above musings about the Web – our joint responsibility to develop and protect the infrastructure – would be endorsed by all that I met with here. Companies and governments alike recognize the prosperity they have received and want to “give back” as well. Can't say I'm surprised, but I can say I am pleased.

And now I will resume my focus on scrambling back home.

First impressions

2010-03-17T15:00:45Z

You only have first impressions once. Last week was my chance. Here are some highlights. I'm sure we'll revisit these over time.

Positive things that were as expected

For me, a major attraction to come to W3C is its reputation and success as a trusted custodian for an open web. Accordingly, I was pleased to see certain expectations met:

The professionalism of W3C staff and the W3C process.
The high regard that our industry has for W3C.
The strong endorsement of some of W3C policies such as the royalty free patent policy. Even companies with massive patent portfolios see the value of making the core Web infrastructure a patent royalty-free zone.
The commitment to openness and transparency

Items that were better than expected

Through the years I've heard people propose improvements for W3C. While problems are known – and they came up quite clearly during the interview process – I candidly did not know whether the stakeholders of W3C were committed only to complain, or were passionate about supporting change to address issues. Although I came in not knowing how people would react, I was very encouraged by:

The degree to which W3C stakeholders are looking for greater agility: staff, members, public.
The extent to which stakeholders want W3C to become more influential – by helping advance a variety of web standards at a more rapid pace.
The number of people who reached out to me personally to provide wishes that I strengthen the organization (together with disparate ideas on how to do so).

Issues that (unfortunately) were as expected

Our environment provides challenges. At the financial level there are the impacts of the economy and at the technical level there are issues of fragmentation due to parallel innovation. As a result, I was not surprised to see some issues, including:

The negative impact that mergers and acquisitions among members has on participation.
Areas of standardization with more than the usual level of controversy.

Items that were worse than expected

Every organization has its core constituency, and W3C is no different. Although W3C has worked hard to broaden its constituency, I was disappointed to see how much work was in front of us. Included in that is:

Under-representation from the developer community.
Lack of participation from parts of the developing world.

More broadly, there are many ideas on how to strengthen the organization (a good thing), but sparse staffing to pursue these ideas (a bad thing). Bridging this chasm needs to be a priority for me.

Learning is a spring-board to action

Clearly, it is my responsibility to lead the staff in addressing the items which need work. First, however, it is critical for me to get as complete a perspective as possible from as many stakeholders as possible. My objective is to strengthen W3C and I need both a firm grounding in current status and a rich understanding of how people would like it to evolve. People with opinions should feel free to post them here or send them via email.

W3C CEO blog – First posting – March 8, 2010

2010-03-08T09:31:35Z

A few simple reflections as I begin my new role at W3C.

The role

The World Wide Web is easily the most revolutionary development that has changed not only information technology, but everything about business, education, entertainment, and information retrieval.

The World Wide Web consortium is the singular organization that leads the web to its full potential with its protocols and guidelines.

I am honored to be here, I am honored to work with Tim Berners-Lee, and excited to play a role in this mission.

Priorities

My most immediate priority is to preserve and enhance the W3C culture of having an open consensus-based process. This works well today, but I also need an effective and open high-bandwidth communications path with the large, diverse, and global set of stakeholders of the W3C.

One part of that is blogging. I intend to post often and invite comments. This will be a good way for people to engage in public discussion with me on issues of importance to the organization.

Not every issue will show up on a blog. To cover different issues, or if people are more comfortable with email, they are also welcome to send their thoughts to jeff@w3.org. I intend to be responsive but also ask your patience as I adapt to this new role.

Another priority for me is to climb a steep learning curve in a short amount of time. Accordingly, I’ll save comments on other topics until I learn some more. Meanwhile, feel free to contact me with your ideas, aspirations, and concerns relative to W3C.