A year ago, W3C was beginning its installation in Europe. A few pioneers had decided to join the W3C team. Sophia-Antipolis, one of the five INRIA sites, was chosen as the location for their first settlement.
The first W3C team members were hosted by the Rodeo project whose main research activity is the study of new protocols. In particular, real-time protocols have always been an area of choice for this project.
During the first part of 1996, W3C concentrated its promotion and dissemination efforts in organising the fifth international WWW conference in Paris. A variety of workshops were organised during the conference.
When things returned to normal and W3C decided to organise a workshop on "Real-time protocols and the Web", it was an obvious decision to chose the Sophia-Antipolis location. The content of the workshop shows that this was a good decision.
I am convinced that these two days will be fruitful for everyone and that the results will help W3C to position its role in this very promising area.
Warm thanks to the organizers and contributors.
Jean-Francois Abramatic
W3C/MIT-LCS 545 Technology Square NE43-409
Cambridge, MA 02139