W3C

The Verifiable Credentials Working Group has proposed corrections to the W3C Recommendation of Verifiable Credentials Data Model v1.1. Credentials are a part of our daily lives; driver’s licenses are used to assert that we are capable of operating a motor vehicle, university degrees can be used to assert our level of education, and government-issued passports enable us to travel between countries. This specification provides a mechanism to express these sorts of credentials on the Web in a way that is cryptographically secure, privacy respecting, and machine-verifiable.

Comments, including implementation experience, are welcome via GitHub through 18 January 2022.

The Timed Text Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of IMSC Hypothetical Render Model. This specification specifies an Hypothetical Render Model (HRM) that measures the complexity of caption and subtitle documents that conform to the IMSC Recommendation, so that they do not overload players. For more information, see the blog post Keeping the complexity of IMSC documents under control.

The EPUB 3 Working Group has just published the Working Group Note of EPUB 3 Structural Semantics Vocabulary 1.1. This vocabulary, a part of EPUB 3, defines a set of properties relating to the description of structural semantics of written works.

Structural semantics add additional meaning about the specific structural purpose an HTML (or SVG) element plays. The epub:type attribute, defined in EPUB 3.3, is used to express domain-specific semantics in EPUB Content Documents and Media Overlay Documents, with the structural information it carries complementing the underlying vocabulary. The applied semantics refine the meaning of their containing elements without changing their nature for assistive technologies, as happens when using the similar role attribute in HTML. The attribute does not enhance the accessibility of the content, in other words, only provides hints about the purpose. This documents defines the default vocabulary that can be used with the epub:type attribute.

The W3C Membership approved the 2 November 2021 W3C Process Document, which takes effect today.

Notable changes include:

• Registries Track: Introduced a specialized track for maintaining Registries at W3C.
• W3C Statements: Notes endorsed by W3C as a whole, through an Advisory Committee Review.
• TAG and AB Publications: The W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) and Advisory Board (AB) are now allowed to publish Notes.
• Track Separation: Recommendations, Notes+Statements, Registries are on separated publication tracks to make it easier to know what the intended end-state of a document might be.
• Tooling Policy: Defined guidelines for the tools that groups use for publication and collaboration, to ensure long-lived access to W3C publications, and to enable access and effective participation by anyone.

You can read more about all changes since the 15 September 2020 Process Document, read the complete disposition of comments, or peruse the diff.

This document was developed between the W3C Advisory Board and the public Revising W3C Process Community Group. Comments and feedback on the new Process Document may be sent as issues in the public GitHub Repository.

W3C released today to the public the October 2021 edition of the W3C Strategic Highlights. This report highlights recent work W3C Members and the public do at the Web Consortium to enhance the Web platform, work towards its growth and strength so that the web remains a tool that has and will continue to accelerate scientific cooperation and discoveries, a social means to bridge families and friends, a way to learn online and grow skills, an instrument to conduct successful business, and much more.

You will find in this semi-annual report updates in key areas that are core to the Web platform, but also how W3C meets the needs of industry and society as a whole, how the future of Web standards is determined, and the latest information on Web for all and outreach to the world.