World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) Establish Formal Relationship

Cooperation on "Mobile Web Access" and interoperability are key to future mobile applications

 

http://www.w3.org/ -- 29 July 2004 -- The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) today announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will enable both organizations to collaborate on specifications for mobile access to the Web. This agreement will further solidify the foundation for faster development, adoption, and standardization of new features and functions for mobile devices that connect to the Web.

 

 

This formal working relationship enables the two organizations to collaboratively engage in exchange of technical information and contributions. The result will benefit developers, product and service providers and others, by providing standardized technology at their disposal to accelerate the development and deployment of new mobile applications and services.

"The W3C's formal relationship with the OMA brings us one step closer to achieving our vision of universal access to one Web, for anyone, anywhere, anytime, using any device," said Dr. Philipp Hoschka, Interaction Domain Leader at the W3C. "Together, W3C and OMA are well positioned to lead development toward technological compatibility and the ease of repurposing Web content, known as single Web authoring."

"OMA is pleased by this new working relationship with the W3C and believes it will be well received by the mobile industry. By working collaboratively with the W3C, OMA seeks to capitalize on the synergies between each organization to address the market requirements for interoperability. Together we can improve the quality of the end user's experience, and facilitate the development and adoption of new, enhanced mobile information, communication, and entertainment services," stated Mark Cataldo, Chair of the Technical Plenary at OMA.

OMA, an industry organization made up of over 350 global companies, develops interoperable mobile data service enablers that work across devices, service providers, operators, networks, and geographies.

W3C develops Recommendations in widespread use in the mobile industry today, including XHTML Basic, SMIL and mobile SVG. W3C's activities in the area of Device Independence and Multimodal Interaction are of high relevance to the mobile industry.

About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its interoperability. It is an international industry consortium jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new technology. To date, nearly 400 organizations are Members of the Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

About the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA)

The Open Mobile Alliance (OMA) delivers open specifications for the mobile industry, helping to create interoperable services enablers to work across countries, operators and mobile terminals and is driven by market requirements. To expand the mobile market, companies supporting the Open Mobile Alliance will work to stimulate the fast and wide development and deployment of a variety of new, enhanced mobile information, communication and entertainment services. The Open Mobile Alliance includes all key elements of the wireless value chain, and contributes to the timely availability of mobile service enablers. For more information, please visit www.openmobilealliance.org.

 

W3C Contacts

Contact Americas and Australia --

Karen Myers, <karen@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.978.502.6218

Contact Europe --

Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94

Contact Asia --

Yasuyuki Hirakawa <chibao@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170

OMA Contact

Alexa Hanes, <ahanes@omaorg.org> +1.650.851.1621