W3C and the Mobile Web

Dave Raggett <dsr@w3.org>

W3C Fellow on assignment
from Canon

How the Web got started

• CERN, Switzerland, 1989

  • Many research teams with different equipment, all wanting to share information, but ...
  • Different equipment
  • Different software (LaTeX, DVI, Postscript, SGML, ...)

• Enter Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau

  • WWW Proposal for a HyperText Project
  • Very simple format and very simple protocol
  • Could be viewed on all devices

The Rise of the Windows PC

• The early web was viewed on Unix workstations or on VT100 terminals etc.

• The incredible success of the PC brought the Web to a much bigger audience

  • The use of graphics and presentation attributes
  • Browser specific scripting interfaces
  • This page looks best on ...
    
    
    • A particular browser
    • A particular window size

The Promise of the Mobile Web

• Cell phones are incredibly popular

  • Earlier problems with WAP now overcome
  • Success of i-mode in Japan
  • Smart phones taking over from PDAs

• Emergence of car based systems

  • High resolution color displays
  • Entertainment, News, Messaging, Navigation, ...

• Mobile Devices are trail blazing new technologies

What is different about Mobile?

• Small displays, keypads, stylus

• One and two handed operation

• Limited bandwidth compared to wired world

• Battery constrains compute power you can use

• Higher expectations about reliability, ease of use

• Wide variety of form factors

W3C's work on Mobile

• Mobile profiles for XHTML, SVG, SMIL, CSS, ...

• New ways to interact with mobile devices

• Liaisons with related standards organizations

  • WAP Forum and now Open Mobile Alliance

• Talks in W3C Track today on

  • Device Independence by Stéphane Boyera
  • SVG 1.2 and Mobile by Dean Jackson
  • Voice Browsers by Max Froumentin
  • Multimodal Interaction by Dave Raggett