W3C Workshop Aims for Web Payment Interoperability

Financial Industry Adopting the Open Web Platform to Improve Customer Choice and Satisfaction, While Easing Burden on Developers and Empowering Providers

 

http://www.w3.org/ —28 January 2014— W3C invites the financial technology community to attend its Workshop Web Payments: How do you want to pay?, on March 24-25 in Paris, France. W3C Member and non-Member participants will include banks, credit card companies, governments, mobile network operators, payment solution providers, technology companies, retailers, and content creators. W3C’s Workshop goal is to leverage the power of the Web to improve consumer payment choice and satisfaction, while easing the work of web developers to support all current and future payment solutions and empowering payment providers to easily reach across different solutions, devices and platforms.

The global payments landscape today consists of a variety of proprietary payment systems and processes. Until recently, online transactions had to go through a complicated payment authorization and settlement process. New payment applications and consumer devices such as smartphones and tablets are adding to that complexity. Early-mover financial players recognize now is the right time to build a Web-based foundation for payments. The Workshop will convene those already working to decouple, simplify, and enhance payment processes, so new Web interfaces, applications and safeguards can be built and deployed.

Industry Facts and Predictions

• The mobile app economy continues to expand and forecasters predict the app economy will reach $151B by 2017.
• HTML5 is the premier cross-platform app development platform. In "Predicts 2014: Mobile and Wireless," Gartner indicates that HTML5 will be "the best option for a widely available, platform-neutral application delivery technology that is able to deliver sophisticated applications with a good-quality user experience."
• However, more can be done to make it easier for app developers and consumers to manage payments. One developer survey from Vision Mobile indicates that 16.1% of developers cited "monetization" as a reason that stops them from using HTML5 as a main developer platform.

Questions Driving the Workshop Agenda

• What are the scenarios for payments on the Web and where do they currently break down? How can both legacy business models and new business models involving payment become better enabled on the Web?
• What gaps exist in the current Web platform that makes payment more difficult than it needs to be? What are the pervasive workarounds that are used to bridge these gaps and how can the Web platform adapt to make such workarounds unnecessary?
• The Web is increasingly becoming a mobile platform. How does this impact the payments landscape? How can the Web on mobile platforms become more user-friendly?
• How can the Web create a better environment for global transactions while still respecting local laws, regulation and both existing and new business models?
• What alternative platforms, technologies and business models are developing in this area?

Key Topics

• The promise and realities of mobile payment transactions from both the provider and consumer perspectives;
• Examination of existing commercial use cases. The focus will be on leveraging Web technologies to level the playing field, so payment resources and processes are independent of payment solution providers.
• Examining ways new virtual currencies may impact payment processes. (e.g. Bitcoin, MintChip, Oyster, iBeacon);
• Supporting consumer payment Value Added Services (VAS), such as payment tracking, purchase recommendations, automatic diversions into savings and investments, etc.
• Current status of enabling Web technologies in this space, including authentication, Near Field Communications (NFC), Web system applications, Web security APIs, device APIs, and more.

Workshop Specifics

W3C will convene a Web Payments Workshop to discuss opportunities for payment standards on the Open Web Platform.

What

Standards activity is required particularly when payment requests are first made using applications or browsers, and later when buyers and merchants seek proof of payment. Associated standards also will need to be defined that give buyers choice when selecting how they want to pay for any given transaction.

There is no Workshop fee, but interested parties should submit a presentation proposal or statement of interest to the Workshop Program Committee by 8 February. Both W3C Members and non-members are encouraged to submit proposals. Priority will be given to those who will actively participate in driving the development of new standards. Candidates selected by the Committee to attend the Workshop will be notified by mid- March 2014.

Invited Speaker Alexander Gee, Deputy Head of the Payments Unit for the European Commission's DG Competition, will address Workshop attendees.

Who

Workshop Host: ingenico

Workshop Sponsors:

• Gemalto
• This Workshop is also supported by the European Union through the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2013-2015) under grant agreement n°611327 - HTML5Apps.

Program Committee Chairs:

• Daniel Appelquist, Telefónica
• Jean-Claude Barbezange, Worldline

Program Committee:

• Erik Anderson, Bloomberg
• Daniel Austin, PayPal
• David Birch, Consult Hyperion
• Hervé Bourdon, consultant
• Stéphane Boyera, W3C
• Steve Bratt, GS1
• Peter De Caluwe, ingenico
• David Ezell, NACS
• Virginie Galindo, Gemalto
• Prakash Hariramani, Google
• Martin Hepp, Universität der Bundeswehr München
• Jörg Heuer, Deutsche Telekom
• Kris Ketels, SWIFT
• Lucy Lynch, ISOC
• Charles McCathie Nevile, Yandex
• Dave Raggett, W3C
• Natasha Rooney, GSMA
• Manu Sporny, Digital Bazaar / PaySwarm
• Stan Stalnaker, Hub Culture
• Bryan Sullivan, AT&T
• Evan Schwartz, Ripple Labs
• Connie Theien, US Federal Reserve

Where

Palais Brongniart (La Bourse), Paris, France

When

24-25 March 2014

Why W3C

Twenty years ago, Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) as a forum to steward the development of open technology standards ensuring the long-term growth of the Web. W3C is vendor neutral in its approach and maintains a royalty-free patent policy. W3C activities are conducted open and transparent to the public. In addition, all W3C standards are available free of charge to encourage quick industry adoption. Together, the community is rebuilding the Web into an Open Web Platform for the delivery of services and rich applications across a broad set of industries, including mobile, payments, television, publishing, and transportation.

About the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term growth for the Web. The Open Web Platform is a current major focus. Over 375 organizations are Members of the Consortium. W3C is 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, Keio University in Japan, and Beihang University in China, and has additional Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

Media Contact

Ian Jacobs, <w3t-pr@w3.org>, +1.718 260 9447