New Membership Level

This W3C Membership level is effective since 1 April 2018.

Background

As W3C continues to evolve the breadth and depth of our work we need to also continue to address how we're packaging and pricing our Membership options. By example, we introduced the Introductory Industry Membership to allow organizations that are in an industry but unaware of the broader value of W3C a seat at the table. This has shown results with organizations coming in and ending up upgrading. We put a Transitional Publishing Industry Membership together to allow former IDPF Members a way to engage with us at a rate that is based on their prior IDPF fees with the understanding that it would lead to becoming regular Members at the end of that program.

In all of these discussions and in the day-to-day blocking and tackling that the global Business Development team does, we've stuck with our existing Membership Levels and tiers. In December 2017 there was a discussion between W3C and a significant publishing company which showed that the step up for that publisher from TPI to regular Membership was too big of a step. We found this informative as they are one of the bigger organizations in the Publishing Industry. Based on that conversation we defined a new Membership level which is aimed at public organizations that have revenues between $50M and $500M USD. W3C is moving ahead with a trial program to determine if this offering will be successful in attracting new Members to W3C.

Program

Term of Trial

We run this as a trial program through 31 March 2019 having launched it for 01 April 2018 applications.
Continuation would be based on success. If we don't capture 8 new Members from this program by the end of the Trial Period we drop the offering.
Based on this metric, existing Members would not drop down to this rate until their first renewal after 01 April 2019.

Eligible Organizations

Organization annual gross revenue between:
- MIT - 50M USD and 500M USD
- ERCIM - 51M EUR and 400M EUR
- Keio - 5,750,000,000 JPY and 50,000,000,000 JPY
- Beihang - 310,000,000 CNY and 3,080,000,000 CNY

Organization joining during the trial period must be joining W3C as a regular Member for the first time.
The following Organizations are NOT eligible for this program. Organizations in the 2nd case should apply to the rates in effect 01 January 2018.
- Existing members before 1 April 2018
- Joining during the trial period but not joining for the first time

Fee (using 31 Jan 2018 conversion rates)

MIT - 25,000 USD per year
ERCIM - 21,200 EUR per year
Keio - 2,720,000 JPY per year
Beihang - 158,200 CNY per year

Activation

Membership is activated once organization has paid the fee for the first year.

Rights and Responsibilities

The same as W3C Membership.

Visualization

Here is how the complete picture would look like, in USD. The current rates for any given country are available at https://www.w3.org/Consortium/fees.

Thresholds	Before	After
For-profit organization that has annual gross revenue, as measured by the most recent audited statement, of greater than or equal to 1,000,000,000 USD	77,000 USD	77,000 USD
For-profit organization that has annual gross revenue, as measured by the most recent audited statement, of greater than or equal to 500,000,000 USD and less than 1,000,000,000 USD	68,500 USD	68,500 USD
Introductory Industry Membership, available for two years to a for-profit organization that has annual gross revenue, as measured by the most recent audited statement, of greater than or equal to 50,000,000 USD. Participation limited to one Interest Group	34,250 USD	34,250 USD
For-profit organization that has annual gross revenue, as measured by the most recent audited statement, of greater than or equal to 50,000,000 USD and less than 500,000,000 USD - NOTE THIS IS LIMITED TO NEW MEMBERS DURING THE TRIAL PERIOD	68,500 USD	25,000 USD
All other organizations, including non-profit organizations and government agencies (for High Income rated countries by the World Bank)	7,900 USD	7,900 USD
For-profit organization that has annual gross revenue, as measured by the most recent audited statement, of greater than 7,500,000 or 15,000,000 but less than 50,000,000 USD. (for all non High Income countries)	7,900 USD	7,900 USD
All other organizations, including non-profit organizations and government agencies. (for all other non-High Income countries)	rate varies by rating	rate varies by rating
Enterprises and non-profits with 10 or fewer employees, who are not also membership organizations, revenues less than 3,000,000 USD and have never been a W3C Member. This fee only valid for the first two years of W3C Membership.	2,250 USD	2,250 USD

FAQ

How many potential Members has the Business Development team identified for this program?
The BusDev team has approximately 20 current Prospects that fit into this category. There are more that we had engaged in the past but that have dropped off of our radar due to pricing being the primary challenge.
What happens if we capture some Members with this program but not enough to continue it?
The Members that joined during the Trial Period would need to upgrade to one of the higher levels to continue their Membership. In many cases we would envision this being the Introductory Industry Membership.
What current Members would be eligible for this program?
It is W3C's policy not to disclose how much any Member pays for their annual Membership Fee, but we have identified one Member at Keio and two Members at MIT that would be eligible for this new level after the Trial period ends.
How does this new Membership level impact the Introductory Industry Membership Program?
Once the trial completes, IIM will not be available for companies that are eligible to the new rate since they are regular Members at a lower rate.
W3C had a similar level that was introduced in 2005 and then withdrawn due to lack of participation. Why is this different?
As the work at W3C continues to expand in both depth and breadth, particularly in the Industry sectors like Publishing, Media & Entertainment and Payments, we're having interest from a more diverse set of potential stakeholders who are in the revenue range this program is aimed at and who find the current fees too high for participation. As stated above, we believe there are 20 current discussions we can move ahead and that we will achieve our target goal before the end of the Pilot period.

Question? Alan Bird <abird@w3.org>
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