Meeting minutes
Seth: We have a lot to cover, as you can see
… ty all for being here at TPAC in Kobe, always amazing to see the work underway
… thank you all our sponsors
GoDaddy, NTT Docomo, Microsoft, AWS, Igalia, Cisco
Seth: take a minute and remember Gregg Kellogg
… everyone will remember him as a passionate person who motivated others. We opened a remembrance book at the registration desk, so please sign and share some thoughts if you have some
… François to talk about Strategy Initiative
François: if you follow previews link in current Process, back to 1999
Introduction & Process 2025
Slideset: https://
François: Now, Process 2025, you've probably heard about it
… April 2025, call for review and published in August
… proposed rec stage after AC review, now takes place at direct snapshot stage
… simplification of the Process, that's the main change that the Process in 2025 brings
… Character Refinement phase; formally "advance notice" review phase prior to AC review
… Goal is to gather feedback as early as possible to avoid surprises too late
… So we want to catch that ASAP
… a few other changes: clarification, time-to-time are substantive changes, and we will ask part of the AC who took the time to vote on the initial Charter to look at the changes
… may have noticed some AB are in the room - prioritizing, updating, and redoing the Process in a way and coming to your WG this week having a number of discussions, plus a BO right after this on the Process to make it better for everyone
… I will leave it to PLH
PLH: Hello everyone!
Technical Strategy Initiative Task force
PLH: I'm going to talk about how we navigate the future to keep moving forward
Slideset: https://
PLH: Web is constantly evolving
… expanding more than ever, and changing and impacting society more widely
… We need to have a consistent way to navigate those evolutions
… this initiative is about how we decide, less about what we decide
… How we can actually get to that
… By end of Q1 2026, provide guidance to W3C on how we address the changes and innovation, which innovation to ignore, and other issues people see that we need to investigate
… W3C are not the only contributors to the Web
… I went to the TAG and asked for help
<npdoty> I think as a standards community we did a surprisingly good job refraining from getting involved in "web3"
PLH: I got a few of them to participate, please contact people on these slides on things to do
PLH: criteria for new technology: first, within our scope
… How much of the global impact do you expect to have? If you're only going to affect your own country, it's a lot less likely we are going to be interested in looking at it
… How much community involvement do you have?
… How much does this align with our vision and principles?
… That's what we can use structurally to make decisions
… Been seeing a lot of @@
… One other consideration is the ability to make changes to ideas proposed
… You have to work w the community as a whole and change your idea
<npdoty> "change control" -- do we use that phrase explicitly in W3C groups? IETF is insistent on mentioning it.
PLH: Are we impacting society? TAG last week sent draft of societal impact consideration, which I see helping us make a decision on whether to work on something or not
PLH: We do have current mechanisms
… Strategy for more than 10 years, we want people to come to us with ideas and foster them
… We favor early exploration, we don't exclude any ideas
… If you come to me, I'll likely say for you to take it to a CG and ask what they think\
… CG have been a major pillar of us being able to allow the community to work together
… Another way we have is workshops; this year we organized two workshops, one virtual and one last month on Age-Based Restrictions on Content Access
… also one coming up on Smart Voice Agents in 2026
… creating IG for quite a long time - one on media and entertainment that has been quite active
… proposal to create a Web and AI IG as well
… What you do not see at the bottom of the slide - Friday 2 pm Exploration IG meeting
… François already talked about Charter Refinement - if you click on these links, you will find the answer on how to navigate those things
… We need your input - what would you expect to see in Technological Strategy Report?
… What do we want to see and why?
… How do we evaluate new technologies? If we are lacking principles, which ones? And how do we prioritize?
… Doing a BO tomorrow at 5 pm on Navigating the Future
… Timeline: hoping a draft report in front of the Community by January and March
… Ty
Seth: ty François and PLH
<Dingwei> We have Exploration IG for exploring new ideas too...
Update from October Age-restriction Workshop
Seth: Tara talking about Oct 8 Age-Restriction Workshop
Slideset: https://
Tara: my pleasure to give you all an update on our recent workshop
… May come as no surprise why we wanted to have a workshop
… lots of jurisdictions putting our lots of regulations on age-based restrictions on online content
… impact of technical architectures and users
… moving fast; so our question, what can we do in technical standards to help this situation?
… IAB on IETF side and W3C convened a workshop, joined forces to tackle the architectural problems of the space
… Did not expect a solution, but we did mostly have the goal of a better understanding of the space and a collaborative conversation
… Everyone introduced, hard questions
… Started with guiding principles around human rights and the internet and web architecture
… Ethical Web Principles and Privacy Principles were used
… Trying to uphold freedom of expression, defragmentation online
… Different players of people verifying age and upholding policies have different roles to play
… Looked at verification around server-side solutions, like a government digital identity system
… Age-estimation or inference, maybe biometrics making an age judgement on your face
… or maybe network-filtering or on the device to step in as a part of the enforcement process
… lots of very thoughtful comments
… 2.5 day workshop Oct 7-9 in London UK
… 36 attendees plus 3 TAG and IAB observers
… had government from a few different countries, civil society, and academic researchers
… 9 presentations and 20 papers accepted and publicized
… In discussion, Chatham house rules
… Observations - recognition that coordination among the different groups has been very difficult
… A lot of different people with different priorities, requirements, backgrounds
… Participants were very eager to have more discussion and ability to collaborate
… All really liked being in the same space working with ppl with different perspectives
… Found very valuable
… Took a technical perspective bc that was our area and focus, but the goal of this was to help children's ability to be safe online
… Going to involve a lot more people than just technical solutions
… Helpful or important takeaways - people did appreciate the discussion of different "roles" in enforcement
… Different flows of information and chokepoints
… Clear architectural diagrams
… People also liked hearing about limitations - technologies may not yet be ready to be relied upon
… User research, people appreciated
… Really wanted to share vocabulary for commonality in terms
… Next steps: Workshop Report by hopefully end of year
… We think strengthening relationships with policymakers
… Right venue for collaboration
… Immediate next step - BO right after this session on this topic in room 402
… Please contact me at any time to talk about any of this. I will hand it over to Shawn and Kevin
Accessibility Updates
Kevin: Handing to Shawn
Shawn: I'm here to speak about accessibility in W3C
<koalie> video of Shawn Lawton Henry
Shawn: WCAG: ISO/EIC 40500, particularly important because now countries can adopt 2.2 as ISO standard
… also working with EN 301 549, which has global impact
… been upaded for WCAG 2.2, working on coordination for update on WCAG2ICT which talks about applying to documents/non-software
… standardizing in global regions
… Important to know that accessibility standards play an important role, but the role of accessibility is not to meet the standards, but meet the standards of users with disabilities
… provide guidance and resources to provide a user approach to accessibility
… Course available through March 2026, but new courses in 2026
… Accessibility fundamentals - not just for websites and apps, but also documents and presentations
… Unique courses on specific topics
… Continue work on translating accessibility resources - currently 30 W3C Authorized Translations, over 150 resource translations
… updating translations policies and procedures in 2026
… We always welcome your help with translations and reviewing
… Updating ATAG, work currently being incubated in ATAG CG
… Also looking at coordinating on accessibility testing - support and interoperability of assistant technology
… wanted to work on coming together to document that well so it will 1. encourage improvaements and 2. provide information
… another aspect of accessibility testing coordination are @@
… Lots of CGs feeding great work into WGs that provide great resources on the W3C website, such as ARRM
… help orgs implement accessibility
… let Kevin speak on WG and end on ways you can contribute to accessibility in W3C
Slideset: https://
Kevin: Quick overview of the work we've been doing in the last 12 months
… 4 key groups: AG WG, responsible for main standards on WCAG
… ARIA WG, who are responsible for extensions on HTML
… APA WG, primary responsibility is write about accessibility horizontal review
… look at weird and wonderful technologies
… WAI IG, extended group of community with a mailing list and lots of support for understanding resources and reviewing sources
… Highlighted publications from this year: updates on WCAG 3 twice
… ACT Rules Format 1.1 to CR, hopefully out later in the year
… WCAG2ICT, guidelines that explain how WCAG might apply in ways of non-technology spaces
… Lots of architectural work in the background
… WCAG 2 in JSON format
… hearing input from people who are already using that data
… final publication, Collaboration Tools Accessibility User Requirements
… number of those documents
… backlog TF managed the vast number of issues against WCAG2 and cleared 500
… we've also had massive improvements in WCAG ⅔ build process
… Also allowed us to get more consistency across platforms, one of those being the WCAG QuickRef
… subtle improvements to
… Also had improvements to test successfully mappings under the WPT infrastructure
… Get consistency across and development there
… Extensive accessibility horizontal reviews and continue to do so
Kevin: future work: WCAG 3 draft scheduled for publication in late 2025 or early 2026
… also looking at AG WG set for recharter
… Hopefully out early 2026, also planning for 2028 WCAG 3 Charter review
… Developing another number of specs, such as accessibility of machine learning and AI
… always keen for people to contribute in very different ways
… "What We're Working On", ensure that's as UTD as possible
… "WCAG 3 Editor's Draft" - number of notes asking for additional research
… if anyone feels like going in and filling up those gaps, we'd really appreciate it
… also looking for sponsors - W3C Principles Champion is an opportunity for visibility of your support
… thank you
Seth: Ty Tara, Shawn, and Kevin. We'll wrap up with two more groups
Internationalization
Slideset: https://
Fuqiao: good afternoon, today we are here to mark the significant moment of W3C's internationalization work
… want to honor pillar of W3C community, stepping down after more than two decades of service
… Addison Phillips
… for more than two decades, Addison has been creating a Web that works for everyone, regardless of their language, script, or culture
… requires a passionate advocate
… Addison has been that chamption - as Chair of the Internationalization WG, made sure that these are woven into the very fabric of our standards
… at 2005, Web was vastly different place
… Through all the shifts in our industry over the past two decades, Addison has been a constant steady hand at the helm of internationalization
… Possibly the longest-standing Chair of any WG in W3C history
… his contributions go far beyond his role as Chair - he was the key contributor and co-author to the foundational standards
… Has had a lot of impact
… document guides all of us on how to think about internationalization from day 1
… his fingerprints are on the very process of how we create standards
… i18n is three pillars: language enablement, developer support about reviewing specifications and documenting best practices + special projects on specific topics
… we have a lot of educaational resources
… techniques for web devs
… share a few recent updates: we maintain a type samples repo to help develop and undertsand intricacies
… solving complex layout challenges, like Chinese multi-level counters, which is critical to high quality reading experience
… for @@ users
… ensuring constant testing - this year, adding test for new scripts, like Chinese and Tibetan
… published new articles, translation to reach a wider audience, more videos to our YT channel
… internationalization is a continuous and collaborative effort
… with new APIs and CSS features and paradigms, new internationalization challenges emerge alongside them
… it is a shared responsibility for everyone in this room building the future of the web
… many ways to contribute: help us review standards, we need web devs and browser implementors and spec editors who can help us analyze new specs from a global perspective
… you can contribute to our resources if you don't have time to join our weekly meetings
… help translate to your native language or submit a test case we should care about
… We extend our deepest gratitude to Addison Phillips and offer our support for Joel Sahleen as the new Chair as he leads us into this new chapter
… Thank you, I will hand over to Roy
Roy: Finally, AI
Web & AI in W3C
Slideset: https://
Roy: Dom and I started work on AI months ago on W3C Team
… I will have a short briefing on how W3C is engaging AI
… look at why AI matters for the Web
… AI-related works at W3C, and future
… Why AI matters for the Web, it supports global economics
… to us, the most important thing is AI technologies embedding themselves into the Web ecosystem
… W3C as an org for the Web - when and how should AI systems align with the Web architecture?
… What standards do we need to enable AI systems on the Web?
… More questions I can't answer right now, but all of the W3C community is collaborating on these questions
… AI in W3C
… AI in Web Platform, Data & Semantics, Web and Agents, and AI/Agent Protocol
… Work for decades, like RDF, JSON-LD
… some multi-agent systems and AI protocl already have a lot of discusison in W3C CG
Roy: make sure AI on the Web is responsible
… W3C from horiztonal contributions shapes the impact of AI
… TAG working on the Web User Agents
… on W3C Team, Dominique reports
… a lot of related discussion happens in Security and Privacy and also Accessibility groups
… We lack a place to talk about AI in purpose
… Where can we answer those questions?
… Set up an IG called "Web & AI IG"
… most of you have received the review request, please review this Charter
… IG to provide forum to discuss how emerging AI-related technologies are impacting the Web and the benefits for the Web user
… host workshop in near future, still in discussion and if you want to have any comments, please go to the GitHub issue
… Workshop focused on AI Agents and Web browsers
… to wrap up, we welcome collaboration on the Web and AI because it's really important to the Web
… several ways to engage
… Web-AI IG, way to look at it holistically, lots of WG you can join to contribute technical insight
… you are welcome to join the discussion in the upcoming workshop
… AI agent in Web conversation, welcome to join Dom and I there
… thank you!
Q&A
Seth: Thank you Fuqiao and Roy, great to see what's going on in the Team
… if you are attending remotely, we are watching IRC as well for Q&A
… several speakers have follow-up sessions on this later in the week, and you can find them in the hallways as well
… I will continue to move things along while waiting
… you can submit for interest topic tables at lunch tomorrow, opp to gather at lunchtime to help pull together with other people on things you all find interesting
… I'll start giving a lot of thank you's
… all the planning and execution is a huge effort and I want to thank as many of them as I can
… All the Team, speakers, scribes, Chairs, all the things that actually get done thank you all
… Yuta and the local team, Jean-Charles for his photography, Elena for the Hackathon, big thank you to Alex because without her none of this would be happening
… Alex doesn't rest until the end of the week
[applause]
… big thank you to all of you - none of this happens without you or your organizations, all of the impact on the world and everything
… personal thanks to all of you for being part of the community
… If you don't want to be in the group photo, you may leave the room