Nominations and Statements for W3C Advisory Board 2026 Election Nominations and Statements for W3C Advisory Board 2026 ElectionForm for W3C Advisory Committee to nominate individuals (now closed) | Advisory Board public page
This page lists public nominations and statements for the 2026 election to W3C Advisory Board (AB). Each candidate has been nominated by at least one W3C Member according to the AB election process.
The W3C Membership elects the members of the Advisory Board, which consists of 9 to 11 elected participants. For this election, the maximum number of available seats is 5 and the minimum number is 3 to meet the minimum size of the AB (9). If, after the deadline for nominations, the number of nominees is:
Timeline:
Note: The deadline for nominations is 23:59 UTC, 29 April 2026.
The following nominations have been received (listed in alphabetical order by family name):
An asterisk (*) indicates that the nominee is a current participant and has been renominated for election.
The following nomination statements have been made (listed in alphabetical order by family name):
On behalf of Samsung, I would like to re-nominate Daniel Appelquist as a candidate for the W3C Advisory Board. Daniel is well known to many in the W3C community, having served as co-chair of the AB since last year and previously served as co-chair of the Technical Architecture Group (TAG) since 2013. He previously worked in the Samsung from 2016 to 2022 as leader of Web Standard team, and currently serves as an Open Source Strategist in Samsung’s Open Source Group.
Last year, after serving 12 years as co-chair of the TAG, I stood for election in the AB and the Advisory Committee saw fit to elect me. So first of all, thank you to members of the AC for putting your trust in me. I was also honored that the Advisory Board and W3C Team chose to select me as co-chair, along with Angel Li, at our August face-to-face in July.
Part of the "platform" I ran on last year was to reform the way that the AB operates and to enhance its ability to operate, on behalf of the membership, as a governance body.
Since last year, we have instituted a few key reforms in the way AB operates, bringing in some more agile practices, and publishing public summaries of our meetings, to enhance the transparency of the AB to the wider world. We also put in motion some outreach to the W3C community regarding process refactoring and simplification, which is a key priority of the AB for this year. Following on from the publication of the Vision for W3C, we have put in place a process for the AB to publish position papers that are within its remit of guiding the program of technical work at W3C. The first of these papers has already been published, on the use of LLMs in W3C work.
As I wrote, last year, the creation of W3C’s new legal entity has created a new governance environment for the consortium. The scope of the Advisory Board in this new environment is the how. How do we carry out the technical work program to produce the technical specifications and other outputs that support the evolving web? As co-chair, my mindset has been trying to deliver on this mission. I have also worked to improve the way the AB collaborates with, and advises, the W3C Team. If re-elected, I intend to continue to work with that mindset.
Some background on me: I work for Samsung Open Source Group and have previously led the Samsung web advocacy group. I have a long history with the web and with W3C. I first attended a W3C Working Group meeting in 2001, and have been more regularly involved in the community since 2004. During that time, I have served as Advisory Committee representative for two companies, chaired a Working Group and several Community Groups, and have been both an elected and appointed member of the TAG—a group I had the great privilege of co-chairing from 2013 to 2025. I also have been and continue to be an active member of the Positive Work Environment Task Force, where I have contributed to the Code of Conduct. While on the TAG, I proposed work that led to the publication of the Ethical Web Principles and the Privacy Principles, both of which have subsequently become W3C Statements.
Outside W3C, I have been co-chairing the Global Cybersecurity Policy working group in the Open Source Security Foundation (where I have been working on activities related to the EU Cyber Resilience Act) as well as contributing into the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) – both Linux Foundation Projects. I also continue to play a governance role for Open Web Docs, an open-source-style initiative, which I helped to create, that produces and maintains web developer documentation and compatibility data. I am a US / UK dual national, living in London (UK).
Thank you for your consideration.
The Web has always been more than a technology platform. It is one of humanity's greatest shared achievements: a universal system for communication, creativity, commerce, learning, and innovation. For more than three decades, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has helped guide this extraordinary platform through open standards, collaboration, and a steadfast commitment to the public good.
Today, we stand at another historic turning point.
Artificial Intelligence is transforming every layer of our digital world: technologies, infrastructure, business models, industries, and daily life. As this transformation accelerates, the future of the Web cannot be left to chance. It must be shaped deliberately, responsibly, and openly.
I am honored to seek your support for election to the 2026 W3C Advisory Board. I offer three commitments: to defend the Open Web, to build the Web for the AI era, and to strengthen W3C as a vibrant standards community that reflects the pace and needs of modern industry.
1. Defending the Open Web in the AI Era
I am a strong believer in the Open Web.
An open Web benefits everyone: users, application providers, infrastructure builders, researchers, educators, entrepreneurs, and society as a whole. It creates a connected world where innovation is not limited to a few gatekeepers, and where opportunity is distributed broadly across nations, companies, and communities.
The Web must continue to be grounded in its founding principles:
The Web is the world's universal digital platform because it allows anyone to create, access, connect, and innovate without needing approval from a central authority.
These values matter even more in the era of AI.
AI systems increasingly rely on the knowledge, diversity, and openness of the Web. Without an open Web, AI risks becoming dependent on closed ecosystems, proprietary silos, and narrow control points. That would reduce competition, weaken innovation, and limit user choice.
The W3C community should work together to defend and renew the Open Web as a core value for the next generation. We should ensure that AI strengthens openness rather than replacing it. We should help create a future where AI models learn from a healthier Web, and where AI agents operate on open, cross-platform, and decentralized infrastructure.
If elected, I will strongly advocate for standards and initiatives that preserve the Web as the open foundation of the digital future.
2. Building the Web as Infrastructure for AI
I am also a confident visionary for Web for AI.
AI is reshaping every pillar of society. But the Web has unique strengths that no other platform can match. It has connected billions of people, trillions of resources, and countless services across borders, languages, and industries. It remains the most universal runtime environment ever created.
As AI evolves, the Web itself will be reshaped. But it should also shape AI in return.
The best qualities of the Web should be brought into the AI era:
Future AI agents will need to browse, transact, reason, collaborate, and act across many digital environments. The Web is naturally suited to become the operating environment for such agents.
We should make the Web the infrastructure layer for AI agents.
This means encouraging standards in areas such as:
W3C has the opportunity to lead once again by ensuring that the AI future is built on open and interoperable foundations. If elected, I will work to help position the Web not as a passive target of AI disruption, but as the trusted infrastructure of the AI age.
3. Making W3C More Dynamic and Industry-Responsive
I am not only a believer and strategist, but also an active practitioner.
During my service on the Advisory Board, I have prioritized the incubation of new work so W3C can better reflect emerging industry needs and respond to fast-moving technological change.
I have been proud to support efforts that contributed to:
These efforts share one purpose: to make W3C more welcoming to new ideas, faster at identifying opportunities, and more connected to real industry momentum.
Standards bodies must preserve rigor, but they must also remain dynamic. W3C should continue to be the home where established leaders, startups, researchers, browser vendors, developers, and new industries come together to shape the future.
If re-elected, I will continue to devote myself to three priorities:
The Web has succeeded because generations of contributors chose openness over control, collaboration over fragmentation, and long-term public value over short-term advantage.
Now it is our turn.
Together, we can ensure that the next era of the Web remains open, intelligent, global, and human-centered.
I respectfully ask for your support in the 2026 W3C Advisory Board election.
It's my great pleasure to nominate Elena Lape for re-election to the Advisory Board. We've served on the AB together over the last year, and as I’ve gotten to know her in that time I’ve seen how valuable her dedication, perseverance, and insight have been to advancing the work of the consortium and its membership. I hope you’ll rank her highly in this election.
I’m Elena Lape, founder, software engineer, and Holopin’s AC Rep. For the past two years, I have also had the pleasure of serving on the W3C Advisory Board.
Over the past 24 months on the AB, I have focused on practical work that helps the community collaborate more effectively and fosters a more productive environment. I organized two W3C TPAC hackathons, led the AB’s first Position Statement on AI, and consistently advocated for more efficient processes across W3C to support better standards work.
My goal has been to improve how we gather input, move discussions forward, and create more opportunities for meaningful participation, while helping ensure W3C works well for member organizations of different sizes, backgrounds, and perspectives.
If re-elected, I will continue working to strengthen the processes and collaboration that help the W3C community do its best work.
Andrew is the head Arm's Engineering Community & Governance team, leading their Open Source Office and is responsible for Arm's engagement with the open source community. His W3C interests are WebML, WebNN, WebMCP, WebGPU and the potential open source program.
Whilst I am relatively new to the inner workings of W3C, having only been a member of the AC for a year, I have spent the bulk of my career in open source and open standards. After the recent AC meeting in China, I was buoyed by the future looking of W3C especially with the prospects of hosting open source projects. It is this that moved me to self nominate.
I have been involved in a wide variety of open source projects and foundations, and currently hold positions with the FreeBSD Foundation, UXL Foundation, Core Collective and am on the Rust Foundation Board (previously the treasurer). My strong belief is that I can bring this knowledge and expertise to W3C to help with making the hosting aspirations a successful reality.
I feel that as a relative outsider, this brings an element of new thinking and view points to the AB which will make it all the better, with a diverse pool of thought and attitudes. Just as the web relies on a diverse user base, I believe the AB needs a diverse pool of thought to better meet the needs of members but crucially the users.