W3C TPAC 2016

TPAC 2016 LogoThe UK & Ireland W3C Office joined twelve UK and Irish companies at the Technical Plenary Advisory Committee Meetings Week in Portugal between 19-23 September 2016, to come to agreement about the future of the World Wide Web for publishing, data exchange, financial information and many other areas of interest to our Digital Economy.

The purpose of the W3C office is to support its national members and to promote the areas of current development in the future of the Web. So we joined the more than 550 experts in Web technologies gathered to address challenges and new opportunities for the future of the Web’s technical roadmap and standardization work. Hosted by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), whose mission is “to lead the Web to its full potential” by standardizing Web technologies, the annual W3C Technical Plenary and Advisory Committee (TPAC) Meeting included nearly 40 sessions of formally chartered groups engaged in standards-related work. Another 40 informal break-out sessions discussed emerging technologies that may benefit from standardization work at W3C.

At the conference, Web Inventor and W3C Director Sir Tim Berners-Lee gave a keynote address in which he thanked and encouraged his fellow Web technologists to sustain his original vision for an open, interoperable and decentralized Web for everyone in the world.

On 6 August, the world celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Web being offered as a publicly available service. Since its invention by Berners-Lee in 1989, the Web has evolved to have rich video and graphics capabilities, work on multiple devices, appear in many languages  and be accessible for those with disabilities. These advancements rely significantly on open Web standards, the technical building blocks that make the Web open, interoperable and accessible, developed at the World Wide Web Consortium.

“Members of the W3C and the larger Web community carry a great responsibility to shape the future of Web technologies,” said Dr. Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. “Most people take for granted that the Web just works for them, but the foundational technologies that make the Web work for everyone are developed by highly skilled and dedicated technology experts in the W3C community. This year’s TPAC meetings underscored the importance and impact of W3C’s work.”

Topping the technical discussions of the groups chartered by W3C were advancements to the Open Web Platform and specific industry requirements for the next generation Web:

In addition to the meetings of the formally chartered Working and Interest Groups for W3C members, for the first time the W3C hosted more than 20 W3C Community Group that are incubating ideas for future Web technologies. Among the topics of high interest in the Community Groups and breakout sessions were blockchain, virtual reality (VR/AR), Web bluetooth and NFC, micro-payments, multi-device timing, and a Web of Things plugfest.

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