W3C

2010

Early Bird Rate Extended for SVG Introduction Course

22 December 2010

Register for the next session of W3C's online training course: Introduction to SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). The early bird rate of €124 is extended until 4 January 2011. After that, the rate is €165. Professor David Dailey of Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania, will lead the course, as he has led previous sessions. The course is six weeks long, starting in January 2011. The first four weeks are the "core" of the training, where participants learn how to create SVG documents, add border effects, rescale and rotate images, etc.The final two weeks of the course, optional, will show how to add animation, use scripting, create interactive graphics, and more. The only pre-requisite for the course is to have some familiarity with HTML/XML and the ability to edit source code directly. Full details of the course (audience, content, timing, weekly commitment) are available in the Introduction to SVG: Course Description. Learn more about Scalable Vector Graphics.

Two Voice Specifications Updated: VoiceXML 3.0 and SCXML

16 December 2010

The Voice Browser Working Group has published Working Drafts today of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0 and State Chart XML (SCXML): State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction. VoiceXML 3.0 is a modular XML language for creating interactive media dialogs that feature synthesized speech, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, telephony, mixed initiative conversations, and recording and presentation of a variety of media formats including digitized audio, and digitized video. SCXML is a general-purpose event-based state machine language that can be used in many ways, including with VoiceXML. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

XHTML2 Working Group Documents Published as W3C Notes

16 December 2010

W3C today published a number of documents from the XHTML 2 Working Group as W3C Notes:

  • XHTML 2.0, a general-purpose markup language designed to represent documents for a wide range of purposes across the World Wide Web.
  • XML Events 2, designed to provide an interoperable way of associating behaviors with document-level markup.
  • CURIE Syntax 1.0, a syntax for expressing Compact URIs
  • HLink, a module that provides the ability to specify which attributes of elements represent links, and how those links should be traversed. HLink also extends XLink use to a wider class of languages than those restricted to the syntactic style allowed by XLink.
  • XHTML Role Attribute Module, a module to support role classification of elements
  • XHTML Access Module, a module designed to enhance document accessibility.
  • XFrames, intended originally to replace HTML Frames.

Learn more about the XHTML 2 Working Group.

Design Notes for Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 2.0 Draft Published

16 December 2010

The XSL Working Group has published a Working Draft of Design Notes for Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 2.0. This document describes initial design notes for version 2.0 of XSL Formatting Objects (XSL-FO). The requirements involve pagination and layout, composition, non-Western language support, and more. The new draft includes work on copy-fitting, parallel text, numbering, Ruby (as described by the Japanese Layout Task Force), and multiple columns with individual styles. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Updates and Aligns XML Query and XPath 3.0 versions

16 December 2010

In addition to publishing Second Editions of the 1.0 versions of XML Query and XPath, the XSL and XML Query Working Groups updated Working Drafts for the next major version of the specifications, in particular: XQuery 3.0, XQueryX 3.0, and XPath 3.0. The number "3.0" was chosen so that all of the corresponding specifications would have the same number, simplifying the previous mixture of "1.1" and "2.1" version numbers. The new 3.0 drafts incorporate the changes that were made for the second editions, and also add significant new features. XPath is a language for selecting parts of XML documents; XQuery and XQueryX are query languages for selecting, joining and manipulating XML documents. All three languages operate on any data source that can be represented as instances of the XQuery and XPath abstract Data Model (XDM).

The Working Group also published the following supporting documents, each of which lists notable changes in an appendix: XQuery and XPath Data Model 3.0, XPath and XQuery Functions and Operators 3.0, XQuery 3.0 Use Cases, and XSLT and XQuery Serialization 3.0.

W3C Revises XPath 2.0, XQuery 1.0, XQueryX 1.0, and Supporting Recomendations

16 December 2010

Today the XML Query and XSL Working Groups published three revised Recommendations, XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0 (Second Edition), XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language (Second Edition) and XML Syntax for XQuery 1.0 (XQueryX) (Second Edition). XPath is a language for selecting parts of XML documents; XQuery and XQueryX are query languages for selecting, joining and manipulating XML documents. All three languages operate on any data source that can be represented as instances of the XQuery and XPath abstract Data Model. Also published are second editions of their supporting documents, XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model (XDM), Query 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators, XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Formal Semantics, and XSLT 2.0 and XQuery 1.0 Serialization.

The new editions incorporate errata and make a number of clarifications that resulted from experience of over 50 implementations and widespread use. In addition, a number of issues that arose during testing for the second edition were clarified, a process that took several months. The Working Groups are continuing to process issues that arrived after the end of the review period; any resulting changes will be incorporated either into a third edition or into the 3.0 versions of these documents. Learn more about XML technology.

W3C Launches Federated Social Web Incubator Group

15 December 2010

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Federated Social Web Incubator Group, whose mission is to investigate the core functionality and the overall technical architecture for a federated social web, provide a set of community-driven specifications and a test-case suite for a federated social web that offers a compelling experience for users. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: DERI, Google, OpenLink, Vodafone. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track but in many cases serves as a starting point for a future Working Group.

Incubator Group Report: Provenance XG Final Report

14 December 2010

The W3C Provenance Incubator Group has published their final report. The provenance of information is crucial to making determinations about whether information is trusted, how to integrate diverse information sources, and how to give credit to originators when reusing information. The report highlights the importance of provenance and presents requirements in a variety of contexts in the Web based on use cases collected from the community. Based on these requirements and a close examination of existing provenance work, the XG identified the need for standard mechanisms to represent and access provenance. The group formulated a roadmap for provenance on the Web that includes short term and long term priorities. The group also agreed to concrete starting points to ensure rapid progress towards a standardization effort, and proposed a charter for a Provenance Interchange Working Group. This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track.

Build Smarter Mobile Web Apps with Best Practices Standard

14 December 2010

Mobile Web Application Best Practices W3C today issues standard best practices to create smarter mobile Web applications. The Mobile Web Application Best Practices offers practical advice from many mobile Web stakeholders for the easy development and the deployment of mobile Web applications that work across many platforms. The guidelines also indicate how to design Web applications that are efficient, well-suited to different contexts, and which boost the overall mobile user experience. A convenient set of cards, available in English and other languages, summarizes the key points for easy use. Read the press release and testimonials. Learn more about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.

W3C Launches Media Analysis Management Interface Incubator Group

13 December 2010

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Media Analysis Management Interface Incubator Group, whose mission is to discuss the requirements and determine the feasibility of the "Media Analysis Management Interface." That interfaces consists of the data model and exchange protocol for the analysis data of various media, such as video images, RFID sensor data, and so on. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: NEC Corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT), and Fujitsu Limited. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track but in many cases serves as a starting point for a future Working Group.

Contacts API Draft Updated

09 December 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Working Draft of Contacts API. This specification defines the concept of a user's unified address book - where address book data may be sourced from a plurality of sources - both online and locally. This specification then defines the interfaces on which third party applications can access a user's unified address book, with explicit user permission and filtering. The focus of this data sharing is on making the user aware of the data that they will share and putting them at the center of the data sharing process; free to select both the extent to which they share their address book information and the ability to restrict which pieces of information related to which contact gets shared. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Introduction to SVG online course: Early Bird Registration Open for January 2011 Session!

08 December 2010

Registration is now open for the next session of W3C's online training course: Introduction to SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). Professor David Dailey of Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania, will lead the course, as he has led previous sessions. The course is six weeks long, starting in January 2011. During the first four weeks (the "core" of the session), participants learn how to create SVG documents, to use basic elements to create effective graphics quickly and easily, add border effects, linear and radial gradients, re-use components, and rescale, rotate and translate images. During the (optional) final two weeks of the course participants learn how to: add animation, use scripting to transform and manipulate images, and create interactive graphics. The last two weeks will most benefit those with some background in scripting. The only pre-requisite for the course is to have some familiarity with HTML/XML and the ability to edit source code directly.

The early bird rate of €124 is available until Thursday, 23 December. After that, the rate is €165. Full details of the course (audience, content, timing, weekly commitment) are available in the Introduction to SVG: Course Description. Learn more about Scalable Vector Graphics.

Three CSS publications: Last call for CSS 2.1, First Drafts of Snapshot 2010 and Writing Modes Level 3

07 December 2010

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification. CSS 2.1 is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., fonts and spacing) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). CSS 2.1 corrects a few errors in CSS2 and adds a few highly requested features which have already been widely implemented. But most of all CSS 2.1 represents a "snapshot" of CSS usage: it consists of all CSS features that are implemented interoperably at the date of publication. Last Call comments are welcome through 7 January 2011. The Working Group allso published two other first public Working Drafts. CSS Snapshot 2010 collects together into one definition all the specs that together form the current state of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). CSS Writing Modes Module Level 3 specifies the text layout model in CSS and the properties that control it. It covers bidirectional and vertical text. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Privacy and Data Usage Control Workshop Results Announced

06 December 2010

W3C publishes today a report from the October Workshop on Privacy and data usage control. As the report indicates, there is an obvious tension on the Web between policy imperatives and economic imperatives (namely: advertising fueled by personal data). Participants discussed requirements on the one hand that users have simple interfaces for managing privacy preferences, and on the other that applications support sophisticated context-specific and rich interactions for b2b scenarios. The report includes information about approaches based on notice and consent (focusing on data collection) versus approaches based on accountability (focusing on data use, not collection). Reconciling this tension will require further discussion across different communities. See the report for more information on joining the conversation. Learn more about Web Privacy at W3C, including W3C's next workshop: How can Technology help to improve Privacy on the Internet?, 8-9 December at MIT.

Incubator Group Report: A Standards-based, Open and Privacy-aware Social Web

06 December 2010

The W3C Social Web Incubator Group has published their final report. The mission of the Incubator Group was to understand the systems and technologies that permit the description and identification of people, groups, organizations, and user-generated content in extensible and privacy-respecting ways. The report describes a framework for understanding the Social Web and many relevant standards (from both within and outside the W3C), and concludes by proposing a strategy for making the Social Web a "first-class citizen" of the Web. The report recommends that the W3C should offer resources to start a Federated Social Web Incubator Group, and that the W3C host a workshop to investigate identity in the browser with existing communities in order to determine how digital identity fits into the One Web platform. This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track.

Technical Architecture Group Participants Announced

01 December 2010

W3C announces the results of this year's Technical Architecture Group (TAG) election process: Peter Linss (HP), Ashok Malhotra (Oracle), and Larry Masinter (Adobe) all begin 2-year terms on 1 February 2011. The mission of the TAG is to build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary, to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG, and to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C. Peter, Ashok, and Larry join fellow TAG members Dan Appelquist (Vodafone), Jonathan Rees (Creative Commons), and Henry Thompson (U. of Edinburgh). Noah Mendelsohn (unaffiliated) and Tim Berners-Lee co-Chair the TAG. There remains one seat for appointment by the Director. Learn more about the TAG.

Last Call: XML Encryption, Signature 1.1

30 November 2010

The XML Security Working Group has published a Last Call Working Drafts of XML Encryption Syntax and Processing Version 1.1 and XML Signature Syntax and Processing Version 1.1. The former specifies a process for encrypting data and representing the result in XML. The latter specifies XML digital signature processing rules and syntax. XML Signatures provide integrity, message authentication, and/or signer authentication services for data of any type, whether located within the XML that includes the signature or elsewhere. See the explanation of XML encryption changes and XML signature changes. Comments are welcome through 22 December. Learn more about the Security Activity.

Last Call: XML Processor Profiles

30 November 2010

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of XML Processor Profiles. This specification defines several XML processor profiles, each of which fully determines a data model for any given XML document. It is intended as a resource for other specifications, which can by a single normative reference establish precisely what input processing they require. Comments are welcome through 14 January. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

XHTML 1.1, XHTML Basic 1.1, XHTML Print Recommendations Revised

24 November 2010

Today the XHTML2 Working Group published three revised Recommendations: XHTML 1.1 - Module-based XHTML Second Edition, XHTML Basic 1.1 Second Edition, and XHTML-Print Second Edition. A related specification, XHTML Modularization, defines a framework for building XHTML language definitions from a set of modules. Each of the revised Recommendations combines modules to different ends. XHTML 1.1 is a "full" set of modules, XHTML Basic 1.1 is a minimal set of modules for environments such as mobile phones, PDAs, pagers, and set top boxes. XHTML Print targets printing, e.g., from mobile devices to printers that may not be full-featured. These revisions incorporate corrections to errata; see each document for the list of changes. Learn more about the XHTML 2 Working Group.

Smarter Integration of Web and Broadcasting: Second Workshop on Web and TV Scheduled

24 November 2010

Berlin skyline W3C announces the second in a series of Workshops on the Web and TV. The Second W3C Web and TV Workshop takes place in Berlin, Germany, 8-9 February 2011, hosted by Fraunhofer-Fokus. Participants in this workshop will continue discussions begun in Japan in September 2010 (see summary) among the television industry, other producers of consumer electronics, and the Web community. Participants in this Workshop have the opportunity to share their own perspectives, requirements, and ideas to ensure that emerging global standards meet their needs. Topics are likely to include: the advantages of supporting HTML5 (such as its rich feature set, global language support, and support for accessibility), compatibility with existing television technology, performance issues, the transition from existing approaches to Web-based ones, digital rights management, nomadic user interfaces (where users change devices without losing the flow of their activity), and more. Anyone may participate in this Workshop; a position paper is required and space is limited to 80 people. Position papers are due 7 January 2011 but expressions of interest sooner than that are appreciated. Please see the the Call for Participation for further details.

HTML5 Web Messaging Draft Published

19 November 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of HTML5 Web Messaging. This specification defines two mechanisms for communicating between browsing contexts in HTML documents. Cross document messaging allows documents to communicate with each other regardless of their source domain, in a way designed to not enable cross-site scripting attacks. Channel messaging allows independent pieces of code (e.g. running in different browsing contexts) to communicate directly. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Timed Text Markup Language (TTML) 1.0 is a W3C Recommendation

18 November 2010

The Timed Text Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of Timed Text Markup Language (TTML) 1.0. TTML 1.0 provides a standardized representation of a particular subset of textual information with which stylistic, layout, and timing semantics are associated by an author or an authoring system for the purpose of interchange and potential presentation. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

First Draft of A Direct Mapping of Relational Data to RDF Published

18 November 2010

The RDB2RDF Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of A Direct Mapping of Relational Data to RDF. The need to share data with collaborators motivates custodians and users of relational databases (RDB) to expose relational data on the Web of Data. This document defines a direct mapping from relational data to RDF. This definition provides extension points for refinements within and outside of this document. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Internet Society Reconfirms Support for W3C Open Web Platform with Donation

17 November 2010

In its continuing efforts to foster an open Internet ecosystem, the Internet Society today announced a 1M USD donation to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). This donation, the second installment of the Internet Society's 2009 pledge of 2.5M USD over three years, will support the evolution of W3C as an organization that creates open Web standards. "The W3C is a key member of the ecosystem of organizations that supports the continued development, operation, and use of the open, global Internet," said Raúl Echeberría, Chair of the Internet Society Board of Trustees. ISOC and W3C have closely aligned views and strongly support the ongoing evolution of open Internet as an invaluable platform for innovation. Read more in the press release and FAQ about ISOC and W3C.

Last Call: WOFF File Format 1.0

16 November 2010

The WebFonts Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of WOFF File Format 1.0. This document specifies a simple compressed file format for fonts, designed primarily for use on the Web and known as WOFF (Web Open Font Format). WOFF provides lightweight, easy-to-implement compression of font data, suitable for use with CSS style sheets. WOFF is a container format or "wrapper" for font data in already-existing formats rather than an actual font format in its own right. Comments are welcome through 14 December. Learn more about the Fonts Activity.

Last Call: XHTML+RDFa 1.1

09 November 2010

The RDFa Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of XHTML+RDFa 1.1. RDFa Core 1.1 defines attributes and syntax for embedding semantic markup in Host Languages. XHTML+RDFa 1.1 defines one such Host Language. XHTML+RDFa 1.1 augments XHTML 1.1 by adding the attributes defined in RDFa Core 1.1. The result allows authors to create XHTML documents that also feature additional semantic markup. The announcement as a Last Call Working Draft is an open invitation to the general public to review and provide feedback on the specification via the RDFa Working Group mailing list. Comments are welcome through 09 December. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Launches HTML5 Korean Interest Group

09 November 2010

W3C has launched the HTML5 Korean Interest Group, whose mission is to facilitate focused discussion in Korean of the HTML5 specification and of specifications closely related to HTML5, to gather comments and questions in Korean about those specifications, to collect information about specific use cases in Korea for technologies defined in those specifications, and to report the results of its activities as a group back to the HTML Working Group and others in the community. Learn more in the charter, join the Interest Group, and learn more about the W3C HTML Activity.

Global Adoption of W3C Standards Boosted by ISO/IEC Official Recognition

03 November 2010

Today W3C, the International Standards Organization (ISO), and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) took steps that will encourage greater international adoption of W3C standards. W3C is now an "ISO/IEC JTC 1 PAS Submitter" (see the application), bringing "de jure" standards communities closer to the Internet ecosystem. As national bodies refer increasingly to W3C's widely deployed standards, users will benefit from an improved Web experience based on W3C's standards for an Open Web Platform. W3C expects to use this process (1) to help avoid global market fragmentation; (2) to improve deployment within government use of the specification; and (3) when there is evidence of stability/market acceptance of the specification. Web Services specifications will likely constitute the first package W3C will submit, by the end of 2010. For more information, see the W3C PAS Submission FAQ.

W3C Community Convenes Over Open Web Platform and Future Work

03 November 2010

Bridge in Lyon About 300 people from the W3C community convene today in Lyon, France for TPAC 2010 Plenary to discuss the current challenges in building an Open Web Platform as well as ideas for future work. The day's agenda includes discussion of current integration challenges, demos of HTML5, CSS3 and other pieces of the Open Web Platform, discussion about next generation technologies and the connection between TV and the Web. The procedings of TPAC 2010 are public and will be made available shortly after the meeting. W3C also invites local developers to a 4 November meetup in Lyon.

Call for Review: CSS Color Module Level 3 Proposed Recommendation

28 October 2010

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of CSS Color Module Level 3. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language for describing the rendering of HTML and XML documents in a variety of ways, including on screen and paper. CSS uses color-related properties and values to color the text, backgrounds, borders, and other parts of elements in a document. This specification describes color values and properties for foreground color and group opacity. These include properties and values from CSS level 2 and new values. Comments are welcome through 25 November. Learn more about the Style Activity.

First Draft of RDB to RDF Mapping Language (R2RML) Published

28 October 2010

The RDB2RDF Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of R2RML: RDB to RDF Mapping Language. R2RML is a language for describing how to put relational data on the Semantic Web. With R2RML, people express customized mappings from relational databases to RDF datasets, allowing them to view existing relational data in the RDF data model, expressed in their preferred structure and target vocabulary. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Associating Style Sheets with XML documents 1.0 (Second Edition) Published

28 October 2010

The XML Core Working Group has revised the W3C Recommendation of Associating Style Sheets with XML documents 1.0 (Second Edition). This document allows style sheets to be associated with an XML document by including one or more processing instructions with a target of xml-stylesheet in the document's prolog. The second edition incorporates all known errata as of the publication date, clarifies several areas left unspecified in the earlier edition, and has been restructured to allow other specifications to reuse the rules for parsing pseudo-attributes from a string. See the full list of changes. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Launches Web Events Working Group

28 October 2010

W3C today launches the Web Events Working Group, whose chartered mission is to provide methods to enable the use of multi-touch and pen-tablet input on devices of all types. Web browsers and mobile devices are making increasing use of touch-sensitive inputs, such as with a screen, trackpad, or tablet interface, as the primary or supplementary interface for web applications. A related class of devices, including drawing tablets, interactive surfaces, pen devices, digital whiteboards, and spatial sensors, are also becoming more Web-enabled, driving the need to account for a wider range of capability than simple touch interfaces. The aim of this group is to determine an appropriate set of functionality to standardize, and to define those features in way that may be deployed quickly, widely, and interoperably. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Invites Developers to Meetup in Lyon (4 November)

28 October 2010

W3C invites people to a W3C meetup in Lyon, France on Thursday, 4 November (7-9pm) at the Lyon Convention Center. Anyone may attend the meetup at no cost. We encourage Web developers and designers to join these discussions, and to meet and chat with others in the W3C community who are convening that week during W3C's TPAC 2010. The evening will include a few speakers and demos on topics such as HTML5, SVG, augmented reality and the Web, W3C's new Unicorn validator, and more. W3C appreciates the support of sponsor Grand Lyon as well as other local partners. Please register online and meet us there.

First Draft of Navigation Timing Draft Published

26 October 2010

The Web Performance Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Navigation Timing. To address the need for complete information on user experience, this document introduces the NavigationTiming interfaces. This interface allows JavaScript mechanisms to provide complete client-side latency measurements within applications. With the proposed interface, it will be possible, for instance, to measure a user's perceived page load time. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Last Call: SOAP over Java Message Service 1.0

26 October 2010

The SOAP-JMS Binding Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of SOAP over Java Message Service 1.0. This document specifies how SOAP binds to a messaging system that supports the Java Message Service (JMS). Bindings are specified for both SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2 using the SOAP 1.2 Protocol Binding Framework. This specification also describes how to use WSDL documents to indicate and control the use of this binding. Comments are welcome through 19 November. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Last Call: RDFa Core 1.1

26 October 2010

The RDFa Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of RDFa Core 1.1. RDFa Core is a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language, with an emphasis on HTML-family languages, the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Format, the Open Document Format and other Web-enabled document formats. The specification enables the human-readable and machine-readable markup of people, places, events, products, recipes, social networks, and many other concepts that are frequently published on the web. RDFa 1.1 improves upon RDFa 1.0 by adding a number of features requested by people to ease authoring. The announcement as a Last Call Working Draft is an open invitation to the general public to review and provide feedback on the specification via the RDFa Working Group mailing list. The deadline for review feedback is 6 December. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

First Draft of File API: Directories and System Published; Two APIs and Widget Requirements Updated

26 October 2010

The Web Applications Working Group published three specifications today, including a first draft of File API: Directories and System, which defines an API to navigate file system hierarchies, and defines a means by which a user agent may expose sandboxed sections of a user's local filesystem to Web Applications. The API builds on the other two updated specifications, File API: Writer and File API. The Working Group also updated the Widget Requirements. A widget is an interactive single purpose application for displaying and/or updating local data or data on the Web, packaged in a way to allow a single download and installation on a user's machine or mobile device. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Web Content Transformation Proxies 1.0 Retired

26 October 2010

W3C today retired Guidelines for Web Content Transformation Proxies 1.0. This document had been expected to become a W3C Recommendation. W3C published the document as a Candidate Recommendation in June. Since then, the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has not gathered sufficient evidence of implementation and W3C has therefore decided to discontinue work on this document.

Eight HTML5 Drafts Updated

25 October 2010

The HTML Working Group published eight documents:

Learn more about HTML5.

Call for Review: Mobile Web Application Best Practices Proposed Recommendation

21 October 2010

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Mobile Web Application Best Practices. The goal of this document is to aid the development of rich and dynamic mobile Web applications. It collects the most relevant engineering practices, promoting those that enable a better user experience and warning against those that are considered harmful. Comments are welcome through 19 November. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.

XML Processor Profiles Draft Published

21 October 2010

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published a Working Draft of XML processor profiles. This specification defines several XML processor profiles, each of which fully determines a data model for any given XML document. It is intended as a resource for other specifications, which can by a single normative reference establish precisely what input processing they require. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Web IDL Draft Published

21 October 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Web IDL. This document defines an interface definition language, Web IDL, that can be used to describe interfaces that are intended to be implemented in Web browsers. Web IDL is an IDL variant with a number of features that allow the behavior of common script objects in the web platform to be specified more readily. How interfaces described with Web IDL correspond to constructs within ECMAScript and Java execution environments is also detailed. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Integrates Math on the Web with MathML 3 Standard

21 October 2010

W3C announces today an important standard for making mathematics on the Web more accessible and international, especially for early mathematics education. MathML 3 is the third version of a standard supported in a wide variety of applications including Web pages, e-books, equation editors, publishing systems, screen readers (that read aloud the information on a page) and braille displays, ink input devices, e-learning and computational software. MathML 3 is part of W3C's Open Web Platform, which includes HTML5, CSS, and SVG. "We expect wider deployment of MathML 3.0 will facilitate communication of mathematics and science over the Web," said Don McClure, Executive Director, American Mathematical Society. Read the full press release and testimonials. Learn more about Math at W3C.

Progress Events Draft Updated

19 October 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Progress Events. The Progress Events specification defines an abstract event interface that can be used for measuring progress, e.g., in the sense of how much of a document has loaded. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Updated Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

14 October 2010

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group today published updates of two Notes that accompany WCAG 2.0: Techniques for WCAG 2.0 and Understanding WCAG 2.0. (This is not an update to WCAG 2.0, which is a stable document.) To learn more about these updates and about contributing to future updates, see the New and Improved WCAG 2.0 Techniques blog post. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

W3C Updates Five SPARQL 1.1 Drafts

14 October 2010

The SPARQL Working Group has published updated drafts of the following SPARQL 1.1 documents. SPARQL is a set of specfications related to querying a web of linked data. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

W3C Invites Implementations of CSS Style Attributes

14 October 2010

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of CSS Style Attributes. Markup languages such as HTML and SVG provide a style attribute on most elements, to hold inline style information that applies to those elements. One of the possible style sheet languages is CSS. This draft describes the syntax and interpretation of the CSS fragment that can be used in such style attributes. Learn more about the Style Activity.

First Draft of Web DOM Core Draft Published

07 October 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Web DOM Core. Web DOM Core defines interfaces for accessing and updating various types of nodes in a DOM tree, as well as interfaces for adding, getting, and removing items from lists of tokens, and interfaces for retrieving items from collections of nodes and from lists of strings. W3C invites feedback on this early draft. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Call for Review: XHTML 1.1, XHTML Basic 1.1, XHTML Print Proposed Edited Recommendations

07 October 2010

The XHTML2 Working Group has published three Proposed Edited Recommendations of XHTML 1.1, XHTML Basic 1.1, and XHTML Print. The first defines an XHTML document type that is based upon the module framework and modules defined in XHTML Modularization. The second is a smaller set of modules; just those required to be an XHTML host language document type. In addition it includes images, forms, basic tables, and object support. The third document is a profile designed to be appropriate for printing from mobile devices to low-cost printers that might not have a full-page buffer and that generally print from top-to-bottom and left-to-right with the paper in a portrait orientation. Comments are welcome through 11 November. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

Starts Monday, 11 October: Introduction to SVG Course

07 October 2010

As part of the Open Media Web project, co-funded by the European Union, the new W3C Course: Introduction to SVG begins on Monday, 11 October. The course is being lead by SVG IG member and author of an SVG Primer, David Dailey of Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania with support from W3C Team member Phil Archer who leads the successful Mobile Web Best Practices course. The aim of this activity is to help people already familiar with core Web technologies, like HTML and XML, to extend their knowledge. Scalable Vector Graphics is not new, but it is rapidly gaining adherents and deployment across the world as developers aim to make content available on different sized screens without any loss of image quality. All modern browsers have at least some support for SVG and now really is the time to get to grips with this powerful and exciting technology. Registration will remain open for a while after the course starts but it's best to be there at the start when fellow participants are discussing the current material and receiving feedback from David Dailey on the assignments. For full details of the course and how to register, please see the course description. Learn more about SVG.

Last Call: Widget Packaging and Configuration

05 October 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Widget Packaging and Configuration. Widgets are client-side applications that are authored using Web standards such as HTML5, but whose content can also be embedded into Web documents. The packaging specification relies on PKWare's Zip specification as the archive format, XML as a configuration document format, and a series of steps that runtimes follow when processing and verifying various aspects of a package. Comments are welcome through 26 October. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

First Draft of Permissions for Device API Access Published

05 October 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Permissions for Device API Access. A number of Web APIs, in particular those used to access private or sensitive data from the hosting device, are meant to be discoverable, as well as disabled or enabled on a site-by-site or application-by-application basis, depending on the security context. For instance, the feature element as defined in the Widget Packaging and Configuration specification allows a widget runtime engine to grant access only to the specific APIs that the configuration file of the widget listed. This document identifies and names the various permissions that are attached to existing Web APIs. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

CSS Text Level 3 Draft Published

05 October 2010

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Text Level 3. This CSS3 module defines properties for text manipulation and specifies their processing model. It covers line breaking, justification and alignment, white space handling, text decoration and text transformation. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Launches Points of Interest Working Group

04 October 2010

W3C has launched a Points of Interest Working Group, whose mission is to develop technical specifications for the representation of "Points of Interest" information on the Web. For the purposes of this Working Group, a "Point of Interest" is defined simply as an entity at a physical location about which information is available. For example, the Taj Mahal in India is a point of interest, located at 27.174799° N, 78.042111°E (in the WGS84 geodetic system). Additional information could be associated with it, such as: it was completed around 1653, has a particular shape, and that it is open to visitors during specific hours. Points of Interest information is used in a wide variety of applications such as: augmented reality ("AR"), mapping and navigation systems, geocaching, etc. This group will primarily focus on POI use within AR applications but will strive to ensure reusability across applications. The group will also explore how the AR industry could best use, influence and contribute to Web standards. More information is available in the Working Group Charter. W3C launches this group as the result of discussion at the W3C Workshop on Augmented Reality on the Web. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Multilingual Web Workshop Program Published

03 October 2010

The MultilingualWeb Project, funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the W3C, is looking at best practices and standards related to all aspects of creating, localizing and deploying the multilingual Web. The project will raise visibility of what's available and identify gaps via a series of four events, over two years. The first Workshop takes place in Madrid, Spain on 26-27 October 2010. It is free and open to the public. A first view of the workshop program has just been published. Speakers represent a wide range of organizations and interests, including: BBC, DFKI, European Commission, Facebook, Google, Loquendo, LRC, Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera, SAP, W3C, WHO, and the World Wide Web Foundation. Session titles include: Developers, Creators, Localizers, Machines, and Users. The Workshop should provide useful cross-domain networking opportunities. Learn more about participation and registration in the Call for Participation and learn more about Internationalization at W3C.

W3C UK and Ireland Office Moves to Nominet

01 October 2010

After 13 years of successful work at STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, the W3C UK and Ireland Office has a new home at Nominet. Nominet runs the one of the world’s largest Internet registries, the registry for .uk domain names, with over eight million domain names. Phil Kingsland, Director of Marketing and Communications at Nominet, will be the new Office manager. He said, "We believe the work W3C does promoting web accessibility standards, and developing other standards that help web users to trust in the reputation of the Internet is well aligned with Nominet’s public purpose remit and vision, which is to be a leading force in making the Internet a trusted space, which everyone can be part of and has a positive impact on people’s lives." The Office plans a ceremonial launch later this year.

W3C would like to thank STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and the W3C UK and Ireland Office staff, led by Michel D Wilson and his predecessors Stuart Robinson and Bob Hopgood, for their contributions to W3C and the Web. Learn more about the W3C Offices, regional W3C representatives that help promote the W3C mission.

Web on TV: Towards Smarter Integration of Web and Broadcasting

29 September 2010

The explosion of the mobile device market demonstrates how consumers have come to expect and rely on access to the network from anywhere, at any time. Increasingly, people expect similar access to the Web from consumer electronics such as televisions. W3C has begun to organize a series of workshops to discuss this convergence with television industry and other producers of consumer electronics.

The first workshop in the series took place in Japan on 2-3 September. There, 150 participants from various industries discussed key use cases and important requirements for smarter integration of Web, broadcasting and consumer electronics technologies. A summary of the workshop is now available.

One recommendation from the participants was for W3C to create "Web and TV" Interest Group. A draft charter is now available; W3C invites public comment on public-web-and-tv@w3.org. The proposed scope for the group is:

  • Minimum clarification about the conceptual relationship between Web and TV, especially the architectural relationship between the services on Web and the TV services;
  • Identification of important requirements for the Web to function effectively with TV services on TV devices and TV-like devices;
  • Identification of important requirements for TV to function effectively on various devices with services on the Web;
  • Review and discussion of deliverables under development by other W3C groups, which touch on the use of the Web and TV;
  • Exploration of barriers to the Web and TV services working on TV devices and TV-like devices, and potential solutions;
  • Provide a forum for the exchange information about Web and TV activities around the world.

Learn more about a Web of devices.

Two Media Capture Drafts Updated

28 September 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published two Working Drafts: HTML Media Capture and The Media Capture API. The first defines HTML form enhancements that provide access to the audio, image and video capture capabilities of the device. Providing streaming access to these capabilities is outside of the scope of this specification. The second defines an API that provides access to the audio, image and video capture capabilities of the device. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Widget Updates Draft Published

28 September 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Widget Updates. This specification defines a process and a document format to allow a user agent to update an installed widget package with a different version of a widget package. A widget cannot update itself; instead, a widget relies on the user agent to manage the update process. A user agent can perform an update over HTTP and from non-HTTP sources (e.g., directly from a device's memory card or hard disk). Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Launches Object Memory Modeling Incubator Group

27 September 2010

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Object Memory Modeling Incubator Group, whose mission is to define an object memory format, which allows for modeling of events or other information about individual physical artifacts - ideally over their lifetime - and which is explicitly designed to support data storage of those logs on so-called smart labels attached to the physical artifact. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH), SAP AG, Siemens AG. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track but in many cases serves as a starting point for a future Working Group.

RDFa API Draft Published

23 September 2010

The RDFa Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of RDFa API. RDFa enables authors to publish structured information that is both human- and machine-readable. Concepts that have traditionally been difficult for machines to detect, like people, places, events, music, movies, and recipes, are now easily marked up in Web documents. While publishing this data is vital to the growth of Linked Data, using the information to improve the collective utility of the Web for humankind is the true goal. To accomplish this goal, it must be simple for Web developers to extract and utilize structured information from a Web document. This document details such a mechanism; an RDFa Application Programming Interface (RDFa API) that allows simple extraction and usage of structured information from a Web document. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

How do we Improve Internet Privacy? Two W3C Workshops Address User Privacy Needs

21 September 2010

W3C is pleased to announce two upcoming Workshops on Internet Privacy. As more and more of this information is being digitized and made available electronically we must ask: how can we ensure that architectures and technologies for the Internet, including the World Wide Web, are developed in a way that respects user privacy?

The first Workshop will address Privacy and data usage control, 4-5 October in Cambridge (MA) together with the PrimeLife Project and CSAIL's Decentralized Information Group (DIG). The October Workshop is a follow-up to the July Workshop on Privacy for Advanced Web APIs which took place in London. This Workshop mainly targets the service side of Privacy: how to keep promises made to the user easily and how to mitigate privacy risks in a world where services cooperate to fulfill user needs.

W3C then carries the insights gained from the July and October Workshops to a wider context: How can Technology help to improve Privacy on the Internet?, jointly organized with the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Internet Society (ISOC), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The meeting takes place at MIT in Cambridge (MA) on 8-9 December 2010, and position papers are due 5 November. See the Workshop home for more information about participation.

Learn more about W3C work on Privacy and W3C Workshops.

Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces Draft Updated

21 September 2010

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces (MMI Architecture), which defines a general and flexible framework providing interoperability among modality-specific components from different vendors - for example, speech recognition from one vendor and handwriting recognition from another. The main changes from the previous draft are (1) the inclusion of state charts for modality components, (2) the addition of a 'confidential' field to life-cycle events and (3) the removal of the 'media' field from life-cycle events. A diff-marked version of this document is available. Learn more about the W3C Multimodal Interaction Activity.

W3C Launches Unified Services Description Language Incubator Group

17 September 2010

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Unified Service Description Language Incubator Group, whose mission is to define a language for describing general and generic parts of technical and business services to allow services to become tradable and consumable. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: Attensity Europe GmbH (formerly Empolis GmbH), German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI GmbH), SAP AG, Siemens AG. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track but in many cases serves as a starting point for a future Working Group.

Last Call: Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) Working Draft

16 September 2010

The Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) has published a Last Call Working Draft of WAI-ARIA, the Accessible Rich Internet Applications technical specification for making dynamic, interactive Web content accessible to people with disabilities. The PFWG also published updated Working Drafts of the WAI-ARIA User Agent Implementation Guide that provides guidance on how browsers and other user agents should expose WAI-ARIA features to platform accessibility APIs; WAI-ARIA Authoring Practices that describes how Web content developers can develop accessible rich Web applications using WAI-ARIA; and WAI-ARIA Primer that provides a technical introduction.

These WAI-ARIA documents are introduced in the WAI-ARIA Overview. Comments are welcome through 29 October 2010. Read the WAI-ARIA review announcement for details, and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Role Attribute Draft Published

16 September 2010

The Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) has published a Working Draft of Role Attribute 1.0: An attribute to support the role classification of elements. Role Attribute allows authors to annotate markup languages with machine-extractable semantic information about the purpose of an element. Comments are welcome through 29 October 2010. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Call for Review: Timed Text Markup Language (TTML) 1.0 Proposed Recommendation

14 September 2010

The Timed Text Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Timed Text Markup Language (TTML) 1.0. The Timed Text Markup Language is a content type that represents timed text media for the purpose of interchange among authoring systems. Timed text is textual information that is intrinsically or extrinsically associated with timing information. It is intended to be used for the purpose of transcoding or exchanging timed text information among legacy distribution content formats presently in use for subtitling and captioning functions. Comments are welcome through 12 October. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Call for Review: Associating Style Sheets with XML documents 1.0 (Second Edition) Proposed Edited Recommendation

14 September 2010

The XML Core Working Group has published a Proposed Edited Recommendation of Associating Style Sheets with XML documents 1.0 (Second Edition). This document allows style sheets to be associated with an XML document by including one or more processing instructions with a target of xml-stylesheet in the document's prolog. Comments are welcome through 14 October. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Introduction to SVG online course: Early Bird Registration open!

10 September 2010

W3C is delighted to announce its latest online training course: Introduction to SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics). The 5-week online course will be lead by David Dailey of Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania, who is writing an SVG Primer. People taking the course will:

  • create SVG documents;
  • learn how to add border effects, linear and radial gradients;
  • add animation using SMIL;
  • use scripting to transform and manipulate images; and
  • make graphics interactive and responsive to user input.

The only pre-requisite for the course is that participants have some familiarity with HTML/XML and the ability to edit source code directly. Participants will have access to lectures and assignments guided by W3C experts on this topic. There will also be opportunities to discuss and share experiences with your peers who are faced with the same challenges of Web design.

Registration is now open. The Early bird rate of 95 Euros is available until 1 October. After that date, the rate is 125 Euros. Full details of the course (audience, content, timing, weekly commitment) is available in the Introduction to SVG: Course Description.

New Resources for HTML and CSS Authors on Character Encodings

09 September 2010

The Internationalization Core Working Group has just published 6 new articles and updated a further 5 articles and a tutorial to help HTML and CSS authors understand how to work with character encodings on the Web. For instance, there are articles that explore how to choose an encoding, how to declare it in various flavours of HTML and XHTML, what you need to know about the byte-order mark and normalization, and when to use (or not use) character escapes. For more iI18n news and RSS feeds, visit the Internationalization home page.

Last Call: Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification

08 September 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Document Object Model (DOM) Level 3 Events Specification. DOM Events is designed with two main goals. The first goal is the design of an event system which allows registration of event listeners and describes event flow through a tree structure. Additionally, the specification will provide standard modules of events for user interface control and document mutation notifications, including defined contextual information for each of these event modules. The second goal of DOM Events is to provide a common subset of the current event systems used in existing browsers. This is intended to foster interoperability of existing scripts and content. Comments are welcome through 18 October. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Geolocation API Specification

07 September 2010

The Geolocation Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Geolocation API Specification. The Geolocation API defines a high-level interface to location information associated only with the device hosting the implementation, such as latitude and longitude. The API itself is agnostic of the underlying location information sources. Common sources of location information include Global Positioning System (GPS) and location inferred from network signals such as IP address, RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses, and GSM/CDMA cell IDs, as well as user input. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

XMLHttpRequest Level 2 Draft Published

07 September 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of XMLHttpRequest Level 2. The XMLHttpRequest Level 2 specification enhances the XMLHttpRequest object with new features, such as cross-origin requests, progress events, and the handling of byte streams for both sending and receiving. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Last Call: The Widget Interface

07 September 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of The Widget Interface. This specification defines an application programming interface (API) for widgets that provides, amongst other things, functionality for accessing a widget's metadata and persistently storing data. Comments are welcome through 28 September. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Updated Note: Device API Access Control Use Cases and Requirements

07 September 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has updated a Group Note of Device API Access Control Use Cases and Requirements. This document examines the question of managing sensitive information that can become available through device APIs (e.g., position information). The approach taken in this document is to simplify the possible interactions by considering three related use cases: (1) browser web pages and untrusted widgets (2) trusted widgets and applications, and (3) delegated authority. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

W3C Extends Speech Framework to Asian Languages

07 September 2010

W3C today extended speech on the Web to an enormous new market by improving support for Asian languages and multi-lingual voice applications. The Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML 1.1) Recommendation provides control over voice selection as well as speech characteristics such as pronunciation, volume, and pitch. SSML is part of W3C's Speech Interface Framework for building voice applications, which also includes the widely deployed VoiceXML. "With SSML 1.1 there is an intentional focus on Asian language support," said Dan Burnett, Co-Chair of the Voice Browser Working Group and Director of Speech Technologies and Standards at Voxeo, "including Chinese languages, Japanese, Thai, Urdu, and others, to provide a wide deployment potential." Read more in the press release and W3C Member Testimonials. Learn more about voice browsing.

Five XML Security Drafts Published

01 September 2010

The XML Security Working Group has published five working drafts today. XML Signature 2.0, Canonical XML 2.0 and the XML Signature Streamable Profile of XPath 1.0 are part of an ongoing effort to rework XML Signature and Canonical XML in order to address issues around performance, streaming, robustness, and attack surface. The Working Group has also published updated Working Drafts for its XML Signature Best Practices and XML Security Relax NG Schemas Working Group Notes. Learn more about XML Security.

Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0 Draft Published

31 August 2010

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Working Draft of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0. Voice XML is used to create interactive media dialogs that feature synthesized speech, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, telephony, mixed initiative conversations, and recording and presentation of a variety of media formats including digitized audio, and digitized video. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

W3C Launches HTML Speech Incubator Group

30 August 2010

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the HTML Speech Incubator Group, whose mission is to determine the feasibility of integrating speech technology in HTML5 in a way that leverages the capabilities of both speech and HTML (e.g., DOM) to provide a high-quality, browser-independent speech/multimodal experience while avoiding unnecessary standards fragmentation or overlap. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: Voxeo, Microsoft, Openstream, Google, AT&T, Mozilla. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track but in many cases serves as a starting point for a future Working Group.

W3C Launches Web Performance Working Group

19 August 2010

W3C has launched a new Web Performance Working Group, whose mission is to provide methods to measure aspects of application performance of user agent features and APIs. As Web browsers and their underlying engines include richer capabilities and become more powerful, Web developers are building more sophisticated applications where application performance is increasingly important. Developers need the ability to assess and understand the performance characteristics of their applications using well-defined interoperable methods. This new Working Group will look at user agent features and APIs to measure aspects of application performance. Group deliverables will apply to desktop and mobile browsers and other non-browser environments where appropriate and will be consistent with Web technologies designed in other working groups including HTML, CSS, WebApps, DAP and SVG. Learn more in the Working Group charter and how this work fits into the W3C's Rich Web Client Activity.

Contacts API Draft Published

17 August 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Working Draft of Contacts API. This specification defines the concept of a user's unified address book - where address book data may be sourced from a plurality of sources - both online and locally. This specification then defines the interfaces on which 3rd party applications can access a user's unified address book; with explicit user permission and filtering. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

W3C Leads Discussion at TypeCon 2010 on New Open Web Font Format (WOFF)

17 August 2010

W3C attends TypeCon 2010 this week for community discussion about Web Open File Format (WOFF), the new open format for enabling high-quality typography for the Web. WOFF expands the typographic palette available to Web designers, improving readability, accessibility, internationalization, branding, and search optimization. Though still in the early phases of standardization, WOFF represents a pivotal agreement among browser vendors, foundries and font service providers who have convened at W3C to address the long-standing goal of advancing Web typography. “As a key Web font standard developed by W3C, WOFF 1.0 represents a universal solution for enabling advanced typography on the Web,” said Vladimir Levantovsky, W3C WebFonts Working Group chair and senior technology strategist at Monotype Imaging, Inc. “With the backing of browser companies and font vendors, who are making their fonts available for licensing in WOFF, this new W3C Recommendation-track document will bring rich typographic choice for content creators, Web authors and brand managers." Learn more in the press release and WOFF FAQ, as well as more about fonts on the Web.

Privacy Workshop Participants Share Implementation Experience; User Behaviors

15 August 2010

In July, W3C brought together participants across the industry for a privacy workshop (organized jointly with the PrimeLife EU project in London). Discussion topics included privacy-related implementation experience with the W3C geolocation API, and privacy icon and ruleset proposals for Web sites and APIs, respectively. Read the Workshop Report and learn more about the W3C Privacy Activity.

Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines is a W3C Recommendation

12 August 2010

The Web Security Context Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines. This specification deals with the trust decisions that users must make online, and with ways to support them in making safe and informed decisions where possible. It describes user interactions and user interface guidelines with a goal toward making security usable, based on known best practice in this area. Learn more about the Security Activity.

W3C Invites Review of First Draft of The Messaging API

10 August 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of The Messaging API. The Messaging API defines a high-level interface to Messaging functionality, including SMS, MMS and Email. It includes APIs to create, send and receive messages. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Call for Review: MathML 3.0; MathML for CSS Profile are Proposed Recommendations

10 August 2010

The Math Working Group published two Proposed Recommendations today: Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0 and A MathML for CSS Profile. This first defines the Mathematical Markup Language, or MathML, which enables people to express mathematics in Web documents. The second describes a profile of MathML 3.0 that is suitable for styling with Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Comments are welcome through 10 September. Learn more about the Math Activity.

Second Last Call for Seven Web Services Drafts

05 August 2010

The Web Services Resource Access Working Group published seven Second Last Call Working Drafts for Web Services: Enumeration (WS-Enumeration), Event Descriptions (WS-EventDescriptions), Eventing (WS-Eventing), Fragment (WS-Fragment), Metadata Exchange (WS-MetadataExchange), SOAP Assertions (WS-SOAPAssertions), and Transfer (WS-Transfer). Comments welcome through 17 September 2010. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of XMLHttpRequest

03 August 2010

The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of XMLHttpRequest. The XMLHttpRequest specification defines an API that provides scripted client functionality for transferring data between a client and a server. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Drafts of RDFa Core 1.1 and XHTML+RDFa 1.1 Published

03 August 2010

The RDFa Working Group has just published two Working Drafts: RDFa Core 1.1 and XHTML+RDFa 1.1. RDFa Core 1.1 is a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. The embedded data already available in the markup language (e.g., XHTML) is reused by the RDFa markup, so that publishers don't need to repeat significant data in the document content. XHTML+RDFa 1.1 is an XHTML family markup language. That extends the XHTML 1.1 markup language with the attributes defined in RDFa Core 1.1. This document is intended for authors who want to create XHTML-Family documents that embed rich semantic markup. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

XHTML Modularization 1.1 - Second Edition is a W3C Recommendation

29 July 2010

The XHTML2 Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of XHTML Modularization 1.1 - Second Edition. XHTML Modularization is a tool for people who design markup languages. XHTML Modularization helps people design and manage markup language schemas and DTDs; it explains how to write schemas that will plug together. Modules can be reused and recombined across different languages, which helps keep related languages in sync. This edition includes several minor updates to provide clarifications and address errors found in version 1.1. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

Draft of Emotion Markup Language (EmotionML) 1.0 Published

29 July 2010

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published a Working Draft of Emotion Markup Language (EmotionML) 1.0. As the web is becoming ubiquitous, interactive, and multimodal, technology needs to deal increasingly with human factors, including emotions. The present draft specification of Emotion Markup Language 1.0 aims to strike a balance between practical applicability and basis in science. The language is conceived as a "plug-in" language suitable for use in three different areas: (1) manual annotation of data; (2) automatic recognition of emotion-related states from user behavior; and (3) generation of emotion-related system behavior. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

Privacy Workshop Participants to Study Data Usage and Handling

28 July 2010

W3C announces organization of a Workshop on Privacy and Data Usage Control, to take place in Cambridge, MA, USA on 4-5 October 2010. Users trust enormous amounts of personal information to a large variety of online services including social network sites, search engines, photo and video sharing services, and hosted email solutions. As those services become ever more tightly integrated, it becomes increasingly difficult to control the spread of information on the Web. Participants will represent a broad set of stakeholders, including researchers, database manufacturers, CRM-system manufacturers, and Social Networking Providers. Participants will study whether there is interest in further work on policy languages and data handling/data usage work within W3C. Anyone may participate in the Workshop; all participants must submit a short position paper. More information about the Workshop is available in the Call for Participation. Learn more about W3C's Privacy Activity.

First Draft of WOFF File Format 1.0 Published

27 July 2010

The WebFonts Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of WOFF File Format 1.0. This document specifies the WOFF font format. This format was designed to provide lightweight, easy-to-implement compression of the font data, suitable for use in conjunction with CSS. Any TrueType/OpenType/Open Font Format file can be losslessly converted to WOFF for Web use (subject to licensing of the font data); once decoded by a user agent, the WOFF font will display identically to the original desktop font from which it was created. Learn more about the Fonts Activity.

Last Call: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Snapshot 2007

27 July 2010

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Snapshot 2007. This document collects together into one definition all the specifications that together form the current state of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) as of 2007. The primary audience is CSS implementors, not CSS authors, as this definition includes modules by specification stability, not Web browser adoption rate. Comments are welcome through 15 August. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing Draft Published

27 July 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Cross-Origin Resource Sharing. User agents commonly apply same-origin restrictions to network requests. These restrictions prevent a client-side Web application running from one origin from obtaining data retrieved from another origin, and also limit unsafe HTTP requests that can be automatically launched toward destinations that differ from the running application's origin. In user agents that follow this pattern, network requests typically use ambient authentication and session management information, including HTTP authentication and cookie information. This specification extends this model in a number of ways.Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Releases Unicorn, an All-in-One Validator

27 July 2010

W3C is pleased to announce the release of Unicorn, a one-stop tool to help people improve the quality of their Web pages. Unicorn combines a number of popular tools in a single, easy interface, including the Markup validator, CSS validator, mobileOk checker, and Feed validator, which remain available as individual services as well. W3C invites developers to enhance the service by creating new modules and testing them in our online developer space (or installing Unicorn locally). W3C looks forward to code contributions from the community as well as suggestions for new features. W3C would like to thank the many people whose work has led up to this first release of Unicorn. This includes developers who started and improved the tool over the past few years, users who have provided feedback, translators who have helped localize the interface with 21 translations so far, and sponsors HP and Mozilla and other individual donors. W3C welcomes feedback and donations so that W3C can continue to expand this free service to the community. Learn more about W3C open source software.

The Multilingual Web - Where Are We? Find out at the W3C Workshop

22 July 2010

Multilingual Web logo W3C is organizing a Workshop: The Multilingual Web - Where Are We?, to take place 26-27 October 2010 in Madrid, Spain. Workshop participants will survey and introduce currently available best practices and standards that help content creators, localizers, language technology developers, browser makers, and others meet the challenges of the multilingual Web. The Workshop also provides opportunities for networking that span the various communities involved in enabling the multilingual Web. Participation is free and open to anyone. However, space is limited and participants must send an expression of interest to the program committee. People wishing to speak should also submit a presentation outline as soon as possible.

This is the first of four Workshops being planned by W3C over the next two years as part of the MultilingualWeb European Project. The first Workshop is hosted by the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. For more information, see the call for participation. Learn more about W3C's Internationalization Activity.

HTML Media Capture Draft Published

20 July 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Working Draft of HTML Media Capture. This specification defines HTML form enhancements that provide access to the audio, image and video capture capabilities of the device. The title of the specification changed in this draft (from "The Capture API"). Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Last Call: Web Services SOAP Assertions (WS-SOAPAssertions)

13 July 2010

The Web Services Resource Access Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Web Services SOAP Assertions (WS-SOAPAssertions). This specification defines two WS-Policy assertions that can be used to advertise the requirement to use a certain version of SOAP in message exchanges. Comments are welcome through 27 August. The group also published Web Services Resource Transfer (WS-RT) as a Note today. That specification defines extensions to WS-Transfer primarily to provide fragment-based access to resources. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Last Call: Mobile Web Application Best Practices

13 July 2010

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Mobile Web Application Best Practices. The goal of this document is to aid the development of rich and dynamic mobile Web applications. It collects the most relevant engineering practices, promoting those that enable a better user experience and warning against those that are considered harmful. The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group does not expect more substantive changes at this point and expects to be able to transition directly to Proposed Recommendation at the end of the Last Call review period. Last call comments welcome before Comments are welcome through 06 August 2010. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.

RDF Workshop Report Emphasizes Support for JSON, Turtle, Other Formats

09 July 2010

The last week of June, participants at the W3C RDF Next Steps Workshop concluded that support for JSON, Turtle, and for "Named Graphs" are top priorities for any future work on RDF. Participants also highlighted the importance of compatibility with existing deployment. Read about these and other topics in the Workshop report. To join the discussion about organizing future work on RDF, please share your thoughts on the Semantic Web Interest Group mailing list (with a copy to the separate RDF Comments list). W3C thanks the National Center for Biomedical Ontology at Stanford, Palo Alto, USA, for hosting the Workshop. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Last Call: Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0, Implementing ATAG 2.0

08 July 2010

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 and the companion document Implementing ATAG 2.0. ATAG defines how authoring tools should help developers produce accessible web content that conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. The ATAG documents also describe how to make authoring tools accessible so that people with disabilities can use them. Comments are welcome through 2 September 2010. Read the invitation to review the ATAG 2.0 Last Call Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

For Review: Updated Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)

08 July 2010

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group today requests review of draft updates to Notes that accompany WCAG 2.0: Techniques for WCAG 2.0 (Editors' Draft) and Understanding WCAG 2.0 (Editors' Draft). Comments are welcome through 9 August 2010. (This is not an update to WCAG 2.0, which is a stable document.) To learn more about the updates, see the Call for Review: WCAG 2.0 Techniques Draft Updates e-mail. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Contacts API Working Draft Published

01 July 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published a Working Draft of Contacts API. This document defines the high-level interfaces required to provide access to a user's unified address book, which may source address book data from several sources, both online and locally. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

Device API Access Control Notes Published

29 June 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published two Group Notes: Device API Access Control Requirements and Device API Privacy Requirements. The former defines requirements for controlling access to device APIs, illustrated by corresponding use cases. The latter provides definitions, use cases, and requirements for making device APIs more privacy-friendly. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

HTML Progresses with Eight Drafts; Two New

25 June 2010

The HTML Working Group published eight documents:

Learn more about HTML5.

Last Call: Media Fragments URI 1.0

24 June 2010

The Media Fragments Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Media Fragments URI 1.0. This document describes the Media Fragments 1.0 specification. It specifies the syntax for constructing media fragment URIs and explains how to handle them when used over the HTTP protocol. The syntax is based on the specification of particular field-value pairs that can be used in URI fragment and URI query requests to restrict a media resource to a certain fragment. Comments are welcome through 27 August. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Call for Review: Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines Proposed Recommendation Published

22 June 2010

The Web Security Context Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines. This specification deals with the trust decisions that users must make online, and with ways to support them in making safe and informed decisions where possible. In order to achieve that goal, this specification includes recommendations on the presentation of identity information by user agents as well as recommendations on conveying error situations in security protocols. Comments are welcome through 20 July. Learn more about the Security Activity.

RIF Standard Supports Data Integration, Enterprise Agility

22 June 2010

Today W3C published a new standard for building rule systems on the Web. Declarative rules allow integration and transformation of data from multiple sources in a distributed, transparent and scalable manner. The new standard, called Rule Interchange Format (RIF), was developed with participation from the Business Rules, Logic Programming, and Semantic Web communities to provide interoperability and portability between many different systems using declarative technologies. For more information, see the RIF FAQ.

The six new standards are:

Along with these standards, W3C today published five related documents: RIF Overview, RIF Test Cases, OWL 2 RL in RIF, RIF Combination with XML data, and RIF In RDF. The RIF Working Group is also preparing a primer and a revision of its outdated Use Cases and Requirements. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Digital Signatures for Widgets; 'view-mode' Media Feature

22 June 2010

The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of two Candidate Recommendations: Digital Signatures for Widgets and The 'view-mode' Media Feature. The first defines a profile of the XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1 specification to allow a widget package to be digitally signed. Widget authors and distributors can digitally sign widgets as a mechanism to ensure continuity of authorship and distributorship; follow the implementation report. The second specification defines a media feature to match the different visual presentation modes that can be applied to web applications and thereby apply different styling based on these different modes using CSS Media Queries; follow the implementation report. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Last Call: Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition)

22 June 2010

The SVG Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) 1.1 (Second Edition). This specification defines the features and syntax for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Version 1.1, a modularized language for describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML. This specification incorporates SVG 1.1 errata. Comments are welcome through 13 July. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0 Updated

17 June 2010

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0. UAAG defines how browsers, media players, and other "user agents" should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. This draft includes updates to focus behavior and indication, form submission, and relative font sizes. The Working Group requests comments now in preparation for Last Call. The Working Group also published a Working Draft of the Implementing UAAG 2.0 supporting Note. Read the invitation to review the UAAG 2.0 Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

W3C Invites Implementations of Guidelines for Web Content Transformation Proxies 1.0

17 June 2010

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Guidelines for Web Content Transformation Proxies 1.0. This document provides guidance to Content Transformation proxies as to whether and how to transform Web content. Content Transformation proxies are mostly used to convert Web sites designed for desktop computers to a form suitable for mobile devices. The objective is to reduce undesirable effects on Web applications, especially mobile-ready ones, and to limit the diversity in the modes of operation of Content Transformation proxies, while at the same time allowing proxies to alter content that would otherwise not display successfully on mobile devices. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0 Draft Published

17 June 2010

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Working Draft of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0. This document specifies VoiceXML 3.0, a modular XML language for creating interactive media dialogs that feature synthesized speech, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, telephony, mixed initiative conversations, and recording and presentation of a variety of media formats including digitized audio, and digitized video. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

New resource: How to Make Your Presentations Accessible to All

16 June 2010

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) today published How to Make Presentations Accessible to All, a page of the training resource suite being updated as part of the WAI-AGE Project. This new WAI resource helps you make presentations, talks, meetings, and training accessible to all of your potential audience, including people with disabilities and others. It covers planning, preparing slides, providing accessible material, considerations during your session, and more. WAI would like to know how this resource works for you and how we can improve it. See the blog post: Make Your Presentations Accessible to All. Learn about Accessibility and visit the WAI home page.

Last Call: CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3

15 June 2010

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3. This specification describes styles for borders and backgrounds. It includes and extends the functionality of CSS level 2 by adding such features as: borders consisting of images, boxes with multiple backgrounds, boxes with rounded corners, and boxes with shadows. Comments are welcome through 06 July. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Comments Welcome on First Draft of Requirements and Use Cases for XSLT 2.1

10 June 2010

The XSL Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Requirements and Use Cases for XSLT 2.1. This document is a characterization of requirements and use cases for XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.1. The relative priorities to be assigned to these different enhancements are still being decided. W3C welcomes input to the XSL Working Group to help in that process. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Last Call: Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0

10 June 2010

The Math Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0. MathML is an XML application for describing mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content. The goal of MathML is to enable mathematics to be served, received, and processed on the World Wide Web, just as HTML has enabled this functionality for text. MathML can be used to encode both mathematical notation and mathematical content. About thirty-eight of the MathML tags describe abstract notational structures, while another about one hundred and seventy provide a way of unambiguously specifying the intended meaning of an expression. Comments are welcome through 01 July. Learn more about the Math Activity.

W3C Invites Comments on First Draft of Use Cases and Requirements for Mapping Relational Databases to RDF

08 June 2010

The RDB2RDF Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Use Cases and Requirements for Mapping Relational Databases to RDF. The need to share data with collaborators motivates custodians and users of relational databases (RDB) to expose relational data on the Web of Data. This document examines a set of use cases from science and industry, taking relational data and exposing it in patterns conforming to shared RDF schemata. These use cases expose a set of functional requirements for exposing relational data as RDF in the RDB2RDF Mapping Language (R2RML). Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

First Draft of RDFa API Published

08 June 2010

The RDFa Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of the RDFa API. RDFa API provides a mechanism that allows Web-based applications using documents containing RDFa markup to extract and utilize structured data in a way that is useful to developers. The specification details how a developer may extract, store and query structured data contained within one or more RDFa-enabled documents. The design of the system is modular and allows multiple pluggable extraction and storage mechanisms supporting not only RDFa, but also Microformats, Microdata, and other structured data formats. For more information about the Semantic Web, please see the Semantic Web Activity.

Web Services SOAP Assertions (WS-SOAPAssertions) First Draft Published

08 June 2010

The Web Services Resource Access Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Web Services SOAP Assertions (WS-SOAPAssertions). This specification defines two WS-Policy assertions that can be used to advertise the requirement to use a certain version of SOAP in message exchanges. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

CSS Generated Content for Paged Media Module Draft Published

08 June 2010

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Generated Content for Paged Media Module. This module describes features often used in printed publications. Most of the specified functionality involves some sort of generated content where content from the document is adorned, replicated, or moved in the final presentation of the document. Along with two other CSS3 modules - multi-column layout and paged media - this module offers advanced functionality for presenting structured documents on paged media. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Last Call: Ontology for Media Resource 1.0, API for Media Resource 1.0

08 June 2010

The Media Annotations Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of Ontology for Media Resource 1.0 and API for Media Resource 1.0. The former document defines the Ontology for Media Resource 1.0. This ontology, or "core vocabulary," is meant to bridge the different descriptions of media resources on the Web, as opposed to media resources in local archives or musea. It is defined based on a core set of properties which covers basic metadata to describe media resources. The ontology is designed to foster the interoperability among various kinds of metadata formats currently used to describe media resources on the Web. The latter specification defines a client-side API to access metadata information related to media resources on the Web. Comments are welcome through 11 July. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

First Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Federation Extensions Published; Five SPARQL 1.1 Drafts Updated

01 June 2010

The SPARQL Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Federation Extensions, which defines extensions to the SPARQL Query Language to support distributed SPARQL query execution. The group also published 5 updates, listed below. The group seeks feedback, particularly on open issues identified in each document. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Last Call: Ink Markup Language (InkML)

27 May 2010

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Ink Markup Language (InkML). The Ink Markup Language serves as the data format for representing ink entered with an electronic pen or stylus. The markup allows for the input and processing of handwriting, gestures, sketches, music and other notational languages in applications. It provides a common format for the exchange of ink data between components such as handwriting and gesture recognizers, signature verifiers, and other ink-aware modules. Comments are welcome through 17 June. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

W3C Launches Library Linked Data Incubator Group

21 May 2010

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Library Linked Data Incubator Group, whose mission is to help increase global interoperability of library data on the Web, by bringing together people involved in Semantic Web activities - focusing on Linked Data - in the library community and beyond, building on existing initiatives, and identifying collaboration tracks for the future. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: Helsinki University of Technology, DERI Galway, Competence Centre for Interoperable Metadata (KIM), Library of Congress, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MIMOS, OCLC, Talis, University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track but in many cases serves as a starting point for a future Working Group.

W3C Welcomes Comments on First Draft of XML Processor Profiles

18 May 2010

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of XML processor profiles. This specification defines several XML processor profiles, each of which fully determines a data model for any given XML document. It is intended as a resource for other specifications, which can by a single normative reference establish precisely what input processing they require. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Last Call for Drafts Related to XML Security: Encryption, SIgnature, Generic Hybrid Ciphers

17 May 2010

The XML Security Working Group has published three Last Call Working Drafts: XML Encryption Syntax and Processing Version 1.1, XML Signature Syntax and Processing Version 1.1, and XML Security Generic Hybrid Ciphers. The group also published a Working Draft of XML Security Algorithm Cross-Reference. XML Encryption specifies a process for encrypting data and representing the result in XML. XML Signatures provide integrity, message authentication, and/or signer authentication services for data of any type, whether located within the XML that includes the signature or elsewhere. The third document augments XML Encryption by defining algorithms, XML types and elements necessary to enable use of generic hybrid ciphers in XML Security applications. The final document summarizes XML Security algorithm URI identifiers and the specifications associated with them. Last Call comments are welcome through 10 June. Learn more about the Security Activity.

State Chart XML (SCXML) Draft Published

17 May 2010

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Working Draft of State Chart XML (SCXML): State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction. SCXML is a general-purpose event-based state machine language that can be used in many ways. It can be used as a high-level dialog language controlling VoiceXML 3.0's encapsulated speech modules. It can also be used as a voice application metalanguage, where in addition to VoiceXML 3.0 functionality, it may also control database access and business logic modules. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

W3C Launches Audio Incubator Group

14 May 2010

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Audio Incubator Group, whose mission is to explore the possibility of starting one or more specifications dealing with various aspects of advanced audio functionality, including reading and writing raw audio data, and synthesizing sound or speech. The Audio Incubator Group will engage the various constituents of such specifications, including musicians, audio engineers, accessibility experts, user-interface designers, implementers, and hardware manufacturers, to collect use cases and requirements on what can and should be done for various specifications at different levels of priority, and deliver one or more reports including recommendations for specification work items. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: Mozilla Foundation, PUC-Rico, BBC, and Google. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track but in many cases serves as a starting point for a future Working Group.

First Draft of XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.1 Draft Published

12 May 2010

The XSL Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 2.1. This specification defines the syntax and semantics of XSLT 2.1, a language for transforming XML documents into other XML documents. The main focus for enhancements in XSLT 2.1 is the requirement to enable streaming of source documents. This is needed when source documents become too large to hold in main memory, and also for applications where it is important to start delivering results before the entire source document is available. The approach adopted in this specification is twofold: it identifies a set of restrictions which, if followed by stylesheet authors, will enable implementations to adopt a streaming mode of operation without placing excessive demands on the optimization capabilities of the processor; and it provides new constructs to indicate that streaming is required, or to express transformations in a way that makes it easier for the processor to adopt a streaming execution plan. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Advances to Proposed Recommendation

11 May 2010

The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group has published six Proposed Recommendations. Together, they allow systems using a variety of rule languages and rule-based technologies to interoperate with each other and with Semantic Web technologies.

Three of the drafts define XML formats with formal semantics for storing and transmitting rules:

The other drafts:

The group has also published a new version of RIF Test Cases, and three other Working Drafts: RIF Overview, RIF Combination with XML data and OWL 2 RL in RIF.

RIF implementation information is available. Review comments are welcome until 8 June. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Last Call: Digital Signatures for Widgets

11 May 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a second Last Call Working Draft of Digital Signatures for Widgets. This document defines a profile of the XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1 specification to allow a widget package to be digitally signed. Widget authors and distributors can digitally sign widgets as a mechanism to ensure continuity of authorship and distributorship. Comments are welcome through 01 June. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

XProc Standard Defines Way to Organize and Share XML Workflows

11 May 2010

Today W3C announced a powerful tool for managing XML-rich processes such as business processes used in enterprise environments. The W3C Recommendation "XProc: An XML Pipeline Language," provides a standard framework for composing XML processes. XProc streamlines the automation, sequencing and management of complex computations involving XML by leveraging existing technologies widely adopted in the enterprise setting. "XML is tremendously versatile," said Norman Walsh, MarkLogic, and one of the co-editors of the specification. "Just off the top of my head, I can name standard ways to store, validate, query, transform, include, label, and link XML. What we haven't had is any standard way to describe how to combine them to accomplish any particular task. That's what XProc provides." Read more in the press release and learn more about XML.

Incubator Report: Model-Based User Interfaces

06 May 2010

The Model-Based User Interfaces Incubator Group (MBUI-XG) published their final report today. During the last year the MBUI-XG has evaluated research on MBUIs, including end-to-end models that extend beyond a single Web page, and has assessed its potential as a framework for developing context-sensitive Web applications. This report gives an overview of the main results achieved by such an Incubator Group. W3C has also organized a Workshop on Future Standards for Model-Based User Interfaces (13-14 May 2010, Rome) to identify opportunities and challenges for new open standards in this area, particularly concerning the semantics and syntaxes of task, abstract and concrete user interface models. This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track.

XML Linking Language (XLink) 1.1 is a W3C Recommendation

06 May 2010

The XML Core Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.1. This specification defines the XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.1, which allows elements to be inserted into XML documents in order to create and describe links between resources. It uses XML syntax to create structures that can describe links similar to the simple unidirectional hyperlinks of today's HTML, as well as more sophisticated links. Changes from XLink 1.0 include: xlink:type is no longer required for simple links, IRIs are used instead of URIs, and the specification includes non-normative sample XML Schema and RELAX NG grammars. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Community Contributions to W3C Validator Campaign Lead to Engineer Hire

05 May 2010

W3C is pleased to announce that, thanks to community contributions to the W3C Validator Campaign, Thomas Gambet will spend the next year at W3C turning the Unicorn project into a production service. The Unicorn Project aims to provide the big picture about the quality of a Web page by gathering the results of various tools into a single page. Both Unicorn and the W3C's Validators are open source projects. W3C invites developers to participate in these projects or to provide feedback on functionality: what functionality do you want next? what are your thoughts on the user interface? Please send feedback to public-unicorn@w3.org. Learn more about getting involved with Unicorn development, trying out Unicorn, and providing translations for it.

W3C offers HTML, CSS, and other validation services at no cost to the Web developer and designer communities. W3C invites you to make a contribution to support these services.

W3C Opens India Office during International Conference in New Delhi

03 May 2010

Jeff Jaffe speaks at conference on Web Technology in India As part of its efforts to ensure that core Web standards meet global needs, W3C announces today the opening of a new Office in India. The Office is hosted in New Delhi by the Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) Programme, part of the India government's Department of Information Technology. W3C and TDIL will celebrate this collaborative effort at an opening ceremony on 6 May 2010, as part of a conference organized by TDIL on the topic of technology, standards and internationalization. "Increased participation from India will strengthen W3C's international community," said Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO. "I look forward to partnering with TDIL so that we build the W3C community in India, including drawing Membership from key industrial and academic leaders. The upcoming conference is an important first step." Read more in the press release and learn about the W3C Offices Program. Photo credit: Richard Ishida

W3C Advisory Committee Elects Advisory Board

30 April 2010

The W3C Advisory Committee has filled five open seats on the W3C Advisory Board. Created in 1998, the Advisory Board provides guidance to the Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution. Beginning 1 July 2010, the nine Advisory Board participants are Jean-François Abramatic (IBM), Ann Bassetti (The Boeing Company), Jim Bell (HP), Michael Champion (Microsoft), Don Deutsch (Oracle), Robert Freund (Hitachi), Ora Lassila (Nokia), Charles McCathieNevile (Opera Software), and Takeshi Natsuno (Keio University). Steve Zilles continues as interim Advisory Board Chair. Read more about the Advisory Board.

CSS Template Layout Module Draft Published

29 April 2010

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Template Layout Module. This specification is part of level 3 of CSS and contains features to describe layouts at a high level, meant for tasks such as the positioning and alignment of "widgets" in a graphical user interface or the layout grid for a page or a window, in particular when the desired visual order is different from the order of the elements in the source document. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C to Examine Privacy Challenges of Advanced Web Technologies in Workshop

27 April 2010

The broad availability of possibly sensitive data collected through location sensors and other facilities in a Web browser illustrates the broad new privacy challenges Web users face today. For example, new APIs in Web browsers running on a mobile device provide Web applications with access to GPS data or a camera. W3C invites the community to examine these privacy challenges at a Workshop on Privacy for Advanced Web APIs, 12-13 July 2010 in London, England, and hosted by Vodafone. Workshop participants will review recent experience and investigate strategies for effective, near-term privacy protection on the Web. Anyone who submits a position paper following the guidelines may participate, space permitting. There is no fee to participate and W3C Membership is not required. Paper submissions are due 1 June. For more information, see the Workshop home page.

Community Invited to Discuss Augmented Reality on the Web at W3C Workshop

24 April 2010

W3C announced today a Workshop on Augmented Reality on the Web, 15-16 June 2010 in Barcelona (Spain). Augmented reality (AR) is a long standing topic in its own right but it has not been developed on the Web platform. As mobile devices become more powerful and feature-rich, the workshop will explore the possible convergence of AR and the Web. The objective of this Workshop is to provide a single forum for researchers and technologists to discuss the state of the art for AR on the Web, particularly the mobile platform, and what role standardization should play for Open Augmented Reality. Position papers are due 29 May. Please see the Call for Participation for more information.

Updated Resources Encourage Developers and Users Working Together for Better Accessibility

22 April 2010

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has updated the following resources as part of the WAI-AGE Project:

More about these resources is in the blog posts Discover new ways of thinking about accessibility and Take a few minutes to encourage web accessibility. Your voice counts. Learn about Accessibility and visit the WAI home page.

W3C Invites Comments on First Drafts of RDFa Core 1.1, XHTML+RDFa 1.1

22 April 2010

The RDFa Working Group has published the First Public Working Drafts of RDFa Core 1.1 and XHTML+RDFa 1.1. RDFa Core is a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. XHTML+RDFa 1.1 is an application of RDFa Core 1.1 for XHTML. Both of these documents are expected to supersede the RDFa in XHTML (RDFa 1.0) specification. Together, these specifications enable the human-readable and machine-readable markup of people, places, events, products, recipes, social networks, and many other concepts that are frequently published on the web. These documents improve upon RDFa 1.0 by adding a number of Web community requested features to ease authoring. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Judy Brewer to Testify on Web Accessibility Before US House Subcommittee

21 April 2010

Judy BrewerOn Thursday, April 22, Judy Brewer, Director of the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), will be among those testifying at a Hearing on Achieving the Promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the Digital Age – Current Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities before the US House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties. In her testimony, she will speak about how web accessibility has progressed over the past ten years, and why it is important to continue to lower accessibility barriers on the web as we rely more heavily on the web for education, employment, health care, social networking, and more. Learn about W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Early Bird Registration for New Mobile Web Training Course ends 23 April

21 April 2010

W3C has updated the popular online training course "Introduction to Mobile Web Best Practices" for 2010. The first run of this updated course begins on Monday, 10 May. Early Bird registration ends this Friday, 23 April! (although full registration remains open until after the course has begun).

Led by members of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative, people attending the course will:

  • learn about the specific promises and challenges of the mobile platform;
  • learn how to use W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices to design mobile-friendly Web content and to adapt existing content for mobile;
  • learn client side and server side techniques for adapting your content to different classes of device.

Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

W3C Invites Implementations of Widget Access Request Policy

20 April 2010

The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Widget Access Request Policy. User agents running widgets are expected to provide access to potentially sensitive APIs (phone book, calendar, file system, etc.) that expose data which should not be exposed without the user's consent. The purpose of this specification is to define the security model for network interactions from within a widget that has access to sensitive information. It provides means for a widget to declare its intent to access specific network resources so that a policy may control it. Follow the group's development of an implementation report and learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Last Call: View Mode Media Feature

20 April 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of View Mode Media Feature. Web applications, be they widgets or in-browser, can on most platforms be run in multiple visual modes. At times they may occupy the entire screen, at others they may be minimized to a specific docking area; at times they may have chrome that matches the operating system's style while at others they may be providing their own controls. The user is generally in control of at least several aspects of these modalities, and it is therefore important for authors to be able to react to these in order to provide different styling to their applications. In order to achieve this, this specification defines a media feature that allows different CSS style rules to be applied depending on whether a given media query matches. Comments are welcome through 18 May. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Join W3C in Discussions on HTML5, Linked Open Data at WWW2010

20 April 2010

Leaf logo for WWW2010 W3C invites WWW2010 conference participants to attend two W3C track sessions on April 29 and 30 in Raleigh, North Carolina (USA). Responding to the Web community’s demand for open discussion on the future of HTML5 and Linked Data, W3C organizes this year an HTML5 camp and a Linked Open Data camp. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director, will lead off the Linked Open Data camp and participate in discussions on topics such as open data deployment in government and managing privacy as the Web of data grows. At the HTML5 camp on April 30, W3C staff will lead discussions on what developers can expect today and in the near future from the open Web platform that is HTML5. W3C’s Chief Executive Officer, Jeff Jaffe and several other W3C staff will participate in and lead events at WWW2010 and other co-located meetings. Read the media advisory for more information.

Last Call: Digital Signatures for Widgets

16 April 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Digital Signatures for Widgets. This document defines a profile of the XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1 specification to allow a widget package to be digitally signed. Widget authors and distributors can digitally sign widgets as a mechanism to ensure continuity of authorship and distributorship. Comments are welcome through 6 May. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Associating Schemas with XML documents 1.0 (First Edition) Note Published

16 April 2010

The XML Core Working Group has published a Group Note of Associating Schemas with XML documents 1.0 (First Edition). There are several document schema definition languages in common use today that can be used to specify one or more validation processes performed against Extensible Markup Language (XML) documents. Some schema languages provide their own syntax for associating schemas with documents (DTD, W3C XML Schema) and some languages (RELAX NG, Schematron) do not provide schema association mechanisms at all. The purpose of this specification is to define a common, schema-agnostic syntax for associating schema documents written in any schema definition language with a given XML document. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Call for Review: XHTML Modularization 1.1 - Second Edition Proposed Edited Recommendation Published

15 April 2010

The XHTML2 Working Group has published a Proposed Edited Recommendation of XHTML Modularization 1.1 - Second Edition. This document is the second edition of version 1.1 of XHTML Modularization, an abstract modularization of XHTML and implementations of the abstraction using XML Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and XML Schemas. This modularization provides a means for subsetting and extending XHTML, a feature needed for extending XHTML's reach onto emerging platforms. This specification is intended for use by language designers as they construct new XHTML Family Markup Languages. This specification does not define the semantics of elements and attributes, only how those elements and attributes are assembled into modules, and from those modules into markup languages. This update includes several minor updates to provide clarifications and address errors found in version 1.1. Comments are welcome through 12 May. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

Widget Updates Draft Published

13 April 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Widget Updates. This specification defines a process and a document format to allow a user agent to update an installed widget package with different version of a widget package. A widget cannot update itself; instead, a widget relies on the user agent to manage the update process. A user agent can perform an update over HTTP and from non-HTTP sources (e.g., directly from a device's memory card or hard disk). Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Media Fragments URI 1.0 Draft Published

13 April 2010

The Media Fragments Working Group has published a Working Draft of Media Fragments URI 1.0. This specification provides for a media-format independent, standard means of addressing media fragments on the Web using Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI). In the context of this document, media fragments are regarded along three different dimensions: temporal, spatial, and tracks. Further, a fragment can be marked with a name and then addressed through a URI using that name. The specified addressing schemes apply mainly to audio and video resources - the spatial fragment addressing may also be used on images. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

XQuery Scripting Extension 1.0 Draft Published

09 April 2010

The XML Query Working Group has published a Working Draft of XQuery Scripting Extension 1.0. This specification defines an extension to XQuery 1.0 and XQuery Update Facility. Expressions can be evaluated in a specific order, with later expressions seeing the effects of the expressions that came before them. This specification introduces several new kinds of expression, including the apply, assignment, while, and exit expression, and a block expression with local variable declarations. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Invites Comments on First Draft of File API: Writer

06 April 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of File API: Writer. Web applications are currently fairly limited in how they can write to files. One can present a link for download, but creating and writing files of arbitrary type, or modifying downloaded files on their way to the disk, is difficult or impossible. This specification defines an API through which user agents can permit applications to write generated or downloaded files. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

XML Entity Definitions for Characters is a W3C Recommendation

01 April 2010

The Math Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of XML Entity Definitions for Characters. Notation and symbols have proved very important for human communication, especially in scientific documents. Mathematics has grown in part because its notation continually changes toward being succinct and suggestive. On the Web, the majority of cases it is preferable to store characters directly as Unicode character data or as XML numeric character references. This document is the result of years of employing entity names on the Web. It presents a completed listing harmonizing the known uses of character entity names throughout the XML world and Unicode. Learn more about the Math Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0

01 April 2010

The Voice Browser Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Voice Browser Call Control: CCXML Version 1.0. This document describes CCXML, or the Call Control eXtensible Markup Language. CCXML provides declarative markup to describe telephony call control. It can provide a complete telephony service application, comprised of Web server CGI compliant application logic, one or more CCXML documents to declare and perform call control actions, and to control one or more dialog applications that perform user media interactions. CCXML is a language that can be used with a dialog system such as (but not limited to) VoiceXML. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

Updated Capture API Working Draft Published

01 April 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The Capture API, which defines an Application Programming Interface (API) that provides access to the audio, image and video capture capabilities of the device. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

New Mobile Web Training Course Open for Early Bird Registration

31 March 2010

W3C has updated the popular online training course Introduction to W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices for 2010. The first run of this updated course begins on Monday, 10 May. Early Bird registration is now open!

Led by members of W3C's Mobile Web Initiative, people attending the course will:

  • learn about the specific promises and challenges of the mobile platform;
  • learn how to use W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices to design mobile-friendly Web content and to adapt existing content for mobile;
  • learn client side and server side techniques for adapting your content to different classes of device.

Read more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

Last Call for Six Web Services Drafts

30 March 2010

The Web Services Resource Access Working Group published six Last Call Working Drafts for Web Services: Enumeration (WS-Enumeration), Event Descriptions (WS-EventDescriptions), Eventing (WS-Eventing), Fragment (WS-Fragment), Metadata Exchange (WS-MetadataExchange), and Transfer (WS-Transfer). Comments welcome through 11 May 2010. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

W3C to Participate in SVG Open 2010

23 March 2010

With SVG support announced for all major browsers, there is an uptake in interest in SVG. W3C joins other sponsors to help with SVG Open 2010, the 8th international conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, to be held in Paris, France from August 30 to September 1, 2010. SVG Open provides an opportunity for designers, developers and implementers to learn about SVG, and share ideas, experiences, products, and strategies. Members of the W3C SVG Working Group, including W3C Team members Chris Lilley and Doug Schepers, will be attending and presenting at the conference, which will include a Working Group panel session on future SVG developments, and an implementers panel. The conference includes a day of workshops. The conference organizers welcome proposals for presentation abstracts and course outlines through 31 March. Learn more about the W3C Graphics Activity.

W3C Launches WebFonts Working Group

18 March 2010

W3C launched today the new WebFonts Working Group, which aims to bring typographic richness on the Web to it’s full potential. Font linking mechanisms are already standardized or in development, so the group will focus on WOFF, an interoperable font format for the Web. The group will work in public and will consult widely with the typographic community. Read the WebFonts WG charter, join the group, and learn more about Fonts on the Web.

Four XML Security Drafts Published

16 March 2010

The XML Security Working Group published four Working Drafts today:

  • XML Encryption Syntax and Processing Version 1.1, which specifies a process for encrypting data and representing the result in XML.
  • XML Security RELAX NG Schemas, which serves to publish RELAX NG schemas for XML Security specifications, including XML Signature 1.1, and XML Signature Properties.
  • XML Security Generic Hybrid Ciphers. This document augments XML Encryption Version 1.1 by defining algorithms, XML types and elements necessary to enable use of generic hybrid ciphers in XML Security applications. Generic hybrid ciphers allow for a consistent treatment of asymmetric ciphers when encrypting data and consist of a key encapsulation algorithm with associated parameters and a data encapsulation algorithm with associated parameters.
  • XML Security Algorithm Cross-Reference, which summarizes XML Security algorithm URI identifiers and the specifications associated with them.

Learn more about the Security Activity.

W3C Launches Decisions and Decision-Making Incubator Group

11 March 2010

W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Decisions and Decision-Making Incubator Group, whose mission is to determine the requirements, use cases, and a representation of decisions and decision-making in a collaborative and networked environment suitable for leading to a potential standard for decision exchange, shared situational awareness, and measurement of the speed, effectiveness, and human factors of decision-making.. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: DISA, MITRE, and CNR. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track but in many cases serves as a starting point for a future Working Group.

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0 Updated; New Implementation Guide Published

11 March 2010

The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0. UAAG defines how browsers, media players, and other "user agents" should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. This draft adds requirements in seven new areas, including support for speech input, video playback controls and a new section on conformance. It introduces a new supporting document, Implementing UAAG 2.0 as a First Public Working Draft. Read the invitation to review the UAAG 2.0 Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

Community Invited to Discuss Conversational Applications at Workshop

11 March 2010

W3C announced today a Workshop on Conversational Applications - Use Cases and Requirements for New Models of Human Language to Support Mobile Conversational Systems, 18-19 June 2010 in Somerset, New Jersey (USA), Hosted by Openstream. There is currently an increasing need for new capabilities of the human language model to support sophisticated conversational applications. The goal of the Workshop is to understand the limitations of the current W3C language model in order to develop a more comprehensive one. Participants will collect and analyze use cases and prioritize requirements that ultimately will improve support for language capabilities that are unsupported today. Position papers are due 2 April. Please see the Call for Participation for more information.

WebCGM 2.1 is a W3C Recommendation

09 March 2010

The WebCGM Working Group has published a W3C Recommendation of WebCGM 2.1. Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) is an ISO standard, defined by ISO/IEC 8632:1999, for the interchange of 2D vector and mixed vector/raster graphics. WebCGM is a profile of CGM, which adds Web linking and is optimized for Web applications in technical illustration, electronic documentation, geophysical data visualization, and similar fields. WebCGM aims to balance graphical expressive power on the one hand, and simplicity and implementability on the other. A small but powerful set of standardized metadata elements supports the functionalities of hyperlinking and document navigation, picture structuring and layering, and enabling search and query of WebCGM picture content. WebCGM 2.1 refines and completes the features found in WebCGM 2.0. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

Call for Review: XProc - An XML Pipeline Language Proposed Recommendation

09 March 2010

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language. This specification describes the syntax and semantics of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language, a language for describing operations to be performed on XML documents. Pipelines are made up of simple steps which perform atomic operations on XML documents and constructs similar to conditionals, iteration, and exception handlers which control which steps are executed. The group has produced an implementation report Comments are welcome through 15 April. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Last Call: Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines

09 March 2010

The Web Security Context Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines. This specification deals with the trust decisions that users must make online, and with ways to support them in making safe and informed decisions where possible. This document specifies user interactions with a goal toward making security usable, based on known best practice in this area. Comments are welcome through 31 March. Learn more about the Security Activity.

Ontology for Media Resource 1.0, API for Media Resource 1.0 Drafts Published

09 March 2010

The Media Annotations Working Group has published Working Drafts of Ontology for Media Resource 1.0 and API for Media Resource 1.0. The former document defines the Ontology for Media Resource 1.0, a core vocabulary to describe media resources on the Web. It is defined based on a core set of properties which covers basic metadata to describe media resources. Further it defines syntactic and semantic level mappings between elements from existing formats. The ontology is supposed to foster the interoperability among various kinds of metadata formats currently used to describe media resources on the Web. The latter defines a client-side API to access metadata information related to media resources on the Web. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Dr. Jeffrey Jaffe Named W3C CEO

08 March 2010

Dr. Jeffrey Jaffe W3C today named Dr. Jeffrey Jaffe its new Chief Executive Officer. "Web technologies continue to be the vehicle for every industry to incorporate the rapid pace of change into their way of doing business," said Dr. Jaffe. "I'm excited to join W3C at this time of increased innovation, since W3C is the place where the industry comes together to set standards for the Web in an open and collaborative fashion." As W3C CEO, Dr. Jaffe will work with Director Tim Berners-Lee, staff, Membership, and the public to evolve and communicate W3C's organizational vision. The CEO is responsible for W3C's global operations, for maintaining the interests of all of the W3C’s stakeholders, and for sustaining a culture of cooperation and transparency, so that W3C continues to be the leading forum for the technical development and stewardship of the Web. Read the CEO Blog and learn more in the press release.

Seven Documents Related to HTML Published

05 March 2010

W3C published today seven documents related to HTML:

  • HTML 5 and HTML5 differences from HTML4. In addition, some content that was part of the HTML 5 specification has been published in two new standalone drafts: HTML Canvas 2D Context and HTML Microdata.
  • HTML: The Markup Language, a first draft. This document describes the HTML markup language and provides details necessary for producers of HTML content to create documents that conform to the language. By design, it does not define related APIs, nor attempt to specify how consumers of HTML content are meant to process documents, nor attempt to be a tutorial or "how to" authoring guide.
  • HTML+RDFa, which defines rules and guidelines for adapting the RDF in XHTML: Syntax and Processing (RDFa) specification for use in the HTML5 and XHTML5 members of the HTML family.
  • Additional Requirements for Bidi in HTML, a first draft. Authoring a web app that needs to support both right-to-left and left-to-right interfaces, or to take as input and display both left-to-right and right-to-left data, usually presents a number of challenges that make it an especially laborious and bug-prone task. Some of these are due to browser bugs, but some can be traced to a gap in the specification of the bidirectional aspects of a given HTML feature. And some of these challenges could be greatly simplified by adding a few strategically placed new HTML features. This document proposes fixes for some of the most repetitive pain points.

All documents were published by the HTML Working Group except the last one, published by the Internationalization Core Working Group.

Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0 Draft Published

05 March 2010

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Working Draft of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0. This document specifies VoiceXML 3.0, a modular XML language for creating interactive media dialogs that feature synthesized speech, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, telephony, mixed initiative conversations, and recording and presentation of a variety of media formats including digitized audio, and digitized video. See the diff-marked version of changes since the previous draft, and learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

Security Drafts Update: XML Signature Syntax and Processing 2.0; Canonical XML Version 2.0

05 March 2010

The XML Security Working Group has published two Working Drafts: XML Signature Syntax and Processing Version 2.0 and Canonical XML Version 2.0. The first specifies XML syntax and processing rules for creating and representing digital signatures. XML Signatures can be applied to any digital content (data object), including XML. The second is a major rewrite of Canonical XML Version 1.1 to address issues around performance, streaming, hardware implementation, robustness, minimizing attack surface, determining what is signed and more. It also incorporates an update to Exclusive Canonicalization, effectively a 2.0 version, as well. Learn more about the Security Activity.

Call for Review: XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.1 Proposed Recommendation

25 February 2010

The XML Core Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.1. This specification defines the XML Linking Language (XLink) Version 1.1, which allows elements to be inserted into XML documents in order to create and describe links between resources. It uses XML syntax to create structures that can describe links similar to the simple unidirectional hyperlinks of today's HTML, as well as more sophisticated links. Comments are welcome through 31 March. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Call for Review: Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1 Proposed Recommendation

23 February 2010

The Voice Browser Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1. The Speech Synthesis Markup Language Specification is designed to provide a rich, XML-based markup language for assisting the generation of synthetic speech in Web and other applications. The essential role of the markup language is to provide authors of synthesizable content a standard way to control aspects of speech such as pronunciation, volume, pitch, rate, etc. across different synthesis-capable platforms. SSML 1.1 improves SSML 1.0 support for a broader set of natural (human) languages. Known implementations are documented in the Implementation Report, along with the associated test suite. Comments are welcome through 23 March. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

Candidate Recommendation Updated for Timed Text Markup Language (TTML) 1.0

23 February 2010

The Timed Text Working Group has published an updated Candidate Recommendation of Timed Text Markup Language (TTML) 1.0. TTML is a content type that represents timed text media for the purpose of interchange among authoring systems. Timed text is textual information that is intrinsically or extrinsically associated with timing information. This an updated document based on implementation experience; see the list of changes. A test suite for TTML is available, along with its coverage report and a preliminary implementation report. The test suite and implementations are work in progress and may not reflect all of the changes of this document. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Second Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers Released

23 February 2010

The Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group has just released a brand new Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers. Based on the same idea of evaluating support of a number of Web technologies at a glance as in the first Web Compatibility Test published in July 2008, this second version features a number of more recent technologies that promise to make Web browsers more powerful, in particular on mobile devices. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

W3C Community Invited to Discuss Future Standards for Model-Based User Interfaces

12 February 2010

W3C announced today a Workshop on Future Standards for Model-Based User Interfaces, 13-14 May 2010 in Rome Italy. Participants will examine the challenges facing Web developers due to variations in device capabilities, modes of interaction and software standards, the need to support assistive technologies for accessibility, and the demand for richer user interfaces. Discussion will focus on reviewing research on model-based design of context- sensitive user interfaces in relation to these challenges, and the opportunities for new open standards in the area of Model-Based User Interfaces. W3C Membership is not required to participate; anyone who satisfies the participation requirements may attend as long as space permits. Statements of interest are due 2 April. Please see the Call for Participation for more information.

RIF Production Rules Dialect Revised; Last Call for Comments

12 February 2010

During the implementation phase of the Rule Interchange Format (RIF), the Working Group discovered a problem with the design of the Production Rules Dialect. This problem is addressed with a new Last Call Working Draft that changes the way actions are handled to more closely match existing production rule engines. Please send comments and RIF implementation reports to public-rif-comments@w3.org. Last Call comments should be sent before 5 March. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Call for Review: XML Entity Definitions for Characters Proposed Recommendation Published

11 February 2010

The Math Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of XML Entity Definitions for Characters. This document presents a completed listing harmonizing the known uses in math and science of character entity names that appear throughout the XML world and Unicode. This document is the result of years of employing entity names on the Web. There were always a few named entities used for special characters in HTML, but a flood of new names came with the symbols of mathematics. Comments are welcome through 11 March. Learn more about the Math Activity.

Mobile Web Best Practices, Content Transformation Guidelines Advance; W3C Seeks Implementation and Review

11 February 2010

The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Mobile Web Application Best Practices. The goal of this document is to aid the development of rich and dynamic mobile Web applications. It collects the most relevant engineering practices, promoting those that enable a better user experience and warning against those that are considered harmful. W3C invites implementers to complete an implementation report template. The group also published today a Last Call Working Draft of Guidelines for Web Content Transformation Proxies 1.0, which provides guidance to Content Transformation proxies as to whether and how to transform Web content. Comments on the latter document are welcome through 11 March. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

W3C Welcomes Comments on First Draft of Web Services Event Descriptions

10 February 2010

The Web Services Resource Access Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Web Services Event Descriptions (WS-EventDescriptions). In the Web Services context, there are many use cases in which it is necessary for an endpoint to advertise the structure and contents of the events that it might generate. For example, a subscriber might wish to know the shape of the events that are generated in order to properly formulate a filter to limit the number of notifications that are transmitted, or to ensure it can successfully process the type of events that are transmitted. This specification describes a mechanism by which an endpoint can advertise the structure and contents of the events it might generate. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Design Notes for Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 2.0 Draft Updated

04 February 2010

The XSL Working Group has published a Working Draft of Design Notes for Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) 2.0. This document describes initial design notes for version 2.0 of the Formatting Object (FO) part of the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL). Learn more about the XML Activity.

Last Call for Two XML Signature Drafts; Other Drafts Updated

04 February 2010

The XML Security Working Group published two Last Call Working Drafts:

  • XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1, which specifies XML syntax and processing rules for creating and representing digital signatures. XML Signatures can be applied to any digital content, including XML.
  • XML Signature Properties, which outlines proposed standard XML Signature Properties syntax and processing rules and an associated namespace for these properties. The intent is these can be composed with any version of XML Signature using the XML SignatureProperties element.

The group welcomes Last Call comments through 18 March. The group also published several other drafts today: XML Security 1.1 Requirements and Design Considerations, XML Security RELAX NG Schemas, XML Security 2.0 Requirements and Design Considerations, XML Signature Transform Simplification: Requirements and Design, and XML Signature Best Practices. Learn more about XML Technology.

W3C Launches RDFa Working Group

02 February 2010

W3C launched today the RDFa Working Group, whose mission is to support the use of RDFa, a format for embedding structured data in Web documents. The Working Group's goals include making it easier to author RDFa, promoting continued adoption of the technology in HTML, XHTML, and XML, and helping developers create RDFa applications. The group is chartered to extend and enhance RDFa 1.0, including the specification of an API. The Working Group will also support the HTML Working Group in its work on incorporating RDFa in HTML5 and XHTML5 (as a followup on the the currently published Working Draft for RDFa 1.0 in HTML5). Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Comments Welcome on First Draft of The System Information API

02 February 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of The System Information API. This specification defines an API to provide Web applications with access to various properties of the system which they are running on. Specifically, properties pertaining to the device hardware are addressed. Examples include battery status, current network bandwidth. Additionally, some of those properties offer access to the environment around the device, such as ambient brightness or atmospheric pressure. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0; Use Cases Updated

28 January 2010

The XML Query Working Group and the XSL Working Group have jointly published an update to the Candidate Recommendation of XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0, and to the companion Use Cases. The former defines the syntax and formal semantics of XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0 which is a language that extends XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 with full-text search capabilities. Learn more about the XML Activity.

Method for Writing Testable Conformance Requirements Published as Working Group Note

28 January 2010

The Mobile Web Initiative Test Suites Working Group has published the First Public Working Group Note of A Method for Writing Testable Conformance Requirements. This document presents a method for writing, marking-up, and analyzing conformance requirements in technical specifications that can help other Working Groups develop better specifications more quickly. Learn more about testing-related work in W3C.

Report Examines Access Control, Privacy Issues

28 January 2010

W3C has published a report and full minutes of the Workshop on Access Control Application Scenarios, held in Luxembourg in November 2009. Participants from 17 organizations examined the current limitations of access control, privacy enhancement, distributed handling of access control, and other challenging use cases. eXtensible Access Control Markup Language (XACML) was a focus of the Workshop, though not the exclusive topic of conversation. The report summarizes the major "takeaways" from the Workshop, related to XACML semantics, "sticky" policies, and credentials-based access control. The OASIS XACML Technical Committee is expected to take up these topics. W3C's Policy Languages Interest Group (PLING) is expected to discuss data handling policies and the matching and triggering of events in the privacy context.

W3C Seeks Feedback on Early Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Property Paths; Six SPARQL Drafts Updated

27 January 2010

The SPARQL Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of SPARQL 1.1 Property Paths, which defines a more succinct way to write parts of basic graph patterns and also extend matching of triple pattern to arbitrary length paths. The group also published six updates, listed below. The group seeks feedback on open issues in particular. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

UK Government Launches Open Data Site

26 January 2010

The UK Government has unveiled its open data website, data.gov.uk, developed with the help of Tim Berners-Lee (W3C Director) and John Sheridan (Linked Data Lead for data.gov.uk and co-Chair of the W3C eGovernment Interest Group). Like data.gov in the United States, the UK site reflects a growing awareness inside and outside of government that standards-based open data is a key enabler of government services and a building block for new information services across government and industry. Additionally, this new site showcases Semantic Web and Linked Data technologies. Learn more about Publishing Open Government Data and eGovernment at W3C.

Uniform Messaging Policy, Level One Draft Published

26 January 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Uniform Messaging Policy, Level One. The Uniform Messaging Policy (UMP) enables cross-site messaging that avoids Cross-Site-Request-Forgery and similar attacks that abuse HTTP cookies and other credentials. For example, content from customer.example.org can safely specify requests to resources determined by service.example.com. Rather than restricting information retrieval to a single origin, as the Same Origin Policy almost does, the Uniform Messaging Policy supports origin independent messaging. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD): Component Designators

21 January 2010

The XML Schema Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD): Component Designators. XML Schema: Component Designators defines a scheme for identifying XML Schema components as specified by XML Schema Part 1: Structures and XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Updated Draft: Use Cases and Requirements for Ontology and API for Media Resource 1.0

21 January 2010

The Media Annotations Working Group has published a Working Draft of Use Cases and Requirements for Ontology and API for Media Resource 1.0. This document specifies use cases and requirements as an input for the development of the "Ontology for Media Resource 1.0" and the "API for Media Resource 1.0". The ontology will be a simple ontology to support cross-community data integration of information related to media resources on the Web. The API will provide read access and potentially write access to media resources, relying on the definitions from the ontology. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Last Call: CSS Styling Attributes Level 1

21 January 2010

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS Styling Attributes Level 1. Markup languages such as HTML and SVG provide a styling attribute on most elements, to hold a fragment of a style sheet that applies to those elements. One of the possible style sheet languages is CSS. This draft describes the syntax and interpretation of the CSS fragment that can be used in such styling attributes. Comments are welcome through 09 February. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Contacts API First Draft Published

21 January 2010

The Device APIs and Policy Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Contacts API. This API provides access to the user's address book from within a browser environment. Learn more about JavaScript interfaces developed in W3C.

Interested in Next Steps for RDF? Come to the W3C Workshop!

20 January 2010

W3C is organizing a Workshop on the Next Steps for RDF around June 2010; we will announce the exact dates and location as soon as possible. Since its publication in 2004, the Resource Description Framework (RDF) has become the core architectural block of the Semantic Web. The standard is now widely deployed in terms of tools and applications. Due to this wide deployment, additional R&D activities, and the publication of newer standards (e.g., SPARQL, OWL, POWDER, and SKOS), a number of issues regarding RDF have come to the fore. Workshop participants will discuss these issues and help determine whether it is time for a new version of RDF. W3C Membership is not required to participate in the Workshop, but each participant must be associated with an accepted position paper. The deadline for position papers is 29 March 2010; see the Call for Participation for more information. Updates (including the exact date and location of the Workshop) will be added to the Call for Participation and will be announced on the Semantic Web Activity News Blog.

Selectors API Level 2 First Draft Published

19 January 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Selectors API Level 2. Selectors, which are widely used in CSS, are patterns that match against elements in a tree structure. The Selectors API specification defines methods for retrieving Element nodes from the DOM by matching against a group of selectors, and for testing if a given element matches a particular selector. It is often desirable to perform DOM operations on a specific set of elements in a document. These methods simplify the process of acquiring and testing specific elements, especially compared with the more verbose techniques defined and used in the past. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Call for Review: WebCGM 2.1 Proposed Recommendation Published

14 January 2010

The WebCGM Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of WebCGM 2.1. Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) is an ISO standard, defined by ISO/IEC 8632:1999, for the interchange of 2D vector and mixed vector/raster graphics. WebCGM is a profile of CGM, which adds Web linking and is optimized for Web applications in technical illustration, electronic documentation, geophysical data visualization, and similar fields. WebCGM 2.1, refines and completes the features of the major WebCGM 2.0 release. WebCGM 2.0 added a DOM (API) specification for programmatic access to WebCGM objects, a specification of an XML Companion File (XCF) architecture, and extended the graphical and intelligent content of WebCGM 1.0. Comments are welcome through 11 February. Learn more about the Graphics Activity. The review end date was corrected on 20 January.

Programmable HTTP Caching and Serving Draft Published

14 January 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Programmable HTTP Caching and Serving. This document defines APIs for off-line serving of requests to HTTP resources using static and dynamic responses. It extends the function of application caches defined in HTML5. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects Technical Architecture Group Participants [CORRECTION]

11 January 2010

Correction 13 January 2010 : The W3C Advisory Committee has elected Daniel Appelquist (Vodafone) and Henry Thompson (U. of Edinburgh) to the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). The Director has appointed Ashok Malhotra (Oracle), Noah Mendelsohn, and Jonathan Rees. This outcome reflects the correct application of the tie-breaking algorithm.

Original message from 11 January: The W3C Advisory Committee has re-elected Ashok Malhotra (Oracle) and Henry Thompson (U. of Edinburgh) to the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). Continuing TAG participants are John Kemp (Nokia), Larry Masinter (Adobe), T.V. Raman (Google). The Director is also expected to appoint three individuals very soon. The mission of the TAG is to build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary, to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG, and to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C.

New WAI Resource: Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites

06 January 2010

The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) today published Contacting Organizations about Inaccessible Websites as part of the WAI-AGE Project. This new WAI resource guides you through telling organizations about accessibility barriers on their website. WAI would like to know how this resource works for you and how we can improve it. See the blog post: Take a few minutes to encourage web accessibility. Your voice counts. Learn about Accessibility and visit the WAI home page.

Last Call: XProc: An XML Pipeline Language

05 January 2010

The XML Processing Model Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language, a language for describing operations to be performed on XML documents. A pipeline consists of steps. Like pipelines, steps take zero or more XML documents as their inputs and produce zero or more XML documents as their outputs. The inputs of a step come from the web, from the pipeline document, from the inputs to the pipeline itself, or from the outputs of other steps in the pipeline. The outputs from a step are consumed by other steps, are outputs of the pipeline as a whole, or are discarded. Comments are welcome through 02 February. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Indexed Database API Draft Published

05 January 2010

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Indexed Database API. User agents need to store large numbers of objects locally in order to satisfy off-line data requirements of Web applications. The Web Storage specification is useful for storing pairs of keys and their corresponding values. However, it does not provide in-order retrieval of keys, efficient searching over values, or storage of duplicate values for a key. The current specification provides a concrete API to perform advanced key-value data management that is at the heart of most sophisticated query processors. It does so by using transactional databases to store keys and their corresponding values (one or more per key), and providing a means of traversing keys in a deterministic order. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.