Web Standards Update

Dan Connolly
XML '99
December 1999
Philadelphia, PA, USA

Overview

• Introduction to XML at W3C
• Working Group chair updates
• Q&A

About W3C

• Founded Fall 1994
• 350+ Members
• Director, staff
• One International Consortium, 3 Hosts:
  • MIT in USA
  • INRIA in France
  • Keio in Japan

W3C Activities: What We Do

• User Interface Domain
  HTML, Stylesheets, SMIL, Internationalization, ...
• Technology and Society
  Metadata for Security, E-Commerce, ...
• Architecture
  HTTP, XML, Web Characterization, ...
• Web Accessability Initiative (WAI)
  Guidelines, Outreach, Technical review, ...

XML at W3C: Background

• Jun 1996: XML Activity, Phase I, begins
  Feb 1998: XML 1.0 becomes W3C Recommendation
• Aug 1998: Phase II: 5 XML Working Groups + XSL, DOM, I18N
  Namespaces, Stylesheet linking Recommendations
• Sep 1999: Phase III begins: Query WG + XML Digital Signatures

The Role of XML at W3C

While in principle anyone is free to use any syntax in a new language, the evident advantages from sharing the syntax are so great that new languages should where it is not overly damaging in other ways be written in XML. Apart from the efficiency of sharing tools, parsers, and understanding, this also leverages the work which has been put in to XML in the way of internationalization, and extensibility.

Web Architecture from 10,000 Feet
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director