International standards and World Economic Forum (WEF)

I recently had the pleasure of speaking at several events during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. This was a great opportunity to represent W3C and the power of international standards, particularly since the theme this year was “Collaboration for the Intelligent Age”. 

W3C’s 30 year history of global collaboration to build open, free, interoperable standards for a single world wide web is a great example of the kind of collaboration our world continues to need in rapidly changing times. As such, it was good to see how much interest there is in interoperable international standards in general and in W3C’s participation in such conversations in particular. It was great to have the opportunity to talk about the positive and at times life-changing impacts that international standards can have, and to hear others outside of the standards community express their interest, support, and even the very need for international interoperable standards.

Key points:

1. Interoperability: Alain Labrique (World Health Organization) expressed how interoperable standards for health information can save lives by enabling the exchange of critical information in a crisis. Earlier in the week I shared the importance of interoperable standards around validating the provenance of critical information during disaster relief efforts.
2. Trust: there was much discussion throughout these sessions of the need to increase trust in the digital infrastructure and how openness, be it open source development or an open and royalty-free standards process such as we have at W3C, serves as a foundation for trust.
3. Privacy: I don’t believe you can discuss identity, security, and trust without talking about privacy. In our privacy principles, W3C emphasizes the importance of individual autonomy and the need for user agents to adhere to privacy principles in order to ensure a trustworthy web.

Ultimately, international standards can enable trustworthy solutions that support local control and security while providing a framework for global trust.

We at W3C play a critical role in making this happen. Because of our long standing focus on enabling one web for all, and our current composition representing industry leaders, big and small, from around the world, we have the potential to influence global discussions involving the web. Because the web is embedded in many different aspects of society throughout much of the world, there are many conversations outside of W3C that can impact how the web is used and even how the web is shaped. This was the first time W3C was formally represented at an event during the World Economic Forum and the opportunities that these conversations bring to us are invaluable.

It’s important for W3C to be involved in those conversations, in large part because of our knowledge and that we are a hub for major and minor implementers around the world. It’s also important that our values are represented in these discussions. The web is more than just technology - it’s technology with the fundamental purpose of interconnecting humanity. Our human-centric focus is distinct in the world of Standards Development Organizations and as such we need to be helping to shape the future of the web wherever we can.

I made important contacts and already see opportunities for W3C to further step up, because If we don’t, there are plenty of other organizations, public and private, ready to fill the void to keep work needed by the world moving, but without the same dedication to our mission.