The W3C Internationalization (I18n) Activity works with W3C working groups and liaises with other organizations to ensure Web technologies work for everyone, regardless of their language, script, or culture.
From this page you can find articles and other resources about Web internationalization, and information about the groups that make up the Activity.
Read also about opportunities to participate and fund work via the new Sponsorship Program.
What the W3C Internationalization Activity does
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New translations into Russian and Ukrainian
Ukrainian:
Пропажа пробілів Bidi (Bidi space loss)
Використання Керуючих символів Unicode для bidi тексту (Using Unicode controls for bidi text)
Направлення скрипту і мов (Script direction and languages)
CSS чи розмітка для підтримки bidi (CSS vs. markup for bidi support)
Керуючі символи Unicode чи розмітка для підтримки bidi (Unicode controls vs. markup for bidi support)
Russian:
Пропажа пробелов Bidi (Bidi space loss)
Использование Управляющих символов Unicode для bidi текста (Using Unicode controls for bidi text)
Направления скрипта и языков (Script direction and languages)
CSS или разметка для поддержки bidi (CSS vs. markup for bidi support)
Управляющие символы Unicode или разметка для поддержки bidi (Unicode controls vs. markup for bidi support)
These articles were translated thanks to Alexandr Shlapak.
Talk slides: Unicode Conference
On 18th October Richard Ishida and Addison Phillips gave a talk entitled
Towards the Promised Land: Globalization Developments in Web Standards
at the Internationalization & Unicode Conference in Santa Clara, California, USA.
The talk describes what we are doing to address unsolved issues on the Web, and how you can influence the outcomes. It includes references to the latest, ongoing work in HTML5 and CSS3.
On the previous day, Richard Ishida presented his half-day tutorial
New translations into Arabic
مقدمة لموقع تدويل الشبكة العالمية (Getting Started with the W3C I18n site)
تعريف أطقم المحارف والترميزات (Introducing Character Sets and Encodings)
اللغة والشبكة العالمية (Language on the Web)
These articles were translated into Arabic thanks to Mohamed Fares.
RSS feed links changed
The Internationalization Activity home page has recently been ported to WordPress. This means that the URIs for the various RSS feeds have changed. You can find the new links at the page W3C I18n news filters and RSS feeds.
The current URIs will continue to work for a short while, to support the transition, but you should change as soon as possible.
URIs for category filters have also changed, as have those for search key text within posts (useful for finding the history of a particular article or document). The latter have been converted to tags.
Slides and IRC logs for Limerick MultilingualWeb workshop now available

The MultilingualWeb Workshop in Limerick was once more a success, thanks to the efforts of the excellent speakers and the local organizers, but also thanks this time to the participants themselves who enthusiastically took part in the Open Space discussion organized by TAUS. This will hopefully lead to some longer term initiatives, and most groups are already planning to continue their discussions in Luxembourg, next Spring. We had around 90 attendees.
The program page has now been updated to point to speakers’ slides and to the relevant parts of the IRC logs. Links to video recordings will follow shortly.
There will also be a page pointing to social media reports, such as blog posts, tweets and photos, related to the workshop. If you have any blog posts, photos, etc. online, please let Richard Ishida know (ishida@w3.org) so that we can link to them from this page.
A summary report of the workshop will follow a little later.
New translations into Hungarian
Többnyelvű űrlapok kódolása (Multilingual form encoding)
Ki használ unikódot? (Who uses Unicode?)
Nem angol nyelvű tagek (Non-English tags)
Egynyelvű vagy többnyelvű honlapok (Monolingual vs. multilingual Web sites)
These articles were translated into Hungarian thanks to Petra Csobanka.
Just published: 1 new and 3 updated articles about language declarations in HTML
One tutorial and two articles have been updated, and a new article has been created from material that was moved out of the tutorial. The updates all involve major rewrites of the former text. These changes incorporate up-to-date information about how language declarations are handled in HTML5, and generally refresh and improve the previous material.
The new articles are:
Working with language in HTML (tutorial)
Why use the language attribute?
HTTP headers, meta elements and language information
All articles use a new HTML5-based template with additional change to the boilerplate code.
Registrations are filling up for the MultilingualWeb workshop in Limerick, 21-22 Sept.

Register now if you want to ensure that you get a place.
Participation in the workshop is free, but spaces are limited. We have another great program in place.
The keynote speaker will be Daniel Glazman, of Disruptive Innovations, and co-chair of the W3C CSS Working Group. He is followed by a strong line up in sessions entitled Developers, Creators, Localizers, Machines, Users, and Policy. On the morning of the second day Jaap van der Meer of TAUS will facilitate “Open Space” style discussion sessions, where workshop participants themselves will choose topics to discuss in several breakout groups.
There will be a dinner reception on the evening of 21 September (free of charge, workshop registrants only).
The MultilingualWeb workshops, funded by the European Commission and coordinated by the W3C, look at best practices and standards related to all aspects of creating, localizing and deploying the multilingual Web. The workshops are successful because they attracted a wide range of participants, from fields such as localization, language technology, browser development, content authoring and tool development, etc., to create a holistic view of the interoperability needs of the multilingual Web.
This workshop is co-located with the 16th Annual LRC Conference, and hosted by the LRC (Language Research Centre) and the University of Limerick.
We look forward to seeing you in Limerick!
New translations into Russian and Ukrainian
Ukrainian:
Робота з Складеними Повідомленнями (Working with Composite Messages)
Повторне Використання Рядків в Скриптовому Контенті (Re-using Strings in Scripted Content)
Ruby (Ruby)
Розмітка і Стилізація Ruby (Ruby Markup and Styling)
Використання <b> та <i> елементів (Using <b> and <i> elements)
Неанглійські теги (Non-English tags)
Перевірка Заголовків HTTP (Checking HTTP Headers)
Russian:
Работа с Составными Сообщениями (Working with Composite Messages)
Повторное Использование Строк в Cкриптовом Контенте (Re-using Strings in Scripted Content)
Ruby (Ruby)
Разметка и Стилизация Ruby (Ruby Markup and Styling)
Использование <b> и <i> элементов (Using <b> and <i> elements)
Неанглийские тэги (Non-English tags)
The following Russian translation was also updated:
Проверка заголовков HTTP (Checking HTTP Headers)
These articles were translated thanks to Alexandr Shlapak.
For review: 1 new and 3 updated articles about language declarations in HTML
Comments are being sought on the following new articles prior to final publication. NOTE THAT the articles are in a temporary location, and will be moved to their final location after the review.
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Working with language in HTML (tutorial format)
This is a reworking of an existing tutorial to conform to the new tutorial format. It will replace the old version.
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Why use the language attribute?
This is a reworking of an existing article to bring it up to date. It will replace the old version.
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This is a new article derived from information that was originally in the tutorial mentioned above. The information has been rewritten, and changes have been made to reflect recent developments for HTML5.
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HTTP and meta for language information
This is a reworking of an existing article to reflect recent developments in HTML5 and improve the fit with other pages listed here. It will replace the old version.
All articles use a new template with additional change to the boilerplate code. They are written in HTML5.
Please send any comments over the next two weeks to www-international@w3.org (subscribe).
We hope to publish a final version shortly after the end of the review period.