W3C hosts Community Groups to support the incubation of new Web and Web-adjacent technology. Community Groups enable anyone to socialize their ideas for the Web at the W3C for possible future standardization.
Please note that Community Groups do not create W3C standards. In many cases, Community Group technologies that gain traction transition to standardization in a W3C Working Group.
W3C welcomes you to get involved in a group or propose your own. If your community is already up and running but you are interested in connecting with the international W3C community, you can start up a Community Group and still maintain your external tools, provided that communications are also archived by W3C for intellectual property reasons.
Note: W3C is no longer creating new Business Groups.
Questions? Please see the FAQ.
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open to all
Anyone may participate.
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without fee
No Membership is required.
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quick to start
No charter is required; just a short scope statement and a minimum number of supporters
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public
Communications are publicly visible.
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self-determined
Group decision-making processes are self-determined, but required to be fair (e.g., to avoid anti-trust issues).
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without time limit
Communities may continue to work as long as they are functioning well; there is no chartered end date.
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IPR balanced
The IPR policies — intellectual property related to patents and copyrights — are designed to make it easy for IPR holders to join a group, to provide implementers with some IPR protection during development of a report, to create a final report that benefits from Royalty-Free licensing commitments, and to license contributions under a permissive copyright.
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tuned for transition to standards-track
These groups complement the existing standards track and the policies aim to facilitate transition to the standards track. However, there is no requirement that Community Group Reports advance to the standards track. And Community Groups may choose to develop test suites, white papers, demos, or merely to hold discussions.
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open to all
Anyone may participate.
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without fee to Members; fee for non-Members
W3C Members participate without fees, but non-Members and individuals pay an annual fee to participate which is determined on the size and nature of their organization. The fee supports the various forms of staff connectivity as well as some additional access to resources (such as teleconference services). W3C Membership is not required in order to participate in a Business Group.
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quick to start
No charter is required; just a short scope statement and a minimum number of supporters
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public or non-public
Participants determine whether they prefer their communications to be publicly visible or non-public. However, groups whose communications are primarily non-public are expected to provide periodic public updates.
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facilitated through W3C staff
W3C staff ensure that Business Groups have high-bandwidth connectivity with other groups, so that group issues receive attention from Web experts in a timely fashion.
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self-determined
Group decision-making processes are self-determined, but required to be fair (e.g., to avoid anti-trust issues).
-
without time limit
Communities may continue to work as long as they are functioning well; there is no chartered end date.
-
IPR balanced
The IPR policies — intellectual property related to patents and copyrights — are designed to make it easy for IPR holders to join a group, to provide implementers with some IPR protection during development of a report, to create a final report that benefits from Royalty-Free licensing commitments, and to license contributions under a permissive copyright.
-
tuned for transition to standards-track
These groups complement the existing standards track and the policies aim to facilitate transition to the standards track. However, there is no requirement that Business Group Reports advance to the standards track. And Business Groups may choose to develop test suites, white papers, demos, or merely to hold discussions.