World Wide Web Consortium

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working together in the development of standards for the World Wide Web. As of 5 March 2023, W3C had 462 members.[1][2] W3C also engages in education and outreach, develops software and serves as an open forum for discussion about the Web.

"WWWC" redirects here. For the radio station, see WWWC (AM).
Not to be confused with the World Wide Web Foundation.

History
See also: History of the World Wide Web

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee after he left the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in October 1994.[3] It was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Laboratory for Computer Science with support from the European Commission, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which had pioneered the ARPANET, one of the predecessors to the Internet.[1] It was located in Technology Square until 2004, when it moved, with the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, to the Stata Center.[4]

The organization tries to foster compatibility and agreement among industry members in the adoption of new standards defined by the W3C. Incompatible versions of HTML are offered by different vendors, causing inconsistency in how web pages are displayed. The consortium tries to get all those vendors to implement a set of core principles and components that are chosen by the consortium.

It was originally intended that CERN host the European branch of W3C; however, CERN wished to focus on particle physics, not information technology. In April 1995, the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation became the European host of W3C, with Keio University Research Institute at SFC becoming the Asian host in September 1996.[5] Starting in 1997, W3C created regional offices around the world. As of September 2009, it had eighteen World Offices covering Australia, the Benelux countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Austria, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Morocco, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and, as of 2016, the United Kingdom and Ireland.[6]

In October 2012, W3C convened a community of major web players and publishers to establish a MediaWiki wiki that seeks to document open web standards called the WebPlatform and WebPlatform Docs.

In January 2013, Beihang University became the Chinese host.[7]

In 2022 the W3C WebFonts Working Group won an Emmy Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for standardizing font technology for custom downloadable fonts and typography for web and TV devices.[8]

On 1 January 2023, it reformed as a public-interest 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.[9][10]

Specification maturation

W3C develops technical specifications for HTML5, CSS, SVG, WOFF, the Semantic Web stack, XML, and other technologies.[11] Sometimes, when a specification becomes too large, it is split into independent modules that can mature at their own pace. Subsequent editions of a module or specification are known as levels and are denoted by the first integer in the title (e.g. CSS3 = Level 3). Subsequent revisions on each level are denoted by an integer following a decimal point (for example, CSS2.1 = Revision 1).

The W3C standard formation process is defined within the W3C process document, outlining four maturity levels through which each new standard or recommendation must progress.[12]

Working draft (WD)

After enough content has been gathered from 'editor drafts' and discussion, it may be published as a working draft (WD) for review by the community. A WD document is the first form of a standard that is publicly available. Commentary by virtually anyone is accepted, though no promises are made with regard to action on any particular element commented upon.[12]

At this stage, the standard document may have significant differences from its final form. As such, anyone who implements WD standards should be ready to significantly modify their implementations as the standard matures.[12]

Candidate recommendation (CR)

A candidate recommendation is a version of a more mature standard than the WD. At this point, the group responsible for the standard is satisfied that the standard meets its goal. The purpose of the CR is to elicit aid from the development community on how implementable the standard is.[12]

The standard document may change further, but significant features are mostly decided at this point. The design of those features can still change due to feedback from implementors.[12]

Proposed recommendation (PR)

A proposed recommendation is the version of a standard that has passed the prior two levels. The users of the standard provide input. At this stage, the document is submitted to the W3C Advisory Council for final approval.[12]

While this step is important, it rarely causes any significant changes to a standard as it passes to the next phase.[12]

W3C recommendation (REC)

This is the most mature stage of development. At this point, the standard has undergone extensive review and testing, under both theoretical and practical conditions. The standard is now endorsed by the W3C, indicating its readiness for deployment to the public, and encouraging more widespread support among implementors and authors.[12]

Recommendations can sometimes be implemented incorrectly, partially, or not at all, but many standards define two or more levels of conformance that developers must follow if they wish to label their product as W3C-compliant.[12]

Later revisions

A recommendation may be updated or extended by separately-published, non-technical errata or editor drafts until sufficient substantial edits accumulate for producing a new edition or level of the recommendation. Additionally, the W3C publishes various kinds of informative notes which are to be used as references.[12]

Certification

Unlike the Internet Society and other international standards bodies, the W3C does not have a certification program. The W3C has decided, for now, that it is not suitable to start such a program, owing to the risk of creating more drawbacks for the community than benefits.[12]

Administration

In January 2023, after 28 years of being jointly administered by the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (located in Stata Center) in the United States, the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics[13] (in Sophia Antipolis, France), Keio University (in Japan) and Beihang University (in China), the W3C incorporated as a legal entity, becoming a public-interest not-for-profit organization.[14]

The W3C has a staff team of 70–80 worldwide as of 2015.[15] W3C is run by a management team which allocates resources and designs strategy, led by CEO Jeffrey Jaffe[16] (as of March 2010), former CTO of Novell. It also includes an advisory board that supports strategy and legal matters and helps resolve conflicts.[17][18] The majority of standardization work is done by external experts in the W3C's various working groups.[19]

Membership

The Consortium is governed by its membership. The list of members is available to the public.[2] Members include businesses, nonprofit organizations, universities, governmental entities, and individuals.[20]

Membership requirements are transparent except for one requirement: An application for membership must be reviewed and approved by the W3C. Many guidelines and requirements are stated in detail, but there is no final guideline about the process or standards by which membership might be finally approved or denied.[21]

The cost of membership is given on a sliding scale, depending on the character of the organization applying and the country in which it is located.[22] Countries are categorized by the World Bank's most recent grouping by gross national income per capita.[23]

Criticism

In 2012 and 2013, the W3C started considering adding DRM-specific Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) to HTML5, which was criticised as being against the openness, interoperability, and vendor neutrality that distinguished websites built using only W3C standards from those requiring proprietary plug-ins like Flash.[24][25][26][27][28] On 18 September 2017, the W3C published the EME specification as a recommendation, leading to the Electronic Frontier Foundation's resignation from W3C.[29][30] As feared by the opponents of EME, as of 2020, none of the widely used Content Decryption Modules used with EME is available for licensing without a per-browser licensing fee.[31][32]

Standards

W3C/Internet Engineering Task Force standards (over Internet protocol suite):

References
  1. W3C. "World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) About the Consortium". Retrieved 21 March 2022.
  2. "Current Members – W3C". World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  3. R, Valsala (1 July 2022). "Can we imagine life without the World Wide Web?". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 15 July 2022.
  4. Michael Blanding, "The Past and Future of Kendall Square", MIT Technology Review August 18, 2015
  5. "Press Release: Keio University joins MIT and INRIA in hosting W3C". www.w3.org. 9 September 1996. Retrieved 13 July 2017.
  6. Jacobs, Ian (June 2009). "W3C Offices". Retrieved 14 September 2009.
  7. "Beihang University Becomes Newest Institution to Host W3C". www.w3.org. 20 January 2013.
  8. Pedersen, Erik "Technology & Engineering Emmys Winners Unveiled." Deadline. April 25, 2022.
  9. "W3C re-launched as a public-interest non-profit organization". W3C. 31 January 2023. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  10. Gordon, Rachel (2 February 2023). "World Wide Web Consortium is now a public-interest nonprofit organization". Massachusetts Institute of Technology News. Retrieved 3 August 2023.
  11. "Standards – W3C". W3C. World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 5 March 2023.
  12. "World Wide Web Consortium | Development Process". W3.org. 12 April 2005. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  13. "ERCIM – the European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics". www.ercim.eu. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  14. "Facts about W3C". W3.org. Retrieved 2 March 2023.
  15. "W3C people list". W3.org. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  16. "Dr. Jeffrey Jaffe, W3C CEO". www.w3.org. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  17. "W3C pulls former Novell CTO for CEO spot". Itworld.com. 8 March 2010. Retrieved 3 April 2012.
  18. "The World Wide Web Consortium: Building a Better Internet". Mays Digital. Archived from the original on 18 August 2016. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  19. "Working Groups". www.w3.org. Retrieved 21 September 2021.
  20. W3C (2010). "Membership FAQ – W3C". Retrieved 7 August 2010.
  21. Jacobs, Ian (2008). "Join W3C". Retrieved 14 September 2008.
  22. W3C Membership Fee Calculator
  23. "World Bank Country Classification". Web.worldbank.org. Retrieved 3 July 2010.
  24. Cory Doctorow (12 March 2013). "What I wish Tim Berners-Lee understood about DRM". Technology blog at guardian.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 March 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  25. Glyn Moody (13 February 2013). "BBC Attacks the Open Web, GNU/Linux in Danger". Open Enterprise blog at ComputerworldUK.com. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  26. Scott Gilbertson (12 February 2013). "DRM for the Web? Say It Ain't So". Webmonkey. Condé Nast. Archived from the original on 24 March 2013. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  27. "Tell W3C: We don't want the Hollyweb". Defective by Design. Free Software Foundation. March 2013. Archived from the original on 3 April 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2013.
  28. Danny O'Brien (October 2013). "Lowering Your Standards: DRM and the Future of the W3C". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  29. Peter Bright (18 September 2017). "HTML5 DRM finally makes it as an official W3C Recommendation". Ars Technica. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  30. Cory Doctorow (18 September 2017). "An open letter to the W3C Director, CEO, team and membership". Blog at Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  31. "Three years after the W3C approved a DRM standard, it's no longer possible to make a functional indie browser". Boing Boing. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 18 August 2020.
  32. Doctorow, Cory (3 April 2019). "After years of insisting that DRM in HTML wouldn't block open source implementations, Google says it won't support open source implementations". Boing Boing. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  33. Groth, Paul; Moreau, Luc (30 April 2013). "PROV-Overview: An Overview of the PROV Family of Documents". World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
  34. Simon Stewart, (Apple); David Burns, (BrowserStack) (24 June 2022). "WebDriver". WebDriver W3C Working Draft 24 June 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2022.
  35. "WebXR Device API — W3C Candidate Recommendation Snapshot". 31 March 2023. Retrieved 23 May 2023.
  36. Sire, Stéphane; Vanoirbeek, Christine; Quint, Vincent; Roisin, Cécile (2010). Authoring XML all the time, everywhere and by everyone (PDF). XML Prague 2010. Prague: Center of Excellence - Institute for Theoretical Computer Science. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.660.6575. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 January 2022 – via Project WAM.
  37. Kia, Émilien; Quint, Vincent; Vatton, Irène (15 December 2009). "XTiger language specification". World Wide Web Consortium. Retrieved 12 April 2020.
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