leading the Web to its full potential “The Consortium has been changing constantly since it was formed. a new era Having completed a ‘catching up’ and where people use a semantic Web stabilizing phase with to engage, enrich, and educate HTML 4.0 and HTTP 1.1, W3C has started state-of-the-art common specifications such as in The World Wide Web provides people with information on every topic. For growing numbers Scalable Vector Graphics of people, it is also emerging as the environment of choice for services related to their pro- (SVG) and Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P). fessional activities and personal interests. The Web provides a vehicle for civic participation, It is also forging ahead commercial transactions, and education. It gives people access to world news, employment with a new idea—the opportunities, and each other. And while the potential uses for the Web seem endless, exer- semantic Web— a unification of data cising that potential requires new technology development. everywhere, through the Web, into effectively one What has been missing from the Web is a standard way to create and collect information large database. The Resource Description about information—also known as metadata. Enabling the creation of descriptive informa- Framework (RDF) and the tion makes it possible for Web data to be effectively searched and processed by computers. Extensible Markup These models produce results that surpass current technologies in accuracy and scalability, Language (XML) are the two layers which provide while providing additional features, such as validation. a stable foundation for a very exciting set of Implementation of a stable, extensible model for metadata is the next step in leading the Web developments to come.” to its full potential. RDF—Resource Description Framework—and XML—Extensible Markup Tim Berners-Lee Language—are two technologies from W3C that will aid the Web to grow and better serve Director, W3C the needs of the global Web community. “The Consortium is pivotal in ensuring that the World Wide Web advances communications and serves cultures around the globe.”

Nobuo Saito Dean and Professor of Environmental Information Keio University

THE INTERNET: THE WORLD WIDE WEB: THE WORLD WIDE WEB CONSORTIUM: THE WORLD’S LARGEST SIMPLIFIED AND UNIVERSAL ACCESS THE LEADER IN GLOBAL WEB EVOLUTION COMPUTER NETWORK TO THE INTERNET AND INTEROPERABILITY In 1969, the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced The World Wide Web, commonly referred to as the The rapid growth of the Web made it difficult for CERN Research Projects Agency (DARPA), established the “Web,” was first conceived in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee to continue to oversee and coordinate the entire Web Internet as a way to connect the many military, universi- as a project to improve collaboration between development effort. It became clear that the Web had ty, and defense contractors working on its projects. researchers at CERN (the European Laboratory for outgrown its beginnings in the physics community. In ARPANet was designed to use decentralized network- Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland). The Web was 1994, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was ing.This allowed the network to grow extremely quickly devised as a seamless model in which all information on founded at MIT in collaboration with CERN and with and to survive isolated computer failures. the Internet could be accessed in an extremely simple seed funding from DARPA and the European and consistent manner—from any computer, in any Commission. From the beginning, Director Tim Berners- In the mid-1980s, the National Science Foundation country, by any authorized user. Although the Web soon Lee has been committed to developing a neutral, open (NSF) developed its own network, NSFNet, to be used spread outside the halls of the CERN research laborato- forum for the evolution of Web technology, a mission for scholarly research at colleges throughout the United ries, it didn’t really take off until late 1992. Its sudden reflected by today’s 300-plus-Member global States. NSFNet also offered students and faculty new success was due, in part, to the popularity of Mosaic, a Consortium. ways to collaborate with their peers. Before long, email, graphical browser created by NCSA (National Center for newsgroups, and public file servers sprouted, computer Supercomputing Applications). Currently the Web is the lines became overloaded, and the Internet was flourish- most popular and fastest-growing information system ing. Since then, the Internet’s continued growth has deployed on the Internet, representing more than 80% been phenomenal to say the least.Today it spans all of its traffic. seven continents. The number of users easily approach- es hundreds of millions. the Web and the Internet: a place to share information and do business

01 uniquely positioned to lead the evoluti

Leading the World Wide Web’s evolution means staying ahead of a significant W3C provides a vendor-neutral forum for its Members to address Web-relat- wave of applications, services, and social changes. For W3C to effectively lead ed issues. Working together with its team and the global Web community, the such dramatic growth at a time when a “Web Year” is equivalent to a few Consortium aims to produce free, interoperable specifications and sample months, it must demonstrate exceptional agility, focus and diplomacy. To this code. Funding from Membership dues, public research funds, and external end, the Consortium fulfills a unique combination of roles traditionally contracts underwrites these efforts. ascribed to quite different organizations. The Consortium’s Advisory Committee (AC) is composed of one official repre- Like its partner standards body, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), sentative from each Member organization, who serves as the primary liaison W3C is committed to developing open, technically sound specifications between the organization and W3C. The Advisory Committee’s role is to offer backed by running sample code. Like other information technology consortia, advice on the overall progress and direction of the Consortium. W3C represents the power and authority of hundreds of developers, researchers, and users. Hosted by research organizations, the Consortium is able to leverage the most recent advances in information technology. TEAM W3C is led by Director Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the World Wide Web, and W3C works on technologies that impact people’s daily commercial, cultural Chairman Jean-François Abramatic. With more than 30 years combined and personal activities. For several years W3C has recognized the social, legal, expertise in a wide array of computer-related fields, including real-time com- and public policy challenges associated with the development of the Web. munications, graphics, and text and image processing, Berners-Lee and Abramatic are well prepared to lead the Consortium’s efforts in spearheading the global evolution of the Web. The Consortium’s technical staff include full- HOST INSTITUTIONS time and part-time employees, visiting engineers from Member organizations, W3C was formally launched in October 1994 at the Massachusetts Institute of consultants, and students from more than 13 countries worldwide. The W3C Technology’s Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS). Moving beyond the Team works with the Advisory Committee, the press, and the broader Web Americas, the Consortium established a European presence in partnership community to promote W3C’s objectives. with France’s National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) in April 1995. As the Web’s influence continued to broaden interna- tionally, the resulting growth in W3C Membership created the need for an RECOMMENDATION PROCESS Asian host. In August 1996, Keio University in Japan became the Consortium’s Specifications developed within the Consortium must be formally reviewed by third host institution. the Membership. Consensus is reached after a specification has proceeded through the review stages of Working Draft, Proposed Recommendation, and Recommendation. As new issues arise from Members, resources are reallo- MEMBERS cated to new areas to ensure that W3C remains focused on topics most criti- The Consortium’s real strength lies in the broad technical expertise of its cal to the Web’s interoperability and growth. Membership. W3C currently has more than 300 commercial, non-profit, and academic Members worldwide, including hardware and software vendors, telecommunications companies, content providers, corporate users, citizen groups, and government and academic entities.

02 “W3C’s hope is to become a truly on of the Word Wide Web global organization with an ever-expanding and wide-reaching membership. DOMAINS OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE Our goal is to further Leading the evolution of a technology as dramatically in flux as the World The natural complement to W3C specifications is running code. the Web’s evolution Wide Web is a challenging task. W3C is a unique organization, well adapt- Implementation and testing are an essential part of specification develop- as a robust, scalable, ed to today’s fast-paced environment. Its mission is to lead the Web to its ment and releasing the code promotes exchange of ideas in the developer and adaptive full potential: as a scalable computer-to-computer system, as an efficient community. All W3C software is Open Source. W3C Open Source Software infrastructure; as a human-to-computer interface, and as an effective human-to-human com- includes: munications medium. In order to achieve these goals, W3C’s team of platform for the experts works with its Members to advance the state of the art in each of Jigsaw, W3C’s object-oriented web server, written in Java application of the four Domains: Architecture, User Interface, Technology and Society and and supporting HTTP 1.1 computation to The Web Accessibility Initiative. Each Domain is responsible for investigat- Amaya, W3C’s testbed browser/editor knowledge; and as a ing and leading development in several Activity areas which are critical to the Web’s global evolution and interoperability. A CSS Validator which allows the user to validate the responsible human CSS style sheets used by HTML and XML pages communications An HTML Validator which allows HTML documents to medium—all while ACTIVITIES be validated against the DTDs for HTML, including for HTML 4.0 preserving its universal When W3C decides to become involved in a new technology or policy, it interoperability.” seeks the approval of its Membership to initiate an Activity in that area. Libwww, a general-purpose Web API written in C for W3C Members are formally invited to review the proposed scope and char- Unix and Win32. It is a highly modular extensible API which can be ter, and subsequently to participate in the work of the Activity. Generally an used as the code base for writing Web clients, servers, and proxies. Jean-François activity is carried out by one or more groups which may be working groups, HTML Tidy, a free utility for correcting HTML syntax automatically and Abramatic interest groups or coordination groups. An Activity may also be carried out producing clean markup. Tidy can be used to convert existing HTML con- W3C Chairman by establishing a software project. tent into compliant XML.

The current list of Activities is as follows: Architecture Domain User Interface Domain Technology and Society Domain Web Accessibility Initiative HTTP Amaya Digital Signatures WAI International Program Office HTTP-NG DOM Metadata WAI Technical Activity Jigsaw Graphics Micropayments TV and the Web HTML Privacy Web Characterization Internationalization XML Math Mobile Access Style Sheets Synchronized Multimedia Jean-François Abramatic Tim Berners-Lee Nobuo Saito Alan Kotok Vincent Quint Tatsuya Hagino Philipp Hoschka W3C Chairman W3C Director W3C Associate Chairman W3C Associate Chairman W3C Deputy Director for W3C Deputy Director for Asia W3C Architecture Joined W3C April 1995 Joined W3C September 1994 Joined W3C September 1996 Joined W3C May 1997 Europe and User Interface Joined W3C September 1997 Domain Leader Domain Leader Joined W3C January 1996 Responsibilities Responsibilities Responsibilities Responsibilities Joined W3C February 1996 Responsibilities Responsibilities Spearheads the Consortium’s Oversees all activities within Associate Chairman of W3C Membership recruitment and Assists Chairman and Director strategic direction the Consortium W3C Site Management at MIT Responsibilities with the Consortium’s Asian Coordinates all activities within the Architecture Domain. Education Education Assists Director with the operations Education Education Chair of Synchronized B.A. in Physics, Queen’s Ph. D. in Computer Science, Consortium’s European Education Multimedia (SYMM) Ph.D. in Computer Science, College at Oxford University, University of Tokyo, Japan M.B.A. Clark University, operations Interest Group University of Paris VI, France England M. Eng. in Mathematical Worcester, MA, USA Coordinates all activities with Ph.D. in Computer Science, University of Edinburgh, Chair of TV and Web M.S. in Engineering, Ecole des Honorary degrees from the Engineering and Instrumentation, B.S. and M.S. in Electrical in the User Interface domain Scotland Interest Group Mines, Nancy, France Parsons School of Design University of Tokyo Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, Chair of the Hypertext (D.F.A., 1996), Southampton MA, USA Coordination Group M.S. in Mathematical Education Related Positions Related Positions Sciences, Kyoto University, University (D.Sc. 1996) and Ph.D. in Computer Science, Related Positions Education Japan 1997–Present: Director of University of Essex (D.U. 1995–Present: Dean, Faculty University of Nice-Sophia Development, INRIA, France Essex) of Environmental Information, 1996–1997: V.P. Marketing, Ph.D. in Mathematics, Related Positions Antipolis, France Keio University, Japan GC Tech, Inc. University of Grenoble, France 1996–1999: Associate Related Positions Diploma (M.S.) in Computer Director of the Laboratory of 1990–1995: Professor, 1962–1997: Corporate 1993–Present: Associate 1994–Present: Principal Ph.D. in Computer Science, Professor, Keio University Science, University of Computer Science (LCS) at Faculty of Environmental Consulting Engineer, Digital University of Grenoble, France Karlsruhe, Germany MIT, Cambridge, MA, USA Research Scientist, MIT LCS Information, Keio University Equipment Corp. 1990–1993: Lecturer, Keio 1984–1994: Fellowship at M.S. in Engineering, University Related Positions 1992–1996: Director of 1978–1990: Professor, 1994–1996: W3C AC University of Grenoble, France Development, INRIA CERN. In 1989 he invented Faculty of Engineering, Keio Representative, Digital 1987–1990: Assistant 1992–1996: Graduate the World Wide Web and 1989–1992: Chairman and University Equipment Corp. Related Positions Professor, Kyoto University Research Assistant, High since then has continued to Speed Networking Group Chief Executive Officer for a 1990–present: Leader, guide the development of the Other Activities Other Activities Other Activities (Rodeo), INRIA, France start-up X Window terminal Web including early work on Project Opera, INRIA company ISO/IEC SC22/WG15(POSIX), Member of Science Advisory Actively involved in several 1991–1992: Software HTML, HTTP, and URLs 1980–1990: Project Manager, the head of Japanese Board, Cylink Corp. system projects, including the Development Engineer, Structured Documents Project Other Activities Awards delegation Consultant: Compaq. next generation micro kernel Networking Research Group, project and multimedia University of Nottingham, UK General Chairman of the Fifth Distinguished Fellow of the The Chairman of AOW (Asia Other Activities International World Wide British Computer Society Oceania Workshop) network education project. 1990–1991: Research Member of several committees, Web Conference, held in Paris Member of SFC’s steering Assistant, IBM European Recipient of 1997 Duddell Actively involved in several including the Electronic in May 1996 Medal of the Institute of projects including committee Networking Center, Publishing (EP) Series of Heidelberg, France Holds two patents and has Physics development of multimedia Conferences authored more than 40 platform, campus networks, Recipient of 1996 ACM Actively involved in the Other Activities papers in journals and etc. Kobayashi Award design and development of Editor of SMIL 1.0 W3C conferences Recipient of 1996 IEEE various systems, including Recommendation Computer Society Wallace Grif, Thot, and Amaya Chair of W3C Workshop McDowell Award “Television and the Web” Co-recipient of 1996 Chair of W3C Workshop Computers and Communication “Push Technology” (C&C) Award Chair of W3C Workshop Co-recipient of 1995 ACM 04 “Real-Time Multimedia and Software Systems Award the Web” Daniel J. Weitzner Judy Brewer Dan Connolly Ralph R. Swick Daniel Dardailler Josef Dietl Janet Daly W3C Technology and Society Web Accessibility Initiative XML Activity Lead W3C Technology and Society Web Accessibility Initiative Head of Member Relations Head of Public Relations Domain Leader Domain Leader and WAI Joined W3C March 1995 Domain Technical Director Technical Activity Lead Joined W3C June 1997 Joined W3C February 1999 Joined W3C September 1998 International Program Joined W3C January 1997 Joined W3C July 1996 Office Director Responsibilities Responsibilities Responsibilities Responsibilities Responsibilities Joined W3C September 1997 Leads the XML Activity Responsibilities Develops Member Relation Leads Public Relations efforts, WAI Project Manager efforts with focus on including press relations and Coordinates all activities Responsibilities Technical oversight of all within the Technology and Education activities within the W3C Site Manager at INRIA, participation and contribution message development Coordinates all activities within Society Domain B.S. in Computer Science, Technology and Society Sophia-Antipolis, France Contact for W3C Offices the Web Accessibility Initiative Education Liaison with governments and University of Texas, Austin, Domain, assisting Daniel Education Education private sector on Internet Directs Web Accessibility Texas, USA Weitzner. B.A. in English, University of Initiative International Ph.D. in Computer Sciences, Diploma (M.S.) in Physics, Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, policy matters. University of Nice, France Program Office Related Positions Education Technical University of USA M.S. in Computer Sciences, Education Education 1994–1995: Software B.S. in Physics and Munich, Germany Graduate Studies: Harvard Mathematics, Carnegie University of Grenoble, France University, Cambridge, MA, B.A. in Philosophy, Management Certificate, Engineer, Hal Software Mellon University, Pittsburgh, B.S. in Math Physics, Related Positions USA; University of Swarthmore College, Boston University Corporate Systems Pennsylvania, USA University of Marseille, France Massachusetts, Boston, MA Swarthmore, PA, USA Education Center, Boston, 1993–1994: Software 1995–1997: Domain Leader, CompuServe Germany J.D. Buffalo Law School, MA, USA Engineer, Dazel (formerly Related Positions Related Positions Related Positions Buffalo, NY, USA Graduate Certificate, Technical Atrium) 1994–1996: Software 1994–1996: Technical Other Activities 1997–1998: Communications Writing, Northeastern 1990–1993: Software Architect, X-Window Consortium Director, X Consortium, Inc. Director, Newmarket Network Related Positions University, Boston, MA Development Engineer, Co-founder of FITUG, a 1990–1994: Principal German cyberrights Co-founder and Deputy Convex 1980–1994: Principal 1996–1997: Production M.A. in Teaching ESL, Engineer, The Open Software organization Director, Center for Democracy Software Engineer, Digital Manager, Tripod Inc. University of Massachusetts, Equipment Corp. Foundation and Technology Other Activities Actively involved in various 1990–1996: Information Boston 1986–1990: Research Fellow, Editor of HTML 2.0 consulting activities Officer, Project Athena, MIT Deputy Policy Director, B.A. Independent Concentration Other Activities Bull Research Center Electronic Frontier Foundation in Applied Linguistics, Princeton specification W3C Metadata Activity Lead Other Activities Other Activities Chair, Platform for Internet University, Princeton, NJ, USA Editor of World Wide Web Content Selection (PICS) Public Journal Vol. 2 - XML: Co-editor of the RDF Model Coordinator of WAI-TIDE Guest Lecturer on educational Related Positions Policy Committee Principles,Tools, and and Syntax Specification European Commission Project uses of Internet-based 1990–1997: Project Director, Techniques Lecturer and teacher of technologies, and information Massachusetts Assistive computer science at design for the Web Technology Partnership engineering schools and Other Activities universities internationally for more than ten years Advisory committee and board activities include: the Author of several papers in US Access Board's Electronic journals and conferences and Information Technology Access Advisory Committee; National Council on Disability's TechWatch; Board of Directors of the Association of Access Engineering Specialists; Board of Directors of the Adaptive executive management Environments Center a global partnership

W3C is an international industry-supported consortium, jointly hosted by three institutions: the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Laboratory for Computer Science—MIT LCS (Americas); the National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control—INRIA (Europe); and Keio University (Asia). All three hosts work together to provide vendor-neutral leadership in the evolution of the Web, including designing, developing, “The Consortium and promoting common technical standards. thrives on diversity, especially its international MIT LABORATORY FOR COMPUTER SCIENCE (LCS) nature. W3C Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a major U.S. research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Offices Its Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS), now in its fourth decade, conducts a broad research program in information science, from the development of information infrastructures such as the World Wide Web to provide local understanding the theories that underlie computer science. The LCS is dedicated to the invention, develop- points of contact ment, and understanding of information technologies expected to drive substantial technical and socio-eco- for W3C members nomic change. and also can provide a focus for discussion of THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN COMPUTER SCIENCE AND CONTROL (INRIA) issues of The National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA) is a French public-sector scientif- specifically ic institute. INRIA is made up of five Research Units located at Rocquencourt (near Paris), Rennes, Sophia regional interest.” Antipolis, Nancy, and Grenoble. INRIA’s main assignments include transferring research results to industry and conducting both fundamental and applied research. Areas of current research include information processing, advanced high-speed networking, structured documents, and scientific computation. Tim Berners-Lee Director

KEIO UNIVERSITY Keio University, one of Japan’s oldest private universities and foremost computer science research centers, has five major campuses around Tokyo. In 1990, the University opened Shonan Fujisawa Campus and two new faculties, including the Faculty of Environmental Information. At that time, Keio began to focus on next-gen- eration education, research on fundamental information technology, and global solutions in the advanced information society. Shonan Fujisawa Campus, as well as Keio’s other campuses, promotes joint research proj- ects in cooperation with industry, government, and international organizations. Keio is currently one of the world’s leading research centers for network and digital media technology. W3C OFFICES W3C OFFICES: CONTACT INFORMATION To enhance the communication between W3C and the Germany Taiwan Web community, W3C has opened W3C Offices covering W3C Office at GMD W3C Office at NCTU specific geographical areas. W3C Offices are the first point Institut für Medienkommunikation National Chiao Tung University of contact between the Consortium and its Membership, Schloss Birlinghoven Computer Center as well as the general public in their corresponding Sankt Augustin 53754 1001 Ta-Hsueh Road region. These are just some of the activities in which W3C Germany Hsinchu Offices may be involved: Tel: +49 2241 14 2910 TAIWAN, R.O.C. Fax: +49 2241 14 2071 Tel: +886 3 573 1900 - providing support to locally-organized events Email: [email protected] Fax: +886 3 571 4031 - organizing translations for W3C documents Greece The Netherlands - establishing and managing a mirror site W3C Office at FORTH W3C Office at CWI - acting as a forum for the members in their region Foundation for Research and Technology—Hellas Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica - feeding back local input to W3C P.O. Box 1385 Kruislaan 413 711 10 Heraklion 1098 SJ Amsterdam - producing promotional material Crete The Netherlands - supporting W3C communications and press releases Greece Tel: +31 20 592 4171 Tel: +30 81 391601 Fax: +31 20 592 4199 Fax: +30 81 391674 Email: [email protected] Email: [email protected] United Kingdom Hong Kong W3C Office at RAL W3C Office at HKUST Rutherford Appleton Laboratory Hong Kong University of Science & Technology Chilton Department of Computer Science Didcot Clear Water Bay Oxfordshire OX11 0QX Kowloon United Kingdom Hong Kong Tel: +44 1235 446822 Tel: +852 2358 7010 Fax: +44 1235 445385 Fax: +852 2358 2679 Email: [email protected]

Sweden W3C Office at SICS Swedish Institute of Computer Science 164 29 Kista Sweden Tel: +46 8 752 1504 Fax: +46 8 751 7230 Email: [email protected]

07 architecture

“Our goal is extending the Web’s building blocks so that in the next FOUNDATIONS FOR XML THE FUTURE OF THE WEB millennium, even Extensible Markup Language—known as XML—provides a simple approach to representing The Architecture Domain aims to build and structured text and information. The extent of its acceptance manifests itself through the steady more users, extend the Web architecture to support the con- increase in applications both on and off the Web expressed using XML syntax. These efforts are applications, and tinuing growth of the Web. This Domain is work- emerging across cultures, languages, and professional disciplines, ranging from the health care devices can ing is in three key areas: (1) improving HTTP for industry to electronic commerce. leverage the a faster and more efficient Web; (2) developing the Web architecture to support mobile phones, W3C develops and defines XML, having issued the XML 1.0 Recommendation in 1998. XML now power of the televisions and other devices and (3), the devel- underpins markup languages and applications developed by W3C. Web.” opment of XML as a format for exchanging struc- tured data.

Philipp Hoschka HTML MathML SVG SMIL Architecture Domain Leader THE W3C ARCHITECTURE TEAM PICS P3P Philipp Hoschka is the Architecture Domain Leader and also leads the Synchronized Multimedia Activity. The team further includes Dan Connolly (XML Activity Lead), Jim Gettys (visiting engineer from Compaq), Johan Hjelm Other RDF applications Platform for Preferences Privacy (visiting engineer from Ericsson), Youichirou Platform for Internet Content Selection Koga (visiting engineer from NEC), Yves Lafon RDF Multimedia Scalable vector graphics Mathematical expressions (Jigsaw Activity Lead), Benoît Mahé (Jigsaw Document markup engineer), Henrik Frystyk Nielsen (HTTP and HTTP-NG Activity Lead), Hidetaka Ohto (visiting XML engineer from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co), C.M. Sperberg-McQueen (working with the XML

Activity), and Daniel Veillard (XML Activity). XML now underpins a number of W3C languages and applications. The Resource Description Framework—RDF—is also taking on an increasingly important role. HYPERTEXT TRANSFER PROTOCOL (HTTP) HTTP-NG: THE NEXT GENERATION OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE As Web traffic has come to dominate the In the early days, nobody could have anticipated JIGSAW Internet, remedying the weaknesses of the HTTP the sheer volume and variety of data which trav- Jigsaw is W3C's Java-based Web server. With a protocol has become of crucial importance. W3C el across the Web. It comes as no surprise, then, modular architecture and HTTP/1.1 compliance, has successfully worked with the Internet to discover that the HTTP protocol, extended and the Jigsaw server is a premier platform for W3C Engineering Task Force (IETF) to refine and modified to cope with the increasing demands and the Internet community to try out new improve the protocol, this work has now led to placed upon it, may require more comprehen- ideas. The server uses an object-oriented the HTTP/1.1 standard. HTTP/1.1 brings a num- sive review. The purpose of the HTTP-NG project approach to store files and to process incoming ber of key benefits. For example, browsers need is to develop a new generation of the HTTP pro- requests, making it easily extensible and effi- fewer connections to the server to download tocol better suited to the needs of the future. cient. Used on a daily basis at W3C to manage documents, and more efficient caching of Web Flexible enough to support existing uses of the our cooperative working environment via the content means that pages are faster to access. Web, and geared to the increasing number of W3C site, Jigsaw has also been used as a PICS These benefits lead to faster Web access at distributed applications using the network, label bureau, and as a test-bed for an experi- reduced load on a network. HTTP-NG will be based on the sound engineer- mental IP multicast-based cache-sharing proto- ing practices of simplicity, modularity, and layer- col. More recent work concerns a flexible extension ing. W3C has already completed an initial fea- mechanism to HTTP/1.1, enabling programmers sibility study with encouraging results from test LIBWWW to add their own features to the protocol where implementations. The group is now progressing W3C's libwww is a cross-platform Web software a given application demands extra functionality. to the next stage of the project, finally develop- library written in C. It supports the most com- W3C has produced two sample HTTP/1.1 imple- ing the new HTTP architecture into a set of mon Web protocols, and is well suited for build- mentations - Jigsaw and Libwww- and demon- robust and well-proven Internet specifications. ing a wide variety of applications such as Web strated that HTTP/1.1 truly speeds up the access clients, servers and robots. Recent work on lib- of Web information. www has produced a record-breaking high-per- TELEVISION AND THE WEB formance implementation of HTTP/1.1, using As TV migrates from analog to digital technolo- persistent connections, pipelining, smart output WEB CHARACTERIZATION gy, there are many opportunities for integrating buffering, and persistent caching. Many experts predict that the volume of Web the Web and television. Web content will be traffic on our communication networks will soon used to augment television broadcasts, for surpass the volume of voice telephone traffic. example with special offers, program guides and This creates new challenges for network design- reviews, background information on sports ers. While telephone traffic has been analyzed teams, and so on. Televisions will be able to dis- for the last 100 years, we are only starting to play Web pages on news, weather and financial understand Web traffic. To foster research in information, transmitted with television chan- Web performance measurement and evaluation, nels but not tied to any particular program. the Web Characterization Activity has brought People expect television to work reliably, leading together a group of some of the most renowned to a great emphasis on correct implementation researchers in performance measurement to of web standards in this area. W3C is helping to develop the tools and measurement methods develop Web standards together with television needed to manage tomorrow's Web traffic. standards organizations.

09 user interface

ENABLING A RICH VARIETY (Style Sheet Activity), Arnaud Le Hors (DOM Style sheets and other tools tailor HTML documents to the Activity Lead), Håkon Lie (Style Sheets Activity needs of different devices accessing Web information. “Web information OF INFORMATION TO BE DISTRIBUTED ON THE WEB Lead), Chris Lilley (Graphics Activity Lead), will grow Shin’ichi Matsui (Mobile Access Activity, visiting The User Interface Domain seeks to improve all Document markup immensely in engineer from Matsushita Electric Industrial), user/computer communications on the Web. Dave Raggett (HTML Activity Lead, visiting engi- variety, and be With XML fast gaining acceptance, work on neer from Hewlett Packard), and Irène Vatton used by a much HTML (for publishing documents), on MathML (Amaya Activity Lead). Transformed by means of greater diversity (for publishing math), on SMIL (for multimedia a style sheet, script or program presentations), and on SVG (for publishing dia- of people than Transformation can be done on grams and vector-based graphics), now uses the primary server, on the proxy server or at the client HTML today. What is XML as a common underlying format. The imperative is that Document Object Model (DOM) meanwhile, Hypertext Markup Language—known as HTML Television Cellular Voice-based Desktop screen phone device computer simplicity and ensures that, "behind the scenes", markup is —is the lingua franca for publishing on the structured around a clean model enabling pro- World Wide Web. Following the success of interoperability grams and scripts to manipulate information effi- W3C's HTML 4.0, the Consortium is designing continue to be of ciently via a uniform interface. W3C's work on the next generation of the markup language. STYLE SHEETS prime importance.” style sheets will lead to tools for "re-purposing" The new HTML is re-cast in XML, and is being Style sheets offer precise control over the pres- documents for different devices: authors can designed so that HTML can be used in combina- entation of Web pages. Not only can Web write the material once and then re-purpose it tion with other XML applications. For example, a Vincent Quint designers specify the visual effects they want, for rendering on mobile phones, televisions, document might be written in HTML, but include but also aural style sheets give control over User Interface palm top computers and other devices as a mathematical formula written in MathML or Domain Leader voice, pitch and other aspects of how the text required. Internationalization continues as an tags from a specialized XML application. will sound when rendered into speech. W3C important part of our contribution to ensure that Important also is the ability to sub-set HTML for continues to work with its Members, evolving people across cultures and languages can com- simpler clients. End-users and authors alike will the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) language to municate across the Web, making it truly world benefit from work on describing the capabilities provide even richer stylistic control, while wide. and user preferences for particular devices, for emphasizing the importance of the thorough instance, display characteristics and information implementation of CSS on browsers. For more on the kinds of graphics formats supported, the complex publishing tasks, such as automatically THE W3C USER INTERFACE TEAM level of HTML and style sheets support, and so producing a table of contents, and for converting on. The next generation of HTML will also see Lead by Vincent Quint, the team includes Takuya documents written in XML into HTML for publi- style sheets and other tools used to tailor docu- Asada (Mobile Access Activities), Bert Bos (Style cation, W3C is developing the Extensible Style ments according to the needs of different class- Sheets, Internationalization and XML Activities), Sheets Language (XSL), which builds upon expe- es of browser. Transformation of markup can be Martin Dürst (Internationalization Activity Lead) rience with CSS and DSSSL. A key goal is to done on the primary server, on a proxy server or Ramzi Guetari (Amaya Activity), Masayasu ensure that W3C Recommendations all use a at the client. Ishikawa (HTML and Mobile Access Activities), common underlying framework for style. Jose Kahan (Amaya Activity), Philippe Le Hégaret DOCUMENT OBJECT MODEL applications such as interactive electronic manuals with com- SYNCHRONIZED MULTIMEDIA plex technical diagrams. HTML allows authors to structure documents into headings, W3C has developed the Synchronized Multimedia Integration paragraphs, hypertext links and other components. W3C’s Language (SMIL). SMIL enables content developers to write Document Object Model (DOM) is a standard internal repre- complex multimedia presentations where audio, video, text MOBILE ACCESS sentation of the document structure and makes it easy for and graphics are combined. Written in XML, SMIL is a declar- programmers to access components and delete, add or edit People are already demanding ubiquitous, device-independ- ative language which is as easy to author as HTML. With it, their content, attributes and style. DOM offers a consistent ent access to the Web. Web information and services will authors can control the synchronization of media components, programming interface for manipulating a document with pro- become increasingly accessible from cellular phones, pagers, in parallel or in sequence. For example, one can, specify that gramming languages such as Java and ECMAScript. The DOM in-car computers, palm-top computers and other mobile a particular audio track should be played in accompaniment Level 1 Specification is now a W3C Recommendation, and devices. W3C's Mobile Access Activity is interested in ensuring with particular images and Web pages. W3C published the work continues on support for manipulating style properties that the protocols and data formats of the Web provide an SMIL 1.0 Recommendation in June 1998. Since then, the and events. effective fit for mobile devices. Such work is necessary to Activity has received new input from W3C Members and has ensure that mobile devices reach their full potential in the con- started work on a successor. In addition to its application to HTML and Web pages, the text of the global Internet. The Web provides an increasingly DOM has been designed also with XML in mind: XML’s inher- important means for companies, organizations and individu- MATH als to "meet" for business, news and entertainment. W3C ent extensibility makes the DOM even more valuable to XML Although HTML has a large repertoire of tags, it does have wishes to facilitate the important role that mobile devices designers. The standard DOM interface enables them to write tags for mathematical expressions. W3C has been working have to play in a world increasingly using Internet-based software (similar to plug-ins) for processing customized tag- with a number of companies with experience in editing and global communications. sets in a language- and platform-independent way. A stan- processing math on computers, as well as other specialist dard API makes it easier to develop modules for XML pro- organizations. This work has cumulated in a markup language Of related interest are techniques for using voice interaction cessing that can be re-used in different applications. called MathML, and W3C released MathML 1.0 as a for accessing the Web. This includes using telephones or Recommendation in April 1998. MathML provides two sets of when hands/eyes free operation is essential (in cars). GRAPHICS tags, one for the visual presentation of math and the other Proposed W3C work on voice browsers includes enhance- With a long-standing interest in graphics for the Web, W3C associated with the meaning "behind" equations. Specialized ments to HTML and style sheets, and explicit ways to control was invited to support the PNG graphics format, which tools provide the means for typing in and editing mathemati- voice interaction using XML, as well as ways to transform became a Recommendation in 1996. PNG has widespread cal expressions. W3C's Amaya browser supports MathML and Web content to better suit the needs of using voice interaction support on the latest generation of browsers, offering true has been used to demonstrate its capabilities. to browse, follow links and fill-in forms. color, real transparency and faster incremental display. OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE More recent work concerns Scalable Vector Graphics. Rather INTERNATIONALIZATION AMAYA BROWSER/EDITOR than sending pixel values down the wire, an alternative Amaya is W3C’s own testbed browser/editor. With the The Web facilitates communication around the world between approach is to send instructions for drawing lines (vectors) extremely fast-moving nature of Web technology, Amaya people speaking different languages. The goal of the and filling shapes, a technique used by many of the popular plays a central role at the Consortium. Easily extended to inte- Consortium’s work on Internationalization is to ensure that drawing packages. W3C is developing an open vector graph- grate new ideas into its design, Amaya provides developers W3C’s formats and protocols are usable worldwide in multi- ics format written in XML, and designed to work across plat- with many specialized features, including multiple views, ple languages and writing systems. W3C has successfully forms, output resolutions, color spaces, and a range of avail- where the internal structural model of the document can be stressed the role of Unicode as the basis for identifying char- able bandwidths. Scalable Vector Graphics will mean that displayed alongside the browser’s view of how it should be acters in documents—for example, in the HTML 4.0, XML, Web documents will be smaller, faster, more interactive, and presented on the screen. Amaya has been used to demon- CSS2 and DOM specifications. Work is continuing on provid- displayable on a wider range of device resolutions, from small strate how MathML works, and provides a math editor for the ing markup and style components for international needs. A mobile devices to office computer monitors and high-resolu- purpose. Amaya also implements HTTP1.1, HTML 4.0, and character model for the Web is in development which takes tion printers—a significant advance in Web technology. many features of CSS, and has been used as an experimental into account requirements arising from the increasing interac- platform with vector graphics. Developed in close collaboration between W3C and the CGM tion of the various software components. Open Consortium, the WebCGM Profile Recommendation adds reliable and interoperable hyperlinking to graphics-rich 11 technology and society

“We have the opportunity, and in some cases, nearly a mandate, to shape Web technology that will enhance human interaction in three arenas: identity, money, and property.” ADDRESSING THE SOCIAL, LEGAL AND Relevant questions include: THE W3C PUBLIC POLICY CHALLENGES RAISED BY How will Web-held information be organized so TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY TEAM Daniel Weitzner THE GROWTH OF THE WEB that users can find exactly what they want, Headed by Daniel Weitzner, the Technology and Technology W3C is responsible for helping to address the quickly? Society Team includes Ralph Swick (Metadata and Society social, legal, and public policy challenges raised Activity Lead), Daniel LaLiberte (Open Source Domain Leader How will people know that a document such as by the growth of the Web. The Technology and a contract, price list, or other item comes from a Developer), Massimo Marchiori (P3P and Society Domain began by addressing issues such reliable source? Metadata Activities), Thierry Michel (Electronic as freedom of expression, protection of minors Commerce Activity Lead), Rolf Nelson (Privacy from harmful content, and privacy. Work is now Can users be sure that a Web document sent Activity Lead), and Joseph Reagle (Digital fast expanding to other areas. over the net has not been tampered with en Signatures and P3P Activity, Policy Analyst). route? As the Web becomes the platform for global How can people be certain that personal infor- electronic commerce, and an increasingly impor- mation filled out on a form will be not be used tant venue for politics, arts and culture, the tech- by other parties against their wishes? nologies of digital signatures, metadata, pay- ment over the Web and copyright management How will the rights of online authors and pub- become of crucial importance. lishers be managed on the Web? METADATA PRIVACY MICROPAYMENTS The Web now holds a tremendous amount of Users want to know whether they should entrust Micropayments are very small payments made information. If we want machines to help us personal information to a given Web site. How over the Web. The goal of W3C's work on navigate this information—for instance, to find does the site manage personal information? Will Micropayments is to develop a framework for a bookseller that has a copy of a book on a par- it disclose any of this information to others? the seamless integration of micropayments into ticular subject, to find the cheapest airfare or the What will the user get in return? the Web architecture. One may envision that hotels in a particular price range in a given links would display the cost, currency, descrip- town—then we need some way of describing W3C’s Platform for Privacy Preferences Project tion of goods and other data associated with the and cataloging the information, in a format that (P3P) allows users to be informed of a site’s item in question. When users clicked on them, machines can usefully process and query. Work practices. Users may then negotiate for a differ- the browser would ask the user to pay via an at W3C on metadata—that is, information ent privacy policy and come to an agreement electronic wallet for the item, possibly with dif- about information—seeks to provide just that. with the site which will be the basis for any sub- ferent eletronic wallets for different payment sys- The Consortium has completed work on the sequent release of information. W3C members, tems in use. basic Resource Description Framework (RDF) including software developers, financial service specifications, a knowledge representation/rela- providers, marketers, and privacy advocates, W3C is developing a common mark-up lan- tional database language for items on the Web. have cooperated on the P3P specification. In guage for payment information, and an API to These “resources” may be a Web page, a partic- addition, W3C’s privacy work is conducted in support such a system. ular paragraph or image on a Web page, or an close consultation with governments around the entire Web site. Future work may focus on query world. The W3C team devotes significant languages and reasoning engines for metadata resources to explaining and marketing the tech- across the Web. nology with view to stimulating regional adop- tion in the Americas, Europe, Asia, and around An early example of metadata is PICS—the the world. Platform for Internet Content Selection. PICS is W3C’s suite of specifications allowing people to distribute information about Web content in a DIGITAL SIGNATURE INITIATIVE simple, computer-readable form. PICS helps par- Digital signatures serve to identify the origin of a ents and others to filter out undesirable material document and to ensure that the information or direct children to sites that may be of special has not been tampered with en route. A single- interest to them. bit change in giga-bytes of data can be detect- ed. Digital signatures allow users to check that downloaded information has come from a rep- utable source, which is especially important for documents implying commitments such as con- tracts, price lists, manifests and press releases. In view of recent developments in Web technolo- gies, future work will address the digital signing of XML and RDF as this is critical for a variety of electronic commerce applications, including pay- ment tools.

13 Web accessibility initiative

“W3C realizes the critical importance of the Web for people with disabilities, and is committed to increasing the accessibility of the Web.” ENSURING THAT THE UNIVERSALITY OF Accessibility Initiative must encourage Web con- THE W3C Judy Brewer THE WEB INCLUDES ACCESS BY PEOPLE tent developers, browser manufacturers, and WEB ACCESSIBILITY INITIATIVE TEAM authoring tool manufacturers to exploit the Web Accessibility WITH DISABILITIES As Director of the WAI International Program Initiative Domain accessibility-friendly features built into newer The Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) focuses on Office, Judy Brewer leads the growing WAI Leader W3C Recommendations. making the Web accessible to the many millions team. Daniel Dardailler, working from W3C’s of existing and potential Web users who have European host site at INRIA, France, manages Browsing the Web from a range of devices, disabilities. These disabilities range from blind- the WAI Technical Activity. Other team members rather than just from traditional desktop com- ness and low vision to hearing problems, motor working in the WAI Domain include Marja-Riitta puters, is becoming increasingly commonplace. limitations and cognitive impairments. Working Koivunen (visiting engineer from Helsinki An added bonus of accessible Web content is in coordination with industry leaders, disability Telephone Corporation), Ian Jacobs (Technical that it easily transforms for use on mobile organizations, research institutions and govern- Writer), Charles McCathieNevile (WAI Authoring phones, in-car computers and other devices with ments, the WAI adopts a multi-pronged Tool Guidelines WG), Masafumi Nakane (WAI limited or no screen. WAI’s technology develop- approach through technology guidelines, tools, Education and Outreach), and Masayasu ments and guidelines also support this increas- education, and research and development. Ishikawa (WAI liaison to the Mobile Access ing need for device-independent access to the Interest Group). Web. The Web has the potential to provide access to information where previously there were barri- ers. To fulfill this promise, however, the Web WAI TECHNICAL ACTIVITY User Agent Accessibility Guidelines: These WAI INTERNATIONAL PROGRAM OFFICE include guidance for browser manufacturers and The WAI Technical Activity encompasses three The WAI International Program Office (IPO) coor- developers of other user software such as multi- areas of work: Technology development, dinates the involvement of different parties with media players and voice browsers. The guide- Guidelines, and Tools. an interest in accessibility, including industry, lines include how to make the software operable disability organizations, research organizations, without a pointing device; having both visual as and government. The WAI IPO manages an well as aural representations of controls such as TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT interest group for the discussion of overall WAI menus, buttons, and short-cuts; and enabling activities; hosts the Education and Outreach The Protocols and Formats Working Group users to set the color and font size. (PFWG) reviews all W3C specifications to identi- Working Group; participates in standardization activities; promotes implementation of WAI fy accessibility requirements, and jointly explore Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines: These guidelines; and tracks research and develop- solutions. WAI contributed to the design of are guidelines for a broad range of authoring ment which can affect future Web accessibility. HTML 4.0, CSS2, SMIL, and MathML, which tools, including WYSIWIG HTML editors, save- now contain a number of features that support as-HTML or XML converters, tools that dynami- accessibility. Recent work has involved reviewing cally generate Web pages, image editors, and EDUCATION AND OUTREACH the Document Object Model (DOM) specifica- site management tools. These WAI guidelines tion, and requirements for XML, Scalable Vector explain how to incorporate prompts, alerts, and Education and outreach to all sectors of the Web Graphics (SVG), mobile computing, and a num- validation into such software to promote the community tie together the WAI’s developments ber of other areas as the W3C’s scope continues production of Web content that is accessible to in technology, guidelines and tools.The WAI to broaden. those with disabilities. The guidelines also Education and Outreach Working Group coordi- explain how to make the user interface of the nates the development of curriculum modules, tools accessible. demonstration packages, workshops, and relat- GUIDELINES ed materials in order to increase awareness of An important part of the work of the Web the need for and solutions to Web accessibility. Accessibility Initiative is the development of TOOLS guidelines explaining how to make the Web In the tools area, WAI gathers, coordinates, and RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT more accessible. further develops tools that can help evaluate and repair Web sites. The goal is to produce a toolkit The WAI IPO monitors research and develop- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: These that can be offered to content providers and ment that could affect the future accessibility of are for people writing and designing Web users who encounter barriers when using the the Web. This may include giving input into pages. These include checkpoints and tech- Web. Work on this toolkit involves stand-alone technologies that hold the promise of enhancing niques for making Web content accessible to tools, as well as modules that can be incorpo- the future accessibility of the Web, as well as those with disabilities, including the need to rated into other Web authoring tools. It will technologies that could create new barriers on include alternative text for images; how to enable the automated validation of accessibility, the Web, to ensure that developers are aware of design tables that can be read properly by screen as well as more in-depth, semi-automated eval- the universal design (“design for all”) approach. readers; and how to design forms so that they uation allowing for human judgment. work well for people who cannot easily use a mouse.

15 membership

WHY YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD JOIN W3C As a World Wide Web Consortium Member, your organization can participate in the collective voice of the global Web community. Member organizations gain access to W3C’s technical expertise and can lead the evolution of innovative Web technologies in a neutral forum. There are already more than 300 Members: hardware and software vendors, con- tent providers, telecommunications companies, corporate users, citizen groups, and government and academic entities.

MEMBERSHIP BENEFITS - Participation in working groups, workshops, and symposia - A voice in providing strategic direction to the Consortium - A seat on W3C’s Advisory Committee (AC) - Access to Members-only Web site, containing information on events, technologies, software releases, working groups, forums, mailing lists, news, and announcements - Members-only weekly News Service - Direct access to other experts in the Web community

HOW TO BECOME A MEMBER Membership in the World Wide Web Consortium is open to any organization that completes a Full or Affiliate Membership agreement. As described in W3C’s Prospectus, http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Prospectus. Affiliate status is reserved for non-profit organizations and commercial firms with annual revenues under $50 million.

For more information about the World Wide Web Consortium and its Members, visit W3C’s home page at http://www.w3.org/ or send email to [email protected].

Copyright © 1999 W3C | MIT INRIA Keio All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark, document use and software licensing rules apply. 16 “The Web community is made up of all those who browse or put information on the Web, who use the Web as their workplace, who develop new products and services on the Web, who provide Internet access, and who have ideas about how to improve the Web. The Consortium is the neutral forum where these parties meet to agree on common specifications. W3C gains richness from the http://www.w3.org/ meeting of all these forces.”

Tim Berners-Lee Director, W3C http://www.w3.org/

©1999 W3C|MIT INRIA KEIO