W3C Launches Social Web Incubator Group

2009-04-06: W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Social Web Incubator Group. The group's mission is to understand the systems and technologies that permit the description and identification of people, groups, organizations, and user-generated content in extensible and privacy-respecting ways. The group will be co-chaired by Dan Applequist (Vodafone), Dan Brickley (Vrije Universiteit), Harry Halpin (W3C Fellow from the University of Edinburgh with support from Eduserv). The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: ASemantics, Boeing, Cisco, DERI Galway at the National University of Ireland, Garlik, Institut National de Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique (INRIA), Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications (IIT-NCSR), NICTA, Rochester Institute of Technology, SUN Microsystems, Talis, Telecom Italia, University of Bristol, University of Edinburgh, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, University of Versailles, Vrije Universiteit, and Vodafone. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track. (Permalink)

W3C Invites Developers to Mobile Widgets, Social Web Camps During WWW2009

2009-04-07: W3C invites people to attend the W3C Track at WWW2009, in Madrid, Spain on 23-24 April 2009. Part of WWW2009, the first day of the track is a Mobile Widgets Camp and the second a Social Web Camp. Conference participants and the local developer community are invited to submit topics of discussion in advance, via the W3C Track wikis. In addition to the W3C Track, Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the Web, will deliver the WWW2009 opening keynote titled "Twenty Years: Looking Forward, Looking Back". Read the press release. (Permalink)

Efficient XML Interchange Evaluation Draft Published

2009-04-07: The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published a Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange Evaluation. This document presents the anticipated benefits of the EXI format 1.0 compared to XML and gzipped XML. Additionally, tests for compactness include comparison to ASN.1 PER. The points of comparison are the requirements set by the EXI Working Group charter, based on the results of the XML Binary Characterization Working Group. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)

Five POWDER Documents published; Three Last Call Drafts

2009-04-04: The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group published five Working Drafts today. The purpose of the Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) is to provide a means for individuals or organizations to describe a group of resources through the publication of machine-readable metadata. The primary change in these publications relates to the IRI canonicalization sections of the Grouping of Resources document (sections 2.1.3 - 2.1.5). The group published these documents:

• Description Resources (Last Call); which details the creation and lifecycle of Description Resources (DRs), which encapsulate metadata
• Grouping of Resources (Last Call); which describes how sets of IRIs can be defined such that descriptions or other data can be applied to the resources obtained by dereferencing IRIs that are elements of the set.
• Formal Semantics (Last Call); which describes how the relatively simple operational format of a POWDER document can be transformed for processing by Semantic Web tools
• Primer
• Test Suite

Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)

CSS Template Layout Module

2009-04-02: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published the Working Draft of CSS Template Layout Module. This specification is part of level 3 of CSS (“CSS3”) and contains features to describe layouts at a high level, meant for tasks such as the positioning and alignment of “widgets” in a graphical user interface or the layout grid for a page or a window, in particular when the desired visual order is different from the order of the elements in the source document. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)

W3C Talks in April

2009-04-02: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)

• 1 April, Maputo, Mozambique: A Web that Empowers All People.Steve Bratt gives a keynote at Africa Perspective on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social Development.
• 17 April, Washington, DC, USA: Interoperability and Web Applications.Kevin Novak presents at eGov Washington Workshop: Putting Open Standards to Work for Transparency, Security and Interoperability.
• 21 April, Madrid, Spain: Web Accessibility and Older Users - We Are There!.Andrew Arch gives a keynote at W4A2009 - International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility.
• 23 April, Madrid, Spain: Panel on Multilingual Web Sites.Richard Ishida participates in a panel at 18th World Wide Web Conference (WWW2009).
• 23 April, Lisbon, Portugal: Improving Society through Better Use of Web Standards.Daniel Dardailler participates in a panel at ITU World Telecommunication Policy Forum.
• View upcoming talks by country
• More talks...

W3C Opens Maputo Workshop on Fostering Development through Mobile Technologies

2009-04-01: Today is the first day of the W3C Workshop on the Africa Perspective on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social and Economic Development, in Maputo, Mozambique. The agenda of the Workshop focuses on the challenges of using mobile phones and Web technologies to deliver services to underprivileged populations of developing countries. International experts, local actors, researchers, and NGOs are participating in the meeting, hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Mozambique and organized as part of the Digital World Forum project (European Union's FP7). The W3C Mobile Web Initiative (MWI) thanks the Workshop sponsors for their support. (Permalink)

eGovernment Stakeholder Meeting Summary Published

2009-04-01: The W3C's eGovernment Interest Group has published a Meeting Summary from its 12-13 March eGovernment stakeholder meeting in Washington, D.C. The purpose of the meeting was to obtain feedback on the First Public Working Draft of the group's Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web, published on 1 March 2009. Featured speakers at the meeting included Beth Noveck, US Office of Science and Technology Policy, Ellen Miller, Sunlight Foundation, and Steve Ressler, GovLoop, as well as meeting co-chairs Kevin Novak, American Institute of Architects, John Sheridan, UK National Archives, and W3C Team contact Jose Alonso. Key subject areas addressed by participants were: Openness and Transparency in Government; Social Networking; Data Interoperability and Semantic Web in Government; and Multi-Channel Deliver and Information Access via Mobile Platforms. The term "eGovernment" refers to the use of the Web or other information technologies by governing bodies (local, state, federal, multi-national) to interact with their citizenry, between departments and divisions, and between governments themselves. Learn more about the W3C's eGovernment Activity. (Permalink)

Widgets 1.0: Digital Signatures Draft Published

2009-03-31: The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Widgets 1.0: Digital Signatures. This document defines a profile of the XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1 specification to allow a widget package to be digitally signed. Widget authors and distributors can digitally sign widgets as a trust and quality assurance mechanism. Prior to instantiation, a user agent can use the digital signature to verify the integrity of the widget package and perform source authentication. This document specifies conformance requirements on both widget packages and user agents. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)

Patent Advisory Group Launched for "Widgets 1.0: Updates"

2009-03-27: In accordance with the W3C Patent Policy, W3C has launched a Patent Advisory Group (PAG) in response to a disclosure related to the Widgets 1.0: Updates specification; see the PAG charter. The WebApps Working Group develops this specification. W3C launches a PAG to resolve issues in the event a patent has been disclosed that may be essential, but is not available under the W3C Royalty-Free licensing requirements. Learn more about Patent Advisory Groups. (Permalink)

OWL 2 Web Ontology Language Document Overview

2009-03-27: The OWL Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of OWL 2 Web Ontology Language Document Overview. This document, part 1 of 13 in the OWL 2 document set, serves as an introduction to OWL 2 and the various other OWL 2 documents. It describes the various syntaxes for OWL 2, the different kinds of semantics, the defined profiles (sub-languages), and the differences between OWL 1 and OWL 2. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)

W3C Welcomes Feedback on Redesigned Web Site

2009-03-20: W3C invites public feedback on a beta release of a W3C site redesign. The new site features a harmonized design, simplified information architecture, new style for technical reports, and new content, including calendars and aggregated blogs. W3C welcomes feedback on the usability of the site, links to useful information, contributions of content to new pages, and bug fixes. Take a 10-minute screencast tour of the site, learn more about the redesign, and find out how you can help. (Permalink)

Exploring Richer Web Content Authoring with CSS and SVG: Five First Public Drafts

2009-03-20: The CSS and SVG Working Groups delivered today five new specifications for public review, aimed at enabling more compelling content creation with open Web technologies. The five drafts are:SVG Transforms 1.0, Part 2: Language, CSS 2D Transforms Module Level 3, CSS 3D Transforms Module Level 3, CSS Animations Module Level 3, and CSS Transitions Module Level 3. SVG Transforms allows two-dimensional objects to be transformed using three-dimensional transformations. CSS 2D Transforms allows elements rendered by CSS to be transformed in two-dimensional space. CSS 3D Transforms extends CSS Transforms to allow elements rendered by CSS to be transformed in three-dimensional space. CSS Animations allow an author to modify CSS property values over time. CSS Transitions allows property changes in CSS values to occur smoothly over a specified duration. The groups are working closely together to make implementing and authoring these features easy and consistent across Web languages. Learn more about the Style Activity and Graphics Activity. (Permalink)

W3C Invites Implementations of SKOS (Simple Knowledge Organization System) Reference; Primer Also Published

2009-03-17: The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Reference. This document defines the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), a common data model for sharing and linking knowledge organization systems via the Web. SKOS—Simple Knowledge Organization System—provides a model for expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading lists, taxonomies, folksonomies, and other similar types of controlled vocabulary. As an application of the Resource Description Framework (RDF), SKOS allows concepts to be composed and published on the World Wide Web, linked with data on the Web and integrated into other concept schemes. The Working Group also published today a Working Draft of SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Primer. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)

Cross-Origin Resource Sharing Draft Published

2009-03-18: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Working Draft of Cross-Origin Resource Sharing. This document defines a mechanism to enable client-side cross-origin requests. Specifications that want to enable cross-origin requests in an API they define can use the algorithms defined by this specification. If such an API is used on http://example.org resources, a resource on http://hello-world.example can opt in using the mechanism described by this specification (e.g., specifying Access-Control-Allow-Origin: http://example.org as response header), which would allow that resource to be fetched cross-origin from http://example.org. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)

Five First Public Drafts of Web Services Specifications

2009-03-17: The Web Services Resource Access Working Group published five First Public Working Drafts: Web Services Enumeration (WS-Enumeration), Web Services Eventing (WS-Eventing), Web Services Resource Transfer (WS-RT), Web Services Transfer (WS-Transfer), and Web Services Metadata Exchange (WS-MetadataExchange). The first describes a general SOAP-based protocol for enumerating a sequence of XML elements that is suitable for traversing logs, message queues, or other linear information models. The second describes a protocol that allows Web services to subscribe to or accept subscriptions for event notification. The third defines extensions to WS-Transfer that deal primarily with fragment-based access to resources to satisfy the common requirements of WS-ResourceFramework and WS-Management. The fourth describes a general SOAP-based protocol for accessing XML representations of Web service-based resources. The fifth defines how metadata associated with a Web service endpoint can be represented as resources, how metadata can be embedded in endpoint references, and how metadata could be retrieved from a Web service endpoint. Learn more about the Web Services Activity. (Permalink)

Video of Tim Berners-Lee's TED Talk Available

2009-03-13: In February, W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee spoke at TED 2009 about the Semantic Web and linked data (see slides). The video of his TED talk is now available. (Permalink)

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0: Updated Working Draft

2009-03-11: The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0. UAAG defines how browsers, media players, and other "user agents" should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. Read the invitation to review the UAAG 2.0 Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative. (Permalink)

Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web: First Public Draft

2009-03-10: The eGovernment Interest Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web. The term "eGovernment" refers to the use of the Web or other information technologies by governing bodies (local, state, federal, multi-national) to interact with their citizenry, between departments and divisions, and between governments themselves. Recognizing that governments throughout the World need assistance and guidance in achieving the promises of electronic government through technology and the Web, this document seeks to define and call forth, but not yet solve, the variety of issues and challenges faced by governments. The use cases, documentation, and explanation are focused on the available or needed technical standards but additionally provide context to note and describe the additional challenges and issues which exist before success can be realized. This document has been published in time for W3C's eGovernment stakeholder meeting in Washington, D.C.. Learn more about the eGovernment Activity. (Permalink)

Pointer Methods in RDF: First Draft Published

2009-03-10: The Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group today published Pointer Methods in RDF as a First Public Working Draft. This document provides a framework for representing pointers to identify locations in content or portions of content, using Resource Description Framework (RDF). This document is part of Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) and can be used to extend the EARL 1.0 Schema. Read the invitation to review Pointer Methods in RDF and learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (Permalink)

Last Call: Selectors Level 3

2009-03-10: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of Selectors Level 3. Selectors are patterns that match against elements in a tree, and as such form one of several technologies that can be used to select nodes in an XML document. Selectors have been optimized for use with HTML and XML, and are designed to be usable in performance-critical code. Comments are welcome through 07 April. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)