Tim Berners-Lee Announces Creation of New Foundation to Bring the Web to All People

2008-09-14: Before a gathering of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Washington, D.C. (USA), Tim Berners-Lee announced today the creation of the World Wide Web Foundation. The mission of the Foundation is:

• to advance One Web that is free and open,
• to expand the Web's capability and robustness,
• and to extend the Web's benefits to all people on the planet.

Following Berners-Lee's speech, Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation's president and CEO, announced a $5 million seed grant in support of the mission. Learn more about the World Wide Web Foundation at www.webfoundation.org, which also includes a FAQ and video and photos from the event. (Permalink)

Access Control for Cross-Site Requests Draft Published

2008-09-12: The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Access Control for Cross-Site Requests. Other specifications that wish to enable cross-siterequests in an API they define can use the algorithms defined by this specification. If such an API is used on https://example.org resources, a resource on https://hello-world.example can opt in using the mechanism described by this specification. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)

Last Call: Service Modeling Language (1.1) and Interchange Format

2008-09-12: The Service Modeling Language Working Group has published the Last Call Working Drafts of Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 and Service Modeling Language Interchange Format Version 1.1. The former specification defines the Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 (SML) used to model complex services and systems, including their structure, constraints, policies, and best practices. The latter defines the interchange format for SML 1.1. This format identifies the model being interchanged, distinguishes between model definition documents and model instance documents, and defines the binding of rule documents with other documents in the interchange model. Comments are welcome through 03 October. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)

CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3 Draft Published

2008-09-10: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3. CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML). This draft contains the features of CSS level 3 relating to borders and backgrounds. It includes and extends the functionality of CSS level 2. The main extensions compared to level 2 are borders consisting of images, boxes with multiple backgrounds, boxes with rounded corners and boxes with shadows. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)

W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD): Component Designators Draft Published

2008-09-10: The XML Schema Working Group has published a Working Draft of W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD): Component Designators. This document defines a system for designating XML Schema components. Schema components are the building blocks that comprise the abstract data model of the schema. They are specified by XML Schema Part 1: Structures and XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes. The XSD specification divides the problem of constructing schema component designators into two parts: defining a designator for an assembled schema, and defining a designator for a particular schema component or schema components, understood relative to a designated schema. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)

Representing Content in RDF and HTTP Vocabulary in RDF Drafts Published

2008-09-08: The Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group today published Representing Content in RDF as a First Public Working Draft. This document provides a vocabulary to represent content in RDF, and is flexible for any type of content available on the Web or in local storage media. The Working Group also published an an updated Working Draft of HTTP Vocabulary in RDF, which defines terms to allow HTTP headers that have been exchanged between a client and a server to be recorded in RDF. These documents can be used to extend the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema, an RDF vocabulary to record test results such as those generated by Web accessibility evaluation tools. They are part of the EARL Specification. Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative. (Permalink)

Call for Review: RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing Proposed Recommendation

2008-09-04: The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group and XHTML2 Working Group have published the Proposed Recommendation of RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing. The modern Web is made up of an enormous number of documents that have been created using HTML. These documents contain significant amounts of structured data, which is largely unavailable to tools and applications. When publishers can express this data more completely, and when tools can read it, a new world of user functionality becomes available, letting users transfer structured data between applications and web sites, and allowing browsing applications to improve the user experience. RDFa is a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. The groups have also published an implementation report as part of the Candidate Recommendation phase. Comments are welcome through 03 October. Learn more about the Semantic Web. (Permalink)

Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Impacts First Public Draft

2008-09-03: The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Impacts. EXI defines a new representation for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Information Set. The introduction of such a format may cause disruption in systems that have so far been able to assume XML as the only representation of XML Information Set data. This document reviews areas where the introduction of EXI may disrupt or otherwise have an impact on existing XML technologies, XML processors, and applications. It also describes EXI design features and steps that may be taken by implementors to reduce or eliminate disruption and impacts. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)

W3C Talks in September

2008-09-01: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)

• 1 September, Liverpool, United Kingdom: Web Accessibility and the Older Population.Andrew Arch presents at HCI and the Older Population 2008.
• 2 September, Amsterdam, The Netherlands: From pages to applications: Mobile Web Best Practices.François Daoust presents at Mobile Internet User eXperience (MIUX'08).
• 4 September, Erlangen, Germany: Senioren im Web: Barrierefreiheit für Ältere Menschen.Shadi Abou-Zahra presents at Webkongress 2008.
• 16 September, Yahoo!'s Mission College Campus, Santa Clara, California, USA: Introduction to the Protocol for Web Description Resources.Phil Archer, Matt Womer are at POWDER: More of what you want, when you want it.
• 17 September, Sophia-Antipolis, France: Mobile Web: Trust starts with a few Best Practices.François Daoust presents at Smart Mobility 2008.
• 23 September, York, United Kingdom: How web accessibility guidelines apply to design for the ageing population.Andrew Arch, Shadi Abou-Zahra present at Accessible Design in the Digital World.
• 23 September, London, United Kingdom: Standardisation vs. Openness vs. Proprietary Systems - Examining in which Direction the Mobile Web Industry is heading and why this really Matters.Dominique Hazaël-Massieux presents at Mobile Web Europe 2008.
• 24 September, Berlin, Germany: Auf dem Weg ins Semantische Web.Klaus Birkenbihl, Ivan Herman present at W3C-Tag.
• 24 September, Vienna, Austria: Introduction to the Semantic Web.Ivan Herman gives a tutorial at 2nd European Semantic Technology Conference.
• 24 September, Washington, DC, USA: Introducing the W3C eGovernment Interest Group.Kevin Novak presents at The Next Generation of Our Public Record:Many Voices, One Voice.
• 30 September, São Paulo, Brazil: On the Way to the Semantic Web.Klaus Birkenbihl, Ivan Herman present at W3C Brazil meeting.
• View upcoming talks by country
• More talks...

Last Call: SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Reference; Primer Updated

2008-08-29: The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft 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. The SKOS data model provides a standard, low-cost migration path for porting existing knowledge organization systems to the Semantic Web. SKOS also provides a light weight, intuitive language for developing and sharing new knowledge organization systems. It may be used on its own, or in combination with formal knowledge representation languages such as the Web Ontology language (OWL). Comments are welcome through 03 October. The group has also published an update of the companion SKOS Primer. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)

Web IDL Draft Published

2008-08-29: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Working Draft of Web IDL. This specification defines a syntactic subset of OMG IDL version 3.0 for use by specifications that define interfaces. Web IDL is an IDL variant with a number of features that allow the behavior of common script objects in the web platform to be specified more readily. A number of extensions are given to the IDL to support common functionality that previously must have been written in prose. In addition, precise language bindings for ECMAScript 3rd Edition and Java are given. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)

Best Practice Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies Note Published

2008-08-29: The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group has published the Group Note of Best Practice Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies. This document describes best practice recipes for publishing vocabularies or ontologies on the Web (in RDF Schema or OWL). It is intended for the creators and maintainers of vocabularies in RDFS and OWL (vocabulary and ontology are used interchangeably in the context of this specification). It provides step-by-step instructions for publishing vocabularies on the Web, giving example configurations designed to cover the most common cases. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)

The Power of Tests: New Licenses Promote Collaboration

2008-08-20: W3C announced today its new Licenses for W3C Test Suites. Two licenses promote two goals:

1. A 3-clause BSD License is designed to enable developers to use test cases easily, and promote software development and bugtracking.
2. A W3C Test Suite License is designed to enable a W3C Working Group to create a branded, "Authoritative W3C Test Suite" to reflect the group consensus process, and to promote interoperability and stability of performance claims.

W3C appreciates the support of those who suggested these changes, who provided use cases, and who patiently reviewed drafts. (Permalink)

Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) 1.0 Is a Proposed Recommendation

2008-08-18: The Voice Browser Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0. PLS provides the basis for describing pronunciation information for use in speech recognition and speech synthesis, for use in tuning applications, e.g., for proper names that have irregular pronunciations. Changes from the previous Working Draft can be found in Appendix D of the specification. Comments are welcome through 18 September. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity. (Permalink)

Five POWDER Documents published; three Last Call Drafts

2008-08-18: The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group has published five Working Drafts. 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.

• 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 (First Public Draft)
• Test Suite (First Public Draft)

Last Call comments are welcome through 14 September. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)