Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): a one-day course on 26 September 2003 – preliminary announcement

• Registration fee is € 235
• Lecturer is Steven Pemberton
• The number of registrations is limited to 20 people!
• Registration can be done electronically; registration closes as soon as the number of 20 is exceeded
• Lunch is included

W3C Semantic Tour: Event in Brussels on 24 June 2003

W3C Process Document and Publication Rules Published

1 July 2003: The 18 June 2003 W3C Process Document is operative effective today. Produced by the W3C Advisory Board and reviewed by the W3C, the document describes the structure and operations of the W3C. Among the changes are new document maturity levels, rules for amending Recommendations, and an enhanced liaison process for W3C work with partner organizations. The companion W3C Publication Rules have been updated and are public.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects New Advisory Board

1 July 2003: The W3C Advisory Committee has filled five open seats on the W3C Advisory Board. Created in 1998, the Advisory Board provides guidance to the Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution. Beginning 1 July, the nine Advisory Board participants are Ann Bassetti (Boeing), Jim Bell (Hewlett-Packard), Klaus Birkenbihl (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft), Carl Cargill (Sun Microsystems), Don Deutsch (Oracle), Steve Holbrook (IBM), Ken Laskey (MITRE), Ora Lassila (Nokia), and Lauren Wood (Unaffiliated). Steve Zilles is the interim Advisory Board Chair.

SVG Open 2003: Vancouver, Canada 13-18 July

30 June 2003: SVG Open 2003 runs 15-18 July in Vancouver, Canada. Additional half-day workshops and tutorials are 13-14 July. Co-sponsored by W3C, the SVG Open conference series is the premier forum for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) developers to share ideas, examples and implementations. Registration is open. The W3C SVG Working Group and W3C's Chris Lilley and Dean Jackson will participate. Read about SVG.

SOAP Version 1.2 Is a W3C Recommendation

24 June 2003: The World Wide Web Consortium today released SOAP Version 1.2 as a W3C Recommendation. The Recommendation is four documents: the SOAP Version 1.2 Primer, SOAP Version 1.2 Messaging Framework, SOAP Version 1.2 Adjuncts, and the SOAP Version 1.2 Assertions and Test Collection. Developed by the W3C XML Protocol Working Group, SOAP Version 1.2 is a lightweight protocol for exchanging structured information in a decentralized, distributed environment such as the Web. Read the press release, the testimonials, the changes and benefits and the FAQ. Visit the Web services home page.

Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages Republished

13 June 2003: Updated for The Unicode Standard, Version 4.0, Unicode in XML and other Markup Languages has been republished as a Unicode Technical Report and a W3C Note. These guidelines cover the use of Unicode with markup languages such as XML. They are published jointly by the Unicode Technical Committee and the W3C Internationalization Working Group and Interest Group. Read about the W3C Internationalization Activity.

OWL XML Presentation Syntax Published

13 June 2003: The Web Ontology Working Group has released XML Presentation Syntax for the OWL Web Ontology Language (OWL) as a W3C Note. The Note suggests one possible XML presentation syntax and includes XML schemas for OWL Lite, OWL DL, and OWL Full. OWL is used to publish and share sets of terms called ontologies, providing advanced Web search, software agents and knowledge management. Read about the Semantic Web Activity.

PNG Second Edition Is a W3C Proposed Recommendation

27 May 2003: W3C is pleased to announce the publication of the Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Specification (Second Edition) as a Proposed Recommendation. Comments are invited through 23 June. PNG is a graphics file format for raster images. Indexed-color, grayscale, and truecolor images are supported, plus an optional alpha channel. The document is in the final stages of standardization at ISO as an International Standard, ISO/IEC 15948. Read about the Graphics Activity.

Web Standards Switch, Log Validator Help to Improve Web Sites

26 May 2003: The W3C QA Activity is pleased to announce Web Standards Switch: or how to improve your Web site easily, an article written for the corporate environment, and a new release of the Log Validator. Both resources can help improve the quality of Web sites, regardless of their size. Read about the W3C Quality Assurance (QA) Activity.

W3C Approves Patent Policy

21 May 2003: The World Wide Web Consortium has approved the W3C Patent Policy based on review by the W3C Advisory Committee and the public. Written by the Patent Policy Working Group, the policy received more support from the Membership than any Recommendation in recent history. The policy encourages royalty-free Web standards. It governs the handling of patents in the process of producing and implementing W3C Recommendations. Read the public Director's decision and the press release and visit the patent policy home page.