NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

August/September - aout/septembre - augustus/september 2009

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

W3C Invites Implementations of Timed

Text (TT) Authoring Format 1.0 - Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP)

2009-09-24: The Timed Text Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format 1.0 - Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP), used to represent timed text media for the purpose of interchange among authoring systems. Timed text is textual information that is intrinsically or extrinsically associated with timing information. The specification provides a standardized representation of a particular subset of textual information with which stylistic, layout, and timing semantics are associated by an author or an authoring system for the purpose of interchange and potential presentation. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity.

Developer Gathering during W3C Technical Plenary Week

2009-09-21: As part of its efforts to broaden participation opportunities in W3C, W3C announces today its first Developer Gathering, to be held 5 November, 2009 during the W3C Technical Plenary Week (TPAC) in Santa Clara, California. Registration is open to the public; W3C is seeking in particular developers and designers who may not participate regularly in W3C groups. Arun Ranganathan (Mozilla), Fantasai, Philippe Le Hégaret, and others will speak on a variety of hot topics with a goal of feeding back comments to the groups developing the relevant technology standards. Learn more about the Developer Gathering.

OWL 2 is a Proposed Recommendation

2009-09-22: With more than a dozen implementations of OWL 2 reported, the OWL Working Group has published its OWL 2 Web Ontology Language as a Proposed Recommendation. An ontology is a structured set of terms that a particular community uses for organizing data, such as "title", "author", and "ISBN" for data about books. OWL 2 is a compatible extension to OWL 1, providing additional features for people using ontologies. The OWL 2 document set contains 13 documents, of which 4 are instructional: overview , primer, new features and rationale, and quick reference. The rdf:PlainLiteral datatype, developed for use by OWL 2 and RIF, is also a Proposed Recommendation. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

W3C Organizes Workshop on Access Control

Application Scenarios

2009-09-22: W3C invites people to participate in a Workshop on Access Control Application Scenarios on 17-18 November 2009 in Luxembourg. This Workshop is intended to explore evolving application scenarios for access control technologies, such as XACML. Results from a number of recent European research projects in the grid, cloud computing, and privacy areas show overlapping use cases for these technologies that extend beyond classical intra-enterprise applications. The Workshop, co- financed by the European Commission 7th framework program via the PrimeLife project, is free of charge and open to anyone, subject to review of their statement of interest and space availability. Position papers are due 23 October. See the call for participation for more information. Learn more about the Privacy Activity.

W3C Launches Provenance Incubator Group

2009-09-22: W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Provenance Incubator Group, whose mission is to provide a state-of-the art understanding and develop a roadmap in the area of provenance for Semantic Web technologies, development, and possible standardization. The group will be chaired by Yolanda Gil. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: Renssealaer Polytechnic Institute, Talis Information Limited, University of Manchester, University of Southampton, University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute (USC / ISI), and Vrije Universiteit. 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.

New W3C Group to Standardize Relational

Database, RDF Mapping

2009-09-16: W3C announces today the new RDB2RDF Working Group, whose mission is to standardize a language for mapping relational data and relational database schemas into RDF and OWL, tentatively called the RDB2RDF Mapping Language, R2RML. From the beginning of the deployment of the Semantic Web there has been increasing interest in mapping relational data to the Semantic Web. This is to allow relational data to be combined with other data on the Web, to link semantics directly to relational data and to aid in enterprise data integration. The creation of this Working Group follows the work of a previous W3C Incubator Group in this area. Read the RDB2RDF Working Group Charter and learn more about the Semantic Web.

W3C Invites Implementations of WebCGM

2.1

2009-09-15: The WebCGM Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of WebCGM 2.1. Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM) is an ISO standard, defined by ISO/IEC 8632:1999, for the interchange of 2D vector and mixed vector/raster graphics. WebCGM is a profile of CGM, which adds Web linking and is optimized for Web applications in technical illustration, electronic documentation, geophysical data visualization, and similar fields. The Working Group has adopted a public test suite for WebCGM 2.1 and has produced a preliminary WebCGM 2.1 implementation report. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

CSS Working Group Updates Candidate

Recommendation of CSS3 Media Queries

2009-09-15: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Media Queries. HTML4 and CSS2 currently support media-dependent style sheets tailored for different media types. For example, a document may use sans-serif fonts when displayed on a screen and serif fonts when printed. "screen" and "print" are two media types that have been defined. Media queries extend the functionality of media types by allowing more precise labeling of style sheets. Learn more about the Style Activity.

Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision

1 (CSS 2.1) Candidate Recommendation Updated

2009-09-08: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has updated the Candidate Recommendation of Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification. This specification defines Cascading Style Sheets, level 2 revision 1. CSS 2.1 is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., fonts and spacing) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). This update corrects some errata in the previous draft. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Opens New India Office

2009-09-07: Today the W3C India Office opened at a new Host: the Department of Information Technology in the Ministry of Communications & Information Technology. Swaran Lata, who is Director of the Human Centered Computing division (TDIL), will run the new Office with the support of deputy manager Somnath Chandra. W3C Offices act as local points of contact for W3C work and help ensure that W3C and its specifications reach an international audience. W3C would like to thank the India Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for their support in ensuring that W3C has a strong presence in India. The previous Office in India, hosted by C-DAC, has already closed. Learn more about the W3C Offices program.

A Sprinkle of POWDER Fosters Trust on

the Web

2009-09-01: Today W3C takes steps toward building a Web of trust, and making it possible to discover relevant, quality content more efficiently. When content providers use POWDER, the Protocol for Web Description Resources, they help people with tasks such as seeking sound medical advice, looking for trustworthy retailers, or searching for content available under a particular license (for instance, a Creative Commons license). The POWDER Working Group published three W3C Recommendations today: Grouping of Resources, Formal Semantics, and Description Resources. For more information about POWDER, including a POWDER Primer and a range of tools, see the group home page. Read the press release and learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Online Training Course: An Introduction

to W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices (Sep to Nov 2009)

2009-08-31: W3C announces today the next edition of its successful online course to introduce Web developers and designers to its Mobile Web Best Practices. The next session runs from 7 September to 9 November 2009. W3C received very positive reviews from participants who attended the previous session, including:

• "Every web developer should at least know the basics of mobile web development. So this is the course to take."
• "The best starting point possible!"
• "[The] tutor and student forum to discuss ideas or problems throughout the course was invaluable."

W3C invites you to join the next session, where you will:

• learn about the specific promises and challenges of the mobile platform
• learn how to use W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices to design mobile-friendly Web content and to adapt existing content for mobile
• discover the relevant W3C resources for mobile Web design

Participants have access to lectures and assignments that provide hands-on practical experience of using W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices. Participants will work with both W3C experts on this topic (the instructors) and peers who can share experiences about the real-world challenges of mobile Web design. More information is available about the course material (including a free sample), registration fee, and intended audience. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

SSML 1.1 Candidate Recommendation

Updated

2009-08-27: The Voice Browser Working Group has updated the Candidate Recommendation of Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1. SSML is designed to provide a rich, XML-based markup language for assisting the generation of synthetic speech in Web and other applications. Although the Working Group has not formally identified any features as being at-risk, as a result of the previous publication, the Working Group now understands that some features may not receive adequate implementation experience. This draft identifies them in the status section and asks for feedback. A few editorial errors in the previous draft and the Implementation Report Plan document were also fixed. A list of changes from the previous draft is available. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

HTML 5 Drafts Published

2009-08-26: The HTML Working Group has published Working Drafts of HTML 5 and HTML 5 differences from HTML 4. In HTML 5, new features are introduced to help Web application authors, new elements are introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention has been given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability. "HTML 5 differences from HTML 4" describes the differences between HTML 4 and HTML 5 and provides some of the rationale for the changes. Learn more about HTML.

W3C Announces Two New Co-Chairs for the

HTML Working Group

2009-08-26: Tim Berners-Lee announced today that two people will join Sam Ruby (IBM) in co-Chairing the HTML Working Group: Paul Cotton (Microsoft) and Maciej Stachowiak (Apple). Chris Wilson has stepped down as co-Chair and indicated that he will be changing his focus to programmability in the web platform. As Berners-Lee wrote about this transition, "The work of this group is tremendously important to the Web. I am pleased that all three co-Chairs have taken on the responsibility for working closely with the editor and group to make HTML 5 a success." More information about the new Chairs is available in Berners-Lee's announcement. Learn more about the HTML Working Group.

SVG Open 2009 Schedule Available; Early-Bird Registration Ends 31 August

2009-08-25: SVG Open 2009, the 7th International Conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, will be held 2-4 October, hosted by Google in Mountain View, California, with workshops hosted by IBM, on 5 October. The theme is "SVG Coming of Age", reflecting increased industry support and interest by Web designers and developers. The schedule and confirmed keynote speakers are now available. Over 70 presentations will be delivered by SVG experts from around the globe, on topics including script libraries, authoring tools, mobiles, Web mapping and geo-location services, and much more. Chris Lilley, Doug Schepers, and the W3C SVG Working Group will be participating. Learn more about W3C's SVG Activity.

W3C Relaunches Multimodal Interaction Working Group

2009-08-19: W3C is pleased to announce the relaunch of the Multimodal Interaction Working Group to develop technology that enables users to use their preferred modes of interaction with the Web. Deborah Dahl (Invited Expert) chairs the group which is chartered to develop open standards to adapt to device, user and environmental conditions, and to allow multiple modes of Web interaction including GUI, speech, vision, pen, gestures, haptic interfaces, sensor data, etc. W3C Members may use this form to join the Working Group. Read about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

Call for Review: XForms 1.1 Proposed Recommendation Published

2009-08-18: The Forms Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of XForms 1.1. XForms is not a free- standing document type, but is intended to be integrated into other markup languages, such as XHTML, ODF or SVG. XForms 1.1 refines the XML processing platform introduced by XForms 1.0 by adding several new submission capabilities, action handlers, utility functions, user interface improvements, and helpful datatypes as well as a more powerful action processing facility, including conditional, iterated and background execution, the ability to manipulate data arbitrarily and to access event context information. Comments are welcome through 22 September. Learn more about the XForms Activity.

From Chaos, Order: SKOS Recommendation Helps Organize Knowledge

2009-08-18: Today W3C announces a new standard that builds a bridge between the world of knowledge organization systems - including thesauri, classifications, subject headings, taxonomies, and folksonomies - and the linked data community, bringing benefits to both. Libraries, museums, newspapers, government portals, enterprises, social networking applications, and other communities that manage large collections of books, historical artifacts, news reports, business glossaries, blog entries, and other items can now use Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) to leverage the power of linked data. The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group also published today two Group Notes with the Recommendation, updating the SKOS Primer and SKOS Use Cases and Requirements. Read the press release and testimonials and learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Third Edition) is a W3C Proposed Edited

Recommendation

2009-08-06: The XML Core Working Group has published the Third Edition of Namespaces in XML 1.0 as W3C Proposed Edited Recommendation. XML Namespaces provide a simple method for qualifying element and attribute names used in Extensible Markup Language documents by associating them with namespaces identified by URI references. The Third Edition as proposed incorporates all outstanding errata. The review period is open until 14 September 2009. Learn more about the XML Activity.

Nieuwsbrief Oktober/december 2009

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

July - juillet - juli 2009

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

Daniel Weitzner Named to Run US

Government Internet Policy Unit

2009-07-30: Daniel Weitzner has been named Associate Administrator for the Office of Policy Analysis and Development at the US National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). Danny will have a leading role in fulfilling the NTIA's mandate to provide the President advice on telecommunications and information policy issues.

Danny will thus be leaving the W3C staff, which he joined in 1998 as the Technology and Society Domain Lead. During these 11 years, Danny has contributed significantly to advances in many areas where policy meets technology, including privacy, security, intellectual property, and trust. As Chair of the Patent Policy Working Group, Danny led the effort that culminated in W3C's Royalty-Free Patent Policy, now a cornerstone of W3C's value proposition to the Web community.

Before joining the W3C, Danny was co-founder and Deputy Director of the Center for Democracy and Technology and was Deputy Policy Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Danny is also Director of the the MIT CSAIL Decentralized Information Group with Tim Berners- Lee and a founding director of the Web Science Research Initiative and holds an appointment as Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

While W3C regrets that Danny will be stepping down from W3C, it is encouraging that US policy may well be shaped by someone who has demonstrated a commitment to open standards as a tool for improving society. Danny, good luck!

W3C Organizes Workshop on Improving Access to Financial Data on the Web

2009-07-16: W3C invites people to participate in a Workshop on Improving Access to Financial Data on the Web on 5-6 October 2009 in Arlington, Virginia (USA). Workshop participants will discuss how to achieve greater transparency and more efficient reporting and analysis of business and financial data for companies and governments. The Workshop is jointly organized by W3C and XBRL International, with hosting support from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The extensible business reporting language (XBRL), is being widely adopted all around the world, and is set to become the standard way of recording, storing and transmitting business financial information. While effort on XBRL so far has gone into developing the standards and taxonomies of reporting concepts, comparatively little effort has been spent on how to exploit the expected flood of data. The goal of the Workshop is to identify opportunities, use cases, and challenges for interactive access to financial data expressed in XBRL and related languages, and the broader opportunities for using Semantic Web technologies. The Workshop is free of charge and open to anyone, subject to review of their statement of interest and space availability. Statements of interest (position papers) are due 21 August. See the call for participation for more information. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

W3C Invites Implementations of Widgets

1.0: Packaging and Configuration

2009-07-24: The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Widgets 1.0: Packaging and Configuration. This specification standardizes a packaging format for software known as widgets. Widgets are client-side applications that are authored using Web standards, but whose content can also be embedded into Web documents. The specification relies on PKWare's Zip specification as the archive format, XML as a configuration document format, and a series of steps that runtimes follow when processing and verifying various aspects of a package. The packaging format acts as a container for files used by a widget. The Working Group plans to develop a test suite during the Candidate Recommendation phase. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

XML Signature Correction Addresses

Security Issue

2009-07-14: The XML Security Working Group has published a proposed correction to the XML Signature specification. The correction addresses a specification-level security issue that can lead to an authentication bypass (CVE-2009-0217). It will be incorporated into an upcoming Working Draft for the XML Signature 1.1 specification. For information about affected implementations, see CERT Vulnerability Note 466161. For more information about the issue, see the W3C Q&A blog. Learn more about W3C's Security Activity.

XPath 2.0 and XQuery 1.0 Full Text

Facility Test Suite Published

2009-07-09: The XSL and XML Query Working Groups have published version 1.0 of the XPath 2.0 and XQuery 1.0 Full Text Facility Test Suite, and are requesting that people with implementations report results. The Full Text Facility provides a standard way of searching by word or phrase across multilingual documents or data represented using the XPath and XQuery Data Model. As a result of preliminary implementation experience, and to reflect comments received, the Candidate Recommendation for the Full Text Facility has also been republished: the new version incorporates editorial changes but also clarifies some ambiguities that had been reported. The Working Groups hope to move the document to Proposed Recommendation once more test results have been submitted. The XML Query and XSL Working Groups also published today an update of XQuery and XPath Full Text 1.0 Use Cases. Learn more about the XML Activity.

W3C Launches Device APIs and Policy

Working Group

2009-07-03: W3C launched a new Device APIs and Policy Working Group, co-Chaired by Robin Berjon (Vodafone) and Frederick Hirsch (Nokia). The group's mission is to create client-side APIs that enable the development of Web Applications and Web Widgets that interact with devices services such as Calendar, Contacts, and Camera. Additionally, the group will produce a framework for the expression of security policies that govern access to security-critical APIs (such as the APIs listed previously). Per its charter, this group will conduct its work in public. Learn more about the Device APIs and Policy Working Group.

Live Training Sessions On Mobile Web

Design Rescheduled

2009-07-03: Originally scheduled for July, W3C has rescheduled a Live Training Sessions On Mobile Web Design for 13 October 2009. Students will attend a full day of lectures and hands on sessions about the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices standard, and more generally on mobile Web design. Read the full announcement, register, and learn more about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.

XHTML 2 Working Group Expected to Stop

Work End of 2009, W3C to Increase Resources on HTML 5

2009-07-02: Today the Director announces that when the XHTML 2 Working Group charter expires as scheduled at the end of 2009, the charter will not be renewed. By doing so, and by increasing resources in the HTML Working Group, W3C hopes to accelerate the progress of HTML 5 and clarify W3C's position regarding the future of HTML. A FAQ answers questions about the future of deliverables of the XHTML 2 Working Group, and the status of various discussions related to HTML. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

Summary of Workshop on Speaker

Biometrics and VoiceXML 3.0 Available

2009-07-02: W3C has published a summary and full minutes of the Workshop on Speaker biometrics and VoiceXML 3.0, that took place in Menlo Park, California on 5-6 March. Participants from 15 organizations focused discussion on Speaker Identification and Verification (SIV) functionality within VoiceXML 3.0, and identifying and prioritizing directions for the functionality. The major "takeaways" from the Workshop were confirmation that SIV fits into the VoiceXML space and creation of the "Menlo Park Model", a SIV available VoiceXML architecture. The Working Group will continue to discuss how to include the requirements expressed at the Workshop into VoiceXML 3.0 and improve the specification. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

June - juin - juni 2009

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

Steve Bratt to Assume Full-Time Role as Web Foundation CEO

2009-06-26: As of 30 June, Steven R. Bratt will step down from his role as W3C CEO in order to pursue full-time the role of CEO of the World Wide Web Foundation. The Web Foundation was announced in September 2008 with a mission to advance the Web, connect humanity, and empower people. Steve has been part-time CEO of the Web Foundation since then.

While W3C COO and then CEO, Steve was responsible for W3C's worldwide operations and outreach, including overall management of Member relations, the W3C Process, the staff, strategic planning, budget, legal matters, external liaisons and major events. His purposeful and thoughtful leadership at W3C was informed by previous experiences in research, industry, and government, where he served on scientific and arms control delegations among others.

While W3C seeks to fill the open position, Ralph Swick assumes Steve's leadership responsibilities. Thomas Roessler steps up in the interim to take on the role of Technology and Society Domain Lead.

The mission of the Web Foundation complements that of W3C, and the two organizations will continue to coordinate their efforts to make the Web useful and available to all. W3C looks forward to Steve's successful leadership of the Web Foundation.

W3C Invites Implementations of Widgets

1.0: Digital Signatures

2009-06-25: The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Widgets 1.0: Digital Signatures. Widgets are full-fledged client-side applications that are authored using Web standards and packaged for distribution. This document defines a profile of the XML Signature Syntax and Processing 1.1 specification to allow a widget package to be digitally signed, helping to ensure continuity of authorship and distributorship. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

First Authorized Translation of WCAG 2.0

Published

2009-06-26: W3C announces the French Authorized Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, R�es pour l'accessibilit�es contenus Web (WCAG) 2.0. It is the first of several planned WCAG 2.0 Translations: Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and other languages. Translations are listed on the WCAG 2.0 Translations page and announced via the WAI Interest Group mailing list and WAI RSS feed. Learn more about translating W3C documents, Policy for Authorized W3C Translations, WCAG 2.0, and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

W3C Workshop on Using Ink in Multimodal

Applications Canceled

2009-06-25: The Workshop on Using Ink in Multimodal Applications, which was planned for 10-11 July 2009 in Grand Bend, Ontario (Canada), has been canceled. The goal of the Workshop was to help the Multimodal Interaction Working Group integrate handwriting modality components (Ink Modality Components) into the MMI Architecture and clarify what should be added to the Multimodal specifications to enable applications to adapt to various modality combinations including Ink. The group is planning to meet face-to- face during W3C's TPAC 2009, and will continue to discuss possible extensions for InkML and how to integrate the specification into the architecture. Read about the Ink Markup Language (InkML) and W3C's Multimodal Interaction Activity.

W3C Launches Open Web Education Alliance

Incubator Group

2009-06-17: W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Open Web Education Alliance Incubator Group, whose mission is to help enhance and standardize the architecture of the World Wide Web by facilitating the highest quality standards and best practice based education for future generations of Web professionals. The goal of this Incubator Group is to bring together interested individuals, companies, and organizations with a strong interest in the field of educating Web professionals, to explore the needs and issues around the topic of Web development education. The group will be chaired by John Allsopp. The following W3C Members have sponsored the charter for this group: Adobe Systems Inc.; Mitsue-Links Co., Ltd; and Opera Software. 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.

W3C Celebrates Semantic Web Progress at

SemTech 2009

2009-06-15: W3C technical staff and more than 30 W3C Member organizations will present at the Semantic Technology Conference (SemTech) this week in San Jose, California. Sessions led by W3C staff and Member organizations highlight the accelerating rate of adoption and deployment of Semantic Web technologies in the past year. "We have gathered a growing number of Semantic Web use cases and case studies in the past 12 months," said Ivan Herman, Semantic Web Activity Lead for W3C and one of the presenters. "What thrills me is the diversity of application areas for the Semantic Web, including more software, services and tools, as well as successful deployment in business and industry." Read the full press release and learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Call for Review: SKOS Reference Proposed

Recommendation

2009-06-15: The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Reference. SKOS provides a common data model for sharing and linking knowledge organization systems via the Web. SKOS is a vocabulary for expressing the basic structure and content of concept schemes such as thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading schemes, 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. Along with this publication of the SKOS Reference Proposed Recommendation the Working Group has published an updated SKOS Primer Working Draft. Comments are welcome through 15 July. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Invites Implementation of OWL 2

2009-06-15: The OWL Working Group invites implementation of its OWL 2 Web Ontology Language. OWL 2 is a compatible extension to OWL 1, providing additional features for people using ontologies. An ontology is a structured set of terms that a particular community uses for organizing data, such as "title", "author", and "ISBN" for data about books. The OWL 2 document set contains 9 technical specifications and 4 instructional documents. The Recommendation-track specifications are now Candidate Recommendations, indicating that the Working Group and the W3C Director believe this is a good time for systems to begin adopting OWL 2 features on an experimental basis. The group maintains a list of implementations and encourages new information about implementations and other feedback to be sent to it comments address. The 4 instructional documents, which provide an introduction to OWL 2, are now at Last Call: overview, primer, new features and rationale, and quick reference. Finally, a new datatype used within both OWL and RIF, called rdf:PlainLiteral (formerly called rdf:text) is also a Candidate Recommendation. Learn more about the Semantic Web.

Call for Prior Art Related to US Patent

5,764,992

2009-06-12: This is a public call for prior art. On 5 March 2009, pursuant to its rights under W3C's Patent Policy, Apple, Inc. disclosed US patent 5,764,992 and claimed that it applies to the Widgets 1.0: Updates specification. Apple excluded all claims from the W3C Royalty-Free License commitment of the W3C Patent Policy given by Participants of the Web Applications Working Group. In accordance with the exception procedures of the Patent Policy, W3C launched a Patent Advisory Group (PAG) to determine possible solutions. The PAG has advised W3C to issue this call for prior art. The PAG seeks information about software update systems available before June 1995 that offer a viable solution that may apply to the use of updates in Widgets. People who wish to provide feedback should refer to the call for prior art for more information.

Call for Review: POWDER Suite is a

Proposed Recommendation

2009-06-04: The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group has published three Proposed Recommendations: Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER): Grouping of Resources, Description Resources, and Formal Semantics. The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) suite facilitates the publication of descriptions of multiple resources such as all those available from a Web site (see POWDER use cases). The first of these three documents 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. The second details the creation and lifecycle of Description Resources (DRs), which encapsulate POWDER metadata. The third describes the formal semantics of the formalism. Comments are welcome through 05 July. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of SOAP over

Java Message Service 1.0

2009-06-04: The SOAP-JMS Binding Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of SOAP over Java Message Service 1.0. The work described in this and related documents is aimed at a set of standards for the transport of SOAP messages over JMS [Java Message Service]. The main purpose is to ensure interoperability between the implementations of different Web services vendors. It should also enable customers to implement their own Web services for part of their infrastructure, and to have this interoperate with vendor provided Web services. The main audience will be implementers of Web services stacks; in particular people who wish to extend a Web services stack with an implementation of SOAP/JMS. This document specifies how SOAP should bind to a messaging system that supports the Java Message Service (JMS). Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Registration Open: Live Training

Sessions On Mobile Web Design

2009-06-04: Today, the W3C Mobile Web Initiative opens registration for its first ever live training day. Training will take place Thursday, 2 July 2009, in Cambridge, UK. Students will attend a full day of lectures and hands on sessions on the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices standard, and more generally on mobile Web design. This training event is part of the MobiWeb 2.0 project supported by the European Union's 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7). Read the full announcement and learn more about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.

W3C Invites Implementations of XQuery

Update Facility 1.0

2009-06-10: The XML Query Working Group has published a minor update to the Candidate Recommendation of XQuery Update Facility 1.0. This document defines an update facility that extends the XML Query language, XQuery. The XQuery Update Facility provides expressions that can be used to make persistent changes to instances of the XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model. This draft reflects changes made in response to comments received so far during the Candidate Recommendation period. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

UK Government Moves to Put Data on the Web

2009-06-10: Today the Office of the Prime Minister in the UK announced that Tim Berners-Lee will "help drive opening of access to Government data on the web over the coming months." The announcement is an important step in helping to fulfill the vision for a Web of Linked Open Data built on W3C's open Semantic Web standards, espoused by Berners-Lee in his TED 2009 talk. "Government data the people's data is an important component to the larger Linked Open Data movement," said Berners-Lee. "I look forward to working with multiple government agencies and local enthusiasts to help early adopters bring their data to the bigger picture." In April, Berners-Lee engaged similarly with the US government offering to help them join the "rapidly growing Linked Open Data cloud, to which US recovery data will be a welcome addition." W3C's own eGovernment Interest Group has also been actively building an international network of support to work with governments on issues of transparency, accountability, and efficiency through open data. Learn more about W3C's eGovernment and Semantic Web Activities.

W3C Invites Implementations of SOAP over

Java Message Service 1.0

2009-06-04: The SOAP-JMS Binding Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of SOAP over Java Message Service 1.0. The work described in this and related documents is aimed at a set of standards for the transport of SOAP messages over JMS [Java Message Service]. The main purpose is to ensure interoperability between the implementations of different Web services vendors. It should also enable customers to implement their own Web services for part of their infrastructure, and to have this interoperate with vendor provided Web services. The main audience will be implementers of Web services stacks; in particular people who wish to extend a Web services stack with an implementation of SOAP/JMS. This document specifies how SOAP should bind to a messaging system that supports the Java Message Service (JMS). Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

Registration Open: Live Training

Sessions On Mobile Web Design

2009-06-04: Today, the W3C Mobile Web Initiative opens registration for its first ever live training day. Training will take place Thursday, 2 July 2009, in Cambridge, UK. Students will attend a full day of lectures and hands on sessions on the W3C Mobile Web Best Practices standard, and more generally on mobile Web design. This training event is part of the MobiWeb 2.0 project supported by the European Union's 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7). Read the full announcement and learn more about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects Advisory

Board

2009-06-02: The W3C Advisory Committee has filled four 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 Jean-François Abramatic (IBM), Ann Bassetti (The Boeing Company), Jim Bell (HP), Don Deutsch (Oracle), Eduardo Gutentag (Sun Microsystems), Ora Lassila (Nokia), Charles McCathieNevile (Opera Software), Takeshi Natsuno (Keio University), and Arun Ranganathan (Mozilla). Steve Zilles continues as interim Advisory Board Chair. Read more about the Advisory Board.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

May - mai - mei 2009

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

Candidate Recommendation Updated: XProc:

An XML Pipeline Language

2009-05-28: The XML Processing Model Working Group has published an updated Candidate Recommendation of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language. This specification describes the syntax and semantics of a language for describing operations to be performed on XML documents. The status section of the document summarizes the list of changes since the Candidate Recommendation was first published. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Opens Senegal Office

2009-05-26: W3C announces today the launch of the W3C Senegal Office, hosted by the Ecole Superieure Polytechnique (ESP), attached to the UCAD (Universite Cheikh Anta Diop), in Dakar, Senegal. Ibrahima Ngom (ESP) and Alex Corenthin (ISOC Senegal) will jointly manage this new W3C Office. W3C looks forward to increasing interaction with the French- speaking community, especially neighboring countries in West Africa. The opening ceremony will take place 27 May. Read the press release and learn more about the W3C Offices, which assist W3C with promotion efforts in local languages, help broaden W3C.s geographical base, and encourage international participation in W3C Activities.

Report Evokes Promise of Mobile to

Foster Social Development; Need for Cooperation

2009-05-25: Today W3C publishes the report from the April 2009 Workshop on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social Development. Participants discussed how numerous services available on mobile phones could help people in underserved regions. Discussion underlined the need for a concerted effort among all the stakeholders (including practitioners, academics, regulators, governments, and the mobile industry) to build a shared view of the future of the mobile platform as a tool to bridge the digital divide. The Workshop was jointly organized by the W3C Mobile Web Initiative and the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Mozambique, with the generous support of Gold Sponsors UNDP, the Web Foundation, Nokia, and Bharti Telesoft; and Silver Sponsors Opera Software, UNESCO, Microsoft Research, and MIT Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship. This work is part of the Digital World Forum project (European Union's FP7). Learn more about the W3C Mobile Web for Social Development Interest Group and the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.

Online Training Course: An Introduction

to W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices

2009-05-25: W3C announces today an extended and improved version of its online course to introduce Web developers and designers to its Mobile Web Best Practices. The course runs from 1 June to 31 July 2009. Participants will:

• learn about the specific promises and challenges of the mobile platform
• learn how to use W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices to design mobile-friendly Web content and to adapt existing content for mobile
• discover the relevant W3C resources for mobile Web design

Participants will have access to lectures and assignments that provide hands- on practical experience of using W3C's Mobile Web Best Practices. Participants will work with both W3C experts on this topic (the instructors) and peers who can share experiences about the real-world challenges of mobile Web design. More information is available about the course material (including a free sample), registration fee, and intended audience. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

W3C Rescinds Four Proposed Edited

Recommendations for XHTML Documents

2009-05-19: In response to comments about potential unresolved issues on four Proposed Edited Recommendations published earlier this month, W3C has rescinded the drafts and closed the review period. The rescinded drafts are:

• XHTML. 1.1 - Module-based XHTML - Second Edition
• XHTML. Basic 1.1 - Second Edition
• XHTML-Print - Second Edition
• XHTML. 1.0

The W3C Process indicates that Proposed Edited Recommendations must formally address all issues raised about the documents since the previous Recommendations. Open issues against the XHTML documents were not cited during the process of deciding to advance the documents. The XHTML2 Working Group may request publication of the four Proposed Edited Recommendations later on, based on proper review of outstanding issues. The decision to rescind these specifications has no bearing on existing Recommendations for these technologies.

W3C to Participate in SVG Open 2009

2009-05-13: W3C will again this year sponsor SVG Open 2009, the 7th international conference on Scalable Vector Graphics, hosted by Google in Mountain View, California on 2-4 October 2009. SVG Open provides an opportunity for designers, developers and implementers to share ideas, experiences, products and strategies. Members of the W3C SVG Working Group will be attending and presenting at the conference, which will include a Working Group panel session on future SVG developments. A day of workshops will also be scheduled adjacent to the main conference. The conference organizers have indicated that proposals for presentation abstracts and course outlines are welcome through 15 May. Learn more about the W3C Graphics Activity.

Service Modeling Standards Extend Reach of XML Family

2009-05-12: Today W3C announces new standards that make it possible to use XML tools to improve the quality of increasingly sophisticated systems and services built from the XML family of standards. Now developers can validate sets of XML documents, either in place, using Service Modeling Language 1.1 (SML), or as a package, using SML Interchange Format 1.1 (SML-IF). Read the press release and testimonials, and learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Four XHTML Documents Published as Proposed Edited Recommendations

2009-05-07: The XHTML2 Working Group has published four Proposed Edited Recommendations:

• XHTML. 1.1 - Module-based XHTML - Second Edition, which serve as the basis for future extended XHTML 'family' document types
• XHTML. Basic 1.1 - Second Edition, includes the minimal set of modules required to be an XHTML host language document type, and in addition it includes images, forms, basic tables, and object support.
• XHTML-Print - Second Edition, designed for mobile printers and in environments where it is not feasible or desirable to install a printer-specific driver and where some variability in the formatting of the output is acceptable.
• XHTML. 1.0

These updates incorporate known errata; each document links to a list of changes. The review period is open until 4 June. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of W3C XML

Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1

2009-05-04: The XML Schema Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1. The specification consists of Part 1: Structures and Part 2: Datatypes. XSD provides tools for describing the structure of XML content and constraining the contents of XML documents. Part 2 provides tools for defining datatypes (dates, times, numbers, strings, etc.) to be used in XML Schemas as well as other XML specifications. Information about changes to structures and changes to datatypes since XML Schema 1.0 is available. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Organizes Workshop on using Ink in

Multimodal Applications

2009-05-01: W3C invites people to participate in a Workshop on using Ink in Multimodal Applications within the W3C's Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces on 10-11 July 2009 in Grand Bend, Ontario (Canada), hosted by the University of Western Ontario. The goal of the Workshop is to help the Multimodal Interaction Working Group integrate handwriting modality components (Ink Modality Components) into the MMI Architecture and clarify what should be added to the Multimodal specifications to enable applications to adapt to various modality combinations including Ink. Attendees will discuss requirements for changes, extensions and additions to Ink standards especially in Multimodal Applications developed based on the W3C's MMI Architecture as a means of making InkML more useful in current and emerging markets. Position papers are due 1 June 2009. Read about the Ink Markup Language (InkML) and W3C's Multimodal Interaction Activity.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

May - mai - mei 2009

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

HTML 5, Differences from HTML 4 Drafts Published

2009-04-23: The HTML Working Group has published a Working Draft of HTML 5. HTML 5 adds to the language of the Web: features to help Web application authors, new elements based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability. This particular draft specifies how authors can embed SVG in non-XML text/html content, and how browsers and other UAs should handle such embedded SVG content. See also the news about moving some parts of HTML 5 to individual drafts. The full list of changes since the previous draft are listed in the updated companion document HTML 5 differences from HTML 4. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Media

Queries

2009-04-23: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Media Queries. HTML4 and CSS2 currently support media-dependent style sheets tailored for different media types. For example, a document may use sans-serif fonts when displayed on a screen and serif fonts when printed. .screen. and .print. are two media types that have been defined. Media Queries extend the functionality of media types by allowing presentations to be tailored more precisely to device characteristics. Learn more about the Style Activity.

CSS 2.1 Candidate Recommendation Updated

2009-04-23: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group updated the Candidate Recommendation of Cascading Style Sheets Level 2 Revision 1 (CSS 2.1) Specification. CSS 2.1 is a style sheet language that allows authors and users to attach style (e.g., fonts and spacing) to structured documents (e.g., HTML documents and XML applications). CSS 2.1 corrects a few errors in CSS2 (the most important being a new definition of the height/width of absolutely positioned elements, more influence for HTML's "style" attribute and a new calculation of the 'clip' property), and adds a few highly requested features which have already been widely implemented. But most of all CSS 2.1 represents a "snapshot" of CSS usage: it consists of all CSS features that are implemented interoperably. This draft incorporates errata resulting from implementation experience since the previous publication. Learn more about the Style Activity.

WWW2009 Opens with Tim Berners-Lee

Keynote "Twenty Years"

2009-04-22: Tim Berners- Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the Web, delivered the opening keynote address at the WWW2009 Conference earlier today in Madrid, Spain; keynote slides are available. During his talk, titled "Twenty Years," he touched on the future as well, including topics such as Web applications, open social networking and open linked data. Shortly before his keynote, Berners-Lee joined Dame Wendy Hall, Robert Caillau, Vint Cerf, Dale Dougherty and Mike Shaver on a panel to share thoughts on the twentieth anniversary of the Web. During the remainder of the week, W3C encourages people to participate in the W3C track, which this year features two "camps": the Mobile Widgets camps on 23 April and the Social Web Camp on 24 April. Follow discussion on the #w3ctrack twitter feed.

Eight Proposed Recommendations for XSLT,

XPath, XQuery Published

2009-04-21: The XSL and XML Query Working Groups have published eight Proposed Edited Recommendations for Second Editions of XSL Transformations (XSLT), XQuery 1.0: An XML Query Language, XML Syntax for XQuery 1.0 (XQueryX) and XML Path Language (XPath) 2.0, together with their supporting documents, XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Data Model (XDM), XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Formal Semantics, XSLT 2.0 and XQuery 1.0 Serialization and XQuery 1.0 and XPath 2.0 Functions and Operators. The second editions, if approved, will add the generate-id function from XSLT to XPath and XQuery, and will also incorporate the outstanding errata, including a number of clarifications that may affect implementations. Enhanced test suites are being augmented and will be published shortly. Review welcome by 31 May 2009. Learn more about XML.

W3C Germany and Austria Office Moves to

Potsdam

2009-04-09: After 12 years of successful work at Fraunhofer (or former GMD) the W3C Germany and Austria Office moves from Sankt Augustin (near Bonn) to Postdam (near Berlin). The University of Applied Sciences in Potsdam (FHP) is the new host of the Office. A ceremonial launch is planned for September 2009. Felix Sasaki will be the new Office Manager at FHP.

W3C would like to thank Fraunhofer and the W3C Germany and Austria Office staff, led by Thomas Tikwinski and Klaus Birkenbihl before him, for their contributions to W3C and the Web during the past 12 years. Learn more about the W3C Offices, regional W3C representatives that help promote the W3C mission.

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 Polit�ica 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.

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.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

March - mars - maart 2009

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

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.

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.

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.

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.

W3C Launches Semantic Sensor Network

Incubator Group

2009-03-04: W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Semantic Sensor Network Incubator Group, sponsored by W3C Members CSIRO, Wright State University, and OGC. The group's mission is to begin the formal process of producing ontologies that define the capabilities of sensors and sensor networks, and to develop semantic annotations of a key language used by services based sensor networks. 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.

Authorized Translations of WCAG 2.0

Target International Deployment

2009-03-03: The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) announced Translations of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, including draft Authorized W3C Translations. W3C's Policy for Authorized W3C Translations provides a process for stakeholder review and designation as an official translation. Learn more about WCAG 2.0 Translations in- progress, WCAG 2.0, and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

February - fevrier - februari 2009

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

MozCamp-series kick off, March 6,

Utrecht

The Mozilla-project will organize a number of MozCamps in Europe, the kick-off will be in Utrecht on March 6. Mozcamp is a series of local meetings organised by people that are passionate by the Open Web. The MozCamp-meetings are meant to offer ample room for discussions, hands-on demo's and merging minds to come up with and implement activities to preserve the open and participative character of the internet.

Some members of the Mozilla-project will be present in Utrecht. Amongst them Tristan Nitot. This Frenchman is founder and chair of Mozilla Europe, a not- for-profit organisation resposible for development and marketing of the open source webbrowser Firefox and other Mozilla-related projects. Also Oliver Gambier and Paul Rouget will be present. Gambier is developer of a large number of Firefox-extensions an is active member of the W3C workgroup on CSS- standardisation. Paul Rouget is Mozilla Tech Evangelist, having a lot of knowledge of manifold Mozilla-technologies and Webkit.

'MozCamp Utrecht' will be of informal nature and is a broad invitation to participate in the discussions, brainstorm sessions and workshops planned for that day. Everyone is welcome to help the organisation of this Dutch MozCamp. The organizing team can be reached via or register your data on the website below. The following organisations have committed themselves in the organization of 'MozCamp Utrecht': Internet Society Nederland (ISOC), NLUUG, the Nederlandse Linuxgebruikersgroep (NLLGG), programmabureau NOIV and W3C-Benelux.

More information on MozCamp Utrecht can be found on https://wiki.mozilla.org/MozCamp/Utrecht

W3C Open Meeting: Realizing Government

Transparency and Openness

2009-02-25: On 12-13 March, W3C's eGovernment Interest Group will hold a special stakeholder meeting in Washington, DC to address a number of issues of high interest to government policy makers, elected officials, and managers of government information technology. Participants will document progressive solutions for electronic government and develop a road map for developing Web standards related to topics such as participation and citizen engagement, open government data, identification and authentication, and long-term data management. The meeting is open to the public, but advance registration is required and seating is limited. W3C thanks the American Institute of Architects for hosting this meeting. Read the media advisory and learn more about the W3C eGovernment Activity.

Drafts of HTML 5, Differences from HTML

4 Published

2009-02-12: The HTML Working Group has published Working Drafts of HTML 5 and HTML 5 differences from HTML 4. In this version of HTML5, new features are introduced to help Web application authors, new elements are introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention has been given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

W3C Multimodal Standard Brings Web to More People, More Ways

2009-02-10: As part of ensuring the Web is available to all people on any device, W3C published a new standard today to enable interactions beyond the familiar keyboard and mouse. EMMA, the EMMA: Extensible MultiModal Annotation Markup Language, promotes the development of rich Web applications that can be adapted to more input modes (such as handwriting, natural language, and gestures) and output modes (such as synthesized speech) at lower cost. The document, published by the Multimodal Interaction Working Group, is part of a set of specifications for multimodal systems, and provides details of an XML markup language for containing and annotating the interpretation of user input. Read the press release and testimonials, and learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

Call for Review: Service Modeling

Language, Version 1.1 Proposed Recommendation

2009-02-13: The Service Modeling Language Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendations of Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 and Service Modeling Language Interchange Format Version 1.1. SML extends the coherence-checking mechanisms of W3C XML Schema from individual documents to collections of documents. SML-IF extends the utility of SML by providing mechanisms for gathering together a set of documents whose coherence is guaranteed by an SML schema, which itself is part of the resulting package. Comments are welcome through 12 March. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Drafts of HTML 5, Differences from HTML

4 Published

2009-02-12: The HTML Working Group has published Working Drafts of HTML 5 and HTML 5 differences from HTML 4. In this version of HTML5, new features are introduced to help Web application authors, new elements are introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention has been given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

Security for Access to Device APIs from

the Web: Workshop Report Published

2009-02-05: W3C published today a report from the W3C Workshop on Security for Access to Device APIs from the Web. Workshop participants identified a number of challenges as high-priority work items, including:

• Declaration of APIs used by web applications and widgets
• Policy description
• API patterns and concrete APIs

W3C invites follow-up discussion on the public mailing list public-device- apis@w3.org (public archive). Learn more about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative.

Tim Berners-Lee Speaks at TED2009

2009-02-04: Tim Berners-Lee, Director of W3C, addresses TED2009 today in Long Beach, California on the subject of Linked Data. Berners-Lee's talk highlights the many possibilities that arise when governments, enterprises, scientists, and others in the community choose to share and link data on the Web using Web standards.

Social Networking Challenges Identified

by Industry Leaders in W3C Workshop

2009-02-03: W3C has published a report from the Workshop on the Future of Social Networking. Observations from the fifty-five organizations that participated (and submitted 72 position papers) include:

• By enabling users to share profiles and data across networks, social networking sites can grow further and open possibilities for a decentralized architecture for the Social Web.
• Contextual information, especially for mobile device users, can significantly enrich the social networking user experience.
• Many users remain unaware of the impact of social networking on their privacy.

The report highlights the need for an interoperable distributed social Web framework and suggests concrete next steps for W3C. W3C now welcomes interested parties to contribute to public discussion. See video highlights from the Workshop, read the press release and learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative (MWI).

HTML 5 Receives Support for Authoring

Materials

2009-02-02: Dan Connolly, an active member of the HTML community for many years, has received support from Adobe to work on HTML 5 materials for authors. The HTML Working Group Chairs have requested additional resources to ensure that HTML 5 meets the needs of authors and browser developers alike. As a provider of Web development and authoring tools, W3C Member Adobe is not only participating in the Working Group, they have also provided financial support for the open standards process. Learn more about HTML.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

January - janvier - januari 2009

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

New year reception on 15 January 2009

2009-01-31: AC-reps, members of W3C, staff and assistants attended a New Year's reception on Thursday 15 January 2009 at the Felix Meritis building (Keizersgracht 324, Amsterdam). This event was organized by a.o. ISOC.NL.
Participants were from amongst others:
Internet Society Nederland, RIPE NCC, AMS-ix, Terena, Vereniging Open Domein, ISPconnect, Dutch Hosting Provider Association, Accessibility.nl, W3C Benelux, Gridforum.nl, OpenDoc Society, SURFnet, SELF, CAcert, SIDN, NLnet, NLnet Labs, Oophaga, HXX/HAR2009, Bits of Freedom a.i., Free Knowledge Institute, and Vrijschrift.

Talks were given by a.o. the following W3C people

• Ivan Herman (What is the Semantic Web?)
• Steven Pemberton (Why you should have a Web Site)
• Dick Bulterman (SMIL3.0: Beyond the YouTube Paradigm)
• Eric Velleman (WCAG2.0, the new accessibility standard+ demo in Flash)

XML Base (Second Edition) Is a W3C Recommendation

2009-01-28: The XML Core Working Group has published the W3C Recommendation of XML Base (Second Edition). This document describes a mechanism for providing base URI services to XLink, but as a modular specification so that other XML applications benefiting from additional control over relative URIs but not built upon XLink can also make use of it. The syntax consists of a single XML attribute named xml:base. The functionality is similar to the base element in HTML. This document is part of W3C's ongoing work to maintain the core XML technologies. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of CURIE

Syntax 1.0

2009-01-16: The XHTML2 Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of CURIE Syntax 1.0. This document defines a generic, abbreviated syntax for expressing URIs. This syntax is intended to be used as a common element by language designers. The intended audience for this document is Language designers, not the users of those Languages. Track implementations in an ongoing implementation report and learn more about the HTML Activity.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects TAG

Participants

2009-01-13: The W3C Advisory Committee has elected John Kemp (Nokia), Larry Masinter (Adobe), and T.V. Raman (Google) to the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). Continuing TAG participants are Ashok Malhotra (Oracle), Noah Mendelsohn (IBM, appointed), Jonathan Rees (Science Commons, appointed), and Henry Thompson (U. of Edinburgh). The Director is expected to appoint one individual as well. The mission of the TAG is to build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary, to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG, and to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

December - decembre - december 2008

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

SVG Tiny 1.2 Advances State of the Art for Web Graphics

2008-12-22: Creating beautiful and accessible interactive content was made easier today with the release of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 Recommendation. Already implemented and deployed in mobile phones, media centers, and browsers around the world, this open standard allows authors to build documents and interfaces for the Web, with open-source and commercial authoring tools that output open, reusable content. Searchable, internationalized text and user- created metadata bring the Semantic Web to graphics, and improve the experience of users everywhere, while easier programming interfaces put the power in the hands of developers. A test suite helps to ensure interoperable SVG content in modern Web browsers, making it easier than ever to develop and deploy the right look and feel. Read the testimonials and start creating content today. Learn more about the Graphics Activity.

Element Traversal Specification Is a W3C

Recommendation

2008-12-22: The Web Applications Working Group has published the W3C Recommendation of Element Traversal Specification. This specification defines the ElementTraversal interface, which allows script navigation of the elements of a DOM tree, excluding all other nodes in the DOM, such as text nodes. It also provides an attribute to expose the number of child elements of an element. It is intended to provide a more convenient alternative to existing DOM navigation interfaces, with a low implementation footprint. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

W3C Web Standard Defines Accessibility for Next Generation Web

2008-12-11: Today W3C announced a new standard that will help Web designers and developers create sites that better meet the needs of users with disabilities and older users. Drawing on extensive experience and community feedback, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 improve upon W3C's groundbreaking initial standard for accessible Web content, apply to more advanced technologies, and are more precisely testable. W3C also published supporting resources, including Understanding WCAG 2.0, Techniques for WCAG 2.0, and How to Meet WCAG 2.0: A Customizable Quick Reference. Read the press release, testimonials, announcement, and WCAG Overview. Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

Report Announced from Workshop on

Semantic Web in Energy Industries Part I: Oil & Gas

2008-12-18: Today W3C published a report on the W3C Workshop on Semantic Web in Oil & Gas Industry. 54 experts from 33 organizations discussed how Semantic Web technologies can help to handle the staggering amount of new data that is produced every day as well as the challenges of interfacing to service companies and managing joint ventures between operators that are very important in this industry. Participants discussed issues related to data integration, ontology management and creation, presented applications and tool developments in the oil & gas area. The Workshop concluded with a panel that explored the next steps that this community may take, possibly in conjunction with W3C, to explore this area further. W3C thanks Chevron for hosting the Workshop, which took place in Houston, Texas, USA, on the 9 and 10 December, 2008. Read the 17 position papers and learn more about the Semantic Web.

Call for Review: EMMA: Extensible

MultiModal Annotation markup language Proposed Recommendation

2008-12-15: The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of EMMA: Extensible MultiModal Annotation markup language. This document is part of a set of specifications for multimodal systems, and provides details of an XML markup language for containing and annotating the interpretation of user input. The interpretation of the user's input is expected to be generated by signal interpretation processes, such as speech and ink recognition, semantic interpreters, and other types of processors for use by components that act on the user's inputs such as interaction managers. See the group's implementation report. Comments are welcome through 15 January. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

Minor Update to CSS Mobile Profile 2.0

2008-12-12: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group updated the Candidate Recommendatino of CSS Mobile Profile 2.0. The specification defines in general a subset of CSS 2.1 [CSS21] that is to be considered a baseline for interoperability between implementations of CSS on constrained devices (e.g. mobile phones). Its intent is not to produce a profile of CSS incompatible with the complete specification, but rather to ensure that implementations that due to platform limitations cannot support the entire specification implement a common subset that is interoperable not only amongst constrained implementations but also with complete ones. This document is the same as the last working draft, except for editorial changes. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C launches Validator Donation and

Sponsorship Campaign

2008-12-11: W3C launched a new initiative giving web developers and designers a chance to show their support for the W3C Validators. With millions of validations performed daily, the validator services are among the most popular applications on the web today. W3C appreciates the great work of the dedicated volunteers who have helped make the validator such a success. Donations and sponsorship from the community will help us fund hardware and staffing to build even better, faster and friendlier free tools, such as:

• Integrated the web quality checking with the central Unicorn framework
• A new generation of tools for CSS checking
• A multilingual, flexible and friendly Markup Validator
• New tools for SVG, accessibility, and more

We also welcome sponsorships from organizations that support Web Standards, and encourage Web Communities to spread the word about this campaign. Visit the Validator Donation page.

Device Description Repository Simple API

Is a W3C Recommendation

2008-12-08: The Mobile Web Initiative Device Description Working Group has published the W3C Recommendation of Device Description Repository Simple API. Web content delivered to mobile devices usually benefits from being tailored to take into account a range of factors such as screen size, markup language support and image format support. Such information is stored in "Device Description Repositories" (DDRs). This document describes a simple API for access to DDRs, in order to ease and promote the development of Web content that adapts to its Delivery Context. The Working Group also published a Group Note of Device Description Structures, an expression language for the structured categorization of devices in content adaptation. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.

Mobile Web Made Easier with W3C mobileOK

Tests Standard and Online Checker

2008-12-08: Today W3C made it easier to create content that will improve the user experience on a broad range of devices. The W3C mobileOK checker provides feedback on whether content is "mobileOK" and is based on the W3C Recommendation also published today, mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0. "Clean content offers a number of benefits to authors and users alike. The mobileOK checker does a nice job helping you improve your content one step at a time," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. Read the press release, Member testimonials, and learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

CSS Marquee Module Level 3 Updated

2008-12-05: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group updated today the Candidate Recommendation of CSS Marquee Module Level 3. CSS Marquee allows the designer to specify a "marquee" effect for the display of overflow content; the content is animated and moves automatically back and forth. Learn more about the Style Activity.

SMIL 3.0 Advances Standard for

Synchronized Multimedia

2008-12-01: Today W3C announced a new standard to make it easier to author interactive multimedia presentations. Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 3.0) allows video, audio, images, text, and hypertext links to be combined into interactive presentations, with fine-grain control of layout and timing. "The importance of SMIL 3.0 is that it contains a set of user-requested features that provide exciting new functionality, while retaining all the advantages of a declarative (that is, without scripting) approach to building a multimedia presentation," said Dick Bulterman, chair of the Synchronized Multimedia Working Group, which published the specification. Read the full press release, testimonials, and learn more about the Synchronized Multimedia Activity.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

November - novembre - november 2008

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0

Fifth Edition Is a W3C Recommendation

2008-11-26: The XML Core Working Group has published the W3C Recommendation of Extensible Markup Language (XML) 1.0 (Fifth Edition). This fifth edition of the widely deployed standard XML incorporates corrections to errata found in previous versions. In particular, one correction relaxes the restrictions on element and attribute names, thereby providing in XML 1.0 the major end user benefit currently achievable only by using XML 1.1. As a consequence, many possible documents that were not well-formed according to previous editions of this specification are now well-formed, and previously invalid documents using the newly-allowed name characters in, for example, ID attributes, are now valid. XML has been designed for ease of implementation and for interoperability with both SGML and HTML. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of XProc: An

XML Pipeline Language

2008-11-26: The XML Processing Model Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language. This specification describes the syntax and semantics of XProc, a language for describing operations to be performed on XML documents. A pipeline consists of steps. Like pipelines, steps take zero or more XML documents as their inputs and produce zero or more XML documents as their outputs. The inputs of a step come from the web, from the pipeline document, from the inputs to the pipeline itself, or from the outputs of other steps in the pipeline. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Service

Modeling Language, Version 1.1 and Service Modeling Language Interchange Format Version 1.1

2008-11-25: The Service Modeling Language Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendations of Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 and Service Modeling Language Interchange Format Version 1.1. The former 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 models. 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. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity.

Call for Review: Element Traversal

Specification Proposed Recommendation

2008-11-19: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of Element Traversal Specification. This specification defines the ElementTraversal interface, which allows script navigation of the elements of a DOM tree, excluding all other nodes in the DOM, such as text nodes. It also provides an attribute to expose the number of child elements of an element. It is intended to provide a more convenient alternative to existing DOM navigation interfaces, with a low implementation footprint. Comments are welcome through 15 December. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Workshop in Mozambique Continues W3C Focus on Mobile Technologies in

Fostering Development

2008-11-25: W3C announced a Workshop on Africa Perspective on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social and Economic Development, April 1-2 2009, in Maputo, Mozambique. Participants will explore ways to fulfill the potential of mobile phones as a platform for deploying development-oriented ICT services towards the poorest segments of populations in developing countries, with an emphasis on the African context. The Workshop is open to the public; learn how to participate. You may also become a Workshop Sponsor to help support the participation of those with expertise who might not otherwise be able to attend due to travel or other costs. The Workshop is hosted by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Mozambique and is organized as part of the Digital World Forum project (European Union's FP7). Read the press release and learn more about W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (MWI).

Call for Review: Element Traversal

Specification Proposed Recommendation

2008-11-19: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of Element Traversal Specification. This specification defines the ElementTraversal interface, which allows script navigation of the elements of a DOM tree, excluding all other nodes in the DOM, such as text nodes. It also provides an attribute to expose the number of child elements of an element. It is intended to provide a more convenient alternative to existing DOM navigation interfaces, with a low implementation footprint. Comments are welcome through 15 December. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Call for Review: Scalable Vector

Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 Specification Proposed Recommendation

2008-11-19: The SVG Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 Specification.This specification defines the features and syntax for Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny, Version 1.2, a language for describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML. The specification enables the creation of graphical content, from static images to animations to interactive Web applications. SVG 1.2 Tiny is a profile of SVG intended for implementation on a range of devices, from cell phones and PDAs to desktop and laptop computers, and thus includes a subset of the features included in SVG 1.1 Full, along with new features to extend the capabilities of SVG. Comments are welcome through 15 December.

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 is a Proposed

Recommendation

2008-11-03: The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) Working Group has published the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 as a Proposed Recommendation, and published updated Working Drafts of Understanding WCAG 2.0, Techniques for WCAG 2.0, and How to Meet WCAG 2.0. WCAG defines how to make Web sites, Web applications, and other Web content accessible to people with disabilities. Comments are welcome through 2 December 2008. Read the announcement, Overview of WCAG 2.0 Documents, and about the Web Accessibility Initiative.

New Working Group to Refine Web Services

Resource Access Specifications

2008-11-07: W3C today launched the Web Services Resource Access Working Group with a mission to produce W3C Recommendations for a set of Web Services specifications by refining the WS- Transfer, WS- ResourceTransfer, WS-Enumeration, WS- MetadataExchange and WS- Eventing Member Submissions. The group will address existing issues in those specifications, and review implementation experience and interoperability feedback from implementers and considering composition with other Web services standards. Learn more about the Web Services Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Speech

Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1 (Candidate Recommendation)

2008-11-07: The Voice Browser Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1. The Speech Synthesis Markup Language Specification is designed to provide a rich, XML-based markup language for assisting the generation of synthetic speech in Web and other applications. The essential role of the markup language is to provide authors of synthesizable content a standard way to control aspects of speech such as pronunciation, volume, pitch, rate, etc. across different synthesis-capable platforms. See the implementation report plan and learn more about the Voice Browser Activity.

Call for Review: W3C mobileOK Basic

Tests 1.0 is a Proposed Recommendation

2008-11-03: The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0. This document defines the set of machine- verifiable tests that provide the basis for making a claim of W3C mobileOK Basic conformance and is based on W3C Mobile Web Best Practices. Content which passes the tests has taken some steps to provide a functional user experience for users of basic mobile devices whose capabilities at least match those of the Default Delivery Context. Comments are welcome through 1 December 2008. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

October - octobre - oktober 2008

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

Challenges for Future Web Bring Experts Together at W3C Global Plenary

2008-10-21: All this week, the World Wide Web Consortium holds its annual Technical Plenary week near its European host site in France. More than 350 software engineers, developers, and other experts in a wide range of technologies such as HTML, XML, CSS, Mobile Web, Semantic Web, and Video in the Web, come together to address a variety of challenges in the development of Web standards. Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director and inventor of the Web, will open the 22 October plenary session with a keynote and discussion on the technical direction of W3C for the next several years and where Web applications, documents, and data come together. In the keynote, Berners-Lee will also share thoughts on the future of HTML in the browser and how HTML and XML communities can learn from each other. Slides and minutes from the plenary day will be publicly available. Read the press release for more information, including information for media wishing to cover the event.

Incubator Group to Evaluate Research on

Model-Based User Interfaces

2008-10-27: W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Model-Based User Interfaces Incubator Group, sponsored by W3C Members Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, JustSystems, Siemens, Telef�nica de Espa�a, and Universit� Catholique de Louvain. The group's mission is to evaluate research on model- based user interface design as a framework for authoring Web applications and with a view to proposing work on related standards. 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.

W3C Standard Simplifies Creation of Speech-Enabled Web Applications

2008-10-14: W3C published today a standard that will simplify the development of Web applications that speak and listen to users. The Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) 1.0 is the newest piece of W3C's Speech Interface Framework for creating Web applications driven by voice and speech. PLS can reduce the cost of developing these applications by allowing people to share and reuse pronunciation dictionaries. "There are 10 times as many phones in the world as connected PCs. Phones will become the major portal to the Web," said James A. Larson, co-Chair of the Voice Browser Working Group, which produced the new standard. Read the press release and testimonials, and learn more about the W3C Voice Browser Activity. (Permalink)

RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing Is

a W3C Recommendation; RDFa Primer Updated

2008-10-15: The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group and the XHTML2 Working Group published the W3C Recommendation RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing. This specification allows publishers to express structured data on the Web within XHTML. This allows tools to read it, enabling a new world of user functionality, allowing users to transfer structured data between applications and web sites, and allowing browsing applications to improve the user experience. For those looking for an introduction to the use of RDFa and some real-world examples, please consult the updated RDFa Primer. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity and the HTML Activity.

W3C Invites Community to Explore Future

of Social Networking in Workshop

2008-10-14: Social networking is a complex, rapidly expanding, and in some cases, disruptive sector of the information economy. For example, user- generated content is causing changes in the traditional content/media industry structure. In the future, community features may well become an integral part of all digital experiences from information/publishing to business and entertainment. Companies providing services for social media and social networking must anticipate barriers to industry growth and stability. W3C believes that now is the time for industry to gather to discuss their experience so far, and what barriers they foresee in the near- and medium- term. W3C therefore invites people to participate in a Workshop on the Future of Social Networking, to analyze risks and opportunities of the social networking industry, and to define plans for the future. The Workshop will be held 15-16 January 2009 in Barcelona (Spain) and is hosted by Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and ReadyPeople. Anyone may attend, but position papers are required and are due November 20. Instructions for Workshop registration/participation will be sent exclusively to authors of submitted position papers. Read more about the Workshop scope and sponsorship opportunities.

W3C Organizes Workshop on Speaker

Biometrics and VoiceXML 3.0

2008-10-13: W3C invites people to participate in a Workshop on Speaker biometrics and VoiceXML 3.0 on 5-6 March 2009 in Menlo Park, California (USA), hosted by SRI International. Attendees will discuss directions for Speaker Identification and Verification (SIV) standards work, and in particular, requirements for SIV and SIV standards relevant to VoiceXML 3.0. The goal of the Workshop is to help the Voice Browser Working Group integrate existing and in-process standards with VoiceXML 3.0 specification and make the specification more useful in current and emerging markets. Position papers are due 18 December 2008. Read about Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0 Requirements, Voice Browser and learn more about W3C Workshops.

Schema Support Strengthens Toolkit in

Updated XHTML Modularization Standard

2008-10-08: W3C updated its XHTML Modularization standard today with support for designing modular languages using XML Schema. The addition of schemas to XHTML Modularization 1.1 is an important step towards the XHTML2 Working Group's goal that XHTML support rich Web content and be extensible, while remaining interoperable. A modularization standard allows language designers to reuse elements defined by multiple parties (including other W3C standards such as SVG and MathML) and combine them into new formats to meet specific application needs. The standard allows people to use schema-enabled, off-the-shelf tools to immediately begin authoring and validating documents written in those new languages. The XHTML2 Working Group, which gained experience using Modularization 1.1 to build some modules and languages, now plans to add schema support to other XHTML standards. Learn more about the HTML Activity.

Call for Review: Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 3.0)

is a Proposed Recommendation

2008-10-06: The SYMM Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 3.0), pronounced "smile." SMIL 3.0 allows authors to write interactive multimedia presentations. Using SMIL 3.0, an author may describe the temporal behavior of a multimedia presentation, associate hyperlinks with media objects and describe the layout of the presentation on a screen. SMIL 3.0 is a modular XML application: its components may be used in other XML formats. SMIL also defines mobile profiles that incorporate features useful within the industry. Comments are welcome through 6 November. Read more about the Synchronized Multimedia Activity. See also W3C's new Video on the Web Activity.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

August/September - aout/septembre - augustus/september 2008

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

New manager of W3C Office in the

Benelux: Fons Kuijk

2008-09-01: After having served one year as Manager of the W3C Benelux Office, Martine Roeleveld has left CWI. W3C Benelux would like to take this opportunity to thank Martine for her contributions to the work of the office. As of 1 September 2008, Fons Kuijk will act as the new Manager of the W3C Benelux Office. CWI continues to host the W3C Benelux Office. Fons is working at CWI as a senior researcher.

Call for Review: Device Description

Repository Simple API Proposed Recommendation

2008-09-22: The Mobile Web Initiative Device Description Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of Device Description Repository Simple API. Web content delivered to mobile devices usually benefits from being tailored to take into account a range of factors such as screen size, markup language support and image format support. Such information is stored in "Device Description Repositories" (DDRs). This document describes a simple API for access to DDRs, in order to ease and promote the development of Web content that adapts to its Delivery Context. Comments are welcome through 31 October. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity.

New W3C Working Group Brings Location

Information to the Web

2008-09-19: The number of location-aware Web devices has increased dramatically as of late: built-in Global Positioning System (GPS) receivers and mobile phone tower triangulation services have made mobile phones location-aware, Wifi triangulation services brings location information to Wifi enabled devices, GPS receivers now have Web connectivity. Location, location, location!

Thus far there has been no standard method for these devices to make their location available to Web applications, and so in response to requests from the community W3C has created the new Geolocation Working Group, which is chartered to develop a standardized interface to provide location information to Web applications and thus enable an exciting new class applications. This new group is part of W3C's Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity.

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 Ibarg�en, 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.

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.

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.

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.

W3C Takes Steps to Make Video "First-

Class" Web Citizen

2008-08-15: Web-based video is exploding, for advertising, enterprise collaboration, entertainment, product reviews, and other applications. As prices drop for consumer electronics, amateur and professionals alike are creating increasingly high quality videos. Social networks are sprouting up around Web- delivered media. W3C today launched a new Video in the Web Activity to make video a "first-class citizen" of the Web. The initial scope of work, determined as a result of a successful W3C Workshop on Video will be conducted by three groups:

• Media Annotations, which will provide an ontology designed to facilitate cross-community data integration of information related to media objects in the Web, such as video, audio and images.
• Media Fragments, which will address temporary and spatial links (i.e., into a particular moment of a multimedia track, or location in two visual dimensions) using Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs).
• Timed Text, which will work on a standard for online captioning.

W3C continues to investigate the important topics of audio and video codecs on the Web. Learn more about the new Video in the Web Activity.

W3C Invites Implementations of Element

Traversal Specification (Candidate Recommendation)

2008-08-13: The Web Applications Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Element Traversal Specification. This specification defines the ElementTraversal interface, intended to provide a more convenient alternative to existing Document Object Model (DOM) navigation interfaces, with a low implementation footprint. It does so by allowing script navigation of the elements of a DOM tree, excluding all other nodes in the DOM, such as text nodes. It also provides an attribute to expose the number of child elements of an element. See the disposition of Last Call Comments and learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

NEWSLETTER W3C Kantoor Benelux - Bureau W3C Benelux - Benelux W3C Office

July - juillet - juli 2008

Website: http://www.w3c.nl -- http://www.w3c-benelux.org

W3C Talk by Ivan Herman in Ghent

22 August, Ghent, Belgium: Detailed introduction into RDF and the Semantic Web.Ivan Herman gives a tutorial at 4th Search & Find Workshop.

W3C Standards Make Mobile Web Experience More Inviting

2008-07-29: W3C today announced new standards that will make it easier for people to browse the Web on mobile devices. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as a W3C Recommendation by the Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group, condenses the experience of many mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating mobile-friendly content. These guidelines will help to improve the experience of people browsing the Web on a wide array of mobile handsets. W3C published a second standard today: XHTML Basic 1.1 Recommendation, the preferred format specification of the Best Practices. With this, there is now a full convergence in mobile markup languages, including those developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA). The Working Group also published today the first draft of a next generation of guidelines, Mobile Web Application Best Practices, aimed at mobile Web applications. Read the press release and testimonials, try the W3C mobileOK checker (beta), and learn more about W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (MWI).

W3C Invites Implementations of CSS

Mobile Profile 2.0 (Candidate Recommendation)

2008-08-01: The CSS Working Group has published a Candidate Recommendation for CSS Mobile Profile 2.0., which defines a common baseline of CSS support that even constrained mobile devices can provide. This effort is part of W3C's ongoing efforts to make the Web easier to use from a mobile devices (see related news). For the CSS Mobile Profile 2.0, W3C has worked closely together with OMA to remove the differences between W3C's and OMA's previous CSS-mobile profiles. An "alpha" quality test suite is available for the mobile profile. The Working Group will track implementations during the Candidate Recommendation phase. Implementers are invited to send feedback before February 2009. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Organizes Workshop on Semantic Web

in Energy Industries; Part I to Focus on Oil and Gas

2008-07-31: W3C invites people to participate in a Workshop on Semantic Web in Energy Industries; Part I: Oil & Gas to be hosted by Chevron in Houston, Texas, USA on 9-10 December 2008. Participants will explore how Semantic Web technologies can play a role in the management and analysis of the huge amounts of data gathered from highly diverse sources in this sector of the energy industry. Position papers are due 19 September. W3C invites you to read more about the Workshop goals and learn about the W3C Semantic Web Activity.

*[CSS]: Cascading Style Sheets