W3C Introduction

What is W3C?

  • W3C refers to the World Wide Web Consortium (World Wide Web Consortium）
  • W3C was created inOctober 1994
  • W3C wasTim Berners-Leecreated by
  • W3C is amember organization
  • W3C's work isto standardize the Web
  • W3C creates and maintainsWWW standards
  • W3C standards are calledW3C Recommendations (W3C specifications)

How was W3C created?

The World Wide Web was developed as a project of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, where Tim Berners-Lee developed the prototype of the World Wide Web.

Tim Berners-Lee - the inventor of the World Wide Web - is currently the Director of the World Wide Web Consortium.

W3C was created in 1994 with the aim of carrying out collaborative work between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN), with the support of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the European Commission.

Standardizing the Web

W3C is committed to enabling all users to make use of the Web (regardless of their cultural and educational background, abilities, financial resources, or physical disabilities).

W3C also works collaboratively with other standards organizations, such as the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), and the Unicode Consortium.

W3C was founded at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL), and is jointly operated by ERCIM, headquartered in France, and Keio University in Japan, and has branch offices worldwide.

W3C Members

Because the Web is so important (whether in its scope or in investment), its future should not be controlled by any single organization. Therefore, W3C plays the role of a member organization:

Some well-known members include:

  • IBM
  • Microsoft
  • America Online
  • Apple
  • Adobe
  • Macromedia
  • Sun Microsystems

W3C's membersinclude: software developers, content providers, enterprise users, communications companies, research institutions, research laboratories, standards bodies, and governments.

W3C Recommendations

W3C's most important work is to develop Web specifications (called Recommendations), which describe the communication protocols of the Web (such as HTML and XHTML) and other building blocks.

The development of each W3C Recommendation is accomplished through working groups composed of members and invited experts. The working groups are funded by companies and other organizations, and will create a Working Draft, and finally a Proposed Recommendation. Generally, to obtain formal approval, Recommendations are submitted to W3C members and the Director.

In the next section, we will explain the approval process for specifications.

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