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. (Permalink)

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. (Permalink)

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. (Permalink)

Widgets 1.0: APIs and Events

2009-02-10: The Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Widgets 1.0: APIs and Events. This specification defines a set of APIs and events for the Widgets 1.0 Family of Specifications that enable baseline functionality for widgets. The APIs and Events defined by this specification defines, amongst other things, the means to:

• access the metadata declared in a widget's configuration document,
• receive events related to changes in the view state of a widget,
• determine the locale under which a widget is currently running,
• be notified of events relating to the widget being updated,
• invoke a widget to open a URL on the system's default browser,
• requests the user's attention in a device independent manner,
• and check if any additional APIs requested via the configuration document's feature element have successfully loaded.

Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)

Incubator Group Report: RDB2RDF

2009-02-10: The RDB2RDF Incubator Group published their final report. In the report, the group recommends that the W3C initiate a WG to standardize a language for mapping Relational Database schemas into RDF and OWL. This publication is part of the Incubator Activity, a forum where W3C Members can innovate and experiment. This work is not on the W3C standards track. (Permalink)

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. (Permalink)

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. (Permalink)

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). (Permalink)

Last Call: W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1

2009-02-02: The XML Schema Working Group has published Last Call Working Drafts of W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD) 1.1 Part 1: Structures and Part 2: Datatypes. This former specifies the XML Schema Definition Language, which offers facilities for describing the structure and constraining the contents of XML documents, including those which exploit the XML Namespace facility. The schema language, which is itself represented in an XML vocabulary and uses namespaces, substantially reconstructs and considerably extends the capabilities found in XML document type definitions (DTDs). The latter defines facilities for defining datatypes to be used in XML Schemas as well as other XML specifications. The datatype language, which is itself represented in XML, provides a superset of the capabilities found in XML document type definitions (DTDs) for specifying datatypes on elements and attributes. Comments are welcome through 20 February. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)

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. (Permalink)

Working Draft: WebCGM 2.1

2009-02-02: The WebCGM Working Group has published a Working Draft 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. First published (1.0) in 1999, WebCGM unifies potentially diverse approaches to CGM utilization in Web document applications. It therefore represents a significant interoperability agreement amongst major users and implementers of the ISO CGM standard. Learn more about the Graphics Activity. (Permalink)

W3C Talks in February

2009-02-01: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)

• 2 February, Denver, Colorado, USA: (TBD).Dan Connolly gives a keynote at Web Directions North.
• 4 February, Malmö, Sweden: Standarder och Open Source.Olle Olsson presents at DFS-seminarium.
• 6 February, Paris, France: World Wide Web 2010.Steve Bratt gives a keynote at Netexplorateur Forum 2009.
• 12 February, Gijón, Spain: Innovative Uses of Mobile ICTs for Development.José Manuel Alonso participates in a panel at II International Meeting on ICT for Development Cooperation.
• 25 February, Cambridge, MA, USA: W3C's Semantic Web in Heath Care and Life Sciences Interest Group.Lee Feigenbaum, Susie Stephens, Eric Prud'hommeaux give a tutorial at Conference on Semantics in Healthcare and Life Sciences (C-SHALS) .
• View upcoming talks by country
• More talks...

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. (Permalink)

Note: XHTML Media Types - Second Edition

2009-01-28: The XHTML2 Working Group has published the Group Note of XHTML Media Types - Second Edition. Many people want to use XHTML to author their web pages, but are confused about the best ways to deliver those pages in such a way that they will be processed correctly by various user agents. This Note contains suggestions about how to format XHTML to ensure it is maximally portable, and how to deliver XHTML to various user agents - even those that do not yet support XHTML natively. This document is intended to be used by document authors who want to use XHTML today, but want to be confident that their XHTML content is going to work in the greatest number of environments. Learn more about the HTML Activity. (Permalink)

Use Cases and Requirements for Ontology and API for Media Object 1.0

2009-01-20: The Media Annotations Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Use Cases and Requirements for Ontology and API for Media Object 1.0. This document specifies use cases and requirements as an input for the development of the "Ontology for Media Object 1.0" and the "API for Media Object 1.0". The ontology will be a simple ontology to support cross-community data integration of information related to media objects on the Web. The API will provide read access and potentially write access to media objects, relying on the definitions from the ontology. Learn more about the Video in the Web Activity. (Permalink)