Recent news items are collected in a Weekly Newsletter.
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-12-22: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Working Draft of Web IDL. This document defines an interface definition language, Web IDL, that can be used to describe interfaces that are intended to be implemented in web browsers. Web IDL is an IDL variant with a number of features that allow the behavior of common script objects in the web platform to be specified more readily. How interfaces described with Web IDL correspond to constructs within ECMAScript and Java execution environments is also detailed. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)
2008-12-22: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of Widgets 1.0: Packaging and Configuration. This document standardizes a Zip-based packaging format, an XML-based configuration document format and a series of steps that user agents follow when processing and verifying various aspects of widgets. The packaging format acts as a container for files used by a widget. The configuration document is an XML vocabulary that authors can use to declare metadata and configuration parameters for a widget. The steps for processing a widget resource describe the expected behavior and means of error handling for widget user agents while processing the packaging format, configuration document, and other relevant files. Comments are welcome through 31 January. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)
2008-12-22: The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has published a Working Draft of Mobile Web Application Best Practices. This document specifies Best Practices for the development and delivery of Web applications on mobile devices. The recommendations expand upon statements made in the Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0 (BP1), especially concerning statements that relate to the exploitation of device capabilities and awareness of the delivery context. Furthermore, since BP1 was written, networks and devices have continued to evolve, with the result that a number of Best Practices that were omitted from BP1 can now be included. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity. (Permalink)
2008-12-22: The Geolocation Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Geolocation API Specification. This specification defines an API that provides scripted access to geographical location information associated with the hosting device. The API defines a high-level interface to location information associated with the hosting device, such as latitude and longitude. The API itself is agnostic of the underlying location information sources. Common sources of location information include Global Positioning System (GPS) and location inferred from network signals such as IP address, RFID, WiFi and Bluetooth MAC addresses, and GSM/CDMA cell IDs. Learn more about the Ubiquitous Web Applications Activity. (Permalink)
2008-12-22: The Voice Browser Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0. This document specifies VoiceXML 3.0, a modular XML language for creating interactive media dialogs that feature synthesized speech, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, telephony, mixed initiative conversations, and recording and presentation of a variety of media formats including digitized audio, and digitized video. The primary goal of this version is to bring the advantages of Web-based development and content delivery to interactive voice response applications. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity. (Permalink)
2008-12-19: The Forms Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of XForms for HTML. XForms for HTML provides a set of attributes and script methods that can be used by the tags or elements of an HTML or XHTML web page to simplify the integration of data-intensive interactive processing capabilities from XForms. The semantics of the attributes are mapped to the rich XForms model-view-controller-connector architecture, thereby allowing web application authors a smoother, selective migration path to the higher-order behaviors available from the full element markup available in modules of XForms. Learn more about the XForms Activity. (Permalink)
2008-12-19: The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group published five new Working Drafts today. Since the Last Call Working Draft of RIF Basic Logic Dialect (BLD), the group has been developing other key dialects, components, and test cases. The new publications are:
The Working Group is nearing Last Call on these remaining elements of RIF, and welcomes feedback from rulesystem users and designers. Please send comments by 23 January. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-12-12: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group updated the Candidate Recommendation of CSS Mobile Profile 2.0. The specification defines in general a subset of CSS 2.1 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. (Permalink)
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:
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-12-05: The XML Query Working Group published five Working Drafts today relating to the XQuery language for querying and processing structured information:
Learn more about the XML Activity. (Permalink)
2008-12-03: W3C updated the Interest Group Note Cool URIs for the Semantic Web today to include a link to an errata page (Permalink)
2008-12-02: The OWL Working Group published eleven documents today relating to the OWL 2 Web Ontology Language. OWL 2 extends OWL, a core standard of the Semantic Web, adding new features that users have requested and that software providers are prepared to implement. Six of these documents are last call drafts, indicating the Working Group believes the technical work in those areas is done. The documents are:
The Manchester Syntax is an optional, alternative OWL serialization; this document is expected to become a Note. The XML datatype rdf:text was co-developed with the RIF Working Group for use with RDF data. Please send comments by 23 January. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)
2008-12-01: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-11-25: The Emotion Markup Language Incubator Group published their final report. As the web is becoming ubiquitous, interactive, and multimodal, technology needs to deal increasingly with human factors, including emotions. The report provides elements for an Emotion Markup Language striking a balance between scientific well-foundedness and practical applicability. The language is conceived as a "plug-in" language suitable for use in three different areas: (1) manual annotation of data; (2) automatic recognition of emotion-related states from user behaviour; and (3) generation of emotion-related system behaviour. 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)
2008-11-25: The XML Schema Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD): Component Designators. XML Schema: Component Designators defines a scheme for identifying XML Schema components as specified by XML Schema Part 1: Structures and XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes. Comments are welcome through 19 January. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)
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). (Permalink)
2008-11-24: The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0. ATAG defines how authoring tools should help Web developers produce Web content that is accessible and conforms to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. ATAG also defines how to make authoring tools accessible so that people with disabilities can use them. Read the invitation to review the ATAG 2.0 Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative. (Permalink)
2008-11-21: The SOAP-JMS Binding Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of SOAP over Java Message Service 1.0. This document specifies how SOAP should bind to a messaging system that supports the Java Message Service (JMS). The specification helps 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. Comments are welcome through 13 January. Learn more about the Web Services Activity. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-11-17: The XML Security Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of XML Signature Best Practices. This document collects best practices for implementors and users of the XML Signature specification. Most of these best practices are related to improving security and mitigating attacks, yet others are for best practices in the practical use of XML Signature, such as signing XML that doesn't use namespaces, for example. Learn more about the Security Activity. (Permalink)
2008-11-17: The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group published four Working Drafts today. The purpose of the Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) is to provide a means for individuals or organizations to describe a group of resources through the publication of machine-readable metadata.
Last Call comments are welcome through 5 December. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)
2008-11-17: The Math Working Group has published a Working Draft of Mathematical Markup Language (MathML) Version 3.0, which defines the Mathematical Markup Language, or MathML. MathML is an XML application for describing mathematical notation and capturing both its structure and content. The goal of MathML is to enable mathematics to be served, received, and processed on the World Wide Web, just as HTML has enabled this functionality for text. Learn more about the Math Activity. (Permalink)
2008-11-17: The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has published an update of Working Draft of W3C mobileOK Scheme 1.0. The document provides an overview of how the mobileOK specification helps ensure that content is suitable for use on very basic mobile devices. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative Activity. (Permalink)
2008-11-14: The XML Security Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of XML Signature Best Practices. The XML Signature specification offers powerful and flexible mechanisms to support a variety of use cases. This flexibility has the downside of increasing the number of possible attacks. One countermeasure to the increased number of threats is to follow best practices, including a simplification of the use of XML Signature where possible. This document outlines best practices noted by the XML Security Specifications Maintenance Working Group, the XML Security Working Group, and other ideas cited at the Workshop on Next Steps for XML Security. While most of these best practices are related to improving security and mitigating attacks, yet others are for best practices in the practical use of XML Signature, such as signing XML that doesn't use namespaces. Learn more about the Security Activity. (Permalink)
2008-11-14: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of Selectors API. Selectors, which are widely used in CSS, are patterns that match against elements in a tree structure. The Selectors API specification defines methods for retrieving Element nodes from the DOM by matching against a group of selectors. It is often desirable to perform DOM operations on a specific set of elements in a document. These methods simplify the process of acquiring specific elements, especially compared with the more verbose techniques defined and used in the past. Comments are welcome through 12 December. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-11-07: The XML Core Working Group has published the Group Note of Legacy extended IRIs for XML resource identification. For historic reasons, some formats have allowed variants of IRIs that are somewhat less restricted in syntax, for example XML system identifiers and W3C XML Schema anyURIs. This document provides a definition and a name (Legacy Extended IRI or LEIRI) for these variants for easy reference. These variants have to be used with care; they require further processing before being fully interchangeable as IRIs. New protocols and formats should not use Legacy Extended IRIs. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-11-03: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
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, Telefónica de España, and Université 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. (Permalink)
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. (Photo credit: Karl Dubost. Permalink)
2008-10-16: The Multimodal Interaction Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces (MMI Architecture), which defines a loosely coupled architecture for multimodal user interfaces. The main change in this draft is the addition of the rules and guidelines which will allow modality experts to describe the features, capabilities and APIs for specific modality components in sufficient detail so that the components will be interoperable in implementations of the Multimodal Architecture. The architecture envisioned by the Working Group will provide a general and flexible framework providing interoperability among modality-specific components from different vendors - for example, speech recognition from one vendor and handwriting recognition from another. Learn more about W3C's Multimodal Interaction Activity. (Permalink)
2008-10-16: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft 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. Comments are welcome through 21 November. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)
2008-10-15: Participants from four W3C Groups — CSS, Internationalization Core, SVG and XSL Working Groups — as part of the Japanese Layout Task Force published an update of Requirements of Japanese Text Layout. This document describes requirements for general Japanese layout realized with technologies like CSS, SVG and XSL-FO. The document is mainly based on a standard for Japanese layout, JIS X 4051. However, it also addresses areas which are not covered by JIS X 4051. This draft contains most of the material which the task force intends to publish as a Group Note in December 2008. A Japanese version is also available. Learn more about W3C's Internationalization Activity. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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 Politècnica 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. (Permalink)
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)
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. (Permalink)
2008-10-09: The OWL Working Group published seven documents yesterday relating to the OWL 2 Web Ontology Language. OWL 2 extends OWL, a core standard of the Semantic Web, adding new features that users have requested and that software providers are prepared to implement. The documents are:
The first three documents form the technical core of OWL 2, which has both a traditional "direct" semantics (for OWL DL) and a new "RDF-based" semantics (for OWL Full). Documents 4 and 5 specify two different serializations for OWL ontologies, one based on RDF and one using XML more directly. Document 6 defines useful subsets of OWL which may be easier to implement or may better meet certain performance requirements. Finally, document 7 specifies conformance and will later enumerate the OWL 2 test cases. Five other documents are under development; but they are not yet ready for public review. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)
2008-10-09: The Web Applications Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Widgets 1.0: Updates. This specification defines a model to allow a widget user agent to locate and replace a widget resource with a new or different version of a widget resource. The updates model is designed to work both over HTTP and from local storage. For updates performed via the Web, the model makes use a simple XML documents that authors place on a Web server to indicate, amongst other things, where the next most suitable version of a widget resource can be retrieved from. It also defines a mechanism that allows authors to be notified of installation errors or success. This specification also describes how to renegotiate security policies when widgets are updated. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-10-03: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Working Draft of XMLHttpRequest Level 2. The specification enhances XMLHttpRequest with new features, such as cross-site requests, progress events, and the handling of byte streams for both sending and receiving. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)
2008-10-02: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
2008-09-30: W3C invites people to participate in a Workshop on Security for Access to Device APIs from the Web to be hosted by Vodafone in London (UK) on 10-11 December 2008. The goal of this workshop is to bring together people from a wide variety of backgrounds (API designers, security experts, usability experts, ...) to discuss the security challenges involved in allowing Web applications and widgets to access the APIs that allow to control these features (e.g., cameras, gps, address books, etc.). Participants will also advise the W3C on appropriate next steps for any gap that needs to be addressed with new technical work. Position papers are due 30 October. W3C invites you to read more about the Workshop scope. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-09-19: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of Widgets 1.0: Requirements. A Widget is an interactive single purpose application for displaying and/or updating local data or data on the Web, packaged in a way to allow a single download and installation on a user's machine or mobile device. Typical examples of widgets include clocks, CPU gauges, sticky notes, battery-life indicators, games, and widgets that make use of Web services, like weather forecasters, news readers, e-mail checkers, photo albums and currency converters. This document lists the design goals and requirements that specifications would need to address in order to standardize various aspects of widgets. Comments are welcome through 13 October. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)
2008-09-19: The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0. EXI is a very compact representation for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Information Set that is intended to simultaneously optimize performance and the utilization of computational resources. The EXI format uses a hybrid approach drawn from the information and formal language theories, plus practical techniques verified by measurements, for entropy encoding XML information. Using a relatively simple algorithm, which is amenable to fast and compact implementation, and a small set of data types, it reliably produces efficient encodings of XML event streams. Comments are welcome through 07 November. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)
2008-09-17: The WebCGM Working Group has published the First Public Last Call 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. Comments are welcome through 01 November. Learn more about the Graphics Activity. (Permalink)
2008-09-15: The SVG Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft 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. Its goal is to provide the ability to create a whole range of graphical content, from static images to animations to interactive Web applications. SVG Tiny 1.2 is a profile of SVG intended for implementation on a range of devices, from cellphones and PDAs to desktop and laptop computers. Comments are welcome through 13 October. Learn more about the W3C Graphics Activity. (Permalink)
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:
Following Berners-Lee's speech, Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation's president and CEO, announced a $5 million seed grant in support of the mission. Learn more about the World Wide Web Foundation at www.webfoundation.org, which also includes a FAQ and video and photos from the event. (Permalink)
2008-09-12: The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of Access Control for Cross-Site Requests. Other specifications that wish to enable cross-siterequests in an API they define can use the algorithms defined by this specification. If such an API is used on http://example.org resources, a resource on http://hello-world.example can opt in using the mechanism described by this specification. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)
2008-09-12: The Service Modeling Language Working Group has published the Last Call Working Drafts of Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 and Service Modeling Language Interchange Format Version 1.1. The former specification defines the Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 (SML) used to model complex services and systems, including their structure, constraints, policies, and best practices. The latter defines the interchange format for SML 1.1. This format identifies the model being interchanged, distinguishes between model definition documents and model instance documents, and defines the binding of rule documents with other documents in the interchange model. Comments are welcome through 03 October. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)
2008-09-10: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Working Draft of CSS Backgrounds and Borders Module Level 3. CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML). This draft contains the features of CSS level 3 relating to borders and backgrounds. It includes and extends the functionality of CSS level 2. The main extensions compared to level 2 are borders consisting of images, boxes with multiple backgrounds, boxes with rounded corners and boxes with shadows. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)
2008-09-10: The XML Schema Working Group has published a Working Draft of W3C XML Schema Definition Language (XSD): Component Designators. This document defines a system for designating XML Schema components. Schema components are the building blocks that comprise the abstract data model of the schema. They are specified by XML Schema Part 1: Structures and XML Schema Part 2: Datatypes. The XSD specification divides the problem of constructing schema component designators into two parts: defining a designator for an assembled schema, and defining a designator for a particular schema component or schema components, understood relative to a designated schema. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)
2008-09-08: The Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group today published Representing Content in RDF as a First Public Working Draft. This document provides a vocabulary to represent content in RDF, and is flexible for any type of content available on the Web or in local storage media. The Working Group also published an an updated Working Draft of HTTP Vocabulary in RDF, which defines terms to allow HTTP headers that have been exchanged between a client and a server to be recorded in RDF. These documents can be used to extend the Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) 1.0 Schema, an RDF vocabulary to record test results such as those generated by Web accessibility evaluation tools. They are part of the EARL Specification. Learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative. (Permalink)
2008-09-04: The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group and XHTML2 Working Group have published the Proposed Recommendation of RDFa in XHTML: Syntax and Processing. The modern Web is made up of an enormous number of documents that have been created using HTML. These documents contain significant amounts of structured data, which is largely unavailable to tools and applications. When publishers can express this data more completely, and when tools can read it, a new world of user functionality becomes available, letting users transfer structured data between applications and web sites, and allowing browsing applications to improve the user experience. RDFa is a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. The groups have also published an implementation report as part of the Candidate Recommendation phase. Comments are welcome through 03 October. Learn more about the Semantic Web. (Permalink)
2008-09-03: The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Impacts. EXI defines a new representation for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Information Set. The introduction of such a format may cause disruption in systems that have so far been able to assume XML as the only representation of XML Information Set data. This document reviews areas where the introduction of EXI may disrupt or otherwise have an impact on existing XML technologies, XML processors, and applications. It also describes EXI design features and steps that may be taken by implementors to reduce or eliminate disruption and impacts. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)
2008-09-01: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
2008-08-29: The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of SKOS Simple Knowledge Organization System Reference. This document defines the Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), a common data model for sharing and linking knowledge organization systems via the Web. The SKOS data model provides a standard, low-cost migration path for porting existing knowledge organization systems to the Semantic Web. SKOS also provides a light weight, intuitive language for developing and sharing new knowledge organization systems. It may be used on its own, or in combination with formal knowledge representation languages such as the Web Ontology language (OWL). Comments are welcome through 03 October. The group has also published an update of the companion SKOS Primer. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)
2008-08-29: The Web Applications Working Group has published the Working Draft of Web IDL. This specification defines a syntactic subset of OMG IDL version 3.0 for use by specifications that define interfaces. Web IDL is an IDL variant with a number of features that allow the behavior of common script objects in the web platform to be specified more readily. A number of extensions are given to the IDL to support common functionality that previously must have been written in prose. In addition, precise language bindings for ECMAScript 3rd Edition and Java are given. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity. (Permalink)
2008-08-29: The Semantic Web Deployment Working Group has published the Group Note of Best Practice Recipes for Publishing RDF Vocabularies. This document describes best practice recipes for publishing vocabularies or ontologies on the Web (in RDF Schema or OWL). It is intended for the creators and maintainers of vocabularies in RDFS and OWL (vocabulary and ontology are used interchangeably in the context of this specification). It provides step-by-step instructions for publishing vocabularies on the Web, giving example configurations designed to cover the most common cases. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)
2008-08-20: W3C announced today its new Licenses for W3C Test Suites. Two licenses promote two goals:
W3C appreciates the support of those who suggested these changes, who provided use cases, and who patiently reviewed drafts. (Permalink)
2008-08-18: The Voice Browser Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of Pronunciation Lexicon Specification (PLS) Version 1.0. PLS provides the basis for describing pronunciation information for use in speech recognition and speech synthesis, for use in tuning applications, e.g., for proper names that have irregular pronunciations. Changes from the previous Working Draft can be found in Appendix D of the specification. Comments are welcome through 18 September. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity. (Permalink)
2008-08-18: The Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) Working Group has published five Working Drafts. The purpose of the Protocol for Web Description Resources (POWDER) is to provide a means for individuals or organizations to describe a group of resources through the publication of machine-readable metadata.
Last Call comments are welcome through 14 September. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)
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:
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. (Photo credit: Bob Freund. Permalink)
2008-08-14: The XML Processing Model Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language. This specification describes the syntax and semantics of XProc: An XML Pipeline Language, 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. Comments are welcome through 26 September. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-08-08: The Voice Browser Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Voice Extensible Markup Language (VoiceXML) 3.0 Requirements. VoiceXML 2.0 is designed for creating audio dialogs that feature synthesized speech, digitized audio, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, recording of spoken input, telephony, and mixed initiative conversations. VoiceXML 3.0 is the next major release of VoiceXML. Its purpose is to provide even more powerful dialog capabilities that can be used to build advanced speech applications and to provide these capabilities in a form that can be easily and cleanly integrated with other W3C languages. Learn more about the Voice Browser Activity. (Permalink)
2008-08-06: The Protocols and Formats Working Group published an updated Working Draft of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA). WAI-ARIA defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies. WAI-ARIA is introduced in the WAI-ARIA Overview and the WAI-ARIA FAQ. Read the updated WAI-ARIA Specification announcement that requests feedback on host language embedding, and about the Web Accessibility Initiative. (Permalink)
2008-08-07: The XML Query Working Group has published 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 document incorporates changes made against the Candidate Recommendation of 14 March 2008. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-08-01: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS Marquee Module Level 3. CSS describes the rendering of documents on various media. When documents (e.g., HTML) are laid out on visual media (e.g., screen or print) and the contents of some element are too large for a given area, CSS allows the designer to specify whether and how the overflow is displayed. One way, available on certain devices, is the "marquee" effect: the content is animated and moves automatically back and forth. This module defines the properties to control that effect. Comments are welcome through 01 September. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)
2008-08-01: The Mobile Web Best Practices Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of Content Transformation Guidelines 1.0. Content Transformation is the manipulation in various ways, by proxies, of requests made to and content delivered by an origin server with a view to making it more suitable for mobile presentation. The overall objective of this document is to provide a means, as far as is practical, for users to be provided with at least a "functional user experience" when accessing the Web with a mobile device. Comments are welcome through 16 September. Learn more about the Mobile Web Initiative. (Permalink)
2008-08-01: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)
2008-08-01: The Rule Interchange Format (RIF) Working Group published six documents yesterday:
"RIF Basic Logic Dialect" (BLD) specifies an XML format for rules at an intermediate expressive power. The language is roughly Horn rules with URIs, datatypes, and builtins. This goes beyond datalog (it has function terms), but does not provide any kind of negation. "RIF RDF and OWL Compatibility" explains and specifies how RIF rulesets are to be used in combination with RDF and OWL. Comments on these documents welcome until 19 September. In addition, RIF Production Rule Dialect (PRD) specifies an XML format for the exchange of production rules. PRD and BLD are expected to be the basis of the two main dialect-branches, with RIF Core being the things in common between the two. RIF Framework for Logic Dialects (FLD) and RIF Datatypes and Builtins (DTB) provide common elements for specific dialects to use. RIF Uses Cases and Requirements (UCR), last published about two years ago, has been simplified and now has examples written in the PRD and BLD presentation syntaxes. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity. (Permalink)
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. (Permalink)
2008-07-30: The Mobile Web Test Suites Working Group has released a new and stable version of its Web Compatibility Test for Mobile Browsers, featuring more technologies and several improvements over the previous version. Read more about the design of the test and learn more about the W3C Mobile Web Initiative. (Permalink)
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). (Permalink)
2008-07-28: The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group published two Working Drafts today: Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0 and Efficient XML Interchange Evaluation. The former specifies the Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) format. EXI is a very compact representation for the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Information Set that is intended to simultaneously optimize performance and the utilization of computational resources. The EXI format uses a hybrid approach drawn from the information and formal language theories, plus practical techniques verified by measurements, for entropy encoding XML information. Using a relatively simple algorithm, which is amenable to fast and compact implementation, and a small set of data types, it reliably produces efficient encodings of XML event streams. The latter document, a first public draft, is an evaluation of the Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Format 1.0 with reference to the Properties identified by the (now closed) XML Binary Characterization (XBC) Working Group, relative to XML, gzipped XML and ASN.1 PER. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)
2008-07-24: The Web Security Context Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines. This specification deals with the trust decisions that users must make online, and with ways to support them in making safe and informed decisions where possible. In order to achieve that goal, this specification includes recommendations on the presentation of identity information by Web user agents. It also includes recommendations on handling errors in security protocols. The error handling recommendations both minimize the trust decisions left to users, and represent known best practice in inducing users toward safe behavior where they have to make these decisions. Comments are welcome through 15 September. Learn more about the Security Activity. (Permalink)
2008-07-24: The SOAP-JMS Binding Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft 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 Java Message Service (JMS). 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. This document specifies bindings for both SOAP 1.1 and SOAP 1.2, using the SOAP 1.2 Protocol Binding Framework. Learn more about the Web Services Activity. (Permalink)
2008-07-21: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of CSS Color Module Level 3. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a language for describing the rendering of HTML and XML documents on screen, on paper, in speech, etc. It uses color related properties and respective values to color the text, backgrounds, borders, and other parts of elements in a document. This specification describes color values and properties for foreground color and group opacity. These include properties and values from CSS level 2 and new values. Comments are welcome through 01 September. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)
2008-07-21: The Math Working Group has published the Working Draft of XML Entity definitions for Characters. Many XML entity names are in common use for mathematical symbols, and this specification aims to provide standard mappings to Unicode for each of these names. Learn more about the Math Activity. (Permalink)
2008-07-15: The XML Query Working Group has published the First Public Working Drafts of XQuery 1.1 and XQuery 1.1 Use Cases. The former describes a query language called XQuery, which is designed to be broadly applicable across many types of XML data sources. This version of XQuery extends the version of the XQuery 1.0 Recommendation published on 23 January 2007; see the list of changes. The latter document describes usage scenarios that will impact the design of XQuery 1.1. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink