W3C, also known as the World Wide Web Consortium is an organization that is working to standardize the world wide web, and ensure that it is accessible to everyone, regardless of culture, expertise level, education, hardware and software resources and even physical disabilities. The consortium’s mission also includes making the web available and accessible to all kinds of devices, such as cell phones, tablets and household appliances that can access the web. It also seeks to foster an environment of trust over the web as more and more interactions are taking place there, be they social or personal or business related. The consortium is structured as a member organization and develops and maintains standards for the web, which are known as W3C Recommendations.
The W3C was founded in October of 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the Web. It is structured as a member organization, and is made up of many different organizations and companies. Some of the members include Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Oracle Corporation and many others in the IT industry as well companies in the telecommunication field, academic institutions and even governments. As of February 2011, the W3C has 326 members. The consortium is hosted at 3 separate locations worldwide; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (United States), French National Institute for Research (Europe) and Keio University (Japan).
The W3C’s main task is to define web standards, or specifications known as W3C Recommendations. Many different entities contribute in the development of the W3C Recommendations. Among these parties, there are members of the organization as well as external experts. Many different companies and organizations provide input during this process. Any member of the W3C can submit a proposed specification, which then goes through a review process before it is approved as a W3C Recommendation.
The W3C has set standards for many web technologies. A few of these examples are:
• HTML
• XHTML
• CSS
• Web Services
• SOAP
• WSDL
• XML
And many more. Some of W3C’s other notable efforts include exploring and developing standards in the following domains:
• making the web accessible to those with disable with the WAI (web accessibility initiative)
• mathematical markup language (MathML), to facilitate the representation, transport and processing of mathematical notation in an XML-based language.
• Scalable vector graphics (SVG), 2D graphics that do not degrade in quality when zoomed or resized.
• Ink markup language (InkML), to process data written by an electronic pen.
• Expanding the web to be able to browse through voice commands.
