In late 2016, 550 experts in Web technologies gathered in Lisbon, Portugal to address challenges and new opportunities for the future of the Web’s technical roadmap and standardization work. This massive undertaking was hosted and guided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), an affirming partner of the OpenStand principles and leading advocacy group for web standards.
The W3C has a mission “to lead the Web to its full potential” by standardizing Web technologies. Working towards that mission, the annual W3C Technical Plenary and Advisory Committee (TPAC) meeting included nearly 40 sessions of formally chartered groups engaged in standards-related work. Another 40 informal break-out sessions discussed emerging technologies that may benefit from standardization work at W3C. The keynote address, given by
Web Inventor and W3C Director Sir Tim Berners-Lee, encouraged these Web experts to work towards the vision of an open, interoperable and decentralized Web for everyone in the world.
In a W3C press release following the event, Dr. Jeff Jaffe, W3C CEO, commented that “Members of the W3C and the larger Web community carry a great responsibility to shape the future of Web technologies. Most people take for granted that the Web just works for them, but the foundational technologies that make the Web work for everyone are developed by highly skilled and dedicated technology experts in the W3C community. This year’s TPAC meetings underscored the importance and impact of W3C’s work.”
The technical discussions of the W3C chartered groups were lead by advancements to the Open Web Platform and specific industry requirements for the next generation Web. Those include:
Accessibility – WCAG 2.0 is the foundational standard for accessible Web sites and is widely adopted worldwide by governments and organizations.
Telecommunications – The Web Real Time Communications Working Group is bringing audio and video communications anywhere, on any network.
Open Web Platform – The CSS Working Group completed six new Recommendations in 2016 and has 22 more in Candidate Recommendation phase, including Flexible Box Layout level 1. The Web Platform Working Group has advanced HTML 5.1 to Candidate Recommendation status and expects it to become a standard in the Fall. At the same time, the group has already released a First Public Working Draft of HTML 5.2. Expanding media capabilities, Media Source Extensions (MSE) is on track to become a Recommendation in early November. The Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) has proposed a revised timeline to complete test suite work in response to new resource support from the Consumer Technology Association (CTA).
To read more about these advancements and specific industry requirement discussions, click here.
Organizations such as W3C are continuing to host such large scale meetings, and the resulting discussions do much to further the work towards open standards. By continuing to discuss and innovate, these organizations encourage the development of market driven standards that are global and open—enabling standards without borders and driving innovation for the benefit of humanity.
To learn more about OpenStand, check out our OpenStand infographics.