The W3C Advisory Board has published a Group Note of Vision for W3C. The document articulates W3C’s mission, what W3C is, what it does and why that matters, and the values and principles by which it operates and makes decisions. This version is the first public Note published by Advisory Board consensus, developed with the community, as a first step towards creating a W3C-endorsed W3C-wide Vision for the organization, to be ultimately published as a W3C Statement.

The Web Machine Learning Working Group invites implementations of an updated Candidate Recommendation Snapshot of Web Neural Network API. This document describes a dedicated low-level API for neural network inference hardware acceleration.

The Web Neural Network API defines a web-friendly hardware-agnostic abstraction layer that makes use of Machine Learning capabilities of operating systems and underlying hardware platforms without being tied to platform-specific capabilities. The abstraction layer addresses the requirements of key Machine Learning JavaScript frameworks and also allows web developers familiar with the ML domain to write custom code without the help of libraries.

Comments are welcome via the GitHub issues by 1 October 2024.

The Internationalization Working Group has published a first Draft Note of Khmer Layout Requirements. This document describes or points to requirements for the layout and presentation of text in languages that use the Khmer script. The target audience is developers of Web standards and technologies, such as HTML, CSS, Mobile Web, Digital Publications, and Unicode, as well as implementers of web browsers, ebook readers, and other applications that need to render Khmer text.

The Verifiable Credentials Working Group invites implementations of the Candidate Recommendation Snapshot of Data Integrity BBS Cryptosuites v1.0. This specification describes a Data Integrity Cryptosuite for use when generating digital signatures using the BBS signature scheme. The Signature Suite utilizes BBS signatures to provide selective disclosure and unlinkable derived proofs.

Comments are welcome via the GitHub issues by 4 May 2024.

Today the RDF Dataset Canonicalization and Hash Working Group published RDF Dataset Canonicalization as a W3C Proposed Recommendation. RDF describes a graph-based data model for making claims about the world and provides the foundation for reasoning upon that graph of information. At times, it becomes necessary to compare the differences between sets of graphs, digitally sign them, or generate short identifiers for graphs via hashing algorithms. This document outlines an algorithm for normalizing RDF datasets such that these operations can be performed.

We are excited to announce two immediate job openings to join the highly-collaborative international W3C WAI team:

• Accessibility Content Specialist: We are seeking an Accessibility Content Specialist, for full-time remote work on digital accessibility materials.
• Web Technical Specialist: We are seeking a Web Technical Specialist, for full-time remote work in the USA, on a project developing the technical infrastructure to support accessibility materials development and delivery.

We are working with Perret Laver, in our search for a Chief Development Officer (CDO), to find qualified candidates from around the world to lead our efforts to communicate our organization’s philanthropic value proposition, to accelerate philanthropy and grow and diversify our funding base of support.

To apply, please refer to the vacancy page on the Perret Laver website.

The position is for remote work from anywhere in the world. The deadline for applications is Friday, April 12th, 2024.

W3C today adopted a new Code of Conduct. W3C's Code of Conduct defines expected and unacceptable behaviors and promotes high standards of professional practice. The goals of this Code are to:

• Ensure that everyone who participates is treated equitably and with respect.
• Define a standard of acceptable behavior for the organization.
• Contribute to the identity of the organization.
• Identify unacceptable behaviors.
• Provide guidance to participants on addressing issues.

This document supersedes the 2020 Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Today the Timed Text Working Group published IMSC Hypothetical Render Model as a W3C Proposed Recommendation. This specification specifies an Hypothetical Render Model (HRM) that constrains the presentation complexity of documents that conform to the Text Profiles specified in any edition of Internet Media Subtitles and Captions ([ IMSC]).

The model is not intended as a specification of the processing requirements for implementations. For instance, while the model defines glyph cache for the purpose of modelling how the number of glyph drawing operations can be reduced, it neither requires the implementation of such a cache, nor models the sub-pixel glyph positioning and anti-aliased glyph rendering that can be used to produce text output. Furthermore, the model is not intended to constrain readability complexity.

The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group invites implementations of the following Candidate Recommendation Snapshots:

• Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module 1.1: Enabling users of assistive technologies to find their way through web content requires embedding semantic metadata about web document structural divisions. This is particularly important for structural divisions of long-form documents and goes along with embedding semantic metadata about web-application widgets and behaviors for assistive technologies. This specification defines a set of WAI-ARIA roles specific to helping users of assistive technologies navigate through such long-form documents.
• Digital Publishing Accessibility API Mappings 1.1 defines how user agents map the Digital Publishing WAI-ARIA Module [ dpub-aria-1.1] markup to platform accessibility APIs. It is intended for user agent developers responsible for accessibility in their user agent so that they can support the accessibility content produced for digital publishing.

Comments are welcome via GitHub issues by 27 April 2024.

The Verifiable Credentials Working Group invites implementations of the Verifiable Credentials Data Model v2.0 Candidate Recommendation Snapshot. Credentials are a part of our daily lives; driver's licenses are used to assert that we are capable of operating a motor vehicle, university degrees can be used to assert our level of education, and government-issued passports enable us to travel between countries. This specification provides a mechanism to express these sorts of credentials on the Web in a way that is cryptographically secure, privacy respecting, and machine-verifiable. The group is actively seeking comments and implementation feedback for this specification as issues raised in the document's Github repository by 01 April 2024.

The group has also published a Working Group Note of VC Specifications Directory, which serves as an unofficial directory for all known Verifiable Credential specifications whether they are released by a global standards setting organization, a community group, an open source project, or an individual. Comments are welcome via GitHub issues.

The MiniApps Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of MiniApp Addressing. This specification defines how MiniApps are located, which is called MiniApp Addressing, including the specifications for specific MiniApp URI syntax components based on the URI specification and the process to dereference the MiniApp URI. Implementing this specification enables the user agent to locate MiniApp resources.

The CSS Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of CSS Viewport Module Level 1. This specification provides a way for an author to specify, in CSS, the size, zoom factor, and orientation of the viewport that is used as the base for the initial containing block.

CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.

The Accessible Rich Internet Applications Working Group published the First Public Working Draft of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA) 1.3. This specification provides an ontology of roles, states, and properties that define accessible user interface elements and can be used to improve the accessibility and interoperability of web content and applications. Changes from ARIA 1.2 include: new roles (suggestion, comment, mark), new attributes (aria-description, aria-braillelabel, aria-brailleroledescription) and updates to aria-details to allow multiple IDrefs. Additional changes are in the changelog. Please submit any comments by 21 February 2024. For an introduction to WAI-ARIA and related resources, see the WAI-ARIA Overview.

The Dataset Exchange Working Group invites implementations of the Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) - Version 3 Candidate Recommendation Snapshot. DCAT is an RDF vocabulary designed to facilitate interoperability between data catalogs published on the Web.

This document defines a major revision of the DCAT 2 vocabulary ([ VOCAB-DCAT-2]) in response to use cases, requirements and community experience which could not be considered during the previous vocabulary development. This revision extends the DCAT standard in line with community practice while supporting diverse approaches to data description and dataset exchange.

Comments are welcome via the GitHub issues by 15 February 2024.

We are excited to announce an immediate job opening: Privacy Lead.

W3C is seeking a full-time staff member to lead our Privacy standardization efforts.

The position is for remote work from anywhere in the world.

The W3C Advisory Committee has elected the following people to fill five seats on the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) starting 1 February 2024: Daniel Appelquist, Matthew Atkinson, Peter Linss, Dapeng Liu and Martin Thomson. They join TAG Emeritus Chair Tim Berners-Lee and continuing participants, Hadley Beeman, Amy Guy, Theresa O'Connor and Lea Verou. Yves Lafon continues as staff contact. Many thanks to the 7 candidates, and thanks for contributions to the TAG to the departing participants, Rossen Atanassov and Sangwhan Moon, whose terms end at the end of January 2024.

The TAG is a special group within the W3C, chartered under the W3C Process Document, with stewardship of the Web architecture. The mission of the TAG is to build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary, to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG, and to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C. The Members of the TAG participate as individual contributors, not as representatives of their organizations. TAG participants use their best judgment to find the best solutions for the Web, not just for any particular network, technology, vendor, or user. Learn more about the TAG.

Starting this election, the W3C Team is implementing new rules set forth by the Process Document regarding TAG appointees. A call for nominations is open until January 5, 2024. Please read about this in --and help promote-- our blog post.

The Web of Things Working Group published today three W3C Recommendations and recently updated supporting W3C Notes, thus enhancing with new functionalities the standards that enable interoperability across IoT platforms and application domains:

• Web of Things Architecture 1.1 describes the abstract architecture for the W3C Web of Things for multiple application domains;
• Web of Things Thing Description 1.1 describes the metadata and interfaces of Things, which are abstractions of physical or virtual entities that interact to and participate in the Web of Things;
• Web of Things Discovery supports the distribution of WoT Thing Descriptions in a variety of use cases, including ad-hoc and engineered systems, during development and at runtime, and on local and global networks.

These new W3C Recommendations improve and expand the scope of the Web of Things without breaking compatibility with the first release in 2020, using web technology to harmonize access to diverse IoT devices and breaks silo walls. Please, read more in our Press Release.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) published the Authorized Italian Translation of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Linee guida per l'accessibilita dei contenuti Web (WCAG) 2.2. The Lead Translation Organization for this Authorized Translation was the International Web Association (IWA).

Translations in other languages are listed in WCAG 2 Translations. W3C Web Accessibility Initiative ( WAI) particularly encourages the development of Authorized Translations of WCAG 2.2 and other technical specifications to facilitate their adoption and implementation internationally. Read about the Policy for W3C Authorized Translations.

The Verifiable Credentials Working Group invites implementations of the following Candidate Recommendation Snapshots:

• Verifiable Credential Data Integrity 1.0 describes mechanisms for ensuring the authenticity and integrity of Verifiable Credentials and similar types of constrained digital documents using cryptography, especially through the use of digital signatures and related mathematical proofs.
• Data Integrity EdDSA Cryptosuites v1.0 describes a Data Integrity cryptographic suite for use when creating or verifying a digital signature using the twisted Edwards Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (EdDSA) and Curve25519 (ed25519).
• Data Integrity ECDSA Cryptosuites v1.0 describes a Data Integrity Cryptosuite for use when generating a digital signature using the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA).
• Verifiable Credentials JSON Schema Specification: Among other things, the [VC-DATA-MODEL-2.0] specifies the models used for Verifiable Credentials, Verifiable Presentations, and explains the relationships between three parties: issuers, holders, and verifiers. Verifiability, extensibility, and semantic interoperability are critical pieces of functionality referenced throughout the [VC-DATA-MODEL-2.0]. This specification provides a mechanism to make use of a Credential Schema in Verifiable Credential, leveraging the existing Data Schemas concept.

Comments are welcome via GitHub issues by 24 January 2024.

The W3C Advisory Committee, having nominated seven individuals, is invited today to vote until 12 December 2023 to fill five seats in the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG) election.

The TAG is a special working group within the W3C, chartered under the W3C Process Document, with stewardship of the Web architecture. Some aspects of its mission include:

• to document and build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary;
• to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG;
• to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C.

W3C has approved the updated 2023 Process Document, which takes effect today. The only change is expanding the W3C Technical Architecture Group ( TAG) from 6 elected and 3 appointed participants to 8 elected and 3 appointed participants.

The TAG consists of: Tim Berners-Lee who is a life member; 3 participants appointed by the W3C Team; 8 participants elected by the W3C Advisory Committee following the AB/TAG nomination and election process.

You can read the Disposition of Comments for rationale or peruse the diff from the previous version.

W3C Process Document is developed by the Advisory Board’s Process Task Force working within the W3C Process Community Group. Comments and feedback on the Process Document may be sent as issues in the public GitHub Repository.

The RDF Dataset Canonicalization and Hash Working Group invites implementations of the RDF Dataset Canonicalization Candidate Recommendation Snapshot. RDF [ RDF11-CONCEPTS] describes a graph-based data model for making claims about the world and provides the foundation for reasoning upon that graph of information. At times, it becomes necessary to compare the differences between sets of graphs, digitally sign them, or generate short identifiers for graphs via hashing algorithms. This document outlines an algorithm for normalizing RDF datasetssuch that these operations can be performed.

Comments are welcome via the GitHub issues by 28 November 2023.

The RDF Dataset Canonicalization and Hash Working Group has published a Group Note of RDF Dataset Canonicalization and Hash Working Group — Explainer and Use Cases. This is a supporting document for the RDF Dataset Canonicalization specification, providing some extra explanation of the problem space and associated use cases.

We are excited to announce an immediate job opening: Web Security Lead.

W3C is seeking a full-time staff member to lead our Web Security standardization efforts.

The position is for remote work from anywhere in the world.