mastodon 4.7.2The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was established in 1994 by Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee, to develop interoperable standards to lead the Web to its full potential.
We are an international multi-stakeholder community where member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to build a Web based on the principles of accessibility, internationalization, privacy and security.
Please be more curious than critical. Your interactions go to real people who care and do their best 🙏
Happy Anniversary CSS!
On 12 May 1998 CSS level 2 went to Rec. It's amazing how far the web and CSS has come in 28 years.
Thank you to everyone who has contributed to CSS over the years!
https://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/Overview.en.html
#WebStandards #WebDesign #CSS
33 years ago this week, on 30 April 1993, CERN released the code for the Web to the world. This effort, advocated by Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has changed the world.
Tim founded W3C in 1994 to advance web standards.
Web standards are blueprints of a consistent and harmonious digitally connected world that power our experience on the web.
This #GivingTuesday, please consider supporting us in making the web work, for everyone.
#WebStandards #ThankYou
https://www.w3.org/support-us/
@hdv@front-end.social wrote about discussions at the recent Advisory Committee meeting: "Open web vs AI: what can W3C do?"
Suggestions included:
Ensure AI companies are engaged in our standards work and community ...
Take threats to the open web into account in work on WebMCP and the “agentic web”, making it an “open agentic web”, built on open standards and technologies (rather than proprietary) and based on open principles (rather than walled gardens)
Read more at:
https://hidde.blog/web-ai-breakout/
#AI
Are you interested in CSS and i18n?
The W3C Internationalization (i18n) "Styling underlines" article is currently out for public review. It explores various ways in which CSS can be used to manage underlines for non-Latin scripts.
Read more at:
https://www.w3.org/International/i18n-activity/i18n-wg/
#AboutW3C #Internationalization #WebStandards
W3C in the news: "W3C opens Shenzhen office, deepening China's role in web standards”
"The establishment of a W3C Representative Office in Shenzhen, China - a formal branch of W3C Inc. that will operate alongside Beihang University to support W3C's legal compliance requirements, provide a southern China venue for global web standards activities, and deepen cooperation with web communities across the Greater Bay Area and Asia-Pacific region."
https://ppc.land/w3c-opens-shenzhen-office-deepening-chinas-role-in-web-standards/
What happens when you put AI enthusiasts and AI skeptics into the same room? Well, at W3C you get conversations flowing and perspectives challenged. In this case, it has led to the W3C @ab@w3c.social's first ever public position statement: "Use of Large Language Models in Standards Work”.
See more about the statement including personal notes from the co-authors @hdv@front-end.social and@elena@w3c.social as well as how to give feedback on the Note.
#WebStandards #LLMs
https://www.w3.org/blog/2026/advisory-board-publishes-position-statement-on-ai-in-standards-work/
W3C opened a Representative Office in China following approval by the W3C Board of Directors, to fulfill a primary role in legal compliance and to expand the reach of W3C’s existing Partner Beihang University.
#WebStandards
https://www.w3.org/press-releases/2026/w3c-establishes-representative-office-in-shenzhen-reinforcing-commitment-to-open-web-standards-in-china/
The RDF & SPARQL Working Group invites implementations of two Candidate Recommendation Snapshots.
The Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a framework for representing information on the Web. The RDF 1.2 Concepts and Abstract Data Model defines an abstract data model which serves to link all RDF-based languages and specifications.
RDF 1.2 Semantics describes a precise semantics for RDF 1.2 Concepts and Abstract Data Model and RDF 1.2 Schema
#WebStandards #RDF
https://www.w3.org/news/2026/w3c-invites-implementations-of-rdf-1-2-concepts-and-abstract-data-model-and-rdf-1-2-semantics/
W3C tech in the news: "W3C Advances DID Standard That Underpins Mobile Wallets and Digital Credentials" at Mobile ID World
"The technical standard that makes user-controlled digital credentials possible – including the kind stored in mobile wallets – has reached a new milestone at the W3C, signaling that the foundation for decentralized mobile identity is maturing."
https://mobileidworld.com/w3c-advances-did-standard-that-underpins-mobile-wallets-and-digital-credentials/
#DecentralizedIdentifiers #DigitalCredentials #MobileWallets
The @ab@w3c.social has published "Use of Large Language Models in Standards Work" as a Group Note.
As Large Language Models (LLMs) become increasingly synonymous with “AI”, and are used by people within our community, the Advisory Board wants to highlight considerations around different ways in which LLMs can be useful or problematic when it comes to leveraging them in standards work at W3C.
#LLMs #WebStandards
https://www.w3.org/news/2026/group-note-use-of-large-language-models-in-standards-work/
On the W3C blog, @seth@w3c.social wrote about "Age-restrictions on the web and user privacy and safety"
"A few of the unintended consequences that we are collectively grappling with are privacy violations, gatekeeping, fragmentation, data breaches, anonymity violations, and increased phishing risk...
In many cases, the issues appear to be more than age-based, they are safety-based, privacy-based"
Read more including about the new Community Group at:
https://www.w3.org/blog/2026/age-restrictions-on-the-web-and-user-privacy-and-safety/
#AgeVerification #WebStandards
Did you know W3C has a YouTube channel?
Check out videos of W3C speakers including recent talks from the Smart Voice Agents workshop:
#YouTube #WebStandards #SmartVoiceAgents #AboutW3C
@W3COfficial@www.youtube.com
📆 11 April 2026
Charlotte Bax and Hidde de Vries will give a talk: "duurzamer web voor iedereen" (“A more sustainable web for everyone”) at Digital Summit 2026 in Amsterdam, NL 🇳🇱
@hdv@front-end.social is a digital accessibility specialist at the Dutch government, a contributor to the Web Sustainability Guidelines and a member of the @ab@w3c.social
Charlotte Bax she runs a software startup in which they develop software to map the CO2 emissions of websites.
Learn more at:
https://www.w3.org/events/talks/2026/duurzamer-web-voor-iedereen-a-more-sustainable-web-for-everyone/
Join us!
Participate in any group
Shape web technology
Propose new technology
Standardize your ideas
Meet, interact with leaders
Join W3C to drive the development of web standards and work with technology leaders in a transparent, open, vendor-neutral forum. W3C members collaboratively create royalty-free standards that make the web work for everyone.
Learn more at:
https://www.w3.org/membership/
The Linked Web Storage Working Group published a First Public Working Draft of Linked Web Storage Protocol 1.0. This specification aims to provide applications with secure and permissioned access to externally stored data in an interoperable way.
The mission of the Linked Web Storage WG is to enable the development of web applications where data storage, entity authentication, access control, and application provider are all loosely coupled.
#LinkedData #WebStandards
https://www.w3.org/news/2026/first-public-working-draft-linked-web-storage-protocol-1-0/
It's National Anonymous Giving Week and so we wanted to highlight W3C's Sylvia Cadena's, interview about W3C by .auDA:
"I encourage you to enhance your understanding of technical issues that affect billions of people worldwide, and to find a way to support those in your community that are interested or are already participating in the development of open standards"
#WebStandards #GivingTuesday #AnonymousGivingWeek
https://www.auda.org.au/news-insights/blog/leaders-of-tech-q-a-sylvia-cadena/
📆 25 and 26 March 2026 This week! W3C Breakouts Day
W3C will host breakouts on topics raised by the W3C community including: Cognitive Accessibility Research Modules:; Reviving the ActivityPub Social API; Age-Based Restrictions On the Web: Advancing the Discussion; AI-generated software and Web standardization; Improving the conformance model - Web Sustainability edition and more.
See more at:
https://www.w3.org/calendar/breakouts-day-2026/
#WebStandards #W3CCommunity
W3C tech in the news: "W3C releases updated decentralized identifiers spec for comment"
The W3C...has published a Candidate Recommendation Snapshot of Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.1, signaling that the standard is technically sound and complete and inviting implementations to test its stability in practice"
#DecentralizedIdentity
https://www.biometricupdate.com/202603/w3c-releases-updated-decentralized-identifiers-spec-for-comment
📆 25 and 26 March 2026 Breakouts Day!
The goal of Breakouts day is to foster discussion among the full W3C community about new or existing topics.Anyone with a W3C account (including non-Members) can participate in any session. No fee or registration is required. Members may invite guests to participate.
See the list of proposed sessions and read more at:
https://github.com/w3c/breakouts-day-2026/
#WebStandards
📆 1 April 2026 - tomorrow!
@p20n@w3c.social will present: "Unlocking Value with Emerging Technologies in Freight Forwarding" at the 2026 Intl Federation of Freight Forwarders Assoc meeting in Geneva 🇨🇭
He will present W3C's Verifiable Credentials family of specification, including the upcoming work of the newly rechartered Working Group in domains related to this event (such as the vocabularies for Digital Product Passports and for Business Wallets).
#VerifiableCredentials
https://www.w3.org/events/talks/2026/unlocking-value-with-emerging-technologies-in-freight-forwarding/
W3C is grateful to our AC 2026 Jade sponsors Huawei 💛
W3C Advisory Committee Meetings are Member-only meetings that focus on strategic issues facing the Consortium and future directions envisioned by the Membership and Staff. Our AC 2026 meeting is being held in Hangzhou, China.
Information on becoming an AC 2026 Sponsor at:
https://www.w3.org/support-us/sponsor/list/#ac
#SupportingWebStandards #W3CMeetings
📆 19 April 2026: Hangzhou developer meetup
Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China 🇨🇳
The program, co-organized by Ant Group and W3C, features several tech talks showcasing why the Web remains a vibrant and compelling frontier for developers, followed by live demos and a networking session.
Participation is free of charge, but registration is mandatory. Please register before April 15.
https://www.w3.org/events/happenings/2026/hangzhou-developer-meetup/
#WebStandards #DeveloperMeetup
The Devices and Sensors Working Group and the Web Applications Working Group have republished Geolocation as a W3C Candidate Recommendation Snapshot. Geolocation provides access to geographical location information associated with the hosting device.
The document was previously published as a W3C Recommendation and now returns to Candidate Recommendation status to allow the Working Groups to continue adding new features.#Geolocation #WebStandards
https://www.w3.org/news/2026/w3c-invites-implementations-of-geolocation/
@sphcow@mas.to gave highlights of the recent @tag@w3c.social meeting in London, including:
* The impact of AI on the Web and User Agents
* Architectural design principles for emerging technologies
* Expanding participation through the TAG Associates program
The Web continues to evolve quickly. Meetings like this give the TAG time to step back from individual specifications and think about the broader architectural direction of the Web.
Read more:
https://www.w3.org/blog/2026/the-w3c-tag-meeting-in-london-march-2026/
#WebStandards #WebArchitecture
