About W3C

1. The social value of the web makes it possible for people to communicate, trade and creates opportunities to get or share knowledge.One of the W3C's primary goals is enabling people the access to all positive aspects that the web brings in regardless of platform, software, infrastructure, language, culture, geographical location, intelectual or phisical capability.
W3C extends its activity through initiatives that directly reinforce technological developement of the web and benefits deriving from it all around the world. Work performed within spheres like Web Accessibility, Internationalization, Device Independence and mobile web are particularly important if the web is to become accessible for everyone.

2. The number of different devices that are web accessible, is growing. Mobile phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants, interactive TV systems and even some AGD eqipement can possess web accessibility nowadays. The goal established by Mobile Web Initiative that was initiated in 2005 is providing different kind of devices with unlimited web accessibility.

3. Web is essentially not a sort of large book whose pages can be browsed, but is an extensive data base which when carefully designed, can allow computers to work more efficiently. Being developed, web gathers information processed by people and machines, W3C enables people to solve problems that in other case would turn out too difficult and complex to be solved.

4. Finally, in order that the web become a useful medium of social interaction, people must trust the other side that had deserved to be trusted. Technology itself cannot guarantee trust, but should enable safe transactions among trustworthy sides, people or organizations or services. One of W3C's long term goals is to promote technologies that will provide more cooperative environment - a web which elementary values are reliability, safety, trust and confidentiality and where people can participate according to their liking or privacy preferences.

W3C provides guidelines and Web Standards

Basically, W3C accomplishes its mission via developing guidelines and web standards. Since 1994 W3C published over 90 of such standards that are called W3C Recommendations. W3C also engages in education, evolves computer programmes and serves as an open forum for discussions concerning the web. So that the web can attain its full potential, all the most essential web technologies must be compatible and must cooperate with any device or software having access to internet. W3C reffers to this goal as 'web interoperationablity'. By publishing open (not proprietary) languages standards i web protocols, W3C strives at avoiding fragmentation of the market, and in consequence of the web.

W3C Structure

W3C members ensure requied force and direction W3C via investments and active participation in W3C's activities. W3C consists of 419 member organizations from over 40 countries (Photo 1), with a wide array of interests (Photo 2). In 2005 W3C imposed numerous changes concerning the structure of financial contributions to encourage particitation of developing countries.

W3C Offices

The goal of W3C Offices is cooperation with regional communities and promoting approvals of W3C Recommendations within programmers' environments and standards creators and also encouraging organizations directly interested to join W3C and to create future recommendations. Thus, one can contact offices in the following regions of the world: Benelux, Hong Kong, India, Israel, China, Greece, Finland, Denmark & Austria, Hong Kong, Hungary, Italy, Korea, Morocco, Spain, Sweeden, England, Ireland, Australia, Benelux, and Finland.

Responsibility in front of W3C community and participation

Due to the growing significance of the web in numerous life speres of many people, it is of utmost importance for W3C to encourage as many interested people as possible to develop web standards and also to be responsible for their actions in front of the W3C community. W3C enables public participation and promote the responsibility in many ways. We encourage participants to:
- take part in technical discussions in one of numerous public mailing lists. W3C procedure makes it possible for W3C Working Groups to take into account other public opinions concerning specifications.
- take part in W3C workshops, have opportunity to exchange opinions on different topics that interest community, but cannot be evolved by the groups yet.
- bringing in one's own personal contribution to W3C open source sowtware. Early introductions of new technologies in opensource software makes great difference on the market, credibility of technology and possibilities of people in trade or educational labs and homes to take one step forward. Candidate implementations to become W3C recommendations can provide valuable response.
- translate technical reports. W3C takes advantage of volountary translators, who help increase the infuence of W3C recommendations. There are about 40 languages to be found on W3C site. Bring in your contribution to the translation list of technical report and find out how to become a volountary translator and how to cooperate with other translators. W3C started its policy of authorized translations in 2005.
- participate in Working Groups as an invited expert. If you acquire an extensive expertise in a particular field that is adressed by the current W3C Working Groups you can ask a chairman to invite you even if you are not a member of any member organization.

Dictionary

internacjonalizacja - its primary goal it to ensure that W3C protocols and formats are open to all the languages of the world, otrwarte na wszystkie języki świata and writing systems.

Wen Accessibility Initiative (WAI)

WAI International Program Office Activity
Taking into part the crucial role that web plays in society, it is indispensible to ensure access to the web for the disabled. It concerns the people visually and audibly challenged, and also those facing cognitive and neurological problems. Healthy people can also benefit from the accessibility solutions. WAI International Program Office helps create a forum where industry representatives, the disabled, scientists amd governemts can all work together to define accessibility requirements and to come up with solutions under the W3C Prosess aegis.

Activity associated with WAI Technical
WAI Technical adresses bariers associated with web accessibility. It makes possible for the whole array of web technologies, from HTML to the Semantic web, to be accessible. The barriers are evident when the mentioned technologies do not possess features indispensible for the disabled, or when accessibility potential is not implemented in web applications.

Device Independence - is W3C activity that contrentates on:
1. the methods of helping creators to develop sites and applications, that will reiforce device independence in a way that can be generally approved.
2. the methods thanks to which device properties are available to be used in processing associated with device independence. This section needs to be completed: http://www.w3.org/2001/di/

ERCIM - European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics. ERCIM members are research institutions from 18 coutries ERCIM homepage.

University Keio - was founded by Yukichi Fukuzawa in 1858. Most of W3C Recommendations are developed thanks to cooperation with this particular university. University Keio homepage