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The W3C Internationalization (I18n) Activity works with W3C working groups and liaises with other organizations to make it possible to use Web technologies with different languages, scripts, and cultures. From this page you can find articles and other resources about Web internationalization, and information about the groups that make up the Activity.
Recent highlights
16 April 08 Updated Working Draft: Web Services Internationalization (WS-I18N)
16 April 08 First Public Working Draft: Requirements of Japanese Text Layout
11 April 08 New article: Migrating to Unicode
26 March 08 Internationalization Tag Set Interest Group Launched
25 February 08 i18n Core Working Group helps gathering requirements on Japanese Layout
14 February 08 New Working Group Note: Best Practices for XML Internationalization
All news
Updated article: An Introduction to Multilingual Web Addresses
A paragraph about Firefox support for IRIs was updated. For a detailed list of changes read the full post.
New translation: Zeichencodierung für Anfänger
Thanks to Gunnar Bittersmann the FAQ-based article "Character encodings for beginners" has now been translated into German (language negotiated). [search key: qa-what-is-encoding]
Updated Working Draft: Web Services Internationalization (WS-I18N)
The Internationalization Core Working Group has published a Working Draft of Web Services Internationalization (WS-I18N). This document describes enhancements to SOAP messaging to provide internationalized and localized operations using locale and international preferences. These mechanisms can be used to accommodate a wide variety of development models for international usage.
Editors: Addison Phillips, Mary Trumble (until September 2005), Felix Sasaki [search keys: tr-ws-i18n]
First Public Working Draft: Requirements of Japanese Text Layout
Participants from four W3C Groups CSS, Internationalization Core, SVG and XSL Working Groups as part of the Japanese Layout Task Force published Requirements of Japanese Text Layout. This document describes requirements for general Japanese layout realized with technologies like CSS, SVG and XSL-FO. The document is mainly based on a standard for Japanese layout, JIS X 4051. However, it also addresses areas which are not covered by JIS X 4051. Japanese version is also available.
Editors: Toshi Kobayashi, Yasuhiro Anan. [search keys: tr-jlreq]
New article: Migrating to Unicode
Article: This article provides guidelines for the migration of software and data to Unicode. It covers planning the migration, and design and implementation of Unicode-enabled software. A basic understanding of Unicode and the principles of character encoding is assumed.
By Addison Phillips, Yahoo. [search key: article-unicode-migration]
New translation: Codificação de caracteres para iniciantes
Thanks to Alan Henrique Pardo de Carvalho the FAQ-based article "Character encodings for beginners" has now been translated into Brazilian Portuguese (language negotiated). [search key: qa-what-is-encoding]
New translation: Wann es angebracht ist, Sprachvereinbarung (language negotiation) einzusetzen
Thanks to Gunnar Bittersmann the FAQ-based article "When to use language negotiation" has now been translated into German (language negotiated). [search key: qa-when-lang-neg]
New translation: Verwendung von Zeichen-Entity-Referenzen und numerischen Zeichenreferenzen
Thanks to Gunnar Bittersmann the FAQ-based article "Using character entities and NCRs" has now been translated into German (language negotiated). [search key: qa-escapes]
Updated test results: Ruby markup served as text/html
These tests check whether and how a user agent displays ruby markup in XHTML 1.0 that is served as text/html (without CSS help).
Tests were conducted on later versions of Firefox, Opera and Safari browsers, and the Firefox browser with a later version of the ruby add-on by Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven. The latter now passes all tests for simple and complex ruby as expected. There was no change for the three former browser setups. [search key: results-ruby-markup-2]
Internationalization Tag Set Interest Group Launched
The Internationalization Tag Set (ITS) Interest Group, chaired by Yves Savourel (ENLASO Corporation), was launched today.
The ITS IG is a forum to foster a community of users of the Internationalization Tag Set (ITS), and aims to promote its adoption, and gather information on its further development. ITS defines data categories that may be used with schemas to support the internationalization and localization of XML-based documents.
Participation in the new ITS IG is open to W3C Members and the public.
Questions or comments? ishida@w3.org
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