Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web: First Public Draft

2009-03-10: The eGovernment Interest Group has published the First Public Working Draft of Improving Access to Government through Better Use of the Web. The term "eGovernment" refers to the use of the Web or other information technologies by governing bodies (local, state, federal, multi-national) to interact with their citizenry, between departments and divisions, and between governments themselves. Recognizing that governments throughout the World need assistance and guidance in achieving the promises of electronic government through technology and the Web, this document seeks to define and call forth, but not yet solve, the variety of issues and challenges faced by governments. The use cases, documentation, and explanation are focused on the available or needed technical standards but additionally provide context to note and describe the additional challenges and issues which exist before success can be realized. This document has been published in time for W3C's eGovernment stakeholder meeting in Washington, D.C.. Learn more about the eGovernment Activity. (Permalink)

User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0: Updated Working Draft

2009-03-11: The User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines (UAAG) 2.0. UAAG defines how browsers, media players, and other "user agents" should support accessibility for people with disabilities and work with assistive technologies. Read the invitation to review the UAAG 2.0 Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative. (Permalink)

Pointer Methods in RDF: First Draft Published

2009-03-10: The Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group today published Pointer Methods in RDF as a First Public Working Draft. This document provides a framework for representing pointers to identify locations in content or portions of content, using Resource Description Framework (RDF). This document is part of Evaluation and Report Language (EARL) and can be used to extend the EARL 1.0 Schema. Read the invitation to review Pointer Methods in RDF and learn more about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (Permalink)

Last Call: Selectors Level 3

2009-03-10: The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published the Last Call Working Draft of Selectors Level 3. Selectors are patterns that match against elements in a tree, and as such form one of several technologies that can be used to select nodes in an XML document. Selectors have been optimized for use with HTML and XML, and are designed to be usable in performance-critical code. Comments are welcome through 07 April. Learn more about the Style Activity. (Permalink)

W3C Launches Semantic Sensor Network Incubator Group

2009-03-04: W3C is pleased to announce the creation of the Semantic Sensor Network Incubator Group, sponsored by W3C Members CSIRO, Wright State University, and OGC. The group's mission is to begin the formal process of producing ontologies that define the capabilities of sensors and sensor networks, and to develop semantic annotations of a key language used by services based sensor networks. Read more about the Incubator Activity, an initiative to foster development of emerging Web-related technologies. Incubator Activity work is not on the W3C standards track. (Permalink)

Authorized Translations of WCAG 2.0 Target International Deployment

2009-03-03: The W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) announced Translations of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0, including draft Authorized W3C Translations. W3C's Policy for Authorized W3C Translations provides a process for stakeholder review and designation as an official translation. Learn more about WCAG 2.0 Translations in-progress, WCAG 2.0, and the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (Permalink)

W3C Talks in March

2009-03-01: Browse W3C presentations and events also available as an RSS channel. (Permalink)

• 2 March, San Diego, USA: Frontiers in Interaction: The Power of Multimodal Standards.Deborah Dahl presents at Voice Search 2009.
• 6 March, Utrecht, The Netherlands: XForms and Declarative Applications.Steven Pemberton presents at MozCamp.
• 14 March, Austin, TX, USA: Making Web Widgets Accessible: Tools and Techniques.Michael Cooper participates in a panel at South by Southwest Conference.
• 19 March, Los Angeles, CA, USA: The New WCAG 2: Web Accessibility Q&A with the Editors.Shawn Henry, Michael Cooper, Loretta Guarino Reid participate in a panel at CSUN International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference.
• 19 March, Los Angeles, CA, USA: Towards a More Accessible Browser.Jeanne Spellman, Jim Allan present at CSUN Center on Disabilities 24th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference.
• 21 March, Prague, Czech Republic: XML Processing and Choreography.Mohamed Zergaoui presents at XML Prague 2009.
• 22 March, Prague, Czech Republic: Exploring XProc.Norman Walsh presents at XML Prague 2009.
• 27 March, Frankfurt, Germany: Mobile Access – Device-independent or Accessible.Dominique Hazaël-Massieux participates in a panel at European Accessibility Forum.
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XML Security Working Group Releases Eight Working Drafts

2009-02-26: The XML Security Working Group has published a set of eight Working Drafts. The XML Signature 1.1 and XML Encryption 1.1 First Public Working Drafts make changes to the default sets of cryptographic algorithms in both specifications. XML Security Use Cases and Requirements and XML Signature Transform Simplification: Requirements and Design are documents that we expect to help guide the group's work on a future version of the XML Security specifications that might make more radical changes than the 1.1 series of these specifications. The Working Group would like to receive early feedback on these four drafts.

Additionally, the XML Security Derived Keys specification introduces mark-up for key derivation, for use with both XML Signature and XML Encryption. XML Signature Properties defines commonly used signature properties. XML Security Algorithms is a cross-reference for the algorithms and their identifiers used with the XML security specifications, bringing in one place information located in a number of documents. XML Signature Best Practices is a revised Working Draft for Best Practices in using the XML Signature specification. (Permalink)

Last Call: Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines

2009-02-26: The Web Security Context Working Group has published the second Last Call Working Draft of Web Security Context: User Interface Guidelines. This specification deals with the trust decisions that users must make online, and with ways to support them in making safe and informed decisions where possible. In order to achieve that goal, this specification includes recommendations on the presentation of identity information by Web user agents. It also includes recommendations for handling errors in security protocols. This second Last Call Working Draft incorporates feedback gathered during the first Last Call period, both from the public and from implementers participating in the Working Group. Comments are welcome through 19 March 2009. Learn more about the Security Activity. (Permalink)

Web Forms 2.0 Draft Superseded by HTML 5

2009-02-26: The HTML Working Group has announced that Web Forms 2.0 has been superseded by material published in drafts of HTML 5. Learn more about HTML. (Permalink)

W3C Open Meeting: Realizing Government Transparency and Openness

2009-02-25: On 12-13 March, W3C's eGovernment Interest Group will hold a special stakeholder meeting in Washington, DC to address a number of issues of high interest to government policy makers, elected officials, and managers of government information technology. Participants will document progressive solutions for electronic government and develop a road map for developing Web standards related to topics such as participation and citizen engagement, open government data, identification and authentication, and long-term data management. The meeting is open to the public, but advance registration is required and seating is limited. W3C thanks the American Institute of Architects for hosting this meeting. Read the media advisory and learn more about the W3C eGovernment Activity. (Permalink)

Last Call: Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA); Best Practices and Implementation Guide Drafts Also Published

2009-02-24: The Protocols and Formats Working Group published the Last Call Working Draft of Accessible Rich Internet Applications (WAI-ARIA). WAI-ARIA defines a way to make Web content and Web applications more accessible to people with disabilities. It especially helps with dynamic content and advanced user interface controls developed with Ajax, HTML, JavaScript, and related technologies.

The Working Group also published a First Public Working Draft of the WAI-ARIA User Agent Implementation Guide that provides guidance on how browsers and other user agents should expose WAI-ARIA features to platform accessibility APIs. The updated Working Draft of WAI-ARIA Best Practices that was published today describes how Web content developers can develop accessible rich Web applications using WAI-ARIA. These WAI-ARIA documents are described in the WAI-ARIA Overview. Read details in the review announcement, and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI). (Permalink)

Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0: Updated Working Draft

2009-02-17: The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published an updated Working Draft of Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) 2.0 that is synchronized with the finalized WCAG 2.0. ATAG defines how authoring tools should help Web developers produce Web content that is accessible and conforms to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. ATAG also defines how to make authoring tools accessible so that people with disabilities can use them. Read the invitation to review the ATAG 2.0 Working Draft and about the Web Accessibility Initiative. (Permalink)

Call for Review: Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 Proposed Recommendation

2009-02-13: The Service Modeling Language Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendations of Service Modeling Language, Version 1.1 and Service Modeling Language Interchange Format Version 1.1. SML extends the coherence-checking mechanisms of W3C XML Schema from individual documents to collections of documents. SML-IF extends the utility of SML by providing mechanisms for gathering together a set of documents whose coherence is guaranteed by an SML schema, which itself is part of the resulting package. Comments are welcome through 12 March. Learn more about the Extensible Markup Language (XML) Activity. (Permalink)

Drafts of HTML 5, Differences from HTML 4 Published

2009-02-12: The HTML Working Group has published Working Drafts of HTML 5 and HTML 5 differences from HTML 4. In this version of HTML5, new features are introduced to help Web application authors, new elements are introduced based on research into prevailing authoring practices, and special attention has been given to defining clear conformance criteria for user agents in an effort to improve interoperability. Learn more about the HTML Activity. (Permalink)