W3C

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of CSS Flexible Box Layout Module Level 1. This specification describes a CSS box model optimized for user interface design. In the flex layout model, the children of a flex container can be laid out in any direction, and can “flex” their sizes, either growing to fill unused space or shrinking to avoid overflowing the parent. Both horizontal and vertical alignment of the children can be easily manipulated. Nesting of these boxes (horizontal inside vertical, or vertical inside horizontal) can be used to build layouts in two dimensions.

The CSV on the Web Working Group has published 3 Group Notes:

• CSV on the Web: Use Cases and Requirements: A large percentage of the data published on the Web is tabular data, commonly published as comma separated values (CSV) files. The CSV on the Web Working Group aim is to specify technologies that provide greater interoperability for data dependent applications on the Web when working with tabular datasets comprising single or multiple files using CSV, or similar, format. This document lists the use cases compiled by the Working Group that are considered representative of how tabular data is commonly used within data dependent applications.
• Embedding Tabular Metadata in HTML: The Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web describes mechanisms for extracting metadata from CSV documents starting with either a tabular data file, or a metadata description. In the case of starting with a CSV document, a procedure is followed to locate metadata describing that CSV. Alternatively, processing may begin with a metadata file directly, which references the tabular data file(s). However, in some cases, it is preferred to publish datasets using HTML rather than starting with either CSV or metadata files.
• CSV on the Web: A Primer: CSV is one of the most popular formats for publishing data on the web. It is concise, easy to understand by both humans and computers, and aligns nicely to the tabular nature of most data. The CSV on the Web Working Group has developed standard ways to express useful metadata about CSV files and other kinds of tabular data. This primer takes you through the ways in which these standards work together.

A new session of the Responsive Web Design training course is open for registration, to start 3 March 2016. Students will learn step by step using an approach that focuses on HTML and CSS and their best practices to make Web sites work across devices with their different viewport widths. This course edition contains a new section dedicated to Flexbox properties that are very useful in a responsive layout. Taught by trainer Frances de Waal, this course is 5 weeks long. Enroll before 14 February to benefit from the early bird rate! Learn more about W3DevCampus, W3C’s online training for Web developers.

The Social Web Working Group has published two First Public Working Drafts:

Micropub: Micropub is an open API standard that is used to create posts on one’s own domain using third-party clients. Web apps and native apps (e.g. iPhone, Android) can use Micropub to post short notes, photos, events or other posts to your own site.

ActivityPub: The ActivityPub protocol is a social networking protocol based upon the ActivityStreams 2.0 data format. It is based upon experience gained from implementing and working with the OStatus and Pump.io protocols.

The Data on the Web Best Practices Working Group has published the near final version of its Dataset Usage Vocabulary. It is designed to answer the natural desire of publishers to be able to see how the data that they have gone to the effort of sharing is being used. Dataset users can encourage continued publication by providing that information.

By specifying a number of foundational concepts used to collect dataset consumer feedback, experiences, and citation references associated with a dataset, the Dataset Usage Vocabulary allows APIs to be written to support collaboration across the Web by structurally publishing consumer opinions and experiences, and provide a means for data consumers and producers to advertise and search for published open dataset usage.

The Efficient XML Interchange Working Group has published a Working Draft of Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) for JSON. The Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) format is a compact representation that simultaneously optimizes performance and the utilization of computational resources. The EXI format was designed to support XML representation. With a relatively small set of transformations it may also be used for JSON, a popular format for exchange of structured data on the Web.