W3C has published a new version of its  Roadmap of Web Applications on Mobile , an overview of the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the capabilities of Web applications, and how they apply more specifically to the mobile context. The November 2019 snapshot refreshes the list of technologies under incubation in Community Groups or on the standardization track in Working Groups. See the  Change history since April 2019  for details. New standardization proposals have notably emerged, including: WebTransport, an API similar to WebSocket but closer to UDP and based on QUIC, described in  Network and Communications ; WebCodecs to expose media encoders/decoders to web applications, described in  Media ; WebGPU, described in  Graphics and Layout , which has made significant progress in the past few months; Input for workers and worklets, described in  User Interaction ; Various low-level specifications for  Performance and T...

5 December 2019 The  WebAssembly Working Group  has published today the three WebAssembly specifications as W3C Recommendations, marking the arrival of a new language for the Web which allows code to run in the browser. WebAssembly Core Specification  defines a low-level virtual machine which closely mimicks the functionality of many microprocessors upon which it is run. Either through Just-In-Time compilation or interpretation, the WebAssembly engine can perform at nearly the speed of code compiled for a native platform. A  .wasm  resource is analogous to a Java  .class  file in that it contains static data and code segments which operate over that static data. Unlike Java, WebAssembly is typically produced as a compilation target from other programming languages like C/C++ and Rust. WebAssembly Web API  defines a Promise-based interface for requesting and executing a  .wasm  resource. The structure of a  .wasm  reso...

5 December 2019 The  Publishing Working Group  has just published a Candidate Recommendation for two documents, namely: Publication Manifest  – This specification defines a general manifest format for expressing information about a digital publication. It uses  schema.org  metadata augmented to include various structural properties about publications, serialized in JSON-LD, to enable interoperability between publishing formats while accommodating variances in the information that needs to be expressed. Audiobooks  – This specification describes the requirements for the creation of audiobooks, using a profile of the Publication Manifest specification. The Group has also published an accompanying Working Group Note of  Lightweight Packaging Format (LPF) . This specification defines a file format and processing model for packaging into a single-file container the set of related resources and associated metadata that comprise a digital publica...

3 December 2019 On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, W3C and the  UNESCO  Institute for Information Technologies in Education (UNESCO IITE) launched a new W3Cx course: “ Introduction to Web Accessibility “. The course is designed for  technical and non-technical audiences , including developers, designers, content authors, project managers, people with disabilities, and others. The course will start on 28 January 2020 and is self-paced. Please, read our  press release  and  blog post , and watch our short  teaser video  for more information about the course.  Enroll  now, and encourage others to, too.

22 November 2019 Today the World Wide Web Consortium published the Authorized Finnish Translation of  Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 ,  Verkkosisällön saavutettavuusohjeet (WCAG) 2.1 . The Lead Translation Organization for this Authorized Translation was the  Kehitysvammaliitto ry . Translations in other languages are listed in  WCAG 2 Translations . W3C Web Accessibility Initiative ( WAI ) particularly encourages the development of Authorized Translations of WCAG 2.1 and other technical specifications to facilitate their adoption and implementation internationally. Read about the  Policy for W3C Authorized Translations .

19 November 2019 The  Verifiable Claims Working Group  has published  Verifiable Credentials Data Model 1.0  as a W3C Recommendation.  Credentials  are a part of our daily lives; driver’s licenses are used to assert that we are capable of operating a motor vehicle, university degrees can be used to assert our level of education, and government-issued passports enable us to travel between countries. This specification provides a mechanism to express these sorts of  credentials  on the Web in a way that is cryptographically secure, privacy respecting, and machine-verifiable.

19 November 2019 The  Dataset Exchange Working Group  has published a Proposed Recommendation of  Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) – Version 2 . DCAT is an RDF vocabulary designed to facilitate interoperability between data catalogs published on the Web. This document defines the schema and provides examples for its use. DCAT enables a publisher to describe datasets and data services in a catalog using a standard model and vocabulary that facilitates the consumption and aggregation of metadata from multiple catalogs. This can increase the discoverability of datasets and data services. It also makes it possible to have a decentralized approach to publishing data catalogs and makes federated search for datasets across catalogs in multiple sites possible using the same query mechanism and structure. Aggregated DCAT metadata can serve as a manifest file as part of the digital preservation process. Comments are welcome through  7 January 2020.

19 November 2019 The  Service Workers Working Group  has published a Candidate Recommendation of  Service Workers 1 . This specification describes a method that enables applications to take advantage of persistent background processing, including hooks to enable bootstrapping of web applications while offline. The core of this system is an event-driven  Web Worker , which responds to events dispatched from documents and other sources. A system for managing installation, versions, and upgrades is provided. The service worker is a generic entry point for event-driven background processing in the Web Platform that is  extensible by other specifications . Comments are welcome by  31 January 2020 .

W3C is  accepting proposals  from outside vendors to redesign the existing  W3C website . Our organization, which celebrated its 25th anniversary this year, produces open and royalty-free Web Standards and guidelines that make the Web work, for everyone. We believe that by implementing current web best practices and technologies, revising the information architecture, creating a content strategy and revamping the visual design, we can provide our audiences with the best information in a more user-friendly fashion, motivate participation in the organization, and communicate the nature and impact of the W3C more effectively. The current website was redesigned in 2008, moving to a responsive layout, a revised architecture and a custom CMS. Now over 10 years old, the website is showing its age and we have determined that it is not as effective in supporting the W3C’s mission and goals as it could be. The purpose of our  Website redesign RFP  is to identify ...

The  Decentralized Identifier Working Group  has published a First Public Working Draft of  Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) v1.0 .  Decentralized identifiers  (DIDs) are a new type of identifier for verifiable, decentralized digital identity. These new identifiers are designed to enable the controller of a DID to prove control over it and to be implemented independently of any centralized registry, identity provider, or certificate authority. DIDs are URLs that relate a  DID subject  to means for trustable interactions with that subject by way of a  DID document . DID documents are simple documents that describe how to use that specific DID. Each DID document may express cryptographic material, verification methods, and/or  service endpoints . These provide a set of mechanisms which enable a  DID controller  to prove control of the DID. Service endpoints enable trusted interactions with the DID subject. This document specifies...

6 November 2019 The  Web of Things Working Group  invites implementations of two updated Candidate Recommendations published today: Web of Things (WoT) Thing Description : This document describes a formal model and common representation for a Web of Things Thing Description. A Thing Description describes the metadata and interfaces of Things, where a Thing is an abstraction of a physical entity that provides interactions to and participates in the Web of Things. Web of Things (WoT) Architecture : This document describes the abstract architecture for the W3C Web of Things, which consists of three initial building blocks, i.e., (1) WoT Thing Description, (2) WoT Scripting API and (3) WoT Binding Templates. Comments are requested by  4 December 2019 .

The  Immersive Web Working Group  has published two First Public Working Drafts today. The  WebXR Augmented Reality Module – Level 1  expands the  WebXR Device API  with the functionality available on AR hardware. The  WebXR Gamepads Module – Level 1  describes support for accessing button, trigger, thumbstick, and touchpad data associated with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) devices on the Web.

The  CSS Working Group  invites implementations of an updated Candidate Recommendation of  CSS Images Module Level 3 . This module contains the features of CSS level 3 relating to the  <image>  type and some replaced elements. It includes and extends the functionality of CSS level 2  [CSS2] . The main extensions compared to CSS2.1 are the generalization of the  <url>  type to the <image> type, several additions to the <image> type, a generic sizing algorithm for images and other replaced content in CSS, definitions for interpolating several <image> types, and several properties controlling the interaction of replaced elements and CSS’s layout models. CSS  is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc. Comments are requested by  8 November 2019 .

3 October 2019 The  Dataset Exchange Working Group  has published a Candidate Recommendation of  Data Catalog Vocabulary (DCAT) – Version 2 . DCAT is an RDF vocabulary designed to facilitate interoperability between data catalogs published on the Web. This document defines the schema and provides examples for its use. DCAT enables a publisher to describe datasets and data services in a catalog using a standard model and vocabulary that facilitates the consumption and aggregation of metadata from multiple catalogs. This can increase the discoverability of datasets and data services. It also makes it possible to have a decentralized approach to publishing data catalogs and makes federated search for datasets across catalogs in multiple sites possible using the same query mechanism and structure. Aggregated DCAT metadata can serve as a manifest file as part of the digital preservation process.

26 September 2019 W3C released today its  September 2019 edition of the W3C Strategic Highlights . The report covers the massive and critical work that takes place at the Web Consortium toward the growth and strength of the Web, how W3C meets industry needs, and provides updates in key areas, as well as the latest around Web for all and outreach to the world. We also invite you to read  W3C CEO’s thoughts on TPAC2019  –our yearly event where W3C work groups meet face-to-face– held last week in Fukuoka, Japan.

The  Verifiable Claims Working Group  has published a First Public Working Group Note of  Verifiable Credentials Implementation Guidelines 1.0  along with an Updated Working Group Note of  Verifiable Credentials Use Cases . The Implementation Guidelines document provides implementation guidance for the  Verifiable Credentials Data Model 1.0 specification , while the Use Cases document provides use cases for the specification in order to make progress toward possible future standardization and interoperability of both low- and high-stakes claims with the goals of storing, transmitting, and receiving digitally verifiable proof of attributes such as qualifications and achievements.

12 September 2019 The  Chinese Web Interest Group  has published a First Public Working Draft of  MiniApp Standardization White Paper . This document introduces a new format for mobile application, named MiniApp, which is a very popular hybrid solution relies on Web technologies (especially CSS and Javascript) but also integrates with capabilities of Native Apps.

11 September 2019 The  WAI  Education and Outreach Working Group ( EOWG ) has published  Making Audio and Video Media Accessible . This resource helps you understand and create captions/subtitles, audio description of visual information, descriptive transcripts, and sign language for media. It includes guidance for creating new videos, and on media player accessibility. The planning and project management sections address considerations for outsourcing or in-house development. The resource starts by introducing user experiences and benefits to organizations — illustrating how accessibility is essential for some and useful for all.

29 August 2019 W3C announced today a  Workshop on Inclusive Design for Immersive Web Standards , 5-6 November 2019, in Seattle, WA, USA. The event is hosted by PlutoVR. The goals of the workshop are to: Share existing inclusive XR solutions that will help us create new standards for inclusive XR on the web. Identify accessibility gaps in existing web XR technologies, and consider solutions for closing those gaps. Explore ways to use existing technologies and standards to create innovative solutions for inclusive XR on the web. Expected topics of discussion include: Standards that already exist or are in development that may impact inclusive XR on the web Solutions that are already being used to create inclusive XR on the web Lessons from other areas like location-based VR, gaming, and 360 video Accessibility limitations of existing web XR technologies Extensions to existing web XR technologies to enable more inclusive XR on the web Role of AI in providing rea...

27 August 2019 The  W3C Publishing Working Group  has published a  First Public Working Draft on Publication Manifest  today. This specification defines a general manifest format for expressing information about a digital publication. It uses  schema.org  metadata augmented to include various structural properties about publications, serialized in  JSON-LD , to enable interoperability between publishing formats while accommodating variances in the information that needs to be expressed. This manifest format had originally been developed as part of larger work on  Web Publications . As a result of some recent discussions, the publication schedule of the group has been modified and, while the Web Publication has been published as a Working Group Note, the Publication Manifest has become a stand-alone, recommendation track document. See a  separate blog by Wendy Reid  on the backgrounds of this decision.

2 August 2019 W3C is pleased to announce a  report  from the  W3C Workshop on Web Games  held in late June 2019, in Redmond, WA, USA. The workshop convened about 100 participants representing browser vendors, game engines developers, games developers, game distributors, and device manufacturers. Together, they discussed the future of Web technologies for games. The report collects highlights from the individual sessions, with links to the presentation slides, and presents  next steps  envisioned by workshop participants. Video recordings of the talks are available and linked from the  workshop agenda . Workshop participants singled out better support for threading for 3D rendering and advanced audio processing as a core need to run AAA content on the Web. They also discussed proposals to improve support for cloud gaming scenarios, including proposals to reduce I/O latency and improve communication in real-time between clients and servers. Te...

The  Verifiable Claims Working Group  invites implementations of an updated Candidate Recommendation of  Verifiable Credentials Data Model 1.0 .  Credentials  are a part of our daily lives; driver’s licenses are used to assert that we are capable of operating a motor vehicle, university degrees can be used to assert our level of education, and government-issued passports enable us to travel between countries. This specification provides a mechanism to express these sorts of  credentials  on the Web in a way that is cryptographically secure, privacy respecting, and machine-verifiable.

23 July 2019 The  Web Performance Working Group  has published a First Public Working Draft of  Timing Entry Names Registry . This document provides a registry of  PerformanceEntry.entryType  used in Performance Timeline [ PERFORMANCE-TIMELINE-2 ].

18 July 2019 The  WebAssembly Working Group  invites implementations of three Candidate Recommendations published today: WebAssembly Core Specification  describes version 1.0 of the core WebAssembly standard, a safe, portable, low-level code format designed for efficient execution and compact representation. WebAssembly JavaScript Interface  provides an explicit JavaScript API for interacting with WebAssembly. WebAssembly Web API  describes the integration of WebAssembly with the broader web platform.

2 July 2019 The  Web Real-Time Communication Working Group  has published an updated Candidate Recommendation of  Media Capture and Streams . This document defines a set of JavaScript APIs that allow local media, including audio and video, to be requested from a platform.

27 June 2019 The  Web Application Security Working Group  has published a First Public Working Draft of  Fetch Metadata Request Headers . This document defines a set of Fetch metadata request headers that aim to provide servers with enough information to make a priori decisions about whether or not to service a request based on the way it was made, and the context in which it will be used.

27 June 2019 The  Accessible Platform Architectures (APA) Working Group , with support from the  Research Questions Task Force , has published an updated Working Draft of  Inaccessibility of CAPTCHA , alternatives to Visual Turing Tests on the Web. This update includes changes that address the substantial comments received since the May 2019 version, which have helped us improve our analysis of the state of the art in telling human users apart from their robotic impersonators. Comments are requested by  26 July 2019 . Please, read more in a  dedicated blog post  by Janina Sajka, Chair Accessible Platform Architectures (APA) Working Group, and learn more about the  Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) .

25 June 2019 The  CSS Working Group  has published a First Public Working Draft of  CSS Animation Worklet API . The  Animation Worklet  API provides a method to create scripted animations that control a set of  animation effects . The API is designed to make it possible for user agents to run such animations in their own dedicated thread to provide a degree of performance isolation from main thread.

20 June 2019 The  Publishing Working Group  has published a First Public Working Draft of  Audiobook Profile for Web Publications . This profile, derived from the structure laid out in the  Web Publications specification , has been developed to address a major gap in the publishing ecosystem. Unlike the ebooks industry which predominantly uses the  EPUB standard , Audiobooks never developed a common specification. This has created a distribution model where content creators create many different files for their distributors or retailers, leaving users behind. Our profile is focused on bringing a common, single manifest format to the industry. The manifest centers on providing a simple way for content creators to include identifying metadata, a reading order, and additional resources. Identifying metadata includes information like title, author, narrator, identifier, and duration. The reading order is designed to provide user agents with a single source ...

6 June 2019 The  CSS Working Group  has published a First Public Working Draft of  CSS Overscroll Behavior Module Level 1 . This module defines  overscroll-behavior  to control the behavior when the scroll position of a scroll container reaches the edge of the scrollport. This allows content authors to hint that the boundary default actions, such as scroll chaining and overscroll, should not be triggered. CSS  is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.

6 June 2019 The  CSS Working Group  has published an updated Candidate Recommendation of  CSS Values and Units Module Level 3 . This CSS module describes the common values and units that CSS properties accept and the syntax used for describing them in CSS property definitions. CSS  is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.

4 June 2019 The W3C Advisory Committee has filled seven open seats on the W3C Advisory Board, including two new seats created by the  1 March 2019 W3C Process Document . Beginning 1 July 2019, the following new elected participants, Elika J Etemad (W3C Invited Expert), Charles McCathie Nevile (ConsenSys), Avneesh Singh (DAISY Consortium), Eric Siow (Intel), Léonie Watson (TetraLogical), Chris Wilson (Google) and Judy (Hongru) Zhu (Alibaba), will join continuing participants Jay (Junichi) Kishigami (NTT), Florian Rivoal (W3C Invited Expert), Tzviya Siegman (Wiley) and David Singer (Apple). Many thanks to Michael Champion (Microsoft) and Natasha Rooney (W3C Invited Expert), whose terms end this month. Created in March 1998, the Advisory Board provides ongoing guidance to the W3C Team on issues of strategy, management, legal matters, process, and conflict resolution. The Advisory Board also serves the W3C Members by tracking issues raised between Advisory Committee meetings, ...

4 June 2019 The  Web Authentication Working Group  has published a First Public Working Draft of  Web Authentication: An API for accessing Public Key Credentials Level 2 . This specification defines an API enabling the creation and use of strong, attested, scoped, public key-based credentials by web applications, for the purpose of strongly authenticating users. Conceptually, one or more public key credentials, each scoped to a given WebAuthn Relying Party, are created by and bound to authenticators as requested by the web application. The user agent mediates access to authenticators and their public key credentials in order to preserve user privacy. Authenticators are responsible for ensuring that no operation is performed without user consent. Authenticators provide cryptographic proof of their properties to Relying Parties via attestation. This specification also describes the functional model for WebAuthn conformant authenticators, including their signature and...

The  CSS Working Group  invites implementations of  CSS Easing Functions Level 1  Candidate Recommendation. This CSS module describes a way for authors to define a transformation that controls the rate of change of some value. Applied to animations, such transformations can be used to produce animations that mimic physical phenomena such as momentum or to cause the animation to move in discrete steps producing robot-like movement. CSS  is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.

The  CSS Working Group  has published an updated Candidate Recommendation of  CSS Containment Module Level 1 . This CSS module describes the  ‘contain’  property, which indicates that the element’s subtree is independent of the rest of the page. This enables heavy optimizations by user agents when used well. CSS  is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.

24 April 2019 W3C has published a new version of its  Roadmap of Web Applications on Mobile , an overview of the various technologies developed in W3C that increase the capabilities of Web applications, and how they apply more specifically to the mobile context. The April 2019 snapshot introduces a few additional technologies under incubation in the Web Platform Incubator Community Group and refreshes the status of other specifications. See the  Change history  for details. New exploratory work since the December 2018 snapshot: Cookie Store API, described in  Data Storage KV Storage, described in  Data Storage JS Self-Profiling API, described in  Performance and Tuning Trusted Types, described in  Security and Privacy A few specifications have also progressed along the standardization track, starting with Web Authentication published as a W3C Recommendation (see  Security and Privacy ), including Resize Observer (see  Device ...