W3C News

W3C Invites Implementations of Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces

Coralie Mercier — 2012-01-12T10:57:52-05:00

The Multimodal Interaction Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of Multimodal Architecture and Interfaces. The specification describes a loosely coupled architecture for multimodal user interfaces, which allows for co-resident and distributed implementations, and focuses on the role of markup and scripting, and the use of well defined interfaces between its constituents. Learn more about the Multimodal Interaction Activity.

Two Drafts Published by the HTML Data Task Force

Coralie Mercier — 2012-01-12T10:42:28-05:00

The HTML Data Task Force of the Semantic Web Interest Group has published two documents today:

The HTML Data Guide aims to help publishers and consumers of HTML data. With several syntaxes (microformats, microdata, RDFa) and vocabularies (schema.org, Dublin Core, microformat vocabularies, etc.) to choose from, it provides guidance on deciding what to choose in a way that meets the publisher's or consumer's needs.
The Microdata to RDF describes processing rules that may be used to extract RDF from an HTML document containing microdata.

Both documents are Working Drafts, with the goal of publishing a final version as Interest Group Notes. Comments and feedbacks are welcome; please send them to the public-html-data-tf@w3.org mailing list.

Last Call: CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3

Coralie Mercier — 2012-01-12T10:13:42-05:00

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of CSS Image Values and Replaced Content Module Level 3. CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, in speech, etc. This module contains the features of CSS level 3 relating to the type and replaced elements. It includes and extends the functionality of CSS level 2, which builds on CSS level 1. The main extensions compared to level 2 are the generalization of the type to the type, several additions to the ‘’ type, a generic sizing algorithm for images and other replaced content in CSS, and several properties controlling the interaction of replaced elements and CSS's layout models. Comments are welcome through 07 February. Learn more about the Style Activity.

W3C Advisory Committee Elects Technical Architecture Group Participants

Ian Jacobs — 2012-01-11T16:32:19-05:00

The W3C Advisory Committee has elected Robin Berjon (unaffiliated) and re-elected Henry Thompson (U. of Edinburgh) to the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG). W3C Director and TAG co-Chair Tim Berners-Lee also re-appointed Noah Mendelsohn (unaffiliated) and Jonathan Rees (Creative Commons). They join continuing participants Peter Linss (HP), Ashok Malhotra (Oracle), Larry Masinter (Adobe), and Jeni Tennison (unaffiliated). Many thanks to Dan Appelquist whose term ends this month. The mission of the TAG is to build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary, to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG, and to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C. Read the TAG's December 2011 finding Identifying Application State and learn more about their public work plan.

Last Call: WAI-ARIA 1.0 User Agent Implementation Guide

Coralie Mercier — 2012-01-10T12:23:07-05:00

The Protocols and Formats Working Group has published a Last Call Working Draft of WAI-ARIA 1.0 User Agent Implementation Guide. This document describes how user agents should support keyboard navigation and respond to roles, states, and properties provided in Web content via WAI-ARIA. These features are used by authors creating accessible rich internet applications. Users often access the content using assistive technologies that rely on platform accessibility APIs to obtain and interact with information from the page. The WAI-ARIA User Agent Implementation Guide defines how implementations should expose content to accessibility APIs, helping to ensure that this information appears in a manner consistent with author intent. This document is part of the WAI-ARIA suite described in the WAI-ARIA Overview. Comments are welcome through 17 February. Learn more about the WAI Technical Activity.

First Drafts of Two Provenance Specifications Published

Coralie Mercier — 2012-01-10T12:16:13-05:00

The Provenance Working Group has published two First Public Working Drafts:

PROV-AQ: Provenance Access and Query which specifies how to use standard Web protocols, including HTTP, to obtain information about the provenance of Web resources. This is part of the larger W3C provenance framework. Provenance refers to the sources of information, such as people and processes, involved in producing or delivering Web documents, data, and resources.
PROV Model Primer which provides an intuitive introduction and guide to the core data model for building representations of the entities, people and processes involved in producing a piece of data or thing in the world.

Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

Register for Mobile Web Best Practices Course; Early Bird Rate Ends 9 January

Ian Jacobs — 2012-01-06T09:56:34-05:00

We invite you to register for the W3C Mobile Web and Application Best Practices (MWABP) course. Register by 9 January and save 60 Euros. This is the third edition of this online course, which begins 30 January for 8 weeks. Developed by the W3C/MobiWebApp team, this course will be taught by Frances de Waal and Phil Archer. Participants spend an average of 4-6 hours per week on the course material and assignments. Read the past students' feedback and find out more about the course.

Last Call: Five SPARQL 1.1 Drafts

Ian Jacobs — 2012-01-05T16:32:11-05:00

The SPARQL Working Group has published (second) Last Call Working Drafts of the following SPARQL 1.1 documents. SPARQL is a set of specfications related to querying a web of linked data. Today's publications

SPARQL 1.1 Update defines an update language for RDF graphs.
SPARQL 1.1 Service Description defines a vocabulary and discovery mechanism for describing the capabilities of a SPARQL endpoint.
SPARQL 1.1 Query Language adds support for aggregates, subqueries, projected expressions, and negation to the SPARQL query language.
SPARQL 1.1 Protocol describes a means for conveying SPARQL queries and updates to a SPARQL processing service and returning the results via HTTP to the entity that requested them.
SPARQL 1.1 Entailment Regimes defines conditions under which SPARQL queries can be used with entailment regimes such as RDF, RDF Schema, OWL, or RIF.

Review comments welcome through 6 February. Learn more about the Semantic Web and Linked Data.

DOM4 Draft Published

Ian Jacobs — 2012-01-05T16:23:58-05:00

The Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of DOM4. DOM4 defines the event and document model the Web platform uses. The DOM is a language- and platform-neutral interface that allows programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content and structure of documents. Learn more about the Rich Web Client Activity.

Last Call for Two XML Encryption 1.1 Specifications; Related Drafts Published

Ian Jacobs — 2012-01-05T14:00:30-05:00

The XML Security Working Group has published a new Last Call Working Draft of "XML Encryption 1.1" to solicit review of changes since the previous Candidate Recommendation. The primary changes are to (1) make the AES-128-GCM algorithm mandatory to implement, to address newly publicized chosen-ciphertext attacks against the CBC class of algorithms, (2) add new security considerations related to chosen-ciphertext attacks, timing attacks, CBC block encryption vulnerabilities, and the insecure use of error messages, (3) add a new algorithm for the RSA-OAEP key transport that does not require SHA-1 with the mask generation function, enabling use of various hash MGF combinations.

The XML Security WG is also soliciting review of the Last Call working draft of "XML Encryption 1.1 CipherReference Processing using 2.0 Transforms". This specification brings the simplification benefits of the ongoing XML Security 2.0 effort to XML Encryption CipherReference transform processing. Feedback on both of these Last Call drafts is requested by 16 February 2012.

The Working Group also published today First Public Working Drafts of "Test Cases for XML Encryption 1.1" and "Test Cases for Canonical XML 2.0" and encourages community participation in developing further tests and performing testing. In addition, they updated "XML Security Algorithm Cross-Reference" to reflect new algorithm definitions in XML Encryption 1.1. Learn more about the W3C Security Activity.

Updated Techniques for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0

Ian Jacobs — 2012-01-03T16:17:27-05:00

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group today published updates of two Notes that accompany WCAG 2.0: Techniques for WCAG 2.0 and Understanding WCAG 2.0. (This is not an update to WCAG 2.0, which is a stable document.) To learn more about WCAG Techniques and about contributing to future updates, see the WCAG Techniques Updated - Learn about the informative guidance blog post. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

First Draft of Media Accessibility User Requirements Published

Ian Jacobs — 2012-01-03T15:30:01-05:00

The Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) today published a First Public Working Draft of Media Accessibility User Requirements that describes the accessibility requirements of people with disabilities with respect to audio and video on the Web, particularly in the context of HTML5. Learn more from the call for review email and about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

First Drafts of Three Audio API Specifications Published

Ian Jacobs — 2011-12-15T17:17:19-05:00

The Audio Working Group has published three First Public Working Drafts to provide an advanced audio API for the Web:

the Web Audio API and MediaStream Processing API specifications each define a different approach to process and synthesize audio streams directly in script. These APIs can be used for interactive applications, games, 3D environments, musical applications, educational applications, and for the purposes of accessibility. They include the ability to synchronize, visualize, or enhance sound information when used in conjunction with graphics APIs.
Audio Processing API introduces and compares two client-side APIs for processing and synthesizing real-time audio streams in the browser.

Read the blog post Sounding Out the Audio APIs for more information about the possibilities unlocked by an audio API, and learn more about the Rich Web Clients Activity.

Drafts Updated for XHTML+RDFa 1.1 and RDFa Core 1.1

Ian Jacobs — 2011-12-15T17:06:32-05:00

The RDF Web Applications Working Group has published a Working Draft of RDFa Core 1.1, a specification for attributes to express structured data in any markup language. The group also published an update to XHTML+RDFa 1.1, a Host Language for RDFa Core 1.1. This document is intended for authors who want to create XHTML Family documents that embed rich semantic markup. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.

The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation Draft Published

Ian Jacobs — 2011-12-15T16:01:57-05:00

The Provenance Working Group has published a Working Draft of The PROV Data Model and Abstract Syntax Notation. Provenance of information is crucial in deciding whether information is to be trusted, how it should be integrated with other diverse information sources, and how to give credit to its originators when reusing it. In an open and inclusive environment such as the Web, users find information that is often contradictory or questionable: provenance can help those users to make trust judgments. PROV-DM is a data model for provenance for building representations of the entities, people and activities involved in producing a piece of data or thing in the world. Learn more about the Semantic Web Activity.