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Web on TV workshop in JapanYesterday

In the long series of workshops organized by W3C, the Web on TV workshop is currently ongoing at Keio University, in Tokyo, Japan. This is not a new subject at W3C, we also organized a workshop on television and the Web back in June 1998.

The 2010 workshop brings TV broadcasters, device makers, and Web companies at the same table. Around 130 participants are attending the workshop, making it the biggest W3C workshop ever. We have a large panel of companies coming from different industries, like NHK, TV tokyo, Samsung, Hitachi, Canon, NEC, Cisco, Ericsson, Opera, Microsoft, Intel, NTT, Sony, or Technicolor.

In the past 12 years, a profile of HTML has been deployed in digital TV. In Japan, BML, done at the IPTV forum Japan, was first released in 1999. There are around 80 millions digital TV units and 20% of them are connected to IP. Japan will switch from analog to digital only next year. With BML support, you can access the data broadcast to read weather or emergency information, participate in a TV quizz, see twitter comments during elections, etc. ITU-T is working on their own standard, H 762 (called LIME), as well.

The main topic of the workshop is how, going forward, we apply Web tec

Global and Accessible WebAugust 26

Over the summer I did less blogging due to vacations. But I am in the middle of a series about our organizational task forces, so in the next few postings I will complete that series. I've blogged in detail about our Core Mission and W3C as the Place for New Standards Work. Today I will discuss our directions for a more Global and Accessible Web.

Why am I writing now? Why didn't I wait for the summer to end? I was inspired by Wired.

Last week, Wired wrote an article entitled the Web is Dead. Actually, I'm not that worried, and I'll leave it to others to debate their theory. But for me, it got me thinking. What about the unexploited Web? Isn't it a missed opportunity for so many people in the world who seek local content, access to information about the world, and human contact?

So at the same time that people are writing off the Web, the planet has several billion people that are trying to get on. People who need to get on. Their success depends on their getting on.

The importance of a more Global and Accessible Web

Twenty years ago the Web did not exist. Thus infrastructure of society did not depend on it. There were hard copy books, encyclopedias, and directories. The newspaper was several pieces of paper that arrived every day at the door. Governments communicated their informatio

W3C Unicorn Launch off to good startJuly 30

On July 27th, 2010 we made the first official release on Unicorn. We are elated with the response from the community. Within two days after the announcement we received 7 additional translations.

There are already a couple new checkers in the works, a few being discussed and a number of interesting suggestions for more such as creating accessibility and jslint checkers. Check out the code, write a checker if you are inclined, provide feedback or donate. Stay tuned and thank you.

Augmented Reality: A Point of Interest for the WebJuly 22

Last month's Augmented Reality on the Web workshop in Barcelona has sparked a good deal of debate within and around W3C. As the final report shows, the workshop brought together many different companies and organizations working on or with a direct interest in the field of Augmented Reality — but how can W3C help in this area?

One outcome is clear: we need a method for representing data about points of interest and proposals are advancing to achieve this in a new POI Working Group. Quite what data needs to be represented concerning Points of Interest depends on who you ask. For some it's a question of annotating a given point on the Earth's surface where the longitude, latitude and altitude are all key identifiers. For others it's more a question of the point at a given distance and angle from an object that may or may not be static as seen by an observer who may themselves also be moving.

Different communities are involved here: as well as the augmented reality community, the linked data community has a keen interest. There are other facets to the discussion too and this is what will make the POI working group's work interesting!

The workshop also recommended that a new POI WG should go further and consider the wider picture of how AR does, or might, relate to the Web. Privacy is a major concern; device APIs are critical enablers; do CSS and SVG

HTML5 in W3C CheatsheetJuly 20

From the very first release of the cheatsheet, I’ve received requests to include the various new elements and attributes of the HTML5 specification in the cheatsheet. As a reminder, the cheatsheet is a mobile-friendly Web application that provides a compilation of useful knowledge extracted from W3C specifications

At long last, I’ve finally managed to integrate these new elements in the latest release of the cheatsheet, where you will now find all the new, changed, obsolete and removed elements and attributes in HTML5 highlighted:

All the data are extracted from HTML: The Markup Language Reference, the specification maintained by Mike Smith that describes the markup aspects of HTML5.

As always, this comes with a number of bug fixes, UI improvements (thanks to Sorin Stefan), and this release is both available in the Web version and in the