The World Wide Web Consortium, more widely known as W3C is an internationally accepted standards organization for World Wide Web. It is in the nature of a consortium where member organizations employ full-time staff for working together to evolve standards for the World Wide Web. Organizations located all over the world belonging to many diverse fields have joined W3C to be part of a vendor-neutral forum for the creation of Web standards.
The Consortium is governed by its members, which till lately comprised 419 organizations. Membership is confined to corporates, business houses, nonprofit organizations, universities, and governmental entities. There is no provision for individuals to become members. All applications for membership have to be mandatorily reviewed and approved by W3C. The cost of membership is subject to the nature of the organization and the country in which it is located.
The Aims of W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been formed to develop specifications, guidelines, software, and tools to facilitate the web to realize its full potential. W3C can thus be considered as a forum for information, commerce, communication, and collective understanding. W3C's stated mission is: “To lead the World Wide Web to its full potential by developing protocols and guidelines that ensure long-term growth for the Web.”
W3C is also involved in education and outreach, develops software, and provides an open forum for discussion about the Web. W3C refers to this function as Web inter-operability.
The Functioning of the W3C
W3C activities are carried out by three well-defined groups:
- Working Groups – to deal with all technical developments
- Interest Groups – to attend to general work
- Coordination Groups – Intercommunication among the related groups
These groups, consisting of participants from member organizations and other specially invited experts are responsible for producing the bulk of W3C's results. There are presently 73 groups managing 23 different activities. The W3C Team submits a status report about each of the W3C activities at the advisory committee meetings, held twice a year.
Recommendations and Certifications
In fulfillment of its set objectives, W3C creates Web standards and guidelines. It is interesting to know that since 1994, W3C has published more than 110 such standards that are considered as W3C recommendations.
As per W3C norms, a recommendation has to progress through different levels - working draft, last call working draft, candidate recommendation, proposed Recommendation – before maturing into W3C Recommendation (REC). These recommendations set levels of conformity, which the web developers must follow if they wish to label their product W3C-compliant.
It is pertinent to note that W3C does not have a certification program. It is agreed by many that a certification program has both benefits and demerits. The W3C has no immediate plans to start a certification program to avoid creating more risks than benefits for the community.
Web Designers and W3C
The W3C is not without its share of criticisms. W3C essentially creates the tools, sets the specifications and generally instructs the web designers how to work on developing the site. Some web designers complain that W3C team does not have even one qualified web designer and therefore lack the authority to advise. They further state it is difficult to view the W3C as an organization that is capable of producing effective design tools.
The web designers contend that the specifications have largely been developed without guidance from people who actually design websites. Web designers claim they have brought this problem to the W3C’s attention. It is understood that W3C is attempting to rectify the problem, but it is not successful because the number of hours a person must commit to participate in a W3C committee grossly exceeds what an employee can afford to spend.
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