W3C

The EPUB 3 Working Group invites implementations of the following three Candidate Recommendation Snapshots:

• EPUB 3.3 defines the authoring requirements for EPUB publications and represents the third major revision of the standard.
• EPUB Reading Systems 3.3 defines the conformance requirements for EPUB 3 reading systems — the user agents that render EPUB publications.
• EPUB Accessibility 1.1 specifies content conformance requirements for verifying the accessibility of EPUB® Publications. It also specifies accessibility metadata requirements for the discoverability of EPUB publications.

EPUB® 3 defines a distribution and interchange format for digital publications and documents. The EPUB format provides a means of representing, packaging, and encoding structured and semantically enhanced web content — including HTML, CSS, SVG, and other resources — for distribution in a single-file container. A separate overview note gives a more detailed view of the specifications.

The specification represents the third major revision and, in particular, a revision of the EPUB 3.2 document published by the EPUB 3 Community Group. This new version is now on a W3C Recommendation Track. There have been only a few technical additions in the areas of internationalization, security, or core media types. The focus of the Working Group have been to align the specifications with the latest W3C specifications, current usage and practices of the publishing industry, improve the readability of the specification, align the accessibility requirement with the latest Web Accessibility standards as well as the European Accessibility Act, and to work on a comprehensive test suite to improve the interoperability of Reading Systems. Read also the detailed change logs in the documents for further details.

The Technical Architecture Group (TAG) has published First Public Draft Notes of Privacy Principles and Ethical Web Principles. These documents provide principles that should guide the development of the Web platform.

The Web Real-Time Communications Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Capture Handle – Bootstrapping Collaboration when Screensharing. This document proposes a mechanism by which an application APP can opt-in to exposing certain information with another application CAPTR, if CAPTR is screen-capturing the tab in which APP is running. It describes a mechanism for tab capture only.

The W3C Advisory Committee has nominated six individuals, and is invited today to vote until 1 June 2022 for five seats in the W3C Advisory Board (AB) election. Please, read the statements of the nominees.

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, soliciting Member comments on such issues, and proposing actions to resolve these issues. The Advisory Board manages the evolution of the Process Document. The Advisory Board hears appeals of Member Submission requests that are rejected for reasons unrelated to Web architecture. For several years, the AB has conducted its work in a public wiki.

The elected Members of the Advisory Board participate as individual contributors and not representatives of their organizations. Advisory Board participants use their best judgment to find the best solutions for the Web, not just for any particular network, technology, vendor, or user.

W3C is delighted to be the recipient of a 2021 Technology & Engineering Emmy® Award from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for its work on standardizing font technology for custom downloadable fonts and typography for web and TV devices. Representatives from W3C staff and the Web Fonts Working Group will attend the awards ceremony tonight 25 April 2022 in Las Vegas, NV, USA.

“W3C is immensely honored to be recognized with our third Emmy® Award in seven years. We are proud that W3C was able to provide a space where solutions can be found and groups can together improve technology, artistry and expression for web users. Congrats to the Web Fonts Working Group for the culmination of many years of work and on this well deserved honor.” said Jeff Jaffe, CEO of W3C.

For more information about the Emmy® Award and Web Fonts, including trying them live, please see our press release.

photo: Raph Levien, Google; Jyrki Alakuijala, Google; Chris Lilley, W3C;  Alan Bird, W3C; Vladimir Levantovsky, Invited Expert; Rod Sheeter, Google; David Kuettel; Garret Rieger , Google

We are able today to confirm that W3C’s annual conference, the Technical Plenary and Advisory Committee meeting known as “TPAC” will be held as a hybrid meeting on 12-16 September 2022.

The main in-person hub will be at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre in Canada and we are also planning to have a hub in China to provide an in-person gathering place to support a minimum number of sessions.

Our main goal for this meeting is to ensure the safety of our onsite attendees and make sure that all the participants, whether remote or in-person, have a fruitful and valuable experience. The usual group meetings and breakout sessions will take place as well as other type of sessions. We expect registration to open early July.

We are in the process of optimizing the many aspects of the whole event in order to accommodate the hybrid format, and so will share in the coming weeks details on the agenda, the hotel rooms booking, the registration fees and the health rules.