Week 3::
The Web Standards Project
Back
"Create a page that explains the W3C"
What the FUNK is this about?
The World Wide Web Consortion group was founded in 1994, its purpose, to unify the web world by design and development. The reason being because around the type of the Big internet Boom, browsers were advancing and the language we all know as HTML, was changing. Since then, browsers have come to read the HTML language in there own form. This had created confusion, so the w3c was born. To unify the web.
2.1.1 What is the W3C?
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international industry consortium dedicated to “leading the Web to its full potential“. It’s led by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Web. Founded in 1994, the W3C has more than 450 member organizations - including Microsoft, America Online (parent company of Netscape Communications), Apple Computer, Adobe, Macromedia, Sun Microsystems, and a variety of other hardware and software manufacturers, content providers, academic institutions, and telecommunications companies. The Consortium is hosted by three research institutions - MIT in the US, INRIA in Europe, and Keio University in Japan.
2.1.2 What does it do?
The W3C develops open specifications (de facto standards) to enhance the interoperability of web-related products. W3C Recommendations are developed by working groups consisting of Consortium members and invited experts. Working groups obtain general consensus from companies and other organizations involved in creating applications for the Web, and create Working Drafts and Proposed Recommendations. These are then submitted to the W3C membership and director, for formal approval as W3C Recommendations. More information regarding this process and the review stages can be obtained from the W3C website.
2.1.3 What are the W3C standards?
2.1.3.1 HTML 4.0 - HyperText Markup Language
HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is widely used on the Web for adding structure to text documents. Browsers interpret these documents, representing the structure in media-specific ways to the user. For example, visual browsers typically display the strong element (<strong> … </strong>) as bold text, while text-to-speech readers might emphasize that text when pronouncing it.
With the help of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) the author may define how structural elements are to be represented, overriding the browser defaults.
2.1.3.4 CSS - Cascading Style Sheets
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a mechanism for changing the appearance of HTML or XML elements, by assigning styles to element types, self-defined classes of elements or individual instances.
Stylesheets can be used to consistently define the appearance of an entire site. Following the introduction of CSS, the W3C recommended that layout-specific features in HTML be phased out and replaced by stylesheets, creating a simpler and more structural World Wide Web.
2.1.3.5 DOM 1 - Document Object Model Level 1
The DOM allows the full power and interactivity of a scripting language (such as ECMAScript, the standardized version of JavaScript) to be exerted on a web page. (In programming terms, the Document Object Model (DOM) Level 1 is an Application Programming Interface (API) for interacting with web pages.) It gives the scripting language easy access to the structure, content, and presentation of a document which is written in such languages as HTML and CSS.
The DOM is compatible with future improvements in technology; it will allow any scripting language to interact with whatever languages are being used in the document. This standard will not only make it easier to program dynamic HTML, but will also make adapting to future Internet technology much less painful.