News Release: W3C Helps Authors Go Mobile

W3C Helps Authors Go Mobile

Open Source Checker Promotes Mobile-Friendly Content

Web Resources:
-------------
This press release:
  - in English: http://www.w3.org/2008/12/mobileok-pressrelease.html.en
  - in French: http://www.w3.org/2008/12/mobileok-pressrelease.html.fr

Testimonials in support of this announcement from Deutsche Telekom AG | 
dotMobi | Fundación CTIC | MobileAware:
     http://www.w3.org/2008/12/mobileok-testimonial.html

W3C mobileOK checker:
     http://validator.w3.org/mobile/

W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Recommendation:
     http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-mobileOK-basic10-tests-20081208/


http://www.w3.org/ -- 8 December 2008 -- Today, W3C has made it easier 
to create content designed to improve people's mobile experience using a 
broad range of devices. W3C invites the community to try the W3C 
mobileOK checker, which is based on the newly published standard, the 
mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 Recommendation.

"The new checker builds on the suite of quality assurance tools offered 
by W3C to help authors and authoring tool developers create clean 
content," said Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "Clean content offers a 
number of benefits to authors and users alike. The mobileOK checker does 
a nice job helping you improve your content one step at a time. Your 
mobile audience will thank you each time you improve your score."

As shown in the implementation report, there are already several 
mobileOK sites, including the Google search engine and the mobile 
version of the Wikipedia Web site. In addition to other mobileOK content 
portals, newspapers and phone books, a few tools are already known to 
generate mobileOK content, such as Wordpress' mobile plugin. W3C 
anticipates that this tool will make it easier for authoring tool 
developers in particular to make significant strides towards reaching 
the global mobile community.

mobileOK Makes Checking Easy

The mobileOK Basic tests are based on the part of the Mobile Web Best 
Practices that can be verified automatically with software. The checker 
makes use of the popular W3C validator to help improve content quality. 
In addition to the mobile-friendliness score, the checker offers tips 
for meeting the needs of people on the go.

Open Source Checker Will Continue to Grow

The mobileOK checker has been developed as an open source project, 
driven by the Mobile Web Best Practices (MWBP) Working Group which 
includes leaders from the mobile industry and Mobile Web Initiative 
(MWI) sponsors. W3C welcomes suggestions for new features and 
improvements on the checker mailing list, where the list of contributors 
continues to grow. Support from the MobiWeb2.0 project, part of the 
European Union's 7th Research Framework Programme (FP7), will enable W3C 
to continue to actively develop the checker through at least the end of 
2009.

Testimonials in support of this announcement:
--------------------------------------------

Deutsche Telekom AG

     Deutsche Telekom AG welcomes the completion of mobileOK Basic Tests 
1.0 as a W3C Recommendation. This milestone specification enables 
content producers everywhere to quickly run a series of tests against 
their content to see if the Best Practices are being followed. Due to 
the clear cut nature of the test results definitive statements can be 
made about how suitable the content is for display not only on desktops 
but also on mobile devices. Deutsche Telekom AG will continue to support 
this specification for the creation of mobileOK content.
     — Kai-Dietrich Scheppe, Manager Portal Services, Deutsche Telekom 
AG, Products & Innovation

dotMobi

     dotMobi welcomes the elevation of W3C mobileOK Basic Tests to W3C 
Recommendation. The mobileOK tests are a cornerstone of the testing 
provided by dotMobi's popular mobiReady.com report which helps 
developers to ensure that mobile Web sites work across the widest 
possible variety of handsets and operators.
     — Trey Harvin, CEO, dotMobi

Fundación CTIC

     CTIC (Information & Communication Technology Centre) is pleased 
with the unveiling of W3C mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0 as W3C 
Recommendation. This recomendation approaches us to the One Web goal and 
will become a starting point for mobile web validation tools. Based on 
this recommendation, CTIC expands its accessibility validator tool (TAW) 
with these tests to assure that analyzed web resources are supported by 
a broad family of devices, and to guarantee that t he site is usable not 
only by any user but also by any device. Besides this tool, Fundacion 
CTIC has a content adaptation tool (Merkur) and all the sites where this 
tool is being used will be tested using this recommendation, to assure 
the quality of the adaptation. CTIC is also participating in the 
open-source MyMobileWeb platform that allows developers to create 
context-aware mobile web applications.
     — Carlos de la Fuente, Chief Technology Officer, Fundación CTIC

MobileAware

     MobileAware strongly supports the W3C's latest Recommendation, the 
mobileOK Basic Tests 1.0. These tests, and the accompanying checker, 
will make it easier for Web developers to address the challenges 
presented by the growing mobile context. MobileAware will continue to 
offer solutions that make it easier to create mobile Web sites that meet 
the criteria established by this Recommendation.
     — Todd Shingler, CEO, MobileAware


Press Contacts:
--------------
Contact Americas, Australia -- Ian Jacobs, <ij@w3.org>, +1.718.260.9447
Contact Europe, Africa and the Middle East -- Marie-Claire Forgue, 
<mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94
Contact Asia -- Fumihiro Kato, <fumi@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170


About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]
-----------------------------------------

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international consortium where 
Member organizations, a full-time staff, and the public work together to 
develop Web standards. W3C primarily pursues its mission through the 
creation of Web standards and guidelines designed to ensure long-term 
growth for the Web. Over 400 organizations are Members of the 
Consortium. W3C is jointly run by the MIT Computer Science and 
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (MIT CSAIL) in the USA, the European 
Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics (ERCIM) 
headquartered in France and Keio University in Japan, and has additional 
Offices worldwide. For more information see http://www.w3.org

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Received on Monday, 8 December 2008 16:04:36 UTC