News Release: World Wide Web Consortium to Hold its First Outreach Event in Mainland China

Following on the heels of the launch of its Spanish office on Monday, 
W3C announces its first outreach event to be held in Mainland China, 
organized by the W3C Office in Hong Kong. Two days of technical 
information and tutorials take place in Beijing in November. For more 
information on the event or W3C, contact Janet Daly, Head of 
Communications <janet@w3.org> +1 617 253 5884.

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World Wide Web Consortium to Hold its First Outreach Event in Mainland China

China International Forum on WWW's Development 2003 brings together W3C 
Technologists and Chinese Technical Leaders

Contact Americas, Australia --
     Janet Daly, <janet@w3.org>, +1.617.253.5884 or +1.617.253.2613
Contact Europe --
     Marie-Claire Forgue, <mcf@w3.org>, +33.492.38.75.94
Contact Asia --
     Yasuyuki Hirakawa <chibao@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170

Press release available on the Web in five languages:

Chinese Simplified
http://www.w3.org/2003/10/beijingevent-pressrelease.html.zh
Chinese Traditional
http://www.w3.org/2003/10/beijingevent-pressrelease.html.hk
English
http://www.w3.org/2003/10/beijingevent-pressrelease.html.en
French
http://www.w3.org/2003/10/beijingevent-pressrelease.html.fr
Japanese
http://www.w3.org/2003/10/beijingevent-pressrelease.html.ja

W3C Offices Homepage
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Offices/

W3C Hong Kong Office Homepage
http://www.w3c.org.hk/


http://www.w3.org/ -- 23 October 2003 -- W3C announces its first event 
organized in mainland China. The China International Forum on WWW's 
Development 2003 will be held on 12-13 November 2003 in Beijing. The 
event is co-organized by the China Computer Federation and the W3C 
Office in Hong Kong.

The program for 12 November includes the following presenters and 
general topics:

     * Dr. Ivan Herman, W3C Head of W3C Offices: "General W3C Overview" 
and "Overview of the Semantic Web"
     * Dr. Philipp Hoschka, W3C Deputy Director for Europe and 
Interaction Domain Leader: "Mobile Web"
     * Dr. Richard Ishida, W3C Architecture Team: "Keeping the Web 
Together Around the World"
     * Prof. Shi Zhongzhi, Secretary-General of the China Computer 
Federation: "Intelligent Web"
     * Ms. Judy Brewer, W3C WAI Domain Leader: "Web Accessibility 
Initiative"

The program for 13 November brings W3C Technical staff for a series of 
tutorials, featuring:

     * Future Web Interfaces, by Dr. Philipp Hoschka
     * Internationalization, by Dr. Richard Ishida
     * Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), by Dr. Ivan Herman
     * Web Accessibility, by Matthew May

In addition to the presentations and tutorials, there will be a panel 
discussion on W3C in China, involving W3C team members and local 
experts. Forum participants will be invited to ask questions and 
challenge the speakers at the panel discussion.

Web Development in China

China has more than 45 million Internet users and the number is still 
growing. Chinese is the second most widely used language (behind 
English) on the Web. Cultural and language differences increase the 
necessity to pay attention to how the Web grows so that more people can 
access the Web easily, and so that user agents can render and search 
Chinese Web pages correctly with a variety of devices.

"The differences in knowledge levels, languages, consumers and 
producers, etc., have created information asymmetry which hinders 
international information exchange," says Professor Shi Zhongzhi.

Many international companies have set up research and development 
laboratories in China to work on Web-related technologies. However, the 
Web community at large needs more input from Chinese public users, 
academia and local industry, who depend on the Web in their daily 
activities.

"In view of the growing Web usage, especially growth in China, the 
Chinese people must participate more actively in the development of Web 
technologies," says Prof. Vincent Shen, Manager of the W3C Hong Kong Office.

This forum will give W3C and Web users in China a chance to understand 
each other's goals and concerns. W3C would like to see the Web grow in a 
direction where real needs from Chinese users are properly addressed. 
W3C also welcomes participation of Chinese experts in its Working Groups 
and Activities. W3C looks forward to building ties with the Chinese Web 
community.

About the World Wide Web Consortium [W3C]

The W3C was created to lead the Web to its full potential by developing 
common protocols that promote its evolution and ensure its 
interoperability. It is an international industry consortium 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. Services provided by the Consortium include: a repository of 
information about the World Wide Web for developers and users, and 
various prototype and sample applications to demonstrate use of new 
technology. To date, nearly 400 organizations are Members of the 
Consortium. For more information see http://www.w3.org/

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Received on Wednesday, 22 October 2003 21:02:12 UTC