News Release: W3C Celebrates Tenth Anniversary

This year, the World Wide Web Consortium 
celebrates its tenth anniversary -- ten years of 
its mission to lead the Web to its full 
potential. On 1 December, W3C Members, Team, 
invited speakers, and international media will 
gather in Boston, USA to reflect on the progress 
of the Web, W3C's central role in its growth, the 
risks and opportunities facing the Web during 
W3C's second decade. "This special anniversary 
brings the opportunity to acknowledge the impact 
of the Web and the W3C's stewardship role," said 
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "I hope it will 
also inspire ever more collaboration, creativity, 
and understanding across the globe."

For more information, please contact Janet Daly, 
W3C Global Communications Officer, at 
+1.617.253.5884 (janet@w3.org) or contact the W3C 
Communications representative in your region, 
listed at the bottom of this email.

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W3C Celebrates Tenth Anniversary

All-day event brings together technical leaders 
and luminaries to reflect on past, inspire the 
future

Web Resources:

This press release:
     In English: http://www.w3.org/2004/11/w3c10pressrelease.html.en
     In French: http://www.w3.org/2004/11/w3c10pressrelease.html.fr
     In Japanese: http://www.w3.org/2004/11/w3c10pressrelease.html.ja

W3C Tenth Anniversary Celebration:
     http://www.w3.org/2004/09/W3C10.html

http://www.w3.org/ -- 30 November 2004 -- The 
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is marking its 
tenth anniversary with a day-long symposium on 1 
December at the Fairmont Copley Hotel in Boston, 
Massachusetts. W3C10 brings together Web and 
Internet technical leaders from around the globe 
to both remember the W3C's origins and look to 
the future of the Web and W3C's role in it.

The Web is 15; W3C is 10

In March of 1989 while employed at CERN 
(l'Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche 
Nucléaire), Tim Berners-Lee wrote a proposal that 
would become the basis for the World Wide Web. 
With approval from his supervisor, the late Mike 
Sendall, and support from colleagues including 
Robert Cailliau, Berners-Lee's invention grew 
from one server at CERN (1990), to millions and 
millions of servers today.

Yet even in those early days, Berners-Lee saw the 
potential for tremendous growth predicated on key 
features: openness of technologies, and 
agreed-upon standards and protocols. CERN agreed 
to make Tim's code available to all free of 
charge, but who would ensure that standards and 
protocols would be developed, disseminated and 
used, ensuring one Web for all users rather than 
fragmentation?

In October 1994, Berners-Lee, with help from the 
late Michael Dertouzos of the MIT Laboratory for 
Computer Science, founded the World Wide Web 
Consortium (W3C). Its earliest stated mission was 
to "Lead the Web to Its Full Potential." It has 
done so in at least two distinct ways. First, W3C 
has developed technical recommendations that 
industry embraces as Web standards such as 
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style 
Sheets (CSS), and Extensible Markup Language 
(XML), the last of which has given rise to new 
graphics and multimedia formats (SVG and SMIL) as 
well as applications for mobile devices, such as 
VoiceXML 2 and XHTML Basic. In addition to these 
formatting standards, W3C serves as the 
developmental center of the Semantic Web. The 
second way that W3C has impacted the Web is 
through the creation of policies and practices 
that encourage the extended applicability and 
growth of Web technologies to the broadest number 
of people, including W3C's Web Accessibility 
Initiative, its Internationalization Activity and 
its Patent Policy.

"W3C10" Program Looks Back, Looks Forward

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, W3C is 
organizing a one-day symposium on 1 December for 
its Members and invited guests to reflect on the 
impact of the Web, W3C's central role in its 
growth, and risks and opportunities facing the 
Web during W3C's second decade.

"This special anniversary brings the opportunity 
to acknowledge the impact of the Web and the 
W3C's stewardship role," said Tim Berners-Lee, 
W3C's Director. "I hope it will also inspire ever 
more collaboration, creativity, and understanding 
across the globe."

The event's emcee is Ethernet inventor and 
Internet pioneer Bob Metcalfe. The rich program 
includes equal parts reflection and projection. 
Sessions cover the early days of the Web and 
W3C's emergence, through the commercial and 
social impacts of the Web on the world we now 
experience. Others look at the impact of the Web, 
and of Web standards, with an eye towards new 
frontiers for Web technical development, and 
tensions that may require resolution.

"W3C10 is a celebration that brings together the 
people who are pioneering, standardizing, 
implementing and benefiting from Web 
technologies," explained Steve Bratt, W3C Chief 
Operating Officer. "We'll share stories from the 
W3C's past and dreams for the future of Web 
technology, making for a full and exciting day."

Sponsorship for W3C10 is International, Diverse

W3C10 enjoys generous sponsorship from both 
Members and outside organizations including 
Platinum sponsors MIT Computer Science and 
Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), HP, 
and Microsoft Corporation; Gold sponsors Adobe 
Systems, Amadeus e-Travel, BEA Systems, Google, 
IBM, ILOG, and INRIA; and Silver sponsors 
Billiotek srl, CERN, Digital Enterprise Research 
Institute (DERI), IONA Technologies, Inc., 
Intervoice, Inc., Nokia, Sogei, and Uncover the 
Net.

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 
(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. More than 350 organizations are 
Members of W3C. To learn more, see 
http://www.w3.org/

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

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Received on Tuesday, 30 November 2004 05:07:29 UTC