News Release: W3C Standards Make Mobile Web Experience More Inviting

Hello,

W3C today announced new standards that will make it easier for people
to browse the Web on mobile devices. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0,
published as a W3C Recommendation, condenses the experience of many
mobile Web stakeholders into practical advice on creating
mobile-friendly content.

Read the full text of the press release below or on the
Web in these languages:

  English:
      http://www.w3.org/2008/07/mwbp-pressrelease.html.en
  French:
      http://www.w3.org/2008/07/mwbp-pressrelease.html.fr
  Japanese:
      http://www.w3.org/2008/07/mwbp-pressrelease.html.ja
  Other translations:
      http://www.w3.org/Press/#x2008-mwbprec

W3C Members dotMobi, Fundación CTIC, Openwave and Vodafone
have contributed testimonials with this release:
   http://www.w3.org/2008/07/mwbp-testimonial


The Web Standards published today:

  Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0
  http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-mobile-bp-20080729/

  XHTML Basic 1.1
  http://www.w3.org/TR/2008/REC-xhtml-basic-20080729/


Read more about W3C's Mobile Web Initiative (MWI):
  http://www.w3.org/Mobile

Please contact Ian Jacobs <w3t-pr@w3.org> if you have any
questions about this release.  Thank you,

 Ian Jacobs, Head of W3C Communications

=======================================
W3C Standards Make Mobile Web Experience More Inviting
New Work Started on Mobile Web Application Guidelines

   http://www.w3.org/ -- 29 July 2008 -- W3C today announced new
   standards that will make it easier for people to browse the Web on
   mobile devices. Mobile Web Best Practices 1.0, published as a
   W3C Recommendation, condenses the experience of many mobile Web
   stakeholders into practical advice on creating mobile-friendly
   content.

   "Mobile Web content developers now have stable guidelines and
   maturing tools to help them create a better mobile Web experience,"
   said Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, W3C Mobile Web Activity Lead. "In
   support of the W3C mission of building One Web, we want to support
   the developer community by providing tools to enable a great mobile
   Web user experience."

Mobile Web Design Guidelines Address Challenges on the Go

   Mobile Web Best Practices flip card excerpt Mobile Web Best
   Practices Flip Cards Summarize the Guidelines

   People who want to use the Web while "on the go" face several
   challenges, including hardware and software diversity, device
   constraints, and bandwidth limitations. Mobile Web Best Practices
   1.0 helps content authors face those challenges and develop content
   that works on a wide array of mobile devices. Authors and other
   content producers will find practical advice for managing user
   experience challenges such as data input and page scrolling.

   Until today, content developers faced an additional challenge: a
   variety of mobile markup languages to choose from. With the
   publication of the XHTML Basic 1.1 Recommendation today, the
   preferred format specification of the Best Practices, there is now a
   full convergence in mobile markup languages, including those
   developed by the Open Mobile Alliance (OMA).

   The W3C mobileOK checker (beta), when used with the familiar
   W3C validator, helps developers test mobile-friendly Web
   content.

Next Steps: Mobile Web Application Guidelines

   According to Juniper Research, "the global market for Mobile Web
   2.0 will be worth $22.4 billion in 2013, up from $5.5 billion
   currently." Keeping pace with this trend, the Mobile Web Best
   Practices (MWBP) Working Group published today the first draft of
   the next generation of guidelines, Mobile Web Application Best
   Practices, aimed at mobile Web applications. While the "original"
   best practices document focused on traditional Web browsing, the new
   guidelines will focus on the use of Web applications and widgets for
   user interaction opportunities on mobile devices. For example,
   mobile content providers might use Web applications together with
   geolocation information to provide users with richer location-based
   services and interfaces.


   W3C is also developing resources to help authors understand how to
   create content that is both mobile-friendly and accessible to
   people with disabilities. A draft of Relationship between Mobile
   Web Best Practices (MWBP) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
   (WCAG) is jointly published by the The Mobile Web Best Practices
   Working Group and WAI's Education & Outreach Working Group
   (EOWG).

   The MWBP Working Group participants, including key leaders from the
   mobile industry and representatives of the Mobile Web Initiative
   (MWI) sponsors, are declaring their support for today's set of
   published mobile Web technologies.


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.

-- 
Ian Jacobs (ij@w3.org)   http://www.w3.org/People/Jacobs/
Tel:                     +1 718 260-9447

Received on Tuesday, 29 July 2008 15:26:42 UTC