Re: WAP and its competitors

"Sujatha N. Marsden" <smarsden@etranslate.com> wrote:

> I have been keenly following this IG and I have a great interest in it.
> But my head reels.

Could be ...

> KVM, NTT, WAP...WML, HDML, WBXML, C-HTML...

Well, it seems you're mixing so different things here.

> NTT seems to have their own
> protocol but they are members of W3C as well.

In fact, NTT DoCoMo is a board member of the WAP Forum as well.

> WAP has been submitted to
> W3C for review but NTT's hasn't been.

"WAP" includes a lot of things (WML, WMLScript, WBXML, WSP, WTP, WDP,
WCMP, ...), and only WBXML has been submitted to the W3C so far.

> NTT is in Japan, WAP in Europe.

Well, isn't the WAP Forum a world-wide organization?  There are many
members of the WAP Forum from the US as well as Asia, and in fact some
companies are providing "so-called" WAP services in Japan.

> With so many protocols and formats, how does W3C work to make sure that the
> internet community doesn't end up with diverging protocols and formats?  If
> there are protocols & formats in work already in the fields, how do we have
> any influence on their future enhancements that would lead them towards
> some sort of standardization.  

There is the WAP Forum - W3C Coordination Group (see press release [1]).
This group exists to maintain and develop consistency between
the specifications of the WAP Forum and the W3C.  XHTML Basic [2] is
an attempt to that direction.  There are other areas of coordination,
e.g. on multimedia.

You may also be interested in the Plenary Panel at WWW9 on May 17, 2000:
"Towards a WAP-Wide-Web?" [3]  This panel would exactly deal with your
concern.

[1] http://www.w3.org/1999/12/W3C-WAP-CG-pr
[2] http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml-basic
[3] http://www9.org/w9-panels.html

Regards,
-- 
Masayasu Ishikawa / mimasa@w3.org
W3C - World Wide Web Consortium

Received on Friday, 17 March 2000 08:14:40 UTC