News Release: World Wide Web Consortium Forms Technical Architecture Group

For more information, please contact Janet Daly, 
W3C Head of Communications, at +1 617 253 5884.

-------------------------


World Wide Web Consortium Forms Technical Architecture Group

W3C TAG to document principles of Web architecture, help resolve
technical issues

Web Resources:

This press announcement:

	English: http://www.w3.org/2001/12/tag-pressrelease.html.en
	French: http://www.w3.org/2001/12/tag-pressrelease.html.fr
	Japanese: http://www.w3.org/2001/12/tag-pressrelease.html.ja

Testimonials from BEA Systems, Tim Bray, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft
Corporation:

	http://www.w3.org/2001/12/tag-testimonial.html

The Technical Architecture Group homepage:
	
	http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/

Contact America -- 
     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 -- 
     Saeko Takeuchi <saeko@w3.org>, +81.466.49.1170



http://www.w3.org/ -- 11 December 2001 -- The World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) today announced the creation of the W3C Technical Architecture
Group (TAG), whose mission is to build consensus around principles of
Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when
necessary.

The composition of the TAG is balanced between elected and appointed
participants, from W3C Members, the W3C Team, and from the larger Web
community. They have all been selected for the strength of their
technical backgrounds, their experience with Web technologies, and 
their ability to put the common good above proprietary considerations.

W3C Commits to Building Shared Understanding of Web Architecture

As W3C has grown, there have been more frequent requests (from W3C
Members and other parties) for documentation of architectural principles
that influence a range of technologies. People ask, "How do W3C
technologies fit together? What basics must people know before they
start developing a new technology?" Some discussions and debates within 
W3C have highlighted the need for documented architectural principles, 
as well as a process for resolving disagreements about architecture.

"The Web is a minimalist design: there are as few arbitrary constraints
as possible. However, as Web technologies must be interoperable and
consistent, it is very important to stick to those constraints," said
Tim Berners-Lee, W3C Director. "The TAG's role is to articulate these
constraints, and to apply them to conflicts that may arise."

The stated mission of the TAG is stewardship of Web Architecture. To
accomplish this mission, the TAG will:

   1. Document and build consensus around principles of Web architecture 
      and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary; 

   2. Resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the
      TAG; 

   3. Help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside
      and outside W3C. 

The TAG does not replace the Director in the W3C Process. However, it is
likely that the Director will consult the TAG when issues of Web
architecture arise.

W3C Attracts Technical Leaders to Document Web Architecture

As described in the TAG charter, five TAG participants are elected by
the W3C Membership and three are appointed by the Director. The Director
is the Chair of the TAG.

Those TAG participants nominated and elected by the W3C Membership (in
alphabetical order by last name) are:

     * Paul Cotton, Chair of W3C XML Query Working Group and Member of
	the XML Protocol Working Group (Microsoft Corporation) 
     * Roy Fielding, Co-author of HTTP/1.1 (eBuilt, Inc. and Chairman of 
	the Apache Software Foundation) 
     * David Orchard, Member of the W3C XML Core and XML Protocol
	Working Groups (BEA Systems) 
     * Norman Walsh, Member of the W3C XSL and XML Core Working Groups,
        and the URI Interest Group (Sun Microsystems) 
     * Stuart Williams, Member of the W3C XML Protocol Working Group 
        (Hewlett-Packard Company) 

Those TAG participants appointed by the W3C Director (in alphabetical
order by last name) are:

     * Tim Bray, Co-editor of W3C XML 1.0 (Antarcti.ca) 
     * Dan Connolly, Semantic Web developer, former W3C HTML Working
 	Group Chair and XML Activity Lead (W3C) 
     * Chris Lilley, Chair, W3C SVG Working Group, and W3C Graphics 
	Activity Lead (W3C) 

In general, TAG participants other than the Director serve two-year
terms. In order to stagger terms, some participants of the initial TAG
will serve a one-year term. 

Public Work Mode Supports Accountability

As the issues that the TAG will address are important to the Web
community at large, the discussion list for the TAG, as well as the list
of deliverables, the charter, and status reports, will be public
documents. Please refer to the public TAG home page for more
information.

Testimonials from BEA Systems, Tim Bray, Hewlett-Packard, and Microsoft
Corporation:

BEA welcomes this recognition by the W3C membership of our leadership
role in the development of web services standards and products. Being
elected to the Technical Architecture Group of the W3C will enable us to
play an even greater role in building consensus around web
standardization. We view the W3C as the primary organization for the
development of these standards and the TAG as the vehicle to provide the
leadership necessary to be successful.
-- Edward Cobb, Vice President, Architecture & Standards for BEA Systems


The Web is a wonderful thing: Programmers can easily create software
that works just fine with the servers at microsoft.com, sun.com and
ibm.com, which obviously are very different kinds of systems. The set of
rules that make this possible isn't big, but it is very important.
Someone has to take responsibility for making sure the rules keep
working, and that as we ask those servers to do more and more, we keep
those rules firmly in mind and don't break anything. I'm delighted to
have been asked to help out with this on the W3C TAG.
-- 
Tim Bray, antarcti.ca CEO and Co-editor of XML 1.0


We're delighted that HP is playing a critical role in the W3C's newly
formed TAG. We support open standards and market-unifying architectures
because they help our customers by levelling the playing field for
developers and pave the way for widespread innovation.

-- Rich DeMillo, VP and CTO, Hewlett-Packard Co.


Microsoft is very pleased that Paul has been elected to sit on the
Technical Architecture Group of the W3C. The W3C is an important part of
the standards process. This is a critical time for the evolution of XML
standards. The Technical Architecture Group is responsible to supply the
expertise necessary to ensure that W3C recommendations are technically
sound and relevant. Microsoft looks forward to working with the W3C and
its Member companies to help shape the future of XML and the Web.

-- Andrew Layman, XML Web Services architect, Microsoft Corporation

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 Laboratory for Computer Science (MIT LCS) in the USA, the
National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA)
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, reference code implementations to embody and
promote standards, and various prototype and sample applications to
demonstrate use of new technology. To date, over 510 organizations are
Members of the Consortium.


For more information about the World Wide Web Consortium, see
http://www.w3.org/


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Received on Tuesday, 11 December 2001 10:29:12 UTC