W3C - News

• First Public Working Draft: CSS Scroll Snap Module Level 2

  The CSS Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of CSS Scroll Snap Module Level 2. This module contains features to control panning and scrolling behavior with “snap positions”.CSS is a language for describing the rendering of structured documents (such as HTML and XML) on screen, on paper, etc.

• Eight Draft Notes published by the Internationalization Working Group

  The Internationalization Working Group has published the following seven Draft Notes:Mongolian Script ResourcesKorean Script ResourcesGeorgian Script ResourcesEthiopic Script ResourcesDevanagari Script ResourcesBengali Script ResourcesCyrillic Script ResourcesThese documents respectively point to resources for the layout and presentation of text in languages that use the Mongolian, Korean, Georgian, Ethiopic, Devanagari, Bengali, and Cyrillic scripts. The target audience includes developers of Web standards and technologies, such as HTML, CSS, Mobile Web, Digital Publications, and Unicode, as well as implementers of web browsers, ebook readers, and other applications that need to render Mongolian, Korean, Georgian, Ethiopic, Devanagari, Bengali, and Cyrillic text.The group also published a Draft Note of Cyrillic Gap Analysis, which describes and prioritises gaps for the support of the Cyrillic script on the Web and in eBooks. In particular, it is concerned with text layout. It checks that needed features are supported in W3C specifications, such as HTML and CSS and those relating to digital publications. It also checks whether the features have been implemented in browsers and ereaders.

• Draft Note: Collaboration Tools Accessibility User Requirements

  The Accessible Platform Architectures (APA) Research Questions Task Force (RQTF) welcomes feedback on the updated Draft W3C Group Note Collaboration Tools Accessibility User Requirements. The document covers accessibility user needs, requirements, and scenarios for collaborative content creation and development tools. The solutions identified in this document are intended to influence the evolution of future accessibility guidelines, technical specifications, or features of collaboration tools and assistive technologies. They are also relevant to software developers who contribute to developing the collaborative experience. Questions for this review are in e-mail for CTAUS review. Please send any comments by 30 September 2024.

• Drafts and Notes: Update of the Media Source Extensions™ (MSE) and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) families of specifications

  The Media Working Group has published the following 14 updates of the Media Source Extensions™ (MSE) and Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) families of specifications. Unless otherwise noted, the updates are maintenance releases of specifications previously published by the now closed HTML Media Extensions Working Group:Media Source Extensions™ Byte Stream Formats:Media Source Extensions Byte Stream Format Registry, published as a Draft Registry.WebM Byte Stream Format, published as a Group Note.ISO BMFF Byte Stream Format, published as a Group Note.MPEG-2 TS Byte Stream Format, published as a Group Note.MPEG Audio Byte Stream Format, published as a Group Note.Encrypted Media Extensions, published as a First Public Working Draft with two new minor features compared to the previously published Recommendation (encryption scheme capability detection and ability to query the status of a key associated with an HDCP policy). The inclusion of other features is out of scope for the Media Working Group.Encrypted Media Extensions HDCP Version Registry, published as a Draft Registry. This new non-normative document provides a mapping between High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) version strings and HDCP specifications.Encrypted Media Extensions Initialization Data Formats:Encrypted Media Extensions Initialization Data Format Registry, published as a Draft Registry."cenc" Initialization Data Format, published as a Group Note."keyids" Initialization Data Format, published as a Group Note."webm" Initialization Data Format, published as a Group Note.Encrypted Media Extensions Stream Formats:Encrypted Media Extensions Stream Format Registry, published as a Draft Registry.ISO Common Encryption Protection Scheme for ISO Base Media File Format Stream Format, published as a Group Note.WebM Stream Format, published as a Group Note.

• Diversity report 2024

  W3C released today the 2024 diversity report. As part of our commitment and continued focus on diversity and inclusion, since 2018 we annually report on gender and geographic diversity at W3C.We would like W3C to be a model of supporting diversity. As an international organization, we can see the immense value we gain from having greater gender diversity, and expertise from across multiple countries and cultures. The diversity of the whole world needs to be reflected, as 66% of the world is now online and as more people continue to access and use the Web that we develop the standards of, here together at the Web Consortium.We believe that more diversity means better representation, which leads to better and more inclusive design. Indeed, more background, more use cases, more edge cases, lead to a better Web. More diversity also brings higher quality results.

• Draft Notes: Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese Script Resources

  The Internationalization Working Group has published the following three Draft Notes:Hebrew Script ResourcesArabic Script ResourcesChinese Script ResourcesThese documents respectively point to resources for the layout and presentation of text in languages that use the Hebrew, Arabic and Chinese script. The target audience includes developers of Web standards and technologies, such as HTML, CSS, Mobile Web, Digital Publications, and Unicode, as well as implementers of web browsers, ebook readers, and other applications that need to render Hebrew, Arabic and Chinese text.

• Draft Notes: Latin Script Resources and Gap Analysis

  The Internationalization Working Group has published the following two Draft Notes:Latin Script Resources: This document points to resources for the layout and presentation of text in languages that use the Latin script. The target audience includes developers of Web standards and technologies, such as HTML, CSS, Mobile Web, Digital Publications, and Unicode, as well as implementers of web browsers, ebook readers, and other applications that need to render Latin text.Latin Script Gap Analysis: This document describes and prioritises gaps for the support of the Latin script on the Web and in eBooks. In particular, it is concerned with text layout. It checks that needed features are supported in W3C specifications, such as HTML and CSS and those relating to digital publications. It also checks whether the features have been implemented in browsers and ereaders.

• W3C Team appointments to the TAG ratified

  Following the W3C Technical Architecture Group (TAG)'s election results, the W3C Team has chosen and the Advisory Board and Technical Architecture Group have ratified the appointment of the following to the TAG for the remainder of the 2024-2026 term:Tristan NitotJeffrey YasskinTristan Nitot is an influential leader who was appointed advisor at the French National Digital Council (Conseil National du Numérique). Tristan has a wealth of experience in product and communications roles, as well as in the open source ecosystem. His background in promoting web standards and privacy aligns well with the W3C and TAG missions. The Team expects Tristan to be a strong ally to sustainable and respectful technical advances.Jeffrey Yasskin has a long, committed, and consistent participation in W3C, including strong privacy implementation involvement serving as editor of TAG’s Privacy Principles and a leading participant in the TAG privacy task force and multiple privacy Groups. In addition, the Team feels that it is important to retain a strong connection between the TAG and the Chrome and Chromium projects for design reviews.This procedure is the result of new rules set forth by the Process Document regarding TAG appointees and follows a public call for nominations which together with nominations from the W3C Team and Members surfaced a list of several non-traditional candidates. The Team considered what each on the list would bring to the TAG. In addition to the aspects mentioned in Process, the Team considered cultural diversity and gender diversity. No two of the candidates filled every criteria the Team wished to have been able to fill. The Team did not approach everyone on the list to measure their interest and some of those who were approached declined, for a variety of reasons. As this was the first instance executing the provisions of Process 2023 for Team appointments to the TAG there were delays due to interpretation, questions on selection criteria and so forth. In future, the Team will begin the process of soliciting candidates much sooner than we did this time. About the W3C TAGThe TAG was created in 2001 as a special W3C working group, chartered to steward the Web architecture. To do so, it fulfills 3 missions:to document and build consensus around principles of Web architecture and to interpret and clarify these principles when necessary;to resolve issues involving general Web architecture brought to the TAG;to help coordinate cross-technology architecture developments inside and outside W3C.The TAG is part of the Horizontal Review Process and reviews a large number of specifications done at W3C and outside, even during their early stage.The TAG and the W3C Advisory Board are also part of the W3C Council to help resolve objections on specifications.

• W3C offers an Inclusion Fund for TPAC 2024

  As 66% of the world is now online, we want and need to reflect the diversity of the whole world as more people continue to access, use and create the web. We believe that more diversity means better representation, which leads to better and more inclusive design. More diversity also brings higher quality results.We are opening today the W3C TPAC Inclusion Fund applications, until 31 July. This is designed for people from an under-represented group who wouldn’t be able to attend or meaningfully contribute to TPAC without financial support.We are grateful to this year's sponsors W3C, Igalia, Tetralogical and an anonymous donor.You can read more about this program on the TPAC 2024 registration page.

• Draft Note for Wide Review: Guidance on Applying WCAG 2 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT)

  The Accessibility Guidelines (AG) Working Group has published an updated Draft Group Note of Guidance on Applying WCAG 2 to Non-Web Information and Communications Technologies (WCAG2ICT). WCAG2ICT provides guidance on applying WCAG 2 to non-web documents and software. This is the planned last draft before the group publishes this as a W3C Group Note.Comments are welcome through 6 August 2024.