Transcript Getting Involved in Technical Standards Organizations

Getting Involved
in the W3C
Lorrie Cranor
Mary Fernandez
Overview
What is the W3C?
What areas does W3C work in?
Our experiences with W3C
What’s in it for you?
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What is W3C?
 Over 400 member companies
 Interested in any technology related to the
web
 New activities created at request of members
Working groups chartered
Working groups make draft recommendations
After a long time proposed recommendations go to
membership for “vote”
 Public input solicited, but only members
“vote”
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W3C Domains
 Architecture
HTTP
XML
 Technology and Society
P3P
Metadata
 User Interface
HTML
DOM
CSS/XSL
 Web Accessibility Initiative
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Lorrie’s experience with W3C
 Involved in P3P work at W3C for about 3
years
 AT&T representative to W3C advisory
committee
 Chair of P3P specification working group for
about a year
 Working on P3P has been…
Interesting
Exciting
Frustrating
Time consuming
Fun
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P3P Working Group members
hard at work in Kiel, Germany
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Floating some ideas…
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Mary’s experience with W3C
 XML Query working group – for about 1 year
 Editor of 2 out of 3 public documents
 Chair of subgroup with XSLT
 Working on XML Query has been…
Interesting
Exciting
Frustrating
Time consuming
Fun
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Pros and cons of standards work
Positives
Negatives
+ Opportunity for your work to
have real impact
- Time consuming
+ Lots of networking
opportunities
- Lots of time spent on political
issues
+ High profile work may be
viewed as valuable by employer
and others
- Employer may not view work
as very valuable
+ Lots of travel to exotic (and
not-so-exotic) places
- Lots of travel to exotic (and
not-so-exotic) places
+ Opportunity to work with lots
of different people with diverse
view points
- Opportunity to work with lots
of different people with diverse
view points
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Find out more
W3C web site: http://www.w3.org
AT&T W3C mailing list:
email [email protected] with
the message: subscribe w3c
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