W3C Office 10th Anniversary, Paris

Bob Hopgood

2008

Overview

ERCIM

ERCIM Members 1991

• France Denoth (CNR)
• Cor Baayen (CWI)
• Paul Williams (RAL)
• Alain Bensoussan (INRIA)
• Gerhard Seegmuller (GMD)
• INESC Directors in centre (Jose Tribolet and Laurenco Fernandes)

ERCIM Workshops at RAL 1991

WebCore

• W3C Launched 1994
• October 1994: MIT Host: Al Vezza
• December 1994: EC award INRIA WebCore Project to establish European Host
  • December 1994 - January 1997
  • To create a European information market that improves the European economy and quality of life
• ERCIM agreed to help INRIA establish the European Host:
  • GMD, CWI, RAL etc second staff to INRIA
  • 1995: ERCIM EEIG joined W3C
  • RAL, GMD, FORTH, CNR, SICS, .... also join
• W3C Early Deliverables:
  • March 1995: INRIA Host: Jeff Abramatic
  • May 1996; INRIA Host WWW5 in Paris with support from RAL
  • PNG: October 1996
  • PICS: October 1996
  • CSS 1: December 1996
  • HTML 3.2: January 1997
  • Jigsaw and Amaya
• August 1996 Jeff Abramatic becomes Chairman of W3C
• European Commission will consider funding a follow up Project to raise awareness in Europe but require it to have more partners than just INRIA

W3C-LA

• EC funded Leveraging Action: November 1997- March 1999
• WebCore had improved the web's basic infrastructure
• Need now was to increase European activity in Web marketplace
• Main Actions:
  • Provide W3C Offices as National Points of Contact
  • Raise awareness
    • Offices to act as national W3C mirror sites
    • Offices to encourage translations into local languages
    • Offices to run Symposia and Workshops
  • Encourage industry champions by developing shrink-wrapped demonstrators
    • Performance: Jigsaw implementation of HTTP 1.1
    • Content Design: CSS in Amaya
    • Trust: use PICS to label, rate and filter content
    • Europeanisation of the web via multi-lingual information services
    • Web Collections: a set of web pages that act as one
    • Synchronisation and Vector Graphics: SMIL, CGM and eventually SVG
  • W3C's Jigsaw server and Amaya browser were the main infrastructure for the demonstrators
• Manager W3C-LA: Jeff Abramatic; Deputy Manager: Bob Hopgood

W3C-LA Project

• Initially considered ERCIM as the INRIA Partner in W3C-LA
• Eventually RAL was designated the partner
• ERCIM members to be W3C Office Sites
• Six European Offices established
  • RAL, SICS, GMD, CWI, FORTH, CNR
  • VTT were asked but declined
  • SINTEF, SGFI, SZTAKI were ineligible
• Raise Awareness Early On:
  • Literature
  • Presence at Events
  • Portable Stand
  • Launch Offices

Leaflets

• Leaflets on Everything
• Standard 2-page format
• Translated into several languages
• Purchased set of portable holders

Portable Stand

• W3C-LA Stand purchased by Josianne Roberts
• Travelled widely in Europe
• Material and Stand could be transported by one person
• Velcro blocks that could be organised to suit the occasion

October 1997 - April 1998

1-5 October 1997

Infosys '97, Thessalonki

10-12 November 1997

OpenNet '97, Berlin

24-28 November, 1997

EITC '97, Brussels

3 December 1997

RAL Office Opening, London

28 January 1998

Web/CHI Event, Netherlands

19-25 March 1998

CeBIT '98, Hanover

30 March 1998

SICS Office Opening, Stockholm

1 April 1998

GMD Office Opening, Bonn

2 April 1998

CWI Office Opening, Utrecht

EITC '97

• 24-28 November 1997, Brussels
• First major Conference presence
  • Jeff Abramatic, Bob Hopgood, Martin Prime, Josiane Roberts set up stand
  • Many W3C staff helped with demonstrations throughout the week
• W3C Structured into three Domains:
  • Architecture
  • User Interface
  • Trust and Society
• Ran seven demonstrations:
  • HTTP 1.1, CSS and Performance: Stephane Boyera
  • XML/MathML: Content design: Vincent Quint and Irene Vatton
  • PICS and trust: Daniel Dardailler
  • Amaya and Europeanisation
  • Web Collections
  • SMIL: synchronisation: Martin Prime
  • Vector Graphics: CGM and Web Schematics (later SVG): Roy Platon

UK Opening, 3 December 1997

• RSA: Royal Society for the Arts, Manufactures & Commerce
• Started in 1774

Programme

Overview of W3C

Jeff Abramatic

Realising the Full Potential of the Web

Tim Berners-Lee

User Interface Domain

Bert Bos

Architecture Domain

Philipp Hoschka

Technology and Society

Josef Dietl

UK OFFICE Opening, 3 December 1997: Speakers

UK Office Opening, 3 December 1997: Demonstrations

UK Office Opening, 3 December 1997: Attendees

CeBIT '98

Sweden: Office Opening, March 30, 1998

• Electrum Building, Kista, Stockholm
• W3C had just launched WAI as a 4th Domain
• Robert Caillau and Judy Brewer gave the keynote talks
• Staff from INRIA and RAL helped with demonstrations
• All moved on to Bonn the next day

Germany: Office Opening, April 1, 1998

• Held at GMD Schloss, Birlinghoven, Sankt Augustin
• Trust and Society: PICS and Digital Signatures
• User Interface: HTML, DOM, CSS, Graphics, MathML
• Architecture: HTTP 1.1, XML, SMIL

Netherlands: Office Opening, April 2, 1998 with Judy Brewer and Robert Cailliau the main speakers

W3C-LA

W3C-LA Closing Event, December 1998

W3C-LA Closing Event, December 1998: Speakers

W3C-LA Closing Event, December 1998: Demonstrations

Was W3C-LA Successful?

Growth in Internet Users
Country	Internet Users (Millions)
With Offices
UK	13.975
Germany	12.285
France	5.696
Sweden	3.950
Netherlands	2.933
Without Offices
Finland	1.430
Belgium	1.400
Norway	1.340
Switzerland	1.179

Growth in W3C Affilate Membership (%)
USA	80
Europe	160

And the rise was mainly in European countries with Offices

After W3C-LA

• Josef Dietl took over running the Offices once they were established
  • MIT Offices: Hong Kong and Taiwan
  • W3C-LA Offices: UK, Sweden, Germany, Netherlands, Greece, Italy
• I ran the UK Office during 1999 before I retired from RAL early in 2000
• Josef Dietl resigned and I joined W3C to run the Offices
• W3C were keen on expanding the coverage of the Offices particularly where they broadened W3C's Internationalisation expertise and outreach
  • I opened Offices in Israel, Australia, Morocco
• Eurographics 2000: Interlaken, 20-25 August 2000
• Talked to Ivan Herman who was seeking a new challenge
• Ivan took over from me at the end of 2000
• Ivan Herman: 2001-2006
  • Korea, Hungary, Finland, Spain, India
• 2006-2008: Daniel Dardailler, Klaus Birkenbihl
  • South Africa, Brazil

QUESTION-HOW

• A follow on to W3C-LA
• The world's worst acronym: I apologise!
• QUality Engineering Solutions via # Tools, Information and Outreach for the New Highly-enriched Offerings from W3C: Evolving the Web in Europe
• EC was happy to consider a follow on to W3C-LA
  • Better European coverage
  • Move into Eastern Europe
  • Develop useful tools
  • Allow companies to make mission-critical decisions with regard to the Web
  • Inform Europe of emerging technologies
• The Web had changed significantly since the start of W3C-LA:
  • XML replacing HTML for Web Content
  • Access devices broadening: PDAs, mobile phones, TV, cookers and refrigerators
  • Metadata as an aid to searching becoming important
  • Modularisation of standards to allow negotiation
  • Generic XML-based applications: MathML, SMIL, SVG, CML etc
  • A richer and improved interaction model

QUESTION-HOW: Euro Speak

• WP1: Helping Companies Develop Mission Critical Solutions of Quality in a Complex and Rapidly Changing Environment
• WP2: Provide Additional Tools to Support New Technologies
• WP3: Extend Outreach of Existing Offices
• WP4: New European Offices
• WP5: Infrastructure for Informed Decisions
• WP6: European Events
• WP7: Project Management

QUESTION-HOW: W3C Speak

• WP1: CSS and XHTML Validators, Robust Tidy, SirPAC (RDF), SVG Test Suite
• WP2: SMIL 2, XHTML, Mobile, RDF, XSLT awareness. Work on XForms, XEvents and Web Services
• WP3:
  • Germany becomes Austria, Switzerland and Germany,
  • UK becomes UK and Ireland,
  • Netherlands becomes Benelux,
  • Sweden becomes Scandinavia,
  • Italy becomes Italy and Italian-speaking Switzerland etc
• WP4: Add Hungary, Spain or Portugal, possibly Finland and one other Eastern European
• WP5: Presentations, Handouts, Case Studies, Stand Material, New Demonstrators
• WP6: Interoperabilty (Mobile and XML-interworking) and Semantic (XML Schemas and RDF) Web Tours
• WP7: Organise and Report back

QUESTION-HOW

• Agreed with Commission in Brussels
  • Jeff Abramatic, Bob Hopgood, Philipp Hoschka, Ivan Herman
• I handed over to Ivan Herman
• September 2001 - September 2003
• Offices involved: UK, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Greece, Israel, Sweden
• Regionalisation
• New Offices: Finland, Spain and Hungary
• 2002: European Interop Tour: Paris, Vienna, Dublin, Brussels
• 2003: Semantic Tour: Rome, London, Munich, Athens, Brussels
• Deliverables
  • HTML and CSS Validators
  • Tidy
  • SVG Benchmark
  • Start the move of the W3C Host to ERCIM

Office Successes

• Raised Awareness
• Raised Membership
• Supported existing W3C Members
• Major contribution to I18N: websites, translations, etc
• Improved the infrastructure: demonstrators, validators, test suites, etc
• Contributed to standards: SMIL, SVG, CGM, XML, RDF, PICS, HTML, PNG, Accessibility, mobile web, etc
• 1994-2001 was an interesting period ;-)