What Is The Full Form Of W3C?

The full form of W3C is the World Wide Web Consortium.

W3C is an international establishment organization for the WWW (World Wide Web). Its main motive is to lead the web to its full potential by ensuring regular development and improvement using various protocols. The W3C consists of members of the organization that contains full-time working staff. The organization also engages in outreach and education, develops various software, and serves as an open forum for people to discuss the Web.

Currently, Tim Berners-Lee leads the W3C. It has a staff of 443 members- with the main headquarters located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Several hundred member organizations from various related IT industries constitute the W3C. The organization sets standards for the WWW (World Wide Web) to facilitate cooperation and interoperability among all web stakeholders.

History of W3C

• Tim Berners-Lee founded the W3C at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in October 1994, with the support of CERN and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency).
• The main vision behind W3C was standardizing the technologies and the protocols used in building the web. It tried to encourage the organizations to adopt the new standards defined by the W3C.
• The W3C published various recommendations in the next few years, like CSS (versions 1 and 2), the format of PNG images, etc.
• CERN first considered hosting the European branch of W3C, but it did not happen later as CERN focused on physics rather than IT (Information Technology).
• Thus, the European branch of W3C was hosted by the INRIA (French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation) in April 1995.
• Various other hosts were decided further, such as Keio University being the Asian host, Beihang University being the Chinese host, etc.

Characteristics of W3C

• The World Wide Web Consortium takes the responsibility of creating and publishing the web standards.
• It ensures the overall growth and development of the web.
• W3C develops the main standards for web applications, web scripting, and various other dynamic content.
• The organization helps in promoting interoperability by promoting and designing open protocols.
• The principles of simplicity, modularity and extensibility come into play under W3C.

Benefits of W3C

• It makes the process of maintenance of the W3C validated websites easier.
• W3C enables faster browser interaction.
• It provides a defined and consistent look for all the websites validated by the W3C.
• The W3C standardizes the validated websites to make them accessible on different devices.
• The inventor of the web- Tim Berners-Lee, founded the W3C.
• The organization has a membership including the key participants in the IT industry.
• It has a track record of success.

Fundamental Principles of W3C

• Broad consensus
• Due process
• Transparency
• Balance
• Openness

Standards Developed by W3C

• CGI
• DOM
• CSS
• HTML
• XHTML
• HTTP
• XML

Limitations of W3C

• Validation from W3C is a timely process. Thus, the time for full validation isn’t fixed. It depends on the website code.
• The W3C validation exercises have varied costs associated with them.
• Translation issues may also arise at times when validating websites through W3C.

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