About W3C
W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) - possesses a status of an international consortium that includes member organizations, staff working full-time and Internet community that work together in order to develop and evolve web standards.
In pursue of attaining its mission, W3C set up 4 basic long term goals:
1.Web for everyone
2.Web on everything
3.Knowledge resource
4.Trust
1. The social value of the web makes it possible for people to communicate, trade and creates opportunities to get or share knowledge.One of the W3C's primary goals is enabling people the access to all positive aspects that the web brings in regardless of platform, software, infrastructure, language, culture, geographical location, intelectual or phisical capability.
W3C extends its activity through initiatives that directly reinforce technological developement of the web and benefits deriving from it all around the world. Work performed within spheres like
Web Accessibility, Internationalization, Device Independence and mobile web are particularly important if the web is to become accessible for everyone.
2. The number of different devices that are web accessible, is growing. Mobile phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants, interactive TV systems and even some AGD eqipement can possess web accessibility nowadays. The goal established by Mobile Web Initiative that was initiated in 2005 is providing different kind of devices with unlimited web accessibility.
3. Web is essentially not a sort of large book whose pages can be browsed, but is an extensive data base which when carefully designed, can allow computers to work more efficiently. Being developed, web gathers information processed by people and machines, W3C enables people to solve problems that in other case would turn out too difficult and complex to be solved.
4. Finally, in order that the web become a useful medium of social interaction, people must trust the other side that had deserved to be trusted. Technology itself cannot guarantee trust, but should enable safe transactions among trustworthy sides, people or organizations or services. One of W3C's long term goals is to promote technologies that will provide more cooperative environment - a web which elementary values are reliability, safety, trust and confidentiality and where people can participate according to their liking or privacy preferences.
W3C provides guidelines and Web Standards
Basically, W3C accomplishes its mission via developing guidelines and web standards. Since 1994 W3C published over 90 of such standards that are called W3C Recommendations. W3C also engages in education, evolves computer programmes and serves as an open forum for discussions concerning the web. So that the web can attain its full potential, all the most essential web technologies must be compatible and must cooperate with any device or software having access to internet. W3C reffers to this goal as 'web interoperationablity'. By publishing open (not proprietary) languages standards i web protocols, W3C strives at avoiding fragmentation of the market, and in consequence of the web.
W3C Structure
W3C members ensure requied force and direction W3C via investments and active participation in W3C's activities. W3C consists of 419 member organizations from over 40 countries (Photo 1), with a wide array of interests (Photo 2). In 2005 W3C imposed numerous changes concerning the structure of financial contributions to encourage particitation of developing countries.

Photo 1: W3C membership according to countries

Photo 2: W3C membership according to trade sectors
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