w3CS

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an international community that develops open standards to ensure the long-term growth of the Web. Founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee, it is a not-for-profit organization with staff and offices around the world and membership drawn from technology companies, academia, and research institutions. The W3C coordinates the development of web standards through Working Groups, Community Groups, and other collaborative forums, producing specifications, test suites, and recommendations.

Standards advance through defined stages, from Working Draft to Candidate Recommendation, Proposed Recommendation, and finally Recommendation. The consortium’s published standards cover core technologies such as HTML, CSS, and SVG, as well as accessibility guidelines under the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), and semantic web technologies like RDF and SPARQL. It also maintains XML-related technologies and participates in a broader ecosystem with other standards bodies to promote interoperability.

W3C operates under a patent policy designed to facilitate broad adoption of web standards by encouraging licensing on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory terms. The organization is funded by its member organizations and grants, and it provides a platform for collaboration among industry, academia, and public-interest groups. The W3C's ongoing work aims to address evolving web needs, including performance, security, and accessibility, while preserving openness and compatibility across platforms and devices.