Introduction to Web Standards - Web Standards: Mastering HTML5, CSS3, and XML - page 9

International Webmasters Association
The International Webmasters Association is a W3C member that “provides and fosters professional advancement
opportunities among individuals dedicated to or pursuing a Web career, and to work diligently to enhance their
effectiveness, image, and professionalism as they attract and serve their clients and employers” [33].
Web Industry Professionals Association
The Web Industry Professionals Association (WIPA) is a technical association in Australia. WIPA assembles
professional individuals working in the web industry to “exchange ideas, participate in debate, advance education and
promote ethical practice” [34]. WIPA is a major organizer of web courses in Australia.
Open Digital Rights Language Initiative
The Open Digital Rights Language (ODRL) Initiative is an international organization that develops and promotes the
ODRL vocabulary [35], which is an open standard for policy expressions (see the section “DC, IMS, and ODRL”).
Staying Informed: Events and Courses
Beyond online resources such as official news feeds, there are several types of appearances and events that
contribute to the worldwide distribution of web standards. The list includes press releases, scientific and professional
conferences, talks, workshops, meetings, discussion forums, symposiums, and tutorials. The papers or presentations
from these events are often available online. Web standardistas can use these documents to maintain up-to-date
knowledge and keep abreast of the latest specifications.
The primary resource for major web standards events such as workshops and conferences as well as
announcements of recommendations and presentations is the W3C web site at www.w3.org [36]. Events are classified
as “Talks and appearances” and “Events.” Past events are available in the News Archive [37].
The World Wide Web Consortium also offers online training courses on or related to standards such as SVG or
mobile-friendly web design through a dedicated portal [38]. The courses consist of weekly modules with instructions
( lectures ), link collection, activities, and a discussion forum. The quality is guaranteed by the instructors who are
either co-authors or editors of the relevant W3C standards or internationally recognized invited experts. Participants
can expect to spend two to three hours per week on these courses.
The Internationalization & Unicode Conference (IUC) has been organized annually since 1977. It covers the latest
industry standards and best practices on software and web application internationalization. Up-to-date information
about this conference is available at www.unicodeconference.org [39].
IETF meetings are held three times a year. Information on upcoming meetings, requests, materials, proceedings,
and sponsoring are published on the IETF web site [40].
The Dublin Core Metadata Initiative has held the International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata
Applications annually since 2001 [41].
WIPA provides up-to-date information on upcoming events such as Australian training courses and workshops
on the WIPA web site [34].
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) maintains an up-to-date calendar on IT conferences and
events, some of which are related to web technologies [42].
World Standards Day has been celebrated since 1970 by ISO, IEC, and ITU each year on 14 October in Geneva,
Switzerland. The message of World Standards Day 2010 clearly indicated a major aim of standardization: “Standards
make the world accessible for all” [43].
Not all prominent events have a long track history, though. Many promising conferences and workshops are good
initiatives such as the popular conference called Future of Web Apps [44].
There are web sites that are collections of events and articles of a given topic. A good example is
www.semanticmetadata.net , which is a comprehensive site for Semantic Web developers [45].