W3C

The Data on the Web Best Practices Working Group has published three documents for which reviews are actively sought.

• The Data on the Web Best Practices document offers advice on how data of all kinds – government, research, commercial – can be shared on the Web, whether openly or not. The underlying aim is to make data intelligently available, maximizing the likelihood of its discovery and reuse. The provision of a variety of metadata, the use of URIs as identifiers and multiple access options are key to this. The Working Group believes that the document is now complete and is seeking review before the transition to Candidate Recommendation (call for implementations).

Two new vocabularies accompany the Best Practices document:

• The Dataset Usage Vocabulary offers a framework in which citations, comments, and uses of data within applications can be structured. The aim is to benefit data publishers by enabling assessment of the impact of their efforts to share data, and to benefit data users by encouraging the continued availability of data and the visibility of their own work that uses it.
• The Data Quality Vocabulary is a framework in which the quality of a dataset can be described, whether by the dataset publisher or by a broader community of users. It does not provide a formal, complete definition of quality, rather, it sets out a consistent means by which information can be provided such that a potential user of a dataset can make his/her own judgment about its fitness for purpose.

The vocabularies are seen as mature and the Working Group is seeking one last round of feedback to enable them to be published as Working Group Notes in the near future.

The Web Real-Time Communications Working Group and Device and Sensors Working Group have published a Candidate Recommendation of Media Captures and Streams. This document defines a set of JavaScript APIs that allow local media, including audio and video, to be requested from a platform. It also defines APIs for requesting access to local multimedia devices, such as microphones or video cameras.

The Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of CSS Cascading and Inheritance Level 3. One of the fundamental design principles of CSS is cascading, which allows several style sheets to influence the presentation of a document. When different declarations try to set a value for the same element/property combination, the conflicts must somehow be resolved.

The WAI Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) has posted the first version of Web Accessibility Perspectives that explores the impact of accessibility for people with disabilities and the benefits for everyone. This resource introduces 10 web accessibility topics with short videos, brief descriptions, and links to learn more. The videos relate the benefits of accessibility to everyone in different situations, and encourage viewers to learn more about web accessibility. Read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

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The Timed Text Working Group has published a Group Note of TTML Media Type Definition and Profile Registry. This document defines the application/xml+ttml media type and provides a registry of identified TTML processor profiles. A processor profile is an identified reference to a set of capabilities that a processor supports, which may be defined in a specification document, a TTML Profile Definition Document or both.

The Web Application Security Working Group has published a Proposed Recommendation of Subresource Integrity. This specification defines a mechanism by which user agents may verify that a fetched resource has been delivered without unexpected manipulation. Comments are welcome through 07 June.

The HTML Media Extensions Working Group has published 7 Group Notes:

• WebM Stream Format: This specification defines the stream format for using WebM content with the Encrypted Media Extensions.
• ISO Common Encryption (‘cenc’) Protection Scheme for ISO Base Media File Format Stream Format: Defines the stream format for using ISO Base Media File Format content that uses the ISO Common Encryption (‘cenc’) protection scheme with the Encrypted Media Extensions.
• Encrypted Media Extensions Stream Format Registry: Defines the stream formats for use with the Encrypted Media Extensions.
• “cenc” Initialization Data Format: Defines the “cenc” Initialization Data format for use with the Encrypted Media Extensions. This format is commonly used with the ISO Common Encryption (‘cenc’) Protection Scheme for ISO Base Media File Format Stream Format.
• “webm” Initialization Data Format: Defines the “webm” Initialization Data format for use with the Encrypted Media Extensions. This format is commonly used with the WebM Stream Format.
• “keyids” Initialization Data Format: Defines the “keyids” Initialization Data format for use with the Encrypted Media Extensions.
• Encrypted Media Extensions Initialization Data Format Registry: Defines the Initialization Data formats for use with the Encrypted Media Extensions.

The Web Components Patent Advisory Group (PAG), launch in January 2016, has published a report recommending per Option 1 of the W3C Patent Policy, that W3C continue work on the Web Components Specification. The PAG concludes that the initial concern has been resolved, enabling the Working Group to continue. More detail is available in the PAG report. W3C launches a PAG to resolve issues in the event a patent has been disclosed that may be essential, but is not available under the W3C Royalty-Free licensing terms.