Editing World Wide Web Consortium (section)

==History==
{{See also|History of the World Wide Web}}
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded in 1994 by [[Tim Berners-Lee]] after he left the European Organization for Nuclear Research ([[CERN]]) in October 1994.<ref>{{cite news |last1=R |first1=Valsala |title=Can we imagine life without the World Wide Web? |url=https://www.deccanherald.com/specials/can-we-imagine-life-without-the-world-wide-web-1123051.html |access-date=15 July 2022 |work=Deccan Herald |date=1 July 2022}}</ref> It was founded at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT) [[Laboratory for Computer Science]] with support from the [[European Commission]], and the [[Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]], which had pioneered the [[ARPANET]], the most direct predecessor to the modern [[Internet]].<ref name="consortium">{{cite web |title=About us |url=https://www.w3.org/Consortium/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220321165722/https://www.w3.org/Consortium/ |archive-date=21 March 2022 |access-date=21 March 2022 |website=W3C}}</ref> It was located in [[Technology Square (Cambridge, Massachusetts)|Technology Square]] until 2004, when it moved, with the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, to the Stata Center.<ref>Michael Blanding, "[https://www.technologyreview.com/s/540206/the-past-and-future-of-kendall-square/ The Past and Future of Kendall Square]", ''MIT Technology Review'' August 18, 2015.</ref>

The organization tries to foster compatibility and agreement among industry members in the adoption of new standards defined by the W3C. Incompatible versions of [[HTML]] are offered by different vendors, causing inconsistency in how web pages are displayed. The consortium tries to get all those vendors to implement a set of core principles and components that are chosen by the consortium.

It was originally intended that CERN host the European branch of W3C; however, CERN wished to focus on [[particle physics]], not [[information technology]]. In April 1995, the [[French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation]] became the European host of W3C, with [[Keio University]] Research Institute at [[Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus|SFC]] becoming the Asian host in September 1996.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.w3.org/Press/Keio-PR.html|title=Press release: Keio University joins the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science and INRIA in Hosting the International World Wide Web Consortium |website=W3C|date=9 September 1996 |access-date=2017-07-13}}</ref> Starting in 1997, W3C created regional offices around the world. As of September 2009, it had eighteen World Offices covering Australia, the [[Benelux]] countries (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg), Brazil, China, Finland, Germany, Austria, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Morocco, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, and, as of 2016, the United Kingdom and Ireland.<ref name="Offices">{{cite web|url = http://www.w3.org/Consortium/org#offices|title = W3C Offices|access-date =14 September 2009|last = Jacobs|first = Ian|date=June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090906065319/http://www.w3.org/Consortium/org#offices |archive-date=Sep 6, 2009 }}</ref>

In October 2012, W3C convened a community of major web players and publishers to establish a [[MediaWiki]] wiki that seeks to document open web standards called the [[WebPlatform]] and WebPlatform Docs.

In January 2013, [[Beihang University]] became the Chinese host.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Beihang University Becomes Newest Institution to Host W3C|url=https://www.w3.org/2013/01/china-host.html.en|website=W3C|date=20 January 2013 }}</ref>

In 2022 the W3C WebFonts Working Group won an Emmy Award from the [[National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences]] for standardizing font technology for custom downloadable fonts and typography for web and TV devices.<ref>Pedersen, Erik, [https://deadline.com/2022/04/2021-technology-engineering-emmys-winners-list-1235009756/ "Technology & Engineering Emmys Winners Unveiled"]. ''Deadline.'' April 25, 2022.
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On 1 January 2023, it reformed as a public-interest [[501(c)(3) organization|501(c)(3)]] [[Nonprofit organization|non-profit organization]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-01-31 |title=W3C re-launched as a public-interest non-profit organization |url=https://www.w3.org/press-releases/2023/w3c-le-launched/ |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=W3C |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-02-02 |title=World Wide Web Consortium is now a public-interest nonprofit organization |url=https://news.mit.edu/2023/world-wide-web-consortium-is-now-public-interest-nonprofit-organization-0202 |access-date=2023-08-03 |website=Massachusetts Institute of Technology News |first=Rachel |last=Gordon |language=en}}</ref> In October 2023, Seth Dobbs was named as the organization's chief executive officer.<ref name="1:1" />