Pub­lish­ing@W3C is the Ac­tiv­ity under which the specif­i­cally pub­lish­ing-re­lated groups in the W3C are or­ga­nized: two Work­ing Groups, two Com­mu­nity Groups, and a Busi­ness Group.

The Work­ing Groups

Work­ing Groups are where for­mal W3C stan­dards, called Rec­om­men­da­tions, are de­vel­oped and main­tained. They have de­tailed char­ters spelling out the work they have agreed to do and the time­line for its com­ple­tion. Par­tic­i­pants, typ­i­cally tech­ni­cal peo­ple, are from or­ga­ni­za­tions that are reg­u­lar mem­bers of the W3C and that agree not to as­sert any patent claims on their con­tri­bu­tions. There are two Work­ing Groups in the Pub­lish­ing@W3C Ac­tiv­ity.

The EPUB 3 Work­ing Group is de­vel­op­ing and main­tain­ing the EPUB 3 fam­ily of spec­i­fi­ca­tions, with a focus on bring­ing EPUB 3.3 to for­mal W3C Rec­om­men­da­tion sta­tus. Im­por­tant as­pects of that work in­clude re­struc­tur­ing and clar­i­fy­ing the spec­i­fi­ca­tion and de­vel­op­ing a proper test­ing en­vi­ron­ment to im­prove read­ing sys­tem in­ter­op­er­abil­ity. Its char­ter ex­plic­itly re­quires that EPUB 3.3 must be back­wards-com­pat­i­ble with EPUB 3.2. EPUB Ac­ces­si­bil­ity 1.1 is also being taken to Rec­om­men­da­tion sta­tus by this Work­ing Group. Links to cur­rent drafts of EPUB 3.3, EPUB Ac­ces­si­bil­ity 1.1, and re­lated spec­i­fi­ca­tions are avail­able at the group’s pub­li­ca­tion sta­tus page, along with a wealth of other in­for­ma­tion about this work.

The Au­dio­books Work­ing Group is char­tered to main­tain the Au­dio­books Rec­om­men­da­tion, and the Pub­li­ca­tion Man­i­fest Rec­om­men­da­tions on which it is based, as well as fos­ter­ing and ad­vanc­ing the stan­dard­iza­tion of au­dio­books for the in­dus­try.

The Com­mu­nity Groups

Com­mu­nity Groups are where ideas are in­cu­bated in the W3C. They do not op­er­ate under the for­mal con­straints of Work­ing Groups. They’re open to any­body, not re­quir­ing mem­ber­ship in the W3C or ad­her­ing to the patent pol­icy re­quired for Work­ing Groups. Com­mu­nity Groups serve an es­sen­tial role in try­ing out new ideas and demon­strat­ing the need for a cur­rent or fu­ture Work­ing Group to ad­vance suc­cess­ful tech­nolo­gies with a proven need to Rec­om­men­da­tion sta­tus.

The Pub­lish­ing Com­mu­nity Group is the in­cu­ba­tion zone for the Pub­lish­ing@W3C Ac­tiv­ity. It cur­rently has task forces work­ing on ac­ces­si­bil­ity for fixed lay­out EPUBs and on de­vel­op­ing com­pre­hen­sive doc­u­men­ta­tion for EPUB. New ideas about EPUB should be brought to the CG. An­other Com­mu­nity Group is work­ing on Syn­chro­nized Mul­ti­me­dia for Pub­li­ca­tions.

The Pub­lish­ing Busi­ness Group

The Pub­lish­ing Busi­ness Group is for peo­ple and or­ga­ni­za­tions across the pub­lish­ing spec­trum to sup­port the Pub­lish­ing@W3C Ac­tiv­ity by in­form­ing the Work­ing Groups and Com­mu­nity Groups about needs and pri­or­i­ties, and by rais­ing funds for the de­vel­op­ment of im­por­tant re­sources like EPUB­Check. Its mem­bers are pri­mar­ily from the busi­ness side of pub­lish­ing-re­lated or­ga­ni­za­tions, rather than highly tech­ni­cal staff. Be­cause mem­ber­ship in a Busi­ness Group does not in­clude the abil­ity to par­tic­i­pate in Work­ing Groups, the dues are less than those for a full mem­ber­ship in the W3C.

Other Re­lated Work of In­ter­est

In ad­di­tion to the work of the Pub­lish­ing@W3C Ac­tiv­ity, peo­ple work­ing in the pub­lish­ing in­dus­try are also often in­ter­ested in the work of other areas in the W3C, such as Cas­cad­ing Style Sheets (CSS), the Web Ac­ces­si­bil­ity Ini­tia­tive, among oth­ers. Par­tic­i­pa­tion in In­ter­est and Work­ing Groups is open to reg­u­lar mem­bers of W3C.

Lat­est News

Ques­tions? Ivan Her­man, <ivan@​w3.​org>, Pub­lish­ing@W3C Tech­ni­cal Lead. This page is served from GitHub; com­ments and sug­ges­tions on the page can also be made via the GitHub is­sues’ list.