The mission of the Audio Working Group is to define a client-side script API adding more advanced audio capabilities than are currently offered by audio elements. The API will support the features required by advanced interactive applications including the ability to process and synthesize audio streams directly in script.

Chairs: Joe Berkovitz, Matt Paradis
W3C Staff Contacts: Doug Schepers, Chris Lilley
Scheduled to end: 2016-09-01

The Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is chartered to maintain and support the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 W3C Recommendation, and develop ATAG 2, a second version of these authoring tools accessibility guidelines.

Chair: Jutta Treviranus
W3C Staff Contact: Jeanne Spellman
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-18

The mission of the Automotive Working Group is to develop Open Web Platform specifications for HTML5/JavaScript application developers enabling Web connectivity through in-vehicle infotainment systems and vehicle data access protocols.

Chairs: Paul Boyes, Adam Abramski
W3C Staff Contacts: Ted Guild, Kazuyuki Ashimura
Scheduled to end: 2016-06-30

The mission of the Browser Testing and Tools Working Group is to produce technologies for use in testing, debugging, and troubleshooting of Web applications running in Web browsers.

Chair: Wilhelm Joys Andersen
W3C Staff Contact: Michael[tm] Smith
Scheduled to end: 2015-12-31

The mission of the CSV on the Web Working Group is to provide technologies whereby data dependent applications on the Web can provide higher interoperability when working with datasets using the CSV (Comma-Separated Values) or similar formats. As well as single CSV files, the group will define mechanisms for interpreting a set of CSVs as relational data. This will include the definition of a vocabulary for describing tables expressed as CSV and locatable on the web, and the relationships between them.

Chairs: Dan Brickley, Jeni Tennison
W3C Staff Contact: Ivan Herman
Scheduled to end: 2015-08-31

The mission of the group is to develop and maintain CSS.

Chairs: Daniel Glazman, Peter Linss
W3C Staff Contacts: Chris Lilley, Bert Bos
Scheduled to end: 2016-06-15

The mission of the Data on the Web Best Practices Working Group is (1) to develop the open data ecosystem, facilitating better communication between developers and publishers; (2) to provide guidance to publishers that will improve consistency in the way data is managed, thus promoting the re-use of data; (3) to foster trust in the data among developers, whatever technology they choose to use, increasing the potential for genuine innovation.

Chairs: Deirdre Lee, Hadley Beeman, Yaso Córdova, Steve Adler
W3C Staff Contact: Phil Archer
Scheduled to end: 2016-07-30

The mission of the Device APIs and Policy Working Group is to create client-side APIs that enable the development of Web Applications and Web Widgets that interact with devices services such as Calendar, Contacts, Camera, etc. Additionally, the group will produce a framework for the expression of security policies that govern access to security-critical APIs (such as the APIs listed previously).

Chair: Frederick Hirsch
W3C Staff Contact: Dominique Hazaël-Massieux
Scheduled to end: 2015-12-31

The mission of the Education and Outreach Working Group (EOWG) is to develop strategies, and awareness and training resources, to educate a variety of audiences regarding the need for Web accessibility and approaches to implementing Web accessibility.

Chair: Sharron Rush
W3C Staff Contact: Shawn Henry
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-18

The main objective of the Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) Working Group is to develop a format that allows efficient interchange of the XML Information Set.

Chair: Takuki Kamiya
W3C Staff Contact: Carine Bournez
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-31

The mission of the Evaluation and Repair Tools Working Group (ERT WG) is to develop techniques and resources to facilitate the evaluation and repair of Web sites with regard to their conformance to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0, and to facilitate testing across all three WAI guidelines also including the Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines and User Agent Accessibility Guidelines.

Chair: Shadi Abou-Zahra
W3C Staff Contact: Shadi Abou-Zahra
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-18

The mission of the Forms Working Group is to develop specifications to cover forms on the Web, producing a system that scales from low-end devices through to the enterprise level.

Chair: Steven Pemberton
W3C Staff Contact: Philippe Le Hégaret
Scheduled to end: 2012-03-31

The mission of the Geolocation Working Group is to define a secure and privacy-sensitive interface for using client-side location information in location-aware Web applications.

Chair: Giridhar Mandyam
Scheduled to end: 2016-12-31

The mission of the HTML Working Group is to continue the evolution of HTML (including classic HTML and XML syntaxes).

Chairs: Sam Ruby, Paul Cotton, Maciej Stachowiak
W3C Staff Contacts: Robin Berjon, Michael[tm] Smith
Scheduled to end: 2015-06-30

The mission of the Indie UI Working Group, part of the WAI Technical Activity, is to develop event models for Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that facilitate interaction in Web applications that are input method independent, and hence accessible to people with disabilities.

Chair: Janina Sajka
W3C Staff Contact: Michael Cooper
Scheduled to end: 2015-04-30

The mission of the Internationalization Core Working Group is to enable universal access to the World Wide Web by proposing and coordinating the adoption by the W3C of techniques, conventions, technologies, and designs that enable and enhance the use of W3C technology and the Web worldwide, with and between the various different languages, scripts, regions, and cultures.

Chair: Addison Phillips
W3C Staff Contact: Richard Ishida
Scheduled to end: 2015-12-31

The mission of the Linked Data Platform (LDP) Working Group is to produce a W3C Recommendation for HTTP-based (RESTful) application integration patterns using read/write Linked Data. This work will benefit both small-scale in-browser applications (WebApps) and large-scale Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) efforts. It will complement SPARQL and will be compatible with standards for publishing Linked Data, bringing the data integration features of RDF to RESTful, data-oriented software development.

Chair: Arnaud Le Hors
W3C Staff Contacts: Eric Prud'hommeaux, Yves Lafon
Scheduled to end: 2015-07-31

The mission of the Math Working Group is to facilitate and promote the use of the Web for mathematical and scientific communication. The main purpose of the Working Group is to improve and extend the functionality of the MathML 2.0 (Second Edition) Recommendation (W3C Recommendation, 21 October 2003) in light of several years of experience of large-scale deployment by many individuals and organizations.

Chairs: Patrick D F Ion, David Carlisle
W3C Staff Contact: Bert Bos
Scheduled to end: 2016-03-31

The mission of the Multimodal Interaction Working Group, part of the Multimodal Interaction Activity, is to develop open standards that enable the vision of extending the Web to allow multiple modes of interaction (GUI, Speech, Vision, Pen, Gestures, Haptic interfaces, etc.), and of Anyone, Anywhere, Any device, Any time (Accessible through the user's preferred modes of interaction with services that adapt to the device, user and environmental conditions).

Chair: Deborah Dahl
W3C Staff Contact: Kazuyuki Ashimura
Scheduled to end: 2014-03-31

The mission of the Near Field Communications Working Group is to develop a standard API for Web applications to access NFC devices.

Chair: Jacques Bourhis
W3C Staff Contact: Kazuyuki Ashimura
Scheduled to end: 2014-11-01

The mission of the Pointer Events Working Group is to provide methods to enable simple device independent input from pointing devices such as mouse, pen, and multi-touch screen.

Chair: Arthur Barstow
W3C Staff Contact: Doug Schepers
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-09

The mission of the Protocols and Formats Working Group (PFWG) (Member Confidential PFWG) is to increase the support for accessibility in Web specifications. This mission flows from the W3C mission of promoting universal access and interoperability across the Web.

Chair: Janina Sajka
W3C Staff Contact: Michael Cooper
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-18

The mission of the RDF Data Shapes Working Group is to produce a language for defining structural constraints on RDF graphs. In the same way that SPARQL made it possible to query RDF data, the product of the RDF Data Shapes WG will enable the definition of graph topologies for interface specification, code development, and data verification.

Chair: Arnaud Le Hors
W3C Staff Contact: Eric Prud'hommeaux
Scheduled to end: 2017-06-01

The mission of the Research and Development Working Group (RDWG) is to increase the incorporation of accessibility considerations into research on Web technologies, and to identify projects researching Web accessibility and suggest research questions that may contribute to new projects. The desired outcome of more research in Web accessibility and awareness of accessibility in mainstream Web-related research should decrease the number of potential barriers in future Web-related technologies.

Chairs: Markku Hakkinen, Vivienne Conway
W3C Staff Contact: Shadi Abou-Zahra
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-18

The mission of the SVG Working Group is to continue the evolution of Scalable Vector Graphics as a format and a platform, and enhance the adoption and usability of SVG in combination with other technologies.

Chairs: Erik Dahlström, Cameron McCormack
W3C Staff Contacts: Doug Schepers, Chris Lilley
Scheduled to end: 2016-10-31

The mission of the Second Screen Presentation Working Group is to provide specifications that enable web pages to use secondary screens to display web content.

Chair: Anssi Kostiainen
W3C Staff Contact: François Daoust
Scheduled to end: 2016-10-31

The mission of the Social Web Working Group, part of the Social Activity, is to define the techical protocols, vocabularies, and APIs to facilitate access to social functionality as part of the Open Web Platform. These technologies should allow communication between indepedent systems, federation (also called "decentralization") being part of the design.

Chairs: Arnaud Le Hors, Evan Prodromou, Tantek Çelik
W3C Staff Contact: Harry Halpin
Scheduled to end: 2016-12-31

The mission of the Spatial Data on the Web Working Group is to clarify and formalize the relevant standards landscape around spatial data on the Web. This includes: (1) to determine how spatial information can best be integrated with other data on the Web; (2) to determine how machines and people can discover that different facts in different datasets relate to the same place, especially when 'place' is expressed in different ways and at different levels of granularity; (3) to identify and assess existing methods and tools and then create a set of best practices for their use; (4) where desirable, to complete the standardization of informal technologies already in widespread use.

Chairs: Kerry Taylor, Ed Parsons
W3C Staff Contact: Phil Archer
Scheduled to end: 2016-12-31

The mission of the System Applications Working Group is to define a runtime environment, security model, and associated APIs for building Web applications with comparable capabilities to native applications. This requires stronger integration with the host platform than is the case for traditional web pages. Browsers are designed to cope with the user visiting untrusted web sites, necessitating a cautious approach to security that narrowly limits what a particular website can do. The contrast between the two contexts can be illustrated by comparing a) an application with limited access to specific fields in the user's contacts, and b) an application that implements a contacts manager, where the application is entrusted with the ability to access, create, delete and update entries.

Chair: Wonsuk Lee
W3C Staff Contact: Dave Raggett
Scheduled to end: 2014-10-01

The mission of the Timed Text Working Group is to produce a W3C Recommendation for media online captioning by refining the W3C specification Timed Text (TT) Authoring Format 1.0 — Distribution Format Exchange Profile (DFXP) based in implementation experience and interoperability feedback.

Chairs: Nigel Megitt, David Singer
W3C Staff Contacts: Philippe Le Hégaret, Thierry Michel
Scheduled to end: 2016-03-30

The mission of the Tracking Protection Working Group is to improve user privacy and user control by defining mechanisms for expressing user preferences around Web tracking and for blocking or allowing Web tracking elements.

Chairs: Matthias Schunter, Justin Brookman, Carl Cargill
W3C Staff Contact: Nick Doty
Scheduled to end: 2015-12-31

The mission of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is to produce guidelines for the development of accessible user agents: software that retrieves and renders Web content, including text, graphics, sounds, video, images, etc. In particular, the groups seeks to support the implementation of the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0 , and to collect requirements for a subsequent version of User Agent Accessibility Guidelines.

Chairs: Jim Allan, Kelly Ford
W3C Staff Contact: Jeanne Spellman
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-18

The mission of the Voice Browser Working Group, part of the Voice Browser Activity, is to enable users to speak and listen to Web applications by creating standard languages for developing Web-based speech applications. The Voice Browser Working Group concentrates on languages for capturing and producing speech and managing the dialog between user and computer, while a related Group, the Multimodal Interaction Working Group, concentrates on additional input modes including keyboard and mouse, ink and pen, etc.

Chair: Daniel Burnett
W3C Staff Contact: Kazuyuki Ashimura
Scheduled to end: 2015-04-30

The mission of the Web Annotation Working Group, part of the Digital Publishing Activity, is to define a generic data model for Annotations, and define the basic infrastructural elements to make it deployable in browsers and reading systems through suitable user interfaces.

Chairs: Rob Sanderson, Frederick Hirsch
W3C Staff Contacts: Ivan Herman, Doug Schepers
Scheduled to end: 2016-10-01

The mission of the Web Application Security Working Group is to develop security and policy mechanisms to improve the security of Web Applications, and enable secure cross-site communication.

Chairs: Brad Hill, Daniel Veditz
W3C Staff Contact: Wendy Seltzer
Scheduled to end: 2016-12-31

The mission of the Web Applications (WebApps) Working Group is to provide specifications that enable improved client-side application development on the Web, including specifications both for application programming interfaces (APIs) for client-side development and for markup vocabularies for describing and controlling client-side application behavior.

Chairs: Charles McCathieNevile, Arthur Barstow
W3C Staff Contacts: Yves Lafon, Xiaoqian Cindy Wu
Scheduled to end: 2016-07-31

The mission of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group is to develop guidelines to make Web content accessible for people with disabilities. In particular, the group is responsible for the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 as a W3C Recommendation.

Chairs: Andrew Kirkpatrick, Joshue O Connor
W3C Staff Contact: Michael Cooper
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-18

The mission of this group is to define an API that lets developers implement secure application protocols on the level of Web applications, including message confidentiality and authentication services, by exposing trusted cryptographic primitives from the browser. Web application developers will no longer have to create their own or use untrusted third-party libraries for cryptographic primitives. This will improve security on the Web.

Chair: Virginie Galindo
W3C Staff Contacts: Wendy Seltzer, Harry Halpin
Scheduled to end: 2015-09-30

The mission of the Web Notification Working Group, part of the Rich Web Client Activity, is to produce specifications that define APIs to generate notifications to alert users. A Notification in this context may be displayed asynchronously and may not require user confirmation. Additionally, events are specified for managing user interactions with notifications.

Chair: Jon Lee
W3C Staff Contact: Michael[tm] Smith
Scheduled to end: 2013-12-31

The mission of the Web Performance Working Group is to provide methods to measure aspects of application performance of user agent features and APIs.

Chairs: Arvind Jain, Jason Weber
W3C Staff Contact: Philippe Le Hégaret
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-31

The mission of the Web Real-Time Communications Working Group is to define client-side APIs to enable Real-Time Communications in Web browsers. These APIs should enable building applications that can be run inside a browser, requiring no extra downloads or plugins, that allow communication between parties using audio, video and supplementary real-time communication, without having to use intervening servers.

Chairs: Harald Alvestrand, Stefan Håkansson
W3C Staff Contact: Dominique Hazaël-Massieux
Scheduled to end: 2015-06-30

The mission of the Web Fonts Working Group is to develop specifications that allow the interoperable deployment of downloadable fonts on the Web. Existing specifications (CSS3 Fonts, SVG) explain how to describe and link to fonts, so the main focus will be the standardisation of font formats suited to the task, and a specification defining conformance (for fonts, authoring tools, viewers, etc.) all the technology required for WebFonts.

Chair: Vladimir Levantovsky
W3C Staff Contact: Chris Lilley
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-31

The mission of the XML Core Working Group is to maintain and develop as needed core XML specifications.

Chairs: Paul Grosso, Norman Walsh
W3C Staff Contact: Liam Quin
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-31

The XML Processing Model Working Group is defining XProc, an XML-based language that allows the creator of any given XML document to indicate that operations on that document should be performed in a specific order for a particular result, and if so, how to apply those operations.

Chair: Norman Walsh
W3C Staff Contact: Liam Quin
Scheduled to end: 2016-05-31

The mission of the XML Query Working Group is to provide flexible query facilities to extract data from XML and virtual documents, such as contents of databases or other persistent storage that are viewed as XML via a mapping mechanism, on the Web.

Chairs: Jim Melton, Andrew Coleman
W3C Staff Contact: Liam Quin
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-31

The mission of the XML Security Working Group is to take the next step in developing the XML security specifications.

Chair: Frederick Hirsch
W3C Staff Contact: Wendy Seltzer
Scheduled to end: 2016-12-31

The mission of the XSL Working Group is to define and maintain a practical style and transformation language capable of supporting the transformation and presentation of, and interaction with, structured information (e.g., XML documents) for use on servers and clients. The language is designed to build transformations in support of browsing, printing, interactive editing, and transcoding of one XML vocabulary into another XML vocabulary. To enhance accessibility, XSL is able to present information both visually and non-visually. XSL is not intended to replace CSS, but will provide functionality beyond that defined by CSS, for example, element re-ordering.

Chair: Sharon Adler
W3C Staff Contacts: Liam Quin, Carine Bournez
Scheduled to end: 2015-05-31