W3C

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Requirements for WCAG 2.0 Extensions. This document describes the requirements that the WCAG WG is setting for the development of WCAG 2.0 extensions. Extensions are optional standards modules that build on the existing requirements for WCAG 2.0, and are designed to work in harmony with the WCAG 2.0 standard. Learn more from the call for review e-mail and “Shaping the WCAG 2.0 extensions” blog post and read about the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI).

The XML Query Working Group invites implementation of the Candidate Recommendation of XQuery 3.1: An XML Query Language. XML is a versatile markup language, capable of labeling the information content of diverse data sources including structured and semi-structured documents, relational databases, and object repositories. A query language that uses the structure of XML intelligently can express queries across all these kinds of data, whether physically stored in XML or viewed as XML via middleware. This specification describes a query language called XQuery, which is designed to be broadly applicable across many types of XML data sources.

The XML Query Working Group and the XSLT Working Group invite implementation of the following Candidate Recommendations:

• XML Path Language (XPath) 3.1: XPath 3.1 is an expression language that allows the processing of values conforming to the data model defined in XQuery and XPath Data Model (XDM) 3.1. The data model provides a tree representation of XML documents as well as atomic values such as integers, strings, and booleans, and sequences that may contain both references to nodes in an XML document and atomic values.
• XSLT and XQuery Serialization 3.1: This document defines serialization of an instance of the data model as defined in XQuery and XPath Data Model (XDM) 3.1 into a sequence of octets. Serialization is designed to be a component that can be used by other specifications such as XSL Transformations (XSLT) Version 3.0 or XQuery 3.1: An XML Query Language.

The Spatial Data on the Web Working Group has published a Group Note of Spatial Data on the Web Use Cases & Requirements. This document describes use cases that demand a combination of geospatial and non-geospatial data sources and techniques. It underpins the collaborative work of the Spatial Data on the Web Working Groups operated by both W3C and OGC.

The Data on the Web Best Practices Working Group has published two Working Drafts:

• Data on the Web Best Practices: Data Quality Vocabulary: This document provides 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.
• Data on the Web Best Practices: This document provides best practices related to the publication and usage of data on the Web designed to help support a self-sustaining ecosystem. Data should be discoverable and understandable by humans and machines. Where data is used in some way, whether by the originator of the data or by an external party, such usage should also be discoverable and the efforts of the data publisher recognized. In short, following these best practices will facilitate interaction between publishers and consumers.

The CSV on the Web Working Group has published four Recommendations:

• Model for Tabular Data and Metadata on the Web: An abstract model for tabular data, and how to locate metadata that enables users to better understand what the data holds. This specification also contains non-normative guidance on how to parse CSV files.
• Metadata Vocabulary for Tabular Data: A JSON-based format for expressing metadata about tabular data to inform validation, conversion, display and data entry for tabular data.
• Generating JSON from Tabular Data on the Web: For how to convert tabular data into JSON.
• Generating RDF from Tabular Data on the Web: For how to convert tabular data into RDF.

The group plans to publish a Primer at a later time to help users using these technologies.